Concerned citizens across the globe fear that democratic institutions are failing them. Citizens feel shut out of politics and worry that politicians are no longer responsive to their interests. In Hope for Democracy, John Gastil and Katherine R. Knobloch introduce new tools for tamping down hyper-partisanship and placing citizens at the heart of the democratic process. They showcase the Citizens' Initiative Review, which convenes a demographically-balanced random sample of citizens to study statewide ballot measures. Citizen panelists interrogate advocates, opponents, and experts, then write an analysis that distills their findings for voters. Gastil and Knobloch reveal how this process has helped voters better understand the policy issues placed on their ballots. Placed in the larger context of deliberative democratic reforms, Hope for Democracy shows how citizens and public officials can work together to bring more rationality and empathy into modern politics.

"Propaganda," Adolf Hitler wrote in 1924, "is a truly terrible weapon in the hands of an expert." State of Deception: The Power of Nazi Propaganda documents how, in the 1920s and 1930s, the Nazi Party used posters, newspapers, rallies, and the new technologies of radio and film to sway millions with its vision for a new Germany-reinforced by fear-mongering images of state "enemies." These images promoted indifference toward the suffering of neighbors, disguised the regime's genocidal actions, and insidiously incited ordinary people to carry out or tolerate mass violence.The United States Holocaust Memorial Museum is addressing this topic today because, in an age of instant electronic communication, disseminators of messages and images of intolerance and hate have new tools, while at the same time consumers seem less able to cope with the vast amounts of unmediated information bombarding them daily. It is hoped that a deeper understanding of the complexities of the past may help us respond more effectively to today's propaganda campaigns and biased messages.

Warping Time makes use of a number of experiments in which respondents are told various stories about the past and future and then the impact of these stories upon contemporary preferences is measured. In Benjamin Ginsberg and Jennifer Bachner's simple experiments, "history lessons" could move contemporary policy preferences by an average of 16 percentage points; forecasts of the future could move contemporary policy preferences by an average of 12 percentage points; and the two together moved preferences an average of 21 percentage points. And, to give the entire matter an Orwellian flavor, in the case of history lessons, they estimate an average "erasure effect" of 8.5 percentage points-the difference between those with long-held preferences and those whose preferences had been changed but who seemed not to recall that they previously held other preferences. Three propositions follow from these observations. First, the fact that the past, present, and future are subject to human manipulation suggests that history is driven by ideas and is not simply the product of impersonal forces, material conditions, or past choices. Humans are the architects of history, not its captives. Second, what they conceive to be political reality is rather tenuous. Changes in our understanding of the past or future can quite substantially alter general perceptions of and action in the present. Third, manipulation of time, especially the relationship between past and future, can function as a powerful political tool. In essence, political reality can be politically determined. Past, present, and future are not givens. They are products of political struggle, and victories in those struggles are, in turn, subject to future revision as emergent political forces find that the currently accepted past and future are inconsistent with their own ideas and interests.

The prominence of politically-themed entertainment is evident across the global media landscape. Given its popularity, it is important to gain a firm understanding of the mechanisms through which this diverse and multi-faceted content can generate democratic outcomes. In addition, it is essential to isolate and predict properly the strength of a given effect and the conditions under which a specific outcome will become evident. The works contained in this edited volume explore affect- and cognition-driven processes of influence, recognizing that humans are both emotional and rational beings. In addition, empirical evidence is offered to isolate and compare specific types of political entertainment media content (e.g., different types of satire) and citizens' proclivities for this content (e.g., a person's Affinity for Political Humor), in order to best understand the complex means by which entertainment media can generate political influence. Attention is also paid to expanding what can and should be defined as "political entertainment" media, which includes opinion-based political talk programming. The collection and its authors represent a global perspective to reflect the rise of political entertainment media as a global phenomenon. This book was originally published as a special issue of Mass Communication and Society.

