Kategoria BISAC: Political Science >> Political Process - Political Parties

Americans see the Democratic Party as the anti-war party: vacillating flipfloppers in the eyes of conservatives; or, in the liberal view, restrained, measured wagers of war as last resort. In November 2006, voters put the Democrats into Congress to bring an end to the Iraq war. Yet the Democrats supported the surge, giving Bush more money than he himself requested, and voted through the next $459.6 billion defense budget.

In this hard-hitting examination of their role in the War on Terror, political analyst and satirist Dennis Perrin shatters the myth of the reluctant-warrior Democrats....

"The major theme of Chapter 12, new to this edition, is the missed opportunities for the parties in the 1996 elections. The year started with a highly visible confrontation over the budget that could have revitalized the party coalitions if the issues had been carried over to the election. However, the candidate-centered campaign of 1996 ultimately did little to resolve these issues or to reinvigorate partisanship in the electorate. In spite of the opportunities for getting new voters to the polls created by the Motor Voter Act, voter turnout in 1996 was the lowest since 1924. Turning out...

Selecting a leader is a momentous and defining choice for a political party. Leaders symbolize their party and are a primary factor in election outcomes. While much is known about the selection of national party leaders, less is known about the provincial selection process, particularly in the Maritimes. Breaking new ground, Conventional Choices examines twenty-five different leadership elections in three maritime provinces. The analysis draws on an extraordinarily rich data set spanning thirty-two years to explore the backgrounds, attitudes, and motivations of those who select...

In 1903, Muckraker Lincoln Steffens brought the city of Philadelphia lasting notoriety as "the most corrupt and the most contented" urban center in the nation. Famous for its colorful "feudal barons," from "King James" McManes and his "Gas Ring" to "Iz" Durham and "Sunny Jim" McNichol, Philadelphia offers the historian a classic case of the duel between bosses and reformers for control of the American city. But, strangely enough, Philadelphia's Republican machine has not been subject to critical examination until now. When Bosses Ruled Philadelphia challenges conventional wisdom...

This book is a major analysis of the role of political parties in the development and promotion of democracy. Alan Ware offers an original discussion of an area of political life which has remained surprisingly under-examined - the impact of parties on democratic life.

Ware's work successfully combines a comparative study of parties with a comprehensive discussion of democratic theory. He examines the role of parties in one-party political systems, focussing on the issue of whether there can be democracy in such systems. One-party systems are then contrasted with those found in...

Michael Gerson, who worked with George W. Bush on his most inspiring speeches, is considered by many Democrats and Republicans to be the most influential White House speechwriter since the Kennedy administration. He was also more than a speechwriter, he was a trusted insider who helped shape policy.

In Heroic Conservatism Gerson uses his own experiences in the upper tier of the Bush White House to show why America needs a conservatism that is heroic in its aspirations--including "compassionate conservative" proposals to confront global AIDS, combat poverty in...