Democracy has died hundreds of times in history worldwide. We believe we know what this means every 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. However, perhaps we are focusing on the wrong threats.

In the book "How Democracy Ends," the leading British political scientist provides an overview of the political landscape of the West and shows us how to recognize the new alarming signs of the times. Runciman deals with coups in Greece, from antiquity to 1967, with nuclear war, with environmental destruction, and with the most heinous crimes, revealing to us how the changes that have occurred in our societies - which are now very affluent, very old, very connected - make the possibility of a collapse similar to the past unlikely. History never repeats itself. The current decay of our institutions poses a serious danger to the future of our democracies.

All political systems come to an end. This book, written with passion and conviction, helps us reflect on the once unthinkable. What will be the consequences of a general failure of democracy in the twenty-first century? Could something better succeed democracy?