From spray-painted slogans in Senegal to student uprisings in South Africa, twenty-first century Africa has seen an explosion of protests and social movements. But why? Protests flourish amidst an emerging middle class whose members desire political influence and possess the money, education, and political autonomy to effectively launch movements for democratic renewal. In contrast with pro-democracy protest leaders, rank-and-file protesters live at a subsistence level and are motivated by material concerns over any grievance against a ruling regime. Through extensive field research, Lisa Mueller shows that middle-class political grievances help explain the timing of protests, while lower-class material grievances explain the participation. By adapting a class-based analysis to African cases where class is often assumed to be irrelevant, Lisa Mueller provides a rigorous yet accessible explanation for why sub-Saharan Africa erupted in unrest at a time of apparent economic prosperity.

From the National Review to Breitbart, from Fox News to Rush Limbaugh, conservative news is an inescapable feature of modern politics. Since the early days of mass communication, right-wing media producers have blended reporting with commentary, narrating the news of the day from a perspective informed by conservative worldviews and partisanship. News on the Right seeks to initiate a new interdisciplinary field of scholarly research focused on the study of right-wing media and conservative news. Editors Anthony Nadler and A.J. Bauer gather a range of voices, presenting an interdisciplinary investigation into the practices and patterns of meaning-making in the production, circulation, and consumption of conservative news. Traversing journalism, media and communication studies, cultural studies, history, political science, and sociology, this volume utilizes a variety of qualitative and quantitative research methods to elucidate case studies of conservative news cultures in the US and UK. Together, these perspectives show that a fuller understanding of right-wing media and its effects can be reached by treating these phenomena as deeply interwoven into many conservatives' lives and political sensibilities.

Selected from a diverse field of speakers and venues, this volume offers some of the most engaging American speeches of the year. Distinguished by its diversity, covering areas in politics, education, popular culture, as well as trending topics in the news, these speeches provide an interesting format to explore some of the year's most important stories.

Issue ownership theory is a tale of two actors. On the one hand, it theorizes how parties compete with each other in their struggle for votes. On the other hand, issue ownership is about the citizen. It claims that voters are more likely to support a party if they think it is competent to handle issues they care about. This book provides unique insights into the undertheorized and understudied links between party competence and the vote. It argues that issue ownership voting (or competence-based voting) consists of three assumptions: First, voters are primarily interested in having issues handled by a competent party. Unlike in other issue voting models this implies that voters are reluctant (or unable) to deal with the specificities of the exact solution to a political problem. Though positional considerations feed into evaluations of party competence, other factors are important, too. This is reflected by the second assumption, following which issue handling competence is a subjective preference with various sources. Third, competence is more decisive in the decision-making process if the voter cares deeply about the issue. These three assumptions yield the key formula of issue ownership voting: Voters support the most competent party on the most important issue.

The concept of political representation has expanded beyond the classical relationship between representative and the represented to encompass advocacy, group identities, non-human voices, future generations, non-democratic systems, symbols, virtual representation and broader interests. As such, literature on political representation stems from a wide range of viewpoints and scholarly traditions, with different norms and assumptions built in. This volume aims to map and critique the 'edges' of political representation. By moving from a discussion in the classical electoral literature through feminist perspectives to different levels of representation, different understandings of who is represented and onto empirical studies of symbolic and virtual representation through participation, the contributions in this book provide a nuanced assessment while also presenting future avenues for research that go beyond the mainstream of research on political representation. Taken together, the chapters provide a wide vista of political representation across several sub-disciplines in political science (political theory, political philosophy, party politics, electoral politics, feminism, European politics, minority politics, online governance etc.), and also open up new research avenues through a thorough investigation and critique of political representation in scholarship.

Political parties provide continuity at the elite level and among the mass electorate in times when "populist" forces threaten the stability of many western democracies. The parties, however, have experienced turbulent times with declining memberships among the established parties, volatile electorates and the emergence of new parties. This edited collection aims to make an analytical contribution to what "party democracy" means, how to study it and add to our knowledge of who the party members are, what they do and how influential they are in policy-making processes. Clearly, elections provide linkage at regular intervals. Does party membership, even after membership decline, provide a supplementary, representative linkage that supports democracy and stability in "post-cleavage" societies? Nordic party systems have kept central elements of their old "five party systems", with (mostly) large social democratic parties and a variable geometry of the conservative, liberal, agrarian and left socialist forces. They have experienced the electoral rise of new parties and - in particular - the increasing strength of vote-catching, anti-establishment parties; in most countries nurtured by anti-immigration sentiments. In contrast to much recent scholarship, this book investigates the stable element in Nordic mass politics, namely the parties as membership organisations: How many members? Why do they join parties? How much do they participate? Do they experience political influence? The overall question is to what extent the party organizations, which have been heavily "statified" by public subsidies, keep up linkage to civil society through their membership.

