The Paradox of Mass Politics

The Paradox of Mass Politics PDF Author: W. Russell Neuman
Publisher: Harvard University Press
ISBN: 9780674654600
Category : Political Science
Languages : en
Pages : 260

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Book Description
A central current in the history of democratic politics is the tensions between the political culture of an informed citizenry and the potentially antidemocratic impulses of the larger mass of individuals who are only marginally involved in the political world. Given the public's low level of political interest and knowledge, it is paradoxical that the democratic system works at all. In The Paradox of Mass Politics W. Russell Neuman analyzes the major election surveys in the United States for the period 1948-1980 and develops for each a central index of political sophistication based on measures of political interest, knowledge, and style of political conceptualization. Taking a fresh look at the dramatic findings of public apathy and ignorance, he probes the process by which citizens acquire political knowledge and the impact of their knowledge on voting behavior. The book challenges the commonly held view that politically oriented college-educated individuals have a sophisticated grasp of the fundamental political issues of the day and do not rely heavily on vague political symbolism and party identification in their electoral calculus. In their expression of political opinions and in the stability and coherence of those opinions over time, the more knowledgeable half of the population, Neuman concludes, is almost indistinguishable from the other half. This is, in effect, a second paradox closely related to the first. In an attempt to resolve a major and persisting paradox of political theory, Neuman develops a model of three publics, which more accurately portrays the distribution of political knowledge and behavior in the mass population. He identifies a stratum of apoliticals, a large middle mass, and a politically sophisticated elite. The elite is so small (less than 5 percent) that the beliefs and behavior of its member are lost in the large random samples of national election surveys, but so active and articulate that its views are often equated with public opinion at large by the powers in Washington. The key to the paradox of mass politics is the activity of this tiny stratum of persons who follow political issues with care and expertise. This book is essential reading for concerned students of American politics, sociology, public opinion, and mass communication.

The Paradox of Mass Politics

The Paradox of Mass Politics PDF Author: W. Russell Neuman
Publisher: Harvard University Press
ISBN: 9780674654600
Category : Political Science
Languages : en
Pages : 260

Get Book Here

Book Description
A central current in the history of democratic politics is the tensions between the political culture of an informed citizenry and the potentially antidemocratic impulses of the larger mass of individuals who are only marginally involved in the political world. Given the public's low level of political interest and knowledge, it is paradoxical that the democratic system works at all. In The Paradox of Mass Politics W. Russell Neuman analyzes the major election surveys in the United States for the period 1948-1980 and develops for each a central index of political sophistication based on measures of political interest, knowledge, and style of political conceptualization. Taking a fresh look at the dramatic findings of public apathy and ignorance, he probes the process by which citizens acquire political knowledge and the impact of their knowledge on voting behavior. The book challenges the commonly held view that politically oriented college-educated individuals have a sophisticated grasp of the fundamental political issues of the day and do not rely heavily on vague political symbolism and party identification in their electoral calculus. In their expression of political opinions and in the stability and coherence of those opinions over time, the more knowledgeable half of the population, Neuman concludes, is almost indistinguishable from the other half. This is, in effect, a second paradox closely related to the first. In an attempt to resolve a major and persisting paradox of political theory, Neuman develops a model of three publics, which more accurately portrays the distribution of political knowledge and behavior in the mass population. He identifies a stratum of apoliticals, a large middle mass, and a politically sophisticated elite. The elite is so small (less than 5 percent) that the beliefs and behavior of its member are lost in the large random samples of national election surveys, but so active and articulate that its views are often equated with public opinion at large by the powers in Washington. The key to the paradox of mass politics is the activity of this tiny stratum of persons who follow political issues with care and expertise. This book is essential reading for concerned students of American politics, sociology, public opinion, and mass communication.

Mass Politics in Tough Times

Mass Politics in Tough Times PDF Author: Nancy Bermeo
Publisher: Oxford University Press, USA
ISBN: 019935751X
Category : Business & Economics
Languages : en
Pages : 402

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Book Description
In Mass Politics in Tough Times, the eminent political scientists Larry Bartels and Nancy Bermeo have gathered a group of leading scholars to analyze the political responses to the Great Recession in the US, Western Europe, and East-Central Europe.

