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There can be little doubt that of all the great 'enduring ideas' there can be few so central to modern life around the world as 'democracy'. Indeed, an ongoing academic monitoring project has so far catalogued over 500 variants, forms or sub-species of this model of social organisation. It is therefore both a concept with adjectives and also a concept with something of an image problem and this is reflecting in a vast literature that revolves around the perceived growth of 'disaffected democrats'. So what is the problem with democracy? This article responds by identifying not one but seven 'problems' with democracy which, when woven together, reveal a withering away of our capacity to re-imagine a different way of living; to re-connect with those around us; to re-interpret challenges as opportunities or to re-define how we understand and make democracy work. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In a world that is increasingly dominated by literary hyperbole there can be no doubt that Bernard Crick's In Defence of Politics remains a classic text. Classic not just in the sense that it provides a masterly account of the essence, meaning and fragility of democratic politics but classic in the sense that it is written with a style, verve and passion that is rarely found within political science. If the test of pretensions to 'a classic' status is that a book defies the passage of time in terms of significance and argument then Crick's Defence would also make the grade for the simple fact that its arguments remain arguably far more important today than they were when they were first published exactly fifty years ago. This article reflects on the contemporary significance of Crick's Defence by defending politics against an updated set of adversaries in the form of: public expectations, marketisation, depoliticisation, the media, and crises before locating the book within the contours of current debates about public disengagement, the rise of 'disaffected democrats' and questions concerning the future and relevance of political science. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]