Already, concrete outweighs every tree, bush and shrub on Earth. Nature deprivation is a fast-growing epidemic, harming the health and happiness of hundreds of millions of people worldwide - especially vulnerable and marginalized groups. To combat this, Nature is a Human Right, founded by Ellen Miles in 2020, is working to make access to green space a recognized right for all, not a privilege. This book brings together a collection of engaging essays, interviews and exercises, curated by Ellen, from a selection of expert ambassadors and supporters (including authors, scientists, human rights experts, TED speakers, and climate activists). Through each contributor, we discover a new perspective on why contact with nature should be a protected human right, journeying through personal narratives on mental health, disability, racism, environmental inequality, creativity, and activism. This is a captivating collection of original writing and ideas that highlights the importance of nature, the threats of nature deprivation, and the work that must be done to make our future happier, healthier and more equal.

Recent presidents have responded to the evolving rules of the campaign finance system and the competitive electoral landscape by devoting substantial amounts of their most valuable resource-their time-to fundraising. In the follow-up to his 2012 book, The Rise of the President's Permanent Campaign, Brendan Doherty argues that presidential fundraising is an underexamined tool of modern presidential leadership and should be viewed as an instrument of presidential power akin to signing statements, executive orders, public speeches, and veto threats. Presidents raise campaign cash for themselves and for their fellow party members in the hope of electoral gains that will reshuffle the governing deck in their favor, but acting as fundraiser in chief sparks a host of controversies.Based on an original dataset of 2,190 presidential fundraisers spanning more than four decades of presidents from Carter to Trump, Fundraiser in Chief is the first book-length work to analyze presidential fundraising in a systematic and comprehensive manner. Doherty draws on an unprecedented amount of empirical evidence to shed light on modern presidents' fundraising priorities and strategies as they seek to move the country closer to their vision of a more perfect union. Fundraiser in Chief is a study of presidential resource allocation strategy: how much of their scarce time presidents devote to fundraising, for whom they do it, what priorities are illuminated by their efforts, how their fundraising strategies relate to the evolving campaign finance landscape, under what circumstances they fundraise behind closed doors, and the resulting controversies and implications for presidential leadership and the American political system. Doherty offers an argument about the incentives that drive presidents to fundraise so frequently while examining the controversial implications of their extensive efforts to raise campaign cash. He contends that rising campaign costs, limits on contributions to candidates and political parties, the inadequacy of the resources provided by the presidential public funding system, the specter of Super PACs raising funds in unlimited amounts, and fiercely competitive contests to control the White House, Congress, and governors' offices across the country have all incentivized presidents to embrace their role as fundraiser in chief.

You don't think you've ever been hypnotised by a politician? Or anyone else out to persuade you? This might change your mind. Comply with Me solves the puzzle of how Donald Trump gains and keeps loyal support, a conundrum that has stumped professional commentators as well as all those who don't feel compelled to vote for him. It reveals the motive behind his weird handshakes, why he speaks in such a strange way and even what drives him to keep the area around his eyes so pale. Whether he was trained or is a natural, Trump uses hypnosis techniques to get his message deep into people's minds - and he is not the only professional persuader using such tricks either. Trump's aim is to achieve unthinking compliance and he does that by using hypnotic confusion techniques which enable him to embed suggestions into his subjects' unconscious minds. He achieves this with individuals as well as with the crowds he addresses. A central part of hypnosis practice is artful suggestion. Donald Trump is a master of the craft. He can imply what he wants to happen without needing to make his commands clear. As a child, like all of us, he absorbed suggestions from his grandfather and parents. The impact of repeatedly being told when young that he was a 'king' and a 'killer' is evident in his adult behaviour. Positive Thinking is a keystone of Trump's self-regard, learning it from the leading exponent, Norman Vincent Peale. who told him he would be 'America's greatest builder'. He also learnt hypnosis, probably when it was fashionable as NLP and he was keen to clinch real estate deals. Hypnotherapists will lie or exaggerate to achieve the aims of their clients. This is ethical if the aim is to help a person give up an addiction or achieve a sense of well-being. Trump and other politicians also recognise that the truth is less important than emotions if they want to convince someone. Their objectives however are not therapeutic. People are often afraid of hypnosis, but they cannot be left ignorant any longer. It's a natural part of being human; we all go into a trance regularly, when watching TV or doing repetitive tasks. Used well, hypnosis is a force for good. It is also a powerful tool to gain control over others. Some politicians, including those on the far-right, are using hypnosis to sway public opinion. If an argument is going against them, they will use misdirection and exaggeration to divert attention from opposing views. Trump and others who imitate him are experts at using hypnotic confusion to cloud the truth. We must acknowledge the power of hypnosis and make everyone aware of how it works. Readers will learn to spot when someone is trying to manipulate them subliminally and how to defend themselves from it. The book describes how to use hypnotic trance to help yourself, to relax, become acquainted with your unconscious wisdom and make sure your opinions are your own. Lisa Morgan identified what Trump was doing early in his presidency and felt compelled to expose it.

