Who Owns Democracy? The Real Deep State and the Struggle Over Class and Caste in America

"In this timely and urgent book, readers are invited to pull up a chair and listen in. This is 'My Dinner with Charlie and Yale,' a riveting conversation between two sparkling thinkers, who refreshingly don't agree about everything. Through their dialogue, we are exposed to a deeper understanding of what democracy means, its historic ebbs and contractions, and its possibilities going forward. We learn about the historic and hidden power of the 'corporate deep state,' and the legacy of authoritarian and fascist strains in US history and culture rooted in class and caste disparities. Through the book's unique conversational format, we're also exposed to an exemplary practice of democracy, as Derber and Magrass model how to both articulate one's position but also to respectfully listen well to one another."

Chuck Collins, author of Altar to an Erupting Sun and Born on Third Base, and director of the program on extreme inequality at the Institute for Policy Studies

"With their emphasis on not one, but two, 'deep states' in America, both of which are very different from the 'deep state' that Donald Trump and his supporters talk about, the sociological duo that wrote this engaging and provocative book is clearly hoping to encourage ongoing thoughtful discussions among students, scholars, and the general public who might otherwise be hesitant to express their views on the complex issues the country faces. And by creatively presenting their panoramic views on democracy, race, and corporate power as part of a lively back-and-forth conversation between the two of them, in which they sometimes disagree with each other, they provide an inviting and reassuring way to make extended discussions of these volatile issues possible."

G. William Domhoff, author of Who Rules America?

"How are we to understand the paradox that increasing immiseration and precarity has resulted in rebellion taking a right wing hue, partnering unorganized working people with the very forces responsible for their decline? Adopting democratic methods of analysis and exposition, Magrass and Derber take us into the deep history of the American state and the complex interplay between class and caste that has brought us to the present, fraught moment. And yet they are hopeful, channeling as they do past ruptures with the oligarchic order and even contemporary moments in which Americans take 'ownership' of their democracy. It is therefore a must-read effort for those wishing to right historical injustice and recover hope for a more humane future."

Suren Moodliar, Managing Editor of Socialism and Democracy

"In this remarkable conversation, Charles Derber and Yale Magrass explore the complex depths of unaccountable and unrepresentative power as it has evolved through the history of the United States, and where it might go next. The two do not agree on all points, and neither will you, but this rich history - shockingly different from what you were likely taught in school - provides not a simple to-do list, but a guide to acting even in a future we cannot yet know the shape of."

David Swanson, author of War Is a Lie and director of World Beyond War