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The Politics of GM Food: A Comparative Study of the UK, USA and EU (Environmental Politics #Vol. 6)
by Dave Toke'Why have GM Foods become so controversial? Comparing GM food politics in the US, Britain, and the European Union, Toke draws on insights from discourse analysis to help explain this basic political struggle of our time. By stressing the interplay between the material and discursive dimensions involved in the shaping of the conflict, the work offers a detailed account that enriches our political understanding of these 'Frankenfoods' on a variety of fronts, in particular the interplay between scientific expertise and citizens politics. Those interested in the 'risk society', both students and specialists, will find much to learn from this perceptive analysis.'Professor Frank Fischer, Rutgers University, USAThe Politics of GM Food compares and explains how differing political outcomes have occurred regarding GM food and crops in the UK, USA and the EU, thus throwing light on the relationship between science and politics.
The Politics of Gay Marriage in Latin America: Argentina, Chile, and Mexico
by Jordi DíezAddressing one of the defining social issues of our time, The Politics of Gay Marriage in Latin America explores how and why Latin America, a culturally Catholic and historically conservative region, has become a leader among nations of the Global South, and even the Global North, in the passage of gay marriage legislation. In the first comparative study of its kind, Jordi Díez explains cross-national variation in the enactment of gay marriage in three countries: Argentina, Chile, and Mexico. Based on extensive interviews in the three countries, Díez argues that three main key factors explain variation in policy outcomes across these cases: the strength of social movement networks forged by activists in favor of gay marriage; the access to policy making afforded by particular national political institutions; and the resonance of the frames used to demand the expansion of marriage rights to same-sex couples. Makes a significant theoretical contribution by combining two approaches in the social sciences that are engaged separately: social movements and public policy. The first book to examine cross-national variation in the expansion of gay marriage in Latin America. The only volume to provide a historical comparative and systematic account of three gay and lesbian movements in Latin America.
The Politics of Gender Culture under State Socialism: An Expropriated Voice (Routledge Research in Gender and Politics)
by Hana Havelková Libora Oates-IndruchováThough there has been much research on the incomplete emancipation project of state socialism in East and Central Europe, very little has been published on how the state and its institutions conceived of gender as a concept. This book seeks to understand if and how this conceptualization developed in the second half of the twentieth century, and what impact it had on everyday life and on culture. This study moves beyond the dichotomous gender perspectives and towards a nuanced understanding of the diverse discursive negotiations, agendas, actors and agency involved in state-socialist gender practices. Including a detailed case study on Czechoslovakia, contributors explore these issues in a series of independent, but collaboratively developed studies, placing their research in the context of other East Central European countries. The studies collected in the volume bring to light fresh material and consider it from the combined perspective of current gender theory and internal ideological dynamics of state socialism, breaking new ground in gender theory, cultural theory and studies of state socialism. This book will be of interest to students and scholars of gender studies, socialism, Cold-War politics and Eastern European politics and culture.
The Politics of Gender Equality: Australian Lessons in an Uncertain World (Gender and Politics)
by Carol JohnsonThis open access book provides the first in-depth study of the development of federal gender equality politics and policy in Australia from the 1970s to the present day. Australia has a history of gender equality innovation, including granting women's suffrage long before equivalent countries. From the 1970s on, it became the first country to introduce a women's adviser, femocrats (feminist bureaucrats) and gender responsive budgeting but then fell behind, partly due to the influence of Anglosphere neoliberalism. However, the Albanese government has pledged to make Australia a world leader in gender equality again. The book situates Australia in an international context, assessing the useful, though sometimes salutary, lessons which the Australian experience provides. It engages with key literature, including feminist political theory, discursive framing analysis, gendered public policy analysis, LBGTIQ+ issues, path dependency, and gender and leadership. It will interest academics, undergraduate and postgraduate researchers, public policy experts and practitioners, and a broader readership interested in issues of gender equality. The book makes innovative contributions to the study of the politics of gender equality policy, addressing what a gender equality policy agenda could look like if the needs of women, in all their intersectional social diversity, were the driving force. In doing so, it addresses a range of issues that are impacting the future of women, including an ongoing pandemic, technology, education and training agendas, issues of sovereign capability, securitisation, climate change and the growth of campaigns that oppose so-called “gender ideology”. It explores how current government agendas, such as the focus on wellbeing, could be made even more gender-inclusive. Finally, the book suggests that Australia, as a multicultural but predominantly Western, settler-colonial society situated in the Asia-Pacific has some potentially unique insights to offer in a world facing major geoeconomic and geopolitical change.
