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.

This is the first book to provide a clear overview and innovative analysis of the multiple ways the European Union affects industrial relations. It frames the EU as the provider of both a new institutional framework and policy context for industrial relations. It first examines the European level institutional framework for industrial relations, namely the European social dialogue at cross-sectoral, sectoral and company level, as well as interactions between these and transnational developments. It then focuses on the EU's role as a driver for institutional change in industrial relations at the national level, and subsequently analyses how the EU's policy framework, such as the common market freedoms, economic governance and Agenda 2020, influences industrial relations. The book will be of great interest particularly to all those involved in industrial relations and EU studies and more generally to anyone interested in the EU's debated and contested role in socio-economic governance in the face of an economic crisis that puts into question existing national and transnational governance structures.

Do builders construct buildings without a blueprint? Is it wise to go on a long road trip without mapping the route ahead of time? Campaign are no different - they need a plan to be successful. Used in campaigns and classrooms nationwide, The Political Campaign Desk Reference has become the guide that many campaign professionals use during every election. The Political Campaign Desk Reference will guide campaigns through the process of building a campaign plan. In addition, this guide will help campaigns craft a winning message for use on television, Internet, social media, direct mail, telephone, radio and nearly every medium available. This second edition of the Political Campaign Desk Reference incorporates a greater discussion of technology, social networking, and fundraising as well as the difference between strategy and tactics. The Political Campaign Desk Reference also details the need for opposition research, how to gather that information, and when it is appropriate to use that information. The author, Michael McNamara, is a professional with over 17 years of experience in campaigns and elections. He has helped numerous candidates at the local, regional, state, and national level. McNamara has worked with individuals seeking office, organizations seeking levies, and businesses working to change local ordinances. The Political Campaign Desk Reference is the book you want on your side and the book that you do not want your opponent to have.

Before the Tea Party, the Coffee Party, the "Occupy" movement, Ross Perot or even the Libertarian Party, there was Robert Heinlein, a prophetic mastermind, calling to the people to organize in a grassroots movement to take back their government and to find an effective voice for their individual selves. *** Originally titled How to be a Politician, the book was written in 1946 based on Heinlein's own political experiences, in particular his efforts on behalf of Upton Sinclair to become the governor of California and for Sinclair's landmark effort to End Poverty in California (EPIC). *** Though Heinlein is best known for his science fiction work, he always had strong political views and often involved himself with various causes, including personally paying for advertisements in newspapers propagating his views.*** Here is a fascinating look, both historically and philosophically, at a great visionary's take on the political landscape in the United States, and what each of us can do to better this country.

With a new afterword by the author
Drawing on over a decade's experience at the Gallup Poll and a distinguished academic career in survey research, David W. Moore--praised as a "scholarly crusader" by the "New York Times"--reveals that pollsters don't report public opinion, they manufacture it. In this highly critical book, he describes the questionable tactics pollsters use to create poll-driven news stories-including force-feeding respondents, slanting the wording of questions, and ignoring public ignorance on even the most arcane issues. More than proof that the numbers do lie, "The Opinion Makers" clearly and convincingly spells out how urgent it is that we make polls deliver on their promise to monitor, not manipulate, the pulse of democracy.

