The Rhetoric of the American Political Party Conventions, 1948-2016 establishes the rhetorical goals of the thirty-six political party conventions that have taken place since 1948 against the backdrop of the fundamental changes that television brought to the conventions. Theodore F. Sheckels analyzes these conventions to determine whether the gatherings met or failed to meet those goals, including addressing civil rights, unifying divergent wings of the party, celebrating the triumph of a single wing, overcoming dissent inside and outside the meeting hall, overcoming-or capitalizing on-scandal, reconstituting the party after defeats, arguing for change, and advocating for inclusion. Sheckels observes that although speeches are the primary vehicle through which attendees strive to reach these goals, the crucial addresses are not always by the principal players; often, events other than speeches such as negotiations, demonstrations, and media spin can be just as consequential. Sheckels discusses both the similarities and differences in the ways in which the conventions do business and constitute and reconstitute what the political parties are, aiming to persuade the public with rhetorical images and messages. Scholars of communication, rhetoric, political science, and American studies will find this book particularly useful.

Political parties are an established feature of contemporary democratic politics. For decades, parties have organised government, competed in elections and influenced the way society is run. Yet despite their importance, the status of political parties in society is presently unclear. On the one hand lambasted as duplicitous, self-interested, dogmatic organisations that are in decline, on the other they have been proclaimed as resurgent bodies that are attracting new levels of membership and support. The reimagined party offers unprecedented insight into public views of parties in Britain. Exploring public perceptions and desires, Katharine Dommett finds that far from rejecting parties, there is ongoing support for party democracy. The book presents evidence of a desire for change in party ethos, introducing the idea of the re-imagined party to explore perceptions of party representation, participation, governance and conduct. Using a mixed-method approach, and presenting hitherto unseen data, the book casts new light on citizen's desires for parties today. -- .

This book explores the party politics and political system of Japan, which since 1955 has been dominated by the Liberal Democratic Party (LDP), with a particular focus on the evolution of LDP governments between the 1990s and 2010s. Through its evaluation of the legacy of post-war opposition parties, the politics of electoral reform and the crucial importance of foreign policy (especially in relation to China), this volume argues that Japan has 'lost its way', and that for recovery it needs to move away from single-party dominance. Despite the failures of the Democratic Party (DPJ) government 2009-2012, the reasons for which are explored, the need to combat economic, social and political stagnation requires a more pluralist political environment, in which LDP monopoly of policy and personnel can be realistically challenged by vigorous opposition parties. Comparisons are made with other parliamentary democracies, in particular the United Kingdom, Australia and Sweden, to indicate that single-party dominance is an inadequate substitute for competition between genuine political alternatives. As an analysis of opposition party politics in post-war Japan, this book will be a valuable resource for students and scholars of Political Science, International Relations, Asian Studies and Japanese Studies.

This book explores the party politics and political system of Japan, which since 1955 has been dominated by the Liberal Democratic Party (LDP), with a particular focus on the evolution of LDP governments between the 1990s and 2010s. Through its evaluation of the legacy of post-war opposition parties, the politics of electoral reform and the crucial importance of foreign policy (especially in relation to China), this volume argues that Japan has 'lost its way', and that for recovery it needs to move away from single-party dominance. Despite the failures of the Democratic Party (DPJ) government 2009-2012, the reasons for which are explored, the need to combat economic, social and political stagnation requires a more pluralist political environment, in which LDP monopoly of policy and personnel can be realistically challenged by vigorous opposition parties. Comparisons are made with other parliamentary democracies, in particular the United Kingdom, Australia and Sweden, to indicate that single-party dominance is an inadequate substitute for competition between genuine political alternatives. As an analysis of opposition party politics in post-war Japan, this book will be a valuable resource for students and scholars of Political Science, International Relations, Asian Studies and Japanese Studies.

Covers an extraordinary political event of having four national elections in two years. The book relies on empirical analysis, including extensive use of the Israel National Election Studies data; on theoretical rigor; and on the contextualization of the elections from comparative and long-term perspectives. Ideal for students and researchers of Israeli politics and society, electoral studies and the crisis of democracy more generally.

Unlike much of the literature on Venezuela in the Chavez period, this book shifts focus away from 'top down' perspectives to examine how Venezuelan folksinger Ali Primera (1942-1985) became intertwined with Venezuelan politics, both during his lifetime and posthumously. Ali's 'Necessary Songs' offered cultural resources that enabled Chavez to connect with pre-existing patterns of grassroots activism in ways that resonated deeply with the poor and marginalised masses. Official support for Ali's legacy led the songs to be used in new ways in the Chavez period, as Venezuelans actively engaged with them to redefine themselves in relation to the state and to reach new understandings of their place within a changed society. This book is essential reading not only for those interested in popular music and politics, but for all those seeking to better understand how Chavez was able to successfully identify himself so profoundly with the Venezuelan masses, and they with him.

