--- product_id: 2730117 title: "Democracy Incorporated: Managed Democracy and the Specter of Inverted Totalitarianism" price: "215.77 DT" currency: TND in_stock: true reviews_count: 13 url: https://www.desertcart.tn/products/2730117-democracy-incorporated-managed-democracy-and-the-specter-of-inverted-totalitarianism store_origin: TN region: Tunisia --- # Democracy Incorporated: Managed Democracy and the Specter of Inverted Totalitarianism **Price:** 215.77 DT **Availability:** ✅ In Stock ## Quick Answers - **What is this?** Democracy Incorporated: Managed Democracy and the Specter of Inverted Totalitarianism - **How much does it cost?** 215.77 DT with free shipping - **Is it available?** Yes, in stock and ready to ship - **Where can I buy it?** [www.desertcart.tn](https://www.desertcart.tn/products/2730117-democracy-incorporated-managed-democracy-and-the-specter-of-inverted-totalitarianism) ## Best For - Customers looking for quality international products ## Why This Product - Free international shipping included - Worldwide delivery with tracking - 15-day hassle-free returns ## Description Democracy is struggling in America--by now this statement is almost cliché. But what if the country is no longer a democracy at all? In Democracy Incorporated , Sheldon Wolin considers the unthinkable: has America unwittingly morphed into a new and strange kind of political hybrid, one where economic and state powers are conjoined and virtually unbridled? Can the nation check its descent into what the author terms "inverted totalitarianism"? Wolin portrays a country where citizens are politically uninterested and submissive--and where elites are eager to keep them that way. At best the nation has become a "managed democracy" where the public is shepherded, not sovereign. At worst it is a place where corporate power no longer answers to state controls. Wolin makes clear that today's America is in no way morally or politically comparable to totalitarian states like Nazi Germany, yet he warns that unchecked economic power risks verging on total power and has its own unnerving pathologies. Wolin examines the myths and mythmaking that justify today's politics, the quest for an ever-expanding economy, and the perverse attractions of an endless war on terror. He argues passionately that democracy's best hope lies in citizens themselves learning anew to exercise power at the local level. Democracy Incorporated is one of the most worrying diagnoses of America's political ills to emerge in decades. It is sure to be a lightning rod for political debate for years to come. In a new preface, Wolin describes how the Obama administration, despite promises of change, has left the underlying dynamics of managed democracy intact. Review: Take the Professor’s course. - Sheldon Wolin is gone now and that is a shame for it would be such a delight to read his rendering of our very current time (2017) that so many others are trying to explain. I imagine a séance as one catches in old movies where the collective sit in a dark smoked filled room while the master/mistress seeks a trance… ‘Ah’ he is here. What great Master have you to say? “I told you so.” Publishing this work in 2008 he lays out the character of the American society and where its prided Democracy has gone; most recently under the reign of George I-II as he calls it but the roots travel far back to earlier administrations and their untruths and proclivities. What he finds is Democracy Incorporate, Inverted Totalitarianism, and Superpower – a contrived Imperial thrust housing perpetual wars. One thesis is: Concentrated corporate power and democracy are incompatible. These are heavy charges, is this not yet the world’s leading democracy? This work could have been edited to a tighter presentation but his language is so memorable that would have been a loss. Here he explains what we do sense has happened but can not quite grasp: “The crisis, it seems, is that there was no crisis. In its literal meaning a crisis is “a turning point.” Adapting the formulation “a turning point but no crisis” to the condition I have designated “inverted totalitarianism,” we might ask, why does the existence of that turning point go unrecognized? how are the facts of radical political change concealed when there is no evidence, say, of a coup or revolutionary overthrow? how can we recognize that the country is at the political turning point of inverted totalitarianism?” (pp. 211-212) "“The development that is emblematic of the economic polity is the extent to which finance has come to define politics. Millions of dollars from corporations are systematically poured into the legislative process and electoral campaigns. State actors have become dependent more on corporate power than on their own citizens. Even a citizen-army is becoming a thing of the past, replaced by professionals skilled in the latest weaponry developed by corporate technology. The military has been absorbed into the corporate economy (defense contracts, weapons procurement, retired generals become executives) and its culture.” (p. 589) The topic Superpower, incorporating Globalization and Militarization have become more recognized by the citizenry but