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# Under-rating democracy
- URL: https://www.opendemocracy.net/en/under-rating-democracy/
- Published: 2008-12-20T14:12:27.000Z
- Updated: 2019-02-14T22:42:31.000Z
- Author: Anthony Barnett
- Tags: #en, #Migrated, #Import 2026-04-09 18:49

**Anthony Barnett (London,** [**OK**](https://www.opendemocracy.net/ourkingdom/)**):** This is my full - and brief - entry in the [Prospect roundup](http://www.prospect-magazine.co.uk/article%5Fdetails.php?id=10562&ref=opendemocracy.net) of people's"most under-rated" events of the year (from politics to books). It was touched up (and hardly for length reasons) or rather down and this weakened the point about democratic republicanism.

**Underrated: One huge policy process and one book.** 

Our old Empire state is being transformed into a database state through a process officially known as the Transformational Government programme which has never been debated in parliament or by a select committee. It trades on a modernisation of subjecthood that transforms traditional deference into electronic tagging.

How can this be stopped? David Marquand's history of Britain's democracy since 1918 is a wonderfully written account of how we got to this situation and points to the only way out: democratic republicanism. If you have heard little of either it goes to show how underrated they are.