The ideas in this book were originally expressed in the context of a philosophical manuscript in 1979, and in two different articles entitled ‘Statistical Democracy’, one in Radical Philosophy, no. 27, Spring 1981 and the other in Thesis Eleven no. 3, 1981, p. 60. Since then a number of people have read one or other essay and various drafts of the present book. Noam Chomsky, Ferenc Feher and C. B. Macpherson offered valuable encouragement. Carole Pateman read a late version of the present book and offered helpful suggestions, as did Graham Nerlich, Geoffrey Blunden, Wal Suchting and Barry Hindess, who suggested the publisher to me.
More generally, I am grateful to my colleagues and students in the Department of General Philosophy for forcing me to think critically and practically about the problems of democracy and of social decision-making. My deepest and most comprehensive debt is to Wal Suchting. Gyorgy Markus has contributed a great deal, not least his critique of “actually existing socialism” in Dictatorship over Needs (Oxford, Basil Blackwell: 1983), with Ferenc Feher and Agnes Heller.
Pat Bower and Charle Reimer were responsible for typing innumerable drafts. The staff at Polity Press and at Basil Blackwell have been most helpful, especially Anthony Giddens, Helen Pilgrim and Pat Lawrence.
Finally, my wife, Margaret Harris, and children, Catherine and Lucy, had to put up with numerous ill-effects of my pre-occupation with this book. To them it is gratefully and affectionately dedicated.
John Burnheim
Sydney, January 1985.xiv