Toby S. James (forthcoming) Real Democracy: Empowerment and Equality Around the World (Manchester University Press).

This book proposes a concept of democracy based on the critical realist school.  Realist (or real) democracy is a societal system in which citizens are empowered to fulfilling human capacities and there is group level equality. 

The book sets out a methodology for measuring real democracy and traces patterns around the world and in select country case studies. 

It builds on earlier work defining real democracy:

• James, T. S. (2024). Real Democracy: A Critical Realist Approach to Democracy and Democratic Theory. New Political Science, 46(3), 228–258. https://doi-org.uea.idm.oclc.org/10.1080/07393148.2024.2382644
• James, Toby S., and Holly Ann Garnett. What is Electoral Integrity?: Conceptualising Election Quality in an Age of Complexity. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2026.
• James, Toby S. 2025. “Democracy, Public Administration, and Democratic Backsliding.” Policy Studies, July, 1–26. doi:10.1080/01442872.2025.2521170.

The book has important conceptual and policy implications for our understanding of democracy and how it can protected and strengthened around the world.