The Irony of Democracy: An Uncommon Introduction to American Politics
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- ISBN13: 9780495501237
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Product Description
While most American politics texts take up American politics from a pluralist perspective, THE IRONY OF DEMOCRACY: AN UNCOMMON INTRODUCTION TO AMERICAN POLITICS, Fourteenth Edition, approaches the theme by addressing the theme of elitism and contrasting it with democratic theory and modern pluralist theory. Its key question is, “How democratic is American society?”
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For the leader, the irony of democracy is that many “non-elite” members of society are politically apathetic and are therefore more prone to reject such democratic ideals as civil rights, women’s rights, etc…
The book is full of simple equations like this that for the most part go by the reader lacking any justification.
A particularly funny if not disturbing example is the author’s conclusion that somehow “the wealthy, free countries [non-communist] also have the most equitable distribution of income.” Yet one only has to ask the textile worker in El Salvador who makes 60 cents an hour making …shoes that this is not true, or look to our own state of affairs to see income distribution is looking more like an hour glass every year…P>But that’s the way democracy works in the most “wealthy and free” country in the world.
Now that’s ironic, but not the way the leader intends.
Reader’s Rating: 1 / 5
This book was used in an American Government class at my college. Basically, Dye and Ziegler take in American politics from the perspective of the Elitest Theory. Extremely appealing! Not only was this a fantastic textbook, it was very readable. A must!!!
Reader’s Rating: 5 / 5
Well, the seller had shipped it out only to have it shipped back to him. He offered generously to give me a refund on the shipping and gave me expedient. Additional than that it went all.
Reader’s Rating: 4 / 5
I read this book thirty years ago and it had a profound impact on me. I was glad to see it still is in print and has been updated so many times. The basic premise of this book today has not changed substantially from thirty years ago. There is a certain “sophistication” for lack of a better word, to be able to properly exercise democracy, which is what the authors want the readers to grasp. It is in this regard that they espouse an “elitist” theory of governance. They use many examples throughout the book to illustrate this simple concept. The one that comes to mind is how people are naturally “undemocratic” even though they aver they are democratic thinking. The authors interviewed many people and questioned them if they believed in freedom of thought, in freedom of expression and a huge majority expressed that they did (close to 90%). But when questioned if they thought it was OK for a person who believed in communism be allowed to speak at their church, then the majority didn’t reflect that a name who clearly didn’t reflect like them should be allowed to speak at their church.
This simple example is not only frightening, but also clarifies a lot about the state of our democracy today. Rather than apt more tolerent as a society, we seem to have become more and more intolerent, and it is indeed the few people “at the top” who somehow have the obligation keep it all together.
What makes this book especially relevent today, is the rise and (hopefully) fall of the politics of Karl Rove, a master at manipulating the undemocratic (authoritarian) masses in voting for our current President, with disastrous results. When the elites become master manipulators of divisions and intolerance as a replacement for of attempting to govern by consensus-building our democracy is in real peril. This book should be required reading for everyone in order to graduate from high school, in order to give people a realistic appreciation of how democracy really works.
Reader’s Rating: 5 / 5
It was my textbook in American Politics class, and I establish it very honest. That’s a quality media lacks in the Corporate America. It clarifies well why there is no democracy in America but Elitism (White-AngloSaxon-Protestant presidents who work for corporations) and how the corporations use mass media to control masses (mostly TV-because uneducated masses tend to watch TV a lot) How Electoral College does not let masses to occupy politics. Lots of fantastic info, and very simple and fun to read.
Reader’s Rating: 5 / 5