Kuo, Didi (Center Fellow at the Center on Democracy, Development, and the Rule of Law, Center Fellow at the Center on Democracy, Development, and the Rule of Law, Stanford University)

The Great Retreat: How Political Parties Should Behave and Why They Don't Kuo, Didi (Center Fellow at the Center on Democracy, Development, and the Rule of Law, Center Fellow at the Center on Democracy, Development, and the Rule of Law, Stanford University)

In The Great Retreat, Didi Kuo connects the erosion of political parties in advanced democracies to the recent crises of democratic capitalism, focusing on how today's weak parties have ceded governance to the private sector. For democracy to adapt to a new era of global capitalism, Kuo makes the case that we need strong intermediaries like mass parties, socially embedded institutions with deep connections to communities and citizens. As trust in political parties has plummeted, with party membership reaching historic lows, The Great Retreat provides a powerful defense of political parties--for without parties, democratic representation is impossible.