Examining the development of the process of presidential selection from the founding of the republic to the present day, James Ceaser contends that many of the major purposes of the selection system as it was formerly understood have been ignored by current reformers and modern scholars. In an attempt to reverse this trend, Professor Ceaser discusses the theories of selection offered by leading American statesmen from the Founders and Thomas Jefferson to Martin Van Buren and Woodrow Wilson. From these theories he identifies a set of criteria for a sound selection system that he then uses to analyze and evaluate the recent changes in the selection process.

Five normative functions of a presidential selection system comprise the author's criteria: it should minimize the harmful effects of ambitious contenders for the office, promote responsible executive leadership and power, help secure an able president, ensure a legitimate accession, and provide for an appropriate amount of choice and change.

Professor Ceaser finds that the present system is characterized by weak parties and candidate-centered campaigns that lead to the problems of "image" politics and demagogic leadership appeals. He therefore argues for a more republican selection system in which political parties would be strengthened to serve as a restraining force on popular authority, public opinion, and individual aspirations for executive power.

"Clear out the Shenandoah Valley "clean and clear," Union General-in-Chief Ulysses S. Grant ordered, in the late summer of 1864. His man for the job: Major General"Little Phil" Sheridan, the bandy-legged Irishman who'd proven himself just the kind of scrapper Grant loved. Grant turned Sheridan loose across Virginia's most vital landscape, the breadbasket of the Confederacy. In the spring of 1862, a string of Confederate victories in the Valley had foiled Union plans in the state and kept Confederate armies fed and supplied. In 1863, the Army of Northern Virginia used the Valley as its avenue of invasion, culminating in the battle of Gettysburg. The Valley continued to offer Confederates an alluring backdoor to Washington D.C. But when Sheridan returned to the Valley in 1864, the stakes jumped dramatically. To lose the Valley would mean to lose the state, Stonewall Jackson had once said-and now that prediction would be put to the test as Sheridan fought with Confederate Lieutenant General Jubal Early for possession. For the North, the fragile momentum its war effort had gained by capturing Atlanta would quickly evaporate; for Abraham Lincoln, defeat in the Valley could very well mean defeat in the upcoming election. For the South, more than its breadbasket was at stake-its nascent nationhood lay on the line. Historians Daniel Davis and Philip Greenwalt, longtime students of the Civil War, have spent countless hours researching the Valley battles of'64 and walking the ground where those battles unfolded. Bloody Autumn: The Shenandoah Valley Campaign of 1864 shifts attention away from Army of the Potomac and the Army of Northern Virginia to the campaign that ultimately determined the balance of power across the Eastern Theatre.

Thanks to a series of recent US Supreme Court decisions, corporations can now spend unlimited sums to influence elections, Super PACs and dark money groups are flourishing, and wealthy individuals and special interests increasingly dominate American politics. Despite the overwhelming support of Americans to fix this broken system, serious efforts at reform have languished. Campaign finance is a highly intricate and complex area of the law, and the current system favors the incumbent politicians who oversee it. This illuminating book takes these hard realities as a starting point and offers realistic solutions to reform campaign finance. With contributions from more than a dozen leading scholars of election law, it should be read by anyone interested in reclaiming the promise of American democracy.

