Book Description
It is common knowledge that televised political ads are meant to appeal to voters' emotions, yet little is known about how or if these tactics actually work. Ted Brader's innovative book is the first scientific study to examine the effects that these emotional appeals in political advertising have on voter decision-making.
At the heart of this book are ingenious experiments, conducted by Brader during an election, with truly eye-opening results that upset conventional wisdom. They show, for example, that simply changing the music or imagery of ads while retaining the same text provokes completely different responses. He reveals that politically informed citizens are more easily manipulated by emotional appeals than less-involved citizens and that positive "enthusiasm ads" are in fact more polarizing than negative "fear ads." Black-and-white video images are ten times more likely to signal an appeal to fear or anger than one of enthusiasm or pride, and the emotional appeal triumphs over the logical appeal in nearly three-quarters of all political ads.
Brader backs up these surprising findings with an unprecedented survey of emotional appeals in contemporary political campaigns. Politicians do set out to campaign for the hearts and minds of voters, and, for better or for worse, it is primarily through hearts that minds are won. Campaigning for Hearts and Minds will be indispensable for anyone wishing to understand how American politics is influenced by advertising today.
Customer Reviews:
Telling exploration of emotion and political campaigns.......2007-08-18
This is an excellent book. The general audience may find the statistical discussion somewhat slow going, but this is not a turgidly written academic tome. At the same time, it is a solid academic work. His takeoff point (page 2): ". . .the motivational and persuasive power of campaign advertising depends considerably on whether an ad appeals to fear or enthusiasm." He contends that emotional appeals built into campaign ads makes them more effective--the mixture of a political message plus emotion can be powerful if crafted well.
His experiments make it clear that mixing emotions (whether enthusiasm or fear) with a political message has impacts--whether those effects be simple reactions to ads or stimulating interest in the campaign or motivating viewers to want to get out and vote on election day.
This is all, according to the author, counter to much standard political science research that, in the near past, argued that media had only "minimal effects." Brader's work, and that of others, surely suggests that this judgment is much overstated. Media can, indeed, have measurable political effects. This book is one addition to that important correction of the old standard wisdom in the study of politics.
The book is also worth looking at because of its notice of the relevance of psychology and the neurosciences for understanding why emotional elements in political ads can have such an effect. This demonstrates powerfully the importance of cross-disciplinary research.
Final judgment? For those interested in the effects of emotion on politics, this is yet another nice addition to the library.
Interesting book.......2007-08-06
Although it has to do mainly with the US political reality, there are interesting views useful for those from other countries.
It could be a little thinner if the author didn't reiterate some points more than twice, but it's an interesting and fun read.
Academic insights meet practical application.......2006-02-27
Ted Brader's "Campaigning for Hearts and Minds: How Emotional Appeals in Political Ads Work" drives yet another nail into the coffin of academic wisdom that voters are either rational decision-makers or complacent habit-following creatures by providing compelling evidence for the role of emotions in political campaigns. Building off of George Marcus, Russell Neuman and Michael MacKuens' model of "Affective Intelligence", Ted Brader applies the rarely employed experimental method to "everyday people" during a Massachusetts gubernatorial campaign to explicate the process and outcome of their viewing televised political advertisements of differing emotional content and tone. Brader then carries out a content analysis of 1,565 political advertisements from the 2004 election to provide insights as to how the emotions of enthusiasm and fear are used to influence potential voters. His often counter-intuitive experimental findings on how subtle visual and audio cues affect voters' emotions, especially those of informed and interested voters, makes this book required reading for those interested in the "real world" of politics and campaigning. His content analysis findings reinforce his experimental findings by illustrating how political advertisements are used in political campaigns across the United States. In sum, this book is a must-read for anyone interested in learning how emotions influence politics by substantially advancing our understanding of how emotions drive our political thoughts, decisions, and actions.
