The Wire

We often talk about democracy but have we ever stopped to analyse its history? The only entire literary volume spanning the history of democracy was written over 100 years ago and with an American perspective. This motivated one academic to embark on a new volume on the history of democracy. John Keane is a professor in politics at the university of Westminster and in 1989 he founded the Centre for the Study of Democracy. He delivered a seminar recently in Sydney recently entitled “The Life and Death of Democracy”. Professor Keane says that we are entering a third age of democracy – one that is plagued by social inequality and where democratic functions are played out in the media rather than in the electorate.