| Summary/Abstract |
THE GREATEST threat to sustaining our democracy is not the obvious one of populism. It is the elitism which has given our democracy the characteristics of complacency, entitlement, resistance to reform and lack of sensible access and engagement for the electorate. We have a democracy not fit for purpose and one unable even to defend itself effectively against its more obvious enemies. Most of those who should be defending our democracy by extending it have—with a few honourable exceptions—been enjoying a free ride. Politicians, academics and journalists have all taken democracy as a given to be preserved rather than something organic that will either grow or wither. It requires daily polishing, burnishing and reinvention if it is to evolve rather than have history swallow it.
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