Politics by Other Means: Politicians, Prosecutors, and the Press from Watergate to Whitewater

by Martin Shefter and Benjamin Ginsberg

Book Overview

In a far-reaching shift of the political landscape, contenders now seek to discredit or take hostage their opponents rather than to expand the electorate or otherwise compete for votes.

In this new edition, which includes a full chapter on the politics of Bush v. Gore, the authors discuss the long-term significance of the decline of electoral competition: voters are increasingly alienated, the government's effectiveness is weakened, and the...

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0393977633
• ISBN13: 9780393977639
• Release Date: September 2002
• Publisher: W. W. Norton & Company
• Length: 268 Pages
• Weight: 0.55 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.7" x 5.5" x 8.2"

Customer Reviews

Politics by Other Means

This book is very provocative, insightful, and even rather disheartening. It does a great job breaking down the ways that political parties and the branches of the American government function and interact. The authors make a very bold claim that America has descended into a state of "pseudo-" or "semi-democracy," and they substantiate this claim with very pertinent and convincing evidence. Much of the political literature I've experience has been bogged down with political biases of the respective authors; but this book fortunately supersedes political ideology and simply tells it like it is. In my opinion, this should be read by every American.

the political shift

This was an excellent book. The authors took an extensive look at the shift in the approach to politics today and examined how the shift stems out of history; including references to political parties and the media. The book explains, in an insightful way, how the current focus on prosecution of political figures has contributed to electoral decay. This book includes fascinating insight into the current political situation and how we have arrived at this point. I highly recommend it to anyone who is interested in why our politics seems to have decayed to the negative state it is at now.