here too you will delight in his analysis; other would prefer the title “Pax Americana” as a gentler cover, but that behavior he explains well. The original was published in 2008, indeed a crisis period as it has proven; re-released with a new preface by the author, 2010 and a new edition, with an introduction by Chris Hedges in 2017. The footnotes are as informative and entertaining as the text. The current administration is pushing the envelope right along and one can only hope its Superpower is somehow controlled. The bright side as Wolin would see it is that the citizenry does seem to be getting the message that we need to pay attention to where we are going. Take the Professor’s course! Review: Inverted Totalitarianism - Spread the word! - I had not read anything by Sheldon Wolin prior to this book, and I picked it up because I was intrigued by what was apparently his own invented phraseology - "inverted totalitarianism." With these two words, Professor Wolin gave a name to something that those of us who pay close attention to global political and economic trends have glimpsed on many occasions but could never quite see in full. Indeed, this subject is so new and so little explored that it would be best to view Professor Wolin's book as our first landing point on an as-yet-unexplored continent. The continent is a dark place where shadowy plutocrats, corporate oligarchs and political prostitutes who aspire to admittance in the plutocracy conspire to keep the reins of power and control out of the hands of "the people" and in the hands of those who abuse that power and control for their own selfish ends. Wolin is careful, however, not to mis-cast "the people" in the role of entirely innocent victim. As Wolin understands and explains, each of us has a responsibility to be curious enough about our world to peer through the fog of propaganda in search of elusive truths, and to assault the walls of secrecy that insulate the powerful few from the powerless many. This book should be viewed as a call to arms, even though, in a very real sense, the war is already over and we, the people, have already lost. The war for transnational corporate hegemony has been marked here at home by the relentless dismantling of an already shaky scaffolding of American liberal democracy. Being constructed in its place is a virtually impenetrable authoritarian fortress protecting (and shielding from view) an unholy alliance among self-serving economic elites, self-appointed intellectual elites and self-promoting politicians who feign statesmanship while leaving bewildered rank and file Americans standing on the platform as the prosperity train pulls away from the station. The importance of this book, and this line of inquiry, cannot be over-stated. It is not an entirely easy read, but that is because it is so densely packed with vital information - it's like eating an incredibly nutrient-rich energy bar for your brain. Pick it up and open your eyes to the real state of the world around you - if it doesn't cause you to jump into action, shame on you. ## Technical Specifications | Specification | Value | |---------------|-------| | Best Sellers Rank | #1,684,778 in Books ( See Top 100 in Books ) #136 in Political Freedom (Books) #166 in Fascism (Books) #1,532 in Democracy (Books) | | Customer Reviews | 4.5 out of 5 stars 305 Reviews | ## Images ![Democracy Incorporated: Managed Democracy and the Specter of Inverted Totalitarianism - Image 1](https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/81VUKfzfbyL.jpg) ## Customer Reviews ### ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ Take the Professor’s course. *by W***R on October 25, 2017* Sheldon Wolin is gone now and that is a shame for it would be such a delight to read his rendering of our very current time (2017) that so many others are trying to explain. I imagine a séance as one catches in old movies where the collective sit in a dark smoked filled room while the master/mistress seeks a trance… ‘Ah’ he is here. What great Master have you to say? “I told you so.” Publishing this work in 2008 he lays out the character of the American society and where its prided Democracy has gone; most recently under the reign of George I-II as he calls it but the roots travel far back to earlier administrations and their untruths and proclivities. What he finds is Democracy Incorporate, Inverted Totalitarianism, and Superpower – a contrived Imperial thrust housing perpetual wars. One thesis is: Concentrated corporate power and democracy are incompatible. These are heavy charges, is this not yet the world’s leading democracy? This work could have been edited to a tighter presentation but his language is so memorable that would have been a loss. Here he explains what we do sense has happened but can not quite grasp: “The crisis, it seems, is that there was no crisis. In its literal meaning a crisis is “a turning point.” Adapting the formulation “a turning point but no crisis” to the condition I have designated “inverted totalitarianism,” we might ask, why does the existence of that turning point go unrecognized? how are the facts of radical political change concealed when there is no evidence, say, of