Yascha Mounk

From India to Turkey, from Poland to the United States, authoritarian populists have seized power. Two core components of liberal democracy--individual rights and the popular will--are at war, putting democracy itself at risk. In plain language, Yascha Mounk describes how we got here, where we need to go, and why there is little time left to waste.

Why Our Freedom is in Danger and how to Save it

The People Vs. Democracy

One of our leading public intellectuals traces the origin of a set of ideas about identity and social justice that is rapidly transforming America—and explains why it will fail to accomplish its noble goals For much of history, societies have violently oppressed ethnic, religious, and sexual minorities. It is no surprise that many who passionately believe in social justice came to believe that members of marginalized groups need to take pride in their identity to resist injustice. But over the past decades, a healthy appreciation for the culture and heritage of minority groups has transformed into a counterproductive obsession with group identity in all its forms. A new ideology aiming to place each person’s matrix of identities at the center of social, cultural, and political life has quickly become highly influential. It stifles discourse, vilifies mutual influence as cultural appropriation, denies that members of different groups can truly understand one another, and insists that the way governments treat their citizens should depend on the color of their skin. This, Yascha Mounk argues, is the identity trap. Though those who battle for these ideas are full of good intentions, they will ultimately make it harder to achieve progress toward the genuine equality we desperately need. Mounk has built his acclaimed scholarly career on being one of the first to warn of the risks right-wing populists pose to American democracy. But, he shows, those on the left and center who are stuck in the identity trap are now inadvertent allies to the MAGA movement. In The Identity Trap, Mounk provides the most ambitious and comprehensive account to date of the origins, consequences, and limitations of so-called “wokeness.” He is the first to show how postmodernism, postcolonialism, and critical race theory forged the “identity synthesis” that conquered many college campuses by 2010. He lays out how a relatively marginal set of ideas came to gain tremendous influence in business, media, and government by 2020. He makes a nuanced philosophical case for why the application of these ideas to areas from education to public policy is proving to be so deeply counterproductive—and why universal, humanist values can best serve the vital goal of true equality. In explaining the huge political and cultural transformations of the past decade, The Identity Trap provides truth and clarity where they are needed most.

A Story of Ideas and Power in Our Time

The Identity Trap

Yascha Mounk shows why a focus on personal responsibility is wrong and counterproductive: it distracts us from the larger economic forces determining aggregate outcomes, ignores what we owe fellow citizens regardless of their choices, and blinds us to key values such as the desire to live in a society of equals. In this book he proposes a remedy.

Luck, Choice, and the Welfare State

The Age of Responsibility

Why Diverse Democracies Fall Apart and How They Can Endure

Great Experiment

"A young man's story of growing up Jewish in Germany, navigating the fraught cycle of mistrust, guilt, and resentment that troubles a country still struggling with the legacy of the Third Reich"--

