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Need a handy riposte to neoliberals and neocons who privilege expertise at the expense of the unwashed masses? Ranciere constructs a careful, subtle argument against such statists, arguing that democracy properly understood is the mass (and largely random) re-leveling of a particular society, and that such democratic movements are essential to the improvement of conditions here on earth. There are, of course, plenty of counters to Ranciere's own big point, most notably that he seems to feel it beneath him to distinguish among the various types of popular agitation (since he is only trying to define democracy writ large, and not to build a deeper theory around it)...is violent racist populism acceptable? Fundamentalist revival? The minimal yet best takeaway from this essay appears to be that terms of office should be short and that term limits should be imposed for all major and minor offices. In many respects, Hatred of Democracy is akin to the meandering, too-clever-for-its-own-good n+1/New Inquiry/[insert online smark-zine here] essay...but its point stands regardless of how many hairs happen to get split in the process.