Had John McCain simultaneously chosen Condoleezza Rice as his Vice Presidential running mate (instead of Sarah Palin) and Mitt Romney as his Chief Economic Advisor coming out of the Convention, the Republicans could have actually won the 2008 Presidential Election; even in the aftermath of the Wall Street Economic Meltdown (based on an objective analysis of Presidential Exit Poll Data). This assertion is primarily based on three highly plausible suppositions that would have emerged, demographically, had Rice been chosen as the Republican Vice Presidential candidate, that could have decisively altered the outcome of the 2008 Presidential Election of Barack Obama.
In particular, Rice s presence on the Republican ticket would have cut across and appealed to several crucial demographic constituencies that no other Republican possibly could in 2008 (or, for that matter, in 2012 either). Moreover, the selection of Rice would have averted the devastatingly negative Voter impact of Sarah Palin s perceived lack of readiness to become President that endured through Election Day. Whereas, had Romney been onboard as an equal member of such a political triumvirate paradigm, the frantic and impulsive vacillations displayed by John McCain that excruciatingly transpired in the two weeks following the onset of the Wall Street Economic Meltdown in mid September 2008, need not ever have occurred.
Further, this book will examine how John McCain and the Republican Party, during the 2008 Presidential campaign, allowed themselves to be essentially handcuffed and effortlessly painted into a corner by Barack Obama and the Democrats on several major campaign issues for which justifiable, principled departures from rigid Republican Doctrine did, and still do, exist today.
Additionally, the personality traits of both McCain and Obama are analyzed as a basis for projecting their respective presidential crisis decision-making potential; based on observable behavior and reaction to events that occurred during the 2008 campaign. A similar analysis details how both McCain and Obama, at crucial times during the campaign, allowed their respective insecurities and/or petty vindictiveness to cloud and potential jeopardize even their most overriding, single-minded ambition: To be elected President.
The daunting (and maybe insurmountable) outlook confronting the Republican Party in 2012 and beyond will also be explored. Indeed, for the Republican Party, after 2020, the future looks even more bleak; at which time, if nothing materially changes, the Democrat Party will dominate the White House as the only remaining viable National Political Party.
As to the immediate future, a valid and objective Voter Expectation of the Republican Party is that their criticism of the Obama Democrat Administration will be accompanied by thoughtful, comprehensive alternative solutions. Moreover, it is axiomatic that Voters will, typically, not opt to change horses in the middle of the stream unless 1) the party in power seeking re-election is perceived not only as a troubled presidency (1980: Carter); but, as an additional prerequisite, 2) the opposition party a) has detailed alternative solutions and b) can articulate them (1980: Reagan).

From hashtag activism to the flood of political memes on social media, the landscape of political communication is being transformed by the grassroots circulation of opinion on digital platforms and beyond. By exploring how everyday people assist in the promotion of political media messages to persuade their peers and shape the public mind, Joel Penney offers a new framework for understanding the phenomenon of viral political communication: the citizen marketer. Like the citizen consumer, the citizen marketer is guided by the logics of marketing practice, but, rather than being passive, actively circulates persuasive media to advance political interests. Such practices include using protest symbols in social media profile pictures, strategically tweeting links to news articles to raise awareness about select issues, sharing politically-charged internet memes and viral videos, and displaying mass-produced T-shirts, buttons, and bumper stickers that promote a favored electoral candidate or cause. Citizens view their participation in such activities not only in terms of how it may shape or influence outcomes, but as a statement of their own identity. As the book argues, these practices signal an important shift in how political participation is conceptualized and performed in advanced capitalist democratic societies, as they casually inject political ideas into the everyday spaces and places of popular culture. While marketing is considered a dirty word in certain critical circles - particularly among segments of the left that have identified neoliberal market logics and consumer capitalist structures as a major focus of political struggle - some of these very critics have determined that the most effective way to push back against the forces of neoliberal capitalism is to co-opt its own marketing and advertising techniques to spread counter-hegemonic ideas to the public. Accordingly, this book argues that the citizen marketer approach to political action is much broader than any one ideological constituency or bloc. Rather, it is a means of promoting a wide range of political ideas, including those that are broadly critical of elite uses of marketing in consumer capitalist societies. The book includes an extensive historical treatment of citizen-level political promotion in modern democratic societies, connecting contemporary digital practices to both the 19th century tradition of mass political spectacle as well as more informal, culturally-situated forms of political expression that emerge from postwar countercultures. By investigating the logics and motivations behind the citizen marketer approach, as well as how it has developed in response to key social, cultural, and technological changes, Penney charts the evolution of activism in an age of mediatized politics, promotional culture, and viral circulation.

The 2006 elections will be remembered as the year when the center of power in American politics shifted from traditional top-down central broadcasters to new bottom-up decentralized activists in the blogosphere and netroots. The authors give firsthand accounts of the burgeoning power of the netroots to determine the outcome of political contests, most notably as when the national balance of power was tipped by Jim Webb's rag-tag army of bloggers and netroots activists. They assess the prospects for Netroots 2.0: whether the netroots hordes will crash the party or work out an uneasy cohabitation with the traditional party power elite. The 2006 elections will be remembered as the year when the center of power in American politics shifted from traditional top-down central broadcasters to new bottom-up decentralized activists in the blogosphere and netroots. The authors give firsthand accounts of the burgeoning power of the netroots to determine the outcome of political contests, most notably as when the national balance of power was tipped by Jim Webb's rag-tag army of bloggers and netroots activists who provoked and exposed the gaffe that proved fatal to George Allen's senatorial bid. Veteran online campaigners Feld and Wilcox recount and analyze many other political campaigns in which netroots activism was decisive or instructive, including:* U.S. House Majority Leader Tom DeLay's downfall. *Tim Kaine's election as Virginia govenor. *Howard Dean's and Wes Clark's presidential campaigns. *Ned Lamont's primary victory over Joe Lieberman. The authors conclude with an assessment of the prospects for Netroots 2.0: Will the netroots hordes crash the party or will they work out an uneasy cohabitation with the traditional party power elite? The foreword is written by Markos (Kos) Moulitsas Zuniga, founding editor of the world's biggest political blog, Daily Kos.

