Citizens are asked to buy, and asked to consider to buy, goods of all sizes and all prices, nearly all of the time. Appeals to political decision-making are less common. In The Consumer Citizen, Ethan Porter investigates how the techniques of everyday consumer experiences can shape political behavior. Drawing on more than a dozen original studies, he shows that the casual conflation of consumer and political decisions has profound implications for how Americans think about politics. Indeed, Porter explains that consumer habits can affect citizens' attitudes about their government, their taxes, their politicians, and even whether they purchase government-sponsored health insurance. The consumer citizen approaches government as if it were just an ordinary firm. Of course, government is not an ordinary firm--far from it--and the disjunction between what government is, and the consumer apparatus that citizens bring to bear on their evaluations of it, offers insight into several long-unanswered questions in political behavior and public opinion. How do many Americans make sense of the political world? The Consumer Citizen offers a novel answer: By relying on the habits and tools that they learn as consumers.

Examining the nature of public opinion in democratic societies, this Handbook succinctly illustrates the importance of public opinion as an instrument of popular control and democratic accountability. Expert contributors in the field provide a thorough review of a variety of theoretical and methodological approaches to the study of this timely topic. The concise but comprehensive chapters investigate the theoretical value of biological, contextual, psychological, sociological and economic perspectives when exploring public opinion. The Handbook also demonstrates useful insights that can be generated from quantitative or qualitative research designs from both an observational and experimental perspective. Furthermore, its informative assessment of the origins and structure of how public opinion is formed allows for a greater understanding of how policies are developed as a result. Providing a state-of-the-art review, this Handbook will be an excellent study resource for scholars of public opinion in political science, sociology and psychology. Political practitioners, particularly government officials, political operatives and pollsters will also find this informative and illuminating.

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 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.

New media forums have created a unique opportunity for citizens to participate in a variety of social and political contexts. As new social technologies are being utilized in a variety of ways, the public is able to interact more effectively in activities within their communities. The Handbook of Research on Citizen Engagement and Public Participation in the Era of New Media addresses opportunities and challenges in the theory and practice of public involvement in social media. Highlighting various communication modes and best practices being utilized in citizen-involvement activities, this book is a critical reference source for professionals, consultants, university teachers, practitioners, community organizers, government administrators, citizens, and activists.

Political Action Committees (PACs) are a prominent and contentious feature of modern American election campaigns. As organizations that channel money toward political candidates and causes, their influence in recent decades has been widely noted and often decried. Yet, there has been no comprehensive history compiled of their origins, development, and impact over time. In The Rise of Political Action Committees, Emily J. Charnock addresses this gap, telling a story with much deeper roots than contemporary commentators might expect. Documenting the first wave of PAC formation from the early 1940s to the mid-1960s, when major interest groups began creating them, she shows how PACs were envisaged from the outset as much more than a means of winning elections, but as tools for effecting ideological change in the two main parties. In doing so, Charnock not only locates the rise of PACs within the larger story of interest group electioneering - which went from something rare and controversial at the beginning of the 20th Century to ubiquitous today - but also within the narrative of political polarization. Throughout, she offers a full picture of PACs as far more than financial vehicles, showing how they were electoral innovators who pioneered strategies and tactics that came to pervade modern US campaigns and reshape American politics. A broad-ranging political history of an understudied American campaign phenomenon, this book contextualizes the power and purpose of PACs, while revealing their transformative role within the American party system - helping to foster the partisan polarization we see today.

This book seeks to go beyond existing public polls regarding Barack Obama, and instead offers a comprehensive treatment of public perceptions that resist mass generalizations based on race, gender, age, political affiliation, or geographical location. Drawing from a large national qualitative data set generated by 333 diverse participants from twelve different states across six U.S. regions, Mark P. Orbe offers a comprehensive look into public perceptions of Barack Obama's communication style, race matters, and the role of the media in 21st century politics. Communication Realities in a "Post-Racial" Society: What the U.S. Public Really Thinks about Barack Obama is the first of its kind in that it uses the voices of everyday U.S. Americans to advance our understanding of how identity politics influence public perceptions. The strength of a book such as this one lies within the power of the diverse perspectives of hundreds of participants. Each chapter features extended comments from rural volunteer fire fighters in southern Ohio, African American men in Oakland, CA, religious communities in Alabama; New England senior citizens; military families from southern Virginia; Tea Party members from Nebraska; business and community leaders from North Carolina; individuals currently unemployed and/or underemployed in Connecticut; college students from predominately White, Black, and Hispanic-serving institutions of higher learning; and others. As such, it is the first book that is based on comments from multiple perspectives - something that allows a deeper understanding that hasn't been possible with public polls, media sound bites, and political commentary. It is a must read for scholars interested in contemporary communication in a time when "post-racial" declarations are met with resistance and political junkies who seek an advanced understanding of the peculiarities of rapidly changing political realities.

