Theoretical and practical significance of the monograph “Democracy in the service of elites” (Sergeyev V.M. Democracy in the service of elites. Moscow: MGIMO-University. 2013. 265 p.) due to the fact that the author reveals the specificity of the phenomenon “democracy”, gives a description of the key features of the development of the democratization processes in the context of current political, economic and social processes, and illustrates the practical application of the proposed theories to the study of specific problems of democratic development.