This is the inside story of how Jeb Bush persuaded the Fox network to call the presidential election for his brother George W. Bush on Election Night 2000. It was one phone call to Fox , the details of which are revealed in this book for the first time , that propelled George W. Bush into leading position for 43rd president of the United States. Even though the erroneous statement had to be retracted within two hours, the damage done by this false call to Al Gore's chances of winning the election were incalculable. David Moore, at the time senior editor for the Gallup Poll, makes the plausible and alarming case that, had Fox not made this miscall, the resulting political environment would have been less biased in favour of Bush, and that Al Gore could have won. On Election Night in 2000, Moore was with the exit poll "decision team" of CBS and CNN, taking notes on how election races were called, and miscalled, around the country , including the two miscalls and two rescissions in Florida. Prior to joining Gallup in 1993, Moore was founder and director of the Survey centre at the University of New Hampshire.

For more than forty years, Jack Germond has been covering politics for Gannett newspapers, the "Washington Star," and the Baltimore "Sun, " and talking politics on the "Today" show, "The McLaughlin Group, " and "Inside Washington." Now, in Fat Man Fed Up," " Germond confronts the most critical issues raised by our election process and offers a scathing but wry polemic about what's wrong with American politics.
Is there any connection between what happens in campaigns and what happens in government? And if not, where does the blame for the discontent lie? Was Tocqueville right? Do we get the leaders we deserve? Indeed, according to Germond, the politicians aren't the only ones to blame, or even the chief culprits. He describes how he and his colleagues in the news media have been guilty of dumbing-down the political process-and how the voters are too apathetic to demand better coverage and better results. Instead, they simply turn away and too often end up enduring third-rate presidents.
This no-sacred-cows manifesto faces the problems many are reluctant to address:
- Polls and how they are used and abused by politicians and press to mislead gullible voters.
- The critical failure of the press to accurately portray figures in the political realm, from Eugene McCarthy to Barbara Bush to Al Sharpton.
- How the complaints about liberal bias in the press miss the real point: whether that bias, if it exists, colors the way editors and reporters work.
- The staggering influence of television, and the networks' inability to provide anything but the most simplistic coverage of politics.
- The "big lie" school of campaigning. From "Where's the beef?" to "compassionate conservatism," the politics of empty slogans has always placed noise above nuance: Say anything loudly enough and long enough, and voters are bound to mistake it for the truth.
Along the way, Germond illustrates his arguments by drawing from his war chest of priceless anecdotes from decades in the business. With his inimitable combination of incisive journalism and sardonic and witty straight talk, Germond guides us through the fog created by candidates and the media. In this timely, outrageous, and compulsively readable book, no one is let off the hook. Fat Man Fed Up is a bracing look at how we never seem to get the truth about the people we're electing.

"From the Hardcover edition."

The field of Contenders vying to become the next President of the United States seems to grow every day. Big names like Clinton, McCain, Obama and Giuliani dominate the landscape right now but as we know, it s possible that an unknown can come out of the pack and become the Contender to beat. Questions surround the leading Contenders: . Is America ready to elect a woman President? . Has John McCain mended fences in the Republican Party? . Is America ready to elect an African-American President? . Can a pro gay rights, pro abortion and pro gun control Contender from New York City win the Republican nomination? If any of these Contenders stumble, who in either Party can pick up the baton and race to the finish? And what about the Pretenders? While most of them have no chance to become President, they can make the race very difficult for the frontrunners. Will Governors continue their hold on the Presidency? Can a sitting Senator become President, the first one since John F. Kennedy? Rey Thomas, political analyst and Editor-In-Chief of The Thomas Political Report, examines the Democrat and Republican Contenders and Pretenders. Just one can win. Who will it be?

