Brian Crozier THE MINIMUM STATE Signed First Edition

First edition, first print hardback of THE MINIMUM STATE Beyond Party Politics, by Brian Crozier and published by Hamish Hamilton Ltd., London, 1979. Signed and inscribed by the author on the front end paper. 

The book is in very good condition (Clean green cloth boards with gilt lettering on the spine) with only minor shelf wear to the dust jacket, which is not price clipped and is mylar protected. There is slight discolouring to the spine and a very light brown stain inside the back flap. Internally, the pages are clean and tight and there are no tears and no other inscriptions. There is a previous owner's book plate on the back of the front board under the flap (this owner is the subject of the author's inscription).

Brian Crozier looks at the performance of the major democracies - the USA, Britain, France, Germany and Italy, with Japan - and finds it dismal in varying degress. He considers the circumtances in which the Latin American democracies collapsed, in Brazil, Chile, Argentina and Uruguay. In this spreading catalogue of failure, he finds one common element; the interplay of party politics. 'The era of party democracy is nearing its close,' he writes. 

In this generally depressing picture, he finds one bright spot - Switzerland, in which the people vote for their own taxes locally, and have the power to reject bad legislation from the central government. 

Is there a way out? The answer he believes, lies in 'The Minimum State', in which the responsibility for government is wrested from the political parties and vested in a highly trained professional body, and in which the voters choose their representatives on merit and not on political tags. 

Is democracy as we know it collapsing? If it is, then the time to think about what to put in its place is now. Whether you agree or disagree with Brian Crozier's thesis you cannot ignore it.

229 pages. 

ISBN: 0 241 10242 1 

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