The word ‘challenging’ in the title of Challenging Politics functions as both an adjective and a verb: an adjective in the sense that its author, Scott Ryan, thinks that politics should be challenging; and a verb in the sense that this conception of politics is currently being challenged. For Ryan, a Liberal politician and current President of the Australian Senate, the tragedy of contemporary democracy is that it has forgotten how to conduct its business, preferring easy answers and moralistic posturing to the hard work of negotiation. [More here.]