The Politics of Genetically Modified Organisms in the United States and Europe
by Kelly A. ClancyThis book examines the puzzle of why genetically modified organisms continue to be controversial despite scientific evidence declaring them safe for humans and the environment. What explains the sustained levels of resistance? Clancy analyzes the trans-Atlantic controversy by comparing opposition to GMOs in the United Kingdom, Germany, Poland, Spain, and the United States, examining the way in which science is politicized on both sides of the debate. Ultimately, the author argues that the lack of labeling GMO products in the United States allows opponents to create far-fetched images of GMOs that work their ways in to the minds of the public. The way forward out of this seemingly intractable debate is to allow GMOs, once tested, to enter the market without penalty--and then to label them.
The Politics of Genetically Modified Organisms in the United States and Europe
by Kelly A. ClancyThis book examines the puzzle of why genetically modified organisms continue to be controversial despite scientific evidence declaring them safe for humans and the environment. What explains the sustained levels of resistance? Clancy analyzes the trans-Atlantic controversy by comparing opposition to GMOs in the United Kingdom, Germany, Poland, Spain, and the United States, examining the way in which science is politicized on both sides of the debate. Ultimately, the author argues that the lack of labeling GMO products in the United States allows opponents to create far-fetched images of GMOs that work their ways in to the minds of the public. The way forward out of this seemingly intractable debate is to allow GMOs, once tested, to enter the market without penalty—and then to label them.
The Politics of Genocide: From the Genocide Convention to the Responsibility to Protect (Genocide, Political Violence, Human Rights)
by Jeffrey S. BachmanBeginning with the negotiations that concluded with the unanimous adoption of the United Nations Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide on December 9, 1948, and extending to the present day, the United States, Soviet Union/Russia, China, United Kingdom, and France have put forth great effort to ensure that they will not be implicated in the crime of genocide. If this were to fail, they have also ensured that holding any of them accountable for genocide will be practically impossible. By situating genocide prevention in a system of territorial jurisdiction; by excluding protection for political groups and acts constituting cultural genocide from the Genocide Convention; by controlling when genocide is meaningfully named at the Security Council; and by pointing the responsibility to protect in directions away from any of the P-5, they have achieved what can only be described as practical impunity for genocide. The Politics of Genocide is the first book to explicitly demonstrate how the permanent member nations have exploited the Genocide Convention to isolate themselves from the reach of the law, marking them as "outlaw states."
The Politics of Global Ocean Regions (Palgrave Studies in Maritime Politics and Security)
by Christian Bueger Rebecca Strating Elizabeth MendenhallThe oceans are not just vast expanses of blue, but dynamic political spaces shaped by complex regional dynamics. In this fascinating study, the authors advance a novel analytical framework for the study of the politics of global ocean regions. They shed new light on the complex interactions in ocean spaces such as the Arctic, Indo-Pacific or Indian Ocean. Written by leading experts in different ocean regions, the book demonstrates how important, yet diverse and complex regional maritime politics are. Its emphasis on the emergence, organization, and effects of global ocean regions provides a useful framework for guiding future research. The book will be essential reading for students and analysts interested in regionalism, the oceans, and the governance of global commons.
The Politics of Global Regulation
by Ngaire Woods Walter MattliRegulation by public and private organizations can be hijacked by special interests or small groups of powerful firms, and nowhere is this easier than at the global level. In whose interest is the global economy being regulated? Under what conditions can global regulation be made to serve broader interests? This is the first book to examine systematically how and why such hijacking or "regulatory capture" happens, and how it can be averted. Walter Mattli and Ngaire Woods bring together leading experts to present an analytical framework to explain regulatory outcomes at the global level and offer a series of case studies that illustrate the challenges of a global economy in which many institutions are less transparent and are held much less accountable by the media and public officials than are domestic institutions. They explain when and how global regulation falls prey to regulatory capture, yet also shed light on the positive regulatory changes that have occurred in areas including human rights, shipping safety, and global finance. This book is a wake-up call to proponents of network governance, self-regulation, and the view that technocrats should be left to regulate with as little oversight as possible. In addition to the editors, the contributors are Kenneth W. Abbott, Samuel Barrows, Judith L. Goldstein, Eric Helleiner, Miles Kahler, David A. Lake, Kathryn Sikkink, Duncan Snidal, Richard H. Steinberg, and David Vogel.
