In his 1964 CBC Massey Lectures C. B. Macpherson examines the rival ideas of democracy - the communist, Third World, and Western-liberal variants - and their impact on one another. He suggests that the West need not fear any challenge to liberal democracy if it is prepared to re-examine and alter its own values.

"Democracy is the worst form of government except for all those that have been tried before." - Winston Churchill. So how should mankind organise itself to ensure a civilised society? In this personal, and sometimes challenging, work the author argues that an idealised form of political government has been the goal of mankind since Plato himself. But political thinking has overwhelmingly been a theoretical exercise detached from reality. Little...

Jack Knight is professor of political science and law at Duke University and the author of Institutions and Social Conflict. James Johnson is associate professor of political science at the University of Rochester and former editor of Perspectives on Politics. Why democracy is the best way of deciding how decisions should be made Pragmatism and its consequences are central issues in American politics today, yet scholars rarely examine in detail...

Jennifer Tolbert Roberts is Professor of History at Southern Methodist University and Associate Professor of Classical Languages and History at the City College of New York and the CUNY Graduate Center. She is the author of Accountability in Athenian Government (Wisconsin) and, with Robert Zaller and Richard Greaves, Civilizations of the West (HarperCollins). The Classical Athenians were the first to articulate and implement the notion that ordinary...

"A brilliant exploration of freedom-what it is, how it's been misunderstood, and why it's our only chance for survival. Drawing on the work of philosophers and political dissidents, conversations with contemporary thinkers, and his own experiences coming of age in a time of American exceptionalism, Snyder identifies the practices and attitudes--the habits of mind--that will allow us to design a government in which we and future generations can flourish....

"Donald Trump's presidency has raised a question that many of us never thought we'd be asking: Is our democracy in danger? Harvard professors Steven Levitsky and Daniel Ziblatt have spent more than twenty years studying the breakdown of democracies in Europe and Latin America, and they believe the answer is yes. Democracy no longer ends with a bang--in a revolution or military coup--but with a whimper: the slow, steady weakening of critical institutions,...

The bestselling author pulls no punches on what America needs to defeat white supremacy National political commentator Steve Phillips's "politically charged and thoughtfully reasoned" (Booklist) How We Win the Civil War helped chart the way forward for progressives and people of color, arguing that Democrats must recognize the nature of the fight we're in, which is a contest between democracy and white supremacy left unresolved after the Civil...

By revealing the contextual conditions which promote or hinder democratic development, Comparative Politics shows how democracy may not be the best institutional arrangement given a country's unique set of historical, economic, social, cultural and international circumstances. • Addresses the contextual conditions which promote or hinder democratic development • Reveals that democracy may not be the best institutional arrangement given a country's...

John Brenkman is distinguished professor at the City University of New York and director of the U.S.-Europe Seminar at Baruch College. He has published widely on culture and political theory. He lives in New York and Paris. Since 9/11, American foreign policy has been guided by grand ideas like tyranny, democracy, and freedom. And yet the course of events has played havoc with the cherished assumptions of hawks and doves alike. The geo-civil war...

Outlines how the American economic system is failing, with increasing income inequality and a shrinking middle class, and reveals how a market designed for broad prosperity can reverse the trend toward diminished opportunity. --Publisher