Political Power In America

Author : Anthony R. DiMaggio
Publisher : State University of New York Press
Page : 514 pages
File Size : 48,9 Mb
Release : 2019-12-01
Category : Political Science
ISBN : 9781438476957

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Political Power in America by Anthony R. DiMaggio Pdf

Analyzing major political institutions such as Congress, the courts, the presidency, and the media, this book chronicles how the interests of affluent Americans—particularly business, professional, and corporate interests—dominate over those of "average" citizens. Anthony R. DiMaggio examines American political behavior, as it relates to lobbying, citizen activism, media consumption, and voting, to demonstrate how the public is often misinformed and manipulated regarding major political and economic matters. However, record public distrust of the government and the increasing popularity of mass protests suggest that most Americans are deeply unhappy with the political status quo, and many are willing to fight for change. Political Power in America details this interplay between a political system dominated by the affluent few and the rise of mass political distrust and protest. It offers information and tools needed to better understand the democratic deficit in American politics, while providing opportunities for discussing what we might do to address the mounting crisis of declining democracy.

Author : Mark A. Smith
Publisher : University of Chicago Press
Page : 257 pages
File Size : 43,8 Mb
Release : 2010-01-26
Category : Political Science
ISBN : 9780226764658

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American Business and Political Power by Mark A. Smith Pdf

Most people believe that large corporations wield enormous political power when they lobby for policies as a cohesive bloc. With this controversial book, Mark A. Smith sets conventional wisdom on its head. In a systematic analysis of postwar lawmaking, Smith reveals that business loses in legislative battles unless it has public backing. This surprising conclusion holds because the types of issues that lead businesses to band together—such as tax rates, air pollution, and product liability—also receive the most media attention. The ensuing debates give citizens the information they need to hold their representatives accountable and make elections a choice between contrasting policy programs. Rather than succumbing to corporate America, Smith argues, representatives paradoxically become more responsive to their constituents when facing a united corporate front. Corporations gain the most influence over legislation when they work with organizations such as think tanks to shape Americans' beliefs about what government should and should not do.

Author : Martin Gilens
Publisher : Princeton University Press
Page : 348 pages
File Size : 44,8 Mb
Release : 2012-07-22
Category : Political Science
ISBN : 9780691153971

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Affluence and Influence by Martin Gilens Pdf

Why policymaking in the United States privileges the rich over the poor Can a country be a democracy if its government only responds to the preferences of the rich? In an ideal democracy, all citizens should have equal influence on government policy—but as this book demonstrates, America's policymakers respond almost exclusively to the preferences of the economically advantaged. Affluence and Influence definitively explores how political inequality in the United States has evolved over the last several decades and how this growing disparity has been shaped by interest groups, parties, and elections. With sharp analysis and an impressive range of data, Martin Gilens looks at thousands of proposed policy changes, and the degree of support for each among poor, middle-class, and affluent Americans. His findings are staggering: when preferences of low- or middle-income Americans diverge from those of the affluent, there is virtually no relationship between policy outcomes and the desires of less advantaged groups. In contrast, affluent Americans' preferences exhibit a substantial relationship with policy outcomes whether their preferences are shared by lower-income groups or not. Gilens shows that representational inequality is spread widely across different policy domains and time periods. Yet Gilens also shows that under specific circumstances the preferences of the middle class and, to a lesser extent, the poor, do seem to matter. In particular, impending elections—especially presidential elections—and an even partisan division in Congress mitigate representational inequality and boost responsiveness to the preferences of the broader public. At a time when economic and political inequality in the United States only continues to rise, Affluence and Influence raises important questions about whether American democracy is truly responding to the needs of all its citizens.

Author : C. Boggs
Publisher : Springer
Page : 302 pages
File Size : 48,6 Mb
Release : 2011-08-15
Category : Political Science
ISBN : 9780230120105

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Phantom Democracy by C. Boggs Pdf

In a powerful new book, Boggs traces the historical evolution of American politics by focusing on the gradual triumph of corporate and military power over democratic institutions and practices. The consequences of expanding United States global presence since World War II - involving an integrated and interwoven system of power based in the permanent war economy, national security-state, and corporate interests - has meant erosion of democratic politics, strengthening of the imperial presidency, increased corporate and military influence over elections and legislation, weakening of popular governance, and diminution of citizenship. The events of 9/11 and their aftermath, including the War on Terror, two lengthy wars and foreign occupations, new threats of war, and massive increases in Pentagon spending, have only deepened the trend toward ever-more concentrated forms of power in a society that ostensibly embraces democratic values. Such developments, Boggs argues, have deep origins in American history going back to the founding documents, ideological precepts of the Constitution, early oligarchic rule, slavery, the Indian wars, and westward colonial expansion.

