Reviews for Politicians Don't Pander: Political Manipulation and the Loss of Democratic Responsiveness

The average rating for Politicians Don't Pander: Political Manipulation and the Loss of Democratic Responsiveness based on 2 reviews is 2 stars.

Review # 1 was written on 2015-12-13 00:00:00 Tony Murphy With so much of the debate about neo-liberalism in recent years focussing on mass global resistance (think Seattle, Prague, Genoa and the like) and global features (think, banking crisis leading to recessions, concentration of power in the hands of a few uber-wealthy individuals and corporation) this reminder that there is local struggle and success, that popular democracy is still feasible, is timely (although I suspect some tighter editing would have made it better - there are places where the bigger picture got lost in the detail, minutiae even). That said, the book fits a bigger political picture - both in terms of the work Wainwright does as editor of Red Pepper (I think Britain's finest activist magazine of the left) and over the years as an activist (see her work on industrial democracy - The Lucas Plan - and on work in the Greater London Council in the 1980s - A Taste of Power) in building a vision and practice of a democratic, activist, transformational left-wing politics. The issues that she is exploring here are vital in struggles for a more just society where the state and the economy serve the people. Essential reading (as is Red Pepper).

Review # 2 was written on 2012-02-04 00:00:00 Little Ave Reclaim the State: Experiments in Popular Democracy