"Democracy needs to be both participative and representative. For it to function successfully people must be actively involved in decision making as well as being properly represented. It is not easy to harness together these two facets of democracy. How to do so forms the basis of this book. Many concrete proposals are put forward, with the ideas of two great nineteenth-century thinkers, Karl Marx and John Stuart Mill, forming the constant backdrop to the book's arguments."--Jacket.
Includes bibliographical references (p. 137-147) and index.
Processing Action (note)
committed to retain
Contents
Prelude. meeting of minds -- 1. First paradox : direct democracy and communist dictatorship -- 2. Second paradox : the simultaneous triumph and crisis of liberal democracy -- 3. Democratic deficit of the European Union -- 1. Democracy at the crossroads -- 2. Active and dissenting citizens -- 3. From atomised families to a 'system of connections' -- 4. Challenge of civil society -- 5. Deliberative democracy -- 6. Local government and the renewal of democracy -- 1. Economic democracy -- 2. Democracy and gender -- 3. Time and scale -- 4. Back to the European Union -- Epilogue. Marx and Mill in heaven, spring 2008.