Author : Scott Bowman
Publisher : Penn State Press
Page : 454 pages
File Size : 41,9 Mb
Release : 2010-11-01
Category : Political Science
ISBN : 9780271044132

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Modern Corporation and American Political Thought by Scott Bowman Pdf

Author : Edward Jay Epstein
Publisher : Verso
Page : 372 pages
File Size : 46,8 Mb
Release : 1990
Category : Political Science
ISBN : 0860915298

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Agency of Fear by Edward Jay Epstein Pdf

President Bush has made the war against drugs the number one issue on the contemporary American political agenda. In this revised edition of his classic book, available for the first time in paperback, Edward Jay Epstein argues that the president has adopted the strategy of his forebear, Richard Nixon, in using the drugs war to blame foreigners for the crisis in America’s cities, and to provide a smokescreen for unrelated political activity designed to bolster executive power. The drugs crackdown has seen an almost hundredfold increase in the federal budget for narco-politics in the fifteen years since Agency of Fear was first published, while statistics on drug-running have been massaged. Epstein points out that, despite the massive budgets and public relations brouhaha, drug importation, as measured against wholesale price, has in fact grown.

Author : Sara Diamond
Publisher : Guilford Press
Page : 464 pages
File Size : 55,7 Mb
Release : 1995-09-08
Category : Political Science
ISBN : 0898628644

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Roads to Dominion by Sara Diamond Pdf

Diamond looks at conservative politics in the United States from World War II to the post-Reagan years.

Author : Peter A. Gourevitch,James Shinn
Publisher : Princeton University Press
Page : 365 pages
File Size : 41,6 Mb
Release : 2010-06-20
Category : Business & Economics
ISBN : 9781400837014

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Political Power and Corporate Control by Peter A. Gourevitch,James Shinn Pdf

Why does corporate governance--front page news with the collapse of Enron, WorldCom, and Parmalat--vary so dramatically around the world? This book explains how politics shapes corporate governance--how managers, shareholders, and workers jockey for advantage in setting the rules by which companies are run, and for whom they are run. It combines a clear theoretical model on this political interaction, with statistical evidence from thirty-nine countries of Europe, Asia, Africa, and North and South America and detailed narratives of country cases. This book differs sharply from most treatments by explaining differences in minority shareholder protections and ownership concentration among countries in terms of the interaction of economic preferences and political institutions. It explores in particular the crucial role of pension plans and financial intermediaries in shaping political preferences for different rules of corporate governance. The countries examined sort into two distinct groups: diffuse shareholding by external investors who pick a board that monitors the managers, and concentrated blockholding by insiders who monitor managers directly. Examining the political coalitions that form among or across management, owners, and workers, the authors find that certain coalitions encourage policies that promote diffuse shareholding, while other coalitions yield blockholding-oriented policies. Political institutions influence the probability of one coalition defeating another.

Author : Bruce Bimber
Publisher : Cambridge University Press
Page : 288 pages
File Size : 43,7 Mb
Release : 2003-02-24
Category : Computers
ISBN : 0521804922

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Information and American Democracy by Bruce Bimber Pdf

This book assesses the consequences of new information technologies for American democracy in a way that is theoretical and also historically grounded. The author argues that new technologies have produced the fourth in a series of 'information revolutions' in the US, stretching back to the founding. Each of these, he argues, led to important structural changes in politics. After re-interpreting historical American political development from the perspective of evolving characteristics of information and political communications, the author evaluates effects of the Internet and related new media. The analysis shows that the use of new technologies is contributing to 'post-bureaucratic' political organization and fundamental changes in the structure of political interests. The author's conclusions tie together scholarship on parties, interest groups, bureaucracy, collective action, and political behavior with new theory and evidence about politics in the information age.

Author : David Vogel
Publisher : Beard Books
Page : 354 pages
File Size : 42,5 Mb
Release : 2003
Category : Business & Economics
ISBN : 9781587981692

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Fluctuating Fortunes by David Vogel Pdf

The dynamics of business-government relations in the United States between 1960 and 1988.

