A reader designed to provide students with a broad range of texts on democracy from classic political philosophy to the present day. Arranged into four sections - covering traditional affirmations of democracy, key concepts, critiques of democracy and contemporary issues - it features key statements from a large number of writers including Plato, Aristotle, Machiavelli, Locke, Rousseau, Bentham, Wollstonecraft, Schumpeter, Berlin, Marx, Lenin, Phillips, Rawls, Walzer, Weber, Hayek, Habermas, Scruton, Barry, Giddens and Mouffe. Key topics include: freedom and autonomy; equality; representation; majority rule; citizenship; Marxist and socialist critiques; conservative, elitist and authoritarian critiques; anarchist critiques; feminist critiques; participation; rational choice; civil society; the market; nationalism; multiculturalism; non-Western perspectives; globalization; deliberation; and the future of democracy. Written with the needs of the student in mind, a general introduction highlights the historical complexity of the subject and guides readers through the current areas of controversy. The bibliography is structured to follow the major divisions of the text.

Author Biography

Ricardo Blaug is a Reader in Democratic Theory at the University of Westminster. John Schwarzmantel is a Senior Lecturer in Politics at the University of Leeds. He is author of Ideology and Politics (Sage, 2008) and Citizenship and Identity (Routledge, 2003).