Democracy, Real and Ideal: Discourse Ethics and Radical Politics (SUNY Series in Social and Political Thought)

Ricardo Blaug has written an important study that forges a link between the abstract and normative conceptions of 'democracy' and a more concrete sense of political participation or what might be called 'strong citizenship'. Given that the latter is rather weak on the ground everywhere, and perhaps most of all where routine claims are made for it, I see Blaug's as a significant challenge.