The greatest threat to American democracy is the voting public. Candidates for political office, organized interests, and political parties are often blamed for the ills of American democracy, but this book places the focus on the core issue in American politics: a disengaged, demanding, and often contradictory voting public. Structural reforms such as the direct primary, term limits, and campaign finance regime reforms make the problems worse rather than better because these structural reforms fail to address core issues that disengage the voting public from republican politics.

Chapman Rackaway is professor of political science at Fort Hays State University.

Chapter 1: Sowing the Seeds of Civic Failure
Chapter 2: A Primer on Republican Democracy
Chapter 3: Taking the Parties Out
Chapter 4: The Effects of Partisan Decline
Chapter 5: The Semi-Sovereign Media
Chapter 6: The State of the American Voter
Chapter 7: The Dream and the Nightmare of Term Limits
Chapter 8: The Promise and the Despair of Campaign Finance Reform
Chapter 9: Leading By Following, or The Unreasonable Expectations on the Political Class
Chapter 10: Look Forward, Angel
Chapter 11: A Pathway to American Revival