Includes bibliographical references (pages 595-598).

1. Introduction -- New conditions and old notions -- What this book is about -- The democratic record -- The general nature of politics -- The social materials -- Creative government -- Ideal goals -- The use of comparisons -- Democracy as a civilizing force -- Part I The criteria of Democracy -- 2. The classical tradition -- The Athenian origins -- The historians' judgment: (1) Herodotus and the Persians -- (2) Thucydides and Pericles -- Decline of Athenian democracy -- The philosophers' analysis: (1) Plato's attack -- (2) Aristotle's summation -- The Greek verdict -- Some unsettled questions -- A premature experiment? -- Hardening of the literary tradition -- Democracy defined by Hobbes, Locke, and Montesquieu -- The direct democracy of Rousseau and Madison -- 3. The modern rebirth -- The authority of the individual -- Individualism in the theories of Hobbes and Locke -- The individual in Rousseau's community -- Ambiguity of the general will -- The democratic impetus of the nineteenth century -- Representation and the change of scale -- Tocqueville on American democracy -- John Stuart Mill on representative government -- The century of the common man.

Three views of democracy: (1) Machinery and process -- (2) The values of democratic politics -- (3) Social democracy -- democracy and liberalism -- Nationalism an democracy -- These and variations -- Part II The democratic society -- 4. The spread and limits of democracy -- From revolution to evolution -- British gradualism and example -- Full democracy a recent phenomenon -- The link with imperialism -- Survey of democracies in 1939 -- A contemporary estimate -- The social environment of the political system -- 5. Race relations -- The politics of racial, religious and linguistic groupings -- Characteristics of a divided society -- How such divisions concern democracy -- Government in a racially mixed community -- Racial experience of the United States: (1) Slavery versus democracy -- (2) Democracy versus discrimination -- The struggle of American negroes for equality -- South Africa: The politics of fear -- Apartheid plus the police state -- Brazil's three races -- Equality of races, inequality of classes -- The Hawaiian melting-pot -- The spread of interracial tolerance.

6. Language and religion -- Governing people who differ in speech and faith -- A comparison of Spain and Russia -- The rule of intolerance -- The multinational Austrian empire -- The democratic state in mixed communities -- Belgium's split personality -- The two cultures in Canada -- The observations of Lord Durham -- Diversity within a federal union -- The Swiss paradox -- Why the Swiss had to be tolerant -- The unity of the unlike -- Cleavages in modern Switzerland -- Toleration and neutrality -- Equality for dissimilars -- 7. Geopolitics -- Geographical influences on politics -- The physical foundations of states -- Political types in relation to power on land or sea -- Sea power and Athenian democracy -- Land power and the government of Sparta -- The Roman land empire and the loss of the republic -- Russia and Prussia -- Army and autocracy in Germany -- The British navy and domestic liberty -- Oceanic safeguards of the United States -- Generalization from these examples -- Some apparent exceptions: (1) The rise of American land power -- (2) The French army versus the democratic republics -- (3) The Swiss case which proves the rule -- Why navies did not threaten democracy -- Questions about air power and space -- The political cost of armaments -- Contemporary military regimes -- The primacy of politics over arms -- 8. The economic origins -- The political economy -- Economic prerequisites of democracy -- Challenges to feudalism -- The pre-industrial revolutions -- The second stage of revolution -- Industrial economics and maturing democracy -- Class relations in nineteenth-century Britain -- Diagnoses by Disraeli, Marx, and Mill.

