Connective Action and the Rise of the Far-Right: Platforms, Politics, and the Crisis of Democracy

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In Connective Action and the Rise of the Far-Right: Platforms, Politics, and the Crisis of Democracy, the contributors explain democratic backsliding in the 21st century through what it terms a cross-disciplinary engagement between democracy scholars and data scientists. The former describe the necessary social and economic conditions for a healthy democracy, while the latter tell us something about the role of digital platforms in the realization (or not) of these same conditions. In turn, volume editors Steven Livingston and Michael Miller bring these two broad
research traditions together to define a new analytical framework for understanding the potential demise of contemporary democracy. The chapters argue that the current threat to democracy comes from the organization of illiberal movements, both on and offline. Put differently, democratic backsliding is the consequence of far-right connective action.

Review Quotes: "As timely and trenchant as it is informed and innovative, Livingston and Miller's brilliant, troubling volume brings together the nation's leading experts to understand how conservative political backlash and the rise of new digital "surrogate" organizations are rocking the foundations of affluent democracies, especially the United States'. A revelatory must-read tounderstand the political struggles happening today-and what will shape their profound consequences." -- Jacob S. Hacker, Stanley Resor Professor of Political Science, Yale University, and co-author of Let Them Eat Tweets: How the Right Rules in an Age of Extreme Inequality

"As timely and trenchant as it is informed and innovative, Livingston and Miller's brilliant, troubling volume brings together the nation's leading experts to understand how conservative political backlash and the rise of new digital "surrogate" organizations are rocking the foundations of affluent democracies, especially the United States'. A revelatory must-read to understand the political struggles happening today-and what will shape their profound consequences." -- Jacob S. Hacker, Stanley Resor Professor of Political Science, Yale University, and co-author of Let Them Eat Tweets: How the Right Rules in an Age of Extreme Inequality