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This is a brief history of democracy in theory and practice. It argues that democracy has been seen and judged, mistakenly, as primarily a form of government. "Democracy" may have some limited usefulness as a term of description, but it must also be judged by the degree of freedom that it accords to those who consent or are forced to subscribe to it. Seldon goes on to say that an elected official is just as likely to control the lives of citizens as one who thrusts himself (or herself) upon them. He surveys the world's democracies, present and past - from the cantons of Switzerland to the village councils of Vermont, from Sweden to the Soviet Union, and from Great Britain to the United States - and finds them all, in varying degrees, wanting.