Conventional Wisdom and American Elections
Exploding Myths, Exploring Misconceptions
- Textbook
Conventional Wisdom and American Elections
Exploding Myths, Exploring Misconceptions
- Textbook
Please note that this product is not available for purchase from Bloomsbury websites.
Description
Many students develop misinformed opinions about the American electoral process. Conventional Wisdom and American Elections: Exploding Myths, Exploring Misconceptions debunks some of the more common misunderstandings that have arisen about the electoral process in the past few decades. The book's organization and structure complement courses on campaigns and elections, political parties, political participation, public opinion, the media, Congress, and the presidency. Topics include campaign finance, political participation and voting, and the roles played by campaigns, negative campaigning, political parties, and the media in the electoral process. Each chapter is fairly short yet offers comprehensive coverage of the subject matter. The book contains a minimum of complex statistical analysis and is written so that it is accessible to undergraduate students. However, explicit connections are made throughout the text between political science research and the role it plays in dispelling falsehoods about campaigns and elections. The book is useful as a pedagogical tool to help "hook" students into thinking about elections, politics, and political science. The second edition includes material from the 2008 election, as well as two new chapters that cover campaign finance reform and the selection of vice presidential candidates.
Table of Contents
2 List of Illustrations
3 Preface
4 Part I: Voters
5 Chapter 1. Vanishing Voters: Misconceptions about Voter Turnout
6 Chapter 2. A Polarized Nation? "The Culture War" & Divisions in American Politics
7 Chapter 3. The Myth of the Independent and Swing Voters
8 Part II: Following Campaigns
9 Chapter 4. Misconceptions about Campaign Finance Reform: What Regulations Have and Have Not Accomplished
10 Chapter 5. The "Veepstakes": Balancing the Ticket and Other Myths About Vice Presidential Selection
11 Chapter 6. Myth or Reality? Presidential Campaigns Have Become Nastier
12 Chapter 7. Science or Voodoo? Misconceptions about National Election Polls
13 Chapter 8. "Its the Ratings Stupid": Misconceptions about Media Bias
14 Chapter 9. A "Dime's Worth of Difference"? Political Parties and the Myth of Tweedledum and Tweedledee
15 Part III: Understanding Election Outcomes
16 Chapter 10. Selling the President: The "Image is Everything" Myth
17 Chapter 11. The Illusion of Competitive Congressional Elections
18 Chapter 12. Kingmaker & Battleground States and the Myth of National Presidential Elections
19 Notes
20 Index
21 About the Authors
Product details
| Published | 02 Aug 2007 |
|---|---|
| Format | Ebook (Epub & Mobi) |
| Edition | 2nd |
| Extent | 252 |
| ISBN | 9781442200890 |
| Imprint | Rowman & Littlefield Publishers |
| Publisher | Bloomsbury Publishing |
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