A Jewish Family in Modern Germany

Stranger in My Own Country

What the New Groupthink Gets Right--And What It Gets Dangerously Wrong

Identity Trap

Tomasz Sawczuk

dlaczego nasza wolność jest w niebezpieczeństwie i jak ją ocalić

Lud kontra demokracja

proč je naše svoboda v ohrožení a jak ji zachránit

Lid versus demokracie

Popolo vs democrazia. Dalla cittadinanza alla dittatura elettorale

Die Demokratie droht zu scheitern. Politikverweigerung und rechtspopulistische Parteien wie AfD, FPÖ und Front National untergraben stabile Regierungen. Der Havard-Politologe Yascha Mounk legt Gründe und Mechanismen offen, die westliche liberale Rechtsstaaten – so auch die USA unter Donald Trump – erodieren lassen. Die Demokratie steckt weltweit in einer tiefen Krise. Die Zahl der Protestwähler steigt, Populisten erstarken, traditionelle Parteiensysteme kollabieren. Der renommierte Politologe Yascha Mounk untersucht diesen alarmierenden Zustand, der zwei Muster erkennen lässt: Entweder werden wie in den USA, Ungarn, Polen und der Türkei Demagogen ins Amt gewählt, die die Rechte von Minderheiten mit Füßen treten, oder eine Regierung verschanzt sich, freiheitliche Rechte garantierend, hinter technokratischen Entscheidungen – und verliert wie in Deutschland, Großbritannien und Frankreich zunehmend an Volksnähe. Klar und deutlich erklärt Mounk die komplexen Gründe und Mechanismen, die die Demokratie zu Fall bringen können. Er benennt Maßnahmen, um bedrohte soziale und politische Werte für die Zukunft zu retten. Dazu gehört, eine breite Koalition gegen Populisten aufzubauen, die Unabhängigkeit der Justiz und Presse zu verteidigen, die Teilhabe der Bevölkerung an politischen Prozessen zu stärken, die soziale Ungleichheit zu bekämpfen – und vor allem die persönliche Komfortzone zu verlassen, um sich im Sinne der Demokratie politisch zu engagieren. Eine brillante und aufrüttelnde Analyse unserer politisch aufgeheizten Gegenwart. „Mit bestechender Klarsicht legt dieses Buch dar, wie der populistische Nationalismus zunimmt und unsere Demokratie herausfordert. Wenn Sie Yascha Mounk noch nicht kennen, so sollten Sie sich seinen Namen für die Zukunft merken.“ Francis Fukuyama, Autor des Bestsellers „Das Ende der Geschichte“ „Das Erstarken des autoritären Populismus zeigt, dass wir nicht länger davon ausgehen können, dass die liberale Demokratie das politische Modell der Zukunft ist. Diesen Standpunkt vertritt Yascha Mounk in seiner ernüchternden wie scharfsinnigen Analyse unserer politischen Gegenwart. Sein brillantes Buch leistet einen unschätzbaren Beitrag zur Debatte, woran die Demokratie krankt und was wir dagegen tun können.“ Michael Sandel, Autor des Bestsellers „Was man für Geld nicht kaufen kann“ „Zu den vielen Analysen, die dem immer bedrohlicher werdenden Siegeszug der Populisten gewidmet sind, steuert Yascha Mounk eine sehr kluge Einsicht bei: Der heutige nationalistische Populismus ist deshalb so gefährlich, weil er Demokratie und Rechtsstaat gegeneinander ausspielt. Am Ende verlieren beide. Zuerst wird die Demokratie illiberal und zur Tyrannei einer aufgepeitschten Mehrheit, um früher oder später in ein autoritäres Regime umzukippen, dem sich auch der behauptete Volkswillen beugen muss. Aber Mounks Buch mündet weder in Fatalismus noch in trotzigem Optimismus, sondern in konstruktiven Vorschlägen, die jeder Diskussion und jedes Engagements wert sind.“ Andreas Zielcke, Süddeutsche Zeitung

Wie der Populismus den Rechtsstaat bedroht

Der Zerfall der Demokratie

Named a Best Book of the Year by The Economist, Financial Times, Inc., Prospect Magazine, and The Conversation “The most comprehensive and reasonable story of this shift that has yet been attempted . . . Mounk has told the story of the Great Awokening better than any other writer who has attempted to make sense of it.” —The Washington Post “An intellectual tour de force about the origins of identity politics and the threat it presents to genuine, honest, old-fashioned liberalism.” —Bret Stephens, The New York Times “Among the most insightful and important books written in the last decade on American democracy and its current torments, because it also shows us a way out of the trap.” —Jonathan Haidt, author of The Righteous Mind, and coauthor of The Coddling of the American Mind “Outstanding.” —David Brooks, The New York Times A fascinating account of the origins of “wokeness”—and a trenchant explanation for why the noble goals of identity politics are doomed to fail For much of history, societies have violently oppressed ethnic, religious, and sexual minorities. It is no surprise that many came to believe that members of mar­ginalized groups need to take pride in their identity to resist injustice. But over the past decades, a healthy appreciation for the culture and heritage of minority groups transformed into our contemporary form of identity politics, a counterproductive obsession with group identity. This new ideology denies that members of different groups can truly understand each other and insists that the way governments treat their citizens should depend on the color of their skin. This, Yascha Mounk argues, is the identity trap. Those who battle for these ideas are often full of good intentions. But they ultimately stand in the way of the genuine equality we desperately need. Mounk was one of the first to warn of the risks that right-wing populists pose to American democracy, a danger that remains as serious as ever. But as he shows here, the identitarian left and the populist right actually reinforce each other; to vanquish one, it is necessary to oppose both. In The Identity Trap, Mounk provides the most ambitious and comprehensive account to date of the origins, consequences, and limitations of “wokeness.” He shows how postmodernism, postcolonialism, and critical race theory conquered many college campuses and forged an “identity synthesis” that gained tremendous influence in business, media, and government by 2020. Finally, Mounk makes a nuanced philosophical case for why these ideas are so counterproductive—and why universal, humanist values can best serve the vital goal of true equality. The Identity Trap provides truth and clarity where they are needed most.

