American Democracy In Peril Summary

The United States is described as the "greatest democracy" in the world, but when one looks at where the American governments stands on press freedom, campaign finance and recent propaganda, some will suggest that America is more like an oligarchy. In the book “American Democracy in Peril” by William E Hudson, the author makes a significant point in regarding to Chapter 6 “The Privileged Position in Business” he believes to be the central assumption of the Pluralist description of American politics and that one can indeed identify a dominant group in our politics: business (Hudson,2013 pg.223). “Hudson point outs the people who control the large business corporations dominate our political processes and largely control the public policy outcomes”

227). Hudson argues that the pluralist theory is wrong and that pluralist group theorists would make people believe, the groups’ representativeness instead, it is the extent to which they represent one societal interest: business (Hudson,2013 pg. 227). There are many interest groups but the majority of them are participating in lobbying for business. An example of this would be ,200 largest American corporations have worked effectively to promote the business-friendly policies of tax cuts, reduced business regulations, globalization and put to barriers to the union Hudson,2013 pg.

He sets out four ways in which it is a threat. . First the range of political interests in society and not equally represented. Business always persuade people to overlook business’s privileged position by equating that position with the preservation of democracy (Hudson,2013 pg 243). In addition, people associated with non-business related interest group are overlooked because business has money and therefore more power to persuade politicians. “Second, business molds public opinion to keep any challenge to its privileged position of the political agenda” (Hudson,2013 pg 244). It promotes silence on significant issues of political-economic organization that might raise questions in people’s minds about the influence of money on American Democracy. Such as issues as how much corporation should have, the roles of labor unions, healthcare, and education funding are deemed too radical to serious discussion in newspapers, television, and schools. Corporations ensure journalists who inquire too deeply into politics and raise questions about business position in society will not see their stories to the masses and that journalist’s job is to keep corporation happy but reporting issues that are irrelevant. Third, business power undermines the development of aspect of democracy. Fourth, “business power is a threat to democracy because of a new divergence between the economic interests of business