'Politics' reduced to electoral politics?

[Hermes]

Sorry if this is in the wrong place, but it seemed such a stupid question that it didn't belong in Research.

Could anyone suggest any articles or books related to the reduction of the 'political', in modern times, to purely electoral politics, or as only existing when combined with electoral politics, and the effect this has had on the citizen's conception of politics?

Also, if I'm wrong in my conception of politics (that is, as able to exist outside of the electoral system), I'd also really appreciate if you could say so. Sorry again for the random question.

[The Idler]

Good question. You'd also have address the opposite end where for all-in lifestylists fair traders etc., "the personal is political".

[Die Neue Zeit]

More relevant than "the personal is political" is the problem of "the economic is political."

[blake 3:17]

I think that's a pretty common conception of politics. A lot of what folks here and other radicals think of as politics is not much like what other people think of as politics. I think the bigger general trend has been to reduce democracy to elections.

Here's a link to the first in a series of 6 articles on rethinking democracy by a Canadian left wing contrarian & very interesting guy, Rick Salutin, published in our largest circulation paper: http://www.thestar.com/news/insight/2012/07/13/democracy_thinking_outside_the_box.html

[Teacher]

Not sure if it frames the issue exactly as you stated but I have always liked Democracy for the Few by Michael Parenti.

Market Elections: How Democracy Serves the Rich by Vincent Copeland is also good.

I think the idea is expressed in a lot of leftist literature that deals with electoral politics.

[darkblues]

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