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The Return of the Public

The Return of the Public

by Dan Hind (Author)

  • Used

    Hardcover 2010

    $3.45
Synopsis

Our politicians have ever-decreasing legitimacy, our financiers - their huge corporate risks underwritten by the taxpayer - are literally and morally bankrupt. All this is done in our name, the public, yet we seem to have no genuine say in decision-making and no power to effect change. Why not? Hind traces how, historically, political and intellectual elites constructed a deeply ambiguous idea of the public, one designed to serve their own ends and preserve the status quo. After the Second World War, as democratization by previously marginalized groups-women, ethnic minorities, the young-presented new challenges to the establishment, governments made fresh attempts to exclude them from genuine political participation, invoking the arcane expertise of economists and the mystic qualities of nationalism, fueled by a compliant mass media. For decades, the public has been told to leave democracy to the experts. Now, Hind outlines a way forward for a new participatory politics, one based on a wholesale reform of the media. After the failure of the private, now is the time for the return of the public.

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More Information

Format: Hardcover
 Pages: 252
 Publisher: Verso
Published: 13 Sep 2010
ISBN 10: 1844675947
ISBN 13: 9781844675944

Media Reviews
'A brilliant, provocative and sweeping assessment of our current predicament - this is a book that deserves widespread attention and debate.' Robert W. McChesney, Gutgsell Endowed Professor in the Department of Communication, University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign and author of Communication Revolution 'Dan Hind provides us with the strategies we will need to reinvigorate the public debate and, in so doing, re-empower the people. Go to Mapquest and ask for directions to the next and better society; the response will be Dan Hind's The Return of the Public.' John Nichols, political correspondent of the Nation and author of The Genius of Impeachment 'As the official culture of politics limps from scandal to corruption, Hind turns to the only thing that can save democracy: the people. Dan Hind has produced one of those rare books that transcend the world of discourseA and become essential levers of historical change.' David Miller, co-author of A Century of Spin and professor of sociology at the University of Strathclyde 'If there is a future to look forward to, it will come from the invigorated public domain pictured by Dan Hind - This is a handbook for a very modern liberation struggle. Buy it and help set yourself free.' Andrew Simms, Policy Director, New Economics Foundation and author of Tescopoly Praise for The Threat to Reason: Fine, lucid and sharp ... well written and worth reading before the next wave of western tanks crosses a border, somewhere in the Middle East. Rod Liddle, The Sunday Times ... Hind is by no means blind to the stupidity and hypocrisy of the religious right, but he notices that their opponents too often fight them on the wrong battlefields. Nicholas Lezard, Guardian ... In this elegant polemical essay, Dan Hind rightly quibbles with the supposedly Manichean tussle between the guarantors of the Enlightenment in the West and everyone else. James Harkin, Independent ... A thoughtful polemic.A Financial Times
Author Bio
Dan Hind was a publisher for ten years. In 2009 he left the industry to develop a program of media reform centered around public commissioning. His journalism has appeared in the Guardian, New Scientist, Lobster and the Times Literary Supplement. His first book, The Threat to Reason, was published by Verso in 2007.