UC Press Blog

As the outcome of the US presidential election settles into focus, the uncertainty of the road ahead underscores the critical need for insightful scholarship. UC Press's publishing programs in books and journals, which amplify the voices of leading experts, remain vital for understanding and addressing the challenges of our time. This collection, focused on democracy and the threats it faces, provides essential perspectives to illuminate the path forward and spark meaningful dialogue about the future.

Books from UC Press

The Wannabe Fascists
A Guide to Understanding the Greatest Threat to Democracy
by Federico Finchelstein

"Essential reading for the times in which we live."—Times Literary Supplement

With The Wannabe Fascists, historian Federico Finchelstein offers a precise explanation of why Trumpism and similar movements across the world belong to a new political breed, the last outcome of the combined histories of fascism and populism: the wannabe fascists. This new type of populist politician is typically a legally elected leader who, unlike previous populists who were eager to distance themselves from fascism, turns to totalitarian lies, racism, and illegal means to destroy democracy from within. 

From one of the leading scholars of fascist and populist ideologies, Finchelstein's book builds on his previous books A Brief History of Fascist Lies and From Fascism to Populism in History.

What's Wrong with Democracy?
From Athenian Practice to American Worship
by Loren J. Samons

"It will inspire controversy and debate over ancient and modern democracy.”
— Bryn Mawr Classical Review

In this daring reassessment of classical Athenian democracy and its significance for the United States today, Loren J. Samons provides ample justification for our founding fathers' distrust of democracy, a form of government they scorned precisely because of their familiarity with classical Athens. How Americans have come to embrace "democracy" in its modern form—and what the positive and negative effects have been—is an important story for all contemporary citizens.

Confronting head-on many of the beliefs we hold dear but seldom question, Samons examines Athens's history in the fifth and fourth centuries B.C. in order to test the popular idea that majority rule leads to good government. Challenging many basic assumptions about the character and success of Athenian democracy, What's Wrong with Democracy? offers fascinating and accessible discussions of topics including the dangers of the popular vote, Athens's acquisitive foreign policy, the tendency of the state to overspend, the place of religion in Athenian society, and more.

Democracy’s Chief Executive
Interpreting the Constitution and Defining the Future of the Presidency
by Peter M Shane

"Useful and timely."— Survival: Global Politics and Strategy

In the eyes of modern-day presidentialists, the United States Constitution’s vesting of “executive power” means today what it meant in 1787. For them, what it meant in 1787 was the creation of a largely unilateral presidency, and in their view, a unilateral presidency still best serves our national interest. Democracy’s Chief Executive challenges each of these premises, while showing how their influence on constitutional interpretation for more than forty years has set the stage for a presidency ripe for authoritarianism.

Democracy’s Chief Executive explains how dogmatic ideas about expansive executive authority can create within the government a psychology of presidential entitlement that threatens American democracy and the rule of law. Tracing today’s aggressive presidentialism to a steady consolidation of White House power aided primarily by right-wing lawyers and judges since 1981, Peter M. Shane argues that this is a dangerously authoritarian form of constitutional interpretation that is not even well supported by an originalist perspective.

Renovating Democracy
Governing in the Age of Globalization and Digital Capitalism
by Nathan Gardels and Nicolas Berggruen

"The book is a romp through all that’s going wrong with politics, from populists on the rise, robots stealing jobs, climate change being ignored and technocrats bereft of fresh ideas."— The Economist

With fierce clarity and conviction, Renovating Democracy tears down our basic structures and challenges us to conceive of an alternative framework for governance. To truly renovate our global systems, the authors argue for empowering participation without populism by integrating social networks and direct democracy into the system with new mediating institutions that complement representative government. They outline steps to reconfigure the social contract to protect workers instead of jobs, shifting from a “redistribution” after wealth to “pre-distribution” with the aim to enhance the skills and assets of those less well-off. 

Thought provoking and persuasive, Renovating Democracy serves as a point of departure that deepens and expands the discourse for positive change in governance. 

