The Life and Times of Liberal Democracy

The author traces the background of current liberal-democratic theory, explains how the concept of democracy became both embedded in the shifting ideas of social equality and increasingly dependent on the mechanism of capitalism, and points the way to a more participatory democracy.

C.B. Macpherson (1911-1987) was professor of political science at the University of Toronto. Widely regarded as Canada's pre-eminent political theorist of the twentieth century, he was the author of numerous books, including Democratic Theory: Essays in Retrieval and The Real World of Democracy, and was named to the Order of Canada, the country's highest civilian honour.