Thinking about Democracy

Thinking about Democracy is the definitive collection of four decades of work on the power-sharing model of democracy by its most important analyst and advocate, Arend Lijphart. It is an indispensable work for all students of democracy and comparative politics, in part because it provides a frank and fascinating portrait of how the concepts, theory, and empirical research have evolved over the life of a great political scientist.

Larry Diamond, Senior Fellow, Hoover Institution, Co-editor, Journal of Democracy

Arend Lijphart's work has always been intellectually first class. Thinking about Democracy assembles the cream of his essays on power- sharing and comparative political analysis of the last forty years, and crowns them with fresh appraisals and commentary. Engaged with both major intellectual and policy problems these chapters display why he is widely and rightly regarded as the world's premier political scientist of democracy of the last fifty years. Current students and readers alike, will be delighted that these essays are brought together in this compact and well-organized collection that is sure to be reprinted many times in the decades ahead.

Brendan O'Leary, Lauder Professor of Political Science, University of Pennsylvania, USA

It is fascinating to have in one volume the main stations in the broad based intellectual career of Arend Lijphart. His key question was always how to construct the best possible democratic institutions, an endeavour that he accomplished with great success in the political science community.

Jürg Steiner, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill and University of Bern, Germany