Abolition Democracy

This study guide was written by Gari De Ramos and edited by Katya Zabelski

Abolition Democracy is a book that consists of four interviews with Angela Davis. Davis is a renowned activist and leading thinker on the prison-industrial complex, prison abolition, and abolition democracy–concepts that will be explored in this book.

Davis is the former nominee for Vice President of the Communist Party of the United States, founder of abolition organization Critical Resistance, and a feminist scholar and professor. She was previously placed on the Federal Bureau of Investigation's Ten Most Wanted for being a "terrorist, communist, and criminal." She was eventually arrested and incarcerated for several months. The Free Angela Davis campaign was launched around the world advocating for her eventual release. 

In Abolition Democracy, which originally came out in 2004, Davis articulates the prison-industrial complex problem, the need for abolition democracy, and what it all means in the context of the American-led global war on terror and human rights violations in detention centers Abu Ghraib and Guantanamo Bay. 

The book itself jumps around from concept to concept (including concepts that go beyond abolition democracy), so this study guide will not be a chronological summary of its content. Instead, this study guide's summary will group questions and terms.

First, we will discuss Davis's conception of the prison-industrial complex, prison abolition, and abolition democracy. Second, we will look at these concepts in the modern (i.e., post-9/11) context. Third, we will point out other observations from Davis that are less directly connected with abolition democracy, but are still worth articulating.

Navigate our study guide using the table of contents below.