The Democracy Trap

Publishers Weekly - Publisher's Weekly

The ``democracy trap'' of the title refers to the false belief that with the collapse of the Iron Curtain we are automatically moving toward a democratic world order. Despite its progressive aura, this political manifesto betrays profoundly anti-democratic sentiments. A RAND Corporation analyst and former CIA forecasting chief, Fuller ignores the agency's well-publicized history of subverting democratic movements around the world. Positing an underclass in the U.S. as more or less inevitable, the book calls for state-run work programs to ``recruit out of it those individuals who show the necessary talent and will.'' Fuller scoffs at ``more money for education as the means to bandage all our social wounds.'' He caricatures the ecology and animal rights movements in terms of ``misplaced sentimentality.'' He suggests the introduction of ``sin taxes'' on ``socially harmful . . . media'' like pornography or romanticization of drugs, with screening to be done by state-elected review boards. In general, he purveys the old whine of Cold War ideology in a new bottle. (Jan.)