Modern Art in Cold War Beirut: Drawing Alliances examines the entangled histories of modern art and international politics during the decades of the 1950s and 1960s. Positing the Cold War as a globalized conflict, fraught with different political ideologies and intercultural exchanges, this study asks how these historical circumstances shaped local debates in Beirut over artistic pedagogy, the social role of the artist, the aesthetics of form, and, ultimately, the development of a national art. Drawing on a range of archival material and taking an interdisciplinary approach, Sarah Rogers argues that the genealogies of modern art can never be understood as isolated, national histories, but rather that they participate in an ever contingent global modernism. This book will be of particular interest to scholars in art history, Cold War studies, and Middle East studies.

The Status of Refugees in Asia surveys some of the key issues of law and policy affecting refugees in the Asian region. The movement and presence of refugees in different parts of the region is surveyed, and the general legal position - ranging from multilateral treaties to regional and national initiatives - evaluated. A selection of country profiles to illustrate the implementation of law and policy at the national level is provided, and the performance of three Asian countries which have acceded to the 1951 United Nations Refugee Convention and its 1967 Protocol is assessed: namely, China, Japan, and the Philippines. Attention is given to the five other countries which have not acceded to these instruments - Brunei, Indonesia, Malaysia, Singapore, and Thailand - and current critical refugee problem areas such as Afghanistan and Sri Lanka examined.

The book concludes by examining current difficulties with state practice in the region and presents possible solutions and new directions for the future.

This book draws on a multi-method study of film and television narratives of global criminal networks to explore the links between audiovisual media, criminal networks and global audiences in the age of digital content distribution. Mapping out media representations of the ongoing war on drugs in Mexico and the United States, the author delves into the social, cultural and geopolitical impacts of distribution and consumption of these media. With a particular emphasis on the globalized Mexican cartels, this book investigates three areas - gender and racial representation in film and television, the digital distribution of content through the internet and streaming services such as Hulu and Netflix, and depictions of extreme violence in film, television and online spaces - to identify whether there are fundamental similarities and differences in how Hollywood productions reproduce stereotypes about race, gender and extreme violence. Some of the movies and television series analysed are Breaking Bad, Ozark, Weeds, Rambo: Last Blood, No Country for Old Men, Sicario and the Netflix series Narcos, Narcos: Mexico and El Chapo. Taking a unique interdisciplinary approach to the study of cartels in the media, this book will be of interest to students and scholars of media studies, film, television, security studies, Latin American and cultural studies.

International relations as a discipline has largely ignored the role of religion in shaping international events. The growth of Islamist militancy, the increasing influence of the Christian Right on US foreign policy and George Bush's war on terror changed this for good. Now more than ever we need to analyze this change and consider how religion and the way it is represented affects international politics. Lee Marsden and Heather Savigny uniquely bring together some of the leading figures in the fields of politics and media, international relations and security, and international relations and religion, including freelance journalist and newspaper columnist Nick Cohen, the international authority on politics and religion Professor Jeffrey Haynes, and Professor Justin Lewis who has a number of BBC commissions under his belt. The volume offers a series of case studies reflecting on how the media covers religion as conflict within and between states. It challenges readers to critically examine how media reportage and commentary influences perceptions and responses to religion and security.

Today, European nations still use stamps to commemorate aspects of a nation's culture, history and achievements. During the Second World War, however, stamps were considered far more important in conveying political and ideological messages about their country's change in fortunes - whether it was as triumphant occupier, willing or unwilling ally, or oppressed victim. Some issues and overprints contained obvious messages, but many others were skillfully designed and subtle in their intentions. Stamps and their accompanying postmarks offer an absorbing and surprisingly detailed insight into the hopes and fears of nations at this tumultuous time. This remarkable collection examines and interprets the stamps of twenty-two countries across western and eastern Europe. The glorification of the Fuhrer and Germany on the stamps of countries he most oppressed was inevitable, but many issues are ambiguous and indicative of the rival ethnic and political forces striving to attain influence and power. Desperate to unite the people, Soviet Russia resorted to images of the nation's heroic achievements under the Tsars; the mutually hostile puppet states Hitler and Mussolini allowed to emerge out of conquered Yugoslavia lost no time in issuing stamps proclaiming their cultural diversity; and Vichy France sought to justify its existence with issues linking past glories under Louis XIV and Napoleon with an equally glorious future alongside Hitler. These and many more stories reveal the aspirations, assumptions and anxieties of so many nations as their destinies hung in the balance.

