Democracy Redefined

Reviews / Votes

The coverage of this book is way more than adequate; it is extraordinary. The author deftly organises a depth of historical detail into a gripping narrative with an exciting point: the evolution of communal (religious) representation to a "best practice" model in Lebanon, with pros and cons. It then offers an entirely original contribution to contemporary democratic theory: an argument for the conscious, communal representation of subordinate groups. It is rare to be taken out of one's intellectual ruts and thrown into a new and convincing way of looking at the world. This book does that. I found it hard to put down. -- Jane Mansbridge, Harvard University The author is perhaps today's leading theorist on democracy in the Middle East and Arab societies, having worked consistently on the problem for over 30 years. In this very erudite book, Mallat's major contribution is to raise the Lebanese paradigm of consociational democracy to a general theoretical question about how to structure political power without a numerical majority where it must be shared by different minorities. -- John W. Borneman, Princeton University