Democracy has died hundreds of times throughout history all around the world. We believe we know what this means each time: chaos ensues and the military intervenes to "restore" order, until the people inspire confidence that they can take care of their own affairs – if that day ever comes, which often it does not.

In the book "How Democracy Ends," the British leading political scientist provides an overview of the political landscape of the West and shows us how to recognize the new disturbing signs of the times. Runciman tackles coups in Greece, from antiquity to 1967, nuclear war, environmental destruction, and the most heinous crimes, revealing how the changes that have taken place in our societies – which are now very prosperous, very old, and very interconnected – make the prospect of a collapse akin to the past unlikely.

History never repeats itself. A serious danger to the future of our democracies is the progressive decay of our institutions. All political systems come to an end. This book, written with passion and vigor, helps us reflect on the once unthinkable. What would be the consequences of a general failure of democracy in the twenty-first century? Could something better succeed democracy?

"Runciman is one of the leading political scientists in the Western world." Sunday Business Post

"Freshness, penetrating insight, gripping paradoxes, and new ways of understanding old problems." Times Literary Supplement

"Masterful, impressively intelligent." New York Observer

"Absolutely original!" Jonathan Freedland, Guardian