UNACCOUNTABLE

What has enraged protestors worldwide, sparking fury across the political spectrum? In Unaccountable, Janine Wedel exposes the culprit as only an anthropologist can, unmasking a fast? evolving system of power that is utterly unaccountable to those it is supposed to serve.

As average citizens languish, this insidious form of corruption flourishes with unprecedented ease, violating public trust, and Wedel takes us far beyond the usual targets of K Street lobby? ing or political bribery. The sweep of this new corruption is broader, and its practitioners, even when exposed, remain beyond shame, suffering few, if any, consequences. Academics, physicians, retired generals, even former heads of state exploit their prestige as if it were a commodity, turning themselves into one?man brands. Think tanks, once the source of sober?minded studies, now often act as bullhorns for the powerful. Wall Street, unbowed by the 2008 crash, remains free to “innovate” into the next financial disaster. “Nonprofits” chan? nel the secret agendas of billionaires and “grassroots” organizations are run from the top. Technology, once envisioned as a liberating force, is an encroaching threat to privacy and often another way for players in this game to evade accountability—the system can get to you, but you cannot get to it. Meanwhile, technology has helped decimate journalism, the very profes? sion that, in the past, held the elite to account. Now news is often dictated by “Likes” and “Retweets,” and “truthiness” has supplanted facts. Bringing together these seemingly dispa? rate social elements, Unaccountable is a truly original and chilling look at this stealthy, new cor? ruption that increasingly infiltrates our lives. Janine Wedel is the author of Shadow Elite, a Huffington Post Book Club selection. Wedel has written for the New York Times, Financial Times, Washington Post, The Nation, Los Angeles Times, Christian Science Monitor, Boston Globe, Politico, and Salon, among others. A professor at George Mason University, she frequently appears on TV and radio. Her book Collision and Collusion won the Grawemeyer Award for Ideas Improving World Order.