Democracy Is In Bad Health. This Book Offers A New Diagnosis - And An Ancient Remedy. It Shows That The Original Purpose Of Elections Was To Exclude The People From Power By Appointing An Elite To Govern Over Them. Based On Studies And Trials From Around The Globe, It Presents The Practical Case For A True Democracy - One That Actually Works. --publisher I. Symptoms -- Enthusiasm And Mistrust: The-paradox Of Democracy -- Crisis Of Legitimacy: Support Is Crumbling -- Crisis Of Efficiency: Declining Vigour -- Ii. Diagnoses -- It's The Fault Of Politicians: The Diagnosis Of Populism -- It's The Fault Of Democracy: The Diagnosis Of The Technocracy -- It's The Fault Of Representative Democracy: The Diagnosis Of Direct Democracy -- It's The Fault Of Electoral-representative Democracy: A New Diagnosis -- Iii. Pathogenesis -- A Democratic Procedure: Drawing Lots (antiquity And Renaissance) -- An Aristocratic Procedure: Elections (eighteenth Century) -- The Democratisation Of Elections: A Bogus Process (nineteenth And Twentieth Centuries) -- Iv. Remedies -- The Revival Of Sortition: Deliberative Democracy (late Twentieth Century) -- Democratic Innovation In Practice: An International Quest (2004 -- 2013) -- Democratic Innovation In The Future: Allotted Assemblies -- Blueprint For A Democracy Based On Sortition -- Timely Appeal For A Bi-representative System. David Van Reybrouck ; Translated By Liz Waters. First Published Under The Title Tegen Verkiezingen By De Bezige Bij In 2013--colophon. Includes Bibliographical References (pages 172-178) And Index. Translated From Dutch.