Showing papers on "Politics published in 2014"

Structural topic models for open ended survey responses

Abstract: Collection and especially analysis of open-ended survey responses are relatively rare in the discipline and when conducted are almost exclusively done through human coding. We present an alternative, semiautomated approach, the structural topic model (STM) (Roberts, Stewart, and Airoldi 2013; Roberts et al. 2013), that draws on recent developments in machine learning based analysis of textual data. A crucial contribution of the method is that it incorporates information about the document, such as the author's gender, political affiliation, and treatment assignment (if an experimental study). This article focuses on how the STM is helpful for survey researchers and experimentalists. The STM makes analyzing open-ended responses easier, more revealing, and capable of being used to estimate treatment effects. We illustrate these innovations with analysis of text from surveys and experiments.

Red Skin, White Masks: Rejecting the Colonial Politics of Recognition

Abstract: Glen Sean Coulthard. Minneapolis, MN: University of Minnesota Press, 2014. 256 pp., index, notes. $22.50 paper (ISBN 978-0-8166-7965-2); $67.50 cloth (ISBN 978-0-8166-7964-5).Red Skin, White Masks ...

Making sense of financialization

Abstract: Since the early 2000s, scholars from a variety of disciplines have used the concept of financialization to describe a host of structural changes in the advanced political economies. Studies of financialization interrogate how an increasingly autonomous realm of global finance has altered the underlying logics of the industrial economy and the inner workings of democratic society. This paper evaluates the insights of more than a decade of scholarship on financialization. Three approaches will be discussed: the emergence of a new regime of accumulation, the ascendency of the shareholder value orientation and the financialization of everyday life. It is argued that a deeper understanding of financialization will lead to a better understanding of organized interests, the politics of the welfare state, and processes of institutional change.

What You Should Know About Megaprojects and Why: An Overview

Abstract: This paper takes stock of megaproject management, an emerging and hugely costly field of study. First, it answers the question of how large megaprojects are by measuring them in the units mega, giga, and tera, concluding we are presently entering a new "tera era" of trillion-dollar projects. Second, total global megaproject spending is assessed, at USD 6-9 trillion annually, or 8 percent of total global GDP, which denotes the biggest investment boom in human history. Third, four "sublimes" – political, technological, economic, and aesthetic – are identified to explain the increased size and frequency of megaprojects. Fourth, the "iron law of megaprojects" is laid out and documented: Over budget, over time, over and over again. Moreover, the "break-fix model" of megaproject management is introduced as an explanation of the iron law. Fifth, Albert O. Hirschman's theory of the Hiding Hand is revisited and critiqued as unfounded and corrupting for megaproject thinking in both the academy and policy. Sixth, it is shown how megaprojects are systematically subject to "survival of the unfittest," explaining why the worst projects get built instead of the best. Finally, it is argued that the conventional way of managing megaprojects has reached a "tension point," where tradition is challenged and reform is emerging.

Echo Chamber or Public Sphere? Predicting Political Orientation and Measuring Political Homophily in Twitter Using Big Data

Abstract: This paper investigates political homophily on Twitter. Using a combination of machine learning and social network analysis we classify users as Democrats or as Republicans based on the political content shared. We then investigate political homophily both in the network of reciprocated and nonreciprocated ties. We find that structures of political homophily differ strongly between Democrats and Republicans. In general, Democrats exhibit higher levels of political homophily. But Republicans who follow official Republican accounts exhibit higher levels of homophily than Democrats. In addition, levels of homophily are higher in the network of reciprocated followers than in the nonreciprocated network. We suggest that research on political homophily on the Internet should take the political culture and practices of users seriously.

Corporate Social Responsibility Reporting in China: Symbol or Substance?

Abstract: This study focuses on how and why firms strategically respond to government signals on appropriate corporate activity. We integrate institutional theory with research on corporate political strategy to develop a political dependence model that explains (a) how different types of dependency on the government lead firms to issue corporate social responsibility (CSR) reports and (b) how the risk of governmental monitoring affects the extent to which CSR reports are symbolic or substantive. First, we examine how firm characteristics reflecting dependence on the government—including private versus state ownership, executives serving on political councils, political legacy, and financial resources—affect the likelihood of firms issuing CSR reports. Second, we focus on the symbolic nature of CSR reporting and how variance in the risk of government monitoring through channels such as bureaucratic embeddedness and regional government institutional development influences the extent to which CSR communications are symbolically decoupled from substantive CSR activities. Our database includes all CSR reports issued by the approximately 1,600 publicly listed Chinese firms between 2006 and 2009. Our hypotheses are generally supported. The political perspective we develop contributes to organizational theory by showing that (a) government signaling is an important mechanism of political influence, (b) different types of dependency on the government expose firms to different types of legitimacy pressure, and (c) firms face a decoupling risk that makes them more likely to enact substantive CSR actions in situations in which they are likely to be monitored.

