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Product Description
Product Description
No political concept is more used, and misused, than that of democracy. Nearly every regime today claims to be democratic, but not all 'democracies' allow free politics, and free politics existed long before democratic franchises. This book is a short account of the history of the doctrine and practice of democracy, from ancient Greece and Rome through the American, French, and Russian revolutions, and of the usages and practices associated with it in the modern world. It argues that democracy is a necessary but not a sufficient condition for good government, and that ideas of the rule of law, and of human rights, should in some situations limit democratic claims.
About the Author
Bernard Crick is Emeritus Professor of Politics, Birkbeck College, London. He is author of In Defence of Politics - hailed as a modern classic and in print since 1962. He is also author of the prize-winning George Orwell: A Life and of Essays on Citizenship, and, more recently, Crossing Borders. He was adviser on citizenship to the Department of Education from 1998 to 2001.
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Many meanings attach to the word democracy. Read the first page
Front Cover | Copyright | Table of Contents | Excerpt | Index
Many meanings attach to the word democracy. Read the first page
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Front Cover | Copyright | Table of Contents | Excerpt | Index
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Most Helpful Customer Reviews
13 of 15 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
Bernard Crick's Very Short Introduction to Democracy is the 75th in the ever-expanding range of OUP introductions (previously Past Masters). Best suited for A-level students, they nevertheless provide helpful introductory surveys or summaries of a range of topics. Kenneth Minogue's Politics came much earlier in the series (8th in fact), but this detailed examination of what is almost certainly the most widely used political concept in the modern world complements it well.
Despite its widespread use, democracy is what might be called "an essentially contested concept" (p.1). Crick makes the point that numerous dictatorial regimes, such as Franco's Spain and Nasser Egypt have claimed to be democracies in some sense. Democracy can be conceptualised as a principle of government, set of institutional arrangements or a type of behaviour (p.5); the three need not go together, and thus even advocates of democracy may have very different conceptions of that ideal. Many band around the term 'democracy' when they really mean good government, constitutionalism, respect for rights or liberty, but Crick is quick to point out the contingencies of these relationships and different understandings of democracy that may operate.
Engaging in an ambitious historical overview, Crick traces the Greek origins of democracy through the Roman civic republicanism, English Civil War, American independence and the French revolution, noting at each stage how the idea develops. In the course of his exegesis, he brings in the ideas of key thinkers, such as Rousseau, Hobbes and a chapter devoted to 'Comme disait M. de Tocqueville'. Discussion isn't wholly confined to the past, however. Unlike some other Very Short Introductions (recycled from earlier material), this is original to 2002. Crick's commentary is bang up to date, mentioning September 11th, New Labour spin-doctoring and, most entertainingly of all, devoting several pages to Big Brother under the heading of popularism.
It's a hugely ambitious project for such a small book, perhaps even over-optimistic. Far more could have been devoted to important issues and thinkers, particularly Aristotle, de Tocqueville and the French Revolution, all of course worthy of books in their own right. As Crick himself notes in his introduction "to write briefly and to try to simplify without distortion an overwhelmingly important but also highly complex matter is more difficult than to write at length" (p.3-5). For the most part, he succeeds admirably, and this book will no doubt serve many well as part of an introduction to politics.
Where he does stray, however, is in a propensity to, if not digress, bring in extraneous information but make little of the point. Too often an analogy or obscure reference is cited only to be almost instantly dropped. It is as if the author were trying to show off his breadth of knowledge, or perhaps more like listening to the rambling anecdotes of an aged lecturer - whose meanderings, while interesting and informative, sometimes obscure the point he is trying to make. The argument, it seems, follows Aristotle; holding democracy necessary but not sufficient for good government.
Overall, this is a useful and interesting book. Helpful for A-level political courses, and introductory university courses too. It's not the last word though - modern debates on such topics as deliberative democracy or e-democracy don't feature at all. Despite some minor pickings though, it's generally good in so far as it goes - a useful overview of the history of democracy - leaving the reader to turn to the future.
1 of 4 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
This is a very disapointed one in a usually good series. The author just rambles and goes on an on talking about everything but democracy.
