How to Win Elections in Africa: Parallels with Donald Trump

How to Win Elections in Africa: Parallels with Donald Trump PDF Author: Chude Jideonwo
Publisher: Bookbaby
ISBN: 9781543926743
Category : Political Science
Languages : en
Pages : 0

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Book Description
How to Win Elections in Africa explores how citizens, through elections, can uproot the power structures that govern them. It draws examples from within and outside Africa, whilst examining the past and present in a bid to map a future where the political playing field is level and citizens can rewrite existing narratives. Africa stands at the cusp of remarkable change. Citizens across the continent are finally coming to terms with the fact that only they--albeit collectively--wield the most important powers: to elect, to impeach and generally demand the accountability of those in whom they repose political powers. In Nigeria, The Gambia, Ghana, Seychelles, South Africa, Kenya, Liberia, Senegal, Rwanda (to mention a few), citizens have and are demanding the dissolution of political structures and establishments that no longer serve them well. Through their pioneer nation-building agency, StateCraft Inc., the authors of How to Win Elections in Africa have not only encouraged the galvanization towards a citizen-led democratic takeover across the continent, they have also helped ensure successes of these takeovers in at least three Presidential elections in Ghana and Nigeria. Their experiences in this regard, garnered through years of interacting with Africa's large youth population, is what they have drawn on to write this compendium of essays. The book explores the factors often ignored by social and political activists, donors, campaign organisers, social engineers and citizens alike; factors that actually contribute to successful elections globally and how they feed into the peculiar African set-up. With 35 chapters written with the most optimistic tone, How to Win Elections in Africa goes through the political institutions of every modern democracy and breaks down how each one from political parties to civil societies, donors and social activists, as well as factors such as legacy, messaging, media, and money feeds into the goal of helping citizens make their voices heard through free and fair elections. The book was launched in Yale and the authors have been on a book tour of the United States, Canada and the United Kingdom.

How to Win Elections in Africa: Parallels with Donald Trump

How to Win Elections in Africa: Parallels with Donald Trump PDF Author: Chude Jideonwo
Publisher: Bookbaby
ISBN: 9781543926743
Category : Political Science
Languages : en
Pages : 0

Get Book Here

Book Description
How to Win Elections in Africa explores how citizens, through elections, can uproot the power structures that govern them. It draws examples from within and outside Africa, whilst examining the past and present in a bid to map a future where the political playing field is level and citizens can rewrite existing narratives. Africa stands at the cusp of remarkable change. Citizens across the continent are finally coming to terms with the fact that only they--albeit collectively--wield the most important powers: to elect, to impeach and generally demand the accountability of those in whom they repose political powers. In Nigeria, The Gambia, Ghana, Seychelles, South Africa, Kenya, Liberia, Senegal, Rwanda (to mention a few), citizens have and are demanding the dissolution of political structures and establishments that no longer serve them well. Through their pioneer nation-building agency, StateCraft Inc., the authors of How to Win Elections in Africa have not only encouraged the galvanization towards a citizen-led democratic takeover across the continent, they have also helped ensure successes of these takeovers in at least three Presidential elections in Ghana and Nigeria. Their experiences in this regard, garnered through years of interacting with Africa's large youth population, is what they have drawn on to write this compendium of essays. The book explores the factors often ignored by social and political activists, donors, campaign organisers, social engineers and citizens alike; factors that actually contribute to successful elections globally and how they feed into the peculiar African set-up. With 35 chapters written with the most optimistic tone, How to Win Elections in Africa goes through the political institutions of every modern democracy and breaks down how each one from political parties to civil societies, donors and social activists, as well as factors such as legacy, messaging, media, and money feeds into the goal of helping citizens make their voices heard through free and fair elections. The book was launched in Yale and the authors have been on a book tour of the United States, Canada and the United Kingdom.

Words That Matter

Words That Matter PDF Author: Leticia Bode
Publisher: Brookings Institution Press
ISBN: 0815731922
Category : Political Science
Languages : en
Pages : 276

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Book Description
How the 2016 news media environment allowed Trump to win the presidency The 2016 presidential election campaign might have seemed to be all about one man. He certainly did everything possible to reinforce that impression. But to an unprecedented degree the campaign also was about the news media and its relationships with the man who won and the woman he defeated. Words that Matter assesses how the news media covered the extraordinary 2016 election and, more important, what information—true, false, or somewhere in between—actually helped voters make up their minds. Using journalists' real-time tweets and published news coverage of campaign events, along with Gallup polling data measuring how voters perceived that reporting, the book traces the flow of information from candidates and their campaigns to journalists and to the public. The evidence uncovered shows how Donald Trump's victory, and Hillary Clinton's loss, resulted in large part from how the news media responded to these two unique candidates. Both candidates were unusual in their own ways, and thus presented a long list of possible issues for the media to focus on. Which of these many topics got communicated to voters made a big difference outcome. What people heard about these two candidates during the campaign was quite different. Coverage of Trump was scattered among many different issues, and while many of those issues were negative, no single negative narrative came to dominate the coverage of the man who would be elected the 45th president of the United States. Clinton, by contrast, faced an almost unrelenting news media focus on one negative issue—her alleged misuse of e-mails—that captured public attention in a way that the more numerous questions about Trump did not. Some news media coverage of the campaign was insightful and helpful to voters who really wanted serious information to help them make the most important decision a democracy offers. But this book also demonstrates how the modern media environment can exacerbate the kind of pack journalism that leads some issues to dominate the news while others of equal or greater importance get almost no attention, making it hard for voters to make informed choices.