Affective Publics: Sentiment, Technology, and Politics

Abstract: Acknowledgments Prelude Chapter One: The Present Affect Chapter Two: Affective News and Networked Publics Chapter Three: Affective Demands and the New Political Chapter Four: The Personal as Political: Everyday Disruptions of the Political Mainstream Chapter Five: Affective Publics Notes References Index

Water, Drought, Climate Change, and Conflict in Syria

Abstract: The devastating civil war that began in Syria in March 2011 is the result of complex interrelated factors. The focus of the conflict is regime change, but the triggers include a broad set of religious and sociopolitical factors, the erosion of the economic health of the country, a wave of political reform sweeping over the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) and Levant region, and challenges associated with climate variability and change and the availability and use of freshwater. As described here, water and climatic conditions have played a direct role in the deterioration of Syria’s economic conditions. There is a long history of conflicts over water in these regions because of the natural water scarcity, the early development of irrigated agriculture, and complex religious and ethnic diversity. In recent years, there has been an increase in incidences of water-related violence around the world at the subnational level attributable to the role that water plays in development disputes and econom...

The Fourth Revolution: How the infosphere is reshaping human reality

Abstract: Preface Acknowledgements List of figures 1. Hyperhistory 2. Space: Infosphere 3. Identity: Onlife 4. Self-Understanding: The Four Revolutions 5. Privacy: Informational Friction 6. Intelligence: Inscribing the World 7. Agency: Enveloping the World 8. Politics: The Rise of the Multi-Agent System 9. Environment: The Digital Gambit 10. Ethics: E-nvironmentalism Further Reading References Endnotes Index

Pragmatism as a Paradigm for Social Research

Abstract: Although advocates of mixed-methods research have proposed pragmatism as a paradigm for social research, nearly all of that work has emphasized the practical rather than the philosophical aspects of pragmatism. This article addresses that gap by connecting John Dewey's work on experience and inquiry to current issues in the study of social research. In doing so, it also addresses the political concerns that link pragmatism and social justice. As a new paradigm, pragmatism disrupts the assumptions of older approaches based on the philosophy of knowledge, while providing promising new directions for understanding the nature of social research.

The ‘Urban Age’ in Question

Abstract: Foreboding declarations about contemporary urban trends pervade early twenty-first century academic, political and journalistic discourse. Among the most widely recited is the claim that we now live in an 'urban age' because, for the first time in human history, more than half the world's population today purportedly lives within cities. Across otherwise diverse discursive, ideological and locational contexts, the urban age thesis has become a form of doxic common sense around which questions regarding the contemporary global urban condition are framed. This article argues that, despite its long history and its increasingly widespread influence, the urban age thesis is a flawed basis on which to conceptualize world urbanization patterns: it is empirically untenable (a statistical artifact) and theoretically incoherent (a chaotic conception). This critique is framed against the background of postwar attempts to measure the world's urban population, the main methodological and theoretical conundrums of which remain fundamentally unresolved in early twenty-first century urban age discourse. The article concludes by outlining a series of methodological perspectives for an alternative understanding of the contemporary global urban condition.

How Populist Are the People? Measuring Populist Attitudes in Voters

Abstract: The sudden and perhaps unexpected appearance of populist parties in the 1990s shows no sign of immediately vanishing. The lion’s share of the research on populism has focused on defining populism, ...

Rethinking Populism: Politics, Mediatisation and Political Style

Abstract: As a key feature of the contemporary political landscape, populism stands as one of the most contentious concepts in political science. This article presents a critique of dominant conceptions of populism – as ideology, logic, discourse and strategy/organisation – and introduces the category of ‘political style’ as a new compelling way of thinking about the phenomenon. We argue that this new category captures an important dimension of contemporary populism that is missed by rival approaches. In doing so, we put forward an inductive model of populism as a political style and contextualise it within the increasingly stylised and mediatised milieu of contemporary politics by focusing on its performative features. We conclude by considering how this concept allows us to understand how populism appears across the political spectrum, how it translates into the political mainstream and its implications for democratic politics.

