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 ...

Today, accelerated by a pandemic, global conflict and rapid technological change, their ideas are becoming more widespread: QAnon proponents run for U.S. Congress, neo-fascists win elections in Europe, and celebrity influencers like Kanye West spread dangerous myths to millions.

For several decades Chinese ascendancy has been supported by an astonishingly broad and deep portfolio of soft power. The stories are their reach are breath-taking - Chinese-sponsored reporting in the Daily Telegraph; the gagging of NBA and Premier League sports brands; state-funded faculties across Western academia; Hollywood self-censorship for the Chinese market; and of course - Huawei. But these are just the most visible examples. With some dextrous manoeuvrings during the global pandemic...

Do you feel like we’re in a permacrisis? Chances are you feel some anxiety about the state of the world. Gordon Brown, Mohamed A. El-Erian and Michael Spence certainly did.

Three of the most internationally respected and experienced thinkers of our time, these friends found their pandemic Zooms increasingly focused on a cascade of crises: sputtering growth, surging inflation, poor policy responses, an escalating climate emergency, worsening inequality, increasing nationalism and a decline i...

Recent years have been tough on optimists. Hopes that the Internet might bring people together have been crushed by the ills of social media. Is there a way back?

Chris Anderson, the head of TED, believes that we can turn outrage back into optimism. It all comes down to reimagining one of the most fundamental human virtues: generosity. What if generosity could become infectious generosity? Consider:

• how a London barber began offering haircuts to people experiencing homelessness - and cata...

Laws and rules are in place to protect us. They are what keeps our societies from descending into madness and chaos. Without them, how we would know our right from wrong, how would we improve our communities and how could we be better neighbours to one another without rules telling us what to do?

Cindy Skach feels differently. After years spent in some of the most complex corners of the world, reading and writing constitutions, trying to create order where it did not exist, she has come to re...

Meet the most powerful leader in the world.

Chinese premier Xi Jinping graces our television screens and news headlines on a regular basis. But even after a decade in power, he remains shrouded in mystery.

From growing up with a father purged in Mao's Cultural Revolution and his mission to eradicate poverty, to his persecution of Uyghur Muslims and paranoia about being likened to Winnie-the-Pooh, Xi Jinping is a man obscured by caricatures. In this short, essential primer, historian and write...

A gripping ride into the uncanny mirror world of our polarised culture, from the international bestselling author of The Shock Doctrine

What if you woke up one morning and found you'd acquired a double? Someone almost like you, and yet not you at all?

When Naomi Klein discovered that a woman who shared her first name, but had radically different, harmful views, was getting chronically mistaken for her, it seemed too ridiculous to take seriously. Then suddenly it wasn't. She started to find he...

An urgent follow-up to international bestseller How Democracies Die, by two world-leading experts on democracy

In this razor-sharp analysis of one of the most important issues facing us today, leading Harvard professors Steven Levitsky and Daniel Ziblatt draw on their combined expertise of over 40 years to offer a dire warning about right-wing efforts to undermine multiracial democracy.

Exploring the 2024 American election and the Capitol riots, as well as global examples from history includi...

THE SUNDAY TIMES AND NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER

'Galvanizing and uplifting' The Guardian

'Bernie Sanders has changed US politics forever' Owen Jones

It's OK to be angry about capitalism. It's OK to want something better. Bernie Sanders takes on the 1% and speaks blunt truths about a system that is fuelled by uncontrolled greed, and rigged against ordinary people. Where a handful of oligarchs have never had it so good, with more money than they could spend in a thousand lifetimes, and the vast ...