A powerful new research design in the field of voter mobilization has created a more comprehensive picture of the effectiveness of various get-out-the-vote campaign methods. With an increase in field experiments in the past few years, researchers, campaigns, and policymakers have gleaned important insights into voter participation.

Until recently, voting behavior was mainly studied through survey research. And while large national surveys have had a tremendous impact on scientific and policy debates, concerns about the accuracy of survey research remain. Surveys suffer from two major drawbacks. First is the possibility of misreporting by survey participants. Measuring voter turnout through survey research relies on respondents' disclosure of whether they voted or not, and some voters may feel embarrassed that they did not vote and provide false answers. Second, campaigns may focus their energies on likely voters. If so, surveys may show a correlation between voter turnout and voter mobilization activity even when voter mobilization campaigns are ineffective.

Aware of the limitations of survey research, political scientists have recently turned to field experimentation to gain a clearer picture of the causal implications of voter mobilization efforts on specific populations.

This issue of The ANNALS presents the results of several field experiments, which are at the forefront of research in this area. These field experiments draw important distinctions between different forms of mobilization activities and their effects on a variety of populations studying personal versus impersonal mobilization efforts as well as partisan versus non-partisan efforts.

Challenging conventional wisdom and clarifying important methodological issues, this issue of The ANNALS provides a new approach to the study of voter mobilization. Taken together, these intriguing articles report advances in knowledge gained by field experiments and have the potential to reshape the past assumptions about campaign effectiveness and influence future strategies on mobilizing voters.

This issue will also serve as a springboard for new work in the field as political scientists grapple with filling in existing gaps such as the effects of mass media and move toward an even clearer theoretical understanding of the conditions under which interventions work.

Professionals, volunteers and anyone directly involved in voter mobilization will discover important findings in this collection of studies. And, because the research was conducted in the real world of campaigns and elections, the authors help answer the critical question of how to apply scholarly insights to voter outreach programs on a grand scale."

If the funding of parties and campaigns is a crucial issue for democratic theory and practice, then the spread of State subsidies for parties is, arguably, the most important trend in contemporary political finance. Using a large data set on political financing in more than 40 democracies, the book offers an unprecedented comparative study of the features of party subsidies and their effects on campaign finance practices, party systems and party organisations. The book also provides a detailed empirical account of campaign finance in two of Latin America's most consolidated democracies. Drawing upon extensive archival work and interviews, this work sheds light on largely hidden aspects of politics in the developing world and questions widespread beliefs about political finance, such as the rapid increase of campaign costs and the crucial role of television in this trend.

Tracing the history of political rhetoric in nineteenth-century America and Britain, Andrew W. Robertson shows how modern election campaigning was born. Robertson discusses early political cartoons and electioneering speeches as he examines the role of each nation's press in assimilating masses of new voters into the political system.

Even a decade after the American Revolution, the authors shows, British and American political culture had much in common. On both sides of the Atlantic, electioneering in the 1790s was confined mostly to male elites, and published speeches shared a characteristically Neoclassical rhetoric. As voting rights were expanded, however, politicians sought a more effective medium and style for communicating with less-educated audiences. Comparing changes in the modes of in the two countries, Robertson reconstructs the transformation of campaign rhetoric into forms that incorporated the oral culture of the stump speech as well as elite print culture.

By the end of the nineteenth century, the press had become the primary medium for initiating, persuading, and sustaining loyal partisan audiences. In Britain and America, millions of men participated in a democratic political culture that spoke their language, played to their prejudices, and courted their approval. Today's readers concerned with broadening political discourse to reach a more diverse audience will find rich and intriguing parallels in Robertson's account.

These days, John Kerry is swaddled in political bubble wrap, surrounded by Secret Service agents and stalked by a media army. But Kerry wasn't always cordoned off. Back when candidates traveled with a lone aide, it was possible to obtain a revealing portrait of Kerry, free of the hurly-burly of vast entourages. That's what USA Today political columnist Walter Shapiro did as he hit the campaign trail early to write One-Car Caravan, his revealing and witty behind-the-scenes account of the race for the 2004 nomination. Shapiro portrays all the Democratic dreamers at that innocent moment when anything seemed possible, even the White House itself. He captures the heady rise of Howard Dean, as well as the relentless optimism of John Edwards that carried him so far in his break-out appearance on the national stage. One-Car Caravan also unveils the secret strategies and the closed-door fund-raisers that are integral parts of that little-chronicled phase of politics known as the "Invisible Primary." Full of incisive observations of the candidates and trenchant analysis of the political process, One-Car Caravan is now updated with several additional chapters to extend the Democratic saga to its dramatic conclusion. As wry as it is riveting, Shapiro's journey from a "One-Car Caravan" to the Convention offers a refreshing take on how modern presidents are really made.