Understanding the Determinants of Political Ideology: Implications of Structural Complexity

Abstract: There has been a substantial increase in research on the determinants and consequences of political ideology among political scientists and social psychologists. In psychology, researchers have examined the effects of personality and motivational factors on ideological orientations as well as differences in moral reasoning and brain functioning between liberals and conservatives. In political science, studies have investigated possible genetic influences on ideology as well as the role of personality factors. Virtually all of this research begins with the assumption that it is possible to understand the determinants and consequences of ideology via a unidimensional conceptualization. We argue that a unidimensional model of ideology provides an incomplete basis for the study of political ideology. We show that two dimensions—economic and social ideology—are the minimum needed to account for domestic policy preferences. More importantly, we demonstrate that the determinants of these two ideological dimensions are vastly different across a wide range of variables. Focusing on a single ideological dimension obscures these differences and, in some cases, makes it difficult to observe important determinants of ideology. We also show that this multidimensionality leads to a significant amount of heterogeneity in the structure of ideology that must be modeled to fully understand the structure and determinants of political attitudes.

Social Media, Political Expression, and Political Participation: Panel Analysis of Lagged and Concurrent Relationships

Abstract: This article relies on U.S. 2-wave panel data to examine the role of social media as a sphere for political expression and its effects on political participation. Informational uses of social media are expected to explain political expression on social media and to promote political participation. This study clarifies the effect of using social media for social interaction in fostering political expression and participation processes. Results indicate that social media news use has direct effects on offline political participation and indirect effects on offline and online political participation mediated via political expression. Furthermore, social media use for social interaction does not have direct influence in people’s political engagement, but rather an indirect effect by means of citizens expressing themselves politically.

The Fundamentalism of Liberal Rights: Decoding the Freedom of Expression Under the European Convention for the Protection of Human Rights and Fundamental Freedoms

Abstract: This paper attempts to deconstruct the free speech defense of the publications of cartoons offensive to many Muslims in Denmark and elsewhere in Europe in order to highlight the deep philosophical tensions between the characterizations of religion and race, between free speech and hate speech, and between the freedoms of expression and of religion. A scrutiny of the jurisprudence of the European Court of Human Rights (“ECtHR”) reveals the difficulties inherent in defining permissible limits on expression, particularly as it involves the identification and prioritization of interests that are worthy of protection under a state's law. The struggles over the characterization of certain interests as fundamental rights, in turn, raise questions over the ‘fundamental-ness' of rights and the valuation of foundational social and political values that the rhetoric of rights presumes as incontrovertible. This study seeks to advance the argument that fundamental rights, such as the freedom of expression, are legal constructs whose value is contingent on the ends they are employed to serve in a given socio-political environment. While the contingency of fundamental rights is palpable in debates over their definition and over what they include or exclude, it is most clearly visible in the clash of fundamental rights, in particular the freedoms of expression and religion.

Between Borders : Pedagogy and the Politics of Cultural Studies

Abstract: Informed by the belief that critical pedagogy must move beyond the classroom if it is to be truly effective, this essay collection makes clear how cultural practices--as portrayed in film, sports, and in the classroom itself--enable cultural studies to deepen its own political possibilities and to construct diverse geographies of identity, representation and place. Contributors: Henry A. Giroux, Ava Collins, Nancy Fraser, Carol Becker, bell hooks, Michael Eric Dyson, Roger I. Simon, Chandra Talpede Mohanty, Simon Watney, Michele Wallace, Peter McLaren, David Trend, Abdul R. JanMohamed and Kenneth Mostern.

Political Representation in France

Abstract: There can scarcely be a greater tribute to the vitality of the Fifth Republic's democracy than this monumental work. A searching analysis of how the will of the voters is translated into authoritative political decision making, this book not only uncovers political truths about contemporary France but also provides a model for the study of other popular forms of government. The authors set out to find an answer to the perplexing question of how representative government operates in France in the seemingly unstable context of multiparties. By interviewing voters as well as legislators in 1967 and in 1968 after the great upheaval, and by monitoring policies of the National Assembly from 1967 to 1973, the authors test relationships between public opinion and decision making. They are able to sort out the abiding political cues that orient the French voter, to establish the normal electoral processes, to gauge the nature of mass perceptions of the political options available to voters, and to interpret the strikes, riots, and demonstrations of 1968 as a channel of communication parallel to the electoral process itself. Lucid in style, methodologically sophisticated, and often comparative in approach, Political Representation in France is a seminal work for political scientists, sociologists, and historians.

