Building a Business of Politics: The Rise of Political Consulting and the Transformation of American Democracy (Studies in Postwar American Political Development) - Hardcover

Sheingate, Adam

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0190217197 ISBN 13: 9780190217198

Publisher: Oxford University Press, 2016

Synopsis

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.

About this title

About the Author

Adam Sheingate is a professor and chair of Political Science at Johns Hopkins University. He is the author of The Rise of the Agricultural Welfare State.

Edition details

• Publisher: Oxford University Press
• Publication date: 2016
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 0190217197
• ISBN 13: 9780190217198
• Binding: Hardcover
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 296