Showing results for "Social Theory" in Elections & Political Process

In 2014, Francis Fukuyama wrote that American institutions were in decay, as the state was progressively captured by powerful interest groups. Two years later, his predictions were borne out by the rise to power of a series of political outsiders whose economic nationalism and authoritarian tendencies threatened to destabilize the entire international order. These populist nationalists seek direct charismatic connection to “the people”, who are usually defined in narrow identity terms that offer an irresistible call to an in-group and exclude large parts of the population as a whole.

Wat maakt een conspiracy theory? Waar komen de mythen vandaan, wie verspreidt ze – en waarom? Waarom zijn sommige mensen vatbaar voor duidelijk absurde dingen, en welke mechanismen houden conspiracy gelovigen zo hardnekkig in hun greep? Duik in de wereld van de bizarre verhalen, ontdek de populairste theorieën en ontdek wat echt belangrijk is bij het confronteren van verzinsels en onbewijsbare dingen!

On les appelle spin doctors, génies du faire croire, persuadeurs clandestins ou ingénieurs des âmes. Publicitaires, communicants, cinéastes ou propagandistes politiques, ces hommes ont en commun d’être passés maîtres dans l’art de la manipulation de masse. Ils bouleversent les règles du jeu politique, font et défont des élections, fabriquent le consentement, défendent les intérêts d’industries polluantes, influencent à leur insu le comportement de millions d’individus.

Political races in the United States rely heavily on highly paid political consultants who carefully curate the images of politicians, advise candidates on polling and analytics, and shape voters' perceptions through marketing and advertising techniques. More than half of the $6 billion spent in the 2012 election went to consultants who controlled virtually every aspect of the campaigns, from polling, fundraising, and media to more novel techniques of social media and micro-targeting.

The most powerful political tool of the modern presidency is control of the message and the image. In Republic of Spin - a vibrant history covering more than 100 years of politics - presidential historian David Greenberg recounts the rise of the White House spin machine, from Teddy Roosevelt to Barack Obama. His sweeping, startling narrative takes us behind the scenes to see how the tools and techniques of image making and message craft work.

Quest for the Presidency is an engaging and insightful popular history of American presidential elections from 1789 to the present, analyzing the threads that link campaigns across time and shedding light on today’s politics.

Veteran White House reporter April Ryan thought she had seen everything in her two decades as a White House correspondent. And then came the Trump administration. In Under Fire, Ryan takes us inside the confusion and chaos of the Trump White House to understand how she and other reporters adjusted to the new normal. She takes us inside the policy debates, the revolving door of personnel appointments, and what it is like when she, as a reporter asking difficult questions, finds herself in the spotlight, becoming part of the story.

Why people believe what they shouldn't believe. What makes a conspiracy theory? Where do the myths come from, who spreads them, and why? Why are some people susceptible to obviously absurd things, and what mechanisms keep conspiracy believers so firmly in their grip?

Buying the Vote analyzes the rise and decline of campaign finance reform by tracking the evolution of both the ways in which presidential campaigns have been funded since the late nineteenth century. Through close examinations of major Supreme Court decisions, Mutch shows how the Court has fashioned a new and profoundly inegalitarian definition of American democracy.

The size and stability of the American middle class were once the envy of the world. But changes unleashed in the 1960s pitted Americans against one another politically in new and destructive ways. These battles continued to rage from that day to now, while everyone has fallen behind economically except the wealthy. Right-wing culture warriors blamed the decline on the moral shortcomings of "other" Americans - black people, feminists, gays, immigrants, union members - to court a fearful white working- and middle-class base with ever more bitter "us vs. them" politics.

The highest-ranking Soviet bloc intelligence official ever to defect to the West, Lt. Gen. Ion Mihai Pacepa is at it again. A quarter century ago, in his international bestseller Red Horizons, Pacepa exposed the massive crimes and corruption of his former boss, Romanian President Nicolae Ceausescu, giving the dictator a nervous breakdown and inspiring him to send assassination squads to the U.S. to find his former spy chief and kill him. They failed.

They adore her in Manhattan. They worship her in Hollywood. They idolize her in the liberal media. But out in the real world are those of us who see through her lies about her husband, reject her socialist economics, and despise her radical social agenda. We are the members of what Hillary Clinton described as a "Vast Right-Wing Conspiracy", and at VRWC headquarters, we've been keeping a file on her.

O PT se apresentava como um partido que lutava nas ruas e nas portas das fábricas, nas igrejas e nas universidades pregando ética e justiça social. No que ele se transformou após mais de uma década de exercício contínuo de poder? José de Souza Martins, um dos mais importantes cientistas sociais brasileiros, enfrenta essa questão com coragem e objetividade. O audiolivro vai desvendando o PT por meio de passagens que acompanham a trajetória do partido, do início aos dias de hoje. Audiolivro esclarecedor, apaixonado e apaixonante.

Pourquoi les gens croient à ce qu'ils ne devraient pas croire. Qu'est-ce qui fait une théorie du complot ? D'où viennent les mythes, qui les propage et pourquoi ? Pourquoi certaines personnes sont-elles vulnérables à des idées manifestement absurdes et quels mécanismes les maintiennent-elles fermement sous leur contrôle ?

This grippingly intimate and heartbreaking book provides a portrait of the walking wounded who make up the base of the Trump movement. Desperate and angry, these are the Americans of the vanishing industrial heartland, depressed Appalachian coal country, and the no-man's land along the Southwestern border. These are coal miners, out-of-work construction workers, and small business owners who have watched their fortunes dwindle with each passing year.

Our media environment is in crisis. Polarization is rampant. Polluted information floods social media. Even our best efforts to help clean up can backfire, sending toxins roaring across the landscape. In You Are Here, Whitney Phillips and Ryan Milner offer strategies for navigating increasingly treacherous information flows. Using ecological metaphors, they emphasize how our individual me is entwined within a much larger we, and how everyone fits within an ever-shifting network map. 

"Virtù contro a furore prenderà l'armi, e fia el combatter corto, che l'antico valor negli italici cor non è ancora morto." Nella vivida interpretazione di Enzo Decaro, il classico della dottrina politica italiana rivive grazie alla trasposizione dall'italiano antico di Paola Giovetti e alle ambientazioni sonore di Riccardo Cimino. "Coloro che desiderano acquistare meriti presso un principe sono soliti presentarsi a lui con le cose che sanno essergli più care, per cui si vede che molte volte gli sono presentati cavalli, armi, drappi d'oro, pietre preziose e simili ornamenti.