Political Power In America

Author : Anthony R. DiMaggio
Publisher : State University of New York Press
ISBN 13 : 1438476957
Total Pages : 514 pages
Book Rating : 4.57/5 ( download)

DOWNLOAD NOW!

Download or read book Political Power in America written by Anthony R. DiMaggio and published by State University of New York Press. This book was released on 2019-12-01 with total page 514 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: 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
ISBN 13 : 0226764656
Total Pages : 257 pages
Book Rating : 4.58/5 ( download)

DOWNLOAD NOW!

Download or read book American Business and Political Power written by Mark A. Smith and published by University of Chicago Press. This book was released on 2010-01-26 with total page 257 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: 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
ISBN 13 : 0691153973
Total Pages : 348 pages
Book Rating : 4.71/5 ( download)

DOWNLOAD NOW!

Download or read book Affluence and Influence written by Martin Gilens and published by Princeton University Press. This book was released on 2012-07-22 with total page 348 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: 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 : Sara Diamond
Publisher : Guilford Press
ISBN 13 : 9780898628647
Total Pages : 464 pages
Book Rating : 4.44/5 ( download)

DOWNLOAD NOW!

Download or read book Roads to Dominion written by Sara Diamond and published by Guilford Press. This book was released on 1995-09-08 with total page 464 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Diamond looks at conservative politics in the United States from World War II to the post-Reagan years.

Author : Anthony R. DiMaggio
Publisher : SUNY Press
ISBN 13 : 1438476930
Total Pages : 514 pages
Book Rating : 4.33/5 ( download)

DOWNLOAD NOW!

Download or read book Political Power in America written by Anthony R. DiMaggio and published by SUNY Press. This book was released on 2019-12-01 with total page 514 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Introduction to American politics that provides a critical examination of both political institutions and political behavior. 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. “An original and refreshing introductory text on the United States political system. The originality, coupled with an accessibility of critical concepts, makes this book truly one of a kind.” — Mark Major, author of The Unilateral Presidency and the News Media: The Politics of Framing Executive Power

Author : Jeffrey A. Becker
Publisher : University Press of Kentucky
ISBN 13 : 0813145058
Total Pages : 273 pages
Book Rating : 4.51/5 ( download)

DOWNLOAD NOW!

Download or read book Ambition in America written by Jeffrey A. Becker and published by University Press of Kentucky. This book was released on 2014-05-22 with total page 273 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: 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 : Peter A. Gourevitch
Publisher : Princeton University Press
ISBN 13 : 1400837014
Total Pages : 365 pages
Book Rating : 4.14/5 ( download)

DOWNLOAD NOW!

Download or read book Political Power and Corporate Control written by Peter A. Gourevitch and published by Princeton University Press. This book was released on 2010-06-20 with total page 365 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: 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 : C. Boggs
Publisher : Springer
ISBN 13 : 0230120105
Total Pages : 302 pages
Book Rating : 4.05/5 ( download)

DOWNLOAD NOW!

Download or read book Phantom Democracy written by C. Boggs and published by Springer. This book was released on 2011-08-15 with total page 302 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: 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 : Eric O'Keefe
Publisher :
ISBN 13 :
Total Pages : 128 pages
Book Rating : 4.23/5 ( download)

DOWNLOAD NOW!

Download or read book Who Rules America written by Eric O'Keefe and published by . This book was released on 1999 with total page 128 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:

Author : Edward Jay Epstein
Publisher : Verso
ISBN 13 : 9780860915294
Total Pages : 372 pages
Book Rating : 4.98/5 ( download)

DOWNLOAD NOW!

Download or read book Agency of Fear written by Edward Jay Epstein and published by Verso. This book was released on 1990 with total page 372 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: 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.