This volume provides a fresh perspective on current democratic theory and practice by recovering the rich evaluations of democracy in the history of political thought. Each author addresses a single thinker’s reflections on the virtues and defects of democracy and the relationship between democracy and other regimes. Together, these essays explore the tensions within the democratic way of life that arise from an attachment to equality, liberty, citizenship, law, and the divine. Above all, this work aims at recovering a more complex understanding of democracy, connecting the perennial questions of political philosophy to the perplexities and crises of modern democracy.

Contributions by: J. David Alvis, Mark Blitz, Daniel E. Burns, Stephen A. Block, Timothy Burns, Patrick N. Cain, Adam M. Carrington, David Clinton, Steven Forde, Jerome C. Foss, Douglas Kries, Sara MacDonald, William Mathie, David K. Nichols, Mary P. Nichols, Alexander Orwin, Arlene W. Saxonhouse, Denise Schaeffer, Susan Meld Shell, Sean D. Sutton, Ann Ward, Lee Ward, Catherine H. Zuckert