O'Donnell here brings together a collection of significant recent essays in which he considers both the method for and substance of critiques of democracies.

Guillermo O'Donnell (1936-2011) was Academic Director of the Kellogg Institute and Helen Kellogg Professor of Government and International Studies and Sociology at the University of Notre Dame. He received the IPSA Prize for Lifetime Achievement in Political Science and is the author, editor, and co-editor of a number of books, including The Quality of Democracy: Theory and Applications (University of Notre Dame Press, 2004).