ABSTRACT
For most of recorded human history, “democracy” was reviled as rule by the mob or by the unwashed and ignorant. By contrast, one of the most striking features of contemporary politics is the almost universal popularity of democracy. There are few people nowadays, whether major political leaders or ordinary citizens, who do not praise (or at least pay lip service to) democracy and claim to be democrats. Except for fascists, Nazis, and radical Islamists, in fact, almost everyone seems to agree that democracy is desirable. But this agreement comes in the midst of vigorous, sometimes violent, ideological confl ict. How can this be? How can men and women of almost all ideological persuasions-liberal and socialist, communist and conservative-share this belief in the value of democracy?
