Published 21 years after Francis Fukuyama’s famous essay, The End of History and the Last Man, this book sets out to show, in contrast to Fukuyama’s triumphalist claims, that global democratisation is neither certain nor secure. Joshua Kurlantzick, a senior fellow at the Washington-based Council of Foreign Relations. has written an ambitious and timely book. Democracy in Retreat: The Revolt of the Middle Class and the Worldwide Decline of Representative Government seeks to explore the reversal of democratisation across the developing world, and to offer compelling explanations for this change in fortune for the political system.