# Why Politics Fails

Canonical: https://www.bookquiver.com/ben-ansell/why-politics-fails/9780241997345

![Why Politics Fails](https://quivercdn.com/covers/penguin/ben-ansell/why-politics-fails_978-02-4199-734-5.jpg?v=2026-04-25%2019%3A18%3A55)

- Book: [Why Politics Fails](https://www.bookquiver.com/ben-ansell/why-politics-fails) ([Why Politics Fails.md](https://www.bookquiver.com/ben-ansell/why-politics-fails.md))
- Authors: [Ben Ansell](https://www.bookquiver.com/ben-ansell)
- Publisher: Penguin
- Medium: audio
- Length: 11 h 33 min
- Narrated by: Ben Ansell
- ISBN: 978-02-4199-734-5
- Published: 2023-03-30
- Language: en_GB
- Binding: Audiobook · 11 h 33 min

## Description

Brought to you by Penguin. Why do the revolving doors of power always leave us disappointed? In Why Politics Fails , award-winning Oxford professor Ben Ansell shows that it's not the politicians that are the problem, it's that our collective goals result in five political 'traps'. Democracy: we all want a say in how we're governed, but it's impossible to have any true 'will of the people'. Equality: we want to be treated equally, but equal rights and equal outcomes undermine each other. Solidarity: we want a safety net when times are tough, but often we care about solidarity only when we need it ourselves. Security: we want protecting from harm, but not if it undermines our freedoms. Prosperity: we want to be richer tomorrow, but what makes us richer in the short run makes us poorer over the long haul. You've probably noticed a pattern here, which is that our self-interest undermines our ability to deliver on our collective goals. And these traps reinforce one another, so a polarized democracy can worsen inequality; a threadbare social safety net can worsen crime; runaway climate change will threaten global peace. Drawing on examples from Ancient Greece through Brexit and using his own counterintuitive and pathbreaking research - on why democracy thrives under high inequality, and how increased political and social equality can lead to greater class inequality - Ansell vividly illustrates how we can escape the political traps of our imperfect world. He shows that politics won't end, but that it doesn't have to fail.