A small book with great weight and urgency to it, this is both a history of democracy and a clarion call for change.

Without drastic adjustment, this system cannot last much longer, writes Van Reybrouck, regarded today as one of Europe’s most astute thinkers. If you look at the decline in voter turnout and party membership, and at the way politicians are held in contempt, if you look at how difficult it is to form governments, how little they can do and how harshly they are punished for it, if you look at how quickly populism, technocracy and anti-parliamentarianism are rising, if you look at how more and more citizens are longing for participation and how quickly that desire can tip over into frustration, then you realize we are up to our necks.