Democracy for the Few

This is no ordinary textbook on American Government. DEMOCRACY FOR THE FEW is a provocative interpretation of American Government that you have likely not been exposed to in elementary school, high school, or other college courses, and certainly not in the mass media. This textbook shows how democracy is repeatedly violated by corporate oligopolies, but how popular forces have fought back and occasionally made gains in spite of the system. By focusing on the relationship between economic power and political power, discussing actual government practices and policies, conspiracies, propaganda, fraud, secrecy and other ploys of government and politics, this book stands apart in its analysis of how US Government works.

Table of Contents:
1. PARTISAN POLITICS. Beyond Textbooks. The Politico-economic System. 2. WEALTH AND WANT IN THE UNITED STATES. Capital and Labor. Capital Concentration: Who Owns America? Downsizing and Price Gouging. Monopoly Farming. Market Demand and Productivity. Desirable Unemployment. The Hardships of Working America. The Human Costs of Economic Injustice. 3. THE PLUTOCRATIC CULTURE: INSTITUTIONS AND IDEOLOGIES Corporate Plutocracy and Ideological Orthodoxy Left, Right, and Center. Public Opinion: Which Direction? Democracy: Form and Content. 4. A CONSTITUTION FOR THE FEW. Class Power in Early America. Containing the Spread of Democracy Plotters or Patriots? Democratic Concessions. 5. RISE OF THE CORPORATE STATE. War Against Labor, Favors for Business. Pliable Progressives and Red Scares. The New Deal: Hard Times and Tough Reforms. 6. 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. 7. THE U.S. GLOBAL MILITARY EMPIRE. A Global Kill Capacity. Pentagon Profits, Waste, and Theft. The Military's Hidden Diseconomies. Economic Imperialism. Intervention Everywhere. Global Bloodletting. 8. HEALTH AND HUMAN SERVICES: SACRIFICIAL LAMBS. The Poor Get Less (and Less). Social Insecurity: Privatizing Everything. How Much Health Can You Afford?. Creating Crises: Schools and Housing. "Mess Transit". 9. THE LAST ENVIRONMENT. Toxifying the Earth. Eco-Apocalypse. Pollution for Profits. Government for the Despoilers. An Alternative Approach. 10. UNEQUAL BEFORE THE LAW. Crime in the Suites. Class Law: Tough on the Weak. The Crime of Prisons. A Most Fallible System. Sexist Justice. The Victimization of Children. Racist Law Enforcement. 11. POLITICAL REPRESSION AND NATIONAL INSECURITY The Repression of Dissent. Political Prisoners, USA. Political Murder, USA. The National Security Autocracy. CIA: Capitalism's International Army or Cocaine Import Agency? Watergate and Iran-Contra. Homeland Insecurity. 12. Who Governs? Elites, Labor, and Globalization. The Ruling Class. Labor Besieged. Unions and the Good Fight. How Globalization Undermines Democracy. 13. MASS MEDIA: FOR THE MANY, BY THE FEW. He Who Pays the Piper. The Ideological Monopoly. Serving Officialdom. Political Entertainment. Room for Alternatives? 14. VOTERS, PARTIES, AND STOLEN ELECTIONS. Democrats and Republicans: Any Differences? The Two-Party Monopoly. Making Every Vote Count. Rigging the Game. Money, A Necessary Condition . The Struggle to Vote. Stolen Elections, Lost Democracy. 15. CONGRESS: THE POCKETING OF POWER. A Congress for the Money. Lobbyists: The Other Lawmakers. The Varieties of Corruption. Special-Interests, Secrecy, and Manipulation. The Legislative Labyrinth. Term Limits. Legislative Democracy Under Siege 16. THE PRESIDENT: GUARDIAN OF THE SYSTEM. Salesman of the System. The Two Faces of the President. Feds vs. States. A Loaded Electoral College. The Rise of Executive Power. The Would-be King. The Class Power Context. 17. THE POLITICAL ECONOMY OF BUREAUCRACY. The Myth and Reality of Inefficiency. Deregulation and Privatization. Secrecy and Deception, Waste and Corruption. Nonenforcement: Politics in Command. Serving the "Regulated". Public Authority in Private Hands. Monopoly Regulation Versus Public-Service Regulation. 18. THE SUPREMELY POLITICAL COURT. Who Judges? Conservative Judicial Activism. Circumventing the First Amendment. Freedom for Revolutionaries (and Others)?. As the Court Turns. Influence of the Court. 19. 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.

Review :
" the Parenti text challenges students, perhaps for the first time, to critically assess the dominant pluralist paradigm; that it invites students to consider the ubiquity of politics in their lives; that they confront the struggle and inevitable conflict between democracy and capitalism, which is usually ignored." "Years after they read it, some students have remarked that it was the most important book they've read in college." "?the Parenti text challenges students, perhaps for the first time, to critically assess the dominant pluralist paradigm; that it invites students to consider the ubiquity of politics in their lives; that they confront the struggle and inevitable conflict between democracy and capitalism, which is usually ignored." "a]the Parenti text challenges students, perhaps for the first time, to critically assess the dominant pluralist paradigm; that it invites students to consider the ubiquity of politics in their lives; that they confront the struggle and inevitable conflict between democracy and capitalism, which is usually ignored." "'the Parenti text challenges students, perhaps for the first time, to critically assess the dominant pluralist paradigm; that it invites students to consider the ubiquity of politics in their lives; that they confront the struggle and inevitable conflict between democracy and capitalism, which is usually ignored." "the Parenti text challenges students, perhaps for the first time, to critically assess the dominant pluralist paradigm; that it invites students to consider the ubiquity of politics in their lives; that they confront the struggle and inevitable conflict between democracy and capitalism, which is usually ignored." "Parenti is more readable than Noam Chomsky, and more serious than Michael Moore."