Book Description
In the early 1990s, competitive elections in the Russian Federation signaled the end to the authoritarian political system dominated by a single political party. More than ten years and many elections later, a single party led by Russian President Vladimir Putin threatens to end Russia's democratic experiment. Russia's experience with new elections is not unique but it does challenge existing theories of democratic consolidation by showing that competitive elections cannot guarantee successful democratic consolidation. This book explores the conditions under which electoral competition contributes to democratic development by examining impact of elections on democratic consolidation.
Book Description
Going Dirty is a history of negative campaigning in American politics and an examination of how candidates and political consultants have employed this often-controversial technique. The book includes case studies on notable races throughout the television era in which new negative campaign strategies were introduced, or existing tactics were refined and amplified upon.
Customer Reviews:
Exceptional Book, Well Worth Having.......2007-01-11
This is a compelling, well written guide to negative campaigning. it provides some strong underpinning theories to negative campaigning from an accute observer of campaign methodology. Very useful and well worth purchasing.
Accessible to lay readers and political scientists alike.......2007-01-06
Written by David Mark (editor-in-chief of Campaigns & Elections magazine), Going Dirty: The Art of Negative Campaigning is a no-nonsense history of negative campaigning in American politics, with especial attention paid to case studies of notable races during the modern era of television. In particular, Going Dirty notes campaign negativity has increased sharply since September 11, 2001, with commercials routinely suggesting that political opponents are irresolute in pursuing the war on terror. Going Dirty explores incidents when negative campaigning has backfired, most often due to non-credible charges or the attackers failure to correctly gauge the sentiments of the electorate, and incidents when negative campaigning has been remarkably successful, which are common enough to explain its persistence as an electoral tactic. Accessible to lay readers and political scientists alike, Going Dirty is a nonjudgmental, thorough, insider's history of an undeniably strong aspect of the American political institution, and highly recommended.
A very good and comprehensive look at negative campaigning and strategy.......2006-05-16
Going Dirty is an excellent book covering the recent history of negative campaigning in the US. The book gives an insightful and balanced look into a topic most people wish wasn't there.
Most of the book is filled with case studies of where negative ads were used, and while primarily contemporary (starting in the 1950's), it also goes back a century helping show how it all evolved. The book only considers campaigns in the US but the author does a good job of looking at campaigns across the country (and political spectrum), critiquing those who might think that any set strategy could work without taking into account the people and area.
While most of the book feels like more of a history of negative campaigning near the end it goes into more analysis. (Ironically the author's analysis starts in a chapter talking about negative campaigns that failed). Though I found the book intriguing I would have liked it to have focused more specific tactics of negative campaigns, and less of a history of them. Too much of the book just reads like a history lesson rather than a real analysis. I still had some questions floating in my head about negative campaigning (how it wears on the public, it's ebbs and flows, possibilities for the future, etc) that I wish had been answered by the book, but perhaps I'll just need to read the authors follow up work.
Book Description
A renowned Washington, DC–based psychoanalyst examines George W. Bush's public persona–and asks serious questions about whether he is fit for the office he holds.
In Bush On the Couch, Dr. Justin Frank, a renowned Washington, DC–based psychoanalyst, assembles a comprehensive psychological profile of President George W. Bush. Using the principles of Applied Psychoanalysis, the discipline of psychoanalysing public and historical figure pioneered by Freud, Frank fearlessly builds his case, which concludes with a most disturbing diagnosis. With an eye for the subtleties of human behaviour sharpened through thirty years of clinical practice, Dr. Frank traces the development of Bush's character from childhood to present day, identifying and analysing Bush's patterns of thought, behaviour and communication. A thorough and authoritative examination of Bush's public appearances and speeches, along with historical, biographical, and journalistic records, Bush On the Couch is a compelling portrait of George W. Bush, filled with controversial and disturbing revelations about our nation's leader:
. the scion of a powerful family that failed to nurture its first–born son even as it instilled within him a sense of omnipotence
. an individual in the grip of anxieties that require a monumental effort to manage
. an untreated alcoholic supported by a nation of enablers
. a rigid thinker with a perilously simplistic worldview
. and a megalomaniacal leader driven to invent adversaries so he can destroy them
Insightful and accessible, courageous and controversial, Bush On the Couch sheds startling new light on the Bush psyche and its impact on the way he governs, tackling head–on the question no one seems willing to ask: Is the president psychologically fit to run the country?
