ABSTRACT
American society changed in rapid and profound ways after World War II. The population doubled, its growth fueled especially by the postwar baby boom. Ours is an age of immobilism in which thousands of social and economic forces are locked in escalating political stalemate. The decentralized, ad hoc capture and reformulation of the elements of the process were the dominant dynamics of change in postwar American politics. The only truly effective action in a democracy is collective action. Collective action has never been easy under the American Constitution; now it is the rarest of political occurrences. Democratic politics is supposed to be about making public arguments and persuading fellow citizens. The result has been a less democratic politics in which voters feel increasingly powerless. In the meantime, the sheer volume of money that flooded through the electoral process made it an increasingly technocratic pursuit.
