What is 'the American Dream, ' and why is it ubiquitous in today's political rhetoric? In this thought-provoking book, Ghosh analyzes the integral role of the American Dream in contemporary American politics. He argues that the Dream's central political function is its ability to offer a politics of democratic inclusion that traces a middle ground between multiculturalism and state-neutrality. One compelling reason for the popularity of the concept is that its roots can be traced back to the primordial values of the nation: work, virtue, and happiness. Political elites across the ideological spectrum refer to the Dream in their appeals, but Ghosh concludes that in doing so they rely on very different interpretations of the Dream's basic tenets. Clear and evocative, The Politics of the American Dream is essential reading for both scholars and observers of contemporary American political culture.

The 1987 election, which returned Mrs Thatcher for a record-breaking third term, was notable for a new level of campaigning professionalism. This book, the thirteenth in a series that has covered every election since the Second World War, examines in detail the nature of the Conservative victory, with its roots in recent history and social changes, but depending to the end on argument and presentation. The authors explore the way in which the party system adapted itself to and blunted the renewed Alliance challenge; the way in which the Labour party picked itself up from the disaster of 1983 to put on a brilliant but ultimately unsuccessful campaign; and the way in which Mrs Thatcher steered herself and her party back onto a winning course after the Westland disaster. The book describes how the Labour party adopted a modern communications strategy to promote Mr Kinnock and it examines the secret battle for control of the Conservative campaign between different groups and advertising agencies. The authors have been given exceptional access to persons and papers.

"A tremendous work of synthesis."
-- "H-Net Reviews"

"A well-written, clearly organized synthesis of the data and interpretations of participatory decline."
--"American Historical Review"

Public involvement in the electoral process has all but disappeared. Not since World War I has even half the electorate cast ballots in an off-year election. Even at the presidential level, voting has plummeted dismally. Nonvoting is, quite simply, systemic in American politics.

It was not always this way. With the integration of America's mass electorate into the electoral system in the 1830s, eligible voters were intensely participatory and remained highly mobilized throughout the nineteenth century. The turning point in American politics came during the first two decades of this century when, from unmatched heights in the 1890s, voter turnouts fell repeatedly election after election.

Examining mass political behavior in twenty successive national elections, Why America Stopped Voting is the first work to combine political analysis with social analysis, resulting in a truly interdisciplinary book that places electoral participation within the larger context of American culture and society. A milestone in the evolution of our understanding of electoral politics, Why America Stopped Voting shows that the enduring decline of voter mobilization was gradual, rather than drastic and not attributable to particular political events or simply the notion that "a happy citizenry is politically apathetic." Rather, Kornbluh shows that fundamental social changes that restructured virtually every aspect of American life at the turn of the century were at the heart of the decline in voterparticipation.

Race and Partisanship in California Redistricting: From the 1965 Voting Rights Act to Present aims to study redistricting and its evolution in California since the passage of the 1965 Voting Rights Act. It poses the question: what is the interactive play of race and partisanship in redefining the meaning of political representation through redistricting? Unlike other studies of redistricting, it focuses not on the south but on the west, not on white versus black but on the difficulties of diversity. Race and Partisanship in California Redistricting tells the story of redistricting in California, which has now become one of the bluest states and is considered a harbinger of political trends in the United States. Ultimately, this is a book that looks forward by looking back at the tug-and-pull of redistricting efforts aimed at ensuring greater equality in a racially diverse democracy. What is the role played by race and partisanship in the voting rights revolution? How does that vary far from the traditional flashpoints of American race relations? What does that tell us about the redefinition of political representation in the past half-century? And - most crucially - what does it foretell, for the next half century?