Voting Advice Applications - VAAs - have become a widespread online feature of electoral campaigns in Europe, attracting growing interest from social and political scientists. But until now, there has been no systematic and reliable comparative assessment of these tools. Previously published research on VAAs has resulted almost exclusively in national case studies. This lack of an integrated framework for analysis has made research on VAAs unable to serve the scientific goal of systematic knowledge accumulation. Against this background, Matching Voters With Parties and Candidates aims first at a comprehensive overview of the VAA phenomenon in a truly comparative perspective. Featuring the biggest number of European experts on the topic ever assembled, the book answers a number of open questions and addresses debates in VAA research. It also aims to bridge the gap between VAA research and related fields of political science.

This book examines the geography of partisan polarization, or the Reds and Blues, of the political landscape in the United States. It places the current schism between Democrats and Republicans within a historical context and presents a theoretical framework that offers unique insights into the American electorate. The authors focus on the demographic and political causes of polarization at the local level across space and time. This is accomplished with the aid of a comprehensive dataset that includes the presidential election results for every county in the continental United States, from the advent of Jacksonian democracy in 1828 to the 2016 election. In addition, coverage applies spatial diagnostics, spatial lag models and spatial error models to determine why contemporary and historical elections in the United States have exhibited their familiar, but heretofore unexplained, political geography. Both popular observers and scholars alike have expressed concern that citizens are becoming increasingly polarized and, as a consequence, that democratic governance is beginning to break down. This book argues that once current levels of polarization are placed within a historical context, the future does not look quite so bleak. Overall, readers will discover that partisan division is a dynamic process in large part due to the complex interplay between changing demographics and changing politics.

Migrants have, for some time, engaged in the politics of their homelands from a distance, but, as this book argues, politicians are increasingly looking beyond their national boundaries for electoral and political support. While migrants rarely cast decisive votes in homeland elections, they are not marginal to homeland politics. Courting Migrants looks at how extraterritorial outreach by homeland states and parties alters the boundaries of political membership and intersects with migrant agency to transform politics at home. It addresses three specific questions: under what conditions and in what ways do homeland authorities reach out to migrants? How do these migrants respond? And, to what extent does their response affect homeland governance? Katrina Burgess argues that globalization and the spread of democracy since the 1970s have encouraged politicians in the Global South to reach out to migrants in search of economic resources, foreign policy support, and/or electoral advantage. They do so by cultivating feelings of loyalty that induce some kinds of migrant engagement while discouraging others. Whether or not these politicians succeed depends on where migrants are located, how many resources they have, what kinds of identities they value, and why they left their homeland in the first place. This interaction between outreach and engagement has implications, in turn, for how migrants are responding to the current wave of populism and authoritarianism around the globe. The book is based on in-depth research on state-migrant relations in four high-migration countries: Turkey, Dominican Republic, Philippines, and Mexico.

No previous volume has collected as interesting and broad a collection of essays on Canadian discourse and culture. This volume of representative case studies reflects the Canadian experience in terms of discourse, society, and public culture, linking its discussions to larger political and social issues and theories. Topics include:

Constitutional controversies

Cultural sovereignty

Feminist voices

Globalization

Internet issues

Marginalized communities

Nationalism

Nativity

Multidisciplinary perspectives from a mix of established and emerging Canadian studies scholars converge in a highly readable, engaging, and unique book that offers a distinctive portrait of a nation not nearly as well understood as its proximity to the United States might suggest.

After the 2016 and 2020 elections, harsh critiques of polling were blasted everywhere: in news headlines, on social media and among colleagues and friends. But this rush to declare polling irrelevant is misguided-and dangerous. In Strength in Numbers, data journalist G. Elliott Morris urges readers to recognise how polling shapes and sustains democracy. He illuminates how public opinion polls provide a voice for citizens and influence such crucial matters as a party's selection of presidential candidates. He guides readers through a vibrant history of polling to provide insider context, explains how polls have been misused and misinterpreted and demonstrates how we have underestimated their potential impact. He also candidly acknowledges where polls have fallen short and charts a path for the industry's future where it can truly work for the people. Persuasively argued and deeply researched, Strength in Numbers implores all those who believe in democracy not to give up on polls, but to fully understand them.

