The notion of 'representative democracy' seems unquestionably familiar today, but how did the Victorians understand democracy, parliamentary representation, and diversity?

Gregory Conti is Assistant Professor of Politics at Princeton University, New Jersey. He has written numerous articles about the history of liberalism and democratic theory, with a special focus on questions of representation and freedom of speech. He has served as a research fellow at Jesus College, Cambridge.

Acknowledgments; Notes on the text; List of abbreviations; Introduction; 1. Diversity without democracy, the theory of the variety of suffrages, Part 1: Institutions and sociologies; 1.1. Mirroring and electoral diversity before the First Reform Act; 1.2. Institutions and Sociologies; 1.3. The Decline of the variety of suffrages; 2. Diversity without democracy, the theory of the variety of suffrages, Part 2: Values and criticisms; 2.1. Justice; 2.2 The rule of public opinion; 2.3. Deliberation; 2.4. Stability; 3. Democracy, diversity, and contestability: democracy against the variety of suffrages; 3.1. Diverse democracy; 3.2. Radical or undescriptive democracy; 4. Diversity with democracy? Proportional representation, Part 1: Concepts and techniques; 4.1 The pre-history of PR in Britain; 4.2. The institutional and conceptual core of Victorian PR; 5. Diversity with democracy? Proportional representation, Part 2: The debate on PR's moral and political effects; 5.1. The moral benefits of PR; 5.2. Millian rebuttals: the local constituency and the threat of stagnation; 5.3. The problem of parties; Conclusion; Select bibliography; Index.