Maintaining the perception of fairness and equal access during elections assures the legitimacy of a democratic system. The U.S. in particular prides itself on its open and honest voting laws and procedures. However, the extraordinary closeness of the 2000 presidential election between George W. Bush and Al Gore triggered a rare scrutiny of the election process. This highly disputed contest revealed problems with ballot design and order; access to the polls; voting machines; absentee, military, and overseas ballots; election laws and the Electoral College; and judicial oversight of the voting...

Photo opportunities, ten-second sound bites, talking heads and celebrity anchors: so the world is explained daily to millions of Americans. The result, according to the experts, is an ignorant public, helpless targets of a one-way flow of carefully filtered and orchestrated communication. "Common Knowledge" shatters this pervasive myth. Reporting on a ground-breaking study, the authors reveal that our shared knowledge and evolving political beliefs are determined largely by how we actively reinterpret the images, fragments, and signals we find in the mass media.
For their study, the...

Passion and emotion run deep in politics, but researchers have only recently begun to study how they influence our political thinking. Contending that the long-standing neglect of such feelings has left unfortunate gaps in our understanding of political behavior, "The Affect Effect" fills the void by providing a comprehensive overview of current research on emotion in politics and where it is likely to lead.
In sixteen seamlessly integrated essays, thirty top scholars approach this topic from a broad array of angles that address four major themes. The first section outlines the...