Imagining Politics: Interpretations in Political Science and Political Television

by Stephen Benedict Dyson

Overview

Imagining Politics critically examines two interpretations of government. The first comes from pop culture fictions about politics, the second from academic political science. Stephen Benedict Dyson argues that televised political fictions and political science theories are attempts at meaning-making, reflecting and shaping how a society thinks about its politics.

By taking fiction seriously, and by arguing that political science theory is homologous to fiction, the book offers a fresh perspective on both, using fictions such as The West Wing, House of Cards, Borgen, Black Mirror, and Scandal to challenge the assumptions that construct the discipline of political science itself.

Imagining Politics is also about a political moment in the West. Two great political shocks—Brexit and the election of Donald Trump—are set in a new context here. Dyson traces how Brexit and Trump campaigned against our image of politics as usual, and won.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780472074242
Publisher:	University of Michigan Press
Publication date:	07/09/2019
Pages:	162
Product dimensions:	6.00(w) x 9.00(h) x 0.60(d)

About the Author

Stephen Benedict Dyson is Professor of Political Science at the University of Connecticut.

Table of Contents

Acknowledgments ix

1 Imagining Politics 1

2 Persuasion-The West Wing 12

3 Ambition-House of Cards 26

4 Character-Scandal 37

5 Compromise-Borgen 53

6 Bureaucracy-Yes, Minister 72

7 Farce-The Thick of It, Veep 87

8 Populism-Black Mirror, The Apprentice 101

Notes 121

References 133

Index 145

Editorial Reviews

"Creative and engaging, Imagining Politics: Interpretations in Political Science and Political Television is a plug-and-play text for an undergraduate course on politics and popular culture."
—Political Science Quarterly

Political Science Quarterly - Joseph R. Fitzgerald

"Whether professors use individual chapters in introductory courses or the whole book in a politics and pop culture course, students will find engaging writing and well-defined concepts. ... Imagining Politics provides a compelling analysis of a political era in which truth is at least as strange as fiction, where satirists struggle to come up with headlines that are more extreme than reality, and where facts are optional for many politicians and their followers."
— Perspectives on Politics

Perspectives on Politics

Imagining Politics is a first-rate work of scholarship. Popular culture as conveyed through television shows, such as The West Wing and Yes, Minister, can help to explain the political world. The study provides an innovative account of the populist turn in multiple locations around the world. This is essential reading.”
—Patrick James, University of Southern California


“This is an important and engaging resource for scholars and researchers because of the way that Dyson weaves understandings of fictional narrative into an understanding of the embedded narrative that constructs an entire academic discipline. Dyson integrates popular culture and narratives while analyzing the narratives that shape and form political science as a discipline, exploring the connections between stories told in different contexts. Imagining Politics: Interpretations in Political Science and Political Television guides the reader through a fascinating interpretation of politics, from diverse vantage points, but through an understanding of the role of narratives.”
—Lilly Goren, Carroll University

From the Publisher