Geraint Parry was the WJM Mackenzie Professor, now Emeritus Professor of Government at the University of Manchester. His research interests are in democratic theory and practice, political sociology and the history of political ideas. He is the author of John Locke (1978) and, with G Moyser and N Day, Political Participation and Democracy in Britain (1992). He has edited Participation in Politics(1972), Democracy, Consensus and Social Contract (1972, with P Birnbaum and J Lively), Democracy and Democratization (1994, with M Moran) and Fundamentals in British Politics (1999, with I Holliday and A Gamble). His recent publications have been on the history of the relationship between political theory and educational thought. He has been editor of Government and Opposition, the Journal of Comparative Politics, and is a former President of the UK Political Studies Association.