Showing results by publisher "Audible Studios" in Elections & Political Process

Tras el derrumbe de la utopía neoliberal, el gran consenso ideológico de nuestro tiempo es la capacidad de las tecnologías de la comunicación para inducir dinámicas sociales positivas. La economía del conocimiento se considera unánimemente como la solución al deterioro especulativo de los mercados; las redes sociales son el remedio a la fragilidad de nuestras vidas nómadas y globalizadas; la ciberpolítica aspira a regenerar nuestras democracias exhaustas.

Tras el derrumbe de la utopía neoliberal, el gran consenso ideológico de nuestro tiempo es la capacidad de las tecnologías de la comunicación para inducir dinámicas sociales positivas. La economía del conocimiento se considera unánimemente como la solución al deterioro especulativo de los mercados; las redes sociales son el remedio a la fragilidad de nuestras vidas nómadas y globalizadas; la ciberpolítica aspira a regenerar nuestras democracias exhaustas. Sociofobia cuestiona este dogma ciberfetichista.

In May 2006 Jacob Zuma was found not guilty of the rape of Fezekile Ntsukela Kuzwayo - better known as Khwezi - in the Johannesburg High Court. Another nail was driven into the coffin of South Africa's fight against sexual violence. Vilified by Zuma's many supporters, Khwezi was forced to flee South Africa and make a life in the shadows, first in Europe and then back on the African continent.

Deputy President Cyril Ramaphosa is credited with driving through the deal between the apartheid government and the African National Congress that was at the heart of South Africa’s democratic constitution. He was the ANC’s lead negotiator and the man who persuaded one of the most recalcitrant racist governments in the world to buy into a settlement based on one of its most enlightened bills of rights. But once the ink had dried on the constitution, Ramaphosa found himself politically sidelined.

The system is rigged: America’s political leadership remains overwhelmingly white, male, moneyed, and Christian. Even at the local and state levels, elected office is inaccessible to the people it aims to represent. But in People Like Us, political scientist Sayu Bhojwani shares the stories of a diverse and persevering range of local and state politicians from across the country who are challenging the status quo, winning against all odds, and leaving a path for others to follow in their wake.

When Theresa May called a snap election in 2017, Labour was more than 20 points behind in the polls, and it seemed the only question was how big her landslide would be. The experts argued campaigns don’t move opinions much and young voters would not turn out. But Jeremy Corbyn and his team had other ideas. They knew people were angry about austerity and were confident they would support a manifesto for the many, not the few. In the most dramatic election of modern times, Corbyn’s inspirational campaign transformed British politics.

Pactos en la oscuridad, juegos sucios de compraventa de una absolución, amenazas a un juez, estratagemas para salvar a la infanta, guerra entre togas.... Pilar Urbano, periodista incisiva y valiente, se metió en el laberinto, conversó con fiscales, defensores, policías de la UDEF, testigos, agentes tributarios, e imputados. Y logró la gran exclusiva: el relato del juez Castro, en primera persona. Nos ofrece así un documento único; verdadero periodismo de investigación.

Une plongée sans précédent dans les eaux troubles du "quatrième pouvoir" ! Aude Lancelin, ancienne directrice adjointe de L'Obs et de Marianne, raconte de l'intérieur un système médiatique français à la dérive... et en miroir, une gauche en pleine déliquescence qui a perdu tous ses repères. Un an avant une élection présidentielle, la "numéro deux" du plus célèbre hebdomadaire de la gauche française est brutalement licenciée.

In an age of PR, public protest and other forms of dissent have lost their meaning and impact. The intense media interest in rioting and political violence, as well as an existing obsession with youth culture, have led to an oversaturation and misrepresentation of what these movements are about. Political protest has become a pantomime where activists are always villains, and therefore the politics of these groups are routinely ignored.

In 1980, Ronald Reagan created one of the dumbest talking points of all time: "I'm not a scientist, but..." Since then, politicians have repeatedly committed egregious transgressions against scientific knowledge prefaced by this seemingly innocuous phrase. Yet, as science journalist Dave Levitan reveals, that line is just the tip of the melting iceberg when it comes to rhetorical tools wielded to attack scientific findings that don't cooperate with political agendas.

Hillary Clinton is running for the presidency with a message of hope and change. But, as Doug Henwood makes clear in this concise, devastating indictment, little trust can be placed in her campaign promises. Rigorously reviewing her record, Henwood shows how Clinton's positions on key issues have always blown with the breeze of expediency, though generally around an axis of moralism and hawkishness.

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.

Americans are disgusted with watching politicians screaming and yelling at one another on television. But does all the noise really make a difference? Drawing on numerous studies, Diana Mutz provides the first comprehensive look at the consequences of in-your-face politics. Her book contradicts the conventional wisdom by documenting both the benefits and the drawbacks of in-your-face media.

In The Obama Doctrine, Colin Dueck analyzes and explains what the Obama Doctrine in foreign policy actually is and maps out the competing visions on offer from the Republican Party. Dueck, a leading scholar of US foreign policy, contends it is now becoming clear that Obama's policy of international retrenchment is in large part a function of his emphasis on achieving domestic policy goals. There have been some successes in the approach, but there have also been costs.

For decades, history has considered Tammany Hall, New York's famous political machine, shorthand for the worst of urban politics: graft, crime, and patronage personified by notoriously corrupt characters. Infamous crooks like William "Boss" Tweed dominate traditional histories of Tammany, distorting our understanding of a critical chapter of American political history. In Machine Made, historian and New York City journalist Terry Golway convincingly dismantles these stereotypes.

In this sweeping look at American politics from the Depression to the present, Doug McAdam and Karina Kloos argue that party politics alone is not responsible for the mess we find ourselves in. Instead, it was the ongoing interaction of social movements and parties that, over time, pushed Democrats and Republicans toward their ideological margins, undermining the post-war consensus in the process.

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 politics of the 1950s revolved around two primary leaders, one Republican and one Democrat both moderate, and both willing to compromise to move the nation forward. The Republican leader was President Dwight Eisenhower. His two administrations changed American politics. Ike’s desire to be president of all the people, to run his administration down the middle of the road, to be a modern” Republican, set the stage for what the Republican Party would be for decades to come.

Anyone who observes the skyrocketing number of incendiary political opinion shows on television and radio might conclude that political vitriol on the airwaves is fueled by the increasingly partisan American political system. But in The Outrage Industry Jeffrey M. Berry and Sarah Sobieraj show how the proliferation of outrage says more about regulatory, technological, and cultural changes, than it does about our political inclinations.

A series of developments capped by the Supreme Court's 2010 Citizens United decision have effectively crowned a bunch of billionaires and their operatives the new kings of politics. Big Money is a rollicking tour of a new political world dramatically reordered by ever-larger flows of cash. Ken Vogel has breezed into secret gatherings of big-spending Republicans and Democrats alike, from California poolsides to DC hotel bars, to brilliantly expose the way the mega-money men (and rather fewer women) are dominating the new political landscape.