This book focuses on the processes that help stabilizing and expanding political democracy by providing a socio-historical analysis of the future prospects of democracy. It discusses the link between advanced capitalism and democracy, emphasizing contract law and the separation of the economy from state control. The book emphasizes the positive influence of the scientific world-view in enhancing legal-rational authority and applying Aristotle's theory of the majority middle class as stabilizing democracy. It further analyses the current “cyber world” and its influence, including computer hacking, the blogosphere, and the global internet.This book describes the face to face democracies of the past in order to give us a better perspective on the high tech democracies of the future, making it appealing to students and academics in the political and social sciences. weiterlesen