The Democratic Debate: American Politics in an Age of Change

by Bruce Miroff, Todd Swanstrom, Raymond Seidelman

Book Overview

The Democratic Debate examines the struggle between the elite and popular models of democracy which, the authors argue, have alternated as the dominant vision in America since its founding. The text... This description may be from another edition of this product.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 1133604390
• ISBN13: 9781133604396
• Release Date: January 2014
• Publisher: Cengage Learning
• Length: 512 Pages
• Weight: 1.70 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.9" x 7.3" x 9.1"

Customer Reviews

The Democratic Debate... Theories of Elitism

The book was originally purchased for a college course in Political Science. After having read through several chapters already it has been made known very clearly what the authors opinions of the American systems of democracy. It starts with the basic concepts of describing to you the different types of democracy (popular and eltist) and how they both shaped the form of democracy we know today. Through out the entire book you are presented with information and facts on the government regarding its elitism. Not the traditional government in the sense that it doesn't describe in great detail how our government works, the different branches of government etc. The 3rd chapter presents some information, not seen in most other books, that I found relatively interesting. I won't go into to great detail on the chapter and spoil it for you, but if you're interested in learning about the darker side of Wal-Mart this books contains a whole chapter on it. Would I recommend it for just regular reading material? Probably not unless you're extremely interested in government and politics it's not set up in the story book manner. But is it a good textbook? Well that depends if you're looking for information on the government presented in a new light but with little to no description of how the government actually works, then sure. But if you're looking for the simple high school textbook seen in you're government class then this is definately not a book for you. If you take an interest in what might be considered a conspiracy theory or "the darker side" of the American government then this might be the book you're looking for. The last question to be answered would probably be is it an easy read? I would have to say ys it is because it's not the most difficult read I have ever had (textbook wise of course) but it is no where near the easiest. There's not a huge usage of difficult words and things are laid out relatively well so that the information you want or need isn't hidden somewhere within gobs of text. I hope that I have done a good job of answering any or all questions you may have of this book, if not feel free to contact me.

Excellent Text

This text provides a unique and important introduction to American politics. Its central theme--that the anti-federalist discontent with the U.S. Constitution established conflict patterns that occur even in the present day--offers a unique way to analyse American politics. This approach easily connects students with on-going political events. E.g. Arguments today about the Iraq War are reflected in Anti-Federalist concerns about a large military establishment. The authors create a paradigm to carry out their analysis--popular democracy, which reflects fundamentally the anti-federalist view, and elite democracy for the federalist perspective. Popular democrats are more trusting of mass input while elite democrats a skeptical of the fitness of masses to govern themsleves, placing more faith in experts to filter views from the public. While the authors' bias tends in the popular democratic direction, that bias creates a balancing effect, because conventional interpretations of American conflict, whether in the media or in academe, fundamentally come from an elite democratic perspective. The authors do, however, establish the point that both perspectives are important because they form the grist of American political conflict. Examples in the book will stimulate discussion--the Wall-Mart example from Chapter 3 is always a grabber--as do the numerous cartoons sprinkled throughout the text. The charts and graphs clearly link to ideas in the text and offer numerous opportunities for "teaching moments" which allow students to develop skill at reading and interpretting displays of quantitative data. I have used this book since in came out in a first edition and find it works exceptionally well with a suplemental text (e.g. Morris Fiorina, CULTURE WAR?), which can can allow for deeper investigation of the ideas presented in the book. It's a wonderful teaching text.

A GOOD TEXTBOOK

I've studied under Dr. Miroff, and let me say, the man definitely knows what he's talking about. This book proves that too, and it is written in plain English, and ties everything together nicely.