Author : Peter F. Drucker,Delbert C. Miller,Miller Robert A.
Publisher : Pickle Partners Publishing
Page : 291 pages
File Size : 49,5 Mb
Release : 2018-12-12
Category : History
ISBN : 9781789128086

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Power and Democracy in America by Peter F. Drucker,Delbert C. Miller,Miller Robert A. Pdf

This book is a stimulating contribution to the new literature. It is not intended as a comprehensive review of the full range of topics nor is it solely a summary of research findings. It consists, in essence, of an open-ended debate on a limited series of related issues in which the reader is invited to participate. Who might profit by an examination of these topics? What can a reader expect to learn through perusing this particular account and even vicariously joining in the discussion of the social structure of power, the role of bureaucracy in American life today, and what is meant by a democratic society? In addition, the book offers the perceptive reader an illuminating example of a much neglected topic in that segment of the new literature which stems from the social sciences, namely, the role of the observer in relationship to what is observed. The editors should be commended for bringing together not a bland series of polite statements but a stimulating discussion which raises more questions than it answers. More important, it raises questions that have to be posed in any significant appraisal of America today.—John Useem, Head Sociology and Anthropology, Michigan State University

Author : Eitan Hersh
Publisher : Scribner
Page : 288 pages
File Size : 52,6 Mb
Release : 2020-01-14
Category : Political Science
ISBN : 9781982116781

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Politics Is for Power by Eitan Hersh Pdf

A brilliant condemnation of political hobbyism—treating politics like entertainment—and a call to arms for well-meaning, well-informed citizens who consume political news, but do not take political action. Who is to blame for our broken politics? The uncomfortable answer to this question starts with ordinary citizens with good intentions. We vote (sometimes) and occasionally sign a petition or attend a rally. But we mainly “engage” by consuming politics as if it’s a sport or a hobby. We soak in daily political gossip and eat up statistics about who’s up and who’s down. We tweet and post and share. We crave outrage. The hours we spend on politics are used mainly as pastime. Instead, we should be spending the same number of hours building political organizations, implementing a long-term vision for our city or town, and getting to know our neighbors, whose votes will be needed for solving hard problems. We could be accumulating power so that when there are opportunities to make a difference—to lobby, to advocate, to mobilize—we will be ready. But most of us who are spending time on politics today are focused inward, choosing roles and activities designed for our short-term pleasure. We are repelled by the slow-and-steady activities that characterize service to the common good. In Politics Is for Power, pioneering and brilliant data analyst Eitan Hersh shows us a way toward more effective political participation. Aided by political theory, history, cutting-edge social science, as well as remarkable stories of ordinary citizens who got off their couches and took political power seriously, this book shows us how to channel our energy away from political hobbyism and toward empowering our values.

Author : Jacob S. Hacker,Alexander Hertel-Fernandez,Paul Pierson,Kathleen Thelen
Publisher : Cambridge University Press
Page : 487 pages
File Size : 43,6 Mb
Release : 2021-11-11
Category : History
ISBN : 9781316516362

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The American Political Economy by Jacob S. Hacker,Alexander Hertel-Fernandez,Paul Pierson,Kathleen Thelen Pdf

Drawing together leading scholars, the book provides a revealing new map of the US political economy in cross-national perspective.

Author : Jeffrey A. Becker
Publisher : University Press of Kentucky
Page : 273 pages
File Size : 41,6 Mb
Release : 2014-05-22
Category : Political Science
ISBN : 9780813145051

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Ambition in America by Jeffrey A. Becker Pdf

Most Americans admire the determination and drive of artists, athletes, and CEOs, but they seem to despise similar ambition in their elected officials. The structure of political representation and the separation of powers detailed in the United States Co

Author : Darrell M. West
Publisher : Brookings Institution Press
Page : 212 pages
File Size : 40,9 Mb
Release : 2022-08-09
Category : Political Science
ISBN : 9780815739609

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Power Politics by Darrell M. West Pdf

Curing the causes and consequences of Trumpism It's no secret that the United States faces extraordinary political and societal challenges, even as it recovers from the COVID-19 pandemic. Political polarization and extremism are the most apparent symptoms, resulting from long-term economic and social inequities as well as a toxic information ecosystem. It is easy to blame Donald Trump for the sad state of American democracy. After all, he abused his executive authority, spread false claims, and even incited violence. But Trumpism is almost certain to outlast Trump himself. The grievances he exploited and the aggrieved to whom he appealed existed well before he became president and likely will endure after he is gone from the political scene. The current political atmosphere is poisonous for those who operate on the basis of facts, reason, and logic. It is time to step back from this dangerous precipice and reflect on the causes of the serious threats to American democracy, procedural justice, and a reason-based society. With polarization now entrenched and authoritarianism gaining strength, no one should assume that facts somehow will triumph over falsehoods and reason will prevail over emotion. Drawing on his personal experiences in the D.C. policy world, Darrell West offers advice for protecting people, organizations, and the country as a whole from our contemporary challenges. This book makes the risks to democracy understandable by explaining specific threats and offering concrete ideas for ameliorating them. It will appeal to anyone interested in American politics, democracy, elections, mass media, technology, and governance.