Understanding Democracy

 

With the increased public and scholarly interest in themeaning and endurance of democracy, this tome by Jason Brennan (Georgetown) provides a lucid and accessibleintroduction to the concept.  The older,negative assessments (for example, Plato) of democracy to the modern defendersof the centrality of democracy as the “best form of government” are chronicledwith care, and in a manner that will appeal to a wide readership (p. 1).  The author offers a “sixth grade model ofdemocracy” to provide a “basic model of how democracy works” (p. 6).  Five core democratic values are explicated toprovide for a greater understanding of the concept, including stability,virtue, wisdom, liberty, and equality.  Twochapters are devoted to each democratic value, with a chapter affirming each corevalue, followed by a closely related chapter that is “skeptical and critical”of the value.  At the end of each chaptera clear and lucid summary is provide.  Thetreatment of virtue (chaps. 3 and 4) and liberty (chaps. 8 and 9) as democraticvalues, and as part of democratic theory, also make a significant contributionto the understanding of democracy in practice.