Presidential Image has become an integral part of the campaign, presidency and legacy of Modern American presidents. Across the 20th century to the age of Trump, presidential image has dominated media coverage and public consciousness, winning elections, gaining support for their leadership in office and shaping their reputation in history. Using ten presidential case studies. this edited collection features contributions from scholars and political journalists from the UK and America, to analyse aspects of Presidential Image that shaped their perceived effectiveness as America's leader, and to explore this complex, controversial, and continuous element of modern presidential politics.

There are a number of controversies surrounding the International Criminal Court (ICC) in Africa. Critics have charged it with neo-colonial meddling in African affairs, accusing it of undermining national sovereignty and domestic attempts to resolve armed conflict. Here, based on 650 interviews over 11 years, Phil Clark critically assesses the politics of the ICC in Uganda and the Democratic Republic of Congo, focusing particularly on the Court's multi-level impact on national politics and the lives of everyday citizens. He explores the ICC's effects on peace negotiations, national elections, domestic judicial reform, amnesty processes, combatant demobilisation and community-level accountability and reconciliation. In attempting to distance itself from African conflict zones geographically, philosophically and procedurally, Clark also reveals that the ICC has become more politicised and damaging to African polities, requiring a substantial rethink of the approaches and ideas that underpin the ICC's practice of distant justice.

With extraordinary access to the Trump White House, Michael Wolff tells the inside story of the most controversial presidency of our time.

The first nine months of Donald Trump’s term were stormy, outrageous―and absolutely mesmerizing. Now, thanks to his deep access to the West Wing, bestselling author Michael Wolff tells the riveting story of how Trump launched a tenure as volatile and fiery as the man himself. In this explosive book, Wolff provides a wealth of new details about the chaos in the Oval Office.

Among the revelations:

• What President Trump’s staff really thinks of him
• What inspired Trump to claim he was wire-tapped by President Obama
• Why FBI director James Comey was really fired
• Why chief strategist Steve Bannon and Trump’s son-in-law Jared Kushner couldn’t be in the same room
• Who is really directing the Trump administration’s strategy in the wake of Bannon’s firing
• What the secret to communicating with Trump is
• What the Trump administration has in common with the movie The Producers

Never before has a presidency so divided the American people. Brilliantly reported and astoundingly fresh, Michael Wolff’s Fire and Fury shows us how and why Donald Trump has become the king of discord and disunion.

Have you ever seen a politician fiercely attacking his opponent? Sure you have. Election campaigns without attacks on the rival candidate's performance, policy propositions and traits simply do not exist. Negative campaigning makes up a substantial part of election campaigns around the world. Though heavily covered in election news, the practice is strongly disliked by political pundits, journalists and voters. Some are even concerned that negative campaigning damages democracy itself. Negative campaigning has inspired numerous scholars in recent decades. But much of the existing research examines the phenomenon only in the United States, and scholars disagree on how the practice should be defined and measured, which has resulted in open-ended conclusions about its causes and effects. This unique volume presents for the first time work examining negative campaigning in the US, Europe and beyond. It presents systematic literature overviews and new work that touches upon three fundamental questions: What is negative campaigning and can we measure it? What causes negative campaigning? And what are its effects?

The Impact of YouTube on U.S. Politics provides a historical, descriptive, and conceptual analysis of the broad and evolving political impact of YouTube. It specifically addresses how politicians, campaigns, the media, and the public utilize YouTube for political campaigning, communication, and engagement. The text provides a synthesized illustration of the ways in which YouTube has become a requisite political tool and normalized as a central platform for political communication in the United States. LaChrystal Ricke discusses political YouTube videos and strategies spanning across the 2006, 2008, 2010, and 2012 election cycles, and addresses the potential impact of YouTube in future U.S. elections.

