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Democracy for the few /

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"Reacting to the mainstream tendency to turn every vice into a virtue, left critics of the status quo have felt compelled to turn every virtue into a vice. Thus they have argued that electoral struggle is meaningless, that our civil liberties are a charade, that federal programs for the needy a...

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Bibliographic Details
Main Author: Parenti, Michael, 1933- (Author)
Format: Book
Language:English
Published: Boston : Bedford/St. Martin's, [2002]
Edition:7th ed.
Subjects:
United States > Politics and government > 1945-1989.
United States > Politics and government > 1989-
Elite (Social sciences) > United States.
Political participation > United States.
États-Unis > Politique et gouvernement > 1945-1989.
États-Unis > Politique et gouvernement > 1989-
Élite (Sciences sociales) > États-Unis.
Participation politique > États-Unis.
Elite (Social sciences)
Political participation.
Politics and government
United States.
Since 1945
Table of Contents:
  • Partisan Politics
  • Beyond Textbooks
  • The Politico-Economic System
  • Wealth and Want in the United States
  • Capital and Labor
  • Accumulation and Expansion
  • Who Owns America?
  • Corporate Concentration
  • Monopoly Farming
  • Downsizing and Downgrading
  • Profit-Price Inflation
  • Market Demand and Human Need
  • Productivity: A Mixed Blessing
  • "Desirable" Unemployment
  • The Hardships of Working America
  • The Human Costs of Economic Injustice
  • The Plutocratic Culture: Institutions and Ideologies
  • Rule by Corporate Plutocracy
  • Promoting Ideological Orthodoxy
  • Right, Left, and Center
  • Public Opinion: Which Direction?
  • Democracy: Form and Content
  • A Constitution for the Few
  • Class Power in Early America
  • Containing the Spread of Democracy
  • Fragmenting Majority Power
  • Plotters or Patriots?
  • Democratic Concessions
  • Rise of the Corporate State
  • Serving Business: The Early Years
  • The War against Labor
  • Law in the Service of Business
  • The Not-So-Progressive Era
  • War and Red Scares
  • The New Deal: Hard Times and Tough Reforms
  • Politics: Who Gets What?
  • Welfare for the Rich
  • Federal Bailouts, State and Local Handouts
  • Taxes: Helping the Rich in Their Time of Greed
  • Unkind Cuts, Unfair Rates
  • Deficit Spending and the National Debt
  • Some Hidden Deficits
  • Military Empire and Global Domination
  • A Global Kill Capacity
  • Military Waste and Fraud
  • Pentagon Profits
  • The Military's Hidden Diseconomies
  • Economic Imperialism
  • The Terror State
  • Health, Environment, and Human Services: Sacrificial Lambs
  • The Poor Get Less (and Less)
  • Social Insecurity: Privatizing Everything
  • How Much Health Can You Afford?
  • Buyers Beware, and Workers Too
  • Creating Crises: Schools and Housing
  • "Mess Transit": What's Good for General Motors
  • Toxifying the Earth
  • Eco-Apocalypse
  • Government for the Despoilers
  • Unequal before the Law
  • Crime in the Suites
  • Class Law
  • The "Tough on Crime" Craze
  • The Crime of Prisons
  • The Guilty Innocent
  • Sexist Justice
  • The Victimization of Children
  • Bedroom Police
  • Racist Law Enforcement
  • Political Repression and National Insecurity
  • The Repression of Dissent
  • Political Prisoners, USA
  • Political Murder, USA
  • Cozy with Right-Wing Violence
  • The National Security Autocracy
  • CIA: Capitalism's International Army or Cocaine Import Agency?
  • Watergate and Iran-Contra
  • Who Governs? Elites, Labor, and Globalization
  • The Ruling Class
  • Labor Besieged
  • Unions and the Good Fight
  • Globalization, WTO, and the End of Democracy
  • Mass Media: For the Many, by the Few
  • He Who Pays the Piper
  • The Ideological Monopoly
  • Official Manipulation
  • Political Entertainment
  • Room for Alternatives?
  • Elections, Parties, and Voters
  • Republicrats and Demopublicans
  • The Two-Party Monopoly
  • Proportional Representation: Making Every Vote Count
  • Rigging the Game
  • Money: A Necessary Condition
  • The Struggle to Vote
  • Voter "Apathy" and Participation
  • Democratic Input
  • Congress: The Pocketing of Power
  • A Congress for the Money
  • Lobbyists: The Other Lawmakers
  • Grassroots Lobbying
  • Helping Themselves: The Varieties of Corruption
  • A Special-Interest Committee System
  • Security, Secrecy, and Fast Track
  • The Legislative Labyrinth
  • Term Limits
  • A Touch of Democracy
  • The President: Guardian of the System
  • Salesman of the System
  • The Two Faces of the President
  • The President's Systemic Role
  • A Loaded Electoral College
  • The "New Federalism" Ploy
  • The Growth of Presidential Power
  • The Would-Be King
  • The Conservative Context
  • The Political Economy of Bureaucracy
  • The Myth and Reality of Inefficiency
  • Deregulation and Privatization
  • Secrecy, Deception, and Corruption
  • Bureaucratic Action and Inaction
  • Serving the "Regulated"
  • Public Authority in Private Hands
  • Monopoly Regulation versus Public-Service Regulation
  • The Supremely Political Court
  • Who Judges?
  • Conservative Judicial Activism
  • Circumventing the First Amendment
  • Freedom for Revolutionaries?
  • As the Court Turns
  • Influence of the Court
  • Democracy for the Few
  • Pluralism for the Few
  • The Limits of Reform
  • Democracy as Class Struggle
  • The Roles of the State
  • What Is to Be Done?
  • The Reality of Public Production.