Does American Democracy Still Work? (The Future of American Democracy Series) (Hardcover)

by Alan Wolfe (Author)
Key Phrases: crafted talk, ideological times, conservative democracy, United States, President Bush, Supreme Court (more...)

Editorial Reviews

Review
"'Alan Wolfe faces manfully up to the 'new politics of democracy' in which sentimental populism seems to be owned by the right... He manages to make his argument for more 'quality control' in American democracy in ideologically neutral terms." Michael Kinsley, New York Times Book Review" --This text refers to the Paperback edition.

Review
"Wolfe is the most interesting public intellectual in the country. His disturbing book provides rich food for thought about the future of our polity."-Sanford Levinson, University of Texas Law School (Sanford Levinson )

"Alan Wolfe has written a terse, highly critical book on the ways that American democracy works-and does not work. Above all, he urges that Americans become more politically engaged."-James T. Patterson, Brown University (James T. Patterson )

"Alan Wolfe is an important scholar of American society as well as a major public intellectual. He is incapable of writing a dull or irrelevant book."-William Galston, Senior Fellow, Governance Studies Program, Brookings Institution (William Galston )

"Alan Wolfe argues that while the extent of American democracy has increased greatly, its quality has declined notably in recent decades. His book, Does American Democracy Still Work?, will be widely read, ardently debated, and highly influential."-Martin Shefter, Cornell University (Martin Shefter )

"Alan Wolfe, always a keen analyst of the American scene, presents a compelling and often passionate account of how to restore genuine democracy in America."-Howard Gardner, author of Changing Minds (Howard Gardner )

"A startling, devastating critique of contemporary American democracy from one of the country's most measured and respected social and political thinkers."-Thomas E. Mann, Brookings Institution (Thomas E. Mann )

"Alan Wolfe, a committed democrat, with a small ''d,'' has written a searing account of the state of American democracy. The growth of cultural populist politics and growing partisan polarization and unity has created an unaccountable government. He brings home the stakes in our elections; not just which party governs but whether we revive our liberal democracy."-U.S. Representative Rosa L. DeLauro (Rosa L. DeLauro )

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Product Details

• Hardcover: 224 pages
• Publisher: Yale University Press (September 18, 2006)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0300108591
• ISBN-13: 978-0300108590
• Product Dimensions: 8.2 x 5.8 x 1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 12 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.7 out of 5 stars See all reviews (3 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #873,974 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

9 of 11 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Real clever, perceptive, and pragmatic, September 13, 2006

By	Michael L. Schwab "the courtier" (Albany, NY) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

Wolfe explains in simple terms the many aspects of modern American politics that weaken, deflect, and encumber our ability to affect or even understand the laws that are being slung at us. Our incredible cynicism about the candor of the media, the ethics of our representation, and the effectiveness of our institutions allows pressure from certain groups to ensure that all of these actually live down to our expectations. Wolfe claims that government is the only thing that is capable of being impartial, and we need to refocus our priority on it.

I admit that I was looking forward to a critique of the structure of the federal government (more along the lines of Dahl's "How Democratic is the American Constitution?"). I was satisfied to find, rather, a very empirical look at the political messages he classifies as populism. Corruption and deceit being nothing new, he identifies the new tactic as abandoning the middle to whip up support in the base and discourage the opposition. In this way, Bush has been able to claim support for his radical and illogical ideas. Wolfe also includes a great deal of discussion of the events of the past year, when some would have argued that Bush was backing off.

Alan hints that the Democratic Party should be given a chance to straighten things out but never explicitly endorses anyone or rests his argumentation on contingent outcomes of any kind. He insists upon the participation and self-empowerment of individuals as the only way to ensure that the Dems won't be just as bad.