Larry Hogan is one of the most popular political figures in the United States today. The two-term Republican governor of Maryland first won his seat after upsetting a favorite of the Democratic political establishment, and then overcame the Trump-driven wave in the heartland of the #resistance to win a second term in 2018. Blue-State Republican is the remarkable story of how his carefully messaged, pragmatic approach to governance helped build a coalition of moderate and conservative Democrats, independents, women, college-educated and Black voters and maintained his GOP base during a time of polarization and negative partisanship. Mileah Kromer takes readers inside Maryland politics to illustrate exactly how Hogan won where Republicans lose and consider whether the un-Trump Republican offers any lessons for how the GOP can win the center-right voters who continue to make up a majority of the country. Kromer conducts interviews with key political leaders and insiders, including Hogan himself, to explain the mechanics of his political success. She also provides a cogent analysis of public opinion polls and focus groups, ultimately showing why the success of a blue-state Republican matters outside of his home state, especially as Hogan considers a 2024 Presidential run.

Vast fortunes grew out of the party system during the Gilded Age. In New York, party leaders experimented with novel ways to accumulate capital for political competition and personal business. Partisans established banks. They drove a speculative frenzy in finance, real estate, and railroads. And they built empires that stretched from mining to steamboats, and from liquor distilleries to newspapers. Control over political property-party organizations, public charters, taxpayer subsidies, and political offices-served to form governing coalitions, and to mobilize voting blocs. In Electoral Capitalism, Jeffrey D. Broxmeyer reappraises the controversy over wealth inequality, and why this period was so combustible. As ranks of the dispossessed swelled, an outpouring of claims transformed the old spoils system into relief for the politically connected poor. A vibrant but scorned culture of petty officeholding thus emerged. By the turn of the century, an upsurge of grassroots protest sought to dislodge political bosses from their apex by severing the link between party and capital. Examining New York, and its outsized role in national affairs, Broxmeyer demonstrates that electoral capitalism was a category of entrepreneurship in which the capture of public office and the accumulation of wealth were mutually reinforcing. The book uncovers hidden economic ties that wove together presidents, senators, and mayors with business allies, spoilsmen, and voters. Today, great political fortunes have dramatically returned. As current public debates invite parallels with the Gilded Age, Broxmeyer offers historical and theoretical tools to make sense of how politics begets wealth.

As standard bearer of the Progressive Party in 1912, Theodore Roosevelt played to enthusiastic crowds wherever he traveled. When he was targeted by an assassin while campaigning for president, a bullet passed through the speech in his breast pocket-pages that he then held aloft while assuring the crowd "It takes more than that to kill a Bull Moose . . . and you cannot escape listening to this speech "

This first full edition of his campaign speeches takes readers on the stump from New England to California, collecting thirty-five texts largely overlooked since they were first delivered. They offer a more nuanced picture of his third-party candidacy than has ever existed, providing a companion to Lewis Gould's recent Four Hats in the Ring and shedding new light on both the Progressive movement and the dynamics of an extraordinary campaign that changed American politics forever.

Culled from nation-wide newspaper archives, these speeches show TR at his most radical. He echoes the missionary spirit of the Progressives as they challenged partisan orthodoxy, advocating for "the plain people, for their right to rule, and for their duty to secure for themselves and for others social and industrial justice." All over the country, he speaks out on government regulation of business, social justice, the role of the president, the place of reform in national politics, and of course his differences with Woodrow Wilson.

Given the wide availability of Wilson's speeches, having Roosevelt's available makes the study of the 1912 campaign more meaningful-not only the debate between the New Nationalism and the New Freedom but also differences on such issues as tariffs and campaign contributions. These texts also reveal how Roosevelt massaged Wilson's words to serve his own polemical purposes.

"We do not propose to do anything that will interfere with prosperity," proclaimed Roosevelt, "but we want it passed around"; and these speeches show that, even in a new century, his words are as relevant as ever.

Although many developments surrounding the Internet campaign are now considered to be standard fare, there were a number of new developments in 2016. Drawing on original research conducted by leading experts, The Internet and the 2016 Presidential Campaign attempts to cover these developments in a comprehensive fashion. How are campaigns making use of the Internet to organize and mobilize their ground game? To communicate their message? The book also examines how citizens made use of online sources to become informed, follow campaigns, and participate. Contributions also explore how the Internet affected developments in media reporting, both traditional and non-traditional, about the campaign. What other messages were available online, and what effects did these messages have had on citizen's attitudes and vote choice? The book examines these questions in an attempt to summarize the 2016 online campaign.