In this provocative book, two leading law professors challenge the existing campaign reform agenda and present a new initiative that avoids the mistakes of the past. Bruce Ackerman and Ian Ayres build on the example of the secret ballot and propose a system of "secret donation booths" for campaign contributions. They unveil a plan in which the government provides each voter with a special credit card account containing fifty "Patriot dollars" for presidential elections. To use this money, citizens go to their local ATM machine and anonymously send their Patriot dollars to their favorite candidates or political organizations. Americans are free to make additional contributions, but they must also give these gifts anonymously. Because candidates cannot identify who provided the funds, it will be much harder for big contributors to buy political influence. And the need for politicians to compete for the Patriot dollars will give much more power to the people. Ackerman and Ayres work out the operating details of their plan, anticipate problems, design safeguards, suggest overseers, and show how their proposals satisfy the most stringent constitutional requirements. They conclude with a model statute that could serve as the basis of a serious congressional effort to restore Americans' faith in democratic politics.

This book provides a concise overview of the institutions of government in modern democracies, including constitutions, legislatures, heads of state and of government, variations of federalism, and electoral systems. The Institutions of Liberal Democratic States presents four excerpted chapters from Politics: An Introduction to Democratic Government, second edition.

In The Last Campaign, Zachary Karabell rescues the 1948 presidential campaign from the annals of political folklore ("Dewey Defeats Truman," the Chicago Tribune memorably and erroneously heralded), to give us a fresh look at perhaps the last time the American people could truly distinguish what the candidates stood for.

In 1948, Harry Truman, the feisty working-class Democratic incumbent was one of the most unpopular presidents the country had ever known. His Republican rival, the aloof Thomas Dewey, was widely thought to be a shoe-in. These two major party candidates were flanked on the far left by the Progressive Henry Wallace, and on the far right by white supremacist Dixiecrat Strom Thurmond. The Last Campaign exposes the fascinating story behind Truman’s legendary victory and turns a probing eye toward a by-gone era of political earnestness, when, for “the last time in this century, an entire spectrum of ideologies was represented,” a time before television fundamentally altered the political landscape.

An invaluable resource for social studies and civics classes. Students will gain a better understanding and appreciation of citizens' fundamental rights and issues related to government and society with these books. This new series is certain to enlighten students about the Bill of Rights and the rights we have as citizens, which we sometimes take for granted.

Though all of us complain about our politicians, only slightly more than half of all eligible Americans bother to vote. As teenagers approach voting age, they may wonder why this right is so important. This book explains the historical struggle to obtain this right and what happens to our democracy when we fail to exercise our voting privileges.

Harriett Woods insists that it will take more than a woman president to assure that women have effective political power in the next millennium. "Stepping Up to Power" looks backward in order to move women forward; Woods believes that getting more women to enter the political arena will take both their commitment and a knowledge of the past. The author uses her own life story to recall how women excluded from public life were fired by their determination to solve local problems and by their passion for social issues. Decade by decade, from the 1950s to the present, Woods candidly discusses the positive and negative aspects of pivotal events leading to a triumphant moment when women believe they finally have broken through to real political power-only to discover that new challenges remain.The author examines some of the myths about women as voters and candidates; tells stories about such colorful figures as Bella Abzug and Betty Friedan; provides step-by-step advice on becoming a candidate; and describes from her own personal experience such moments as the Clarence Thomas/Anita Hill hearings, the 1992 "Year of the Woman," the appointments of Janet Reno and Ruth Bader Ginsburg, and her own breakthrough race for the U.S. Senate in Missouri in 1982."Stepping Up to Power" will fascinate general readers as well as students of women's history. America has been transformed by a revolution that has changed the personal and public relationships between men and women. The question remains: How will women use the power they have gained? "Stepping Up to Power" provides an inspiring answer.