Research Catalog

Title

Phantom democracy : corporate interests and political power in America / Carl E. Boggs.

Author

Boggs, Carl.

Publication

New York : Palgrave Macmillan, 2011.

Items in the Library & Off-site

Holdings

Details

Description

xvii, 302 p.; 22 cm.

Summary

In a powerful new book, Boggs traces the historical evolution of American politics by focusing on the gradual triumph of corporate and military power over democratic institutions and practices. The consequences of expanding United States global presence since World War II - involving an integrated and interwoven system of power based in the permanent war economy, national security-state, and corporate interests - has meant erosion of democratic politics, strengthening of the imperial presidency, increased corporate and military influence over elections and legislation, weakening of popular governance, and diminution of citizenship. The events of 9/11 and their aftermath, including the War on Terror, two lengthy wars and foreign occupations, new threats of war, and massive increases in Pentagon spending, have only deepened the trend toward ever-more concentrated forms of power in a society that ostensibly embraces democratic values. Such developments, Boggs argues, have deep origins in American history going back to the founding documents, ideological precepts of the Constitution, early oligarchic rule, slavery, the Indian wars, and westward colonial expansion.

Subject

• Business and politics > United States
• Corporate power > United States
• Business and politics
• Corporate power
• Political control & freedoms > USA
• Political ideologies > USA
• POLITICAL SCIENCE > Political Advocacy
• Political structure & processes > USA
• Politics and Government

Bibliography (note)

• Includes bibliographical references and index.

Processing Action (note)

• committed to retain

Contents

From Manifest Destiny to Empire * The Imperial Labyrinth * The Power Elite Today * The Many Faces of Corporate Domination * Medical Tyranny * An American Fascism * Postscript: Politics in the Nuclear Age€.

ISBN

• 9780230115743 (alk. paper)
• 0230115748 (alk. paper)

LCCN

^^2011005476

OCLC

694832934

Owning Institutions

Harvard Library