Conservative.; 5 threats to democracy

http://blogs.news.com.au/heraldsun/andrewbolt/index.php/heraldsun/comments/conservative_revolution_at_the_bookshop/

Former High Court judge Dyson Heydon, chosen to head the Abbott Government’s royal commission into union corruption, introduces a new book by Professor James Allan in a way that sings to a rationalist and a conservative:

This book stands in the long Anglo-Saxon tradition of controversialist pamphleteering.  It is vigorous, energetic, independent-minded and full of boisterous good humour.  It has relentless drive.  It never loses sight of the main elements of the argument.  Those elements centre on the primary threats to majoritarian democracy in the United States and four other states which owe many of their political institutions primarily to the British Isles – the United States, Canada, Australia and New Zealand.

The first threat, which applies to all five, comes from an over-mighty judiciary administering bills of rights, whether expressly created or implied into constitutions.  The second threat, for the United Kingdom, is the European Union.  The third threat, for all five, is the spreading influence of international law – both treaty law and customary law – and international institutions on domestic constitutions and statutes ¬– a point on which the book is particularly strong.  Then there are more darkly veiled threats, like the exploitation of mass immigration for political ends:  though electors may choose governments, governments can choose electors.

For those whose world view is shaped by academia, by the public service ethos, by the metropolitan press, and by a judicial-political consensus which does not tolerate dissenting opinions, the book will seem deeply shocking.  For anyone else it will be wonderfully refreshing and cleansing, like a sudden storm after a long succession of oppressively sultry days.

Allan’s book promises much:

Democracy in Decline charts how democracy is being diluted and restricted in five of the world’s oldest democracies – the United States, Canada, the United Kingdom, Australia, and New Zealand.

James Allan targets four main, interconnected causes of decline – judicial activism, the transformation and growth of international law, the development of supranational organizations, and the presence of undemocratic elites… Allan looks ahead to further deterioration caused by attacks on free speech, intolerant worldviews, internationalization through treaties and conventions, and illegal immigration.

Mark Steyn, whose own free speech is again being attacked, writes:

The core Anglophone democracies – among the oldest, most stable, constitutionally-evolved societies on earth, and the indispensable members of that small group of western nations which resisted the totalitarian temptations of the 20th century – have been spending the first years of this new millennium in a remorseless retreat from liberty. In a commanding and trenchant analysis, James Allan examines this disturbing phenomenon… This is an important book that charts free nations’ beguiling seduction into soft tyranny. 

Order online here.

UPDATE

Remember how Liberal Senator Cory Bernardi’s new book, The Conservative Revolution, was vilified by the Left and even some Liberals? Remember how Leftists, egged on by Fairfax, bombarded Amazon with “reviews” damning it. I am delighted to report that the Amazon campaign actually backfired, causing sales via Amazon to soar. The book is already long in reprint and has reached best-seller status for a political tome.

Order your copy here.