Democracy Reloaded

There have been numerous scholarly books written about elements of Spain's contentious political trajectory since 2011, and many are admirable in their treatment of the Spanish case, but Cristina Flesher Fominaya's Democracy Reloaded offers perhaps the most comprehensive account yet....[it] is highly informative, eloquently written, and theoretically sophisticated. It is a vitalizing contribution to the study of social movements which consti¬tutes essential reading for scholars interested in contemporary European protest or political parties. * Benjamin Abrams, Social Movement Studies *
What the book ultimately provides is a powerful antidote to the bleak and uncertain present, not by indulging in the nostalgic contemplation of days past, but by examining still unexplored political horizons and potentials. * Vincente Rubio-Pueyo, Public Books *
It is an ambitious book, offering a continuous vision of the 15-M protests that integrates their context and precedents, as well as their crystallization into new political formations. The bottom line is to understand that protests do not have definitive limits in either their beginnings or their dissolutions; they contain moments of singularity. * Josep Lobera, Autonomous University of Madrid, Mobilization: An International Quarterly *
It is an ambitious book, offering a continuous vision of the 15-M protests that integrates their context and precedents, as well as their crystallization into new political formations. The bottom line is to understand that protests do not have definitive limits in either their beginnings or their dissolutions; they contain moments of singularity. * Josep Lobera, Autonomous University of Madrid, Mobilization: An International Quarterly *
Flesher Fominaya's study can be warmly welcomed as one written by an international authority on social movements and Spanish politics. Its combination of ethnographic fieldwork, first hand observation, critical analysis and deep theoretical understanding of the issues raised by these events marks it out as a landmark study. Indeed it is and will be the core resource for understanding 15M and this extraordinary political moment for many years to come. * Simon Tormey, University of Bristol *
Democracy Reloaded will quickly become, and for a long time should remain, the definitive work on the topic of the Spanish M-15 social movement, and the origins of Podemos. The book is a model of sensitive and sophisticated scholar-activist interpretation, with a depth of nuance and flexibility of analysis that are rare and that will serve us well. * John Foran, University of California, Santa Barbara *
Focusing on Spain as a laboratory of interactions between contentious and institutional politics, Flesher Fominaya offers a most interesting analysis of the ways in which progressive social movements can effectively reload democracies going from prefiguration to institutional changes. * Donatella della Porta, Scuola Normale Superiore, Florence *