this post was submitted on 21 Mar 2025
937 points (95.8% liked)
Memes
49052 readers
764 users here now
Rules:
- Be civil and nice.
- Try not to excessively repost, as a rule of thumb, wait at least 2 months to do it if you have to.
founded 6 years ago
MODERATORS
you are viewing a single comment's thread
view the rest of the comments
view the rest of the comments
Sheldon S. Wolin talked about the fact that the US system was a "managed democracy" and a form of "inverted totalitarianism" in his book Democracy Inc about twenty years ago. In a managed democracy the pretense of democratic voting is maintained, but the system is so heavily managed as to render voting ineffective and largely irrelevant. The US voting system is so heavily gamed that to expect the average US citizen to have any power through the ballot box is laughable.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Guided_democracy
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Inverted_totalitarianism
This is a pretty decent overview of the ideas in that book for anyone who is interested.