An objective and dispassionate study of the oldest religion based regional political party: the Shiromani Akali Dal, participating in the democratic politics and processes of socio-economic development and transformation of the country. It delineates and analyses events and developments from the emergence of the Akali Dal, as a religious movement, its transformation into a religious political party, concerned with safeguarding the political, social and economic interests of the Sikhs as a minority and to represent them in governing institutions, engaged in the struggle for power in secular domain mobilising the community support using the ideology of fusion of religion and politics, yet lacking equal support from different sections of the community. Rather than dwelling on a mere narrative of events and describing strategies, tactics and agitations of the Akalis an attempt has been made to understand why and how social and economic antagonisms arising out of generation and articulation of demands in a pluralistic society, undergoing modernization and democratization may be marked by identity politics. The study is located in the broader framework of rise and growth of regional parties and identity politics in India as a part and consequence of India's adopted model of state and nation building, integration and socio-economic development and transformation.

Since 1952, the social bases of the Democratic and Republican parties have undergone radical reshuffling. At the start of this period southern Blacks favored Lincoln's Republican Party over suspect Democrats, and women favored Democrats more than Republicans. In 2020 these facts have been completely reversed. A Tale of Two Parties: Living Amongst Democrats and Republicans Since 1952 traces through this transformation by showing: How the United States society has changed over the last seven decades in terms of regional growth, income, urbanization, education, religion, ethnicity, and ideology; How differently the two parties have appealed to groups in these social cleavages; How groups in these social cleavages have become concentrated within the bases of the Democratic and Republican parties; How party identification becomes intertwined with social identity to generate polarization akin to that of rapid sports fans or primitive tribes. A Tale of Two Parties: Living Amongst Democrats and Republicans Since 1952 will have a wide and enthusiastic readership among political scientists and researchers of American politics, campaigns and elections, and voting and elections.

Is today's left really new? How has the European radical left evolved? Giorgos Charalambous answers these questions by looking at three moments of rapid political change - the late 1960s to late 1970s; the turn of the millennium; and post-2008. He challenges the conventional understanding of a 'new left', drawing out continuities with earlier movements and parties. Charalambous examines the 'Long '68', symbolised by the May uprisings in France, which saw the rise of new left forces and the widespread criticism by younger radical activists of traditional communist and socialist parties. He puts this side by side with the turn of the millennium when the Global Justice Movement rose to prominence and changed the face of the international left, and also the period after the financial crash of 2008 and the rise of anti-austerity politics which initiated the most recent wave of new left parties such as Podemos in Spain and Syriza in Greece. With a unique 'two-level' perspective, Charalambous approaches the left through both social movements and party politics, looking at identities, rhetoric and organisation, and bringing a fresh new approach to radical history, as well as assessing challenges for both activists and scholars.

Party Influence in Congress challenges current arguments and evidence about the influence of political parties in the US Congress. Steven S. Smith argues that theory must reflect policy, electoral, and collective party goals. These goals call for flexible party organizations and leadership strategies. They demand that majority party leaders control the flow of legislation; package legislation and time action to build winning majorities and attract public support; work closely with a president of their party; and influence the vote choices for legislators. Smith observes that the circumstantial evidence of party influence is strong, multiple collective goals remain active ingredients after parties are created, party size is an important factor in party strategy, both negative and positive forms of influence are important to congressional parties, and the needle-in-the-haystack search for direct influence continues to prove frustrating.

This book analyses the rise and growth of the Hindu nationalist party Bharatiya Jana Sangh in post independent India, tracking the electoral journey of the party from 1951 to 1971. Offering a comprehensive analysis of the party Bharatiya Jana Sangh - its origin, ideas and electoral performances in the first two decades of its journey - the book provides an overview of the state-wise electoral record of the party mobilizing Hindu support and managing factional disputes. It surveys the issues of conflicts between the intraparty factions dominated by the recruits from the Rastriya Swayamseyak Sangh and the others. The author also presents a critique of the Hindutva politics of the Bharatiya Jana Sangh on account of its somewhat imperfect appeal among the masses and its problems in raising real issues of socio-economic concern. With a special emphasis on the states situated outside the Hindi language belt of Northern India, the electoral outcome of the Jana Sangh during each national and state legislative elections are analysed. Based on the dialectics of ideology and exigency, this book makes a thorough investigation of the leadership-succession crises in the party, patterns of vote sharing at the regional level and trends of coalition with the non-Congress parties in the states. Providing a nuanced understanding of the processes leading to the strengthening of right-wing political parties in India, the book will be of interest to academics working in the fields of nationalism, party politics and South Asian Politics.

