For more than two hundred years Americans have been debating how direct a democracy they want. Advocates of a powerful role for direct voting -- in which public opinion dictates public policy -- fear elitism and the usurpation of democratic rule by politicians, bureaucrats, and the rich. Advocates of representative voting fear that emotion and factional interest will undermine stability and justice. Through representation, they believe, cool-headed deliberation within institutions will prevail over popular passion.

DEMOCRACY: HOW DIRECT? looks at numerous facets of this debate. Among the topics its nine contributors examine are the views of the Founders; Lincoln and the 19th-century view of democracy; the competing traditions reflected in early state and federal constitutions; polling as a measure of public opinion; the strengths and weaknesses of American democracy today; and the current use of the referendum process in the states.