Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #105734 in Books
• Published on: 2006-07-07
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Paperback
• 240 pages

Synopsis
Achieving mass democracy was the great triumph of the twentieth century. Learning to live with it will be the greatest achievement of the twenty-first century. A rising tide of discontent is posing a major crisis for systems of mass democracy: the evidence is clear to see in reduced turnout and party membership and in opinion surveys. The failures of politicians have played their part but, Gerry Stoker argues, equally important are the dysfunctional political stances and styles adopted by many citizens. Democratic politics, he argues, is doomed to disappoint because it involves collective decision-making, demands complicated communication and generally produces a messy compromise. One size fits no-one. So what is the solution? Stoker suggests that democracy - and the political class - must create a new politics, making it as easy as possible for as many people as possible to express and debate their political preferences.

From the Publisher
Winner of the Political Studies Association Book of the Year
Prize 2006 -

"Gerry Stoker's book is one of the most thought-provoking, accurate and
incisive accounts of the importance of politics ever produced by a UK
academic. It was the unanimous choice of the PSA jury as Book of the Year"
Professor Jon Tonge, Chair, Political Studies Association of the UK.

Customer Reviews

Offers potential for citizens to reclaim democracy... pity about the English!
With the ever increasing distance between citizens and politicians, fuelled by more and more centralisation removing meaningful participation in the political process, Gerry Stoker examines the background to that negative situation and offers a range of ways that could reverse the trend, but only if individuals take a little more responsibility and participate just a bit, as he accepts that few of us want to be seriously involved.

Unfortunately, readable though the book is, it would have benefited from some serious editing as the flow is constantly interrupted by the realisation that the tense is wrong, or the verb does not agree with the subject. Not fatal but irritating!