The term post-democracy was used by Warwick University political scientist Colin Crouch in 2000 in his book "Coping with Post-Democracy". It designates states that operate by democratic systems (elections are held, governments fall, freedom of speech), but whose application is progressively limited. A small elite is taking the tough decisions and co-opts the democratic institutions. Crouch further developed the idea in an article called "Is there a liberalism beyond social democracy?" for the think tank Policy Network and in his subsequent book "The Strange Non-Death of Neo-Liberalism".