The 1997-1998 edition of the Index to International Public Opinion continues to provide the most comprehensive information available for public opinion data throughout the world. Surveys from 67 countries are included, and 127 countries and regions are referenced in these studies. Data compiled by 235 research firms makes this the one essential source for public opinion research data. As with earlier volumes, all tables contain total sample results and many include breakdowns by various population subgroups such as gender, political party affiliation, age, and level of formal education. Also, poll questions deal with a broad mix of social, political, and economic issues of both contemporary and historical interest. Among the highlights are survey data on values and beliefs conducted in 43 countries, environmental awareness conducted in two Asian countries, extramarital relations conducted in Japan and the United States, and two Eurobarometers conducted twice in 12 European Union countries. This volume and the overall series provide the most comprehensive source for public opinion data available. As such, the volumes are of unusual importance for journalists, scholars, government officials, and business professionals.

The 1995-1996 edition of the Index to International Public Opinion has even greater coverage than earlier volumes in the series. Coverage has been increased to 71 countries where surveys were conducted, and 105 countries and regions are referenced in these studies. Data compiled by 190 research firms results in the most comprehensive collection of public opinion from around the world. The 1995-1996 edition of the Index to International Public Opinion has even greater coverage than earlier volumes in the series. Coverage has been increased to 71 countries where surveys were conducted, and 105 countries and regions are referenced in these studies. Data compiled by 190 research firms results in the most comprehensive collection of public opinion from around the world. As with earlier volumes, all tables contain total sample results, and many include breakdowns by various population subgroups such as gender, political party affiliation, age, and level of formal education. As in the past, poll questions deal with a broad mix of social, political, and economic issues of both contemporary and historical interest. Among the highlights are survey data on atoll nuclear testing, terrorism in Canada and the United States, European business leaders, international relations in the Far East, and the United States bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki. This volume and the overall series provide the most comprehensive source for public opinion data available. As such, the volumes are of unusual importance for journalists, scholars, government officials, and business professionals.

The two decades since the Watergate scandal have seen an unprecedented focus on ethics in government. The public integrity scandals of the Clinton administration have, once again, focused national attention on ethics in Washington. This work addresses this very topical subject and the authors come to some unusual conclusions. Tracing the origins of the modern public integrity war back to the very birth of the nation, the authors explain how conservatives and progressives have used allegations of unethical conduct in an effort to persuade the American public to accept their respective visions for American society. A cynical public, anesthetized to the distinction between actual wrongdoing and partisan attack, follows ideology and self-interest rather than character, allowing politicians to get away with even the most egregious conduct.

This, the seventeenth volume of the Index to International Public Opinion provides data from opinion surveys conducted in 69 countries. Approximately 97 countries and geographical areas are referenced in these studies. The data were contributed by 154 research firms. As has been the case with previous volumes, all tables contain total sample results and many include breakdowns by various population subgroups such as gender, political party affiliation, age, and level of formal education. As in the past, poll questions deal with a broad mix of social, political, and economic issues of both contemporary and historical interest. Volume 17 includes data from polls conducted for the most part during the period Spring 1994 through Spring 1995. In addition, for trend analysis purposes, included are a number of time series tables covering a decade or more. There is also a section entitled Changing Opinions: A 50-Year Retrospective. This part of the Index presents polling data gathered approximately a half century ago from a number of different countries. This volume and the overall series provides the most comprehensive source for public opinion data available. As such the volumes are of unusual importance for journalists, professional scholars, government officials, and business leaders.

Moffitt provides the strategies, decision-making approaches, and the message composition techniques needed to conduct successful public communication campaigns. The book is a practical guide to the step-by-step process of conceptualizing, planning, and executing a public relations, marketing/advertising, political, or social issue campaign.

