Buying Options

Kindle Price: $0.00

You've subscribed to ! We will preorder your items within 24 hours of when they become available. When new books are released, we'll charge your default payment method for the lowest price available during the pre-order period.

Update your device or payment method, cancel individual pre-orders or your subscription at
Your Memberships & Subscriptions

There was an error. We were unable to process your subscription due to an error. Please refresh and try again.

Enter a promotion code or Gift Card

Share <Embed>

Political Realism: How Hacks, Machines, Big Money, and Back-Room Deals Can Strengthen American Democracy by [Jonathan Rauch]

Follow the Author

Jonathan Rauch

Political Realism: How Hacks, Machines, Big Money, and Back-Room Deals Can Strengthen American Democracy Kindle Edition

by Jonathan Rauch (Author) Format: Kindle Edition

49 ratings

See all formats and editions

Price

New from

Used from

Kindle

"Please retry"

$0.00

—

Kindle
$0.00 Read with Our Free App

A free eBook that asks hard questions about why politics once worked, and how today’s politics do not.

What if idealistic reform itself is a culprit?

In Political Realism, Jonathan Rauch argues that well-meaning efforts to stem corruption and increase participation have stripped political leaders and organizations of the tools they need to forge compromises and make them stick. Fortunately, he argues, much of the damage can be undone by rediscovering political realism. Instead of trying to
drive private money away out of politics, how about channeling it to strengthen parties and leaders? Instead of doubling down on direct democracy, how about giving political professionals more influence over candidate nominations? Rauch shows how a new generation of realist thinkers is using timetested truths about politics and government to build reforms for our time.

Rich with contrarian insights and fresh thinking, Political Realism is an eye-opening challenge to today’s conventional wisdom about what ails American government and politics.

Print length

55 pages
Language

English
Publisher

Brookings Institution Press
Publication date

May 1, 2015
File size

471 KB
Page Flip

Enabled
Word Wise

Enabled
Enhanced typesetting

Enabled
See all details

Customers who viewed this item also viewed

Page 1 of 1 Start overPage 1 of 1

Jonathan Rauch
423
Kindle Edition
1 offer from $9.80
Jonathan Rauch
109
Kindle Edition
1 offer from $2.99
Jon Rauch
10
Kindle Edition
1 offer from $9.99
Jonathan Rauch
206
Kindle Edition
1 offer from $11.99
Serena Giusti
93
Kindle Edition
1 offer from $0.00
Douglas J. Den Uyl
2
Kindle Edition
1 offer from $0.00

Product details

ASIN ‏ : ‎ B00WNCUMEW
Publisher ‏ : ‎ Brookings Institution Press (May 1, 2015)
Publication date ‏ : ‎ May 1, 2015
Language ‏ : ‎ English
File size ‏ : ‎ 471 KB
Text-to-Speech ‏ : ‎ Enabled
Screen Reader ‏ : ‎ Supported
Enhanced typesetting ‏ : ‎ Enabled
X-Ray ‏ : ‎ Not Enabled
Word Wise ‏ : ‎ Enabled
Print length ‏ : ‎ 55 pages
Lending ‏ : ‎ Not Enabled

Best Sellers Rank: #11,480 Free in Kindle Store (See Top 100 in Kindle Store)
- #1 in Political Parties (Kindle Store)
- #2 in 90-Minute Politics & Social Sciences Short Reads

Customer Reviews:
49 ratings

About the author

Follow authors to get new release updates, plus improved recommendations.

Jonathan Rauch

Brief content visible, double tap to read full content.

Full content visible, double tap to read brief content.

At about age 20, I realized that (1) I didn't have the talent to be a musician, and (2) I didn't have the concentration to specialize. Naturally, I became a journalist. My first managing editor, Joe Goodman, at the Winston-Salem Journal, used to say: "Everyone has a story to tell; your job is to find it." In my books, I tell stories about Japan, free inquiry, government sclerosis, gay marriage, sexual denial, political realism, and--most recently--why life gets better after 50. I've won the National Magazine Award and some other prizes and been called (wrongly) "doctor" and "professor." To me, though, the highest honorific is: journalist. For my official bio: www.jonathanrauch.com.

Customer reviews

5 star		53%
4 star		25%
3 star		10%
2 star		3%
1 star		9%

How are ratings calculated?

Top reviews from the United States

There was a problem filtering reviews right now. Please try again later.