Although democracy is, in principle, the antithesis of dynastic rule, families with multiple members in elective office continue to be common around the world. In most democracies, the proportion of such "democratic dynasties" declines over time, and rarely exceeds ten percent of all legislators. Japan is a startling exception, with over a quarter of all legislators in recent years being dynastic. In Dynasties and Democracy, Daniel M. Smith sets out to explain when and why dynasties persist in democracies, and why their numbers are only now beginning to wane in Japan-questions that have long perplexed regional experts. Smith introduces a compelling comparative theory to explain variation in the presence of dynasties across democracies and political parties. Drawing on extensive legislator-level data from twelve democracies and detailed candidate-level data from Japan, he examines the inherited advantage that members of dynasties reap throughout their political careers-from candidate selection, to election, to promotion into cabinet. Smith shows how the nature and extent of this advantage, as well as its consequences for representation, vary significantly with the institutional context of electoral rules and features of party organization. His findings extend far beyond Japan, shedding light on the causes and consequences of dynastic politics for democracies around the world.

Elections always have consequences, but the 2017 Bundestag election in Germany proved particularly consequential. With political upheaval across the globe-notably in Britain and the USA-it was vital to European and global order that Germany remain stable. And it did through the re-election of Angela Merkel as chancellor, now in her fourth term. Just under the surface, however, instability is mounting-exemplified by the entry of the right-wing Alternative for Germany (AfD) as the largest opposition party, the decline of the Social Democrats, the ever-restive Bavarians, and the growing factionalism within the Christian Democratic Union as the Merkel era comes to an end. Paying special attention to the rise of the AfD, this volume delves into the campaign, leading political figures, the structure of the electorate, the state of the parties, the media environment, coalition negotiations, and policy impacts.

This book tackles the 2014 European Parliamentary election as an event, phenomenon and process from an interdisciplinary but coherent perspective. This edited volume includes research by prestigious academics from the former communist countries in question, all of which have only recently become EU members. The contributors consider whether there is a crisis of Euroscepticism, or, for that matter, extremism of any kind in each country discussed. In doing so, the volume seeks to analyse the future of the European Union itself. It will appeal to scholars and graduate students interested in elections and voting behaviour, comparative European politics, and political communication.

The implications of the personalization of politics are necessarily widespread and can be found across many different aspects of contemporary democracies. Personalization should influence the way campaigns are waged, how voters determine their preferences, how officials (e.g., MPs) and institutions (e.g., legislatures and governments) function, and the place and operations of political parties in democratic life. However, in an effort to quantify the precise degree of personalization over time and to uncover the various causes of personalization, the existing literature has paid little attention to many of the important questions regarding the consequences of personalization. While the chapters throughout this volume certainly document the extent of personalization, they also seek to address some fundamental questions about the nature of personalization, how it is manifested, and its consequences for political parties, governance, representation, and the state of democracy more generally. Indeed, one of the primary objectives of this volume is to speak to a very broad audience about the implications of personalization. Those interested in election campaigns, voting, gender, governance, legislative behaviour, and political parties will all find something of value in the contributions that follow.

This book focuses on the varied support for the populist radical right in the Benelux countries: Belgium, the Netherlands and Luxembourg. Despite many common characteristics, right-wing populist parties have historically been more successful in the Netherlands and Flanders than in Luxembourg and Wallonia. This book argues that the variation in the success of right-wing populist parties depends to a large extent on the way in which they are perceived and received in a given polity. In the Netherlands and Flanders, mainstream parties and the media have contributed to politicising issues pertaining to immigration and national identity, thereby tilling the field for the populist radical right. In Luxembourg and Wallonia, mainstream parties and the media have resolutely limited the opportunities for right-wing populist challengers to influence the public debate. This volume will be of interest to practitioners as well as students and scholars of party politics, the media, the populist radical right and the Benelux region.

