Democracy
Author(s)
Bibliographic Information
Democracy
（ECPR classics / series editors, Alan Ware and Vincent Hoffmann-Martinot）
ECPR Press, 2007
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Note
First published in 1975 by Basil Blackwell
Includes bibliographical references and index
Description and Table of Contents
Description
Jack Lively, who died in 1998, published Democracy in 1975. It is a 'classic' because it deals with a large and highly controversial subject in a brief, clear and definite way. It exemplifies the art of producing a short book on a large subject, written with quiet authority that inspires the reader's confidence in the judgements being made. Part of this authoritativeness derives from his perspective being richly informed by historical study. The central thesis is that the meaning of democracy is political equality. Less explicitly but importantly, there are two related sub-themes: the relationship between political equality and social equality, and the need (as Lively saw it) to consider political equality as one of a number of desirable social values which might need to be weighed in the balance. This thesis, and these themes, are in one way timeless; and the book may justly be regarded as a classic exposition of the political equality characterisation of democracy. In another way, the book is a classic because it deals with a particular period in the academic debate about democracy: when the value (and even the possibility) of normative enquiry was widely doubted; when the status of 'political theory' was challenged both in the discipline of politics and by the claims of other 'modes of theorising' (Lively's term); and, above all, when the value (and even possibility) of democracy itself was strenuously contested.
Table of Contents
contents
NEW INTRODUCTION: By Andrew Reeve 1
CHAPTER ONE: INTRODUCTION 13
CHAPTER TWO: THE MEANING OF DEMOCRACY 18
The Majority Principle 19
The extent of citizenship 19
Majority decision 21
Political equality 31
The Rule of the People 32
Possible requirements of popular rule 32
Insufficient requirements 34
Responsible government 41
Conclusion 45
CHAPTER THREE: THEORIES OF DEMOCRACY 49
Classification or Ideal Types 49
Empirical Generalizations 54
The conditions of democracy 55
The explanatory value of empirical theory 62
The normative content of empirical theory 64
Deductive Models 73
An economic theory of democracy 73
Economic theory as a recommendatory theory 75
Economic theory as an explanatory theory 80
Explanations of elections 84
Utopian Schemes 87
CHAPTER FOUR: THE ENDS OF DEMOCRACY 90
The General Interest 90
The Common Good 95
Liberty 100
Participation 103
CHAPTER FIVE: CONCLUSION 115
INDEX 119
by "Nielsen BookData"