Practices of Democracy: An Introduction

An applied introduction to the four models of democracy: representative, direct, deliberative and technocratic government. This text shows the complex and contested nature of democratic politics, and charts contemporary democratic challenges such as a decline in faith of elected leaders or contestation of established institutions. Throughout, proposed solutions are offered in the form of enhanced citizen participation, new forms of democratic representation, and improving the relationship between citizens and democratic governance to halt the decline in the health of democracies. A timely and insightful contribution, this book offers a clear and systematic exploration of democracy through representative, direct, deliberative and technocratic models. It provides students, scholars and practitioners with a valuable framework for understanding how democracies really function in the 21st century, and how institutions can be strengthened to deal with new challenges. This path-breaking textbook starts from the entirely correct premise that to understand contemporary democracy we need to move beyond the common framework of representative democracy. Many of the most significant developments in recent years have been in the areas of direct, deliberative and technocratic democracy. This is definitely going on my course guide! This book about practices of democracy (institutions, actors, processes)  is a timely introduction to democratic government in the 21st century. It goes beyond standard textbooks, because it reflects on most recent developments and provides students with a toolkit to understand and analyse contemporary democracies. This book revitalizes comparative politics by organizing learning around democratic practices -representative, direct, deliberative, technocratic- paired with timely, worldwide examples. Students gain analytical traction; instructors gain a flexible structure that translates theory into applied teaching without sacrificing rigor. A welcome innovation. A new political science is needed for a new world′, wrote Alexis de Tocqueville. This is true as much today as it was in the 19th Century. Combining case studies with grand tour d′horizons, this textbook provides an intelligent and highly readable introduction to the new approaches to the new political climate. This exciting volume not only deserves to be widely read, but it will provide a new standard for textbooks on democracy. The way we engage with politics today has radically shifted. Practices of Democracy: An Introduction is the first comparative politics textbook which offers an engaging assessment of different forms of democracy. With an in-depth yet accessible exploration of four models of democracy – representative, direct, deliberative and technocratic models of government – this book shows how democracy can be strengthened and saved in times of crisis. 

Taking a truly global perspective, examples of models of democracy are used to bring theory to life, to show how politics operates today. This pathbreaking new textbook spans all the core concerns of politics – from elections and voting to the role of political parties and legislatures, from political communication to migration and populism. Today, the role of referendums, citizen assemblies and experts shape our societies in profound ways. 

Packed with case studies and features, this textbook is essential reading for anyone studying democracies, democratic innovations and Comparative Politics, whether at the undergraduate or postgraduate level. 


Sergiu Gherghina is Associate Professor in Comparative Politics at Department of Politics and International Studies, University of Glasgow, UK.
Jean-Benoit Pilet is Professor of Political Science at the Université libre de Bruxelles, Belgium.
Jane Suiter is Professor of Political Communication in the School of Communications at Dublin City University, Ireland.

• | Author: Jane Suiter, Sergiu Gherghina, Jean-Benoit Pilet
• | Publisher: SAGE Publications Ltd
• | Publication Date: Dec 23, 2025
• | Number of Pages:
• | Language:
• | Binding: Paperback / softback
• | ISBN-13: 9781529670707
• | ISBN-10: 1529670705