De Gruyter Contemporary Social Sciences provides a platform for disseminating topical analyses of current events, showcasing new theoretical, empirical or applied research across the social sciences and related fields. Through engaging storytelling and in-depth analysis, it presents new work that appeals to a wide audience, and engages with issues of major public interest, highlighting the implications for both policy and professional practice.

The world is in crisis. Wars erupt, inequality is widening, climate breakdown accelerates. Polarization deepens, and populists feed on it. The world has changed. The old model of democracy isn't working any more.

This book argues that good societies always build on empowering individuals. Postwar democracy did so based on shared identities and limited interdependence. A new model of democracy must embrace our new individualized and interconnected world. Rethinking Democracy reinvents it that way.

Hanno Scholtz's Civil Democracy concept shifts the focus from elite competition to empowering citizens as decision-makers. It offers a bold new vision and strategy for globally rebuilding democracy for the 21 st century.

Autorentext

Hanno Scholtz , PD Dr. rer. pol., is a political scientist and sociologist teaching at the Universities of Zurich and Fribourg (CH). His work on the interaction of societies and their institutions ranges from vote-splitting over democratization to the contemporary polycrisis.