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The book discussed how contemporary political campaigns are increasingly sensitive to candidate-centered appeals, analyzing the strengths and weaknesses of their own candidate to determine how their personalities, backgrounds, and likability and background fit into a campaign narrative, theme, and issue agenda.
Following one of the most contentious and surprising elections in US history, the new edition of this classic text demonstrates unequivocally: Campaigns matter. With new and revised chapters throughout, Campaigns and Elections American Style provides a real education in contemporary campaign politics. In the fifth edition, academics and campaign professionals explain how Trump won the presidency, comparing his sometimes novel tactics with tried and true strategies including how campaign themes and strategies are developed and communicated, the changes in campaign tactics as a result of changing technology, new techniques to target and mobilize voters, the evolving landscape of campaign finance and election laws, and the increasing diversity of the role of media in elections. Offering a unique and careful mix of Democrat and Republican, academic and practitioner, and male and female campaign perspectives, this volume scrutinizes national and local-level campaigns with a special focus on the 2016 presidential and congressional elections and what those elections might tell us about 2018 and 2020. Students, citizens, candidates, and campaign managers will learn not only how to win elections but also why it is imperative to do so in an ethical way. Perfect for a variety of courses in American government, this book is essential reading for political junkies of any stripe and serious students of campaigns and elections. Highlights of the Fifth Edition Covers the 2016 elections with an eye to 2018 and 2020. Explains how Trump won the presidency, the changes in campaign tactics as a result of changing technology, new techniques to target and mobilize voters, the evolving landscape of campaign finance and election laws, and the increasing diversity of the role of media. Includes a new part structure and the addition of part introductions to help students contextualize the major issues and trends in campaigns and elections.
Based on data from the most recent elections, this book examines state house races in four key states California, Texas, Michigan, and Virginia and creates simulations of campaign planning, strategizing, budgeting, fundraising, and winning in a variety of political contexts. The authors have not only researched and taught about these issues they have conducted campaigns, run for office, and served in government at every level from the local to the national. They have experience confronting questions of campaign ethics and crisis management, and they actively embrace social media in their work. Internet fundraising as well as campaign websites are among the many media subjects included. This is a book not just for candidates, campaign professionals, and students, but for all concerned citizens who want to understand the pathways of politics better.
Every presidential election since 1964 has been won by the candidate backed by the most united party; yet as party unity has become more important to voting decisions, it has also become increasingly difficult to achieve. In his latest book, Martin Wattenberg offers an in-depth interpretation of the presidential elections of the 1980s, illuminating current theories of political behavior and how they operate in today's candidate-centered politics. Wattenberg investigates the impact that political parties' declining relevance has had on presidential politics. As the parties' ability to polarize opinion weakened and voters were set politically adrift, the candidates themselves had to fill the power vacuum. Interestingly, as the candidates have become more prominent, their popularity has spiraled downward. Wattenberg's national survey data debunks the notion of Reagan as the "teflon president;' demonstrating that many negative judgments stuck to Reagan's public image throughout the 1980s, particularly the criticisms of his conservative policies. The author's intricate analysis shows that many people were torn between candidates whose policies they preferred and those who they thought would produce the best results, and these contradictory attitudes were primarily resolved in favor of Reagan and Bush. This book is not only the successor volume to the author's widely used book on American parties, it is also a controversial and thought-provoking commentary on American parties, politics, and representative government.
Political Parties, Interest Groups, and Political Campaigns is intended for use in courses dealing with political parties, campaigns and elections, or interest groups. In one integrated text, this book covers the history and contemporary organization of political parties, the nature of the electoral system and modern American election campaigns, and the activities of interest groups. The central theme of this book is that the actions of political parties and interest groups are no longer played out in separate spheres of the political world, but are increasingly bound together. Nowhere is the overlap of interest group and party activity more apparent than in the modern political campaign.The book is organized around the idea that modern political campaigns link political parties and interest groups. Both political parties and interest groups have been forced to adapt to the changing circumstances of American politics in the contemporary era. Election campaigns have become more candidate-centered, increasingly driven by polls and media coverage, and fueled by staggering amounts of money. Political parties have adapted to these circumstances by becoming more proficient at providing the services that candidates require in modern campaigns, while interest groups have adapted by applying the style and techniques of election campaigns to their own political issue campaigns run by hired assistants from the worlds of public relations, polling, and campaign management.Part One explains the history and development of political parties in the United States, the contemporary organization of the major parties, and the electoral environment in which the parties compete. Part Two ties political parties to modern campaigns, with special emphasis on recent presidential and congressional elections, and examines the problems of campaign finance. Part Three links interest groups to political parties through the bridge of political campaigns. Interest groups are examined as they participate in candidate-centered campaigns, issue campaigns, and interest group lobbying campaigns.
The book discussed how contemporary political campaigns are increasingly sensitive to candidate-centered appeals, analyzing the strengths and weaknesses of their own candidate to determine how their personalities, backgrounds, and likability and background fit into a campaign narrative, theme, and issue agenda.
Seminar paper from the year 2000 in the subject American Studies - Culture and Applied Geography, grade: 1 (A), University of Kassel (Anglistics), course: The Making of the President 2000, language: English, abstract: There is no aspect of contemporary American politics more criticized than the modern political campaign: it provides too little information for the voter, the amount of money spent is too high, there is no thoughtful discussion of issues, and campaign organizers will reach to the very edge of acceptable practices to find some way of appealing to the voters. These are some of the elements that are responsible for the growing disgust for election campaigns and the decline in political interest. However the question is if campaigns really do have consequences for the election outcome or if their effect is rather limited. This paper will focus on the development of political campaigns, their strategy and planning, as well as on issues and the presentation of the candidate. The composition will further have a look on the campaign and election in 1992, on the actual effects the campaign has on the voter and consequently on the election outcome. In the last two decades scholars perceived a change from old to new politics, including a significant modification in the nature of campaigns. In the last years the traditional partyoriented personal campaign has been largely replaced by the so-called candidate-centered, media-oriented campaign. The basic elements of campaigns changed dramatically because of increased nonvoting, the growth in the power of interest groups, and the power of the media. In national elections the expansion of the mass media campaign has led to a decline in the importance of party affiliation, while at the same time the party organizations themselves became more powerful.
Just in time for the 2012 elections, this book shows how political parties and interest groups have become highly interdependent in the era of candidate-centered elections, issue advocacy organizations, and media-driven campaigns. With up-to-date data including 2008 and 2010 mid-term resultsand analysis, this book looks ahead to 2012 in illustrating such important developments as the emergence of the Tea Party, increasingly polarized politics, divided government, social media, lobbying and interest group developments including the passage of health care and financial sector reformlegislation, and the impact of the Citizens United Supreme Court decision on campaign finance reform. Parties, Interest Groups, and Political Campaigns provides one-stop shopping for understanding the new style of American politics.
"The most comprehensive textbook I have read on American political parties. Written before the current partisan impasse, the book does much to clarify the extremely fluid and often fragile structure of our two major parties--parties that, in comparison with their European counterparts, have relatively weak ties to social classes and religious groups."--New York Review of Books
