000			02127 a2200217 4500
008			180214b c2018 xxu||||| |||| 00| 0 eng d
020			_a9780691178134
082			_a321.8 _bRUN
100			_aRunciman, David.
245			_aConfidence trap: a history of democracy in crisis from world war i to the present
250			_aRev. ed.
260			_bPrinceton University Press, _c2018. _aPrinceton:
300			_axxiii, 397 p. ; _c22 cm.
365			_aINR _b962.63
500			_aIncludes bibliographical references and index.
520			_aWhy do democracies keep lurching from success to failure? The current financial crisis is just the latest example of how things continue to go wrong, just when it looked like they were going right. In this wide-ranging, original, and compelling book, David Runciman tells the story of modern democracy through the history of moments of crisis, from the First World War to the economic crash of 2008. A global history with a special focus on the United States, The Confidence Trap examines how democracy survived threats ranging from the Great Depression to the Cuban missile crisis, and from Watergate to the collapse of Lehman Brothers. It also looks at the confusion and uncertainty created by unexpected victories, from the defeat of German autocracy in 1918 to the defeat of communism in 1989. Throughout, the book pays close attention to the politicians and thinkers who grappled with these crises: from Woodrow Wilson, Nehru, and Adenauer to Fukuyama and Obama. The Confidence Trap shows that democracies are good at recovering from emergencies but bad at avoiding them. The lesson democracies tend to learn from their mistakes is that they can survive them--and that no crisis is as bad as it seems. Breeding complacency rather than wisdom, crises lead to the dangerous belief that democracies can muddle through anything--a confidence trap that may lead to a crisis that is just too big to escape, if it hasn't already
650			_aDemocracy -- History -- 20th century.
650			_aDemocracy -- History -- 21st century.
650			_aWorld politics
942			_2ddc _cTD
999			_c47041 _d47041