Understanding Liberal Democracy

Part 1 What is liberal democracy?: defining democracy; defining liberal democracy; three key concepts. Part 2 The nature of liberal democracy: direct and indirect democracy; traditional democratic theory; citizenship theory; the academic challenge to traditional democratic theory. Part 3 The radical critique of liberal democracy: the general nature of the radical critique; the participatory critique; the Marxist critique; liberal democracy and capitalism. Part 4 The justification of liberal democracy: questions about the justification of liberal democracy; justifications of liberal democracy; generality of the justifications.