Protestant Political Parties

Protestant Political Parties
Author: Paul Freston
Publisher: Routledge
Total Pages: 304
Release: 2017-03-02
Genre: Religion
ISBN: 1351908146

The recent global expansion of Protestant Christianity, and the increase in multiparty democracies, has led to the multiplication of Protestant political parties. One cannot talk of Protestant parties today without mentioning countries as diverse as Norway, Latvia, New Zealand, Indonesia, Zambia and Nicaragua. Whilst the well-established parties of the Netherlands and Scandinavia have long been studied, Paul Freston's groundbreaking book is the first global survey of this phenomenon. After looking at the traditional Protestant heartlands of Europe and the English-speaking world, Freston traces the spread of the Protestant party model to post-communist countries, the Pacific, the Muslim world, southern Africa and Latin America. He examines the circumstances favouring such parties, and the political projects they represent. The conclusion analyses the diversity of Protestant parties due to different interpretations of Christian politics and varied contexts. This unique book will interest specialists and non-specialists, across disciplines and in many parts of the world.

God's Own Party

God's Own Party
Author: Daniel K. Williams
Publisher: Oxford University Press, USA
Total Pages: 401
Release: 2012-07-12
Genre: History
ISBN: 0199929068

In God's Own Party, Daniel K. Williams presents the first comprehensive history of the Christian Right, uncovering how evangelicals came to see the Republican Party as the vehicle through which they could reclaim America as a Christian nation.

Evangelicals and Democracy in America

Evangelicals and Democracy in America
Author: Steven G. Brint
Publisher: Russell Sage Foundation
Total Pages: 382
Release: 2011-09
Genre: Political Science
ISBN: 0871540126

Separation of church and state is a bedrock principal of American democracy, and so, too, is active citizen engagement. Since evangelicals comprise one of the largest and most vocal voting blocs in the United States, tensions and questions naturally arise. In the two-volume Evangelicals and Democracy in America, editors Steven Brint and Jean Reith Schroedel have assembled an authoritative collection of studies of the evangelical movement in America. Religion and Politics, the second volume of the set, focuses on the role of religious conservatives in party politics, the rhetoric evangelicals use to mobilize politically, and what the history of the evangelical movement reveals about where it may be going. Part I of Religion and Politics explores the role of evangelicals in electoral politics. Contributor Pippa Norris looks at evangelicals around the globe and finds that religiosity is a strong predictor of ideological leanings in industrialized countries. But the United States remains one of only a handful of post-industrial societies where religion plays a significant role in partisan politics. Other chapters look at voting trends, especially the growing number of higher-income evangelicals among Republican ranks, how voting is influenced both by "values" and race, and the management of the symbols and networks behind the electoral system of moral-values politics. Part II of the volume focuses on the mobilizing rhetoric of the Christian Right. Nathaniel Klemp and Stephen Macedo show how the rhetorical strategies of the Christian Right create powerful mobilizing narratives, but frequently fail to build broad enough coalitions to prevail in the pluralistic marketplace of ideas. Part III analyzes the cycles and evolution of the Christian Right. Kimberly Conger looks at the specific circumstances that have allowed evangelicals to become dominant in some Republican state party committees but not in others. D. Michael Lindsay examines the "elastic orthodoxy" that has allowed evangelicals to evolve into a formidable social and political force. The final chapter by Clyde Wilcox presents a new framework for understanding the relationship between the Christian Right and the GOP based on the ecological metaphor of co-evolution. With its companion volume on religion and society, this second volume of Evangelicals and Democracy in America offers the most complete examination yet of the social circumstances and political influence of the millions of Americans who are white evangelical Protestants. Understanding their history and prospects for the future is essential to forming a comprehensive picture of America today.

Confessions of an Interest Group

Confessions of an Interest Group
Author: Carolyn M. Warner
Publisher:
Total Pages: 249
Release: 2000
Genre: Political Science
ISBN: 9780691010267

Following World War II, the Catholic Church in Europe faced the challenge of establishing political influence with newly emerging democratic governments. The Church became, as Carolyn Warner pointedly argues, an interest group like any other, seeking to attain and solidify its influence by forming alliances with political parties. The author analyzes the Church's differing strategies in Italy, France, and Germany using microeconomic theories of the firm and historical institutionalism. She demonstrates how only a strategic perspective can explain the choice and longevity of the alliances in each case. In so doing, the author challenges earlier work that ignores the costs to interest groups and parties of sustaining or breaking their reciprocal links. Confessions of an Interest Group challenges the view of the Catholic Church as solely a moral force whose interests are seamlessly represented by the Christian Democratic parties. Blending theory, cultural narrative, and archival research, Warner demonstrates that the French Church's superficial and brief connection with a political party was directly related to its loss of political influence during the War. The Italian Church's power, on the other hand, remained stable through the War, so the Church and the Christian Democrats more easily found multiple grounds for long-term cooperation. The German Church chose yet another path, reluctantly aligning itself with a new Catholic-Protestant party. This book is an important work that expands the growing literature on the economics of religion, interest group behavior, and the politics of the Catholic Church.

