Democracy Incorporated, Sheldon S. Wolin
Democracy Incorporated, Sheldon S. Wolin
2 Rating(s)
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Democracy Incorporated
Managed Democracy and the Specter of Inverted Totalitarianism

Author: Sheldon S. Wolin

Narrator: Joe Barrett

Unabridged: 12 hr 23 min

Format: Digital Audiobook Download

Published: 09/30/2018


Synopsis

Democracy is struggling in America — by now this statement is almost cliche. But what if the country is no longer a democracy at all? In Democracy Incorporated, Sheldon Wolin considers the unthinkable: has America unwittingly morphed into a new and strange kind of political hybrid, one where economic and state powers are conjoined and virtually unbridled? Can the nation check its descent into what the author terms "inverted totalitarianism"? Wolin portrays a country where citizens are politically uninterested and submissive - and where elites are eager to keep them that way. At best the nation has become a "managed democracy" in which the public is sheperded, not sovereign. At worst it is a place where corporate power no longer answers to state controls. Wolin makes clear that today's America is in no way morally or politically comparable to totalitarian states like Nazi Germany, yet he warns that unchecked economic power risks verging on total power and has its own unnerving pathologies. Wolin examines the myths and mythmaking that justify today's politics, the quest for an ever-expanding economy, and the perverse attractions of an endless war on terror. He argues passionately that democracy's best hope lies in citizens themselves learning anew to exercise power at the local level. Democracy Incorporated is one of the most worrying diagnoses of America's political ills to emerge in decades. It is sure to be a lightening rod for political debate for years to come. The book is published by Princeton University Press.

Reviews

Goodreads review by John on January 18, 2012

Sheldon Wolin begins his book by looking at the effects that September 11, 2001 had on the public, and especially how those effects were refracted though the media. He suggests that the reaction was practically singular and unanimous: popular opinion was consolidated through media apparatus, disside......more

Goodreads review by Ian on January 23, 2020

Although I found the writing style somewhat academic and obtuse at times, I still must give this book 4 stars due to the sheer importance of what Sheldon Wolin is saying. Hopefully I am not dreadfully misinterpreting his message, but Wolin believes that the current state of American Democracy has mu......more

Goodreads review by Gordon on July 03, 2013

Of course, there are plenty of books on the best seller lists that track and analyze American politics from the standpoint of current events, but far fewer that really dig deep into how the paradigms surrounding democracy in America are changing us and how we relate to government itself. Sheldon S.......more

Goodreads review by Steve on December 28, 2019

The best analysis I've read explaining the political situation in America at the time it was written (2008). It's a shame that Wolin is no longer around to address subsequent events. How would he interpret, for instance, the recent resurgence of classic totalitarianism, and what does it mean for the......more

Goodreads review by Jeff on August 25, 2008

Despite the fact the theory set forth by the author describes what I have believed for some time has happened to my country, the journey he takes the reader on to defend his premise is very disconcerting indeed. From the beginning of the book, he compares The Triumph of Will, a pro-Nazi propaganda f......more