I have to say in all honesty that of the hundreds of political science books I've read in my life, this little number is one of the best.



Shapiro is so fair, so sharp, so insightful, so spot on with his evaluations, and amazingly, so concise and thorough at the same time, that I think it is a shame this book hasn't made a bigger splash. It manages at the same time to be a great introduction to the great political philosophies AND a profound meditation and evaluation of, and critique on, each.



I know I sound like a sap raving over this thing, but let me just include one more comment. This will sound a bit weird, but here goes.



I found Shapiro's last chapter on democracy really, really moving. I've never really felt that way before reading a book about politics, and I can't really do his discussion justice here. I should just mention that among other things, he raises the question of how solid the traditional rationale for democracy really is, resting as it does on the absolute knowledge claims of early enlightenment thinkers. He points to Popperian epistemology, or fallibilism, as a surer basis for it, and then from there goes on to flesh out a series of arguments vindicating democracy's current status as, really, the sole legitimate political arrangement. These include explanations of how democracy institutionalizes truth detection mechanisms, how those mechanisms operate and why they are so important to human welfare, and ventures to suggest a few improvements to our current set-up for consideration. I'm going to order his book on democratic theory next.



Really a brilliant little book.



T.

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