Description: The COVID-19 pandemic has presented an important case study, on a global scale, of how democracy works - and fails to work - today. From leadership to citizenship, from due process to checks and balances, from globalization to misinformation, from solidarity within and across borders to the role of expertise, key democratic concepts both old and new are now being put to the test. The future of democracy around the world is at issue as today's governments manage their responses to the pandemic. Bringing together some of today's most creative thinkers, these essays offer a variety of inquiries into democracy during the global pandemic with a view to imagining post-crisis political conditions. Representing different regions and disciplines, including law, politics, philosophy, religion, and sociology, eighteen voices offer different outlooks - optimistic and pessimistic - on the future.
Brief description: Miguel Poiares Maduro was the founding Director of the School of Transnational Governance of the European University Institute in Florence where he is currently a Professor. He has been Advocate General at the European Court of Justice and a Government Minister in Portugal.
Review Quotes: 'COVID-19 has exposed millions, but its worst exposé has been the worldwide unmasking of the fragility of democracy. As emergencies multiply, leaders lie, plans collapse, risks are ignored, disinformation abounds, and scientific truth becomes a casualty, democratic governance fails, accountability collapses, communities polarize, and fearmongering, not reason, rules the day. During this annus horribilis, many have wondered: 'Are different futures possible?' In this welcome volume, two brilliant and shrewd lawyer-theorists collect eighteen thinkers from different regions and disciplines to wrestle that question and suggest how the assets of power, knowledge, citizenship, care, and sacrifice can be better marshalled in our common search for better answers.' Harold Hongju Koh, Sterling Professor of International Law, Yale Law School, and former Legal Adviser and Assistant Secretary for Democracy, Human Rights and Labor, US Department of State