Political Black Girl Magic explores black women's experiences as mayors in American cities. The editor and contributors to this comprehensive volume examine black female mayoral campaigns and ...elections where race and gender are a factor-and where deracialized campaigns have garnered candidate support from white as well as Hispanic and Asian American voters. Chapters also consider how Black female mayors govern, from discussions of their pursuit of economic growth and how they use their power to enact positive reforms to the challenges they face that inhibit their abilities to cater to neglected communities. Case studies in this interdisciplinary volume include female mayors in Atlanta, Baltimore, Charlotte, Chicago, Compton, and Washington, DC, among other cities, along with discussion of each official's political context. Covering mayors from the 1960s to the present, Political Black Girl Magic identifies the most significant obstacles black women have faced as mayors and mayoral candidates, and seeks to understand how race, gender, or the combination of both affected them. Contributors: Andrea Benjamin, Nadia E. Brown, Pearl K. Dowe, Christina Greer, Precious Hall, Valerie C. Johnson, Yolanda Jones, Lauren King, Angela K. Lewis-Maddox, Minion K.C. Morrison, Marcella Mulholland, Stephanie Y. Pink-Harper, Kelly Briana Richardson, Emmitt Y. Riley, III, Ashley Robertson Preston, Taisha Saintil, Jamil Scott, Fatemeh Shafiei, James Lance Taylor, LaRaven Temoney, Linda Trautman, and the editor
Despite calls for political consensus, there is growing evidence that the public response to the COVID-19 pandemic has been politicized in the US. We examined the extent to which this polarization ...exists among the US public across two national studies. In a representative US sample (N = 699, March 2020) we find that liberals (compared to conservatives) perceive higher risk, place less trust in politicians to handle the pandemic, are more trusting of medical experts such as the WHO, and are more critical of the government response. We replicate these results in a second, pre-registered study (N = 1000; April 2020), and find that results are similar when considering partisanship, rather than political ideology. In both studies we also find evidence that political polarization extends beyond attitudes, with liberals consistently reporting engaging in a significantly greater number of health protective behaviors (e.g., wearing face masks) than conservatives. We discuss the possible drivers of polarization on COVID-19 attitudes and behaviors, and reiterate the need for fostering bipartisan consensus to effectively address and manage the COVID-19 pandemic.
Twitter has become one of the most important online spaces for political communication practice and research. Through a hand-coded content analysis, this study compares how British and Dutch ...Parliamentary candidates used Twitter during the 2010 general elections. We found that Dutch politicians were more likely to use Twitter than UK candidates and on average tweeted over twice as much as their British counterparts. Dutch candidates were also more likely to embrace the interactive potential of Twitter, and it appeared that the public responded to this by engaging in further dialogue. We attribute the more conservative approach of British candidates compared to the Netherlands to historic differences in the appropriation of social media by national elites, and differing levels of discipline imposed from the central party machines.
A consistent finding in fake news research is that people are more likely to believe content in favor of their political views. Unclear, however, is whether this political bias is moderated by ...contextual effects, such as politicians sharing content on their social media accounts. The present study investigated how both message content and sharer affect views of political misinformation. Participants (N = 164) evaluated eight news messages. Message content (pro-left/pro-right misinformation) and sharer (left-wing/right-wing/unknown politician) were manipulated within subjects. As expected, participants agreed more with concordant misinformation (aligned with their political orientation) and perceived it as more accurate than discordant misinformation. There was an additional, smaller effect of politician: Participants agreed more with discordant misinformation when shared by a politician representing their political viewpoint than when shared by others. Furthermore, left-oriented participants' agreement with concordant misinformation was hardly affected by message sharer, whereas right-oriented participants' agreement with concordant misinformation was-unexpectedly-positively affected by the left-wing politician. Irrespective of their political orientation, participants perceived misinformation from the left-wing politician as more accurate than misinformation from other politicians. Our findings suggest that both message content and sharer affect views of misinformation and interact in doing so, which is important for designing interventions on recognizing misinformation.
