did-you-know? rent-now

Amazon no longer offers textbook rentals. We do!

did-you-know? rent-now

Amazon no longer offers textbook rentals. We do!

We're the #1 textbook rental company. Let us show you why.

9780691153971

Affluence and Influence

by
  • ISBN13:

    9780691153971

  • ISBN10:

    0691153973

  • Format: Hardcover
  • Copyright: 2012-07-02
  • Publisher: Amazon.Com
  • View Upgraded Edition
  • Purchase Benefits
  • Free Shipping Icon Free Shipping On Orders Over $35!
    Your order must be $35 or more to qualify for free economy shipping. Bulk sales, PO's, Marketplace items, eBooks and apparel do not qualify for this offer.
  • eCampus.com Logo Get Rewarded for Ordering Your Textbooks! Enroll Now
List Price: $35.00 Save up to $3.56
  • Digital
    $31.44
    Add to Cart

    DURATION
    PRICE

Supplemental Materials

What is included with this book?

Summary

Can a country be a democracy if its government only responds to the preferences of the rich? In an ideal democracy, all citizens should have equal influence on government policy--but as this book demonstrates, America's policymakers respond almost exclusively to the preferences of the economically advantaged. Affluence and Influencedefinitively explores how political inequality in the United States has evolved over the last several decades and how this growing disparity has been shaped by interest groups, parties, and elections. With sharp analysis and an impressive range of data, Martin Gilens looks at thousands of proposed policy changes, and the degree of support for each among poor, middle-class, and affluent Americans. His findings are staggering: when preferences of low- or middle-income Americans diverge from those of the affluent, there is virtually no relationship between policy outcomes and the desires of less advantaged groups. In contrast, affluent Americans' preferences exhibit a substantial relationship with policy outcomes whether their preferences are shared by lower-income groups or not. Gilens shows that representational inequality is spread widely across different policy domains and time periods. Yet Gilens also shows that under specific circumstances the preferences of the middle class and, to a lesser extent, the poor, do seem to matter. In particular, impending elections--especially presidential elections--and an even partisan division in Congress mitigate representational inequality and boost responsiveness to the preferences of the broader public. At a time when economic and political inequality in the United States only continues to rise, Affluence and Influenceraises important questions about whether American democracy is truly responding to the needs of all its citizens.

Table of Contents

List of Tablesp. ix
List of Figuresp. xi
Acknowledgmentsp. xiii
Introductionp. 1
Citizen Competence and Democratic Decision Makingp. 12
Data and Methodsp. 50
The Preference/Policy Linkp. 70
Policy Domains and Democratic Responsivenessp. 97
Interest Groups and Democratic Responsivenessp. 124
Parties, Elections, and Democratic Responsivenessp. 162
Democratic Responsiveness across Timep. 193
Money and American Politicsp. 234
Appendixp. 253
Notesp. 279
Referencesp. 305
Indexp. 323
Table of Contents provided by Ingram. All Rights Reserved.

Supplemental Materials

What is included with this book?

The New copy of this book will include any supplemental materials advertised. Please check the title of the book to determine if it should include any access cards, study guides, lab manuals, CDs, etc.

The Used, Rental and eBook copies of this book are not guaranteed to include any supplemental materials. Typically, only the book itself is included. This is true even if the title states it includes any access cards, study guides, lab manuals, CDs, etc.

Rewards Program