Shaping Abortion Discourse : Democracy and the Public Sphere in Germany and the United States

by Ferree, Myra Marx

• ISBN13: 9780511031342
• ISBN10: 0511031343
• Format: Nonspecific Binding
• Copyright: 2002-09-16
• Publisher: Cambridge University Press

Summary

Using controversy over abortion as a lens through which to compare the political process and role of the media in these two very different democracies, this book examines the contest over meaning that is being waged by social movements, political parties, churches and other social actors. Abortion is a critical battleground for debates over social values in both countries, but the constitutional premises on which arguments rest differ, as do the strategies that movements and parties adopt and the opportunities for influence that are open to them. By examining how these debates are conducted and by whom in light of the normative claims made by democratic theorists, the book also offers a means of judging how well either country lives up to the ideals of democratic debate in practice.

Table of Contents

Tables and Figures	p. ix
Foreword	p. xi
Preface	p. xv
Glossary	p. xix
Introduction	p. 1
Two Related Stories	p. 3
Historical Context	p. 24
Methods	p. 45
Major Outcomes	p. 59
The Discursive Opportunity Structure	p. 61
Standing	p. 86
Framing	p. 105
Representing Different Constituencies	p. 129
Representing Women's Claims	p. 131
Representing Religious Claims	p. 154
Representing the Tradition of the Left	p. 179
The Quality of Abortion Discourse	p. 201
Normative Criteria for the Public Sphere	p. 205
Measuring the Quality of Discourse	p. 232
Metatalk	p. 255
Lessons for Democracy and the Public Sphere	p. 286
Methodological Appendix	p. 305
References	p. 325
Index	p. 339
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