How do professionals plan and execute a public communications campaign? Moffitt provides a detailed step-by-step examination of the conceptualizing, planning, and execution of a public relations, marketing/advertising, political, or social issue campaign. She provides basic theories, concepts, and issues to understand before one can even begin to conduct a campaign, and she examines the research tools and skills needed to investigate the organization, the industry, and the targeted audiences for a campaign. Basic strategies for setting a campaign's goals and objectives are analyzed as are message strategies which determine correct wording and visualization factors. Lastly, Moffitt examines communication selection strategies for choosing the appropriate personal and media channels for delivering the messages.

Since the public campaign has emerged as a key model for business communication, professionals as well as students in advertising, marketing, and management will also find the business end of the topic useful. Individuals involved with public relations, speech communication, broadcast and print media will benefit from the strategies and skills applicable to campaign communication.

Public opinion and the media form the foundation of the United States' representative democracy. They are the subject of enormous scrutiny by scholars, pundits, and ordinary citizens. This Oxford Handbook takes on the "big questions" about public opinion and the media--both empirical and normative--focusing on current debates and social scientific research. Bringing together the thinking of a team of leading academic experts, its chapters provide a cutting assessment of contemporary research on public opinion, the media, and their interconnections. Emphasizing changes in the mass media and communications technology--the vast number of cable channels, websites and blogs, and the new social media, which are changing how news about political life is collected and conveyed--they describe the evolving information interdependence of the media and public opinion. In addition, TheOxford Handbook of American Public Opinion and the Media reviews the wide range of influences on public opinion, including the processes by which information communicated through the media can affect the public. It describes what has been learned from the latest research in psychology, genetics, and studies of the impact of gender, race and ethnicity, economic status, education and sophistication, religion, and generational change on a wide range of political attitudes and perceptions. The Handbook includes extensive discussion of how public opinion and mass media coverage are studied through survey research and increasingly through experiments using the latest technological advances.
The Oxford Handbooks of American Politics are a set of reference books offering authoritative and engaging critical overviews of the state of scholarship on American politics. Each volume focuses on a particular aspect of the field. The project is under the General Editorship of George C. Edwards III, and distinguished specialists in their respective fields edit each volume. The Handbooks aim not just to report on the discipline, but also to shape it as scholars critically assess the scholarship on a topic and propose directions in which it needs to move. The series is an indispensable reference for anyone working in American politics.

This book is open access under a CC BY 4.0 license. This book addresses the peculiarities of the current presidential election system not yet addressed in other publications. It argues that any rules for electing a President that may have a chance to replace the current ones should provide an equal representation of states as equal members of the Union, and of the nation as a whole. This book analyzes the National Popular Vote plan and shows that this plan may violate the Supreme Court decisions on the equality of votes cast in statewide popular elections held to choose state electors. That is, the National Popular Vote plan may violate the Equal Protection Clause of the Fourteenth Amendment. The book proposes a new election system in which the will of the states and the will of the nation as a whole are determined by direct popular elections for President and Vice President in the 50 states and in D.C. This system a) would elect President a candidate who is the choice of both the nation as a whole and of the states as equal members of the Union, b) would let the current system elect a President only if the nation as a whole and the states as equal members of the Union fail to agree on a common candidate, and c) would encourage the candidates to campaign nationwide. The second edition has been updated to include a proposal on how to make established non-major party presidential candidates and independent candidates welcome participants in national televised presidential debates with the major-party candidates.

Michael L. Young's dictionary defines the most important terms in contemporary public opinion research. About 400 words mark out the field, words needed if one wants to understand the language of polling and to claim literacy in the field. This reference is designed for professionals working in the survey research field, for pollsters and those who produce polls, and for students and scholars concerned with public opinion. Journalists, political professionals, elected officials, and federal, state, and local officials will also find this guide to practice and usage in the field extremely valuable.

A general introduction assesses the key literature dealing with polling, and a longer bibliography appears in the back of the book. The key terms are arranged alphabetically and a general index enables readers to trace subjects, themes, and ideas discussed under the various entries.

How our national identity has changed in significant and unexpected ways since the attacks of 9/11 Beautifully written and carefully reasoned, this bold and provocative work upends the conventional wisdom about the American reaction to crisis. Margulies demonstrates that for key elements of the post-9/11 landscape-especially support for counterterror policies like torture and hostility to Islam-American identity is not only darker than it was before September 11, 2001, but substantially more repressive than it was immediately after the attacks. These repressive attitudes, Margulies shows us, have taken hold even as the terrorist threat has diminished significantly. Contrary to what is widely imagined, at the moment of greatest perceived threat, when the fear of another attack "hung over the country like a shroud," favorable attitudes toward Muslims and Islam were at record highs, and the suggestion that America should torture was denounced in the public square. Only much later did it become socially acceptable to favor "enhanced interrogation" and exhibit clear anti-Muslim prejudice. Margulies accounts for this unexpected turn and explains what it means to the nation's identity as it moves beyond 9/11. We express our values in the same language, but that language can hide profound differences and radical changes in what we actually believe. "National identity," he writes, "is not fixed, it is made."

