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Books > Social sciences > Politics & government > Political structure & processes
The 2020 US presidential race was one of the most hotly contested
and contentious in recent American history. While the election
produced the greatest turnout in American history and the highest
percentage turnout in 60 years, the election still came down to a
handful of swing states that ultimately decided the election. In
their third edition of Presidential Swing States, Rafael Jacob and
David Schultz examine the 2020 presidential election, keying in on
the few critical states that actually decided the election and why.
With cases studies written by prominent political scientists who
are experts on these swing states, Presidential Swing States also
explains why some states were swing states but no longer are, why
some continue to be swing states, and what states beyond 2020 may
be the future swing states that decide the presidency. The book
contains in-depth case studies of the swing-states and
swing-counties that decide presidential elections in the United
States. Students in classes on American Politics and Government,
Parties, Campaigns and Elections, State Politics, and the
Presidency will all be well-served by the analyses in this volume,
as will journalists reporting on presidential elections, and the
general public.
"Engaging and inspiring . . . Reading this book should make you
want to vote." Barack Obama In a world of sound bites, deliberate
misinformation, and a political scene colored by the blue versus
red partisan divide, how does the average educated American find a
reliable source that's free of political spin? What You Should Know
About Politics . . . But Don't breaks it all down, issue by issue,
explaining who stands for what, and why-whether it's the economy,
income inequality, Obamacare, foreign policy, education,
immigration, or climate change. If you're a Democrat, a Republican,
or somewhere in between, it's the perfect book to brush up on a
single topic or read through to get a deeper understanding of the
often mucky world of American politics. This is an essential volume
for understanding the background to the 2016 presidential election.
But it is also a book that transcends the season. It's truly for
anyone who wants to know more about the perennial issues that will
continue to affect our everyday lives. The third edition includes
an introduction by Naomi Wolf discussing the themes and issues that
have come to the fore during the present presidential cycle.
Over the course of its history, the United States Supreme Court has
emerged as the most powerful judiciary unit the world has ever
seen. Paul D. Moreno's How the Court Became Supreme offers a deep
dive into its transformation from an institution paid little notice
by the American public to one whose decisions are analyzed and
broadcast by major media outlets across the nation. The Court is
supreme today not just within the judicial branch of the federal
government but also over the legislative and executive branches,
effectively possessing the ability to police elections and choose
presidents. Before 1987, nearly all nominees to the Court sailed
through confirmation hearings, often with little fanfare, but these
nominations have now become pivotal moments in the minds of voters.
Complaints of judicial primacy range across the modern political
spectrum, but little attention is given to what precisely that
means or how it happened. What led to the ascendancy of America's
highest court? Moreno seeks to answer this question, tracing the
long history of the Court's expansion of influence and examining
how the Court envisioned by the country's Founders has evolved into
an imperial judiciary. The US Constitution contains a multitude of
safeguards to prevent judicial overreach, but while those measures
remain in place today, most have fallen into disuse. Many observers
maintain that the Court exercises legislative or executive power
under the guise of judicial review, harming rather than bolstering
constitutional democracy. How the Court Became Supreme tells the
story of the origin and development of this problem, proposing
solutions that might compel the Court to embrace its more
traditional role in our constitutional republic.
At the end of the Cold War, international law scholars engaged in
furious debate over whether principles of democratic legitimacy had
entered international law. Many argued that a "democratic
entitlement" was then emerging. Others were skeptical that
international practice in democracy promotion was either consistent
or sufficiently widespread and many found the idea of a democratic
entitlement dangerous. Those debates, while ongoing, have not been
comprehensively revisited in almost twenty years. This research
review identifies the leading scholarship of the past two decades
on these and other questions. It focuses particular attention on
the normative consequences of the recent "democratic recession" in
many regions of the world.
Innovative in its approach, Rethinking Public Choice reviews the
concept of public choice since the 1950s post-war period and the
application of economics to political practices and institutions,
as well as its evolution in recent years attracting contributions
from political science and philosophy. Examining the growing
variety of theoretical orientations on the topic, such as entangled
political economy and additive political economy, the book provides
new analytical insights into combining the old and new to establish
a more unified political economy. Richard E. Wagner expertly
highlights the key issues an entangled economy can bring, including
incomplete information and its constant evolution as it reflects
ever changing public choice ideas. Wagner seeks to extend the reach
of public choice by distinguishing the formal idea of rationality
that has dominated public choice from the immensely varied practice
of human action that opens up now directions for public choice.
This insightful approach will prove an excellent resource for
academics and scholars of economics and political science, as well
as those within the field of public administration as it offers an
excellent blend of all subjects.
Everyday People provides a comprehensive assessment of Trump
supporters including white supremacists, conspiracy theorists, the
Christian right, and cult followers and offers students a
discussion of how this group is a symptom of a much larger social
issue and movement in the United States. McNamara examines the
appeal of Trump as a president and explains why so many people
voted for him in the first place. The text reviews the most recent
and relevant literature on Trump supporters and their makeup
including historical documents, government reports, research
studies, and media sources, to unpack and understand the issues in
an objective and empirical way. Students will understand the source
and substance of the controversies surrounding Trump and his
followers and understand how fear and complacency causes people to
suspend rational thinking and to develop misguided loyalties.
