The trial of Jesus Christ as a paradigm of different ways of thinking about democracy.

Is democracy an end or a means? Zagrebelsky proposes three visions of democracy: dogmatic, skeptical and critical. To them correspond three mentalities, three worldviews. The dogmatic sees only the truth to which all must adhere. The skeptic, the reality to which one must bow. The critic, on the other hand, makes his way responsibly through the possibilities. The author's thesis is that only those who possess a critical view of democracy conceive of it as an end.

To clarify this concept he draws on one of the tragic symbols of democracy: the trial of Jesus, where the dogma of the infallibility of the will of the people looms as the quintessence of dogmatic democracy.