Born in southern Australia, John Keane is Professor of Politics at the University of Sydney. [1] For 25 years he also held a position at the Wissenschaftszentrum Berlin (WZB), [2] which he resigned from in November 2023. [3]
In 2021 Keane published the book To Kill a Democracy: India's Passage to Despotism co-authored by Debasish Roy Chowdhury. [4] [5]
Keane first studied Politics, Government and History at the University of Adelaide, winning the Tinline Prize for a First Class Honours with Highest Distinction (1971). He won a Commonwealth Fellowship to study at the University of Toronto, where in the fields of philosophy and political economy he was awarded a doctorate and mentored and supervised by C.B. Macpherson. He later held a post-doctoral fellowship at King’s College, at the University of Cambridge, where he worked closely with Anthony Giddens, Quentin Skinner and other leading scholars.
John Keane is renowned globally for his creative thinking about democracy. [6] Well before the European revolutions of 1989, John Keane first came to public prominence as a theorist and defender of ‘civil society’ and the democratic opposition in central-eastern Europe. Throughout the 1980s, he contributed extensively to the programme of ‘flying university’ apartment seminars in Poland, Czechoslovakia and Hungary. His political and scholarly writing during that period was published under the pen name Erica Blair.[ citation needed ] [7] His Times Literary Supplement series of 18th-century-style dialogues with prominent underground human rights figures such as Adam Michnik and György Konrád was read widely, and translated into many languages. He arranged and edited Vaclav Havel’s first book in English, The Power of the Powerless [8] (1985). In the spring of 1989, just before the revolutions that shook central-eastern Europe, he founded the world’s first democracy research institute, the London-based Centre for the Study of Democracy [9] (CSD). During the past decade, he founded and directed the Sydney Democracy Network [10] (SDN). He has contributed to The New York Times , Al Jazeera , the Times Literary Supplement , The Guardian , Harper's , the South China Morning Post and The Huffington Post .
In November 2023 he resigned from WZB after WZB wrote him a letter stating that a tweet of his depicted the Hamas flag, which could "only be understood as support for Hamas and their actions". Keane said the allegations were "absurd" and that "My posting of an image of green flags was … a message to trigger multiple thoughts among its addressees". [3]
During his many years in Britain, the Times of London described him as 'one of the world's leading political thinkers and writers. [11] El País (Madrid) has ranked him as 'among the world's leading analysts of political systems' [12] (2018). The Australian Broadcasting Commission called him 'one of the great intellectual exports from Australia.' [13] His work has been translated into approximately 35 languages. During the period 2014-2019, his experimental online column "Democracy Field Notes" [14] attracted nearly a million readers in the London, Cambridge- and Melbourne-based The Conversation . Among his best-known books are the prize-winning, best selling Tom Paine: A political life [15] (1995), Violence and Democracy [16] (2004), Democracy and Media Decadence [17] (2013) and a full-scale history of democracy, The Life and Death of Democracy [18] (2009). Forthcoming in Arabic, it has been published in Chinese, Spanish, Portuguese (European and Brazilian) and Korean; it was short-listed for the Prime Minister's Literary Award (2012) while the Japanese translation (2014) was ranked in the top three non-fiction books [19] of that year published in Japan. His most recent books are When Trees Fall, Monkeys Scatter [20] (2017); Power and Humility: the Future of Monitory Democracy [21] (2018); The New Despotism [22] (2020) and The Shortest History of Democracy (2022). He was recently nominated for the 2021 Balzan Prize [23] and the Holberg Prize [24] for outstanding global contributions to the human sciences.
In The Life and Death of Democracy, John Keane coined the term monitory democracy for a phase of democracy characterised by instruments of public monitoring and scrutinising of government power. [25] It began following the events of the Second World War.
