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Title: The Paradox of American Democracy: Elites, Special Interests, and the Betrayal of the Public Trust by John B. Judis ISBN: 0-415-93026-X Publisher: Routledge Pub. Date: 01 March, 2001 Format: Paperback Volumes: 1 List Price(USD): $17.95 |
Average Customer Rating: 3.75 (4 reviews)
Rating: 5
Summary: very informative
Comment: The most compelling theme of this book to me was its historical explanation of why there seems to be no informed/reasoned middle ground in politics today, which is something I find particularly mystifying and frustrating. The history and mechanics Judis describes of how disinterested elites have disappeared while letterhead advocacy groups have become rampant is very plausible, especially with the numerous detailed examples he cites.
The book might lose a little gas after the Reagan years, but I thought that was OK since Clinton+ has been dissected a million different ways and I wasn't looking for another take on that.
The book also serves as a valuable field guide to policy groups of different stripes. If you are a little fuzzy on the difference between the Heritage Foundation and the Brookings Institute (as I admit I was), then that's a big part of the problem Judis is describing.
Rating: 5
Summary: A cogent explanation of how we got here...
Comment: Judis is particularly smart about the 1970s, which he characterizes as a moment of conservative and corporate backlash. He suggests that if you follow the money, and the think-tanks, you can see (in part) how and why the right was able to triumph politically in a degraded public sphere once we got to the 1980s and 1990s. The name of the game for them has been propaganda--"Trust us, Mr. Working Man, welfare cheats are what ail you. That and capital gains taxes that are too high."--and they've done it well. Hell, with all the Scaife, Olin, Cato, Heritage, AEI, and CEI doublespeak and disinformation spewed out over the course of the last 3 decades, it's a wonder any of us have any sense left at all. Hopefully, with the eruption of a new corporate scandal every other day in 2002 (nearly all of which have links to the "screw-the-poor-and-the-middle-class / but-fatten-the-rich-and-the-corporations" Bush-Cheney Administration) people are finally beginning to wise up...
Rating: 1
Summary: Awful
Comment: Do yourself a favor and avoid this book. Mr. Judis fails miserably to explain why political cynicism seems to be at an all-time high. A devout leftist, Judis relies upon formulaic left wing claptrap to support his thesis that high minded elitists are no longer looking out for the interest of working people, but rather their own self interest. He somehow manages to strech out liberal 'bumper sticker' philosophy for 306 pages, most of it mind numbingly innane. This book is an utter failure, particularly given that his book on WF Buckley was surprisingly neutral and honest. This is the type of drivel you would expect to see from some nutjob writing for Mother Jones, not the New Republic. What a shame.
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Title: WHY AMERICANS HATE POLITICS: THE DEATH OF THE DEMOCRATIC PROCESS by E.J. Dionne ISBN: 0671778773 Publisher: Simon & Schuster Pub. Date: 01 June, 1992 List Price(USD): $14.00 |
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Title: No Place for Amateurs: How Political Consultants Are Reshaping American Democracy by Dennis W. Johnson ISBN: 0415928362 Publisher: Routledge Pub. Date: February, 2001 List Price(USD): $19.95 |
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Title: The New Politics of Public Policy by Martin A. Levin, Marc K. Landy ISBN: 0801848784 Publisher: Johns Hopkins Univ Pr Pub. Date: July, 1995 List Price(USD): $20.95 |
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Title: Sleepwalking Through History: America in the Reagan Years by Haynes Johnson ISBN: 0385422598 Publisher: Anchor Pub. Date: 23 February, 1992 List Price(USD): $15.95 |
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Title: The President's Agenda: Domestic Policy Choice from Kennedy to Clinton by Paul Charles Light ISBN: 0801860660 Publisher: Johns Hopkins Univ Pr Pub. Date: January, 1999 List Price(USD): $19.95 |
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