Includes bibliographical references (p. 284-299) and index.

Sex Scandal and Political Entropy -- The Age of Corporate Colonization -- The Logic of Antipolitics -- Capitalism versus Democracy -- American Exceptionalism Revisited -- Dimensions of the Problem -- The Depoliticized Society -- The Party System as Facade -- Citizenship in Decline -- Max Weber Meets Thomas Hobbes -- Social Crisis and Political Decay -- Liberalism in Disarray -- The Shrinking Public Sphere -- Assessing the Damage -- The Incorporated Debates -- Corporate Expansion and Political Decline -- The New Corporate Polity -- Commodification of the Public Sphere -- The Solidification of Elite Power -- Rise and Decline of the Public Sphere -- Economic Globalization: Order and Chaos -- The Tradition of Political Discourse -- Modernity: A Dual Legacy -- Liberalism, Marxism, and Beyond -- Antipolitics Left and Right -- The 1960s: Politics Affirmed and Sublimated -- The Rebellion against "Big Government" -- Warrior Dreams-and Nightmares -- The New Outlaw Hero -- Terrorism as Social Catharsis -- Politics and Antipolitics on the Right -- A Prelude to Fascism? -- The Authoritarian Impasse -- Political Power and Its Discontents -- Utopianism in the New Age -- The Therapeutic Revolution: Alienation Depoliticized -- Localism and the Enclave Culture -- The Urban Rebellion: Beyond Politics? -- Deep Ecology: From Politics to Nature -- Neither Movement nor Party -- The Postmodern Impasse -- The Crisis of Modernity -- The Postmodern as Postpolitical -- The Predicament of Social Movements -- The Identity Maze -- Fragments against the Whole -- Conclusion: A Revival of Politics? -- The Triumph of Liberal Capitalism? -- The Minimalist Trap -- Reversing the Downward Spiral -- The Enlightenment Revisited -- Transcending the "Morbid Symptoms" -- Postscript: The Year 2000.

Perhaps The Most Enduring Legacy Of The Clinton Impeachment saga will be the outpourings of disgust and pessimism it has evoked from Americans of all ages and walks of life. Yet our national disaffection with politics is nothing new. Voter turnout has declined alarmingly in recent elections, and many complain about the inaccessibility, corruption, and hypocrisy of political actors and institutions. This book delves beneath the sound bites and news headlines to explore the ongoing process of depoliticization in the United States. Boggs provides a panoramic view of our contemporary political, economic, and technological scene. He shows how the effects of free-market ideology and corporate greed have undermined civic participation and democratic decision-making, while exacerbating social and ecological crises. Hot on the trail of the rapidly disappearing public sphere, the book illuminates the American retreat to an eerily privatized landscape of shopping malls, gated communities, new-age and utopian groups, identity-based movements, and postmodern intellectual enclaves. It issues an eloquent call for revitalizing politics and rebuilding civic society.