Democracy has moved to the centre of systemic reflections on political economy, gaining a position which used to be occupied by the debate about socialism and capitalism. Certitudes about democracy have been replaced by an awareness of the elusiveness and fluidity of democratic institutions and of the multiplicity of dimensions involved. This is a book which reflects this intellectual situation. It consists of a collection of essays by well-known economists and political scientists from both North America and Europe on the nature of democracy, on the conditions for democracy to be stable, and on the relationship between democracy and important economic issues such as the functioning of the market economy, economic growth, income distribution and social policies.

"...a very good book, well informed by history, well written, and careful in its analysis. His analysis...is evenhanded and thoroughly logical, full of examples and case studies drawn from both recent and ancient history....It is like reading Machiavelli, in terms of the pleasure one derives from the interaction of logic and history, but with diagrams and equations. Upper-division undergraduate and up." Choice

"The book makes interesting reading because each chapter offers a thought-provoking analysis of some specific feature of democratic government. ...this volume offers much insight into the analysis of democratice institutions. Each chapter is worthwhile by itself, and the volume as a whole demonstrates that public choice analysis could profitably be extended beyond its normal boundaries to an analysis of the interactions among political and economic institutions along with the democratic decision-maknig process." Randall G. Holcombe, Public Choice