Customer Reviews:
Bush On The Couch Review.......2007-10-09
Clearly I am not a Bush fan. I bought this book to shed some light on this madman's approach to politics. While the beginning was good the book gradually turned me against the author. The author goes on to state how he doesn't take anyone seriously that is not a member of AA, yet he also says it only has a 10% success rate. He goes on ad nauseum to state that AA is the only way out, and if you don't choose this route you are in for many problems even if you have stopped drinking for decades. In the next chapter the author contradicts himself because AA is based on believing in a Higher Power. In this chapter the author tells how Bush is using his religion as a "crutch". So what is it, belief in a higher power or not? I found the author had similar problems as Bush, in that he was very stubborn on his beliefs and made generalizations. I would not recommend this book to anyone as it is very biased with the author's beliefs. Perhaps author and Bush should be evaluated/analyzed by another person.
It doesn't take a book.......2007-10-02
Although the author who clearly has impeccable credientials makes excellent points about the President and the entire Bush dynasty regarding the psychological motivations for all of their behaviors, particularly W's, this could have all been covered in a long article. The author did offer very intersting biographical information to flesh out the story but the end result was still very repetitious.
Oedipus Wrecks.......2007-09-12
Like some Grimm's Fairy Tale, you know not to open the door - but you do anyway. And what you find behind it confirms your worst suspicions. To sum the book in one sentence: We, the United States of America, are George W Bush's extended family and we are getting the fatherhood from him that he got from his biological father. (Bush's father was never home and his mother was a cold disciplinarian.)
Bush on the Couch is a well-written nicely paced read. The book could easily descend to becoming a hit piece, but it appears to retain a clinical objectivity throughout. While mildly ponderous with Freudian theory, for anyone unfamiliar with basic Freudian concepts that is a plus. The presence of such theory makes it plain, page after page, that Dr Frank is avoiding flights of imagination as far as possible and sticking close to theory and the facts at hand. The facts at hand are seven years of televised speeches, interviews, press conferences, and as much of the Bush family's biography as is known.
The dramatis personae playing upon the psyche of the world's most powerful man, according to Dr Frank, read like a Who's Who from the Seven Deadly Vices of some medieval morality play: Lust (for power), Envy (due to lack of nurturing), Sloth (woeful academic and professional performance), Gluttony (alcoholism), Pride (political power combined with amoral behavior), Anger (sadism), and Greed. For good measure, ADHD, Religious Inflation, and False Witness make cameo appearances. Meantime, the brain that these Vices inhabit works out its childhood traumas on a global stage.
"His behavior is what psychoanalysts call ego-syntonic, meaning that his actions - the lies he tells and the harm he inflicts on others - don't appear to cause him much conscious anxiety" (page 232).
Dr Frank suggests that this steaming cauldron of psychological witch's brew overspills its edges in Bush's repeated Freudian slips: "I am a person who recognized the fallacy of humans".
A good read that pulls together everything you ever wondered about the president - and leaves you wanting no more of it. Recommended.
Life long Republican - USMC veteran.......2007-09-09
I couldn't agree more with this books apparent conclusions. Most of the things I suspected now are clearer to me about our president. he simply seems incapable of doing the right thing ever. Almost like a contrarian. Seemingly just happy being an obstacle to just about anything positive. This book explains it clearly, the guy is a psycopath, you know it, i know it, hell only another wacko couldn't see it. I am as conservative as the come but i can spot a wolf in sheep's clothing a hundred miles away.
Nation now on the couch.......2007-08-18
I would have given a higher rating if the author interviewed Bush. But the analysis of Bush's thinking (or lack of) and his simplified all or nothing way of looking at the world along with a heavy dose of narcissism beginning in his formative years shows the reader why we are in the mess we find ourselves in. I would have liked to have more information about his relationship with his wife Barbara. Overall, an interersting book about the worst president to date.
