Books like Democracy in plural societies by Arend Lijphart

An analysis of how democratic systems in the United States disproportionately favor elite groups—through history, demographics, and statistics—highlighting the decline of public engagement and the impact on contemporary politics.

Christopher Lasch argues that modern American democracy is endangered by professional and managerial elites who isolate themselves, ignore the middle class, and erode democratic ideals.

"In this updated and expanded edition of his book Democracies, Arend Lijphart offers a broader and deeper analysis of worldwide democratic institutions than ever before. Examining thirty-six democracies during the half-century from 1945 to 1996, Lijphart arrives at important - and unexpected - conclusions about what type of democracy works best. Although conventional wisdom suggests that majoritarian democracies like those in the United States and Great Britain are superior to consensual systems like those in Switzerland and Israel, Lijphart shows this is not so. In fact, consensual systems stimulate economic growth, control inflation and unemployment, and limit budget deficits just as well as majoritarian democracies do. And consensus democracies clearly outperform majoritarian systems on measures of political equality, women's representation, citizen participation in elections, and proximity between government policies and voter preferences."--BOOK JACKET.