While the 1950s in Canada were years of social conformity, it was also a time of political, economic, and technological change. Against a background of growing prosperity, federal and provincial politics became increasingly competitive, intergovernmental relations became more contentious, and Canada's presence in the world expanded. The life expectancy of Canadians increased as the social pathologies of poverty, crime, and racial, ethnic, and gender discrimination were in retreat. 1950s Canada illuminates the fault lines around which Canadian politics and public affairs have revolved. Chronicling the themes and events of Canadian politics and public affairs during the 1950s, Nelson Wiseman reviews social, economic, and cultural developments during each year of the decade, focusing on developments in federal politics, intergovernmental relations, provincial affairs, and Canada's role in the world. The book examines Canada's subordinate relationship first with Britain and then the United States, the interplay between Quebec's distinct society and the rest of Canada, and the regional tensions between the inner Canada of Ontario and Quebec and the outer Canada of the Atlantic and western provinces. Through this record of major events in the politics of the decade, 1950s Canada sheds light on the rapid altering of the fabric of Canadian life.

Most models of party competition assume that citizens vote for a platform rather than narrowly targeted material benefits. However, there are many countries where politicians win elections by giving money, jobs, and services in direct exchange for votes. This is not just true in the developing world, but also in economically developed countries - such as Japan and Austria - that clearly meet the definition of stable, modern democracies. This book offers explanations for why politicians engage in clientelistic behaviours and why voters respond. Using newly collected data on national and sub-national patterns of patronage and electoral competition, the contributors demonstrate why explanations based on economic modernization or electoral institutions cannot account for international variation in patron-client and programmatic competition. Instead, they show how the interaction of economic development, party competition, governance of the economy, and ethnic heterogeneity may work together to determine the choices of patrons, clients and policies.

Features interviews with many of the leading experts on this most controversial of issues. Offers the possibility to make sense of a global phenomenon in a complete and accessible way. Gives an overview of the evolution of populism through history and across continents, detailing its causes and consequences.

Features interviews with many of the leading experts on this most controversial of issues. Offers the possibility to make sense of a global phenomenon in a complete and accessible way. Gives an overview of the evolution of populism through history and across continents, detailing its causes and consequences.

This book explores the discourses, attitudes and behaviours of professional politicians and ordinary citizens alike characterized by hostility towards the political sphere, political parties and, above all, professional politicians. It furnishes a clear, consistent depiction of the anti-politics phenomenon in general using Italy as a "laboratory" where anti-politics is widespread. After an original reconstruction of the concept of anti-politics, the author charts the rise of Silvio Berlusconi, the success of Umberto Bossi's Northern League, the resounding electoral victories of the Five Star Movement and the League (La Lega), all rooted in the anti-political rhetoric of Italy's leaders and the anti-political sentiment of its population. The author also traces the socio-political profile of the anti-political citizens of the main European democracies. This broad, consistent view of anti-politics will attract academics, journalists and policy makers interested in anti-politics in Italy and elsewhere. Students and scholars of party politics, party leaders, democracy and political participation will also find the volume of great interest.

This book explains the development of the Conservative Party's immigration policy during the seven decades since 1945, up to today. By bringing together existing theories from the fields of political science and migration studies, this book offers a new model of party policy-making, which could be modified and tested in other contexts. Grounded in rigorous scholarship, but of interest to general readers as well as specialists and students, this book provides a thoughtful and engaging account of the making of modern Britain. The book draws on 30 interviews with figures who were at the heart of policy-making, from Kenneth Clarke and Douglas Hurd, to Damian Green and Gavin Barwell, to reveal that the 'national mood' often has more impact on policy-making than the empirics of the situation. This book will be of key interest to scholars, students and readers interested in British politics; immigration and migration studies; Conservative Party politics; and, more broadly, public policy, political parties and European and comparative politics.

Dominant theories of regulatory choice privilege the goals and actions of district-oriented legislators and organized groups. Presidents, Parties, and the State challenges this conventional frame, placing presidential elections and national party leaders at the centre of American regulatory state development. Historically the 'out-party' in national politics between 1884 and 1936, the Democratic party of Grover Cleveland, Woodrow Wilson and Franklin Roosevelt confronted a severe political quandary, one which pit long-term ideological commitments against short-term electoral opportunities. In short, Democrats, when in power, were forced to choose between enacting the regulatory agenda of their traditional party base, or legislating the programs of voting blocs deemed pivotal to the consolidation of national party power. Coalition-building imperatives drove Democratic leaders to embrace the latter alternative, prompting legislative intervention to secure outcomes consistent with national party needs. In the end, the electoral logic that fuelled Democratic choice proved consequential for the trajectory of American state development.

