Democracy Incorporated

Winner of a 2008 Lannan Notable Book Award, Lannan Foundation “[A] comprehensive diagnosis of our failings as a democratic polity by one of our most seasoned and respected political philosophers… Democracy Incorporated is a devastating critique of the contemporary government of the United States–including what has happened to it in recent years and what must be done if it is not to disappear into history along with its classic totalitarian predecessors.”–Chalmers Johnson, Truthdig “[Democracy Incorporated provides] a rare, chilling analysis of intellectual critics of democracy. If democracy means more than occasional elections and protection of those rights that are compatible with economic and political elites’ interests, Wolin’s analysis of our democratic predicament is shocking, solid, and fundamentally correct.”–C. P. Waligorski, Choice “Sheldon Wolin has produced an ambitious and broad-ranging book that examines the current state of democracy in America… Wolin argues that the unquestioned faith in the virtues of free market capitalism has dramatically narrowed the range of policy options that are on the table when debate turns to resolving the US’s ills…[T]his is a trenchant and powerful volume.”–Alex Waddan, International Affairs “Of the many books I’ve read or skimmed in the past seven years that attempted to get inside the social and political debacles of the present, none has had the chilling clarity and historical discernment of Sheldon S. Wolin’s Democracy Incorporated. Building on his fifty years as a political theorist and proponent of radical democracy, Wolin here extends his concern with the extinguishing of the political and its replacement by fraudulent simulations of democratic process.”–Jonathan Crary, Artforum “[W]e need to understand the deep roots of our present troubles ourselves and Wolin’s book is an excellent beginning.”–Toby Grace, Out in Jersey “Democracy Incorporated acts as an antidote to unconstrained corporate power and an elitist obsession and should be widely read by all those who cherish democracy and civil liberty.”–Shih-Yu Chou, Political Studies Review “[Wolin] provides a rich narrative of the struggle of elites and the demos from ancient Greece through the writing of the U.S. Constitution and into the present, and the corporate-managed politics that has emerged will survive no matter which party holds Congress or the presidency.”–Coleman Fannin, Journal of Church and State “Despite being written shortly before both the financial crisis and the Obama victory, the main lineaments of his analysis are still alarmingly cogent.”–Tom Angier, Marx & Philosophy Review of Books

Sheldon S. Wolin (1922-2015) was professor emeritus of politics at Princeton University. His books include Politics and Vision and Tocqueville between Two Worlds (both Princeton).