Synopses & Reviews
Synopsis
Part I: Democracy and Mass Society 1. Democracy: Components and Types
2. Mass Society Paradigm
Part II: Intensive Case Studies3. Immobilism in the French Fourth Republic
4. Singapore's Totalitarian Mass Society
5. Gridlock in Washington
6. Global Mass Society
Part III: Implications
7. Remedies for the Perils of Mass Society
Synopsis
Rolls out a new theory of democracy and presents reasons why democracies flounder
Exposes how constitutions can facilitate the rise of competitive political parties and meaningful elections
Applies the concept of mass society to the anarchic rise of globalization
Synopsis
Democracy is in crisis because voices of the people are ignored due to a politics of mass society. After demonstrating how the French Fourth Republic failed, wherein Singapore's totalitarianism is a dangerous model, Washington is enmeshed in gridlock, and there is a global democracy deficit, solutions are offered to revitalize democracy as the best form of government. The book demonstrates how mass society politics operates, with intermediate institutions of civil society (media, pressure groups, political parties) no longer transmitting the will of the people to government but instead are concerned with corporate interests and have developed oligarchical mindsets. Rather than micro-remedy bandaids, the author focuses on the need to transform governing philosophies from pragmatic to humanistic solutions.