a coup or revolutionary overthrow? how can we recognize that the country is at the political turning point of inverted totalitarianism?” (pp. 211-212) "“The development that is emblematic of the economic polity is the extent to which finance has come to define politics. Millions of dollars from corporations are systematically poured into the legislative process and electoral campaigns. State actors have become dependent more on corporate power than on their own citizens. Even a citizen-army is becoming a thing of the past, replaced by professionals skilled in the latest weaponry developed by corporate technology. The military has been absorbed into the corporate economy (defense contracts, weapons procurement, retired generals become executives) and its culture.” (p. 589) The topic Superpower, incorporating Globalization and Militarization have become more recognized by the citizenry but here too you will delight in his analysis; other would prefer the title “Pax Americana” as a gentler cover, but that behavior he explains well. The original was published in 2008, indeed a crisis period as it has proven; re-released with a new preface by the author, 2010 and a new edition, with an introduction by Chris Hedges in 2017. The footnotes are as informative and entertaining as the text. The current administration is pushing the envelope right along and one can only hope its Superpower is somehow controlled. The bright side as Wolin would see it is that the citizenry does seem to be getting the message that we need to pay attention to where we are going. Take the Professor’s course! ### ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ Inverted Totalitarianism - Spread the word! *by D***R on January 25, 2014* I had not read anything by Sheldon Wolin prior to this book, and I picked it up because I was intrigued by what was apparently his own invented phraseology - "inverted totalitarianism." With these two words, Professor Wolin gave a name to something that those of us who pay close attention to global political and economic trends have glimpsed on many occasions but could never quite see in full. Indeed, this subject is so new and so little explored that it would be best to view Professor Wolin's book as our first landing point on an as-yet-unexplored continent. The continent is a dark place where shadowy plutocrats, corporate oligarchs and political prostitutes who aspire to admittance in the plutocracy conspire to keep the reins of power and control out of the hands of "the people" and in the hands of those who abuse that power and control for their own selfish ends. Wolin is careful, however, not to mis-cast "the people" in the role of entirely innocent victim. As Wolin understands and explains, each of us has a responsibility to be curious enough about our world to peer through the fog of propaganda in search of elusive truths, and to assault the walls of secrecy that insulate the powerful few from the powerless many. This book should be viewed as a call to arms, even though, in a very real sense, the war is already over and we, the people, have already lost. The war for transnational corporate hegemony has been marked here at home by the relentless dismantling of an already shaky scaffolding of American liberal democracy. Being constructed in its place is a virtually impenetrable authoritarian fortress protecting (and shielding from view) an unholy alliance among self-serving economic elites, self-appointed intellectual elites and self-promoting politicians who feign statesmanship while leaving bewildered rank and file Americans standing on the platform as the prosperity train pulls away from the station. The importance of this book, and this line of inquiry, cannot be over-stated. It is not an entirely easy read, but that is because it is so densely packed with vital information - it's like eating an incredibly nutrient-rich energy bar for your brain. Pick it up and open your eyes to the real state of the world around you - if it doesn't cause you to jump into action, shame on you. ### ⭐⭐⭐⭐ Putting It All Together *by J***R on June 2, 2011* At the end of a long, distinguished career as one of America's foremost political philosophers, Sheldon Wolin takes a hard look at the current political system in America and arrives at the profoundly uncomfortable conclusion that America has become a "managed democracy," where the will of the American people is effectively removed from political, social and economic decision-making. He sees the country firmly set on its way toward becoming a system of "inverted totalitarianism" where democratic institutions are only empty shells and "democracy' has become a myth which in practice is completely controlled by transnational corporate elites and their willing executioners. You think it can't happen here? According to Wolin, it already happened, if you carefully define what "it" is. The term "Inverted Totalitarianism" addresses the obvious rejoinder many people might make: Isn't America still a democracy? Where was the Machtergreifung--the coup or takeover of power? Wolin asserts that it does not require brown shirts marching in the streets for a totalitarian takeover to take place. In