Monitory institutions refer to 'watch-dog' and 'guide-dog' bodies which subject governments to a public mechanism of checks and balances. Under the theory of monitory democracy these institutions extend the notions of representative democracy to "enfranchise many more citizens voices" in the political process. The ability to publicly monitor government power enabled through these institutions has the effect of changing the political and geographic dynamics of existing representative democracies. [26]
According to Keane, monitory democracy adds to the democratic nature of political representation as it changes the notion from "'one person, one vote, one representative'" and instead embodies the principles of "one person, many interests, many voices, multiple votes, multiple representatives". [26]
Keane's theory of monitory democracy outlined in 'The Life and Death of Democracy' (2009) has been critiqued by Christopher Hobson in a review of the book. [27] Hobson states that it is unclear "whether all the changes Keane identifies collectively constitute something coherent enough to be considered a new kind of democracy". [27] However, he states that monitory democracy provides a "valuable opening to begin discussing these issues, as part of considering the current shape and likely future of democracy". [27]
In another review of 'The Life and Death of Democracy' (2009), the Guardian referred to monitory democracy as an "ugly phrase". [28] They critique the theory as being "at best a partial description of what democracy is and what it needs to be". [28] The article states that "monitory democracy can function only if it learns to co-exist with some of those democratic ideas that Keane is too quick to dismiss...". [28] Similarly, the Telegraph stated "What Keane himself fails to see is that the 'monitory democracy' he celebrates, while it may cut through some hierarchies of power, is busily constructing new hierarchies of its own: an activist elite; human rights judges who act beyond the reach of democratic politics; and so on". [29]
Václav Havel was a Czech statesman, author, poet, playwright and dissident. Havel served as the last president of Czechoslovakia from 1989 until 1992, prior to the dissolution of Czechoslovakia on 31 December, before he became the first president of the Czech Republic from 1993 to 2003. He was the first democratically elected president of either country after the fall of communism. As a writer of Czech literature, he is known for his plays, essays and memoirs.
Manuel Castells Oliván is a Spanish sociologist. He is well known for his authorship of a trilogy of works, entitled The Information Age: Economy, Society and Culture. He is a scholar of the information society, communication and globalization.
The Velvet Revolution or Gentle Revolution was a non-violent transition of power in what was then Czechoslovakia, occurring from 17 November to 28 November 1989. Popular demonstrations against the one-party government of the Communist Party of Czechoslovakia included students and older dissidents. The result was the end of 41 years of one-party rule in Czechoslovakia, and the subsequent dismantling of the command economy and conversion to a parliamentary republic.
Václav Klaus is a Czech economist and politician who served as the second president of the Czech Republic from 2003 to 2013. From July 1992 until the dissolution of Czechoslovakia in January 1993, he served as the second and last prime minister of the Czech Republic while it was a federal subject of the Czech and Slovak Federative Republic, and then as the first prime minister of the newly independent Czech Republic from 1993 to 1998.
TheHolberg Prize is an international prize awarded annually by the government of Norway to outstanding scholars for work in the arts, humanities, social sciences, law and theology, either within one of these fields or through interdisciplinary work. The prize is named after the Danish-Norwegian writer and academic Ludvig Holberg (1684–1754). The Holberg Prize comes with a monetary award of 6 million Norwegian kroner (NOK), which are intended to be used to further the research of the recipient. The winner of the Holberg Prize is announced in March, and the award ceremony takes place every June in Bergen, Norway.
Carole Pateman FBA FAcSS FLSW is a feminist and political theorist. She is known as a critic of liberal democracy and has been a member of the British Academy since 2007.
The Journal of Democracy is a quarterly academic journal established in 1990 and an official publication of the National Endowment for Democracy's International Forum for Democratic Studies. It covers the study of democracy, democratic regimes, and pro-democracy movements throughout the world.
Olga Havlová was a Czech dissident, activist, and the first wife of Václav Havel, the last President of Czechoslovakia and first President of the Czech Republic. Havlová, the inaugural First Lady of the Czech Republic and final First Lady of Czechoslovakia, was the founder of the Committee of Good Will and a signatory of Charter 77.