This book presents a comprehensive analysis of the alterations and problems caused by new technologies in all fields of politics. It further examines the impact of artificial intelligence (AI) on the nexus between politics, economics, and law. The book raises and answers several important questions: What is the role of AI in politics? Are people prepared for the challenges presented by technical developments? How will Al affect future politics and human society? How can politics and law deal with Al's disruptive technologies? What impact will AI and technology have on law? How can efficient cooperation between human beings and AI be shaped? Can artificial intelligence automate public decision-making? Topics discussed in the book include, but are not limited to digital governance, public administration, digital economy, corruption, democracy and voting, legal singularity, separation of power, constitutional rights, GDPR in politics, AI personhood, digital politics, cyberspace sovereignty, cyberspace transactions, and human rights. This book is a must-read for scholars and students of political science, law, and economics, as well as policy-makers and practitioners, interested in a better understanding of political, legal, and economic aspects and issues of AI.

Clientelism is a prominent feature of many of the world's democracies and electoral authoritarian regimes. Yet the comparative study of this practice, which involves exchanging personal favours for electoral support, remains strikingly underdeveloped. This book makes the case that clientelistic politics take different forms in different countries, and that this variation matters for understanding democracy, elections, and governance. Involving collaboration by experienced observers of politics in several countries - Mexico, Ghana, Sudan to Turkey, Indonesia, the Philippines, Caribbean and Pacific Island states, and Malaysia - the chapters in this volume unpack the concept of clientelism and show that it is possible to identify different types of patronage democracies. The book proposes a comparative framework that focuses on the networks that politicians use, the type of resources they hand out, their degree of control over the distribution of state resources, and shows that the comparative study of a key informal dimension of politics offers much analytical promise for scholars of democracy and governance. Varieties of Clientelism is essential reading for scholars and students interested in clientelism, patronage democracies, comparative political economy, as well as party politics. The chapters in this book were originally published as a special issue of Democratization.

Analyzing Turkey's electoral geography, this volume evaluates the geographical repercussions of the elections in Turkey since the establishment of multiparty politics in 1950. The book focuses on the last two decades, examining the interaction between electoral behavior and regional dynamics. Various issues related to the geographical connotations of Turkish electoral politics are qualitatively and quantitatively addressed by scholars with diverse backgrounds in social sciences. The chapters herein examine how Turkey's electoral geography has been shaped over the years to correspond with a certain aspect of multiparty politics, such as voting behaviors, political parties and party systems, nationalization and regionalization, redistricting, gender issues, identity dynamics, or ideological polarization. This comprehensive work contributes to the theoretical debates in electoral geography in general. Utilizing notions from electoral geography literature, this book develops new concepts through the Turkish case. Filling an important gap in the literature on Turkish politics, this contemporary analysis will be a key resource to policymakers, students, and scholars interested in political science, Turkey, and the Middle East.

This book answers the question why London has been a stronghold for the Labour Party for relatively long periods of the last century and continues to be so to this day to an extent that surprises contemporaries. The book draws on evidence from history and political sociology as well as the personal experience of the author in London local government during the 1980s. It argues that while changes in the London economy, plus the ability of the party to forge cross-class alliances, can go some way to explain the success of the Labour Party in London, a range of other demographic and social factors need to be taken into account, especially after the year 2000. These include the size of London's growing black and ethnic minority communities; higher concentrations of well-educated younger people with socially liberal values; the increasing support of the middle-classes; the impact of austerity after 2008; and the degree of poverty in London compared to non-metropolitan areas. This book will be of key interest to readers interested in the history of the Labour Party, the politics of London, Socialist politics/history, British politics/history, government, political sociology, and urban studies.

This book is open access under a CC BY 4.0 license. This book investigates the reasons behind the 2017 youthquake - which saw the highest rate of youth turnout in a quarter of a century, and an unprecedented gap in youth support for Labour over the Conservative Party - from both a comparative and a theoretical perspective. It compares youth turnout and party allegiance over time and traces changes in youth political participation in the UK since the onset of the 2008 global financial crisis - from austerity, to the 2016 EU referendum, to the rise of Corbyn - up until the June 2017 General Election. The book identifies the rise of cosmopolitan values and left-leaning attitudes amongst Young Millennials, particularly students and young women. The situation in the UK is also contrasted with developments in youth participation in other established democracies, including the youthquakes inspired by Obama in the US (2008) and Trudeau in Canada (2015).

