best and most comprehensive explanation I've seen. The only things missing from that book IMO are stronger analyses of the effects of the decline of industrial unionism, of Republican disfranchisement legislation, and of developments in the media industry on democratic control of government. Corporate concentration, end of the "fairness doctrine", substitution of dumbed-down "infotainment" for real investigative journalism, and $200 million a month in bribes from lobbyists have replaced the fourth estate's influence on Congress.
The book explains how the first powerful element of the Federal government to be almost completely taken over by Republican corporate lobbyists was the Department of Defense, despite Dwight Eisenhower's warnings during the 1950s about the "military-industrial complex." One by one, other elements of government have fallen prey to similar greedy influences from other industries.
Here's part of an excellent review from an ordinary Amazon website visitor; Amazon also has excerpts from the book on the same webpage.
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From
http://www.amazon.com/Downsizing-Democracy-Sidelined-Citizens-Privatized/dp/0801871506 :
"Downsizing Democracy: How America Sidelined Its Citizens and Privatized Its Public; by Matthew A. Crenson, and Benjamin Ginsberg. Publisher: The Johns Hopkins University Press (October 1, 2002) Hardcover: 312 pages ISBN: 0801871506
The authors discuss and document ten points in each of ten chapters:
1) The tyranny of the minorities has reached its ultimate peversion--single individuals, well-educated, well-off, get what they want, and the poor masses lose the power that came from groups with diverse backgrounds.
...
3) Elections now feature only the intensely loyal minority from each of the two major parties--the bulk of the voters have dropped out and elections are thus not representative of the wishes of the larger community.
4) Patronage has changed, with corporations rather than citizens getting to feed at the public trough, and the focus being on influencing policy after election, never mind who the people elected. The authors also do an excellent job of discussing polling and the manner in which it misrepresents the actual concerns and beliefs of the people.
5) Three chapters--one called "Disunited We Stand", a second called "From Masses to Mailing Lists, and a third called "Movements without Members" all make more or less the same point, but in different ways: political mobilization--people actually joining, doing, writing, demanding--are out, and instead we have micro groups, sometimes actually limited to the employed staff of an advocacy group, that raise funds, take stands, and get what they want, without ever having actually mobilized people to come together in a political manner.
...
7) The authors do an excellent job of discussing how the out-sourcing of government functions to private enterprises undermines accountability and lead to severe abuse. Similarly, non-profits, including notional churches and other tax dodges, can enjoy enormous public subsidization in the way of tax breaks, while giving less than they should to the public treasury.
8) The author's end by asking "Does Anyone Need Citizens?" and the last two words in the book are "Who cares?" Today, the Administration's answer would clearly be "no", we don't need citizens. Unfortunately, the vast majority of the US public is both uninformed, and unengaged. Citizens have allowed themselves to be side-lined, and by this excellent account from the authors, should they choose to re-engage, they will have very hard work in front of them as they seek to overturn a half-century of deliberate ventures all seeking to reduce citizenship, increase bureaucracy, and reward corporate patrons of individual politicians who choose not to act in the public interest, but only their own."
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