This book, an outcome of an international conference entitled "State Organized Terror: The Case of Violent Internal Repression", addresses the antecedent structural factors conducive to state organized terror and provides insights into the political and social psychology of state terror.

Using a case study approach, Celebrities in American Elections contends that celebrities have the talent, fame, and resources to succeed in electoral politics. These factors account for the electoral victories of Ronald Reagan, Clint Eastwood, Fred Grandy, Sonny Bono, Jesse Ventura, Arnold Schwarzenegger, Al Franken, and Donald Trump. However, the author argues that these items are insufficient without a favorable political environment; as many celebrities have lost elections as have won them. They lose because their persona does not match the politics of their time, or they represent the minority party in a one party dominated district or state, or they advocate for unpopular policies. Among those that won, nearly half were elected by a plurality - not a majority - of voters. This does not suggest overwhelming public support for celebrity candidates despite their many advantages. With a few exceptions, celebrities that won tended to also win the fundraising battle, while celebrities that lost tended to raise less than their opponent - the normal laws of politics still apply. The celebrity factor, while helpful, does not fully explain why celebrities win or lose elections.

The concept of networks and the techniques of social network analysis have each assumed increasing importance in social science in recent years, not least in relation to the analysis of collective action and particularly social movements. This timely collection offers a fascinating glimpse into the state of the art. Each chapter uses network analysis to tackle a different question regarding the nature and dynamics of social movement activity, and each reflects upon the advantages and limitations of the method for its purposes. The case studies focused upon are drawn from a variety of national contexts, both contemporary and historical, and both the methods used and the uses to which they are put are no less diverse. A must have book for anybody interested in social movement networks and contemporary ways of analysing them. This book was published as a special issue of Social Movement Studies.

For better or worse, political image is now more important to electoral victory than a spontaneous exchange of conflicting views over matters of substantive policies. Campaign managers, polling specialists, and communication consultants define issues, set agendas, and explore policy options primarily for electoral gain. In short, campaign contrivances replace substance at all phases and levels of electoral contests. Political estrangement, as illustrated by declining voting levels, may well be a by-product of deceptive political consultant and political journalistic practices rather than Americans being frustrated by insoluble problems.In The Political Persuaders, Dan Nimmo analyzes and critiques the emerging political industry of professional political management and consulting. His volume was the first book-length treatment to do so; it is a seminal work on the subject for both academic scholars and political practitioners. In his new introduction, Nimmo hones his critique in light of the past thirty years and its effects on campaign organization, research, and communication. He assesses changes in campaign technology, stable and shifting practices of candidate marketing, and the consequences for democratic governance inherent in professionally mediated campaigns at the close of the twentieth century.Nimmo succinctly reviews his well-nigh prophetic conclusions, determining that trends discovered in 1970 not only persist, but continue to intensify with a vengeance. Although evolving campaign techniques claim to involve citizens in the electoral process, the actual involvement is more cosmetic than real-this, Nimmo argues is the principle source of deepening popular disappointment and a general political apathy. This timely volume should be read by political scientists, policymakers, and those in the fields of mass communication and journalism.Dan Nimmo has been a professor of political science, journalism, and communication at various institutions, notably the University of Missouri, University of Tennessee, and the University of Oklahoma. He is currently distinguished visiting professor of political science at Baylor University. He is the author or editor of many works including Popular Images of Politics and Newsgathering in Washington.

