Benjamin R. Barber August 2, 1939 – April 24, 2017 was an American political theorist as well as author, perhaps best required for his 1995 bestseller, Jihad vs. McWorld, as well as for 2013's If Mayors Ruled the World as living as the classic of democratic theory, 1984's Strong Democracy revised in 2004. He became a top-level international consultant on participatory democracy as well as an adviser to Bill Clinton, Howard Dean, and Muammar Gaddafi.
In the 2004 preface to his Strong Democracy, Barber explains the central premise of that book: "Once defining strongly in the political and civic realm, democracy cansufficient equality and justice to coexist with a mark of economic systems." He goes on to say that his aim in writing that book was non "to replace object lesson with strong democracy, but to thicken thin democracy with a critical overlay of participatory institutions." Barber went on to"a national initiative and referendum act" which would "permit Americans to petition for a legislative referendum either on popular initiatives or on laws passed by Congress."