If you're the tyrannical overlord of a small nation looking for a sort of "Democracy for Dummies" style book, look no further. This book makes cogent arguments that will make you feel bad and stupid for even considering another leadership style. I read this book for my dissertation.

I am taking a class named "Comparative Politics", and this book was used as our textbooks. Obviously we studied about democracy. Even if you have no knowledge at all about democracy since your country's government is nondemocratic (like I do) or you are living under democratic system and think you understood democracy to the core, I think this book will be very helpful to you. It taught me everything about democracy in a simple and easy to understand language, first make me want so desperate to democratize my government :D As for my friend who is a Canadian and thought she understood so well, this book helped her review and justify the democratic system of her own country and compare it to the ideal democracy.

Hope this review helpful to you.

Somewhat interesting, didnt finish this though. Was a required read for my poli sci class, so that probably made it worse. Middle of the road

One has to read Dahl to understand democracy! His style is almost conversational with the reader. I am partial to such a topic because my education is primarily in political science but this book is not solely for those of us who are poly sci wonks. One technique I liked in the book was the author's use of what he calls, Words About Words. He use this technique to explain a topic or phrase. My favorite is the one about the difference between democracy and republic. as Dahl states, "...the plain fact is that the words democracy and republic did not designate differences in types of popular government. What they reflected, at the cost of later confusion, was a difference between Greek and Latin, the languages from which they came"(Dahl, p. 17). Dahl also identifies the six elements required in Large-Scale Democracy: Elected Officials; Free, Fair, and Frequent Elections; Freedom of Expression; Alternative Sources of Information; Associational Autonomy; Inclusive Citizenship (Dahl, p.85). To Dahl, full inclusion is defined as, " The citizen body in a democratically governed state must include all persons subject to the laws of that state except transients and persons proved to be incapable of caring for themselves" (Dahl, p. 78). Something we seemed to have forgotten of late in politics is what Dahl points out on page 73, "To govern a state well takes more than knowledge. It also requires incorruptibility, a firm resistance to all the enormous temptations of power, a continuing and inflexible dedication to the public good rather than benefits for oneself or one's group" (Dahl, p.73). Another point that the Professor Dahl makes is that a criterion for the democratic process is, "...enlightened understanding: within reasonable limits as to time, each member (citizen) must have equal and effective opportunities for learning about relevant alternative policies and their likely consequences" (Dahl, p. 185). In our current polarized world we fail to educate ourselves about alternative policies because of the "our way or the highway" attitude. I recommend this book to all citizens of the United States. This is the Second Edition with two additional chapters by Ian Shapiro published by Yale University Press in 2015.

Livro clássico que já tinha lido na graduação. Bem datado e otimista, mas ótimo pra fixar conceitos e pegar referências. A parte sobre igualdade política e economia de mercado adianta boa parte do referencial teórico que estudiosos pós-piketty da crise democrática têm atribuído à desigualdade.

A very classic review of Democracy. Dahl breaks modern democracy down to its core pieces and goes through every aspect. Very interesting book if one is interested in the concept of democracy and its challenges and wish to clarify what makes a democracy.

Robert Dahl is one of the most respected figures in the study of politics. He has authored some of the most important works in political science, such as "Who Governs?" This little volume is meant as an accessible work that informed nonacademics can profit by reading. In that endeavor, he is pretty successful.

This volume explores a number of key issues: the origins and development of democracy, the nature of ideal democracy, the nature of actual democracies in practice, and conditions that are more favorable or unfavorable to nurturance of democracy.

The book begins with a very nice history of democracy. He begins with the Mediterranean region, with classical Greece, the Roman Republic, and Italian city-states after 1100 AD. He also considers other possible exemplars, from local assemblies among the Vikings, regional assemblies in Norway, Denmark, and Sweden. Of course, he considers the development of Parliament in England, as well.

He moves on, in the next section to inquire about the ideal form of democracy. He sees five criteria for democracy: effective participation, voting equality, enlightened understanding by citizens, access to the agenda of issues available for decision making, and inclusion of all adults. These are, indeed, imposing criteria, and actual democracies do not necessarily meet these ideals.

His believes that the practical (as opposed to ideal) form of democracy is what he calls "polyarchy." It includes characteristics such as: elected officials; free, fair, and frequent elections; freedom of expression; access to alternative sources of information; associational autonomy; inclusive citizenship.