Agrarian roots of American democracy -- The merger of Jefferson and Hamilton -- Industrial expansion of the United States -- Big government for big business -- The experience of continental Europe -- The middle class in France and Italy -- Unifying the Germans: The liberals or Bismarck -- Weimar or Nazism -- Pivotal role of the middle class -- 9. Modern economic policies -- Economic factors connected with democracy -- Democracy under Agrarian conditions -- (1) The case of Denmark -- (2) The New Zealand parallel -- Is democracy the luxury of the rich? High living standards and democratic states -- A warning about casual inferences -- Capitalism, socialism, and democratic government -- The dilemma of liberalism -- The modern mixed economics -- Public ownership -- The social services -- Planning and regulation -- The American economy and state control -- Contrasts in the affluent society -- The prestige of the businessman -- Future responsibilities of government -- Part III The politics and government of democracy -- 10. The sovereign voters -- Political dynamics and democratic institutions -- Participation by the people -- Removal of obstacles to universal suffrage -- The use of the right to vote -- Reasons for voting and non-voting -- Effects of the electoral system -- Voting in New Zealand, a special case -- Influence on the vote of parties and campaigning -- Political implications of mass voting -- The education of the public -- The frequency of elections -- The popular initiative and referendum -- Distrust of the legislature.

11. The two-party system -- The ancestors of parties -- Why parties are essential to democratic government -- The causes of the party system -- The classic two-party model: Great Britain -- Institutional explanations of British parties -- (1) The cabinet and the power to dissolve -- (2) The electoral system -- The social roots of British politics -- Dualism, religious and economic -- Response of the parties to industrialism -- The model exported to Canada, New Zealand, Australia, and South Africa -- Institutional patterns of the four countries -- Their social structures, from simple to complex -- Summary of experience in the older commonwealth -- The two party-systems of the United States -- Alignments in modern American politics -- 12. Politics with many parties -- Characteristics of multipartism -- Reasons for the Swiss party system -- Formation of the parties before World War I -- How the electoral system originally operated -- The switch to proportional representation -- Relative strength of Swiss parties since 1919 -- The radicals and the socialists -- The Catholic-conservatives and the smaller parties -- Stable multipartism in Scandinavia -- The case of the Norwegian Labor Party -- French politics in the third and fourth republics -- "Proving" an untruth -- Institutions molded by the party system -- What the electoral permutations reveal -- Disagreements about first principles -- Timing and sequence of French political events -- Toward an unscientific generalization -- 13. The constitutional order -- The rationale of constitutions -- Aristotle's analysis -- The social content of constitutional forms -- The Brazilian experience -- Requirements for a democratic constitution -- The British constitutional crisis of 1909-11 -- The lessons of those events -- The South African controversy of 1951-56 -- The two cases compared -- Political evolution of the American constitution -- France's perpetual revolution -- The control and transfer of power.

14. Political leadership -- Leadership of the democratic style -- The ambivalence of leadership -- The Swiss type of collegial executive -- Party composition of the federal council -- The American presidency -- The quality of presidents -- The functions of a president -- The chief legislator -- The responsibility for foreign relations -- The British cabinet system -- Party influence on the cabinet -- The prime minister -- The premier's position in the ministry -- The choice of a new leader -- The American administration -- The growing resemblance of the presidency and premiership -- Comparison of the three systems -- Part IV The democratic values -- 16. Liberty and equality -- The purpose of a philosophy of democracy -- Contradictions among the traditional concepts -- Critique of Mill's analysis of liberty -- The case for absolute intellectual freedom -- The consequences of expressing opinions -- Ethical value and scientific truth -- Are there limits to tolerance? -- Equality: Identical or proportional -- Status, rewards, and quality -- Government as an equalizer -- Liberty multiplied by equality -- 17. Majority rule, minority rights, and the public good -- An ethical source for government power -- The virtue of consent -- Justifying majority rule -- The rightness of the larger numbers -- The rights of minorities -- Ideals in conflict -- The search for a synthesis -- (1) The natural rights theory -- (2) The quest for the general will -- The wisdom of the fallible -- Why democratic ideals are self-contradictory -- 18. Conclusions -- The social conditions of democracy -- The influences of philosophy -- The mediating role of politics -- The United States and Great Britain -- Switzerland, Denmark, Canada, and New Zealand -- Two categories of democracy -- What follows maturity? -- Fresh fields for democracy -- The negative summing-up -- The positive evaluation.