The Theory of Democracy Revisited: Pt. 2: Classical Issues

"The Theory of Democracy Revisited" is divided into two parts, each of which is self contained. Volume I deals, in the main, with issues that have surfaced in the last decade while Volume II covers themes whose discussion began in ancient Greece. The two volumes, however, also differ in their respective underlying threads. In volume I the contemporary idea of democracy is examined. The classical theory of democracy did not draw, in any systematic manner, a distinction between ideal system and reality. Today, however, we are all highly sensitized to the hiatus between the ideal and the real. The normative (prescriptive) theory, now, by and large, applies to, and elaborates on, the ideals and values of democracy while empirical (descriptive) theory describes how democracies actually perform. The crucial problems thus become: to what extent and in what manner are ideals realized and realizable. This is very much the focus of Volume I. Volume II is more historical and considers the endless debate on power, coercion, liberty, equality, laws, rights, justice, representation, that shaped the vocabulary of politics from Aristotle to Tocqueville.