• The best books on Citizens’ Assemblies - Against Elections by David Van Reybrouck
  • The best books on Citizens’ Assemblies - The Government of Chance: Sortition and Democracy from Athens to the Present by Yves Sintomer
  • The best books on Citizens’ Assemblies - The End of Politicians: Time for a Real Democracy by Brett Hennig
  • The best books on Citizens’ Assemblies - Open Democracy: Reinventing Popular Rule for the Twenty-First Century by Hélène Landemore
  • The best books on Citizens’ Assemblies - De Gruyter Handbook of Citizens’ Assemblies edited by Min Reuchamps, Julien Vrydagh and Yanina Welp

The best books on Citizens’ Assemblies, recommended by Hugh Pope

Around the world, democracies are struggling with angry populations who are fed up with politicians who don’t seem to represent them effectively. Fortunately, there’s an alternative. Hugh Pope—a veteran reporter on the Middle East who also spent 15 years working for International Crisis Group—introduces us to the growing movement for ‘citizens’ assemblies’, where ordinary people get together to decide what’s best for the community. He argues that these assemblies have already been used effectively on important issues that are difficult for politicians to tackle and reveals how the French president, Emmanuel Macron, came to find out about them.

  • The best books on Liberal Democracy - The Spirit of Democracy: The Struggle to Build Free Societies Throughout the World by Larry Diamond
  • The best books on Liberal Democracy - Ill Winds: Saving Democracy from Russian Rage, Chinese Ambition, and American Complacency by Larry Diamond
  • The best books on Liberal Democracy - How Democracies Die: What History Reveals About Our Future by Daniel Ziblatt & Steven Levitsky
  • The best books on Liberal Democracy - Polyarchy: Participation and Opposition by Robert Dahl
  • The best books on Liberal Democracy - Democracy in America by Alexis de Tocqueville

The best books on Liberal Democracy, recommended by Francis Fukuyama

Even some of the world’s most authoritarian rulers continue to pay lip service to democracy and people’s right to vote for their leaders, but the days when many social scientists believed that all countries at a certain level of prosperity would eventually turn to liberal democracy are over, says Francis Fukuyama, now a Senior Fellow at Stanford University’s Freeman Spogli Institute. Here, he recommends books to better understand liberal democracy, and what those of us lucky enough to live in one can do to protect our form of government.

  • The best books on Ancient Greece - The Iliad by Homer
  • The best books on Ancient Greece - Histories by Herodotus
  • The best books on Ancient Greece - Medea by Euripides
  • The best books on Ancient Greece - Democracy: A Life by Paul Cartledge
  • The best books on Ancient Greece - Greek Fire by Oliver Taplin

The best books on Ancient Greece, recommended by Christopher Pelling

Ancient Greece’s legacy can be seen all around us, including in our political system — but many of us don’t know that much about it. Fortunately, we have someone who has devoted his life to studying this remote time and place to give us a reading list. Chris Pelling, Emeritus Regius Professor of Greek at Oxford, recommends his top five books on Ancient Greece.