Entrenchment: Wealth, Power, and the Constitution of Democratic Societies (Hardcover) (ISBN-13: 9780300238471)

An investigation into the foundations of democratic societies and the ongoing struggle over the power of concentrated wealth

Much of our politics today, Paul Starr writes, is a struggle over entrenchment--efforts to bring about change in ways that opponents will find difficult to undo. That is why the stakes of contemporary politics are so high. In this wide-ranging book, Starr examines how changes at the foundations of society become hard to reverse--yet sometimes are overturned. Overcoming aristocratic power was the formative problem for eighteenth-century revolutions. Overcoming slavery was the central problem for early American democracy. Controlling the power of concentrated wealth has been an ongoing struggle in the world's capitalist democracies. The battles continue today in the troubled democracies of our time, with the rise of both oligarchy and populist nationalism and the danger that illiberal forces will entrench themselves in power. Entrenchment raises fundamental questions about the origins of our institutions and urgent questions about the future.

Author: Paul Starr
ISBN-10: 0300238479
ISBN-13: 9780300238471
Publisher: Yale University Press
Language: English
Published: 05/21/2019
Pages: 280
Format: Hardcover
Weight: 1.30lbs
Size: 9.30h x 6.20w x 1.10d

Review Citation(s):
Kirkus Reviews 05/01/2019
Choice 10/01/2019