Customer Reviews

The Democratic Wish: Popular Participation and the Limits of American Government, Revised Edition

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The book is a kind of one-two punch. It surveys American history and boils it down to a very neat equation. Americans yearn for an idyllic democracy, images of bucolic grace and wonderful heartland values as much as hard-boiled grit in facing injustice. Because we yearn, we look to democratize bad or corrupt systems. This is when interests come together under the fragile bond of this Deomcratic Wish. The corrupt system is revamped. But lo, the interests have split--bedlam! Everyone is scrambling to fatten themselves with more power. The original sight is lost to power-hunger. As a result, we have more bureaucracy, pitted against itself. This only attenuates what started the whole thing, the "Democratic Wish." The original voices for reform are muffled by the pit-sessions of bureaucracy bidding for power, juiced up on the short-term. This text can be used just as much to gain insight into political science as into American history. It's actually quite brilliant, timely and certainly engaging.

a superb writer, tremendous amount of knowledge kudos to James. He has a very particular skill of marking coherent words on paper. Quick witted, smart and very intuitive. The book is insightful I highly recommend.

Michael