The UK Independence Party (Ukip) is the most significant new force in British politics for a generation. Under the leadership of Nigel Farage, the party has enjoyed a remarkable rise, winning the 2014 European Parliament elections as well as two parliamentary by-elections, and attracting mainstream defectors to achieve major party status. By the time of the 2015 general election, Farage and Ukip stood on the threshold of becoming a major force at Westminster. This account is a must-read for anyone interested in the inside story of Ukip's quest to change British politics during one of the most unpredictable and dramatic elections in recent history. Based on unprecedented access to the party and its key players, the book pulls back the curtain on one of the most intriguing campaigns in living memory. It includes behind the scenes observations from the campaign trail and more than one hundred interviews - with leading Ukip insiders such as Nigel Farage, Douglas Carswell, and Mark Reckless, as well as major donors, strategists, and figures from across the political landscape as they grappled with Ukip's rise. Matthew Goodwin and Caitlin Milazzo reveal what really happened during the 2015 election campaign and in the by-elections and defections which preceded it, providing detailed accounts of the critical moments that shaped both the election itself and British politics more widely. The book also makes extensive use of British Election Study data from over five decades to answer important questions about the rise of Ukip and what it signifies. Who voted for Ukip and why? How are political loyalties in Britain changing over time? What are the deeper currents that have made Ukip's rise possible and will continue to shape its future? And what does the party's campaign for power reveal about the current evolution of British politics and society? UKIP takes readers inside the campaign, telling for the first time the exciting inside story of a new party attempting to redraw the map of British politics.

This book shows how British politics is being transformed from a leadership-run system to one dictated by public needs and demands. No longer confined to party politics, organizations including the monarchy, the BBC, universities, local councils, charities and the Scottish Parliament are adopting the tools of market intelligence to understand their market needs and demands.The political marketing revolution raises many questions, such as whether the student or patient really does know best and can decide his own education and health care. The book calls for a debate about the movement of the British political system towards a market-orientation and a re-negotiation of the relationship between leaders and the market. While recognizing the need for political leaders to listen, this debate places some responsibilities on the political consumer, looking to create a new relationship that might work more effectively for both sides.

This book is intended to respond to Congress's ongoing interest in campaign finance policy following the Supreme Court's April 2014 McCutcheon decision. The book relies on a question-and-answer format designed to highlight key information in a brief and accessible way. This book offers a preliminary analysis of major policy issues and potential implications that appear to be most relevant as the House and Senate assess the ruling and consider how to respond. The book discusses possible implications of the case for campaign fundraising or disclosure to illustrate policy issues that might be relevant for congressional consideration. This book also includes updated material that emphasises the issues most prominently before the 113th Congress. It also discusses foundational information about major elements of campaign finance policy.

The Scottish independence referendum of 2014 was the most colourful, dynamic and longest political campaign Scotland has ever seen and which, in IndyRef to ScotRef , is lovingly recounted through the experiences of a university lecturer turned Yes for Scotland activist who was inspired to roll up his sleeves and get involved in his native city of Edinburgh. Sharing a personal journey that will resonate with tens of thousands of Scots, from all backgrounds and walks of life, who found themselves drawn to Campaigning for Yes, Peter Lynch describes his transition from an academic observer of the referendum to an active participant. Through his early involvement with local Yes groups to a deeper immersion in the grassroots campaign with leafleting, street stalls, door-to-door canvassing, public meetings, electoral registration and the many political carnivals held across Edinburgh in pursuit of a Yes vote, Lynch also rediscovered the city he grew up in and describes how it had been effected by decades of economic, political and social change. When Yes Scotland was launched in May 2012, support for independence stood at 23% but, as the IndyRef campaign galvanised and inspired the nation to debate its future in a way that caught the imagination of hundreds of thousands of previously non-politically active Scots, support for independence grew steadily reaching 44.7% - 1,617,989 votes - on 18th September 2014; referendum day. Of interest to supporters of independence and neutral observers alike, IndyRef to ScotRef explains how, despite losing the vote, many Yes activists soon concluded that the referendum campaign had fundamentally changed their lives as well as the political landscape of Scotland and committed themselves to `get it right next time': it was the beginning, not the end. In the final chapters of IndyRef to ScotRef, Peter Lynch analyses the huge political events that have occurred in Scotland and the rest of the UK since September 2014, which have seen the SNP's domination of Scottish politics and Britain voting for Brexit despite Scotland voting to Remain, resulting in the decision of the Scottish Parliament in March 2017 to call for a further independence referendum. With an eye on ScotRef, whenever it comes, Lynch warns `Yessers' to be realistic and prepared, outlining what must be done to secure a `Yes' for Scotland.

It's at the local level that some of the most crucial decisions are made about education, healthcare, emergency services, the environment, planning, development, and transportation -- decisions that directly affect the quality of our lives. And it's at the local level that ordinary citizens can still have a real impact on shaping their communities by getting involved. Political strategist Larry Tramutola provides practical lessons on how to win local elections and use organizing techniques to be effective politically. Originally published in 2004, this new edition is a re-framing of some of the lessons given the new challenges that communities face, and the growing appreciation that significant social change can come through organizing.