Average customer rating:
- Must Read on Political Frames
- Fear of psychology
- The Sound of One Hand Clapping
- How to tilt public perceptions
- A book about the shadow, arguing for the importance of the substance
|
Talking Right: How Conservatives Turned Liberalism into a Tax-Raising, Latte-Drinking, Sushi-Eating, Volvo-Driving, New York Times-Reading, Body-Piercing, Hollywood-Loving, Left-Wing Freak Show
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Going Nucular: Language, Politics. and Culture in Confrontational Times
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WORDS THAT WORK: IT'S NOT WHAT YOU SAY, IT'S WHAT PEOPLE HEAR
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Conservatives Without Conscience
ASIN: 1586483862 |
Book Description
A captivating and outraged account of "The Great Relabeling" of American language and thought, by the well-known "Fresh Air" commentator and author of Going Nucular
Geoffrey Nunberg breaks new ground with this fierce and funny narrative of how the political right has ushered in a new world order, aided unwittingly by the liberal media.
Democrats are well known for their "lousy bumper stickers," as Joe Klein puts it. As liberals wade through the semantics of "social security lockbox," "single payer," and other wonky locutions, the right has become harder, meaner and better at getting out the message: the estate tax became the more menacing "death tax" and a contentious education initiative was wrapped in the comforting (and memorable) blanket of "No Child Left Behind."
But Nunberg shows that the real story is more subtle than just a bumper sticker war. Conservatives' main goal wasn't to win voters over to their positions on healthcare, education, or the environment. They had a much more dramatic ambition. By changing the meaning of words like "values," "government," "liberal"; "faith," and "freedom," conservatives have shifted the political center of gravity of the language itself to the right. "Whatever our politics," Nunberg observes, "when we talk about politics nowadays, we can't help using language that embodies a conservative world-view."
Customer Reviews:
Must Read on Political Frames.......2007-01-05
This is a must read for anyone in America who cares about politics--which should be everyone! If you thought Lakoff insightful on the differences a frame can make, wait until you read Nunberg. I teach this stuff and know whereof I speak. Talking Right is one of those rare hybrids that's right for the classroom and right as a trade book for the typically older, post-college reader. I've ordered several copies for friends.
Fear of psychology.......2006-11-05
Well done for what it is, but Nunberg exhibits the classic fear of delving below the psychological surface. He seems to believe that the left will lose the common man even worse if it starts thinking psychologically about why it's losing him already. He disses Lakoff's look at policital metaphors and doesn't even bother to dis explanations that are even better, such as those of Alice Miller, Stephen Ducat, and Lloyd deMause. It frustrated me to no end as I read Nunberg advocate a return to the populist rhetoric of Truman and Clinton, hardly big winners. Truman's was a nortoriously narrow win, and Clinton's first election was a gimmie from a thrid-party candidate on the right. Nunberg seems to set his sights on the unlofty goal of 51% of the vote rather than a true strategy that will dismantle the psychological tricks the right plays on the populace like stroking their machismo, their fear, their weath fantasies, their need for scapegoats, etc.
Wake up and smell the psychological coffee, Nunberg. The right has.
The Sound of One Hand Clapping.......2006-11-04
We swim through words like fish swim through water. Metaphors are accepted as reality by many. Legends become gospil truth. This books was an informative and fun view at a very important (not just politically) subject. And now, at last, I know where the word "pinko" came from and what it means.
How to tilt public perceptions.......2006-10-22
"Talking Right" by Geoffrey Nunberg is a timely analysis of the lopsided and dysfunctional status of U.S. political discourse. Mr. Nunberg is a linguistics professor who explains how the Republican Party's privileged relationship with the media has helped to define the political narrative, which in turn has effectively tilted public perceptions to the political Right. However, by deconstructing the manner in which the Right's political language has been frequently served up as a smokescreen to obscure its radical neoconservative agenda, the author helps us understand how the political Left can present an alternative discourse that could resonate with the vast majority of Americans. Assiduously researched and cogently argued, this thoughtful, nuanced and highly readable text should interest a wide audience.