A Financial Times Book of the Year A Foreign Affairs Book of the Year A Spectator Book of the Year "A landmark contribution to the study of these epochal events." -Times Literary Supplement "Brilliantly researched and written...casts a careful eye upon the ghastly events that took place in the final decades of the Ottoman empire, when its rulers decided to annihilate their Christian subjects...Hitler and the Nazis gleaned lessons from this genocide that they then applied to their own efforts to extirpate Jews." -Jacob Heilbrun, The Spectator Between 1894 and 1924, three waves of violence swept across Anatolia, targeting the region's Christian minorities. By 1924, the Armenians, Assyrians, and Greeks, once nearly a quarter of the population, had been reduced to 2 percent. Most historians have treated these waves as distinct, isolated events, and successive Turkish governments presented them as an unfortunate sequence of accidents. The Thirty-Year Genocide is the first account to show that all three were actually part of a single, continuing, and intentional effort to wipe out Anatolia's Christian population. Despite the dramatic swing from the Islamizing autocracy of the sultan to the secularizing republicanism of the post-World War I period, the nation's annihilationist policies were remarkably constant, with continual recourse to premeditated mass killing, homicidal deportation, forced conversion, and mass rape. And one thing more was a constant: the rallying cry of jihad. While not justified under the teachings of Islam, the killing of two million Christians was effected through the calculated exhortation of the Turks to create a pure Muslim nation. "A subtle diagnosis of why, at particular moments over a span of three decades, Ottoman rulers and their successors unleashed torrents of suffering." -Bruce Clark, New York Times Book Review

Since the collapse of the Soviet Union a quarter of a century ago, Russia has undergone a dizzying and complex transition that has seen it transform from a communist state into a democracy before regressing back to the more authoritarian regime that exists today. Through a compelling and insightful analysis of the Russian case, this book explores the role that social welfare plays in regime transitions, specifically it examines the role that gender and social welfare has played in Russia's often chaotic post-communist political evolution, from Boris Yeltsin's assumption of the presidency in 1991 to Vladimir Putin's return for a third term as president in 2012. From 2001 to 2011, social welfare (especially pronatalist policies) was a key part of the political leadership's governance strategy. A shift from pluralism to regulation accompanied a discourse in which strong government would rein-in a wayward society. But can a hierarchical political system satisfy the aspirations of a changing citizenry? This study demonstrates that gender is at the very centre of debates over the authenticity of democracy in Russia.

Through a focus on media and political discourses both before and after the UK 2016 EU Referendum, this volume provides a set of comprehensive, empirically based analyses of Brexit as a social and political crisis. The book explores a variety of context-dependent, ideologically driven, social, political, and economic imaginaries that have been attached to the idea/concept of Brexit in the UK and internationally. The volume's wider contribution has three dimensions. First, it provides evidence of how the Brexit referendum debate and its immediate reactions were discursively framed and made sense of by a variety of social and political actors and through different media. Second, the contributors show how such discourses were reflexive of the wider path-dependent historical and political processes which have been instrumental in pre-defining the key pathways along which Brexit has been articulated. Third, the book identifies key patterns of national and international framing in order to discover the key, recurrent discursive trajectories in the ongoing process of Brexit - including after UK's formal departure from the EU in January 2020 - while putting forward an agenda for its further, in depth and systematic analysis in, in particular, politics and the media. The chapters in this book were originally published as a special issue of Critical Discourse Studies.

This book explores how and why Vietnam loomed so large for Humphrey as vice president from 1964 through the 1968 election campaign against Richard Nixon. It assesses how Humphrey's loyalty to Lyndon Johnson, who emerges as the villain of the story in many ways, would negatively affect his political ambitions. And it engages the disconnect between Humphrey's principles and the intricate politics of his convoluted relationship with the president and his unsuccessful presidential campaign. It is a complex and frustrating narrative, the results of which would be tragic, not only for Humphrey's presidential aspirations, but also for the war in Southeast Asia and the future of the United States.

