Citizens, Politics and Social Communication: Information and Influence in an Election Campaign

by R. Robert Huckfeldt, John Sprague, Stanley Feldman

Overview

This book is dedicated to investigating the political implications of interdependent citizens within the context of the 1984 presidential election campaign as it was experienced in the metropolitan area of South Bend, Indiana. National politics is experienced locally through a series of filters unique to a particular setting. Several different themes are explored: the dynamic implications of social communication among citizens, the importance of communication networks for citizen decision-making, the exercise of citizen purpose in locating sources of information, the constraints on individual choice, and institutional and organizational effects.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780521030441
Publisher:	Cambridge University Press
Publication date:	11/02/2006
Series:	Cambridge Studies in Public Opinion and Political Psychology
Edition description:	New Edition
Pages:	316
Product dimensions:	5.98(w) x 8.98(h) x 0.75(d)

Table of Contents

Acknowledgments; Part I. Democratic Politics and Social Communication: 1. The multiple levels of democratic politics; 2. A research strategy for studying electoral politics; Part II. Electoral Dynamics and Social Communication: 3. The social dynamics of political preference; 4. Durability, volatility and social influence; 5. Social dynamics in an election campaign; Part III. Networks, Political Discussants, and Social Communication: 6. Political discussion in an election campaign; 7. Networks in context: The social flow of political information; 8. Choice, social structure, and the informational coercion of minorities; 9. Discussant effects on vote choice: Intimacy, structure, and interdependence; 10. Gender effects on political discussion: The political networks of men and women; Part IV. The Organizational Locus of Social Communication: 11. One-party politics and the voter revisited: strategic and behavioral bases of partisanship; 12. Political parties and electoral mobilization: political structure, social structure, and the party canvass; 13. Alternative contexts of political preference; 14. Political consequences of interdependent citizens; Bibliography; Index.

Editorial Reviews

"You want to read this book if you want to explore the fundamental tension in politics between life experienced as an individual and life experienced as a collectivity. You will want to understand the theoretical insights offered here. And you will want to understand the intellectual agenda that Huckfeldt and Sprague have pushed forward." Journal of Politics

"This is an extraordinarily powerful book...This volume displays powerful and novel insights into American politics." American Political Science Review

"With this book, the authors have presented an impressive study of social communication and its influence on political practice." Political Science Quarterly

From the Publisher