Democracy

This week’s review offers a primer on democracy, underlining its key values and differing perspectives on the concept.

Posted on July 1, 2024 in Reviews of the Month

Democracy: A Guided Tour

Brennan, Jason. Oxford, 2023
328p bibl index, 9780197558812 $24.95, 9780197558843

Recent years have seen increased public and scholarly interest in the meaning and endurance of democracy, and this volume provides a lucid and accessible introduction to the concept. Brennan (Georgetown Univ.) chronicles both older, negative assessments of democracy (for example, in Plato) and modern defenders of the centrality of democracy as “the best form of government” with care and in a manner that will appeal to a wide readership. Brennan offers a “sixth grade model of democracy” to provide a “basic model of how democracy works” (p. 6). He explicates five core democratic values—stability, virtue, wisdom, liberty, and equality—to give a greater understanding of the concept. He devotes two chapters to each democratic value: the first affirming each value and the second that is “skeptical and critical” of the value. He provides a clear and lucid summary at the end of each chapter. Brennan’s treatment of virtue (chapters 3 and 4) and liberty (chapters 8 and 9) as democratic values, and as part of democratic theory, also make a significant contribution to the understanding of democracy in practice.

Summing Up: Highly recommended. All readership levels.
Reviewer: H. L. Cheek Jr., East Georgia State College
Subject: Social & Behavioral Sciences – Political Science – Political Theory
Choice Issue: May 2024

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