Title: Democracy : a history /
Authors: Dunn, John, 1940-
Publisher: Atlantic Monthly Press :
Year: 2005
Subjects: Democracy History
Abstract: "In Democracy: A History, political theorist John Dunn sets out to explain the extraordinary presence of democracy in today's world. The story begins in Greece, where democracy started as an improvised remedy for a very local difficulty twenty-five hundred years ago. Athens gave democracy a name (demokratia) and worked out an elaborate, highly distinctive, and astonishingly thorough interpretation of the political conditions required to achieve it. However, democracy's tenure was short-lived, flourishing briefly and then fading away almost everywhere for nearly two thousand years. Democracy reappeared with the founding of the new American republic and amid the struggles of the French Revolution.
Contents: Why democracy? -- Democracy's first coming -- Democracy's second coming -- The long shadow of Thermidor -- Why democracy?