The Revolt of the Public and the Crisis of Authority in the New Millennium

How insurgencies-enabled by digital devices and a vast information sphere-have mobilized millions of ordinary people around the world.In the words of economist and scholar Arnold Kling, Martin Gurri saw it coming. Technology has categorically reversed the information balance of power between the public and the elites who manage the great hierarchical institutions of the industrial age: government, political parties, the media. The Revolt of the Public tells the story of how insurgencies, enabled by digital devices and a vast information sphere, have mobilized millions of ordinary people around the world.Originally published in 2014, The Revolt of the Public is now available in an updated edition, which includes an extensive analysis of Donald Trump's improbable rise to the presidency and the electoral triumphs of Brexit. The book concludes with a speculative look forward, pondering whether the current elite class can bring about a reformation of the democratic process and whether new organizing principles, adapted to a digital world, can arise out of the present political turbulence.

Autorentext
Martin Gurri is a geopolitical analyst and student of new media and information effects. He spent many years working in the corner of the CIA dedicated to the analysis of open media. From that privileged perch, he watched the global information landscape undergo a transformation so radical as to seem unprecedented in the history of our species. After leaving government, Gurri focused his research on the motive forces powering this transformation. The result of this labor is The Revolt of the Public and the Crisis of Authority in the New Millennium, first published in digital form in 2014 and republished in 2018. He lives in Virginia.

Klappentext

• AHEAD OF ITS TIME: Originally published in 2014, The Revolt of the Public is credited with predicting the rise of Donald Trump, the Brexit referendum, and protest movements like the Yellow Vests in France.
• PUBLIC DISCOURSE: Martin Gurri’s framing of “the revolt of the public” has become a mainstream concept discussed in the New York Times, the Atlantic, Vox, Politico, the Intercept, and others.
• ESSENTIAL READING: Social media and the internet have transformed daily life. Gurri’s analysis of how technology has upturned the balance of power between the public and the elites is critical to understanding today’s social and political landscape.
• ENGAGED COMMUNITY: Stripe Press has a sizable community of avid fans—who run the gamut from startup founders to executives at some of the world’s largest companies—who eagerly await each new title. Many readers tweet about our books—the Stripe Press “shelfie” is a genre unto itself—as do the founders of Stripe and many Stripe employees.

Zusammenfassung
How insurgencies—enabled by digital devices and a vast information sphere—have mobilized millions of ordinary people around the world.



In the words of economist and scholar Arnold Kling, Martin Gurri saw it coming. Technology has categorically reversed the information balance of power between the public and the elites who manage the great hierarchical institutions of the industrial age: government, political parties, the media. The Revolt of the Public tells the story of how insurgencies, enabled by digital devices and a vast information sphere, have mobilized millions of ordinary people around the world.




Originally published in 2014, The Revolt of the Public is now available in an updated edition, which includes an extensive analysis of Donald Trump’s improbable rise to the presidency and the electoral triumphs of Brexit. The book concludes with a speculative look forward, pondering whether the current elite class can bring about a reformation of the democratic process and whether new organizing principles, adapted to a digital world, can arise out of the present political turbulence.

Leseprobe
An excerpt from Arnold Kling's foreword

I read the first edition of The Revolt of the Public in early January of 2016, after Virginia Postrel cited it in her column. Since then, it has been the book that I recommend whenever I am in a conversation that turns to the Trump phenomenon or the disturbing state of politics in general.

Because Martin Gurri saw it coming. When, without fanfare, he self-published the first edition as an e-book in June of 2014, he did not specifically name Donald Trump, or Brexit, or the oddball political figures and new fringe parties that have surged all over Europe. But he saw how the internet in general and social media in particular were transforming the political landscape.

Inhalt
PRELUDE TO A TURBULENT AGE
HODER AND WAEL GHONIM
MY THESIS
WHAT THE PUBLIC IS NOT
PHASE CHANGE 2011
A CRISIS OF AUTHORITY
THE FAILURE OF GOVERNMENT
NIHILISM AND DEMOCRACY
CHOICES AND SYSTEMS
FINALE FOR SKEPTICS
RECONSIDERATIONS: TRUMP, BREXIT, AND FAREWELL TO ALL THAT