O mais importante livro escrito até agora sobre a ascensão do populismo e o fim eminente da democracia.Vamos recuar os relógios até 1989. O Muro de Berlim acaba de cair, e com ele a ameaça comunista. Francis Fukuyama decreta “o fim da história”: já nada poderá deter as democracias liberais.Passou um quarto de século. Em vários pontos do globo, mesmo nas democracias mais funcionais, abrem‐se fissuras. Segundo Yascha Mounk, três transformações sísmicas explicam o fenómeno.Primeiro, a economia estagnou, e a perda do poder de compra acarretou uma maior desigualdade de rendimentos. Segundo, intensificaram-se os movimentos migratórios, agudizando o sentimento de revolta contra imigrantes. Terceiro, as redes sociais deram voz a uma série de partidos e líderes populistas que antes não tinham tempo de antena – e o que eles prometem, embora irrealizável, é o que as pessoas querem ouvir. É um cocktail explosivo. E os resultados estão à vista. O Brexit, ou as vitórias de Trump e de Bolsonaro são exemplos gritantes – porque mais próximos. Mas mesmo dentro da aparentemente inexpugnável fortaleza europeia abrem-se brechas – da escalada da extrema-direita na Hungria à subida ao poder de populistas nos países mediterrânicos. À nossa porta temos a Turquia, mais longe ainda a Venezuela de Chávez e Maduro ou a Índia de Modi. Yascha Mounk, considerado um dos maiores especialistas mundiais na matéria, aponta como causa o crescente divórcio entre os direitos individuais e a vontade popular - um dos combates do século: Povo vs. Democracia.

Povo vs. Democracia

From one of our sharpest and most important political thinkers, a brilliant big-picture vision of the greatest challenge of our time—how to bridge the bitter divides within diverse democracies enough for them to remain stable and functional Some democracies are highly homogeneous. Others have long maintained a brutal racial or religious hierarchy, with some groups dominating and exploiting others. Never in history has a democracy succeeded in being both diverse and equal, treating members of many different ethnic or religious groups fairly. And yet achieving that goal is now central to the democratic project in countries around the world. It is, Yascha Mounk argues, the greatest experiment of our time. Drawing on history, social psychology, and comparative politics, Mounk examines how diverse societies have long suffered from the ills of domination, fragmentation, or structured anarchy. So it is hardly surprising that most people are now deeply pessimistic that different groups might be able to integrate in harmony, celebrating their differences without essentializing them. But Mounk shows us that the past can offer crucial insights for how to do better in the future. There is real reason for hope. It is up to us and the institutions we build whether different groups will come to see each other as enemies or friends, as strangers or compatriots. To make diverse democracies endure, and even thrive, we need to create a world in which our ascriptive identities come to matter less—not because we ignore the injustices that still characterize the United States and so many other countries around the world, but because we have succeeded in addressing them. The Great Experiment is that rare book that offers both a profound understanding of an urgent problem and genuine hope for our human capacity to solve it. As Mounk contends, giving up on the prospects of building fair and thriving diverse democracies is simply not an option—and that is why we must strive to realize a more ambitious vision for the future of our societies.

Yascha Mounk

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