"Summing Up: Recommended. Upper-division undergraduate and graduate collections." ( Choice , 1 December 2013) ".DDDD is a great start toward an examination of democratic possibilities. Purcell's point is that people are finding their democratic strength in the world; people are claiming their own power with others in interesting ways. We can see these practices if we look with interest and cultivate them if we give them space. Actual practices of democratic, anarchic self-discovery are happening everywhere. When we recognize them we can (and should) give them space and help them grow.

" ( Antipode , 1 October 2013) 'This is an exceptional book. It is dense, closely reasoned, scholarly, indispensable as a reference, yet impassioned and oriented to practical political activity. It traces the history of democracy, its evolution in philosophy and in practice, and views democracy as a never-ending process, building on what exists, ever moving to what could be. It is a provocation both to thought and to action, aimed both at educators and Occupy activists.'-- Peter Marcuse , Professor Emeritus of Urban Planning, Columbia University 'Mark Purcell criticizes neoliberals and neo-Keynsians alike as supporting oligarchy. He establishes democracy as a transcendent goal--but one that is a process always in a state of becoming, not an end point. Whether or not one agrees with him on the supremacy of democracy above all other ends, his views are challenging and enlightening.'-- Susan S.

Fainstein , Harvard University Graduate School of Design, USA.