A decent overview of different notions of democracy. As to what democracy needs to be, Held's analysis is rather dull, seeing a need for more equality without having any idea how it could be created, but to his credit he makes no claim to having such an answer and openly admits various New Left theorists haven't figured it out, either. I'm not particularly bothered that some individuals are more influential in our democracy than others. That is always, always going to be the case. Getting literally everyone to have skin in the game in terms of owning productive property is asinine. Even if you could get it to everyone without collapsing everything, who seriously thinks the worst bum you see today would responsibly manage his or her share of however we're splitting economic power? The Iron Law of Oligarchy rules out the idea of equal influence in a democracy of more than a handful.
I wouldn't put this high on a recommendation list, but I wouldn't dissuade anyone from picking it up, either. Not that many people are rushing to pick it up....