Recently Democracy has been the watchword for a range of disparate, yet apparently convergent contestations and negotiations within the global order. This book seeks to present a context within which the interpretive and conceptual regimes around democracy as a field of study in politics, philosophy, and culture can be reargued against the claims of neo-liberal ideology with its market allies as the best possible solution to global governance. From this globalist viewpoint, democracy described as an unfinished project requires no structural changes, for it is complete in all its foundational features, and only small technical adjustments and minor tinkering is what it may need in the future. However this has been the way in which the main Western democracies see themselves - at best as "incomplete implementations" of equality and justice rather than limits, flaws, deadends, and problematics inscribed in the principles themselves. In response to this presumption, this book, by the force of the well argued positions of many of its illustrious contributors proceeds from the idea that Democracy Unrealized is a matter of bringing to light what liberal democracy promises but fails to deliver. The emphasis, then, is on potential for revision, revaluation of values, extension and creative transformation to keep in step with 21st century globalizing processes - the idea of an ever-open, essentially unfinishable project that in principle has fallen short of its ideals. (German edition ISBN 978-3-7757-9081-9)