Democracy
Author(s)
Bibliographic Information
Democracy
（Concepts in the social sciences）
Open University Press, 1994
2nd ed
- : pbk
Available at / 47 libraries
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Note
Includes bibliographical references (p. [111]-114) and index
Description and Table of Contents
Description
Anthony Arblaster examines the history of both the theory and practice of democracy and the fierce opposition it so often provoked. He finds that through most of history democracy meant what we now call "direct" democracy - the people governing themselves directly through participation in the processes of decision-taking and policy-making. The representative type of democracy we are now familiar with was a relatively late arrival on the scene. Arblaster finds the core of the idea of democracy in the notion of popular power and, in the second part of the book, he explores the meaning of this and the problem it involves. Drawing on the classical writings of Rousseau, Paine and John Stuart Mill, he shows how wide the gap is between their idea of a fully democratic society and the limited realities of the Western democracies of today. Democracy, he argues, remains a relevant ideal and a challenge to conventional political thinking. This edition has been updated to take particular account of the collapse of European communism.
Table of Contents
- Introduction - defining democracy. Part 1 History: the invention of democracy
- the re-emergence of democracy
- popular politics. Part 2 Ideas: government by the people
- majority rule and its problems
- equality and the general interest
- representation and "direct" democracy
- consent, freedom and debate
- conclusion - creating democracy.
by "Nielsen BookData"