Democracy [antikvár]

Preface and Acknowledgements Lurking here and there in the backwoods of the social studies, or 'sciences', there are no doubt still a few old-fashioned positivists who beheve that you can 'keep politics out of polities'; who suppose, in other words, that you can, or should try to, write a book about democracy as 'objectively' as one might write about the mating habits of goldfish or the geology of the moon. It is more difficult than the positivists suppose to be 'objective' even about goldfish or geology. What possibihty, then, is there of writing with cold detachment about something which matters to us all as much as democracy? And even if there were, would it really be desirable? Neutrality in such matters is all too likely to be a recipe for dullness. It seemed better to run the risk of annoying readers rather than boring them. I have therefore not tried to avoid being controversial in this book, which is better regarded as one more contribution to an ongoing debate than as an attempt at anything more magisterial. I hope, however, that it will prove useful to students (in the widest sense of that word) of political ideas and ideologies. If it stimulates a litde discussion among them it will, I think, have served its purpose. In preparing and writing this book I have, as usual, made extensive use of the resources of Sheffield University Library, for which I am most grateful. My friend and colleague Geraint Williams kindly read the chapter on Greek democracy and made several useful suggestions and necessary corrections. I am grateful to Frank Parkin, editor of this series of books, for his encouragement and support.