本书分为上、下篇。上篇全面考察晚近中国各类民主话语体系赖以违构的思想资源，其所处的不同语境，人们基于这些语境所展开的关于民主的种种思考以及活语体系建构，不同话语体系所具有的特性和共性，它们与中国社会之间的种种“对话”。下篇重点考察各不同民主话语体系围绕话语权而展开的争夺，以及由此推动的主流民主话语的演进。全书旨在说明，晚近中阐的各种民主话语体系，既是时代的賜予，也是建构的产物；而主流话语体系的演进，还是斗争的结果。
The book is divided into first and second parts. The first part comprehensively examines the ideological resources on which various democratic discourse systems in China are based, the different contexts in which they are located, the various thoughts on democracy and the construction of living language systems based on these contexts, the characteristics and commonalities of different discourse systems, and the various "dialogues" between them and Chinese society. The next part focuses on the competition for discourse power among different democratic discourse systems and the evolution of mainstream democratic discourse promoted by it. The purpose of the book is to show that the various democratic discourse systems elaborated in the late and modern China are both gifts of the times and products of construction; And the evolution of the mainstream discourse system is still the result of struggle.