Every tweet counts? How sentiment analysis of social media can improve our knowledge of citizens’ political preferences with an application to Italy and France

Abstract: The growing usage of social media by a wider audience of citizens sharply increases the possibility of investigating the web as a device to explore and track political preferences. In the present paper we apply a method recently proposed by other social scientists to three different scenarios, by analyzing on one side the online popularity of Italian political leaders throughout 2011, and on the other the voting intention of French Internet users in both the 2012 presidential ballot and the subsequent legislative election. While Internet users are not necessarily representative of the whole population of a country’s citizens, our analysis shows a remarkable ability for social media to forecast electoral results, as well as a noteworthy correlation between social media and the results of traditional mass surveys. We also illustrate that the predictive ability of social media analysis strengthens as the number of citizens expressing their opinion online increases, provided that the citizens act consistently...

Reign of Error: The Hoax of the Privatization Movement and the Danger to America's Public Schools

Abstract: Reign of Error: The Hoax of the Privatization Movement and the Danger to America's Public Schools Diane Ravirch New York: Knopf, 2013. 416 pages. $14-34 USD/Paperbac Diane Ravitch spent decades advocating metrics and alternatives for elementary and secondary public school reform, including some years in government implementing the current assessment-as-accountability regime, but, by 2006, she doubted her own prescription for public school ills. This itch in her mind turned into two books, The Life and Death of the Great American School System, a careful mea culpa regarding testing and a data-driven attack on data-fixation, and, most recently, Reign of Error. As a New York University research professor of education, she also founded an organization, the Network for Public Education (NPE). All of these efforts are aimed fundamentally at the primary and secondary educational systems in the U.S., but the arguments are relevant to community colleges, particularly in the Obama administration. Community colleges today face such questions of "reform"--Ravitch often puts this word in doubtful quotes--and the community college may fall for the same hoax. Ravitch outlines the view of "reformers" in chapters 3-8 of Life and Death and chapters 2-4 and 14-20 of Reign of Error as seeing schools preparing children to become participants in the society's economy. This vision, argues Ravitch, emphasizes two elements: standardized tests and social engineering. Standardized tests are the first social modality by which academic competition is exercised. At this level, a child is getting practice and developing skills that suit one for a competitive economy: self-control, the efficient use of instrumental reason, calculations of utility, innovation, initiative-taking, and so on; but more specifically, job-relevant skills come along eventually, and by assessing disaggregated skills instead of the aggregated judgment that grades make, the system can more precisely sort its future workers. Educational services deliverers get their own grade, from their output--from the scores that their students make, assessed over time. The other element comparative testing emphasizes is a social engineering aspect: that people of differential abilities and aptitudes will be sorted by testing into those career and academic pathways in which they will be comparatively advantaged--on the Adam Smith and David Ricardo model, more or less. Market utility is the appropriate standard of judgment for an individual, according to the reformers' view, because it is the standard of judgment for a collectivity. The strength of corporations (the "bottom line") and countries (military, GDP) is similarly assessed quantitatively. In advanced societies, the citizen labor force is stratified according to performance, which is measured by one "earning what one deserves"--by differential monetary life outcomes. A well-formed education system thus prepares each person for the slot in the economy in which she is most apt to attain her greatest comparative advantage--that which will, among the measurable outcomes, result in her maximum lifetime income-earning potential. Privatization melds public and private interest, in this view, because it allows maximum room for competitive pressures to sort out to any desired level of detail the most efficient producers of society-specific, needed workforce skills. Assessing student learning disaggregated by skill performance facilitates tracking students into the most contributory pathways and prepares them for competitive job-hunting and job-keeping. Similarly, assessing instruction drives teachers and teaching institutions into the most efficient delivery of the most demanded knowledge and skills. Anything that gets in the way of this quantized, data-driven approach is a market inefficiency--as well as, on the reformers' view, a social anachronism and a political albatross. …

The Effects of Digital Media on Political Knowledge and Participation in Election Campaigns: Evidence From Panel Data

Abstract: While the majority of previous research suggests there are positive relationships between digital media use and political participation and knowledge, most studies have relied on cross-sectional surveys and have thus not been able to firmly establish the chain of causality. Also, there is little research investigating use of different forms of digital media and their relative effects on political participation and knowledge. This study examines (a) the effects of digital media use on political participation and knowledge and (b) whether different forms of digital media use affect people differently. Drawing on two representative panel surveys, the study demonstrates that there are only weak effects of digital media use on political learning, but that the use of some digital media forms has appreciable effects on political participation.

