Democracy Incorporated

Managed Democracy and the Specter of Inverted Totalitarianism

By: Sheldon S. Wolin

Narrated by: Joe Barrett

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.

©2008 Princeton University Press (P)2010 Redwood Audiobooks

Critic reviews

"Sheldon Wolin has produced an ambitious and broad-ranging book that examines the current state of democracy in America.... Wolin argues that the unquestioned faith in the virtues of free market capitalism has dramatically narrowed the range of policy options that are on the table when debate turns to resolving the US's ills... [T]his is a trenchant and powerful volume." (Alex Waddan, International Affairs)

"As we've come to expect from Sheldon Wolin, a tightly argued and deeply revealing book about the dangers of unconstrained capitalism for our democracy." (Robert B. Reich, Professor of Public Policy, University of California, Berkeley; former U.S. Secretary of Labor)

Almost great

The book has excellent analysis of both past liberalism and current (inverted) totalitarianism, but lacks connective tissue between the two

Good entertainment value

Fun to listen to in the car. Good content and good delivery means you won't ever be board. I recommend.

A Must Read For ALL Citizens of Democracy!

Loved the Narrator! I believe he captured the Author's inflections & intimations on the various emphasis. This body of work offers much for one to contemplate in the truest aspirations for a pure democracy, if even such an organism exists.

Eye opener

A thoughtful look at our governmental system, that should give us pause when considering today's events.

THE LIGHT IS DAWNING.

Until 9/11 I wasn't a bit interested in history or politics but that event shocked me utterly. I decided to read up on terrorism to determine the answer to the question put forth by President Bush, "why do they hate us?", followed by his advice to the populace, "go out and shop."

After many many books which took me all over the globe, I finally got the answer in Democracy Incorporated: Managed Democracy and the Specter of Inverted Totalitarianism. Democracy in America is dead of dying, and no one is looking out for the 'little guy' who seems oblivious to the fact that his freedoms and rights are being, or already are eroded.

I discovered what the U.S. was up to in Afghanistan prior to 9/11 (see Charlie's War), and the whole world saw what happened in Iraq - 100,000 U.S. soldiers dead already. Meanwhile, Wall Street and the shadow banking system confiscated the wealth of the nation and assigned it to themselves while the 'little guy' suffers.

More ominous still, the world is at the mercy of the richest most powerful totalitarian regime in history. I am scared!