"The Paradox of American Democracy is a penetrating examination of our democracy that illuminates the forces and institutions that once enlivened it and now threaten to undermine it.". "Judis revisits particular moments - the Progressive Era, the New Deal, the 1960s - to discover what makes democracy most efficacious and, consequently, most inefficacious. What has worked in the past is a balancing act between groups of elites - trade commissions, labor relations boards, policy groups - whose mandates are to act in the national interest and whose actions are governed by a disinterested pursuit of the common good. Judis explains how the displacement of such elites by a new lobbying community in Washington has given rise to the cynicism that corrodes the current political system."--BOOK JACKET.