Six books about divided government–and why we need it

David Runciman is a professor of politics at Cambridge University and the author of How Democracy Ends and other books. At the Guardian he tagged six books that explore political division – and why we need it. One title on the list:

Faction and division usually get a bad name, but Nancy Rosenblum’s On the Side of the Angels: In Defence of Parties and Partisanship shows that we need them: democratic politics would be meaningless if we all thought with one mind. Rosenblum points out that there will always be people who claim to stand for the Party of Reason, which is only interested in doing The Right Thing. Don’t trust those people: they are often the most duplicitous of all. Finally, when politics seems impossible, it is sometimes good to take the long view.

Read about another entry on the list.

--Marshal Zeringue