It is no secret that the American people are dissatisfied with government. But while the frustration and anger are real, the way we tend to view the problem is all wrong. In this powerful diagnosis, Jonathan Rauch reveals that the problem with government is not "gridlock" or "special interests"; it's that despite ever-increasing levels of activity, government has lost its ability to make things work and solve problems effectively. That's "demosclerosis.".

Rauch looks beyond the politics and personalities of the moment, taking the reader on a fascinating tour of how American government has been crippled by its own success. He shows how, year after year, the American public forms more interest groups making more demands on government - until gradually government itself has calcified.

No program can be cut, no tax break eliminated, without incurring the wrath of one group or another, and they care more about saving a program than the general public cares about killing it. The truly insidious thing, Rauch shows, is that these groups and associations are not the wicked "special interests" of politicians' rhetoric; seven out of ten Americans belong to at least one association and one in four belongs to four or more. We have met the special interests, and they are us.

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Escaping from the trap Rauch describes will not be easy. His keen assessment of Bill Clinton's first year in office shows that just changing the faces in Washington is no cure, nor is it sufficient just to pass new laws or cut taxes, for these actions generate their own interest groups, calcifying government even further.

Rauch offers his own bracing tonic for unclogging the public arteries, turning our conventional ideas of liberalism and conservatism on their heads and making Demosclerosis an indispensable guide to how Washington really works - or doesn't.