Now in paperback, how initiatives are remaking our democracy, creating a hazardous new arena of politics.
Where once most state laws were passed by legislatures, now voters in half the states and hundreds of cities decide directly on such explosive issues as drugs, affirmative action, casino gambling, assisted suicide, and human rights. Ostensibly driven by public opinion, the initiative process is far too often manipulated by moneyed interests, often funded by out-of-state millionaires pursuing their own agendas.
In this highly controversial book, David Broder, the "dean of American political journalism" (Brill's Content), explains how a movement that started with Proposition 13 in California is now a multimillion-dollar business in which lawyers, campaign consultants, signature gatherers, and advertising agencies sell their expertise to interest groups with private agendas.
With a new afterword updating the results of the most recent elections and discussing the potential for future initiatives, Broder takes the reader into the heart of these battles as he talks with the field operatives, lobbyists, PR spinners, labor leaders, and business executives, all of whom can manipulate the political process.

Drawing on unprecedented access to Washington's most powerful players from the White House to Capitol Hill, two noted journalists bring to life the ferocious battle that led to the Republican takeover of Congress, the reelection of Bill Clinton, and the continuing struggles that keep our governmental system in crisis.

"The System brings you into the nooks and crannies of a political system that everyone assumes exists but that is rarely exposed in depth."
--Washington Post Book World

"No other book is likely to offer a sharper, more penetrating, more intimate portrait of the inner workings of the American political system. It is a triumph."
--Doris Kearns Goodwin

"Meticulously reported, briskly written, and impressively fair."
--Wall Street Journal

"Filled with anecdotes, with pungent quotations, and with as smart and ambitious a cast of characters as are likely to disport themselves on the political stage."
--New York Times