Corruptible

Corruptible PDF Author: Brian Klaas
Publisher: Simon and Schuster
ISBN: 198215411X
Category : Psychology
Languages : en
Pages : 320

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Book Description
An “absorbing, provocative, and far-reaching” (Kirkus Reviews, starred review) look at what power is, who gets it, and what happens when they do, based on over 500 interviews with those who (temporarily, at least) have had the upper hand—from the creator of the Power Corrupts podcast and Washington Post columnist Brian Klaas. Does power corrupt, or are corrupt people drawn to power? Are tyrants made or born? Are entrepreneurs who embezzle and cops who kill the result of poorly designed systems or are they just bad people? If you were suddenly thrust into a position of power, would you be able to resist the temptation to line your pockets or seek revenge against your enemies? To answer these questions, Corruptible draws on over 500 interviews with some of the world’s top leaders—from the noblest to the dirtiest—including presidents and philanthropists as well as rebels, cultists, and dictators. Some of the fascinating insights include: how facial appearance determines who we pick as leaders, why narcissists make more money, why some people don’t want power at all and others are drawn to it out of a psychopathic impulse, and why being the “beta” (second in command) may actually be the optimal place for health and well-being. Corruptible also features a wealth of counterintuitive examples from history and social science: you’ll meet the worst bioterrorist in American history, hit the slopes with a ski instructor who once ruled Iraq, and learn why the inability of chimpanzees to play baseball is central to the development of human hierarchies. Based on deep, unprecedented research from around the world, and filled with “unexpected insights…the most important lesson of Corruptible is that when psychopaths inadvertently reveal their true selves, the institutions that they plague must take action that is swift, brutal, and merciless” (Business Insider).

How Trump Won

How Trump Won PDF Author: Joel Pollak
Publisher: Simon and Schuster
ISBN: 1621575381
Category : Political Science
Languages : en
Pages : 214

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Book Description
A book to challenge the status quo, spark a debate, and get people talking about the issues and questions we face as a country!

Democracy in Africa

Democracy in Africa PDF Author: Nic Cheeseman
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
ISBN: 1316239489
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 269

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Book Description
This book provides the first comprehensive overview of the history of democracy in Africa and explains why the continent's democratic experiments have so often failed, as well as how they could succeed. Nic Cheeseman grapples with some of the most important questions facing Africa and democracy today, including whether international actors should try and promote democracy abroad, how to design political systems that manage ethnic diversity, and why democratic governments often make bad policy decisions. Beginning in the colonial period with the introduction of multi-party elections and ending in 2013 with the collapse of democracy in Mali and South Sudan, the book describes the rise of authoritarian states in the 1970s; the attempts of trade unions and some religious groups to check the abuse of power in the 1980s; the remarkable return of multiparty politics in the 1990s; and finally, the tragic tendency for elections to exacerbate corruption and violence.

How to Rig an Election

How to Rig an Election PDF Author: Nic Cheeseman
Publisher: HarperCollins
ISBN: 9353024730
Category : Political Science
Languages : en
Pages : 295

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Book Description
In How to Rig an Election, Nic Cheeseman and Brian Klaas show how elections enable authoritarian leaders to hold on to power, revealing the reasons behind this seeming paradox. They develop the idea of a 'dictator's toolbox' to uncover the six main strategies - including gerrymandering, vote buying and ballot-box stuffing - that enable authoritarian leaders to undermine the electoral process and guarantee victory. By setting up flawed elections, leaders gain the benefits of holding elections, such as greater legitimacy and international financial support, without the costs. This engaging and provocative book draws on global examples of election rigging, from Azerbaijan and Belarus to India, the United States and Zimbabwe. How to Rig an Election reveals the limitations of holding elections as a means to promote democratization, and provides new ideas about how democracy can be better protected from authoritarian subversion.

