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

Does talking about civic issues encourage civic participation? In his innovative book, a"Civic Talk," Casey Klofstad shows that our discussions about politics and current events with our friends, colleagues, and relativesOCocivic talkOCohas the ability to turn thought into actionOCofrom voting to volunteering in civic organizations.

KlofstadOCOs path breaking research is the first to find evidence of a causal relationship between the casual chatting and civic participation. He employs survey information and focus groups consisting of randomly assigned college freshman roommates to show...

Democracy is, by its very nature, often rude. But there are limits to how uncivil we should be. In her timely and important book, "Rude Democracy, "Susan Herbst explores the ways we discuss public policy, how we treat each other as we do, and how we can create a more civil national culture.

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Herbst uses the examples of Sarah Palin and Barack Obama to illustrate her case. She scrutinizes Palin as both victim and perpetrator of incivility, including close analysis of her speeches on the 2008 campaign trail, the tone at her rallies, and her interactions with her audience. aaTurning to...

Information and influence campaigns are a particularly cogent example of the broader phenomenon we now term strategic political communication. If we think of political communication as encompassing the creation, distribution, control, use, processing and effects of information as a political resource, then we can characterize strategic political communication as the purposeful management of such information to achieve a stated objective based on the science of individual, organizational, and governmental decision-making. IICs are more or less centralized, highly structured, systematic, and...

As the economic crisis continues, social movements in the North and South have arisen to challenge the neoliberal policies that have immiserated generations. Here they are critically examined by leading scholars of social movements.

Combining statistical analysis with case studies of specific countries and...

"Concise and] elegantly written. . . . A convincing portrait of the movement's most ardent activists."--Los Angeles Times

They burst on the scene at the height of the Great Recession--thousands of angry voters railing against bailouts and big government--and within the year, the Tea Party had changed the terms of debate in Washington. This new populist movement set the agenda for the 2010 midterm elections, propelling a historic shift of power in Congress and capturing the mood of an anxious country. By election day, a remarkable four in ten voters called themselves...

Civil society activism around issues of global justice has proliferated in Europe during the past two decades. Has such contestation and advocacy made a difference? This book examines whether and how the organizations, networks and campaigns involved have attained their policy objectives in the areas of debt relief, international trade, international taxation and corporate accountability. The analysis also considers the relationship between national and transnational activism. By comparing variations in the "activism-policy nexus" in France, Italy and the United Kingdom, it seeks to...

John Nichols's Uprising traces the roots of this struggle--which has faced legislative disappointments, legal challenges, and dramatic electoral twists...