How Does Democracy Work?
Democratic Vistas: Reflections on the Life of American Democracy
edited by Jedediah Purdy
–Reviewed by Adam Fleisher
The political scientist Adam Przeworski’s minimalist defense of democracy is that it is the best system for changing government without bloodshed – power changes hands by election, and the losers can take solace in knowing they will survive to fight another contest. But for Democratic Vistas, a collection of essays based on the DeVane lectures at Yale University, such narrowness will not do.
Here, as Jedediah Purdy explains in his brilliant introduction, the goal is …
