David Held 
Models of Democracy 

The first two editions of Models of Democracy have proven
immensely popular among students and specialists worldwide. In a
succinct and far-reaching analysis, David Held provides an
introduction to central accounts of democracy from classical Greece
to the present and a critical discussion of what democracy should
mean today.

This new edition has been extensively revised and updated to
take account of significant transformations in world politics, and
a new chapter has been added on deliberative democracy which
focuses not only on how citizen participation can be increased in
politics, but also on how that participation can become more
informed.

Like its predecessor, the third edition of Models of
Democracy combines lucid exposition and clarity of expression
with careful scholarship and originality, making it highly
attractive to students and experts in the field. The third edition
will prove essential reading for all those interested in politics,
political theory and political philosophy.

A companion website to Models of Democracy provides
lecturer and student resources; including a study guide, an
interview with the author and links to develop the reader’s
understanding of the topics covered.

Table of Content

List of Figures and Tables

Preface

Introduction

Part One: Classic Models

Chapter 1 – Classical Democracy: Athens

Political ideas and aims

Institutional features

The exclusivity of an ancient democracy

The critics

In sum: Model I

Chapter 2 – Republicanism: Liberty, Self-Government and the Active Citizen

The eclipse and re-emergence of homo politicus

The reforging of republicanism

Republicanism, elective government and popular sovereignty

From civic life to civic glory

In sum: Model IIa

The republic and the general will

In sum: model IIb

The public and the private

Chapter 3 – The Development of Liberal Democracy: For and Against the State

Power and Sovereignty

Citizenship and the Constitutional State

Separation of Powers

The problem of factions

Accountability and Markets

In sum: model IIIa

Liberty and the development of democracy

The dangers of despotic power and an overgrown state

Representative government

The subordination of women

Competing conceptions of the ‘ends of government’

In sum: Model IIIb

Chapter 4 – Direct Democracy and the End of Politics

Class and class conflict

History as evolution and the development of captialism

Two theories of the state

The end of politics

Competing conceptions of Marxism

Part Two: Variants from the Twentieth Century

Chapter 5 – Competitive ELitism and the Technocratic Vision

Classes, power and conflict

Bureaucracy, parliaments and nation-states

Competitive elitist democracy

Liberal democracy at the crossroads

The last vestige of democracy?

Democracy, capitalism and socialism

‘Classical’ v. modern democracy

A technocratic vision

In sum: model V

Chapter 6 – Pluralism, Corporate Capitalism and the State

Group politics, government and power

Politics, consensus and the distribution of power

Democracy, corporate capitalism and the state

In sum: Model VI

Accumulation, legitimation and the restricted sphere of the political

The changing form of representative institutions

Chapter 7 – From Post-War Stability to Political Crisis: The Polarization of Political Ideas

A legitimate democratic order or a repressive regime?

Overloaded state or legitimation crisis?

Crisis theories: an assessment

Law, liberty and democracy

In sum: model VII

Participation, liberty and democracy

In sum: model VII

Chapter 8 – Democracy after Soviet Communism

The historical backdrop

The triumph of economic and political liberalism

The renewed necessity of Marxism and democracy from ‘below’?

Chapter 9 – Deliberative Democracy and the Defence of the Public Realm

Reason and Participation

The limits of democratic theory

The aims of deliberative democracy

What is sound about public reasoning? Impartialism and it’s critics

Institutions of deliberative democracy

Value pluralism and democracy

In sum: Model IX

Part Three: What Should Democracy Mean Today?

Chapter 10 – Democratic Autonomy

The appeal of democracy

The principle of autonomy

Enacting the principle

The heritage of classic and twentieth-century democratic theory

Democracy: A double-sided process

Democratic autonomy: compatibilities and incompatibilities

In sum: Model Xa

Chapter 11 – Democracy, the Nation-State and the Global System

Democratic legitimacy and borders

Regional and global flows: old and new

Sovereignty, autonomy and disjunctures

Rethinking democracy for a more global age: the cosmopolitan model

In sum: model Xb

Acknowledgements

References and Select Bibliography

Index

About the author

David Held is Graham Wallas Professor of Political Science at the London School of Economics and Political Science.