Introduction

It is now commonplace to maintain that, with the end of the cold war and the downfall of communism, there has been a ‘triumph’ of democracy. This view has been criticized, and the extent of the spread of democracy can be disputed. None the less the idea of democracy — the idea that it is the best form of government — is very widely accepted. Even if one does not accept that ‘the principles of democratic government [are] triumphing’ (Hadenius 1997: 1), one can at least agree that ‘[n]ever before has the idea of democratic government been more popular’ (Archibugi, Held and Köhler 1998a: 2). Indeed, it can be said that ‘[a]mong the twentieth century's most important legacies to the new millennium [is] … the assertion of democracy as the legitimate system of government’ (Archibugi, Held and Köhler 1998a: 1).