This 1970 study examines the implications of empirical studies in the
social sciences with reference to various strands of American and
British democratic theory. In presenting his case Professor Thompson
provides an extremely valuable critical synthesis of a very large body
of theoretical and empirical literature in this field. He weaves
together in an original way the works of more than a dozen
twentieth-century political theorists and several hundred empirical
studies by political scientists, sociologists and social psychologists.