Douglas Carswell's Blog

My new book is out today

The End of Politics and the Birth of iDemocracy is released on Amazon today, with the launch event on 24th October.

In the first part of the book, I argue that the West is in crisis because Western governments have grown too big.  Officialdom has outgrown the tax base and the ability of the rest of us to pay for it all. The bloated, bureaucratic state has also outgrown the ability of the democratic process to hold those who make public policy to account.

As a consequence we are mired in debt and chronically misgoverned.

Should we despair?  Actually, no.  Things are going to get better.

Precisely because the Big Government model is bust, things are going to have to change.

It is no longer possible to run an ever expanding welfare state on the back of a shrinking wealth-creating base. So public administration is going to have to become dramatically more effective.

In the second half of the book, I show how the digital revolution makes this not so much possible, but with the rise of the citizen consumer, almost inevitable.

For generations we have had to submit to those who hold that society is best arranged according to their notion of a grand design. The internet revolution renders obsolete not just many of the grand designs, but rule by the grand designers.  It will do to government planners in the West what the fall of Communism did to Soviet planners a generation ago.

Cheer up!  The days of Big Government are coming to an end.  Politicians and the parasitical elite might hate it, but it is great news for everyone else.

If you do decide to buy the book, I'd love to hear your response. Either tweet me @douglascarswell or post comments on this blog.

Back to all posts