This insightful and timely book introduces an explanatory theory for surveying global and international politics. Describing the nature and effects of democracy beyond the state, Hans Agne explores peace and conflict, migration politics, resource distribution, regime effectiveness, foreign policy and posthuman politics through the lens of democratism to both supplement and challenge established research paradigms. Transcending the conventional limitations of domestic politics in empirical studies, Agne presents novel ways of thinking about democracy, reconstructing received normative theories of democracy in global and international politics into an innovative framework for causal explanation. Rigorously testing this framework both empirically and theoretically, this book goes to the very heart of contemporary political issues, illustrating new solutions to problems of inequality, social recognition, global governance, environment politics and human rights protections. Opening up new avenues for exploring contemporary paradigms in international studies, this book is crucial reading for scholars and students of political science, particularly those interested in democratic and international theory. It will also benefit policymakers and political analysts, offering a wealth of new ideas concerning the key drivers of modern democratic politics and critical insights for changing its direction.

In the months before the 2015 election, Lord Ashcroft Polls conducted focus groups all over the country to find out whether the parties' frenetic campaigning was having any effect on the people it was supposed to impress: undecided voters in marginal seats. The reports, collected here for the first time, show what was going on behind the polling numbers - what people made of the stunts, scandals and mishaps, as well as the policies, plans and promises that constitute the race to Number Ten. As well as shedding light on voters' hopes and fears, the book asks crucial questions: which party leader is like a Chihuahua in a handbag? Which cartoon character does David Cameron most resemble? What would Ed Miliband do on a free Friday night? And is Nigel Farage more like Johnny Rotten or the Wurzels?

The socio-political context of Egypt is full of the affectual burdens of history. The revolutions of both 1952 and 2011 proclaimed that the oppressive, colonial past had been overthrown decisively. So why has the oppression perpetrated by previous regimes been repeated? What impact has this had on the lives of 'ordinary' citizens? Egyptian Revolutions looks at the impact of the current events in Egypt on citizens in relation to matters of belonging, identification and repetition. It contests the tendency within postcolonial theory to understand these events as resistance to Western imperialism and the positioning of activists as agents of sustainable change. Instead, it pays close attention to the continuities from the past and the contradictions at work in relation to identification, repetition and conflict. Combining postcolonial theory with a psychosocial studies framework it explores the complexities of inhabiting a society in a state of conflict and offers a careful analysis of current theories of gender, religion and secularism, agency, resistance and compliance, in a society riven with divisions and conflicts.

The 2017 general election was supposed to be a walkover for the Conservative Party - but the voters had other ideas. In The Lost Majority, Lord Ashcroft draws on his unique research to explain why the thumping victory the Tories expected never happened. His findings reveal what real voters made of the campaign, why Britain refused Theresa May's appeal for a clear mandate to negotiate Brexit and where the party now stands after more than a decade of `modernisation' . And, critically, Ashcroft examines the challenges the Tories face in building a winning coalition when 13 million votes is no longer enough for outright victory. This is an indispensible guide that will provide food for thought to anyone wishing to examine in detail what really happened on 8 June, 2017, and how this will impact on future elections.

Although many developments surrounding the Internet campaign are now considered to be standard fare, there were a number of new developments in 2016. Drawing on original research conducted by leading experts, The Internet and the 2016 Presidential Campaign attempts to cover these developments in a comprehensive fashion. How are campaigns making use of the Internet to organize and mobilize their ground game? To communicate their message? The book also examines how citizens made use of online sources to become informed, follow campaigns, and participate. Contributions also explore how the Internet affected developments in media reporting, both traditional and non-traditional, about the campaign. What other messages were available online, and what effects did these messages have had on citizen's attitudes and vote choice? The book examines these questions in an attempt to summarize the 2016 online campaign.

The American vice presidency, as the saying goes, 'is not worth a bucket of warm spit.' Yet vice presidential candidates, many people believe, can make all the difference in winning-or losing-a presidential election. Is that true, though? Did Sarah Palin, for example, sink John McCain's campaign in 2008? Did Joe Biden help Barack Obama win? Do running mates actually matter? In the first book to put this question to a rigorous test, Christopher J. Devine and Kyle C. Kopko draw upon an unprecedented range of empirical data to reveal how, and how much, running mates influence voting in presidential elections. Building on their previous work in The VP Advantage and evidence from over 200 statistical models spanning the 1952 to 2016 presidential elections, the authors analyze three pathways by which running mates might influence vote choice. First, of course, they test for direct effects, or whether evaluations of the running mate influence vote choice among voters in general. Next, they test for targeted effects-if, that is, running mates win votes among key subsets of voters who share their gender, religion, ideology, or geographic identity. Finally, the authors examine indirect effects-that is, whether running mates shape perceptions of the presidential candidate who selected them, which in turn influence vote choice. Here, in this last category, is where we see running mates most clearly influencing presidential voting-especially when it comes to their qualifications for holding office and taking over as president, if necessary. Picking a running mate from a key voting bloc probably won't make a difference, the authors conclude. But picking an experienced, well-qualified running mate will make the presidential candidate look better to voters---and win some votes. With its wealth of data and expert analysis, this finely crafted study, the most comprehensive to date, finally provides clear answers to one of the most enduring questions in presidential politics: can the running mate make a difference in this election?

This book considers various aspects of the Referendum, with a particular focus on Scottish cultural institutions, such as the National Theatre and the National Portrait Gallery. Scott also pays close attention to Scotland’s past, frequently referencing literary figures and devoting a chapter to Scottish Literature to persuasively convince the reader of the benefits of independence. Following the success of A Nation Again, Scott discusses the idea of Independence once again but this time, in light of more recent political developments with the forthcoming Referendum little over a year away.