000			01689nam a2200181Ia 4500
999			_c9916 _d9916
005			20220302195311.0
008			200202s9999 xx 000 0 und d
082			_a320.2 MAC
100			_a"Macgregor-Hastie, Roy"
245		0	_aMechanics of Power
260			_aLondon
260			_bFrederick Muller
260			_c1966
300			_a189p.
520			_aThe 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.
650			_aPolitical Science
942			_cB _2ddc