Sovereign Decisions

How did parliamentary democracy emerge in England, the USA, and France? What were the arguments made by the proponents of this system? And why did this change take place relatively late in Germany?

To answer these questions, Philipp Lepenies looks at a number of key events in the history of democracy. His protagonists include the English Levellers movement, the American Founding Father James Madison, and the Frenchman Abbé Sieyès, as well as Georg Forster in Mainz, Friedrich Jucho in Frankfurt, and Hugo Preuß in Weimar. By studying the development of democracy, we can glean insights into how to avert the threat of its demise – at a time when sovereign power is increasingly deciding against the system that grants it the highest political power.