Democracy is in crisis across the globe, especially in UK, it has been rocked by Brexit, the pandemic and successive attempts by governments to bypass legal norms. 

Jonathan Sumption renders acute analysis of the state of democracy today – from the vulnerabilities of international law to the deepening suppression of democracy activism in Hong Kong, and from the complexities of human rights legislation to the defence of freedom of speech. One of the finest examples is of Jonathan Sumption, whose career has been an unusual combination of medieval historian, barrister, supreme court judge, member of the House of Lords.

The 18^th century “founding fathers” of the US constitution such as James Madison, 19^th century British classical liberals such as John Stuart Mill or ancient gurus like Aristotle, were well aware that democracy is fragile. They have warned about just what is emerging: a Tyranny of the majority. The deep polarisation of many liberal democracies has created exactly those dangers. America’s electoral system can be described as “winner takes all”, but this was not supposed to mean “winner does whatever he pleases”.

US vice-president JD Vance wrote on X, Elon Musk’s social media platform that has become in effect an official organ of the US government, that “judges aren’t allowed to control the executive’s legitimate power”, implying that the executive itself can rule on the legitimacy of its own acts. 

Donald Trump wrote on his own platform, with the Orwellian name of Truth Social: “He who saves his Country does not violate any Law”. He was quoting a past dictator, Napoleon, but also making it clear that he as president can decide what  “saving” the country requires, and no law can stand in his way. He is also said he look after US interests first.

The US defence secretary, Pete Hegseth, acknowledged this when he fired all the Judge advocates general, the military’s top lawyers, telling his former employer, Fox News, that they don’t exist to attempt to be roadblocks to anything that happens in their spots”.

The Challenges of Democracy is a collection of lectures and essays written over the past five years but updated for the events of the past year.  Sumption is a defender of elites and representative government, saying they reflect “aristocracies of Knowledge”.

Writing about a British prime minister who in 2019-2022, also thought of himself as “king”, purged his opponents, and broke rules of conventions at will, although Boris Johnson was brought down by the mass resignation of his own government. 

The Challenges of Democracy: And The Rule of Law by Jonathan Sumption, Profile £18.99, 240 pages.