Mr. Nunberg presents a brief history of the neoconservative movement to recount how language has been deployed in order to associate particular words and phrases with politically-charged meanings. For example, the phrase 'cultural elite' was introduced by Vice President Dan Quayle in 1992 and succeeded in connecting Hollywood entertainment with sectors of the public who might have felt apprehension about social change. Indeed, Mr. Nunberg points out that since the 1960s the Republican Party has adroitly manufactured and magnified the importance of Pat Buchanan's 'culture war' in a way that has convinced large blocs of the working class to vote against its own material interests. Unfortunately, as liberals are reduced to a snobbish and out-of-touch caricature of the consumer culture imagination, Mr. Nunberg contends that the Democratic Party has failed to articulate a meaningful narrative of its own to inspire the faithful or to define the Party's mission.
Nonetheless, Mr. Nunberg believes that the Democrats can yet prevail if it dares to once again speak truth to power. Mr. Nunberg cites Bill Clinton's highly effective narrative about the powerless versus the powerful during the 1992 campaign as an example of how a message can resonate with an increasingly insecure working class beset with economic grievances. To that end, the author goes on to argue that in the wake of the Bush administration's disastrous policies (including preemptive war, fiscally irresponsible tax breaks and reckless environmental rollbacks), liberals have an excellent opportunity to articulate a new popular narrative of working-class struggle in the pursuit of economic justice and equality.
I highly recommend this important book to everyone, and especially to those interested in media and politics.
A book about the shadow, arguing for the importance of the substance.......2006-10-17
Government, John Dewey famously said, is the shadow cast by big business over society. And political language, Geoffrey Nunberg argues in Talking Right, is the shadow cast by government. Democrats, he points out, seem to think language has a talismanic power, that if only they can find the right catch phrase or slogan, they can pull people over to their side. "Liberal" must become "progressive", "family values" must become "valuing families". There's an intellectual cleverness to such stunts, and as a Berkeley linguist, Nunberg must want to believe in them. But he doesn't. The words, he explains, are just a side-effect of the larger political situation. Dewey explained that attempts to change the shadow will have no effect without a change in the substance, and Nunberg heartily agrees.
It's hard to see how it could be otherwise, but Democrats have suffered from a stubborn literalism in political discourse: thinking they can beat the charge of big government by launching programs cutting down on bureaucratic waste, thinking they can reclaim the issue of values by pointing to their love of tolerance and fairness, thinking they can dodge the charge of latte-sipping by donning a hunting cap and rifle. In reality, the issues go much deeper: big government is an attack on the notion that government can do good, values refers to a feeling of national morals run amok, and the latte-sipping charge is an attempt to distract voters from bigger issues of class. Nunberg even chastises his colleague George Lakoff for assuming that the current packages of political positions have any deeper meanings, rather than just being accidents of history.
Nunberg is an essayist--his commentaries for NPR's Fresh Air are a national treasure--and his style, while eminently readable, doesn't translate well to a long book, where his points get lost in a field of anecdotes. But beneath all the stories about how conservatives eat more brie and liberal used to be a mantle claimed by everyone, Nunberg's point is a familiar one: if the Democrats want to win, they must begin telling full-throated populist stories about how the economic elite are capturing the wealth of our country and how we need government to take it back. The point is no less true for being popular, and it's heartening to find that investigation from yet another perspective yields the same conclusions.
Book Description
After a self-assured John F. Kennedy bested a visibly shaky Richard Nixon in their famous 1960 debates, political television, it was said, would henceforth determine elections. Today, many claim the Internet will be the latest medium to revolutionize electoral politics. Candidates invest heavily in web and email campaigns to reach prospective voters, as well as to communicate with journalists, potential donors, and political activists. Do these efforts influence voters, expand democracy, increase the coverage of political issues, or mobilize a shrinking and apathetic electorate? Campaigning Online answers these questions by looking at how candidates present themselves online and how voters respond to their efforts-including whether voters learn from candidates' websites and whether voters' views are affected by what they see. Although the Internet will not lead to a revolution in democracy, it will, Bimber and Davis argue, have consequences: reinforcing messages, mobilizing activists, and strengthening partisans' views. Reporting on a wealth of new data drawn from national and state-wide surveys, laboratory experiments, interviews with campaign staff, and analysis of web sites themselves, Campaigning Online draws the most complete picture of the role of campaign websites in American elections to date.
