Description
Book SynopsisLooks at how Reaganism - the political philosophy of Ronald Reagan - has severely damaged representative democracy as created by the nation's founders. This title also takes the media to task, criticizing the dismal record of failing to investigate the political and corporate chicanery that has brought us to this pass.
Trade ReviewA serious and thoughtful critique of the state of democratic governance in the United States. Whatever one's position, Williams's Reaganism and the Death of Representative Democracy is an exceptional starting point for dialogue regarding the relative health of American democracy and what might be done to reinvigorate it. Political Science Quarterly Williams has sketched the broad outlines of our political condition and done America a service by trying to wake us up to the destructive dynamics of our polarized partisan politics today. The News & Observer In the 1980s, President Ronald Reagan initiated a policy of diminishing the power of the federal government. He encouraged individuals to propel economic growth and domestic stability, cut taxes, deregulated businesses and, in many other arenas, shifted power to the states. Williams, a professor emeritus of public affairs at the University of Washington and a fierce opponent of Reaganism, argues that, instead of furthering growth, this political doctrine transformed the Founding Fathers' ideal of a representative democracy into a government of the wealthy, for the wealthy. It left, he says, America vulnerable to decline at numerous levels. To effectively counter what he views as the greatest transformation in political philosophy since FDR, the author claims that the two earthquakes of September 11 and the Enron scandals exposed the structural weaknesses of the post-Reagan government policies and their movement toward plutocracy. Readers who fear, like Williams, that George W. Bush is continuing Reagan's trend will find much useful analysis here. Publishers Weekly
Table of ContentsIntroduction 1. Analyzing Federal Governance 2. Reagan and Reaganism 3. Governing in the American Republic 4. The Presidency and Congress in Decline 5. Why Federal Agency Management Matters 6. The Media: Linking the Politicians and the People 7. The Will of the People 8. The Costs of Federal Government Inefficiency 9. American Democracy Today