Public Significance Statement
This study shows that people are not only biased by their political views when evaluating fake news messages but are additionally affected by the political figure sharing the message. This finding contributes new insights on the question of when and why people fall for fake news.
The story of one of the most important -- and most elusive -- figures of the American Revolution, Samuel Adams traces the life of the Man of the Revolution, as he was called by Thomas Jefferson, from ...his childhood as a fifth-generation New Englander to his pivotal role in the Boston Tea Party and war that followed to a life spent in public service. Benjamin Irvin explores the fascinating contradictions of Samuel Adams's life: he was born into a family of high rank, but lived a humble, almost impoverished life; he could barely manage his personal household, but brilliantly managed the Massachusetts House of Representatives; he pushed for the Revolution, but resisted the Constitution; he spearheaded resistance to the English government but staunchly opposed resistance to the U.S. government. A perceptive look at the life of a complex man, Samuel Adams is an evocative portrait of one of our nation's most interesting Founding Fathers. Oxford Portraits are informative and insightful biographies of people whose lives shaped their times and continue to influence ours. Based on the most recent scholarship, they draw heavily on primary sources, including writings by and about their subjects. Each book is illustrated with a wealth of photographs, documents, memorabilia, framing the personality and achievements of its subject against the backdrop of history.
Social media has increased its popularity among politicians. If they wish to succeed in the political arena, politicians need to present themselves to citizens as attractive individuals through these ...platforms. This study examined how politicians present themselves using humor on
. We analyzed
(
= 6,443) from 27 politicians to determine their use of different types of humor and its relationship with age, gender, or political position. We also present changes in humor use in relation to the publication of a political survey in which politicians who were part of this study were evaluated. Results showed politicians' use of humor is relatively low in frequency and primarily aggressive. Politicians who are male, younger, and in the opposition tend to use more aggressive humor. We discuss the results considering the role of aggressive humor in political messages. Based on the analyses of
and the publication of the survey, we propose as a hypothesis for future studies that politicians' use of humor on
could be affected by the publication of these kinds of surveys.
Governments seem to be trapped in a legitimacy paradox. While politicians and public managers, especially on the local level, increasingly initiate public participation to enhance the legitimacy of ...public decisions, the actual impact of citizens' input on political decision‐making is often low, contributing to a loss of legitimacy. To solve this paradox, this article unravels the views of local politicians in the Netherlands on the democratic legitimacy of public participation via Q‐methodology. Despite the large PA‐scholarship on public participation, empirical research into how politicians view and value public participation remains scarce. The findings reveal politicians either prefer participation that is conditioned by government or participation that empowers citizens to speak up. Taking the views of politicians into account in designing public participation processes improves the chance that politicians will do justice to its outcomes and hence contributes to public participation that is not symbolical but meaningfully informs political decision‐making.
Since the global financial crisis of 2008, the level of perceived corruption in Italy has risen markedly, diverging significantly from the perceived corruption of other high-income countries and from ...the corruption as experienced. We propose that newspapers, in order to maximize their profits, have given directed emphasis to episodes of political corruption, which has contributed to the increase in perceived corruption. The consequence has been loss of parliament's credibility and a deterioration in the quality of the Italian political class.
•Italian newspapers contributed to increase perceived corruption•High perceived corruption led to a decrease in the quality of Italian politicians•High perceived corruption led to a loss of trust in Italian Parliament
Out and Runningis the first systematic analysis of lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender (LGBT) political representation that explores the dynamics of state legislative campaigns and the influence ...of lesbian and gay legislators in the state policymaking process. By examining state legislative elections from 1992 to 2006 and state policymaking from 1992 to 2009, Donald Haider-Markel suggests that the LGBT community can overcome hurdles and win elections; and, once in office, these officials can play a critical role in the policy representation of the community. However, he also discovers that there are limits to where and when LGBT candidates can run for office and that, while their presence in office often enhances policy representation, it can also create backlash. But even with some of these negative consequences,Out and Runningprovides compelling evidence that gays and lesbians are more likely to see beneficial legislation pass by increasing the number of LGBT state legislators. Indeed, grassroots politics in the states may allow the LGBT community its best opportunity for achieving its policy goals.
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