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 | | The Irony of Democracy: An Uncommon Introduction to American Politics by Thomas R. Dye, Harmon Zeigler, L. Harmon Zeigler ISBN-10: 0155058002 ISBN-10: 0-15-505800-2 ISBN-13: 9780155058002 ISBN-13: 978-0-15-505800-2 Paperback 1999-06-21 Harcourt Find Lowest Price |
Editorials | ||
Book Description After 30 years in print, THE IRONY OF DEMOCRACY still offers the freshest, most eye-opening approach to American government of any text. In this millennial edition, the authors again present an unrepentant elitist approach to American democracy, contending that it is the elites, not the masses, that govern our country. | ||
Reviews | ||
Read it 30 years ago 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 claim they are democratic thinking. The authors interviewed many people and asked 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 asked 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 think that someone who clearly didn't think like them should be allowed to speak at their church. This simple example is not only frightening, but also explains a lot about the state of our democracy today. Rather than becoming 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 instead 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. | ||
Rescued from a garbage pile I found a copy of the second edition of this book in a garbage pile in Miami a few months after arriving from Cuba. I read it and found it impressive, for not only it explained what would be my future, but what I had left behind. In essence, it opened my eyes about "democracy in America", but at the same time, reassured me that I had made the right decision. Given the situation this country finds itself today, I decided to read it again, and here I am at Amazon.com shopping for the latest edition. | ||
Every American should read this book.. It was my textbook in American Politics class, and I found it very honest. That's a quality media lacks in the Corporate America. It explains 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 involve politics. Lots of great info, and very easy and fun to read. | ||
Republicans Read... Tearing through the apathetic and thoughtless reviews throughout this page prompted me to commnt on them. I read this book in one day and coming from a semi-wealthy household of 5 I appreciate how the author is truly brutally honest. The problems with our government revolve around the greedy, elitist conservatives who only wish to gain power in office to ensure a financially secure future. As for the true public discourse, this book not only outlines what the democratic rhetoric is but how it better serves for a basis of all injustices throughout the government. If you like Al Franken, you will surely love this book, filled with rich, semi-didactic information about our ailing country. | ||
Non-Voters Like Me Are Good for the Country! I read this book for an introductory political science course in junior college and I enjoyed it so much that, although I was not planning to be a political science major, I decided not to sell this book back to the college. This textbook is a thorough , well-written, and well-organized study of the basics of American democracy (or republicanism, if you will). The authors are brutally honest in their overview of the American democratic system. The irony of democracy?: "Elites-not masses-govern the United States" and, my favorite, "that democratic ideals survive because the masses are generally apathetic and inactive" (the masses breed intolerance, you see). Among the fifteen chapters is one entitled "Elite-Mass Communication: Television, the Press, and the Pollsters," which I found to be very interesting. | ||