Colin Crouch

Colin Crouch, FBA (born 1944 in Isleworth) is an English sociologist and political scientist. He coined the post-democracy concept in 2000 in his book Coping with Post-Democracy. Colin Crouch is currently Emeritus Professor at the University of Warwick.

Crouch's academic career started as a lecturer in sociology at the London School of Economics in 1969. He then taught at University of Bath and Oxford University, where he was curator of the Bodleian Library from 1995 to 2000. He was Professor of Sociology and chaired the department of Political Science at the European University Institute of Florence from 1995 to 2004. From 2005 until 2011 he was Professor of Governance and Public Management at Warwick Business School. In 2005, he was elected fellow of the British Academy.

The term "post-democracy" was coined by Crouch in 2000 in his book Coping with Post-Democracy. It designates states that are conducted by fully operating democratic systems (elections are being held, governments fall and there is freedom of speech), but whose application is progressively limited. A small elite is taking the tough decisions and co-opts the democratic institutions. Crouch further developed the idea in an article called Is there a liberalism beyond social democracy? for the think tank Policy Network and in his subsequent book The Strange Non-Death of Neo-Liberalism.

This term appeared to define a running evolution within democracies during the 21st century. It is a polemical term because it calls attention to recognized democracies that are losing some of their foundations and evolving towards an regime.

Crouch names the following reasons:

As a consequence:

According to Crouch there is an important task for social media in which voters can participate more actively in public debates. In addition, these voters would have to join advocacy groups for specific interests. The citizens have to reclaim their place in decision making. He calls this post-post-democracy.

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