Written with remarkable erudition and clarity, this is the most comprehensive introduction to democracy available in a single volume. Tocquevillian in its scope and historical-philosophical in its orientation, Democracy traces popular government from its classical origins through the authoritarian and totalitarian backlash of the twentieth century.

Unified by the theme of democracy as the expression of the belief in autonomy - communal, plural, and individual - the text examines democratic government and politics in normative, institutional, and procedural terms.

Students of the history of political thought will find especially valuable its account of the democratic ideal, from Athenian direct democracy and Roman republicanism to the rise of liberal democracy: Stressing the interplay of theory and practice, Lakoff moves from history to the present by examining modern democracy as "compound autonomy," expressed in voting and electoral systems, federalism, and efforts of democratization around the world.

His synthesis leads to the conclusion that although democracy is neither perfect nor inevitable, it is humanity's best hope for free, stable, and peaceful government.