Not recommended!
Not recommended!
Most Helpful Customer Reviews on Amazon.com (beta)
Amazon.com:
3 reviews
17 of 18 people found the following review helpful
Democracy in Perspective
15 Feb 2003
Format:Paperback
Democracy is spoken of as the panacea for the world's woes. Fukuyama's END OF HISTORY seemed to operate just on this premise. Crick's book focuses on democracy's historical evolution, its polyvalent adaptations and its transformation into republicanism. Following his essay from Greece to Rome to American and European democracy, we see how democracy is not necessarily another way of saying just and/or good politics. Most interesting are the final chapters on the conditions needed for a democratic polity and the responsibilities of the individual in a system of democratic citizenship. He ends with a nice quote from Reinhold Niebuhr, "Man's inclination to justice makes democracy possible; but man's capacity for injustice makes it necessary."
5 of 6 people found the following review helpful
"There are no final answers in the name of democracy." *
13 Oct 2008
Format:Paperback
Bernard Crick's contribution to Oxford's Very Short Introduction series, like so many of the volumes dealing with political thought, is long on history and short on philosophy. Perhaps this is as it must be in such tiny books. (I'm actually beginning to lose faith in the whole VSI project, to be honest.) But it's nonetheless frustrating.
In his Democracy, Crick devotes a good part of his energy to discussing the history of democracy, beginning with the Greco-Roman ideal, working through the republicanism of Machiavelli, and culminating in the French, American, and British experiments in the modern and contemporary eras. All of this is to the good, although a bit whirlwindish.
But the hard puzzles of figuring out what democracy is and whether it's as admirable as we like to think in the West tend to be shortchanged in the second half of the book. Crick discusses de Tocqueville's worry that American-style democracy leads to a leveling-down, but doesn't analyze the factors that contribute to such a possibility. He recognizes that populism and majoritarianism are dangers in democracies, but doesn't ask whether they're endemic to them. He worries that consumerist democracies ask too little of their citizens (especially when compared to the republican models), but fails to provide explanations. And toward the end of the book, almost as if he's run out of steam, Crick's chapters are little more than checklists of characteristics for responsible citizenship and bona fida democracies.
To his credit, however, he refuses to fall into the easy discourse of describing democracy as the magic bullet (a tendency especially prevalent in the U.S. for the past ten years or so). Democracy must stress liberty, but also equality of human rights.
A decent read, but I'd recommend skipping this one and going instead straight to Crick's In Defence of Politics.
____
* Page 109.
In his Democracy, Crick devotes a good part of his energy to discussing the history of democracy, beginning with the Greco-Roman ideal, working through the republicanism of Machiavelli, and culminating in the French, American, and British experiments in the modern and contemporary eras. All of this is to the good, although a bit whirlwindish.
But the hard puzzles of figuring out what democracy is and whether it's as admirable as we like to think in the West tend to be shortchanged in the second half of the book. Crick discusses de Tocqueville's worry that American-style democracy leads to a leveling-down, but doesn't analyze the factors that contribute to such a possibility. He recognizes that populism and majoritarianism are dangers in democracies, but doesn't ask whether they're endemic to them. He worries that consumerist democracies ask too little of their citizens (especially when compared to the republican models), but fails to provide explanations. And toward the end of the book, almost as if he's run out of steam, Crick's chapters are little more than checklists of characteristics for responsible citizenship and bona fida democracies.
To his credit, however, he refuses to fall into the easy discourse of describing democracy as the magic bullet (a tendency especially prevalent in the U.S. for the past ten years or so). Democracy must stress liberty, but also equality of human rights.
A decent read, but I'd recommend skipping this one and going instead straight to Crick's In Defence of Politics.
____
* Page 109.
0 of 1 people found the following review helpful
Beginner's guide with very high quality
3 Dec 2008
Format:Paperback
It's a tiny book, but it contains various materials with high quality which lead us to the core of Politics. Obviously it is helpful to beginners such as undergraduates (especially freshmen). It's a tiny book, and so students in Non-English area could read it easier.
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