The Oxford Handbook of American Political Parties and Interest Groups

The Oxford Handbook of American Political Parties and Interest Groups
Author: L. Sandy Maisel
Publisher: OUP Oxford
Total Pages: 720
Release: 2010-01-28
Genre: Political Science
ISBN: 019160920X

The Oxford Handbook of American Political Parties and Interest Groups is a major new volume that will help scholars assess the current state of scholarship on parties and interest groups and the directions in which it needs to move. Never before has the academic literature on political parties received such an extended treatment. Twenty nine chapters critically assess both the major contributions to the literature and the ways in which it has developed. With contributions from most of the leading scholars in the field, the volume provides a definitive point of reference for all those working in and around the area. Equally important, the authors also identify areas of new and interesting research. These chapters offer a distinctive point of view, an argument about the successes and failures of past scholarship, and a set of recommendations about how future work ought to develop. This volume will help set the agenda for research on political parties and interest groups for the next decade. The Oxford Handbooks of American Politics are a set of reference books offering authoritative and engaging critical overviews of the state of scholarship on American politics. Each volume focuses on a particular aspect of the field. The project is under the General Editorship of George C. Edwards III, and distinguished specialists in their respective fields edit each volume. The Handbooks aim not just to report on the discipline, but also to shape it as scholars critically assess the scholarship on a topic and propose directions in which it needs to move. The series is an indispensable reference for anyone working in American politics. General Editor for The Oxford Handbooks of American Politics: George C. Edwards III

Mediated Campaigns and Populism in Europe

Mediated Campaigns and Populism in Europe
Author: Susana Salgado
Publisher: Springer
Total Pages: 198
Release: 2018-12-07
Genre: Political Science
ISBN: 3319985639

This book analyses the coverage of elections that occurred between September 2015 and February 2016 in six European countries (Greece, Portugal, Poland, Croatia, Spain and Ireland). The sample examined includes all news stories published during the official electoral campaign in different types of media outlets: three newspapers per country covering centre-left and centre-right wing political leaning, as well as reference and tabloid papers; three main television news broadcasts covering commercial/private and public broadcast television channels; and three papers that are published only online, taking into account their levels of audience and importance within each national media and political system. The book also examines different connections to the EU and to the Euro Crisis. Questions such as the following guide the overall analysis: In what ways is news election coverage similar and different in these countries? Which issues are mostly covered by the news media and how? Are there patterns of election news coverage in these six European countries? This book is indispensable reading for researchers and students in the field of the media coverage of election campaigns, political communication and populism. Chapters 4 and 8 are available open access under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License via link.springer.com.

Unionists, Loyalists, and Conflict Transformation in Northern Ireland

Unionists, Loyalists, and Conflict Transformation in Northern Ireland
Author: Lee A. Smithey
Publisher: OUP USA
Total Pages: 277
Release: 2011-08-31
Genre: History
ISBN: 0195395875

Lee Smithey examines how symbolic cultural expressions in Northern Ireland, such as parades, bonfires, murals, and commemorations, provide opportunities for Protestant unionists and loyalists to reconstruct their collective identities and participate in conflict transformation.

Dynamics of American Political Parties

Dynamics of American Political Parties
Author: Mark D. Brewer
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Total Pages: 257
Release: 2009-07-31
Genre: Political Science
ISBN: 0521882303

In Dynamics of American Political Parties, Mark D. Brewer and Jeffrey M. Stonecash examine the process of gradual change that inexorably shapes and reshapes American politics. Parties and the politicians that comprise them seek control of government in order to implement their visions of proper public policy. To gain control parties need to win elections, and winning elections requires assembling an electoral coalition that is larger than that crafted by the opposition. Parties are always looking for opportunities to build such winning coalitions, and opportunities are always there, but they are rarely, if ever, without risk. Uncertainty rules and intra-party conflict rages as different factions and groups within the parties debate the proper course(s) of action and battle it out for control of the party. Parties can never be sure how their strategic maneuvers will play out, and, even when it appears that a certain strategy has been successful, party leaders are unclear about how long apparent success will last. Change unfolds slowly, in fits and starts.

Religion and Politics in the United States

Religion and Politics in the United States
Author: Kenneth D. Wald
Publisher: Rowman & Littlefield
Total Pages: 497
Release: 2014-03-04
Genre: Religion
ISBN: 1442225556

From marriage equality, to gun control, to immigration reform and the threat of war, religion plays a fascinating and crucial part in our nation's political process and in our culture at large. Now in its seventh edition, Religion and Politics in the United States includes analyses of the nation's most pressing political matters regarding religious freedom, and the ways in which that essential constitutional freedom situates itself within modern America. The book also explores the ways that religion has affected the orientation of partisan politics in the United States. Through a detailed review of the political attitudes and behaviors of major religious and minority faith traditions, the book establishes that religion continues to be a major part of the American cultural and political milieu while explaining that it must interact with many other factors to influence political outcomes in the United States.

Pulpit and Nation

Pulpit and Nation
Author: Spencer W. McBride
Publisher: University of Virginia Press
Total Pages: 324
Release: 2017-01-12
Genre: History
ISBN: 0813939577

In Pulpit and Nation, Spencer McBride highlights the importance of Protestant clergymen in early American political culture, elucidating the actual role of religion in the founding era. Beginning with colonial precedents for clerical involvement in politics and concluding with false rumors of Thomas Jefferson’s conversion to Christianity in 1817, this book reveals the ways in which the clergy’s political activism—and early Americans’ general use of religious language and symbols in their political discourse—expanded and evolved to become an integral piece in the invention of an American national identity. Offering a fresh examination of some of the key junctures in the development of the American political system—the Revolution, the ratification debates of 1787–88, and the formation of political parties in the 1790s—McBride shows how religious arguments, sentiments, and motivations were subtly interwoven with political ones in the creation of the early American republic. Ultimately, Pulpit and Nation reveals that while religious expression was common in the political culture of the Revolutionary era, it was as much the calculated design of ambitious men seeking power as it was the natural outgrowth of a devoutly religious people.