The Mass Marketing of Politics

The Mass Marketing of Politics PDF Author: Bruce I. Newman
Publisher: SAGE
ISBN: 0761909591
Category : Business & Economics
Languages : en
Pages : 186

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Book Description
Bruce I. Newman reveals how the US public is being manipulated by marketing strategies and tactics taken directly from the most successful market-led companies. He uncovers the emphasis on style over substance and sound-bite over real dialogue.

The Politics of Mass Digitization

The Politics of Mass Digitization PDF Author: Nanna Bonde Thylstrup
Publisher: MIT Press
ISBN: 0262552418
Category : Social Science
Languages : en
Pages : 211

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Book Description
A new examination of mass digitization as an emerging sociopolitical and sociotechnical phenomenon that alters the politics of cultural memory. Today, all of us with internet connections can access millions of digitized cultural artifacts from the comfort of our desks. Institutions and individuals add thousands of new cultural works to the digital sphere every day, creating new central nexuses of knowledge. How does this affect us politically and culturally? In this book, Nanna Bonde Thylstrup approaches mass digitization as an emerging sociopolitical and sociotechnical phenomenon, offering a new understanding of a defining concept of our time. Arguing that digitization has become a global cultural political project, Thylstrup draws on case studies of different forms of mass digitization—including Google Books, Europeana, and the shadow libraries Monoskop, lib.ru, and Ubuweb—to suggest a different approach to the study of digital cultural memory archives. She constructs a new theoretical framework for understanding mass digitization that focuses on notions of assemblage, infrastructure, and infrapolitics. Mass digitization does not consist merely of neutral technical processes, Thylstrup argues, but of distinct subpolitical processes that give rise to new kinds of archives and new ways of interacting with the artifacts they contain. With this book, she offers important and timely guidance on how mass digitization alters the politics of cultural memory to impact our relationship with the past and with one another.

Mass Politics In The People's Republic

Mass Politics In The People's Republic PDF Author: Alan P.L. Liu
Publisher: Routledge
ISBN: 0429719353
Category : Political Science
Languages : en
Pages : 234

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Book Description
Exploring the crucial link between state and society in the People's Republic of China (PRC), this book analyzes the interaction between the Chinese Communist Party and the country's major social groups. It explores how public opinion contributes to a mass political culture in China.

Globalization and Mass Politics

Globalization and Mass Politics PDF Author: Timothy Hellwig
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
ISBN: 1107075076
Category : Political Science
Languages : en
Pages : 225

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Book Description
Analyzes how increases in international trade, finance, and production have altered voter decisions, political party positions, and the issues that parties focus on in postindustrial democracies.

The Nature and Origins of Mass Opinion

The Nature and Origins of Mass Opinion PDF Author: John Zaller
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
ISBN: 9780521407861
Category : Political Science
Languages : en
Pages : 388

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Book Description
This 1992 book explains how people acquire political information from elites and the mass media and convert it into political preferences.

The Dynamics of Military Revolution, 1300-2050

The Dynamics of Military Revolution, 1300-2050 PDF Author: MacGregor Knox
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
ISBN: 9780521800792
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 236

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Book Description
This book studies the changes that have marked war in the Western World since the thirteenth century.

The European Reformation

The European Reformation PDF Author: Euan Cameron
Publisher: Oxford University Press
ISBN: 0199547858
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 637

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Book Description
A fully revised and updated version of this authoritative account of the birth of the Protestant traditions in sixteenth-century Europe, providing a clear and comprehensive narrative of these complex and many-stranded events.

Prisoners of Politics

Prisoners of Politics PDF Author: Rachel Elise Barkow
Publisher: Harvard University Press
ISBN: 0674919238
Category : Law
Languages : en
Pages : 305

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Book Description
America’s criminal justice system reflects irrational fears stoked by politicians seeking to win election. Pointing to specific policies that are morally problematic and have failed to end the cycle of recidivism, Rachel Barkow argues that reform guided by evidence, not politics and emotions, will reduce crime and reverse mass incarceration.