`The Rolls-Royce of opinion surveys' - The Times

The indispensable annual British Social Attitudes survey compiles, describes and comments on a range of current social attitudes. The series charts changes in British social values, with annual surveys carried out from a nationwide sample of around 3,500 people by the National Centre for Social Research's team of interviewers. The 19th Report summarizes and interprets data from the most recent survey, and makes comparisons with findings from previous years.

This book is a comparison of two ethnic-national "apartheid" states ? South Africa and Israel ? which have been in conflict, and how internal dissent has developed. In particular it examines the evolution of effective white protest in South Africa and explores the reasons why comparably powerful movements have not emerged in Israel.

The book reveals patterns of behaviour shared by groups in both cases. It argues that although the role played by protest groups in peace-building may be limited, a tipping point, or ?magic point?, can become as significant as other major factors. It highlights the role played by intermediate variables that affect the pathways of protest groups: such as changes in the international system; the visions and strategies of resistance movements and their degree of success; the economic relationship between the dominant and dominated side; and the legitimacy of the ideology in power (apartheid or Zionism).

Although the politics and roles of protest groups in both cases share some similarities, differences remain. Whilst white protest groups moved towards an inclusive peace agenda that adopts the ANC vision of a united non-racial democratic South Africa, the Jewish Israeli protest groups are still, by majority, entrenched in their support for an exclusive Jewish state. And as such, they support separation between the two peoples and a limited division of mandatory Palestine / ?Eretz Israel?. This timely book sheds light on a controversial and explosive political issue: Israel being compared to apartheid South Africa.

This volume investigates the relationship between protest, repression and political regimes in Latin America and sub-Saharan Africa. Considering how different political regimes use repression and respond to popular protest, this book analyzes the relationship between protest and repression in Africa and Latin America between the late 1970s and the beginning of the twenty first century. Drawing on theories, multi-method empirical analyses and case studies, the author of this volume sets out to investigate the reciprocal dynamics between protest and repression. Distinctive features of this volume include: quantitative analyses that highlight general trends in the protest-repression relationship case studies of different political regimes in Chile and Nigeria, emphasising the dynamics at the micro-level an emphasis on the importance of full democratization in order to reduce the risk, and intensity, of intra-state conflict Focusing on political regimes in different areas of the world, Protest, Repression and Political Regimes will be of vital interest to students and scholars of conflict studies, human rights and social movements.

?Bruce I. Newman tells us briskly, firmly what our instincts also tell us: We are mass marketing images rather than providing real leadership.? --Paul Simon, Former U.S. Senator, Public Policy Institute, Southern Illinois University ?Gatorade and Coke do it, so do candidates for high office?they manufacture images and manipulate reality to win our favor. In this insightful and compelling study, Bruce I. Newman demonstrates what politicians and interest groups are doing to us and what we need to do to strengthen our democracy.? --Dennis W. Johnson, Associate Dean, George Washington University ?Bruce Newman has written an incisive account of the role that marketing plays in contemporary politics. He argues persuasively that mass marketing techniques are profoundly changing and corroding American politics. His book provides an enlightful analysis of the ways in which marketers have transformed the presidential election.? --Richard M. Perloff, author of Political Communication: Politics, Press and Public in America ?This book is a must read for anyone concerned about the growing trend of sound bite over substance, willful manipulation of the media over honest engagement of the American Public.? --David Wilhelm, Former Chair of the Democratic National Committee ?While marketing has led to better quality in most markets, we are beginning to have serious doubts about what is doing to the quality of political life. Bruce Newman raises serious questions about whether anyone of merit can get elected today without the support of expensive and sophisticated marketing machinery.? --Philip Kotler, S.C. Johnson & Son Distinguished Professor of International Marketing, Northwestern University Marketing, not ideology, drives America?s contemporary political system, with an emphasis on image over substance, personality over issues, and 30-second sound bites over meaningful dialogue. Through the use of carefully crafted messages meant to manipulate voter thinking, the same marketing tactics used by Fortune 500 companies is shaping public opinion. The Mass Marketing of Politics details how marketing tactics are being used to determine public opinion, win votes, and shape public policy in the White House and Congress. The book points out the pitfalls of relying too heavily on marketing as a campaign and governance tool and offers solutions to fix our political system before it is too late. Bruce I. Newman is the author of The Marketing of the President (Sage, 1993) and the forthcoming Handbook of Political Marketing. He has served as a communication advisor to top White House officials and has written widely on the subject of political marketing in both scholarly and popular media. The Mass Marketing of Politics is provocative and essential reading for anyone interested in American politics, marketing, political communication, and media studies.

