Case Against the Democratic State - An Essay in Cultural Criticism (Paperback)

This essay contends that the gross imbalance of power in the modern state is in need of justification and that democracy simply masks this need with the illusion of popular sovereignty. The book points out the emptiness of slogans like 'power to the people', as individual votes do not affect the outcome of elections, but concludes that democracy can contribute to civic education. Although the argument is accessible to the general reader, it is written within the European tradition of political philosophy, from Plato to Rawls. The author is Regius Professor of Moral Philosophy at the University of Aberdeen.