A teoria política democrática moderna e seu renascimento

Abstract

In an instigating book on politial science by the title “The Revival of Democratic Theory”, a well known American political scientist analyzes the decline of the democratic theory of government in the modern world and appraises the possibilities of revival of this theory aiming to avoid the collapse of Western civilization. In other words, the book tries to justify the decline of political theory as a result of the reactions of the “democratic inlelligentsia”, that is, of American, English, and French intellectuals, and the state of things resulting from these reactions in the last fifty years. The purpose of this essay is to appraise the premises put forth in the above mentioned book and to critically comment the validity of these premisses while at the same time suggesting ways to improve some of the formulations contained in the book. Though emphasizing that his criticisms are specifically directed at “The Revival of Democratic Theory”, the author believes that his comments may also be applicable to other similar books on modern democratic political theory with similar ideas.