Why We Hate PoliticsISBN: 978-0-7456-3099-1
Paperback
200 pages
March 2007, Polity
Other Available Formats: Hardcover
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In this lively and original work, Colin Hay provides a series of
innovative and provocative answers to these questions. He begins by
tracing the origins and development of the current climate of
political disenchantment across a broad range of established
democracies. Far from revealing a rising tide of apathy, however,
he shows that a significant proportion of those who have withdrawn
from formal politics are engaged in other modes of political
activity.
He goes on to develop and defend a broad and inclusive conception of politics and the political that is far less formal, less state-centric and less narrowly governmental than in most conventional accounts. By demonstrating how our expectations of politics and the political realities we witness are shaped decisively by the assumptions about human nature that we project onto political actors, Hay provides a powerful and highly distinctive account of contemporary political disenchantment. Why We Hate Politics will be essential reading for all those troubled by the contemporary political condition of the established democracies.