Big Data ethics

Abstract: The speed of development in Big Data and associated phenomena, such as social media, has surpassed the capacity of the average consumer to understand his or her actions and their knock-on effects. We are moving towards changes in how ethics has to be perceived: away from individual decisions with specific and knowable outcomes, towards actions by many unaware that they may have taken actions with unintended consequences for anyone. Responses will require a rethinking of ethical choices, the lack thereof and how this will guide scientists, governments, and corporate agencies in handling Big Data. This essay elaborates on the ways Big Data impacts on ethical conceptions.

Differences in negativity bias underlie variations in political ideology.

Abstract: Disputes between those holding differing political views are ubiquitous and deep-seated, and they often follow common, recognizable lines. The supporters of tradition and stability, sometimes referred to as conservatives, do battle with the supporters of innovation and reform, sometimes referred to as liberals. Understanding the correlates of those distinct political orientations is probably a prerequisite for managing political disputes, which are a source of social conflict that can lead to frustration and even bloodshed. A rapidly growing body of empirical evidence documents a multitude of ways in which liberals and conservatives differ from each other in purviews of life with little direct connection to politics, from tastes in art to desire for closure and from disgust sensitivity to the tendency to pursue new information, but the central theme of the differences is a matter of debate. In this article, we argue that one organizing element of the many differences between liberals and conservatives is the nature of their physiological and psychological responses to features of the environment that are negative. Compared with liberals, conservatives tend to register greater physiological responses to such stimuli and also to devote more psychological resources to them. Operating from this point of departure, we suggest approaches for refining understanding of the broad relationship between political views and response to the negative. We conclude with a discussion of normative implications, stressing that identifying differences across ideological groups is not tantamount to declaring one ideology superior to another.

When the Moon Waxes Red: Representation, Gender and Cultural Politics

Abstract: In this new collection of her provocative essays on Third World art and culture, Trinh Minh-ha offers new challenges to Western regimes of knowledge Bringing to her subjects an acute sense of the many meanings of the marginal, she examines topics such as Asian and African texts, the theories of Barthes, questions of spectatorship, the enigmas of art, and the perils of anthropology When the Moon Waxes Red is an extended argument against reductive analyses, even those that appear politically adroit The multiply-hyphenated peoples of color are not simply placed in a duality between two cultural heritages; throughout, Trinh describes the predicament of having to live "a difference that has no name and too many names already" She argues for multicultural revision of knowledge so that a new politics can transform reality rather than merely ideologize it By rewriting the always emerging, already distorted place of struggle, such work seeks to "beat the master at his own game"

Neoliberalism: A Critical Reader

Abstract: "Bravo! Some of the most incisive students of neoliberalism gather together to present a stunning indictment of the destructiveness of the already discredited right-wing economic regime." Professor Michael Perelman, California State University, Chico "Across its thirty chapters, covering theoretical, empirical, policy and political aspects for different regions of the world, this collection of essays on neo-liberalism establishes that it is not merely a temporary phase of contemporary capitalism. Rather, it is the reflection of deep-rooted structures and processes, forging a rhythm in capitalist development that inevitably releases appalling consequences albeit in historically specific circumstances. In short, neo-liberalism, like imperialism, underdevelopment, fascism, world wars and so on, is not some aberration but an immanent aspect of capitalism." Professor Ben Fine, School of Oriental and African Studies, University of London "This scholarly yet deeply engaged book will do much to to put the record straight on what neoliberalism is and what its actual effects have been on those who have gained from it and the much larger numbers who have been afflicted by it. The geographical scope and analytical sophistication of the contributions make it one of the few really reliable guides to this complex and life-threatening ideology." Professor Leslie Sklair, London School of Economics Neoliberalism is the dominant ideology shaping our world today. It dictates the policies of governments, and shapes the actions of key institutions such as the WTO, IMF, World Bank and European Central Bank. Its political and economic implications can hardly be overstated. Yet there are obvious problems with the neoliberal project. This book is a perfect introduction to neoliberalism that is ideal for anyone seeking a critical perspective. It explains the nature, history, strengths, weaknesses and implications of neoliberalism from the point of view of radical political economics. Short, self-contained chapters are written by leading experts in each field. The books is organised in three parts: the first section outlining neoliberal theory, the second exploring how neoliberalism has affected various policy areas, and a third looking at how neoliberal policies have played out in particular regions of the world. Using a broad range of left economic perspectives, from post-Keynesian to Marxist, this is a great resource for students of politics and economics, and anyone looking for a grounded critical approach to this broad subject.