Customer Reviews:
praise for CAMPAIGNING ONLINE.......2003-09-18
"A fascinating book on the ever-increasing role of the online campaign. Bimber and Davis provide valuable insights for students of the 2000 election cycle."
--Senator Harry Reid, Nevada
"This remarkable book resolves the debate about the nature of the Internet's role in election campaigns. Davis and Bimber's evidence is impeccable, and their analysis is faultless. Campaigning Online belongs on the bookshelves of election analysts and practitioners and on the required reading lists of courses on the media and campaigns."
--Thomas E. Patterson, Bradlee Professor of Government & the Press, Harvard University
"This empirically grounded and theoretically sophisticated analysis of the web-based American political campaign of 2000 avoids the anecdotal and typically breathless speculation about how the net will change human political behavior. Instead, this path breaking study documents how the web is becoming an integral part of the campaign process."
--W. Russell Neuman, Evans Professor of Media Technology, University of Michigan
"A much-needed, richly-textured empirical investigation of a key feature of online campaigning - candidate Web sites. Bimber and Davis provide a host of insights into how candidates are incorporating the Internet into their campaigns and what impact this is having on voters."
--Thomas E. Mann, W. Averell Harriman Chair and Senior Fellow, The Brookings Institution
Book Description
With careful attention and hard work, even average citizens can oversee sophisticated, state-of-the-art political campaigns. Those who try will find no aid more valuable than this book. Bringing to bear both academic and professional experience, Shea and Burton present a lively, comprehensive exploration of cutting-edge political campaign management. They cover every aspect of present-day political campaigning, from understanding the context of a particular campaign (national trends, the media market, demographic research, etc.) to strategic thinking and specific voter contact techniques that work. These techniques include tactical use of fundraising, paid media, free media--including the Internet--and get-out-the-vote drives. Throughout the text, the authors present up-to-date analysis, peppered with examples from national, state, and local campaigns. Campaign Craft is a comprehensive guide to modern electioneering--a "must read" for candidates and political activists, scholars, researchers, and all those interested in knowing how to run modern, high-tech campaigns.
Customer Reviews:
Good not great, still the most complete book I've read on the subject........2007-09-06
Good book, not great. The beginning of the book starts off really strong with the technical tools people use to win elections. About midway through the book it starts to give really vague overviews of public relations tactics. I can't recall the book mentioning anything about brand image, which in my opinion, is very important to any campaign. I would recommend buying this book with, Making News by David Henderson, The Boston Consulting Group on Strategy, Public Relations by Bernays, and a good text on branding and brand management.
Book Description
A practical guide on how to run for local political office, covering every aspect of a campaign in chronological order.
Catherine Shaw wrote this practical manual on how to run for local political office after ten years' experience in campaigns, including successful runs for Mayor of Ashland, Oregon (her current position). The book covers every aspect of a well-managed local campaign: choosing a staff, laying out advertising, organizing volunteers, fund raising, precinct analysis, canvassing, and use of the media. Included are a variety of sample worksheets-volunteer sign-up sheets, fund-raising activity cards, voter canvass sheets-designed to help first-time candidates work more effectively. The Campaign Manager: Running and Winning Local Elections is a must for local political candidates and their staffs.
Customer Reviews:
Very good book for campaigns in the US.......2007-06-02
Must of us have no clue at all what it means and what is involved in the organization of a political campaign. This book is a bible to run a campaign or to be a manager for one. It goes from the initial thinking that needs to be done before a candidate even considers running to what are the final steps when the campaign is through. Every step of the process is covered. It is really an amazing book. The only caveat that I would point out it is its strong focus on US campaigns, thus if you are not American and are thinking about campaigns outside the US this book will not cover foreign issues and also it may bias you. I.E. In other countries politicians do not raise funds in events where people go to hear them, on the contrary, many politicians especially in Latina America try to provide incentives for people to go to their speeches (of course this is controversial) and the book for example goes into this kinds of fundraising, that do not happen outside the US. In general however, it provides an excellent framework for a very organized and focused campaign.
