The Semi-Sovereign People: A Realist's View of Democracy in America

Schattschneider sets out to build a framework for understanding political organization. He asks how the way a political system is arranged relates to the conflicts it contains, and what that arrangement means for democracy. His central claim is that the shape of politics follows from the struggles being fought, so we cannot grasp politics until we see what those struggles are about. He asks what actually makes things happen in American public life, and what change looks like while it is taking place. Rather than treating American government as a stalemate where nothing can be done, he presents it as a dynamic system in constant motion. The book also argues for a fresh public policy on politics itself, one that takes account of the forces at work beneath ordinary, quiet periods.