Democracy: A Reader - Softcover

Ricardo Blaug

Softcover

ISBN 10: 074861267X ISBN 13: 9780748612673

Publisher: Edinburgh University Press, 2001

Synopsis

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 - 1. Traditional Affirmations of Democracy; 2. Key Concepts; 3. Critiques of Democracy; 4. Contemporary Issues - this Reader 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 * Feminist Critiques * Participation * Rational Choice * Civil Society * The Market * Nationalism * Multiculturalism * Non-Western Perspectives * Deliberation * 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. A comprehensive bibliography is structured to follow the major divisions of the text. This is the only Reader easily available that covers the subject of Democracy in such a broad way. Its comprehensive nature and the editorial commentaries will make it an ideal text for students. Key Features: *Democracy is a core element of all Politics courses - this is the only Reader available in the area * Comprehensive coverage of the core texts on the subject of Democracy makes the Reader likely to become a set text on Democracy courses * Broad-ranging - moves from classical political philosophy to the future of democracy * Accessible - assumes no prior familiarity with the subject

About this title

Review:

All the classical thinkers, ancient and modern, are represented, sometimes in more than one section, as well as a fair smattering of contemporary contributors to the current debate. The collection will provide an effective and relatively painless introduction to students commencing in this area. A handy preliminary sweep through the most salient areas and arguments, and will undoubtedly prove useful to new students of democratic theory. This massive new reader on democracy should be part of any university library and, given the decent price of the paperback, also provides a valuable and affordable addition to the private libraries of political scientists!Undoubtedly, the editors have accomplished their main stated objective, i.e. "to bring together as wide a range of material on democracy as can be assembled in one volume" (p.xi). This is arguably the most comprehensive reader on the subject available in English!The book presents an overview, which will be indispensable for the students!this book deserves to be widely used for many years to come. Students found this to be very useful and liked the book a great deal." --Karen M Ford, University of Manchester

About the Author:

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).

About this edition

• Publisher: Edinburgh University Press
• Publication date: 2001
• ISBN 10: 074861267X
• ISBN 13: 9780748612673
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 320
• Editor: Ricardo Blaug, John Schwarzmantel