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 book examines the process of presidentialisation of political parties in the Western Balkans. The Western Balkan countries deserve to be analysed in a comparative perspective due to their distinctive features in terms of processes of democratization, forms of government and institutional assets, the presence of social cleavages (religious, linguistic, ethnic), and, of course, the nature of political parties which differs from other European cases, especially in terms of origins, organization and structure. However, Western Balkan political parties do show certain similarities with other West European cases where power is centralised and held by the parties' leadership. The book ultimately attempts to test whether and to what extent the influence of institutional variables affects the level of presidentialisation of political parties, also considering the parties' organization features.

This book examines the political parties which emerged on the territories of the former Ottoman, Qing, Russian, and Habsburg empires and not only took over government power but merged with government itself. It discusses how these parties, disillusioned with previous constitutional and parliamentary reforms, justified their takeovers with programs of controlled or supervised economic and social development, including acting as the mediators between the various social and ethnic groups in the respective territories. It pays special attention to nation-building through the party, to institutions (both constitutional and de facto), and to the global and comparative aspects of one-party regimes. It explores the origins of one-party regimes in China, Czechoslovakia, Korea, the Soviet Union, Turkey, Yugoslavia, and beyond, the roles of socialism and nationalism in the parties' approaches to development and state-building, as well the pedagogical aspirations of the ruling elites. Hence, by revisiting the dynamics of the transition from the earlier imperial formations via constitutionalism to one-party governments, and by assessing the internal and external dynamics of one-party regimes after their establishment, the book more precisely locates this type of regime within the contemporary world's political landscape. Moreover, it emphasises that one-party regimes thrived on both sides of the Cold War and in some of the non-aligned states, and that although some state socialist one-party regimes collapsed in 1989-1991, in other places historically dominant parties and new parties have continued to monopolize political power. The Open Access version of this book, available at http://www.taylorfrancis.com, has been made available under a Creative Commons Attribution-Non Commercial-No Derivatives 4.0 license.

JFK, LBJ, and the Democratic Party is a richly detailed, comprehensive, and provocative account of presidential party leadership in the turbulent 1960s. Using many primary sources, including resources from presidential libraries, state and national archival material, public opinion polls, and numerous interviews, Sean J. Savage reveals for the first time the influence of Presidents John F. Kennedy and Lyndon B. Johnson on the chairmanship, operations, structure, and finances of the Democratic National Committee. Savage further enriches his account with telephone conversations recently released from the Kennedy and Johnson presidential libraries, along with rare photos of JFK and LBJ.

This is a political history of Labour's use of the tax system from 1906 to 1979: an epilogue brings the story up to the present, surveying New Labour's tax policies and dilemmas. Richard Whiting's broad-ranging, lucid and readable study examines how Labour used tax to further its political aims of funding welfare, managing the economy, promoting fairness and achieving greater equality. Whiting also shows the limits of Labour's ability to achieve a more equal society in this way, assesses the ability and standing of key figures in the Labour movement, and delineates the problems caused by the political role of the trade unions. This study provides an original perspective on Labour's history, and is a valuable contribution to understanding both the tax structure and the politics of twentieth-century Britain more generally.

No one could have predicted that a peaceful sit-in to counter government plans to raze Istanbul's Gezi park would escalate into a country-wide protest movement, arguably the most serious political crisis Turkey, a country often hailed as a 'model' in the region, has faced in the last ten years.
The protests left 8 dead, more than 8,000 wounded, and the country deeply polarized. Much ink has been spilled since June 2013 to explain the Gezi protests in the media, most of it based on hasty analogies and banal platitudes, referring to a 'Turkish spring'. Yet no academic analyses of the protests have been published so far and it is in this context that this collection of essays, the first academic book on the topic in English, is both timely and important.
This collection offers a preliminary analysis of the Gezi protests and addresses the following key questions: 'How can we account for the protests?' 'Who were the protesters?' 'Why did the Justice and Development Party government choose to suppress the protests instead of meeting the demands of the protesters?' and 'Were Gezi protests in any way connected to protest movements in other parts of the world?'

The fascinating full account of how the prime minister lost his grip on power.

Sebastian Payne, Whitehall Editor for the Financial Times, tells the essential behind-the-scenes story, charting the series of scandals that felled Johnson: from the blocked suspension of Owen Paterson to Partygate, and, finally, the Chris Pincher allegations, which were the final death blow. This is the full narrative of the betrayals, rivalries and resignations that led to the dramatic Conservative coup.

With unparalleled access to those who were in the room when key decisions were made, Payne tells of the miscalculations and mistakes that led to Boris’s downfall, only two years after he first entered No.10 Downing Street. This is a gripping and timely look at how power is gained, wielded and lost in Britain today.