In the final portion of the book, he notes factors that can threaten democracy, such as intervention by a powerful country not respecting the idea of democracy, the lure of military dictatorship to ensure stability; poverty and lack of material resources. And so on.

All in all, a useful and accessible introduction to democracy. One can quibble with his faith in polyarchy; one can question the simplicity of his discussion of factors nurturing or undermining democracy (his is a very bare bones view of this issue). Nonetheless, a good introduction to the subject.

Good structure, a bit too liberal

It's an OK book. He spends a lot of words delving into the history and evolution of Democracy as an institution, which is valuable. Different voting systems are discussed (FPTP, ranked-choice, etc.) and their institutional relations. However Dahl's theoretical treatment of Democracy as an *idea* leaves a lot to be desired. The book, having been published in 2015, neglects to even mention Arrow's impossibility theorem which one would assume are central to Democratic systems. There is no excuse for this oversight as Arrow's ideas predate Dahl's book by almost 60 years. I expected more from such a highly praised scholar like Dahl. On the whole, the book is useful and some parts are genuinely illuminating, but if you want a deeper analysis of democracy you will have to look elsewhere.

With regards to the introduction by Ian Shapiro, it adds nothing at all. Simply armchair musing about how Dahl would view current events. Shapiro casually tars different political parties as "white supremacist" and "communist" without any sort of citation whatsoever. I am not familiar with the academic practices of political scientists, but this seems irresponsible. One gathers very quickly that the only view Shapiro thinks is legitimate is neoliberalism. Take that as you will.

2.5

Un libro demasiado idealista pero supongo que adolezco de anacronismo, dado que es un libro antiguo que envejeció mal, en particular porque la “democracia” ahora es una pantalla de un sistema político que se rige por los intereses económicos. En fin, solo algunas ideas buenas pero el resto meh.

Confusing at times-- The discussion about the different forms of democracy throughout the universe is extremely interesting. Although democracy is chaotic, there are many valid points on how it should be adopted everywhere. I enjoyed the historical nature of how democracy has evolved.

من الكتب المهمة جدًا في الديمقراطية، يبين فيه مؤلفه طبيعة الديمقراطية وفلسفتها مع إدخال قضية النقد الموجود لها في الغرب من خلال شرح بعض الفلسفات المعارضة لها والمصطلحات المنضوية تحتها، الكتاب يتميز بالطبيعة السردية والتفصيلية فهو فالبداية تحدث عن منشأ الفكرة وأصلها عن الإغريق وأن لهم أثرًا في تطورها وقد كان فصلًا مهمًا، ويحاول أيضًا في الكتاب شرح فلسفة الديمقراطية وكيف تعمل على أرض الواقع ، من القضايا المميزة كما ذكرنا حضور الجانب النقدي للديموقراطية في الغرب فقد ذكر المؤلف الفلسفة الفوضوية ونظرية حكم الوصاية وقد استخدم المؤلف طريقة لطيفة في هذا الفصل وهي طريق الحوارات مثل(قال الديمقراطي:
                      قال الفوضوي: وهكذا) والمميز فيها أنها تدخلك في جزئيات النقاش السياسي خاصةً في نقد الديمقراطية وفهمها، وتحدث المؤلف عن النظرية العملية لهذه الفكرة وأيضًا مشكلات الديمقراطية مثل قضية قاعدة الأغلبية وقد توسع فيها ونلحظ هنا دخوله في التفاصيل بشكل أكبر، تحدث أيضًا عن قضية مهمة صاغها بسؤال وهو متى يكون الشعب مؤهلًا للعملية الديمقراطية، ذكر بعد ذلك حدود الديمقراطية وبيّن فيه انتقال الفكرة من موقع الدولة-المدينة إلى موقع الدولة القومية فلم تعد مقتصرة على الغرب بل زاد زخمها وتوسعها اعتناقها في مختلف أنحاء العالم، ثم توسع المؤلف بعد ذلك في ذكر تطور الديمقراطية وتفاصيل مايتعلق بها ولأن طبيعة الكتاب سردية فيصعب تلخيصها ولكنها مهمة جدًا، وفي آخر فصل يتساءل المؤلف عن تحول ثالث للديموقراطية والذي يرى أنه من الممكن جدًا بالنظر إلى تاريخها، ووجود حكام غير ديمقراطيين حاولوا الاستفادة منها لإضفاء الشرعية على حكمهم، الخلاصة أنه كتاب مهم جدًا.