This volume explores the conflict between two forces: party
polarization and party factionalism. The major change in America's
two political parties over the past half-century has been increased
polarization, which has led to a new era of heightened inter-party
competition resulting in stronger and more cohesive parties. At the
same time, elections, particularly primaries, often reveal deep
internal factional divisions within both the parties, and the 2020
election was no different. The Democratic coalition typically pits
moderate or establishment candidates against progressive activists
and candidates, while the Republican Party in 2020 was, at times,
polarized not only between moderates and conservatives but between
those willing to criticize President Trump and those who would not.
How did these two opposing forces shape the outcome of the 2020
election, and what are the consequences for the future of American
party politics and elections?
The issue of electoral reform has divided the Labour Party since
its inception, but only for a brief period in the early 20th
century has the Party been committed to reforming
first-past-the-post (FPTP). Now, having suffered four successive
general election defeats, the Labour Party will have to reconsider
its electoral strategy if it is, once again, to become a party of
government. For some, a commitment to electoral reform is an
indispensable step to widen support, transform the Party, and
unlock British Politics. For others, the present system still
offers the best hope of majority Labour governments, avoiding deals
with the Party's rivals and the watering down of Labour's social
democratic agenda. This book explores the Labour Party's approaches
towards reforming the Westminster electoral system, and more
widely, its perception of electoral pacts and coalition government.
The opening chapters chart the debate from the inception of the
Party up to the electoral and political impact of Thatcherism. From
there, the book takes a closer look at significant recent events,
including the Plant Report, the Jenkins Commission, the end of New
Labour, the Alternative Vote Referendum, and closing with the
Labour leadership containing the matter at Party Conference, 2021.
Importantly, it offers an assessment of the pressures and
environment in which Labour politicians have operated. Extensive
elite-level interviews and new archival research offers the reader
a comprehensive and definitive account of this debate.
Almost three decades after the collapse of the Soviet Union, today
more often than ever, global media and intellectuals rely on the
concept of homo sovieticus to explain Russia's authoritarian ills.
Homo sovieticus - or the Soviet man - is understood to be a
double-thinking, suspicious and fearful conformist with no
morality, an innate obedience to authority and no public demands;
they have been forged in the fires of the totalitarian conditions
in which they find themselves. But where did this concept come
from? What analytical and ideological pillars does it stand on?
What is at stake in using this term today? The Afterlife of the
'Soviet Man' addresses all these questions and even explains why -
at least in its contemporary usage - this concept should be
abandoned altogether.
Political Rhetoric, Social Media, and American Presidential
Campaigns explores how social media influenced presidential
campaign rhetoric. The author discusses media use in American
presidential campaigns as well as social media campaigns for Barack
Obama, Mitt Romney, Hillary Clinton, and Donald Trump. This book
addresses how presidential candidates adapted their rhetorical
performances for newspapers, radios, television, and the Internet.
Scholars of rhetoric and political communication will find this
book particularly useful.
To the extent that we worry about the future, we tend to do so with
the apprehension that something may go terribly wrong. Nietzsche
and Tocqueville on the Democratization of Humanity is animated more
by the apprehension, what if everything should go terribly right?
That foreboding indelibly colored the outlook of Friedrich
Nietzsche and Alexis de Tocqueville-two thinkers seldom paired. As
David A. Eisenberg argues, each in his own way envisaged the
terminus toward which modernity speeds. Examining their thought
allows us not only to glimpse the future that filled them with
dread, but to survey a road that stretches back millennia to Athens
and Jerusalem, when ideas about the primacy of reason and inborn
equality of souls took root. Armed with such revolutionary
teachings, a particular human type, namely the democratic, gained
ascendancy. The reign of this human type portends to be so total
that all other human types will be precluded in the democratic
future, where what mankind's democratization augurs is not
diversification but homogenization. The questions raised in
Nietzsche and Tocqueville on the Democratization of Humanity seek
to broaden the horizons that history's democratizing forces
conspire to contract.
President Cyril Ramaphosa is South Africa's fifth post-apartheid president. He first came to prominence in the 1980s as the founder of the National Union of Mineworkers. When Nelson Mandela was released from prison in February 1990, Ramaphosa was at the head of the reception committee that greeted him. Chosen as secretary general of the African National Congress in 1991, Ramaphosa led the ANC's team in negotiating the country's post-apartheid constitution. Thwarted in his ambition to succeed Mandela, he exchanged political leadership for commerce, ultimately becoming one of the country's wealthiest businessmen, a breeder of exotic cattle, and a philanthropist.
This fully revised and extended edition charts Ramaphosa's early life and education, and his career in trade unionism - including the 1987 21-day miners' strike when he committed the union to the wider liberation struggle - politics, and constitution-building. Extensive new chapters explore his contribution to the National Planning Commission, the effects of the Marikana massacre on his political prospects, and the real story behind his rise to the deputy presidency of the country in 2014. They set out the constraints Ramaphosa faced as Jacob Zuma's deputy, and explain how he ultimately triumphed in the election of the ANC's new president in 2017. The book concludes with an analysis of the challenges Ramaphosa faces as the country's fifth post-apartheid president.
Based on numerous personal conversations with Ramaphosa over the past decade, and on rich interviews with many of the subject's friends and contemporaries, this new biography offers a frank appraisal of one of South Africa's most enigmatic political figures.
The Fifth Edition of American Politics Today is designed to show
students the reality of politics today and how it connects to their
own lives. New features-from chapter opening cases that address the
kinds of questions students ask, to full-page graphics that
illustrate key political processes-show students how politics works
and why it matters. All components of the learning
package-textbook, InQuizitive adaptive learning tool, and
coursepack-are organized around specific chapter learning goals to
ensure that students learn the nuts and bolts of American
government.
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