Captive Public

by Benjamin Ginsberg and Allen Ginsberg

Book Overview

No Synopsis Available.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0465008712
• ISBN13: 9780465008711
• Release Date: April 1988
• Publisher: Basic Books
• Length: 288 Pages
• Weight: 0.64 lbs.

Customer Reviews

Mass Organization Replaced By Technology In Rights Favor

Mass Organization Replaced By Technology Transforms US Electoral Dice To The Right This book by Benjamin Ginsberg goes into the structure of American democracy and compares it with Alexis De Tocqueville. Rather than a 1984 George Orwell totalitarian rule, what is portrayed is the outcome of De Tocqueville, an authoritarian rule by government ruled by public opinion. Anotherwards not public opinion subject to government, but public opinion subjected by itself in it's hold on government. The tail wags it's own chains. This book, written in 1986, is hardly outdated. It would have been nice if though it did enter up to our current right wing conservative rule of the Bush administration. There are many good points in this book that center on the idea that a window of opportunity has now closed in the United States. There was a time when policy could be changed for the masses, but this has now ended. The main problems are that man-powered political structure has been replaced by technology and finances. Money was always important, but it has changed to the point where money is the crucial factor in influencing public opinion, the popular vote and electoral votes needed, primarily for the conservative right. The technology has ceased the need for numbers of organizers to that of mass mailing, the hire of firms that perform mass telephone, radio, newspaper and TV advertisement that run into the millions of dollars, capital the corporate backed right can afford in a serious advantage over the working masses of the left. It looks as though, after all these years, the conservative Federalists have finally obtained the way to overcome their liberal and pragmatic opponents, the Jeffersonians. We have entered the dark period of American history. "The enormous infantry armies that dominated World War I battlefields have given way in importance to powerful modern weapons systems operated from electronic command posts by small groups of technicians . . the displacement of organizational methods by new political technology is that of a change is a shift from labor - to capital -intensive competitive electoral practices and has far-reaching implications for the balance of power among contending political groups . . .Indeed, the new technology permits financial resources to be more effectively harnessed and exploited than was never before possible. As a result, the significance of the right's customary financial advantage has been substantially increased. Money and the new political technology, not some spontaneous "shift to the right" by mass public opinion, were the keys to the 1978 and 1980 and the Republicans surprisingly strong showing during what amounted to an economic depression in 1982." "No political party is guaranteed victory, "nevertheless, the new technology loads the electoral dice in favor of the right. The expanding role of the new electoral techniques means that over the coming decades, groups closer to the political left will increasingly fi