Upturning the typical view of Turkey's democratic trajectory as a product of authoritarian assault or unfortunate circumstances, this book argues that the AKP, first elected in 2002, has consistently advanced a narrative of democracy as the work of an elite working for the 'National Will'. Beginning with an analysis of the historical processes that led to the AKP's rise at the beginning of the 21st century, the book then focuses on the AKP since 2002. Though Turkey's democratic transition was originally characterised by Western co-operation, the author outlines the gradual deterioration of these relations since the 2010s, as well as the decline of political rights, freedom of expression and the rule of law. However, bringing in theoretical perspectives of democracy, it is argued that the AKP has adopted an alternative definition based on the 'National Will' throughout its rule, resistant to the Western essentialist view. As such, the AKP's story highlights that the root of this crisis lies within democracy itself. The book will appeal to historians and analysts of Turkish politics, as well as to political scientists interested in theories of democracy. Moreover, for those interested in the global contemporary crisis of democracy, the book provides an important case-study.

This timely, insightful and expert-led volume interprets the 2020 U.S. Presidential Election from a geographical standpoint, with a focus on its spatial dimensions. With contributions from leading thinkers, this book highlights the unique circumstances of the election, including the Covid pandemic and a president who falsely alleged that it was a massive fraud, particularly after he lost. The volume offers an introduction and 11 chapters that examine the run-up to the election, the motivations of Trump supporters, the election results themselves, case studies of the battleground states of Wisconsin and Georgia, and the chaotic aftermath. Accompanied with an engaging plethora of figures providing a visual demonstration of data trends, both national and local case studies are considered throughout this book, as well as right-wing radicalization, the role of Cuban-Americans, race, and threats to American democracy. This book is an ideal study companion for faculty and graduate students in fields including geography and political science, sociology, American studies, media studies and urban planning, as well as those with an interest in U.S. politics more generally.

How Democracy Survives explores how liberal democracy can better adapt to the planetary challenges of our time by evolving beyond the Westphalian paradigm of the nation state. The authors bring perspectives from Africa, Asia, Europe, Latin America, and North America, their chapters engaging with the concept of transnational democracy by tracing its development in the past, assessing its performance in the present, and considering its potential for survival in this century and beyond. Coming from a wide array of intellectual disciplines and policymaking backgrounds, the authors share a common conviction that our global institutions-both governments and international organizations-must become more resilient, transparent, and democratically accountable in order to address the cascading political, economic, and social crises of this new epoch, such as climate change, mass migration, more frequent and severe natural disasters, and resurgent authoritarianism. This book will be relevant for courses in international relations and political science, environmental politics, and the preservation of democracy and federalism around the world.

Real Power to the People describes a unique experiment in democracy that took place during 2004-2005. In this experiment, the government of British Columbia gave its citizens the power to take control of its electoral reform process and make a final decision. This new approach to electoral reform was implemented through a citizens' assembly of 160 randomly selected, nonpartisan British Columbians and a referendum. The citizens' assembly first studied the different electoral options, listened to the views of their fellow citizens, and recommended a new electoral system for British Columbia. Later, all British Columbians took part in making a final decision on the recommended new system through the referendum. Dr. Herath was directly involved in the process as one of the assembly members. This unique new approach has gathered attention from political pundits all over the world. There are indications that other jurisdictions will adopt it. The Netherlands and Ontario have already begun to do so while there is a growing movement in California to follow suit. The work first introduces the reader to electoral reform in general, the historic context of the new approach, and its implementation. This is followed by an explanation of the six most critical features of the new approach. The work ends with Dr. Herath's conclusions that include five important lessons to be drawn from this first time application of the new approach and its worldwide applicability.