Should children vote in national elections? How much is the family worth? is the end of class inequality in sight? Professor Ringen tackles these and other crucial questions in this engaging and provocative new work on the future of reform democracy.

Real democracies are necessarily imperfect. The author warns against 'the terrible temptation towards perfection' and argues a notion of rationality governed by restrained self-interest, the civic spirit. The book brings together conservative values of family and personal responsibility with the idea of radical reform.