This book examines the 'European refugee crisis', offering an in-depth comparative analysis of how public attitudes towards refugees and humanitarian dispositions are shaped by political news coverage. An international team of authors address the role of the media in contesting solidarity towards refugees from a variety of disciplinary perspectives. Focusing on the public sphere, the book follows the assumption that solidarity is a social value, political concept and legal principle that is discursively constructed in public contentions. The analysis refers systematically and comparatively to eight European countries, namely, Denmark, France, Germany, Greece, Italy, Poland, Switzerland and the United Kingdom. Treatment of data is also original in the way it deals with variations of public spheres by combining a news media claims-making analysis with a social media reception analysis. In particular, the book highlights the prominent role of the mass media in shaping national and transnational solidarity, while exploring the readiness of the mass media to extend thick conceptions of solidarity to non-members. It proposes a research design for the comparative analysis of online news reception and considers the innovative potential of this method in relation to established public opinion research. The book is of particular interest for scholars who are interested in the fields of European solidarity, migration and refugees, contentious politics, while providing an approach that talks to scholars of journalism and political communication studies, as well as digital journalism and online news reception. The Open Access version of this book, available at http://www.tandfebooks.com, has been made available under a Creative Commons Attribution-Non Commercial-No Derivatives 4.0 license.

Atrocities committed by the Nazis during the Holocaust were photographed more intensely that any before. In the time since the images were taken they have been subjected to a perplexing variety of treatments: variously ignored, suppressed, distorted and above all exploited for propaganda purposes. With the use of many photographs, including some never before seen, this book traces the history of this process and asks whether the images can be true representations of the events they were depicting. Yet their provenance, Janina Struk argues, has been less important that the uses to which a wide range of political interests has put them, from the desperate attempts of the war-time underground to provide hard evidence of the death camps to the memorial museums of Europe, the US and Israel today.

Using the best scientific evidence, Drugs: America's Holy War explores the impact and cost of Americaa (TM)s "War on Drugs" a " both in tax spending and in human terms. Is it possible that US drug policies are helping to proliferate, not prevent, a multitude of social ills including: homicide, property crime, the spread of AIDS, the contamination of drugs, the erosion of civil liberties, the punishment of thousands of non-violent people, the corruption of public officials, and the spending of billions of tax dollars in an attempt to prevent certain drugs from entering the country?

In this controversial new book, award-winning economist Arthur Benavie analyzes the research findings and argues that an end to the war on drugs, much as we ended alcohol prohibition, would yield enormous international benefits, destroy dangerous and illegal drug cartels, and allow the American government to refocus its attention on public well-being.

On August 1, 1944, Leokadia Rowinski and fellow members of the Polish Resistance movement saw the culmination of their five years of training-the Warsaw Uprising. Six weeks later, she celebrated her twenty-first birthday. As a member of the Resistance, Rowinski witnessed firsthand the devastation that World War II brought to Poland. While continuing her schooling in the clandestine education system established upon German occupation, she worked in the Resistance's communication services, often dodging German snipers and soldiers to deliver military orders to Resistance leaders. She was captured by the Germans after the Warsaw Uprising and spent six months in P.O.W. camps before being liberated by the Polish 1st Armored Division, an expatriate army under British command that included her future husband. This poignant story of a young woman's coming of age in war is a vivid reminder of the horror inflicted upon Poland in World War II and beyond.