Sheldon S. Wolin (1922–2015)

This is a staggeringly detailed look at the destruction of any real democracy in the United States. I came at this book after having come across Chris Hedges ( without doubt the most important contemporary author writing about America in 2019)writing about it. One can see that if one had read the book during the mid 2000s when it originally appeared, it would have seemed apocalyptic in it's warnings. Sadly, Wolin pretty much hits it right on the head: democracy in America is a shallow, money beholden to huge corporations and rich people reality. The only thing that seems quaintly antiquated is when he attempts to differentiate between the Republican and Democratic national political parties, as is now obvious, they are all one big 'pro business' party for the rich.… (altro)

The author provides an acerbic and critical analysis of modern American politics and the Republican party in particular. He discusses the interlocking of American government with big business. This includes campaign finance and fraud, personnel exchange between the public and private sectors, economic segregation at universities and the renunciation of social welfare in favor of military spending. It all amounts to a depressing portrait of a plutocracy run by greedy billionaires for the benefit of a small elite. The author draws at some length on the history of democracy and the history of political thought to build his case.

Although there are flashes of brilliance in this book, there are also bad ideas and a lot of unclear writing. A particularly bad idea is the comparison of American politics to Nazi and Soviet totalitarian regimes, a comparison which just doesn't make any sense. The author fortunately lets go of this forced parallel towards the end of the book. He also has an idiosyncratic writing style which is quite undisciplined. He exaggerates and overextends some parts of his argument so strongly that it's hard to know how seriously one should take the other parts. The discussion is often confusing and seems overly pessimistic.

I can therefore not recommend this book unreservedly. The underlying idea might be both valid and critically important for the fate of democracy in the 21st century, but the author doesn't possess enough intellectual ability to carry his ambitious critical project to a convincing completion. Fukuyama's recent book "Political Order and Political Decay" is a stronger work on a similar subject with a broad international scope.… (altro)