Democracy and Liberty, Hardcover by Lecky, William Edward Hartpole, ISBN 0913966800, ISBN-13 9780913966808, Like New Used, Free shipping in the US “When democracy turns, as it often does, into a corrupt plutocracy, both national decadence and social revolution are being prepared.” So wrote the Irish-born historian W. E. H. Lecky (1838–1903) in this devastating assault on mass democracy.