Democracy in the Contemporary State

Résumé du livre

What is the place of democracy is the world today? How would an ideal democracy operate, and what might this imply for people's values and their social and economic systems? In this book Frank Bealey assesses the contemporary condition of democracy, treating it as a decision-making procedure based on certain personal civic freedoms and supported by the rule of law. The theory of democracy as a participatory process in which governments are responsible to the governed is examined in the light of present-day policy-making and the exercise of power in the comparatively small number of states we call democracies. Professor Bealey's study includes review of a relatively neglected topic: the impact of leadership on democracy. Although examples are taken from the United Kingdom, other democracies are frequently quoted to illustrate all these themes.