- Paperback: 436 pages
- Publisher: University of Chicago Press; 2nd edition (20 Dec 2000)
- Language English
- ISBN-10: 0226389839
- ISBN-13: 978-0226389837
- Product Dimensions: 22.4 x 15 x 2.3 cm
- Amazon Bestsellers Rank: 2,018,584 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
| |||||||||||||||
Did you know you can trade in your old books for an Amazon.co.uk Gift Card to spend on the things you want? Plus, get an extra £5 Gift Certificate when you trade in books worth £10 or more before June 30, 2012. Visit the Books Trade-In Store for more details. |
Product details |
More About the Author
Product Description
Product Description
Public opinion polls are everywhere. Journalists report their results without hesitation, and political activists of all kinds spend millions of dollars on them, fuelling the widespread assumption that elected officials "pander" to public opinion -that they tailor their policy decisions to the results of polls. In this provocative and engagingly written book, the authors argue that the reality is quite the opposite. In fact, when not facing election, contemporary presidents and members of Congress routinely ignore the public's policy preferences and follow their own political philosophies, as well as those of their party's activists, their contributors and their interest group allies. Politicians devote substantial time, effort and money to tracking public opinion, not for the purposes of policymaking, but to change public opinion - to determine how to craft their public statements and actions to win support for the policies they and their supporters want. Taking two recent, dramtic episodes - President Clinton's failed health care reform campaign and Newt Gingrich's "Contract with America" - as examples, the authors show how both used public opinion research and the media to change the public's mind. Such orchestrated displays help explain the media's preoccupation with political conflict strategy and, the authors argue, have propelled levels of public distrust and fear of government to record highs. Revisiting the fundamental premises of representative democracy, this accessible book asks us to reexamine whether our government really responds to the broad public or to the narrower interests and values of certain groups. And with the 2000 campaign season heating up, "Politicians Don't Pander" could not be more timely.
Inside This Book
(Learn More)
First Sentence
Public opinion polls are everywhere. Read the first page
Front Cover | Copyright | Table of Contents | Excerpt | Index | Back Cover
Public opinion polls are everywhere. Read the first page
Explore More
Concordance
Browse Sample PagesConcordance
Front Cover | Copyright | Table of Contents | Excerpt | Index | Back Cover
Tag this product(What's this?)Think of a tag as a keyword or label you consider is strongly related to this product.
Tags will help all customers organise and find favourite items. |
Sell a Digital Version of This Book in the Kindle Store
If you are a publisher or author and hold the digital rights to a book, you can sell a digital version of it in our Kindle Store.
Learn more
Customer Reviews
There are no customer reviews yet on Amazon.co.uk.
5 star
4 star
3 star
2 star
1 star
Most Helpful Customer Reviews on Amazon.com (beta)
Amazon.com:
3 reviews
20 of 23 people found the following review helpful
Terrific: Explores Link Betwn Public Opinion & Politicians
3 Aug 2001
Format:Paperback
This is a wide-ranging, theoretically rich and empirically focused look at whether politicians simply "follow" the polls or whether politicians use polls to help "sell" proposals to the public. The answer is both, of course, but Jacobs and Shapiro explain how and why public leaders develop their own policy views, and how the public's acceptance of those views shape how policies are ultimately formed. Politicians are "trustees" in the Burkean sense, but how they explain their actions have to be placed in a "delegate" framework. Their case study on health care policy is especially instructive. This book won the 2001 Goldsmith Book Prize, it should be read by serious students of the media and politics.
13 of 24 people found the following review helpful
A major disappointment
10 Jun 2003
Format:Paperback
This book has been widely touted, so I talked two other political scientists into plowing through it for our reading group. We found the book to be a major disappointment.
The authors have an argument to make, but the quality of their qualitative and quantitative evidence is at best uneven. The survey analysis seldom includes multivariate tests and the interview sources, while extensive, are episodically not comprehensively analyzed. By the end of the book, we had little confidence that the conclusions the authors presented were well supported by their evidence.
It's a readable book, but it is difficult to put much faith in
its conclusions.
1 of 84 people found the following review helpful
I say, dash it!
20 July 2000
Format:Paperback
Reading this book, one phrase kept floating to mind - dash it all. I think..... well, I don't know. This book, er, doesn't do justice to the concept of intercounty by-elections, what?
Were these reviews helpful?
Let us know
Customer Discussions
|
This product's forum
Active discussions in related forums
Search Customer Discussions
|
Related forums
|
Listmania!
Look for similar items by category
- Books > History > Political History > Democracy
- Books > History > Political History > Politicians
- Books > Science & Nature > History & Philosophy > Reference
- Books > Society, Politics & Philosophy > Government & Politics > Countries & Regions > United States > Political Science & Theory
- Books > Society, Politics & Philosophy > Government & Politics > Political Science & Ideology > Democracy
- Books > Society, Politics & Philosophy > Government & Politics > Political Structure & Processes > Elections & Referendums
Look for similar items by subject
Feedback
- Would you like to update product info or give feedback on images?
- I am the Author, and I want to comment on my book.
- I am the Publisher, and I want to comment on this book.
|