Solution aversion: On the relation between ideology and motivated disbelief.

Abstract: There is often a curious distinction between what the scientific community and the general population believe to be true of dire scientific issues, and this skepticism tends to vary markedly across groups. For instance, in the case of climate change, Republicans (conservatives) are especially skeptical of the relevant science, particularly when they are compared with Democrats (liberals). What causes such radical group differences? We suggest, as have previous accounts, that this phenomenon is often motivated. However, the source of this motivation is not necessarily an aversion to the problem, per se, but an aversion to the solutions associated with the problem. This difference in underlying process holds important implications for understanding, predicting, and influencing motivated skepticism. In 4 studies, we tested this solution aversion explanation for why people are often so divided over evidence and why this divide often occurs so saliently across political party lines. Studies 1, 2, and 3-using correlational and experimental methodologies-demonstrated that Republicans' increased skepticism toward environmental sciences may be partly attributable to a conflict between specific ideological values and the most popularly discussed environmental solutions. Study 4 found that, in a different domain (crime), those holding a more liberal ideology (support for gun control) also show skepticism motivated by solution aversion. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2014 APA, all rights reserved). Language: en

Political connections and the cost of bank loans

Abstract: This paper analyzes whether the political connections of listed firms in the United States affect the cost and terms of loan contracts. Using a hand-collected data set of the political connections of S&P 500 companies over the 2003-2008 time period, we find that the cost of bank loans is significantly lower for companies that have board members with political ties. We consider two possible explanations for these findings: a Borrower Channel in which lenders charge lower rates because they recognize that connections enhance the borrower's credit worthiness and a Bank Channel in which banks assign greater value to connected loans to enhance their own relationships with key politicians. After employing a series of tests to distinguish between these two channels, we find strong support for the Borrower Channel but no direct evidence supporting the Bank Channel. Finally, we demonstrate that political connections reduce the likelihood of a capital expenditure restriction or liquidity requirement commanded by banks at the origination of the loan. Taken together, our results suggest that political connections increase the value of U.S. companies and reduce monitoring costs and credit risk faced by banks, which, in turn, reduces the borrower's cost of debt.

Speaking (un-)truth to power : conspiracy mentality as a generalised political attitude

Abstract: Conspiracy theories explain complex world events with reference to secret plots hatched by powerful groups. Belief in such theories is largely determined by a general propensity towards conspiratio...

The Limits of Neoliberalism: Authority, Sovereignty and the Logic of Competition

Abstract: Since its intellectual inception in the 1930s and its political emergence in the 1970s, neo-liberalism has sought to disenchant politics by replacing it with economics. This agenda-setting text examines the efforts and failures of economic experts to make government and public life amenable to measurement, and to re-model society and state in terms of competition. In particular, it explores the practical use of economic techniques and conventions by policy-makers, politicians, regulators and judges and how these practices are being adapted to the perceived failings of the neoliberal model. By picking apart the defining contradiction that arises from the conflation of economics and politics, this book asks: to what extent can economics provide government legitimacy?

Democracy Disfigured: Opinion, Truth, and the People

Abstract: In "Democracy Disfigured, "Nadia Urbinati diagnoses the ills that beset the body politic in an age of hyper-partisanship and media monopolies and offers a spirited defense of the messy compromises and contentious outcomes that define democracy.Urbinati identifies three types of democratic disfiguration: the unpolitical, the populist, and the plebiscitarian. Each undermines a crucial division that a well-functioning democracy must preserve: the wall separating the free forum of public opinion from the governmental institutions that enact the will of the people. Unpolitical democracy delegitimizes political opinion in favor of expertise. Populist democracy radically polarizes the public forum in which opinion is debated. And plebiscitary democracy overvalues the aesthetic and nonrational aspects of opinion. For Urbinati, democracy entails a permanent struggle to make visible the issues that citizens deem central to their lives. Opinion is thus a form of action as important as the mechanisms that organize votes and mobilize decisions.Urbinati focuses less on the overt enemies of democracy than on those who pose as its friends: technocrats wedded to procedure, demagogues who make glib appeals to "the people," and media operatives who, given their preference, would turn governance into a spectator sport and citizens into fans of opposing teams.