ENTRENCHMENT

An examination of how democracies have had difficulty rising, have endured threats of all sorts (wars, economic crises), and now face new and perhaps even more ominous threats.

Starr (Sociology and Public Affairs/Princeton Univ.; Remedy and Reaction: The Peculiar American Struggle over Health Care Reform, 2011, etc.), the co-founder and co-editor of American Prospect magazine and winner of both the Bancroft Prize and the Pulitzer Prize, returns with a scholarly look at “entrenchment,” which he defines as “the making of changes [in our political and social systems] that then become hard to undo and that increase the resistance to stress at the foundations of society.” His organization is conventional and historical: He defines the terms, distinguishes between various methods of and paths to entrenchment, and examines the effects of power and wealth, stories of slavery and immigration, and the power of rules established by the powerful (rules designed to retain power—e.g., the cutting of taxes on the wealthy, the control of voting rights, the appointment of like-minded judges). The author also discusses the entrenchment of—and threats to—social welfare programs, and he comments on the notion that some deserve health care and public assistance while others do not. He also looks at two dire threats: “oligarchy and populist nationalism.” Although Starr’s principal focus is the history of the United States, he also leaps across the pond occasionally to comment about similar situations in the U.K., France, Scandinavia, and other countries dealing with similar issues. He initially avoids any specific references to the current political situation in America, but by the end, he lands on Donald Trump, who “embodies this fusion of oligarchy and populism and the simultaneous pursuit of enrichment and entrenchment.” The final pages are admonitory—and apprehensive—as the author expresses a sober concern about the survival of American democracy.

An erudite book featuring important concepts and convincing research, but it’s a text whose diction and political leanings will appeal primarily to like-minded academic readers.