Inverted Totalitarianism, the Fuehrer is the product of the system (George W. Bush), not the architect; it does not celebrate the state but uses an informal network of corporate and political power. Inverted Totalitarianism does not mobilize its populations (the way communism and the Nazis mobilized theirs) with endless parades and speeches, but it keeps them quiet with Reality TV and consumer culture; it does not require unanimity among the people, but fosters a splintering of public opinion, etc. Still, the end result is a de-fanged democracy, laying prostrate before a mighty corporate elite in love with its own power. In fact, the author avers that there was no intention of abolishing democracy in America. "Inverted totalitarianism" is the result, the grand total, of an infinite number of small actions that have accumulated in American history in recent decades. He also delivers one of the best accounts I have read so far of the counter-intuitive alliance between the Christian Right and American corporate elites, who seem so different from each other on first look. Yet what these two groups share, according to Wolin, is a deep veneration for sacred texts and objects (the bible, the constitution, the market) and a dynamic vision to change current society for an idealized past/apocalyptic future that needs to be realized by radical means. If the reader already felt an inkling that something like this is going on, Wolin's book provides helpful categories of analysis to put it all together. According to Wolin, elitist republicanism and democracy always led an uncomfortable coexistence in American history. What tilted the country toward elite rule was "Superpower"--the vision of unlimited American military might abroad, which was created during World War II and fostered by the Cold War. "Superpower" demands unlimited freedom to act in secrecy by a small elite and can justify its actions with reason of state. 9/11 was the moment "Superpower" took over decisively. In the introduction to the paperback edition, Wolin states that Barack Obama sees himself as providing change in the sense of a corrective, not as a radical change of direction, which many of his supporters, and Wolin himself, would have liked. Therefore the 2008 elections did not signal a significant departure from managed democracy. Writing in the summer of 2011, it's hard for me to disagree with this assessment. On the other hand, this book will probably not change many people's minds. While Wolin relies on close reading of a few documents--such as the Federalist Papers--and makes excellent use of scholarly secondary literature in political science and history, his case is broad and assertive, rather than deep and persuasive. In order to fill in details the reader will have to consult other sources. For that reason, readers who already believe Wolin will readily agree with him, but others will demand more evidence and a more detailed account of how all of this came about. My tip: Look at the footnotes and keep reading. Wolin does not offer much in terms of how to change all of this. Writers such as Chris Hedges use him to argue that essentially all is lost and what is left is peaceful, physical resistance. Wolin does notice that Superpower has been waning lately and that more and more Americans simply don't want to sacrifice more at home for ludicrous adventures abroad. As 1989 showed, a whole political system can collapse at a moment's notice. First cracks in the coalition between "Tea Party" and corporate conservatives can also be observed. So maybe we should not despair yet and instead work at mobilizing a counter-public sphere and alternative centers of power. On the other hand, watching the daily news emanating from Washington, it's hard not to become deeply pessimistic. The book is a bit rambling and should have been cut by about 1/3, but like a doctor who diagnoses a disease, Wolin gives a name to phenomena many Americans have noted but could not quite put into context. For that reason the book provides a useful service and should be read widely. ## Frequently Bought Together - Democracy Incorporated: Managed Democracy and the Specter of Inverted Totalitarianism - Politics and Vision: Continuity and Innovation in Western Political Thought - Expanded Edition (Princeton Classics) - Fugitive Democracy: And Other Essays --- ## Why Shop on Desertcart? - 🛒 **Trusted by 1.3+ Million Shoppers** — Serving international shoppers since 2016 - 🌍 **Shop Globally** — Access 737+ million products across 21 categories - 💰 **No Hidden Fees** — All customs, duties, and taxes included in the price - 🔄 **15-Day Free Returns** — Hassle-free returns (30 days for PRO members) - 🔒 **Secure Payments** — Trusted payment options with buyer protection - ⭐ **TrustPilot Rated 4.5/5** — Based on 8,000+ happy customer reviews **Shop now:** [https://www.desertcart.tn/products/2730117-democracy-incorporated-managed-democracy-and-the-specter-of-inverted-totalitarianism](https://www.desertcart.tn/products/2730117-democracy-incorporated-managed-democracy-and-the-specter-of-inverted-totalitarianism) --- *Product available on Desertcart Tunisia* *Store origin: TN* *Last updated: 2026-10-24*