Adam Davenport Bradley 🎶

Everything Costs Something

Reviewed in the United States on March 15, 2018

Verified Purchase

The phrase "effective governance" bears a lot of the load of the argument, and its desirability treated as a given. I surmise that "effective governance" means (somewhat circularly) "that governance which strong party machines accomplish", but part of what got us into the present anti-institutional moment was the (not unwarranted) belief that parties and machines are effective self-dealers, often at the expense of "just governance". It is a Progressive given that "getting stuff done" is an intrinsic political good; to a Federalist, not so much. Wherever you stand on that spectrum, the tradeoffs this book illuminates are an important part of the conversation about what tradeoffs are necessary to actually achieve good governance

2 people found this helpful

Helpful

Alex Friedman

A great deal of explanatory power in a short book

Reviewed in the United States on August 15, 2021

Verified Purchase

The author makes a strong case in favor of transactional politics. The ability to bargain in private, and the empowerment of party leadership, are, rather surprisingly, the keys to a functioning republic. Also the price can’t be beat (!).

Helpful

Fontana

Interesting premise - but Rauch didn't actually sufficiently make his case

Reviewed in the United States on March 6, 2016

Verified Purchase

Interesting premise - "some graft is good" and political machines with their hidden inner workings and unregulated influence and power/control are preferred to some degree to alleviate the current political gridlock in Washington. While Rauch did an OK job shining a little light into some of the better functioning machines of recent American history and I was rooting for Rauch to find us a way out the current mess, I don't believe the author presented a complete or coherent enough base of evidence (or rationale) to make his case. An interesting read...but disappointing in the end, to me anyway.

2 people found this helpful

Helpful

Cristina reilly

Fantastic!

Reviewed in the United States on June 22, 2018

Verified Purchase

I first started reading Mr. Rauch's work in the Atlantic, and I was so interested in this premise that this book was eventually recommended to me. I have to say after reading that it was definitely a great choice. Concise and to the point, well-cited, this book provides a ray of hope for anyone who feels adrift in America's current political chaos. A word of caution; it can get a bit technical at times, so while I found it fascinating, many readers might find it's too dry. If nothing else, this book highlights the kinds of politicians a patriotic voter should avoid -- extremists. Altogether highly recommended for anyone who cares about American Democracy. Definitely worthy of five stars.

One person found this helpful

Helpful

LEM

Well worth it

Reviewed in the United States on October 7, 2021

Verified Purchase

Author presents a different idea of how to view the political mess that we seem to be entangled in. I had often wanted the reforms he talks about and had no idea that they might be the actual cause of how everything has gone bad anyway.

Helpful

Peter B Sperry

Interesting but will face stiff resistance from self righteous good government types.

Reviewed in the United States on May 2, 2015

Verified Purchase

Any political professional will nod their head in agreement as they read. Idealism is always the most potent enemy of pragmatism but pragmatism must ultimately prevail for government to succeed. Rauch does an outstanding job of detailing the unintended, but predicted, consequences of the long series of political "reforms" pursued over the past century. The only meaningful point he leaves out is that most of these reforms were in fact efforts to compel government to enact and implement a progressive policy agenda on the assumption that it must be what the people would want and support if only the politicians and special interests would get out of the way. As each reform fell short of producing the desired results (largely because the people were disinterested in or opposed to the progressive agenda) more and more "reforms" have been added. This ongoing process has eroded the functionality of government to the point it can no longer deliver either the always unrealistic progressive dream or even simply maintain social stability, which is all most people expect or want from it.

7 people found this helpful

Helpful

Greg Boles

Don't listen to Mr. Reynolds. He is not ...

Reviewed in the United States on August 29, 2016

Verified Purchase

Don't listen to Mr. Reynolds. He is not sufficiently well versed in history to understand Rauch's point. Mr. Reynolds should read Robert Caro's Master of the Senate or The Passage of Power to introduce himself to the realities of politics. No major reform has ever passed without some level of closed negotiations, pressure, and horse trading. Of course, I could be wrong. Perhaps Mr. Reynolds can give us an example of a major piece of legislation passed in the last 100 years without politics?

3 people found this helpful

Helpful

Johnson Lamb

This book makes some good points. But

Reviewed in the United States on August 29, 2016

Verified Purchase

This book makes some good points. But, did the author ever consider that the gridlock in government is intentional? The rich and powerful have fixed our government to work exactly the way they want it to. The government works fine for the richest 1%. It's the rest of us that get shafted.

5 people found this helpful

Helpful

Top reviews from other countries

F. Mari

3 stars because it is well written and persuasively argued ...

Reviewed in the United Kingdom on May 26, 2015

Verified Purchase

3 stars because it is well written and persuasively argued. Not more b/c I fundamentally disagree and I think the author tends to simplify-ridicule-blame political radicalism for our problems while denying it any virtue.

Politicking is compromising, sure, but not all in amiable to compromise. And in the U.S. One party is definitely more keen than the other about blocking every normal act of government... This is not really addressed either...