This bold venture into political theory and comparative politics combines traditional concerns about democracy with modern analytical methods. It asks how contemporary democracies work, an essential stage in asking how they can be justified. An answer to both questions is found in the idea of the median mandate. The voter in the middle - the voice of the majority - empowers the centre party in parliament to translate his or her preferences into public policy. The median mandate provides a unified theory of democracy - pluralist, consensus, majoritarian, liberal, and populist - by replacing each qualified 'vision' with an integrated account of how representative institutions work. The unified theory is put to the test with comprehensive cross-national evidence covering 21 democracies from 1950 through to 1995. This exciting book will be of interest to specialists and general readers alike, representing as it does a reaffirmation of traditional democratic practice in an uncertain and threatening world. Comparative Politics is a series for students and teachers of political science that deals with contemporary government and politics. The General Editors are Max Kaase, Professor of Political Science, Vice President and Dean, School of Humanities and Social Science, International University, Bremen, Germany; and Kenneth Newton, Professor of Comparative Politics, University of Southampton. The series is published in association with the European Consortium for Political Research.

Taking the reader through a long view of American history, What Happened to the Vital Center? offers a novel and important contribution to the ongoing scholarly and popular discussion of how America fell apart and what might be done to end the Cold Civil War that fractures the country and weakens the national resolve. In What Happened to the Vital Center?, Nicholas Jacobs and Sidney Milkis tackle a foundational question within American political history: Is current partisan polarization, aggravated by populist disdain for constitutional principles and institutions, a novel development in American politics? Populism is not a new threat to the country's democratic experiment, but now insurgents intrude directly on elections and government. During previous periods of populist unrest, the US was governed by resilient parties that moderated extremist currents within the political system. This began to crumble during the 1960s, as anti-institutionalist incursions into the Democratic and Republican organizations gave rise to reforms that empowered activists at the expense of the median voter and shifted the controlling power over parties to the executive branch. Gradually, the moderating influence that parties played in structuring campaigns and the policy process eroded to the point where extreme polarization dominated and decision-making power migrated to the presidency. Weakened parties were increasingly dominated by presidents and their partnerships with social activists, leading to a gridlocked system characterized by the politics of demonization and demagoguery. Executive-centered parties more easily ignore the sorts of moderating voices that had prevailed in an earlier era. While the Republican Party is more susceptible to the dangers of populism than the Democrats, both parties are animated by a presidency-led, movement-centered vision of democracy. After tracing this history, the authors dismiss calls to return to some bygone era. Rather, the final section highlights the ways in which the two parties can be revitalized as institutions of collective responsibility that can transform personal ambition and rancorous partisanship into principled conflict over the profound issues that now divide the country. The book will transform our understanding of how we ended up in our current state of extreme polarization and what we can do to fix it.

Based on cutting-edge research, this edited volume examines how citizens and political elites perceive the legitimacy of regional integration in Europe and the Americas. It analyses public opinion and political discourse on the EU, NAFTA and MERCOSUR, arguing that legitimation patterns shape the development of regional governance.

Tolerance in the 21st Century investigates some of the key philosophical and practical dilemmas surrounding the implementation and realization of tolerance in the 21st century. In particular, this well thought-out volume investigates the political, social, moral, religious, global, and philosophical issues integral to discussions of tolerance in our current era. The work delves into new areas assessing the problems posed for tolerance by such factors as identity, war, community, the Internet, and gender. Each essay is written by expert scholars who seek to share their particular expertise with some of the most important and essential questions concerning tolerance. Editor Gerson Moreno-Riano has collected essays that ask not only where we are now in the study of tolerance but also seek to make a positive contribution to the study of tolerance by suggesting what can and should be done to further policies and practices of tolerance as well as investigating the limits of tolerance. Tolerance in the 21st Century is certain to delight scholars of political and democratic theory, political participation and citizenship, and American politics.