The Belarus Free Theatre is a Belarusian underground theatre group.
Oslo Freedom Forum (OFF) is a series of global conferences run by the New York–based non-profit Human Rights Foundation under the slogan "Challenging Power". OFF was founded in 2009 as a one-time event and has taken place annually ever since. The forum aims to bring together notable people, including former heads of state, winners of the Nobel Peace Prize, prisoners of conscience, as well as of other public figures in order to network and exchange ideas about human rights and exposing dictatorships.
The Life and Death of Democracy is a 2009 book by John Keane published in the UK by Simon & Schuster. Keane claims his book is the first attempt to write a full history of democracy for well over a century.
Ales Viktaravich Bialiatski is a Belarusian pro-democracy activist and prisoner of conscience known for his work with the Viasna Human Rights Centre. An activist for Belarusian independence and democracy since the early 1980s, Bialiatski is a founding member of Viasna and the Belarusian Popular Front, serving as leader of the latter from 1996 to 1999. He is also a member of the Coordination Council of the Belarusian opposition. He has been called "a pillar of the human rights movement in Eastern Europe" by The New York Times, and recognised as a prominent pro-democracy activist in Belarus.
Viola Fischerová was a Czech poet, and translator.
The Power of the Powerless is an expansive political essay written in October 1978 by the Czech dramatist, political dissident, and later statesman, Václav Havel.
Jared Genser is an international human rights lawyer who serves as managing director of the law firm Perseus Strategies, LLC, as well as the special advisor on the Responsibility to Protect to the Organization of American States. He is also a co-Executive Producer on a new Amazon Studios television series based on his life being developed with Orlando Bloom. Genser is a senior fellow at the Raoul Wallenberg Centre for Human Rights and previously was an associate of the Carr Center for Human Rights Policy at Harvard University from 2014 to 2016 and a visiting fellow with the National Endowment for Democracy from 2006 to 2007. Earlier in his career, he founded the non-profit Freedom Now and was named by the National Law Journal as one of "40 Under 40: Washington's Rising Stars."
John Montagu Hobson, FBA is a political scientist, international relations scholar and academic. Since 2005, he has been Professor of Politics and International Relations at the University of Sheffield.
Speaking truth to power is a non-violent political tactic, employed by dissidents against the received wisdom or propaganda of governments they regard as oppressive, authoritarian or an ideocracy. The phrase originated with a pamphlet, Speak Truth to Power: a Quaker Search for an Alternative to Violence, published by the American Friends Service Committee in 1955. Speak Truth To Power is also the title of a global Human Rights initiative under the auspices of Robert F. Kennedy Human Rights. Practitioners who have campaigned for a more just and truthful world have included Apollonius of Tyana, Vaclav Havel, Nelson Mandela, Archbishop Desmond Tutu, Mahatma Gandhi, Bacha Khan, the Dalai Lama and Elie Wiesel.
Miloš Havel was a Czech film producer and studio executive. Havel was a director of the film production company Lucernafilm, which was founded by his father in 1912. He was also a chairman of the film studio A-B, which built its new studios in Barrandov in 1932. He remained in charge of the studio during German occupation of Czechoslovakia. After World War II his wartime activities were criticized heavily, and he was put on trial for charges relating to collaboration with Nazi Germany. Though acquitted, he was banned from working in the film industry. He left the country and settled in Munich. He was the uncle of Czech president Václav Havel.
The Sekyra Foundation is a private foundation created in 2018 by Czech entrepreneur Luděk Sekyra in support of moral universalism, liberal values, and civil society. Among many other projects the Foundation has a long-term cooperation with the University of Oxford which has also named the oldest statutory professorship in philosophy at Oxford after the foundations founder Luděk Sekyra.
To Kill a Democracy: India's Passage to Despotism is a book authored by Debasish Roy Chowdhury and John Keane, published by Oxford University Press in 2021. The Indian edition of the book is published by Pan MacMillan.
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