Building a Business of Politics The Rise of Political Consulting and the Transformation of American Democracy

by Sheingate, Adam

• ISBN13: 9780190217198
• ISBN10: 0190217197
• Format: Hardcover
• Copyright: 2016-01-04
• Publisher: Oxford University Press

Summary

Political races in the United States rely heavily on highly paid political consultants. In Building a Business of Politics, Adam Sheingate traces the history of political consultants from its origins in the publicity experts and pollsters of the 1920s and 1930s to the strategists and media specialists of the 1970s who transformed political campaigns into a highly profitable business. Today, consultants command a hefty fee from politicians as they turn campaign cash from special interest groups and wealthy donors into the advertisements, polls, and direct mail solicitations characteristic of modern campaigns. The implications of this system on the state of American democracy are significant: a professional political class stands between the voters and those who claim to represent them. Building a Business of Politics is both a definitive account of the consulting profession and a powerful reinterpretation of how political professionals reshaped American democracy in the modern era.

Author Biography

Adam Sheingate is an associate professor of Political Science at Johns Hopkins University. He is the author of Building a Business of Politics: The Rise of Political Consulting and the Transformation of American Democracy which traces the evolution of political work in the United States. Sheingate is also a co-editor of the forthcoming Oxford Handbook of Historical Institutionalism.