The Paradox of American Democracy: Elites, Special Interests, and the Betrayal of Public Trust

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.

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...

I enjoyed this book and recommend it to anybody interested in American history and politics. John B. Judis gives a historic account of how our democracy has been damaged by big money and irresponsible elites, focusing from the progressieve era to today. The book is an easy read, and Judis makes his points well understood. He analyzes how different elites and special interest groups have functioned in America. The chapters "Business and the Rise of K Street," and "Triumph of Conservatives," were very interesting and thought provoking. Judis gives a closer and infromative look at how political action committees and conservative groups have contributed huge amounts of money to politicians, and how they recently dramatically increased their influence in governments decisions.The last two chapters are also good in explaining how changes in big business influenceing government even more in the 70's and 80's is hard to shake when dealing with a reform agenda. It is chalk full of statistics that are astounding, and are attributed to respectable sources: PAC's gave 72% of their money to Republicans during the last six weeks of teh 1978 elections.A problem with this book though is that it blames the Republicans too much when talking about the lack of public participation in politics. I guess that was expected though considering that Mr. Judis is a senior editor of "The New Republic" (a liberal magazine), although he does not seem to be a fan of Clinton. All together this book is very informative and holds your interest. Along with recommending this book, I will recommend reading Jim Hightower's "If the Gods had meant us to vote they would have given us Candidates." It bashed both Republicans and Democrats, and is comparable to this book, however discusses more recent issues.This book informs us on the ever-changing-postion government, elites, and society has had over time, and explains how American democracy has evolved to today's current corrupt system. John B. Judis also gives us hope and discusses how our democracy can be corrected.