Democracy: A Republican Primer                                                               
Philip Pettit

Democracy, in the account given here, is 1. a system whereby people control government; 2. on a collaborative and inclusive basis; 3. via electoral and operational constraints; where the rationale –the republican rationale– is 4. to ensure that government does not dominate its citizens. While the formula may sound uncontroversial, it turns out that each of the numbered elements is often opposed, or at least neglected, in established traditions of democratic thought.