Posner...presents a brilliant defense of the manner in which Americans organize and operate their government...This book is to be read and reread if one is to understand the intricacies of American constitutional democracy.
R. J. Steamer Choice 20031101 Posner is very convincing when he describes how the American political system actually works, how the federal courts actually function, and ... Read morehow public opinion and elections begin to play a role only when the political elites have made a mess of things. This book is one of his best
vigorously argued and written with wit and panache...He is a genuinely original thinker, as well as a prodigy of learning. Able to draw upon an amazingly broad range of reading, he resists stereotypes and allegiances, and goes his own way.
Richard Rorty Dissent 20030801 This elegant analysis of democratic theory, by a judge on the United States Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit in Chicago, argues for a legal pragmatism that pays greater attention to the consequences of what we do than to abstract principle. New York Times Book Review 20060108 Judge Posner's book makes a valuable contribution to an expanded understanding of the tense yet mutually reinforcing interaction of law and democracy.
Arthur Jacobson and John McCormack International Journal of Constitutional Law Show Less