Good but a little dated - hope the 3rd edition is better.......2007-05-27
Catherine M. Shaw provides a plethora of information on running a campaign for local office. I have read four or five books on the subject, and this one is probably the best - certainly the most thorough! There are two flaws, however: 1) Ms. Shaw's recommendations are very low-tech. She advises you to set up various notecard systems, etc., that could be much more easily handled with computer software. Using the web, blogs, etc. isn't really mentioned at all. 2) From my experience, Ms. Shaw's expectations for masses of volunteers is a little (LOT!) more than the average candidate can really hope for. Maybe if you live in a politially astute area of the country like Portland, but for us folks in the mid-west, getting even two or three volunteers for a state house campaign (of an incumbent!) is quite an accomplishment. Her recommendations assume you'll have an unpaid staff of 10, 20 or more. Still, even with these flaws in mind, this is a pretty good guide. I recommend it.
Excellent Resource.......2007-05-23
I work in Professional Politics, and I absolutely love this book! It gives you a vast amount practical advice about running a political campaign. I describe it in my listmania list as "Pure Gold." Goes over everything you need to know about a local election. Even good a primer when working on a federal level race.
Awesome Book.......2006-08-25
As a rookie campaign manager for a tax levy that was already defeated once, I needed to learn and learn fast. That's what this book helped me do. I've practically worn out some sections refering back to them time and time again. We are just entering the actual campaign, but I feel very confident with my campaign plan, and I am ready.
I highly recomend this book to any rookies out there!
GET This Book.......2006-07-17
This book is absolutely fabulous. If you are even thinking about running for office (at any level) or working on an issue-based like a school bond, GET this book. It's written in clear language for those of us who are not political nerds. It also has tons of good examples.
Book Description
Get Out the Vote! Is a practical guide for anyone trying to mobilize voters or organize at the grass roots. Unlike authors of other campaign advice books, Donald Green and Alan Gerber root their work firmly in rigorous science. Their recommendations emerge from thorough experiments conducted in real electoral settings, examining the impact and effectiveness of door-to-door canvassing, telephone calls, direct mail, and other campaign tactics.
Since 1998 the authors have conducted research in over a dozen states, studying a wide range of federal, state, and municipal elections. Their book connects theory with practice, informing campaign professionals and local organizers as well as students of electoral politics. They discover that many GOTV tactics used by campaign managers and political consultants are less effective than is often believed. The authors, relying on rigorous and systematic research, challenge much of the conventional wisdom about what works and what doesn't in the political campaigns.
The authors' applied form of political science has won acclaim from scholars and earned the attention of campaign professionals and journalists. This book presents their result for a non-academic audience interested in putting campaign research into practice, and the findings will be surprising to many. Get Out the Vote! will help both consultants and the candidates who use their services better understand the efficacy of campaign methods. It is essential reading in an age of electronic communication, professional electioneering and voter apathy.
Customer Reviews:
Finally: Facts instead of guessing.......2007-05-12
This small book does not much, but it does, what it claims, and it does it in a scientific manner. After pointing out the importance of voter mobilization, Donald P Green gives an overview of five commonly used ways believed to increase voter turnout: Door-to-Door Canvassing, Leaflets, Direct Mail, Phone Banks and Electronic mail.
For the ones used to local campaigns (even outside the us), nothing of this is specifically new. Green however backs his claims about the influence of any of the five ways to increase voter turnout by more or less robust field research results. So he delivers facts (or at least probability...) instead of guessing. This is what makes this small book an outstanding one in comparison to many "campaign manager manuals" which commonly end up telling a bunch of anecdotes about past campaigns.
Invaluable book for campaign workers.......2006-07-27
This book is very important for campaign workers for the simple reason that it provides statistical proof of "common sense" assumptions about campaigning. Perhaps more importantly, it also demonstrates to first time candidates & campaign workers that some highly-touted gimmicks DON'T work and are a waste of money. It seems to me well worth the price of the book to know how not to waste a campaign's time & money.
