Man-Devil: The Mind and Time of Bernard Mandeville, The Wickedest Man in Europe. By John J. Callanan. Princeton: Princeton University Press, 2025. 315p.

jurist Otto Kirchheimer, Schupmann contends "that the relevant criterion for detecting a threat" is that an organization's "ideals, however abstract or concrete, [have] motivated its members to act against the constitution" (p.162).To respond to such nascent threats, Schupmann argues not just for party bans, but also for "restricting messages in the public sphere intended to delegitimize democracy" and imposing "limits on the freedom of assembly and public demonstrations" (p.174).Chapter Seven further discusses the role of the guardian of the constitution, stressing that its "powers of oversight" over statutes and democratic political contestation must be "passive" and "negative," "limited to striking down the positive legislative actions of other branches when they conflict with the constitution" (pp.197-199).Democracy despite Itself is commendable on many grounds.The book is rigorous, accessible, and comprehensive, above all in articulating its reservations about prevailing tendencies within militant democracy and democratic theory scholarship.In addition, it features frequent and well-chosen empirical examples that help clarify the political stakes of the theoretical argument.Schupmann is also attentive and fair in presenting counterarguments, meaning that critics of militant democracy will find his account both generative and difficult to dismiss.Finally, Schupmann's prioritization of liberal basic rights to resolve militant democracy's normative paradoxes is creative and constitutes a clear as well as politically salient contribution to scholarship on the subject.At the same time, Democracy despite Itself would perhaps have benefited from more direct discussion of how this remains an account of militant democracy, instead of militant liberalism.This is because the constitutional regime that Schupmann envisions is built on (both Rawlsian and Schmittian) skepticism toward the idea that citizenries can be relied on to protect liberalism through democratic procedures.Such skepticism informs his advocacy that democracy be chained to liberalism via constitutional unamendability, as well as the book's endorsement of an expansive and proactive approach to suppressing the political rights of "detected" illiberal actors and organizations.Considering these aspects of Schupmann's account, it is difficult to avoid the suspicion that a "militant" attitude toward liberalism might require stunting democracy and thus slipping into a "paradox" analogous to the one militant democrats traditionally face.In short, given that the book seems to focus on enshrining the authority of liberalism, Schupmann could have more thoroughly explained his claim that liberalism is "a constitutive feature of democracy" (p.205)-and, consequently, that this book is in fact about securing democracy despite itself, rather than securing liberalism despite (or even against) democracy.Even in the latter case, though, at a time when basic liberal rights seem under profound if not unprecedented stress, it is difficult to deny the persuasiveness, appeal, and importance of Schupmann's argument for their de-politicization.