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Books > Social sciences > Politics & government > Political control & freedoms > Political control & influence > Propaganda
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Democracy for Hire - A History of American Political Consulting (Hardcover)
Loot Price: R1,293
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Democracy for Hire - A History of American Political Consulting (Hardcover)
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Though they work largely out of the eye of the public, political
consultants - "image merchants" and "kingmakers" to candidates -
play a crucial role in shaping campaigns. They persuaded Barry
Goldwater to run for president, groomed former actor Ronald Reagan
for the California governorship, helped derail Bill Clinton's
health care initiative, and carried out the swiftboating of John
Kerry. As Dennis Johnson argues in this history of political
consulting in the United States, they are essential to modern
campaigning, often making positive contributions to democratic
discourse, and yet they have also polarized the electorate with
their biting messages. During the nineteenth and early twentieth
centuries, political campaigns were run by local political parties,
volunteers, and friends of candidates; but as party loyalties among
voters began to weaken, and political parties declined as sources
of manpower and strategy, professional consultants swept in to
carry the day. Political consulting emerged as a profession in the
1930s with writers Leone Baxter and Clem Whitaker, the husband and
wife team who built their business, in part, with a successful
campaign to destroy Upton Sinclair's 1934 bid for governor of
California. With roots in advertising and public relations,
political consulting has since developed into a highly
professionalized business worth hundreds of millions of dollars. In
fact, some of the top campaign consulting outfits have more
recently come full circle and merged to create new public relations
firms, serving not just candidates but also shaping public advocacy
campaigns for businesses and nonprofits. Johnson, an academic who
has also worked on campaigns alongside the likes of James Carville
and pollster Peter D. Hart, suffuses his history with the stories
of the colorful characters who have come to define the profession
of consulting, from its beginning to its present. This will be the
most complete and sweeping story of the profession to date. As such
it tells not just the making of a political business but the very
contours of modern American politics.
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