What Happened to Liberal Democracy?

'Timely ... an important call to arms' FINANCIAL TIMES

'A must-read' THOMAS PIKETTY, author of Capital in the Twenty-First Century

'A thoughtful solution to the most important question of modern democracy' JARED DIAMOND, author of Guns, Germs, and Steel

'Brilliant and insightful a tour de force' STEVEN LEVITT, author of Freakonomics

From its inception, liberalism offered a glittering promise of shared prosperity, equality, democratic values and the free pursuit of knowledge. At first, it flourished. And then it faltered. Once a tantalising beacon of hope, it began to erode and decay at the hands of elitism, intolerance and rising autocracy.

One could say that liberalism is broken. So what comes next?

Nobel prize-winning co-author of Why Nations Fail Daron Acemoglu charts the rise and fall of liberal democracy, and offers hope for a way forward: a new theory that lays the groundwork for how we can - and must - remake liberalism before it's too late.