Between this title and Stefan Klein's "The Science of Happiness" I have to conclude that pessimism is no longer an option for those who consider themselves mature. It is not a path to pleasant surprises. Rather, it is a dismissive force that has made our habitats less and less livable for several decades despite the fantastic machinery we've surrounded ourselves with. This book is an excellent tool for mastering critiques of the Republicans that have almost nothing to do with Dems, which makes them really hard to rebut. Enjoy.

5.0 out of 5 stars Sharp critique of a failing American democracy, April 12, 2009

By	Thomas W. Sulcer (Summit, NJ USA) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

This review is from: Does American Democracy Still Work? (The Future of American Democracy Series) (Paperback)

Alan Wolfe is a sharp thinker who argues persuasively that American democracy is in dire trouble. While I got new insights from this important critique, this book like many others is more accurately a chronicle of the failings of American democracy rather than an intelligent strategy for reform. It is an important book.

Dr. Wolfe's political orientation is that of a liberal democrat. What does this mean? He describes the liberal democratic outlook as tolerant, suspicious of divine truth, favoring laissez-faire economics and civil liberties, questioning unchecked central power, distrustful of war, committed to reason. It favors majority rule but limited government, individualism, the rule of law, respect for empirical facts, and pluralism. It is rooted, philosophically, with Adam Smith and John Locke and the Enlightenment. It's distrustful of war and likes commitments to international law. This is, in my ways, my value system although I'm more nationalistic perhaps, and I am decidedly non-partisan (whereas I bet Dr. Wolfe votes Democratic).

While Dr. Wolfe sometimes leans to the left politically, I do not think this undermines the integrity of his argument. For example, sometimes he thinks of justice as social justice (redistributing wealth to cause fair outcomes) instead of a conservative sense of justice as fair process. He sees conservatives as "people who have never given any indication of being constrained by conscience." I do not think this is fair. From my perspective as a non-partisan, I think both liberal and conservative ideologies have valid claims regarding morality, and I think it's a mistake intellectually to choose either side, and there are thinkers such as Aristotle and Thomas Sowell (author of "A Conflict of Visions") who have persuaded me that the left-right battle will never be won.

He is highly critical of the Bush-Cheney administration (2000-2008) but his criticisms are valid in my view. He blames Republicans for much of our political mess while admiring their political skill: they're "more united, more focused, more determined, more successful." Republicans caused a "virtual exclusion of the opposition party in the House from any legislative or investigatory role", he writes. They allowed private interests to write bills that concerned them. They imposed loyalty tests on supposedly non-partisan experts. They hired friendly journalists to promote their policies. They pushed for excessive executive power. Their foreign policy ignored non-partisan experts. They foisted ideologically-charged judges on the judiciary. Dr. Wolfe sees religion as replacing economic self-interest as a basic determinant of voting; I'm less sure this trend will last. Overall, I'm less inclined to blame Republicans but see the breakdown of American democracy as a long chain of causes-and-effects going back centuries (I explain my theory in my book).

What I found interesting was his notion that America needs what he calls disinterested institutions -- referees, gatekeepers, impartial scorekeepers, elites who stand above competing economic and political forces. And these disinterested institutions are disappearing. He's right. The media used to be one such disinterested institution with a preponderance of concern for factual reporting. While there has always been bias in journalism, he writes that the most media outlets used to think of themselves as disinterested observers who were dedicated to the public welfare. Quality news broadcasting used to be the price paid for a license to broadcast to the public. But this has degenerated. Corporate acquisitions of media outlets by non-media companies, deregulation by the FCC, and competition from cable networks undermined the integrity of television journalism. Today, news and entertainment are muddied together. News has lost its objectivity; instead, it's a commodity to be hawked and sold like peanut butter or Cheetos. Philosophers such as Jurgen Habermas have sociological explanations for this decline (see his excellent "The Structural Transformation of the Public Sphere".)

