Democracy

March 27, 2017
Between her academic background in political science and her experience as national security advisor and secretary of state for George W. Bush, Rice could be expected to provide unique insights into the challenges currently facing democracy worldwide. Instead, she blandly avers that “the overall trajectory is worth celebrating,” despite her own description of Russia as a “failed democratic experiment.” Rice also opines that “dashed expectations that democracy’s march would be linear” account, at least in part, for fears that democratic governments are actively on the decline. Beyond such unilluminating statements, Rice traces the history of democracy across the modern world, relating familiar facts about the U.S., Eastern Europe, Africa, and the Middle East. She also cannot resist blaming the Obama administration for depriving Iraq of a better future by deciding to pull American troops out of Iraq by the end of 2011, pursuant to an agreement with the Iraqi government that she had been party to. Rice’s post-Trump election epilogue is equally unsatisfying—she states that it is “stunning” that mature democracies like the U.S. have been affected by the global rise in populism, nativism, and isolationism, but concludes that it is too early to know whether the international order in place since the end of WWII will survive.

January 1, 2017

The 66th Secretary of State of the United States tells us what events from the end of the Cold War to the current turmoil in the Middle East mean for democracy worldwide. With a 150,000-copy first printing.

Copyright 2017 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

May 1, 2017

How does a country become a democracy? Former secretary of state Rice offers readers the opportunity to consider this question while examining places throughout the world where governments are transitioning toward or struggling to maintain free and fair elections that result in democratic rule. After a brief look at the nearly 150-year evolution to full U.S. democracy, Rice focuses on five nations' experiences: Russia, Poland, Ukraine, Kenya, and Colombia. She also examines current conflicts and obstacles that Middle Eastern countries are struggling to overcome. Her familiarity with many countries' leaders, as well as her personal involvement helping nations attain more representative or responsive government systems, give readers a behind-the-scenes look. Rice includes an epilog addressing events since the election of President Donald Trump and reminds readers that democracies are built for disruptions within their institutions. She also cautions that while democracy's genius is in its openness to change, its stability is in its institutions that encourage restraint and reject authoritarian power. VERDICT Rice presents an authoritative explanation of the challenges leaders face as they attempt to establish democratic governments. Readers interested in the history of political systems and governments will find her work informative and easy to understand. [See Prepub Alert, 12/5/16.]--Jill Ortner, SUNY Buffalo Libs.

Copyright 2017 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

Starred review from April 1, 2017
George W. Bush's secretary of state returns to her academic roots with this accessibly written study of that imperfect but ideal form of government.The United States is strongly and customarily identified as the democratic power par excellence. However, urges Rice (No Higher Honor: A Memoir of My Years in Washington, 2011, etc.), now a professor in the business school at Stanford University, democracy is not an exclusively American province, nor is there compelling reason to believe that other nations cannot enjoy the freedoms it affords. Having witnessed at close hand the Arab Spring and the fall of the Soviet Union, the author examines several avenues leading to democratic formation, including the collapse of a totalitarian regime that leaves an "institutional vacuum," one capable of being filled by democratic agencies that may be weak at first, as well as the development of a quasi-democracy that may evolve into a more truly democratic system. In the latter instance, she writes, meaningfully, "an executive with too much power, ruling by decree and circumventing other institutions, is a sure path to authoritarian relapse." The remark is evidently directed to the likes of Vladimir Putin and other autocrats, but much of Rice's conversational and sharp book can be read as a quiet rebuke of the current occupant of the White House, who is no friend to the small-d democratic establishment in which Rice long made her career. Generally speaking, the author seems optimistic about the eventual odds of the world following the "path to liberty." Even so, she warns that there are many obstacles and impediments to democratic progress, with challenges such as inequality, "stalled social mobility," and particularly a lack of educational opportunity for the poor, education being key to democratic development in the first place, as the Founders well knew. Along the way, Rice offers a conditional defense of externally imposed regime change in Iraq. Some readers may not be convinced, but this book deserves a broad audience, especially in our current political climate.

COPYRIGHT(2017) Kirkus Reviews, ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.