John Keane is professor of politics at the University of Sydney and the Wissenschaftszentrum Berlin and founded London's Centre for the Study of Democracy and the Sydney Democracy Network. Among his many books, The Life and Death of Democracy was shortlisted for the 2010 Prime Minister's Literary Award for Non-Fiction and translated into many languages. He was recently nominated for the Balzan and Holberg prizes, for outstanding global contributions to the human sciences. His most recent book is The Shortest History of Democracy.