Much of Dr. Wolfe's analysis is consistent with tough no-nonsense non-partisan political critics such as Dana D. Nelson (see her excellent "Bad for Democracy") and Benjamin Ginsberg (author of the brilliant "The American Lie"). The picture is disturbing: apathetic citizens; disinterested voters; lack of competition for House seats in Congress; partisanship; gridlocked government; corruption. Wolfe introduces a new measure of democratic death: how little time opposition lawmakers are given to study bills before voting on them. For example, the 9/11 Commission issued a 244-page report; how long did members get to read this report before voting? Four hours. Dr. Wolfe sees political parties as losing influence and the ability to motivate people and rein in candidates, and he sees this as a bad thing, which is surprising to me. Other writers have come to similar conclusions about the decline of political parties. From my perspective, I had come to see political parties as being one of the major problems with America because they cause needless friction and partisanship. What's difficult for me to accept is that their breakdown is bad for the country; or, rather, that political parties in previous generations had some positive benefits that perhaps I might have overlooked? Regardless, I agree with Dr. Wolfe that American democracy has become dysfunctional, broken, gridlocked.

Where I disagree more strongly with Dr. Wolfe is what's to come. He thinks "democracy is here to stay" but it might not be a liberal democracy (in the larger sense I wrote about earlier). He thinks entrenched political parties will become the norm. He calls for a democracy protection movement (like a green movement) that, from my viewpoint, looks rather naive.

My outlook is more dismal. Fruitless wars, nuclear and biological terrorism, tyranny, absurd tax codes, global warming, social security underfunding -- these fellows are coming to town. And I don't think democracy is here to stay but it has already mostly vanished; what we have now is the appearance of a democracy. The ONLY possibility of saving America, in my view, is through serious non-partisan structural reform which requires a Second Constitutional Convention, but there is huge apathy and much cluelessness, and apathetic elites, and my logical and unfortunate prediction is that America is going down the tubes.

Thomas W. Sulcer
author of "Common Sense II: How to Prevent the Three Types of Terrorism" (Amazon/Kindle)

2 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars The New Politics of Democracy, December 9, 2006

By	Izaak VanGaalen (San Francisco, CA USA) - See all my reviews (TOP 500 REVIEWER)    (REAL NAME)

As a frequent contributor to publications such as "The New Republic" and "The American Prospect," it is no secret to which political party Alan Wolfe belongs. That he questions whether American democracy is still working may have to do with the fact that his party has been out of power for many years. (This book was written before the 2006 midterms.) In any case, he leaves himself open to that criticism.

In the current work, Wolfe is lamenting the current moralism and populism that has infiltrated political campaigns of recent years. The moral values and populist candidate appeals to the voters emotions rather than their economic self-interest. (Shades of "What's the Matter With Kansas?".) He calls this phenomenon "the new politics of democracy."

Wolfe claims, astonishingly, that we operate in a "democracy without information." There is now more information available to the voter than ever before, the problem is that voters have chosen not to use this information. Presumably if they had, they would have voted Democratic in Wolfe's narrative.

Wolfe decries the demise of political parties, and the increasing influence of interest groups. This has been especially true in the Republican-controlled Congress, and it is something Democrats must guard against. Fiercely partisan politics has also displaced the traditional influence of elites who were always believed to have the public good in mind. (This lost influence of elites was also lamented by Fareed Zakaria in "The Future of Freedom".) Also the rise of the New Media (internet, cable tv, etc.) tends to raise the emotional level of politics and at the same time undermine traditonal centers of authority and common ground.

All that being understood, it can be said in hindsight that the voters in the 2006 midterms have rejected the new politics of democracy. The moralism and populism was muted in the wake of recent scandals. The emotional appeal has not translated into competence and sound policy. The elections were not so much about values as about the results of six years of Republican mismanagement.

The answer to Wolfe's question, "Does Democracy Still Work?," is a resounding yes. The hope, however, is that the newly elected Democratic Congress refrain from similar corrupt practices that proverbially accompanies power and stick to the issues. One hopes also that Wolfe remain intellectually honest and hold them to the same standards.