The escalating trend of democratic backsliding worldwide has become a cause for insecurity for advocates of democratic governance. The insecurity is such, that most social scientists are trying to determine the causes of the onslaught of right-wing populism and discussing viable solutions. There have been various academic endeavours to understand the issue, trying to identify the causes and manifestations of deficits in democracy. For example, for Bermeo, the erosion of democratic institutions is fostered by state agents themselves, by manipulation of the electoral process, decaying of civil liberties, or concentration of power.Footnote1 The Varieties of Democracy (V-Dem) Project, in the Liberal Democracy Index, attributes the decline in democracy to the rise in populism, distrust in institutions, and deterioration of civil rights.Footnote2 For Waldner and Lust, the decline is the result of the process that involves a movement from democracy to autocracy, for which economic inequalities, political polarisation, and ineffective institutions are the main causes.Footnote3 On the other hand, Norris and Inglehart propound that there is a cultural backlash on modernity, cosmopolitanism, and globalisation when people begin to feel a threat to their ideas of traditionalism and nationalism, which may best be preserved by resorting to authoritarianism to relieve their insecurity.Footnote4 In the plethora of such engagements emerges A World of Insecurity: Democratic Disenchantment in Rich and Poor Countries by Pranab Bardhan, which addresses the very issue of insecurity that may be the root of the rise of right-wing, its underlying causes, and potential solutions. Bardhan is a prominent economist with extensive expertise in the realm of political economic development. His work encompasses a comprehensive array of empiricalFootnote5 and conceptual contributions.Footnote6 Previously his work has engaged with the political economy of India, market socialism, class conflict, environmental impact of poverty, and issues concerning governance, to name a few. For the current book, Bardhan engages with the question of insecurity resulting in the deterioration of democracy theoretically in a way that adapts well to the preferences of a diverse audience, and without confining the argument to particular jurisdictions