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Rating: 
Summary: ironic indeed...
Review: For the author, the irony of democracy is that many "non-elite" members of society are politically apathetic and are therefore more prone to reject such democratic ideals as civil rights, women's rights, etc...The book is full of simple equations like this that for the most part go by the reader without any justification. A particularly funny if not disturbing example is the author's conclusion that somehow "the wealthy, free countries [non-communist] also have the most equitable distribution of income." Yet one only has to ask the textile worker in El Salvador who makes 60 cents an hour making ...shoes that this is not true, or look to our own state of affairs to see income distribution is looking more like an hour glass every year...P>But that's the way democracy works in the most "wealthy and free" country in the world. Now that's ironic, but not the way the author intends.
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Summary: Non-Voters Like Me Are Good for the Country!
Review: 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.
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Summary: Should be required reading in government schools
Review: This book came to my attention as I was studying for my BA in Political Science and has been one of the the foundations for my political perspective ever since. Some of the other reviews really don't get it, but it is really pretty simple and pretty disturbing 1. this is a republican form of government, not a pure democracy 2. any move towards a pure democracy usually comes at the expense of liberty, which is why our founding fathers set the system up as they did 3. the average guy on the street, if given the chance, would be motivated to actually vote away the bill of rights most likely because he is an ignorant product of government schooling. this is the most disturbing fact in the book and supported with more than adequate research - that our democracy actually has more support within what are commonly called elite groups than it has among the "common" man 4. despite what the left wing pundits say, having a multiplicity of players in the political game (including corporations) is a desirable thing because the competing elites tend to check and cancel each other out. This is called the theory of democratic pluralism. 5. told you it was easy, now comes the hard part ending the influence of the teacher's union on national politics
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