TheIdea of Democracy

Sam Pitroda is an internationally recognized telecom inventor, entrepreneur, development thinker and policymaker who has spent fifty years in information and communications technology and related global and national developments.


Credited with having laid the foundation for India’s telecommunications and technology revolution of the 1980s, he has been a leading campaigner to help bridge the global digital divide. As a way to induce the second phase of India’s technology revolution, in 2005 he headed India’s National Knowledge Commission (2005–09), to provide a blueprint of reform for the knowledge-related institutions and infrastructure for the twenty-first century in the country.


In addition, Sam is a serial entrepreneur having started several companies in the United States. He holds around twenty honorary PhDs, close to 100 worldwide patents and has published five books and numerous papers and lectured widely all over the world.

Today global democracy is at a crossroads because of the rise in polarized politics, authoritarian regimes and the use of social media to manipulate and amplify lies, hate and misinformation.

While electoral democracy continues to be the most prevalent form of government, a series of indicators measuring political and civic freedom reveal that the institution of democracy is in deep distress. With the liberal foundations of democracy shakier than ever before, confidence in institutions has plummeted. This book looks at this paradox of so-called democratic success coupled with its liberal decline. It provides a detailed analysis of the essence of democracy, its workings, the kind of values it needs to encapsulate, forces and safeguards which work in liberal democracy’s favour and how they can be preserved.

This book is meant to stimulate conversation, particularly among the youth on what the idea of democracy means to them and the role that they can play in helping democracy survive—and thrive—in the coming era.