Democracy and the Limits of Self-Government

The book analyzes the sources of widespread dissatisfaction with democracies around the world and identifies directions for feasible reforms.

Adam Przeworski (Author)

9780521140119, Cambridge University Press

Paperback, published 14 June 2010

218 pages, 15 b/w illus. 6 tables
22.4 x 15 x 1.5 cm, 0.36 kg

“If you have time to read one book about democracy, and only one, this should be it. It contains an engaging synthesis of arguments that Adam Przeworski has been developing for decades, leavened by an astonishing wealth of historical and contemporary data. Przeworski supplies a hardheaded defense of democracy as the best system yet devised to prevent politics from degenerating into civil war. He also explains why many democracies could do better at managing collective self government so as to strengthen freedom and choice, and he offers realistic strategies for reform. This is applied political theory at its best.”
—Ian Shapiro, Yale University, author of The Real World of Democratic Theory

The political institutions under which we live today evolved from a revolutionary idea that shook the world in the second part of the eighteenth century: that a people should govern itself. Yet if we judge contemporary democracies by the ideals of self-government, equality and liberty, we find that democracy is not what it was dreamt to be. This book addresses central issues in democratic theory by analyzing the sources of widespread dissatisfaction with democracies around the world. With attention throughout to historical and cross-national variations, the focus is on the generic limits of democracy in promoting equality, effective participation, control of governments by citizens, and liberty. The conclusion is that although some of this dissatisfaction has good reasons, some is based on an erroneous understanding of how democracy functions. Hence, although the analysis identifies the limits of democracy, it also points to directions for feasible reforms.

1. Introduction
2. Self-government of the people
3. A brief history of representative institutions
4. Equality
5. Choice and participation
6. Agency
7. Liberty
8. Democracy as an implementation of self-government in our times.

Subject Areas: Political economy [KCP], Comparative politics [JPB], Political science & theory [JPA], Politics & government [JP]