"Participatory democracy," "democracy of the citizens," democratization of the Arab world: the thinking around this political system is more intense than ever. Democracy is on the agenda, from the war in Iraq to the protests in Istanbul and the management of the economic crisis in Europe. Politicians, academics, and journalists discuss the past, present, and future of democracy.

This word, this form of government, was not discovered by us people of the 20th and 21st centuries: it is 2,500 years old. We therefore return to the original meaning of the term, how the democratic system was invented, how it evolved, and how it has been perceived throughout history: in ancient Greece, during the Renaissance, in the era of the French Revolution, or during the "American century."

In this book, Claude Mosse narrates the adventure of democracy through the eyes of its enemies and friends, the fluctuations of its popularity, the distortions, the pitfalls, its triumphs and failures. Through the evolution of democracy and the various ideas surrounding it, Claude Mosse illuminates our political origins, demonstrating how the virtues and flaws of the modern world are due to the course of history, perhaps even to human nature itself.

Political corruption, authoritarianism, demagoguery, clientelism, coups, social exclusion, ideological conflicts, the danger of anarchy, the danger of tyranny: nothing is as new as it seems.