Representative Democracy and Its Limits

Representative democracy today is subject to intense debate. New forms of representation and new ways of organizing the interaction between state and society are currently much discussed. In this work, Hirst assesses these debates and offers a way through their problems and challenges. The book focuses on three related questions. The first is the inherent limits of representative democracy and possible ways of increasing the accountability of government. The second is a consideration of whether it is possible to give an account of the forms of modern law which both recognizes that the state is a compulsory association and yet which retains and enhances the role of public law as a means of setting limits to state authority. The third is an examination of new debates on the future of socialism which attempt simultaneously to move away from statism and collectivism and to make socialism compatible with democratic government.