Participatory Democracy versus Elitist Democracy: Lessons from Brazil

William Nylen begins by discussing North Americans'' love-hate relationship with politics and politicians, then shows how Brazilians feel the same way (as do many citizens of democracies throughout the world). He argues that this is so because contemporary democracies have increasingly trickled up and away from so-called ''average citizens''. We now live in a world of ''Elitist Democracies'' essen...