By Invitation Only

This book is too good just for academics and pundits. For anyone concerned about declining rates of voter participation in America, this is must-read stuff. Schier is most provocative in how he argues that fundamentally our parties have too FEW resources, not too many. In particular, ever since parties lost the patronage and their ability to "mobilize" large swathes of the American electorate, more and more Americans have been dropping out because they are unwilling / unable to pay the costs of participation. The tradeoff, of course, which Schier could say more about, is that for those who DO participate, the ability to democratically influence policy has probably never been higher. Sure, lots of people voted in the 19th century, but their choices and the amount of policy they could really influence were very constricted. Today, more freedom - but also more responsibility, which creates a systematic bias in favor of the wealthy, the more-educated and the elderly. Schier doesn't really have a solution to this tradeoff (is there one?) but he sure nails the problem. The historical angle lends a fresh perspective to some familiar-sounding arguments. This book is particularly good read in conjunction with Michael McGerr's _The Decline of Popular Politics_ and Jonathan Rauch's _Government's End_.