I found this a hard, but worthwhile read. David Held writes well, but this is clearly designed as a text for an educational course and there were stages at which I would have welcomed a co-reader with whom to discuss what was being reported.

The book takes a look at democracy from its inception, at the hands of the Greek people, to the beginning of the 21st century. I expect that, if you are less mean than myself and bought a new edition from a book store, it would be even more up to date.

The first, perhaps unsurprising point, is that the perfect democratic system has yet to be created but, that democracy is the only system that even offers the prospect of a halcyon state. The book looks at both right leaning and leftward attempts at the perfect state. As one would expect of a serious tome, neither is favoured: both get a chance to show their strengths and both reveal their weaknesses.

In the final section of the book, Held offers an insight into the problems to come and, as I have already said, my edition was written in 2002, some 13 years before my ingesting thereof: this means that the predicted trials have started to appear. It is impressive to note how accurately Mr Held has been in spotting them. The final issue brought up, is the question of the need for some form of World Government. We see, at the moment, that the USA is taking the role of the world's policeman; it is time that a multinational alternative was considered. ( )

Updated version of a major text on democracy. This is a basic theoretical text on the subject and important for any understanding on how democracy functions. ( )

David Held has lived in a number of modern industrialized English-speaking nations ( )

This book about models of democracy is itself a model of clarity. The author presents about a dozen historical and contemporary models and strives to articulate the justification principle and the required institutional framework for each model and to add something general about what kind of society could implement it. So this book will definitely teach you how to theorize democracy. It's mainly an introductory book but it's written so well that more seasoned travelers can also profit from reading it.