Dubbing the current state of American politics as "personal democracy" and suggesting that it is a devolution from the "popular democracy" of the past, Crenson and Ginsberg (both of the Department of Political Science, Johns Hopkins U.) argue that American political elites have found ways to achieve goals of revenue gathering, military enlistment, and program administration without engaging the active participation of average citizens. This in turn has led to the marginalization of ordinary Americans, turning them, in the government's eyes, from citizens to "customers" of governmental services who engage the political process on an individual rather than on a mass level. They suggest that this situation suffers from internal contradictions that make it inherently unstable, but offer little hope for the resurgence of collective action. Annotation c. Book News, Inc., Portland, OR (booknews.com) Read Less