Books by "Paul S. Herrnson"
5 books found
Uneasy Alliances is a powerful challenge to how we think about the relationship between race, political parties, and American democracy. While scholars frequently claim that the need to win elections makes government officials responsive to any and all voters, Paul Frymer shows that not all groups are treated equally; politicians spend most of their time and resources on white swing voters--to the detriment of the African American community. As both parties try to attract white swing voters by distancing themselves from blacks, black voters are often ignored and left with unappealing alternatives. African Americans are thus the leading example of a "captured minority." Frymer argues that our two-party system bears much of the blame for this state of affairs. Often overlooked in current discussions of racial politics, the party system represents a genuine form of institutional racism. Frymer shows that this is no accident, for the party system was set up in part to keep African American concerns off the political agenda. Today, the party system continues to restrict the political opportunities of African American voters, as was shown most recently when Bill Clinton took pains to distance himself from African Americans in order to capture conservative votes and win the presidency. Frymer compares the position of black voters with other social groups--gays and lesbians and the Christian right, for example--who have recently found themselves similarly "captured." Rigorously argued and researched, Uneasy Alliances is a powerful challenge to how we think about the relationship between black voters, political parties, and American democracy. In a new afterword, Frymer examines the impact of Barack Obama's election on the delicate relationship between race and party politics in America.
Lobbying Reconsidered: Politics Under the Influence, reveals how lobbying is a complex process that involves more than just relationships, friends, access, favors, and influence. This book offers a broader perspective on this important dimension of American public policymaking. As a person who straddles the worlds of Washington insider and interest group scholar, author Gary Andres hopes to use his experience and insight in in the lobbying world to help readers navigate beyond the conventional wisdom, and guide them to a deeper, broader understanding.
In this groundbreaking book on one of the world's greatest economic crises, Hacker and Pierson explain why the richest of the rich are getting richer while the rest of the world isn't.
Religion’s influence on public opinion, politics, and candidates has been widely discussed in political science for a generation. God Talk isthe first volume that uses experimental methodology to establish whether and how that influence works. Paul Djupe and Brian Calfano provide an unprecedented look at how religious cues, values, and identity-driven appeals impact candidate selection, trust, interest group support, and U.S. public opinion about tolerance, the environment, foreign policy, and related issues. By situating their disparate, randomly assigned interventions within the broader framework of elite-based influence, the authors apply their new methodology to three questions: How do clergy affect congregation members? How are religious elites and groups and their public arguments evaluated? With what effect do political elites use religion? The results of their research provide a compelling framework for understanding the links between religion and politics. In the series The Social Logic of Politics, edited by Scott McClurg
Rogue Elephant traces the radicalization of the Republican Party over the past fifty years, arguing that its subordination to Donald Trump was not an anomaly, but rather the culmination of processes at work for decades. Providing a new perspective on figures from Newt Gingrich and George W. Bush to the Koch brothers and Donald Trump, it shows that the party's lurch to the far right was the product of a volatile mix of a disorganized party structure and a divided and fractious class of American business owners. These forces have propelled ever more reactionary leaders to the front of the party, setting up cycles where the insurgents of one period become the party establishment of the next, and find themselves confronted with a new batch of insurgents even farther to the right. The result is that a party once seen as the handmaiden of American business has increasingly come into conflict with business groups like the Chamber of Commerce. Considering the implications of these dynamics for American democracy, Paul Heideman warns that there may be no going back to normal for the Republican Party without a much broader transformation of American society.