Democracy for Sale: Dark Money and Dirty Politics

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Facebook sets this cookie to show relevant advertisements to users by tracking user behaviour across the web, on sites that have Facebook pixel or Facebook social plugin. Payments made using National Book Tokens are processed by National Book Tokens Ltd, and you can read their Terms and Conditions here. The final part of the book deals with the transformation of our information ecosystem: the ways in which the automated targeted-advertising machines of social media platforms have been weaponised by rightwing actors to deliver precisely calibrated messages to voters, in ways that are completely opaque to the general public, as well as to regulators.

If you're concerned about the health of British democracy, read this book - it is thorough, gripping and vitally important' Oliver Bullough, author of Moneyland.

The middle section of the book explores how dark money has amplified the growing influence of the American right on British politics. Photograph: Frank Augstein/Pool/Reuters View image in fullscreen ‘These threats to democracy have, for decades, been visible to anyone disposed to look for them’: Boris Johnson in 2019. We are experiencing delays with deliveries to many countries, but in most cases local services have now resumed. And in the UK, Martin Moore’s landmark study Democracy Hacked showed how, in the space of just one election cycle, authoritarian governments, wealthy elites and fringe hackers figured out how to game elections, bypass democratic processes and turn social networks into battlefields. Democracy for Sale is the story of how money, vested interests and digital skulduggery are eroding trust in democracy - and a powerful account of what must be done about it.

Publication dates are subject to change (although this is an extremely uncommon occurrence overall). Democracy for Sale is a diligent, brilliant guide through a shadowy world of dark money and digital disinformation stretching from Westminster to Washington, and far beyond. He shows how antiquated electoral laws are broken with impunity, how secretive lobbying bends our politics out of shape, and how Silicon Valley tech giants have colluded in selling out democracy. For more details, please consult the latest information provided by Royal Mail's International Incident Bulletin.And again it leaves one wondering why there was so little media exploration of the origins and financing of that particular little cabal. Antiquated electoral laws are broken with impunity, secretive lobbying is bending our politics out of shape and Silicon Valley tech giants collude in selling out democracy. One of the most striking points the political philosopher David Runciman made in his seminal book How Democracy Ends was that democracies don’t fail backwards: they fail forward. This is the story of how money, vested interests and digital skulduggery are eroding trust in democracy. Remainers will probably read Geoghegan’s account of this manoeuvring by Brexiters as further evidence that the Brexit vote was invalid.

These threats to democracy have, for decades, been visible to anyone disposed to look for them’: Boris Johnson in 2019. And if that’s true, the key question for us at this moment in history is: how might our current system fail?

Instead, the referendum and its aftermath have revealed something far more fundamental and systemic. Some of the data that are collected include the number of visitors, their source, and the pages they visit anonymously.

He investigates politicians, fabulously well-funded partisan think tanks, propagandists who know how to game a rigged system, and the campaigners and regulators valiantly trying to stop them. Politicians lie gleefully, making wild claims that can be shared instantly with millions on social media. And it has been able to do this in what has turned out to be a regulatory vacuum – with laws, penalties and overseeing authorities that are no longer fit for purpose. This is a story of ideology and finance – of how the long-term Hayekian, neoliberal project has played out on these shores.For example, Lawrence Lessig’s Republic, Lost and Jane Mayer’s Dark Money explained how a clique of billionaires has shaped and perverted American politics. Hotjar sets this cookie to know whether a user is included in the data sampling defined by the site's daily session limit. The existential threat to liberal democracy comes from the fact that those who have successfully exploited some inadequacies of the current regulatory system – who include Boris Johnson and his current wingman, Cummings – have absolutely no incentive to fix the system from which they have benefited. One of the most depressing parts of this narrative is the bland indifference of most mainstream UK media to these scandalous events.