Democracy under Threat

Democracy under Threat: A Crisis of Legitimacy? by Ursula van Beek investigates whether globalisation threatens democracy and whether contemporary democracies face a crisis of legitimacy.

The volume addresses pressures confronting the welfare state from global trends, alongside challenges linked to high-level migration, rising populism, and authoritarianism. It gives individual attention to South Africa, Turkey, and Poland as particularly vulnerable democracies, while also examining Germany, Sweden, Chile, South Korea, and Taiwan within their regional contexts.

Building on research conducted over nearly twenty years by the Transformation Research Unit at Stellenbosch University, the book is written for students, practitioners of democracy, and general readers.