Demagogues and Despots

Publisher's description:
Democracy and despotism live closer together than you’d expect. Acclaimed political thinker John Keane reveals why that should alarm us all.

We live in troubled times, marked by a sinister trend gaining the upper hand everywhere: the triumph of despotism not only in countries like Russia, Iran and Saudi Arabia, but also in states run by popularly elected demagogues – Orbán and Erdoğan, Netanyahu and Trump.

John Keane shows why this new despotism defies the laws of political gravity. Instead of relying on fear or raw force, it fosters a strange, pseudo-democratic type of government, led by rulers skilled in winning public loyalty through government handouts, election-rigging, legal trickery, weaponised lying and talk of enemies. And, alarmingly, these leaders hunt in packs.

What’s so good about democracy? Keane explains that it’s much more than popular self-government based on free and fair elections. Democracy is a collective insistence that unaccountable power is always dangerous – and that it’s the best way to stop demagogues and despots from ruining life on our planet.

Author: John Keane

Publisher: NewSouth Publishing

Format: Paperback

Pages: 224

Published: 1 May 2026

ISBN: 9781761170881