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