In a rapidly globalising world, it is perhaps not unusual that two scholars representing different disciplines and working independently might come to similar conclusions. Yet, this recently discovered similarity of diagnoses – one made from the bustling metropolis of Budapest at the heart of newly democratised Central Europe, another from small antipodean Hobart, the southernmost tip of Australia – strikes us as quite remarkable. After all, we had quite different formative experiences, embraced different disciplinary traditions, and observed the world from quite different perspectives. In spite of these differences, both of us conclude that contemporary democracy, as seen from both sides of the globe, drifts in the direction of ‘leader democracy’. This joy of a shared conclusion has been translated into a book that combines the insights of a political sociologist and a political scientist-cum-philosopher. While the burden of writing fell mostly on Jan Pakulski, the key ideas are shared, and we shoulder jointly the responsibility for the arguments in the book. Jan Pakulski has developed the main arguments concerning the changing shape of contemporary democracy, whilst András Körösényi can take credit for articulating the model of ‘leader democracy”. Both share the view that the Weberian–Schumpeterian theoretical insights on which ‘leader democracy’ rests are relevant today, though these insights need some dusting and rejigging – which is quite natural considering their age.