Abstract

By “democracy” I mean that form of community government in which the members of a community may participate equally in making directive decisions which concern them all. This definition needs clarification, of course; most of the issues it raises—the meaning of community, the dimensions of participation, the problems of representation, and so on—I bypass here. Supposing there is general agreement on the fundamental proposition that democratic government is government by the people, government of a community by the body of its members, I now open the question: why have it?