The Great Experiment How To Make Diverse Democracies Work

Don't ridicule or vilify: engage and persuade - is one of the many mantras of Yascha Mounk's extremely wide-ranging, highly readable, and fascinating study of how slowly, and often falteringly, we can slowly learn better to live alongside and with each other in our ever more diverse societies. An optimistic realistic vision of the future -- Danny Dorling Can diverse democracies flourish? The Great Experiment is a bold and necessary counter-argument to nativists, populists and pessimists -- Helen Lewis, author of DIFFICULT WOMEN The Great Experiment confronts the intense challenges faced today by diverse societies in creating norms and institutions that allow their citizens to live peacefully with one another. It moves from insightful analysis of our current crisis to practical suggestions on how to mitigate conflicts over race and identity-a blueprint for a more optimistic future. -- Dr. Francis Fukuyama, Director of Stanford's Ford Dorsey Master's in International Policy and author of THE END OF HISTORY and THE LAST MAN A convincing, humane, and hopeful guide to the present and future by one of our foremost democratic thinkers -- George Packer, author of THE UNWINDING and LAST BEST HOPE In The Great Experiment, Yascha Mounk shows us our history, our psychology, our self-inflicted wounds, and our best hope for creating stable democracies that benefit from diversity. This magnificent book increases our odds of success -- Jonathan Haidt, author of THE RIGHTEOUS MIND and professor at NYU-Stern School of Business In this brave and necessary book, Yascha Mounk honestly confronts the challenges to democracy posed by diverse, multiethnic societies, while at the same time refusing to give in to fashionable pessimism. He argues that we can and should find ways to build common ground, using good-faith patriotism to build consensus. Anyone interested in the future of liberal democracy, in the US or anywhere else, should read this book. -- Anne Applebaum, staff writer for