What are Campaigns For? The Role of Persuasion in Electoral Law and Politics

by Gardner, James A

• ISBN13: 9780195392616
• ISBN10: 0195392612
• Format: Hardcover
• Copyright: 2009-06-19
• Publisher: Oxford University Press

Summary

"Jim Gardner's lively book probes one of the central conflicts of our political culture. We live in a democratic era that valorizes citizen equality and participation. But our political institutions and many of our legal structures harken back to our republican founding, a time that presumed rule by elites and deference from the masses. Not surprisingly, our current ideals and inherited structures come into conflict. As Gardner provocatively shows, reconciling this conflict requires challenging the way we conduct our campaigns, the role of the media, the financing of our political parties, and just about every facet of our political edifice."

Author Biography

James A. Gardner is Vice Dean for Academic Affairs and Joseph W. Belluck and Laura L. Aswad Professor of Civil Justice at the University at Buffalo Law School, State University of New York, where he also directs the Edwin F. Jaeckle Center for State and Local Democracy. After earning a BA from Yale University and a JD from the University of Chicago, Gardner practiced law at the United States Department of Justice, Civil Division, in Washington, D.C. He subsequently taught at Western New England College School of Law, William and Mary, and the University of Connecticut before coming to the University of Buffalo in 2001.
Gardner's research interests include the theoretical foundations of the constitutional structure of politics, the institutionalization through law of principles of democracy, constitutional structures of federalism, and subnational constitutional law. He is the author or editor of five books and more than forty articles.

Table of Contents

Preface	p. ix
Introduction	p. 1
The Political Campaign: Emergence of the Deliberative Ideal	p. 13
Election Law and the Formation of Public Opinion	p. 45
Campaigns and the Stability of Political Opinion	p. 83
Democratic Theory and the Thin Election Campaign	p. 115
The Tabulative Campaign	p. 147
Conclusion	p. 191
Bibliography	p. 195
Index	p. 213
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