Democracy for Realists

Democracy for Realists PDF Author: Christopher H. Achen
Publisher: Princeton University Press
ISBN: 1400888743
Category : Political Science
Languages : en
Pages : 423

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Book Description
Why our belief in government by the people is unrealistic—and what we can do about it Democracy for Realists assails the romantic folk-theory at the heart of contemporary thinking about democratic politics and government, and offers a provocative alternative view grounded in the actual human nature of democratic citizens. Christopher Achen and Larry Bartels deploy a wealth of social-scientific evidence, including ingenious original analyses of topics ranging from abortion politics and budget deficits to the Great Depression and shark attacks, to show that the familiar ideal of thoughtful citizens steering the ship of state from the voting booth is fundamentally misguided. They demonstrate that voters—even those who are well informed and politically engaged—mostly choose parties and candidates on the basis of social identities and partisan loyalties, not political issues. They also show that voters adjust their policy views and even their perceptions of basic matters of fact to match those loyalties. When parties are roughly evenly matched, elections often turn on irrelevant or misleading considerations such as economic spurts or downturns beyond the incumbents' control; the outcomes are essentially random. Thus, voters do not control the course of public policy, even indirectly. Achen and Bartels argue that democratic theory needs to be founded on identity groups and political parties, not on the preferences of individual voters. Now with new analysis of the 2016 elections, Democracy for Realists provides a powerful challenge to conventional thinking, pointing the way toward a fundamentally different understanding of the realities and potential of democratic government.

Trump's Democrats

Trump's Democrats PDF Author: Stephanie Muravchik
Publisher: Brookings Institution Press
ISBN: 0815738641
Category : Political Science
Languages : en
Pages : 228

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Book Description
Why did hundreds of Democratic strongholds break for Donald Trump in 2016 and stay loyal to him in 2020? Looking for answers, Muravchik and Shields lived in three such “flipped” communities. There they discovered a political culture that was Trumpy long before the 45th president arrived on the national political scene. In these places, dominated by the white working-class, some of the most beloved and longest-serving Democratic leaders are themselves Trumpian—grandiose, combative, thin-skinned, and nepotistic. Indifferent to ideology, they promise to take care of “their people” by cutting deals—and corners if needed. Stressing loyalty, they often turn to family to fill critical political roles. Trump, resembling these old-style Democratic bosses, strikes a familiar and appealing figure in these communities. Although voters in “flipped” communities have often been portrayed as white supremacists, Muravchik and Shields find that their primary political allegiances are to place—not race. They will spend an extra dollar to patronize local businesses, and they think local jobs should go to their neighbors, not “foreigners” from neighboring counties—who are just as likely to be white and native-born. Unlike the Proud Boys, they take more pride in their local communities than in their skin color. Trump successfully courted these Democrats by promising to revitalize their struggling hometowns. Because these communities largely stuck with Trump in 2020, Biden won the presidency by just the thinnest of margins. Whether they will continue to support a Republican Party without Trump—or swing back to the Democrats—depends in part on which party can satisfy these locally grown political tastes and values. The party that does that will enjoy a stranglehold in national elections for years to come.

Let them Eat Tweets: How the Right Rules in an Age of Extreme Inequality

Let them Eat Tweets: How the Right Rules in an Age of Extreme Inequality PDF Author: Jacob S. Hacker
Publisher: Liveright Publishing
ISBN: 1631496859
Category : Political Science
Languages : en
Pages : 250

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Book Description
A New York Times Editors’ Choice An “essential” (Jane Mayer) account of the dangerous marriage of plutocratic economic priorities and right-wing populist appeals — and how it threatens the pillars of American democracy. In Let Them Eat Tweets, best-selling political scientists Jacob S. Hacker and Paul Pierson argue that despite the rhetoric of Donald Trump, Josh Hawley, and other right-wing “populists,” the Republican Party came to serve its plutocratic masters to a degree without precedent in modern global history. To maintain power while serving the 0.1 percent, the GOP has relied on increasingly incendiary racial and cultural appeals to its almost entirely white base. Calling this dangerous hybrid “plutocratic populism,” Hacker and Pierson show how, over the last forty years, reactionary plutocrats and right-wing populists have become the two faces of a party that now actively undermines democracy to achieve its goals against the will of the majority of Americans. Based on decades of research and featuring a new epilogue about the intensification of GOP radicalism after the 2020 election, Let Them Eat Tweets authoritatively explains the doom loop of tax cutting and fearmongering that defines the Republican Party—and reveals how the rest of us can fight back.

Playing with Fire

Playing with Fire PDF Author: Lawrence O'Donnell
Publisher: Penguin
ISBN: 0399563156
Category : Political Science
Languages : en
Pages : 513

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Book Description
The New York Times bestseller! "A thriller-like, propulsive tour through 1968, told by a man who is in love with American politics and who knows how all the dots connect. Brilliant and totally engrossing." -Rachel Maddow "Delightful...brings to life the most fascinating election of modern times." -Walter Isaacson From the celebrated host of MSNBC’s The Last Word with Lawrence O’Donnell, an enthralling account of the presidential election that created American politics as we know it today Long before Lawrence O'Donnell was the anchor of his own political talk show, he was a senior adviser to Senator Patrick Moynihan, one of postwar America’s wisest political minds. The 1968 U.S. presidential election—marked by RFK’s assassination, massive upheaval in the Democratic Party, and the first of Richard Nixon’s dirty tricks—was O’Donnell’s own political coming of age. In the decades since, the election has remained one of his abiding fascinations, as it set the tone for so much of what followed in American politics, all the way through to today. Playing with Fire represents his master class in American electioneering, as well as an extraordinary human drama that captures a system, and a country, coming apart at the seams.