Suchergebnisse

1. Why Emotions Matter in Politics -- 2. The Year of 'Democrazy' and The Politics of Spectacle -- 3. The Politics of 'America First': Problematizing the Economy and Trade on The Campaign Tail -- 4. The Health of a Nation: The Politics and Legacy of Health Care Reform -- 5. Neo-Nativism and Global Frienemies: Feelings Toward Immigration and National Security Issues -- 6. God, Guns, and Bathrooms: Concepts of Morality on the Campaign Trail -- 7. Conclusion: The Campaign of Personalized Conflict

This book dynamically shows that political campaigns matter to electoral outcomes, by analyzing the dynamics of emotional voter and decision-making over the course of three presidential elections between 2004 and 2012. Each presidential campaign reflects a unique tone and electoral mood, which influences voters' perceptions of electoral choices and a candidate's image. Controlling for the idiosyncratic nature of a campaign environment and a candidate's message, this analysis isolates specific emotional dimensions that were influential on voters' appraisals of specific campaign issues. Relying on the Affective Intelligence theory and the Transfer-of-Affect thesis to narrative the causal relationships between voters' emotional responses and issue appraisals, the author illustrates specific contexts where voters' emotional responses toward presidential candidates are interpreted as trusted political cues and therefore, get transferred to their beliefs about certain policies

Emotions and voters' feelings in political contexts are not typically the focal point of voting behavior research. Political science has traditionally emphasized the rational component of voting behavior. Classic scholars posited that voters functioned like rational actors, who were motivated to maximize personal utility and benefit to make a political decision. Only after the discipline's Behavioral Revolution was scholars' attention captured by the effect of emotions on voting behavior. Little attention, however, was given to how emotions influenced voters' choices. Most research focused on how candidates' personalities facilitated specific emotional contexts in which voters responded. Analyzing survey data from the American National Elections Studies (ANES) for the Presidential elections of 2004 and 2008, this study seeks to understand differences in the ANES emotional indicators from each election. Drawing on the conventional wisdom that suggests emotions influence attitude formation and perceptions of reality, this dissertation accounts for changes in the national political mood between 2004 and 2008. Additionally, this project examines the special case of how emotions mattered among women and African-American voting blocks in the 2008 Presidential campaign. The unique political context 2008 furnishes three unique variables of interest; the first American presidential campaign to feature a Black man as a front-runner nominee, second, women made inroads showcased by Hillary Clinton's competitive Democratic Primary, and the Republican Party nominated its first woman vice presidential candidate. The scope of this research focused on the voter's personal emotional reactions to a presidential candidate by addressing this question; do voters' feelings toward a candidate influence his or her attitudes about campaign issues? This project builds upon the theory of Affective Intelligence by applying of the transfer-of-affect thesis to argue that voters' emotional responses to candidates are interpreted as salient ...

The Hollywood Connection argues that celebrity politics may matter in broader settings than previously understood. The questions presented in this collection are compelling and timely; the diverse methodologies and robust theoretical applications show the effects of fictional media on consumer audiences and implications for American politics.