Mechanics of Power

The Mechanics of Power is particularly timely. Democracy is everywhere retreating in the face of advancing, resurgent autocracy
and oligarchy. Attempts to export democracy to Africa and Asia seem to have failed-colonies which achieved independence
under Fabian tutelage have opted for benevolent but often military. dictatorship. Variants of democracy in the U.S.A. and Australia
would horrify Burke and make de Tocqueville laugh .. The masses in general have shown themselves to be uninterested in the ideal of democracy.
All they desire is efficient Government, material prosperity, to be "left alone", and the politically active minority is governing in
spite of the people. The man in the street does not elect his rulers; they are chosen by a tiny handful of fellow rulers, past and present. Here,
Roy MacGregor-Hastie discusses the resulting implications and shows how the men who rule the five "nuclear nations"
achieved power, stressing the essentially undemocratic nature of the process. He is well qualified to do so, having observed the
process both as a student of politics and as a "political animal" -he was adopted as a prospective Parliamentary candidate when he was only 24 and has served as a foreign correspondent inside all the power blocs.