Democracy: A Very Short Introduction

by Bernard Crick

Overview

No political concept is more used, and misused, than that of democracy. Nearly every regime today claims to be democratic, but not all "democracies" allow free politics, and free politics existed long before democratic franchises.
This book is a short account of the history of the doctrine and practice of democracy, from ancient Greece and Rome through the American, French, and Russian revolutions, and of the usages and practices associated with it in the modern world. It argues that democracy is a necessary but not a sufficient condition for good government, and that ideas of the rule of law, and of human rights, should in some situations limit democratic claims.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780192802507
Publisher:	Oxford University Press, USA
Publication date:	01/16/2003
Series:	Very Short Introductions Series
Pages:	144
Sales rank:	274,028
Product dimensions:	6.90(w) x 4.40(h) x 0.40(d)

About the Author

Bernard Crick is Emeritus Professor of Politics, Birkbeck College, London. He is author of In Defence of Politics--hailed as a modern classic and in print since 1962. He is also author of the prize-winning George Orwell: A Life and of Essays on Citizenship, and, more recently, Crossing Borders. He was adviser on citizenship to the Department of Education from 1998 to 2001.

Table of Contents

	List of illustrations
	Introduction	1
1	The word and the deed	7
2	The place from where we started	14
3	Republicanism and democracy	32
4	Comme disait M. de Tocqueville	58
5	Democracy and populism	69
6	The conditions of modern democracy	91
7	Democratic citizenship	104
	Further reading	121
	Index	127