Against Demagogues
What Aristophanes Can Teach Us about the Perils of Populism and the Fate of Democracy, New Translations of the Acharnians and the Knights
by Robert C. Bartlett

"Against Demagogues [is] enlightening reading for those interested in classical political theory, as well as for the contemporary relevance of these thinkers in helping us consider our current political environment."— New Books Network

Against Demagogues presents Robert C. Bartlett's new translations of Aristophanes' most overtly political works, the Acharnians and the Knights. In these fantastically inventive, raucous, and raunchy comedies, the powerful politician Cleon proves to be democracy's greatest opponent. With unrivalled power, both plays make clear the dangers to which democracies are prone, especially the threats posed by external warfare, internal division, and class polarization.

Along with a contextualizing introduction, Bartlett offers extensive notes explaining the many political, literary, and religious references and allusions. Aristophanes' comedic skewering of the demagogue and his ruthless ambition—and of a community so ill-informed about the doings of its own government, so ready to believe in empty promises and idle flattery—cannot but resonate strongly with readers today around the world.

The Magna Carta Manifesto
Liberties and Commons for All
by Peter Linebaugh 

"Provides essential arguments for renewing civil liberties in the U.S. and internationally.”— The Nation

“Shows how restraints against tyranny are being abridged as rights once held inalienable are laid aside.”— Times Higher Education

This remarkable book shines a fierce light on the current state of liberty and shows how longstanding restraints against tyranny—and the rights of habeas corpus, trial by jury, and due process of law, and the prohibition of torture—are being abridged. In providing a sweeping history of Magna Carta, the source of these protections since 1215, this powerful book demonstrates how these ancient rights are repeatedly laid aside when the greed of privatization, the lust for power, and the ambition of empire seize a state. Peter Linebaugh draws on primary sources to construct a wholly original history of the Great Charter and its scarcely-known companion, the Charter of the Forest, which was created at the same time to protect the subsistence rights of the poor.

Contested Ground
How to Understand the Limits of Presidential Power
by Dan A. Farber

"While Contested Ground challenges the public perception that presidents have nearly unlimited authority, it also stresses that legal checks and balances only go so far."— California Magazine

The Trump presidency was not the first to spark contentious debates about presidential power, but its impact on these debates will reverberate far beyond his term. The same rules must apply to all presidents: those whose abuses of power we fear, as well as those whose exercises of power we applaud. In this brief but wide-ranging guide to the presidency, constitutional law expert Daniel Farber charts the limits of presidential power, from the fierce arguments among the Framers to those raging today. Synthesizing history, politics, and settled law, Contested Ground also helps readers make sense of the gaps and gray areas that fuel such heated disputes about the limits of and checks on presidential authority.

They Said No to Nixon
Republicans Who Stood Up to the President's Abuses of Power
by Michael Koncewicz 

"One reason Koncewicz’s narrative is so compelling is that it’s also a redemption story."—The Washington Post

"In researching and analyzing the Republicans within the administration who questioned, ignored, and, on occasion, disobeyed orders from their commander in chief, Koncewicz connects the Watergate era to larger political and cultural shifts."— Journal of American History

In more than three thousand recorded conversations, the Nixon tapes famously exposed a president’s sinister views of governance that would eventually lead to his downfall. Despite Richard Nixon’s best efforts, his vision of a government where he could use his power to punish his political enemies never came to fruition because members of his own party defied his directives. While many are familiar with the Republicans who turned against Nixon during the final stages of the Watergate saga, They Said No to Nixon uncovers for the first time those within the administration—including Nixon’s own appointees—who opposed the White House early on, quietly blocking the president’s attacks on the IRS, the Justice Department, and other sectors of the federal government.

Articles from UC Press Journals

Review Symposium on Democracy, Global Perspectives

The Need for a Collective Social Conscience, Global Perspectives

‘If Men Were Angels, No Government Would Be Necessary’: The Intuitive Theory of Social Motivation and Preference for Authoritarian Leaders, Collabra Psychology