| Democratic Dilemmas: The Party and the Movements
Gitlin, Todd
Dissent, Fall 2006, v53, #4; pp36-42
In democracies, the people who either bear the ideals or bury them, or both, are politicians. And organizations of politicians—parties—are
the indispensable means of political power. But parties are impure vessels. They consist, by definition, of people who aspire to political
power. They win public support by making promises, but they lead you to a compromised land...Most Americans, by contrast, are less than attached to parties, even the ones they vote for. With good reason, they think that parties stink of corruption; that even at best, parties are the property of professionals while they, the citizens, are only amateurs... A crucial asymmetry has opened up in the relationship between parties, focused on interests and power, and movements, focused on ideals." This article discusses the relationship between political parties and movements in the U.S. Todd Gitlin is a professor of journalism and sociology at Columbia University. This article is largely drawn from Uphill: Reflections on the Know-Nothing Presidency of George W. Bush and the Prospects for a Post-Conservative Recovery, a book to be published in 2007 by John Wiley.
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