The Racket and the Answer: The Representative System and the Democratic Alternative

By Ted Aranda

"The Athenians." This was the term Thucydides used most often when referring to the sovereign at Athens. For the collective citizenry--the demos--ruled in this ancient state. Two and a half millennia later, in the United States and other liberal-representative countries, we cannot say the same. We Americans--the 99%--clearly do not rule in our own country. The notion that we live in a democracy is a patent absurdity. It is the 1% and their minions who are the masters of the game being played.The political system currently prevailing in the Western world is the product of the great European revolutions of the 17th and 18th centuries. The first of these, the English Revolution, effectively toppled the monarchy and raised the parliamentary class to power. The so-called American Revolution merely instituted, on this side of the Atlantic, a new-fangled variant of the oligarchical British Constitution.The radical reformers of the Progressive Era were the first Americans to see the necessity of overturning the elitist form of government established in 1787. Today that necessity is again being widely and deeply felt. In The Racket and the Answer, historian and political activist Ted Aranda examines the all-important concepts/phenomena of democracy and revolution in historical perspective, thereby helping us to see as clearly as possible what we now need to do.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 1475270542
• ISBN13: 9781475270549
• Release Date: May 2012
• Publisher: CreateSpace Independent Publishing Platform
• Length: 298 Pages
• Weight: 1.14 lbs.
• Dimensions: 9.0" x 0.7" x 6.0"