The Paradox of American Democracy

Elites, Special Interests, and the Betrayal of Public Trust

by John B. Judis

While acknowledging that they may be contrary to the American ideal, the author shows several examples in history where quantum leaps in American life have resulted from work done by elite groups such as those in the New Deal or in the Kennedy administration.

Available editions of The Paradox of American Democracy

	9780679432548, Hardcover, Random House Inc, 2000 $1.00 (Very Good ) Other copies of 9780679432548

	9780415930260, Paperback, Routledge, 2001 $1.96 (Good ) Other copies of 9780415930260

Publisher Notes

Washington is big business. The era of civic-minded captains of industry and serious think-tanks has given way to the heyday of K Street, home to the lobbyists who now spend $2.4 million a year on each member of Congress.

John B. Judis, a senior editor for the New Republic, conducts an instructive tour through this corridor of money and power in The Paradox of American Democracy-with eye-opening results. For example: Former foreign policy advisers now become lobbyists for foreign businesses. Former Senators call for privatizing social security while sitting on boards of investment banks that would benefit from the conversion. The bankers, lawyers, and business people who once devoted time to public service now confine their activity to lobbying for their firms.

The Paradox of American Democracy turns the conventional view of democracy on it's head. Judis shows that it's never been enough to have active political participation; American democracy has always depended on an

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