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Liberal democracy is in crisis. How did we get here and how can we rescue it?
Featuring: Noa Mendelsohn Aviv, Peter L. Biro, Michael R.J. Bonner, Thomas Homer-Dixon, Scott Janzwood, Michel J. Paradis, Dennis Pilon, Sascha Priewe, George S. Takach, and Lucan Ahmad Way
With liberal democracy in crisis around the world, ten contributors — all experts in their respective fields of political science, philosophy, law, cultural institutions, and diplomacy — explain why we find ourselves in a state of democratic backsliding, what the stakes are for constitutional democracy, and how we might build a more vibrant and resilient civic culture. Reckoning with the bigger challenges confronting liberal democratic institutions, this group interrogates core assumptions, raises important questions about their philosophical and political origins, and asks whether liberal democracy has even been fully realized in Canada and elsewhere.
These essays consider a more critical role for cultural institutions, the place of public engagement — of activism — alongside formal legal processes to defend and champion civil liberties, and both the perils of artificial intelligence and its power in better serving the causes of freedom and democracy. Taken together, the contributions awaken readers to liberal democracy’s purpose, vulnerabilities, and shortcomings while inspiring them with its unfulfilled potential and imperfect but worthy ideal.
Featuring: Noa Mendelsohn Aviv, Peter L. Biro, Michael R.J. Bonner, Thomas Homer-Dixon, Scott Janzwood, Michel J. Paradis, Dennis Pilon, Sascha Priewe, George S. Takach, and Lucan Ahmad Way
With liberal democracy in crisis around the world, ten contributors — all experts in their respective fields of political science, philosophy, law, cultural institutions, and diplomacy — explain why we find ourselves in a state of democratic backsliding, what the stakes are for constitutional democracy, and how we might build a more vibrant and resilient civic culture. Reckoning with the bigger challenges confronting liberal democratic institutions, this group interrogates core assumptions, raises important questions about their philosophical and political origins, and asks whether liberal democracy has even been fully realized in Canada and elsewhere.
These essays consider a more critical role for cultural institutions, the place of public engagement — of activism — alongside formal legal processes to defend and champion civil liberties, and both the perils of artificial intelligence and its power in better serving the causes of freedom and democracy. Taken together, the contributions awaken readers to liberal democracy’s purpose, vulnerabilities, and shortcomings while inspiring them with its unfulfilled potential and imperfect but worthy ideal.
Price: $19.99
Pages: 264
Publisher: Dundurn Press
Imprint: Dundurn Press
Publication Date:
08 December 2026
Trim Size: 7.00 X 5.00 in
ISBN: 9781459757882
Format: Paperback
BISACs:
POLITICAL SCIENCE / Comparative Politics, Political structures / systems: democracy, POLITICAL SCIENCE / Political Ideologies / Democracy, POLITICAL SCIENCE / Political Ideologies / Conservatism & Liberalism, POLITICAL SCIENCE / World / Canadian, Comparative politics
A necessary and urgent consideration of the state of liberal democracy in Canada, and how it can systematically resist the equally powerful forces of stupidity and autocracy overtaking the world.
It is no secret that democracy is in decline, not only in the places in which liberal constitutionalism is giving way to populist, authoritarian politics, but also in Canada, where the discourse is increasingly defined and advanced in "narratives of justice" rather than by the principles of "fundamental justice." The essays in this book address some of the intellectual, psychological, and political sources of democratic backsliding while offering hope and a path forward towards a renewed and more resilient liberal democratic civic culture. This important book meets our political moment!
Peter Biro's timely volume is a clarion call to all those who care about the state of public affairs in Canada, and about the future of our country. Biro has long been exercised by the diminishing quality and culture of democratic debate, discourse and argument in the world's second largest country. He has succeeded in assembling a distinguished roster of writers to frame the problem and paint a hopeful path forward out of our present crises of politics, policy and administration.
This timely, incisive, essential book asks why the crisis of democracy occurred and is unfolding and what we can do about it. The essays contain different diagnoses and suggest a variety of cures. For all of us, Imperfect Ideal is an urgent call to action: Wake up, people! Democracy is our responsibility. Only we — you and I — can guarantee our democracy — and our freedoms.
It is no secret that democracy is in decline, not only in the places in which liberal constitutionalism is giving way to populist, authoritarian politics, but also in Canada, where the discourse is increasingly defined and advanced in "narratives of justice" rather than by the principles of "fundamental justice." The essays in this book address some of the intellectual, psychological, and political sources of democratic backsliding while offering hope and a path forward towards a renewed and more resilient liberal democratic civic culture. This important book meets our political moment!
Peter Biro's timely volume is a clarion call to all those who care about the state of public affairs in Canada, and about the future of our country. Biro has long been exercised by the diminishing quality and culture of democratic debate, discourse and argument in the world's second largest country. He has succeeded in assembling a distinguished roster of writers to frame the problem and paint a hopeful path forward out of our present crises of politics, policy and administration.
This timely, incisive, essential book asks why the crisis of democracy occurred and is unfolding and what we can do about it. The essays contain different diagnoses and suggest a variety of cures. For all of us, Imperfect Ideal is an urgent call to action: Wake up, people! Democracy is our responsibility. Only we — you and I — can guarantee our democracy — and our freedoms.
Peter L. Biro is the founder of democracy think tank Section 1, a senior fellow of the Raoul Wallenberg Centre for Human Rights and the Aristotle Foundation for Public Policy, a professional associate of the UBC Research Group on Constitutional Law and Legal Studies, and chair emeritus of the Jane Goodall Institute. He is an adjunct professor at the Henry N.R. Jackman Faculty of Law, University of Toronto, where he teaches constitutional law.
- Foreword by Meghan Macdonald
- Chapter One: Fear, Habituation and Stupidification: On Decommissioning The Machinery of Accountability by Peter L. Biro
- Chapter Two: Is Liberalism in the rear-view? by Michael R.J. Bonner
- Chapter Three: The State of ‘Actually Existing Democracy’ in Canada by Dennis Pilon
- Chapter Four: America’s Transition to Competitive Authoritarianism by Lucan Ahmad Way
- Chapter Five: Museums as Democratic Infrastructure by Sascha Priewe
- Chapter Six: The Notwithstanding Clause and How the Charter of Rights and Freedoms Alone Cannot Save Democracy by Noa Mendelsohn Aviv
- Chapter Seven: What Happens to Tech-infused Geopolitics when the Indispensable Democracy Turns Autocratic? By George S. Takach
- Chapter Eight: Governing Artificial Intelligence: A Mirror of Canadian Democracy by Michel Paradis
- Chapter Nine: Defending Canada’s Democracy: A Strategic Framework by Scott Janzwood
- Conclusion by Peter L. Biro