Getting People to the Polls Takes Effort.......2004-10-24
Surprising conclusions...except, not really.
It is good that some of this stuff has worked out, but a lot of it could be articulated by most people who spend time on GOTV. Political contact works better the more it is like a face-to-face conversation about information relevant to the person's life.
Hence, door-to-door canvassing is the most effective. Not surprising.
Phones come in second. Not surprising.
The more conversational and informational the phone call is, the more effective is. Still not surprising.
But this book is also a somewhat daunting reminder of just how difficult a good GOTV effort is. Virtually every one of their models pans out to about one additional voter for every hour of voter contact. Boy am I looking forward to next weekend.
For anyone striving to mobilize voters.......2004-06-08
Also available in a hardcover edition, Get Out The Vote!: How To Increase Voter Turnout is a no-nonsense guide for anyone striving to mobilize voters. Written by two professors of political science and experts on political campaigns, elections, and research methodology, Get Out The Vote! covers such motivating means as door-to-door canvassing, leaflets, direct mail, phone banks, electronic mail, and more. Written to be as useful for non-specialist general readers striving to motivate a grass-roots political campaign as well as a seminal instruction guide to political experts planning to win a large-scale race, Get Out The Vote! offers a wealth of solid, easy-to-understand wisdom straight from the horse's mouth.
The first real measurement of what works in GOTV.......2004-04-30
Donald Green and Alan Gerber have done something that political professionals have failed to do. They have actually measured what works and does not work in GOTV. The results are sobering, enlightening and, above all, invaluable to any campaign manager who wants to get the most from his campaign dollars.
Customer Reviews:
If you need to understand 'negative,' this is the book.......2006-10-06
An outstanding book for the political operative that explains, via social science and quantitative data, the appropriate use and likely effects of negative or comparative messaging.
Negative ads cause cynicism.......2002-07-29
This book begins with an interesting thesis, which you can read about in detail in chapters 5 and 6. The authors claim that while political advertising in general has the effects of educating the public by informing voters about the candidates and the issues, negative ads can lead to decreased voter participation. Those who remain voters will tend to be more extreme in ideology and less representative of the general public. The concern in this book is that the rise in negative campaigns can subvert the democratic process.
Strangely, to get to their main point, you must wade through pretty dry chapters that discuss the methods used to gather data as well as other ways that advertisements affect voter behavior. This may be of great interest to political scientists, but for those with only partial interest, it is probably enough to read the first, fifth, and sixth chapters to get the main gist of the book.
Great book about effects of campaign ads.......2002-01-13
I read this book about a year and a half ago, so some details are sketchy to me. But I wholehartedly disagree with the reviewer who thought this book was no good, and that it simply reflected the author's biases. However, I do agree that the author's proposed solutions are not as good as their informative and balanced account of negative campaign advertising.
While one might have alternative interpretations of the political survey data, and question the external validity of the author's controlled experiments, the authors do an excellent job of presenting the major issues in evaluating negative campaign advertising. I would highly reccommend this book to get a sense of the research being done about campaign advertising, and Ansolebehre and Iyengar are well-respected and clearly knowledgeable scholars. I won't get into all the specifics of the book; you should read it for yourself!
If You Can't Say ANything Nice...........2001-08-15
Dry, poorly organized & repetitive, Going Negative is a big disappointment. Many of the authors contentions have been disproved by time, for example the authors suggest that certain issues belong to certain parties and cannot be co-opted by the other side, if this were true, how does one explain Clinton and W? The flaws in there research are fairly obvious, and it's obvious that the research was driven by the bias of the researchers. One telling line about the relative importance of issues talks about how Republicans are `concerned' about crime while Democrats `fear' losing civil rights. A surprisingly revealing use of loaded language. These establishment types have found, surprisingly, that we would be better off if we did what the parties told us to. In recommending the return of the smoke filled room, they ignore the real problems the country faces and the obvious solution. Indeed, the real why to improve the political process is the opposite of what the authors suggest, open up the system, allow the people more choices, not fewer.
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