The Politics of Global Tax Governance (Global Governance)
by Henning SchmidtkeWhy has global tax governance been politicized and how can we explain the varying intensity and content of public debates? This book offers an integrated theory of the politicization of international institutions and a detailed account of how the institutional design and policy output of tax governance by the EU and OECD have developed over time. Offering the first in-depth empirical analysis to compare politicization across international institutions, it blends institutionalist explanations that focus on the growing authority of international institutions, and sociological and political economy approaches that take into account domestic context. Exploring why and how international institutions have become increasingly contested in the 21st century, this book will be of particular interest to the scholars of the transfer of authority from the nation-state to international institutions, and the societal repercussions and political struggles that connect these processes. Researchers in the fields of political science, international relations, sociology, and political communication will also find it useful and insightful.
The Politics of Globality since 1945: Assembling the Planet (New International Relations)
by Rens van Munster and Casper SylvestThis timely, comprehensive and interdisciplinary volume advances an original argument about the complex roots and multiple politics of globality. It shows that technological innovations and decisive developments since 1945 – from the nuclear revolution to anthropogenic climate change and debates about the Anthropocene – have prompted reflections on the global condition of humanity and helped reshape political communities by making the world (appear) small, manageable and interconnected. The contributors stress how human beings have transformed both their habitat and their view of human-earth relations since 1945. Such changes have been accompanied by important shifts in political visions, prompted new forms of human association, encouraged legal and institutional reform and spurred ideas about ecological humility. At the same time, the spatially all-encompassing nature of globality have also informed projects of human mastery and a range of practices historically associated with militarization and a strongly statist conception of national security. This volume reflects on these paradoxical relationships, their history and contemporary relevance. Contributing to the overlapping concerns of four burgeoning fields of study across the humanities and the social sciences - globality and globalization studies; geopolitics and political geography; Anthropocene studies; global governance and political theory – the book will be of great use to scholars and graduates working in these areas.
The Politics of Good Intentions: History, Fear and Hypocrisy in the New World Order
by David RuncimanTony Blair has often said that he wishes history to judge the great political controversies of the early twenty-first century--above all, the actions he has undertaken in alliance with George W. Bush. This book is the first attempt to fulfill that wish, using the long history of the modern state to put the events of recent years--the war on terror, the war in Iraq, the falling out between Europe and the United States--in their proper perspective. It also dissects the way that politicians like Blair and Bush have used and abused history to justify the new world order they are creating. Many books about international politics since 9/11 contend that either everything changed or nothing changed on that fateful day. This book identifies what is new about contemporary politics but also how what is new has been exploited in ways that are all too familiar. It compares recent political events with other crises in the history of modern politics--political and intellectual, ranging from seventeenth-century England to Weimar Germany--to argue that the risks of the present crisis have been exaggerated, manipulated, and misunderstood. David Runciman argues that there are three kinds of time at work in contemporary politics: news time, election time, and historical time. It is all too easy to get caught up in news time and election time, he writes. This book is about viewing the threats and challenges we face in real historical time.
The Politics of Governance: Actors and Articulations in Africa and Beyond (Conceptualising Comparative Politics)
by Lucy Koechlin Till FörsterHow do government arrangements emerge? When and how does individual agency turn into collective agency? How do sensory experiences of violence, instability, etc affect the configuration of governance arrangements? When, why, and how are governance arrangements institutionalized? This book seeks to contribute to a non-normative conceptualization of the emergence and transformation of government arrangements, and addresses the under-theorization of actors and agency in conventional governance theories. The editors and contributors theorize the concept of governance more concretely by analyzing the key actors and arrangements that define states of governance across different places and by examining its performance and development in particular settings and time periods. Each contribution to the edited volume is based on a case-study drawn from Africa, though the book argues that the core issues identified remain the same across the world, though in different empirical contexts. The contributions also range across key disciplines, from anthropology to sociology to political science. This ground-breaking volume addresses governance arrangements, discusses how social actors form such arrangements, and concludes by synthesizing an actor-centered understanding of political articulation to a general theory of governance. Scholars across disciplines such as political science, development studies, African studies, and sociology will find the book insightful.
The Politics of Government-Business Relations in Ghana, 1982–2008
by Darko Kwabena OpokuSince the early 1980s, the World Bank, backed by aid donor countries, has been involved in a determined effort to stimulate capitalist growth in Africa by prescribing a set of orthodox, neoliberal economic policies. Using Ghana as a case study, this book considers why this is the case.
The Politics of Green Transformations (Pathways to Sustainability)
by Peter Newell Ian Scoones Melissa LeachMultiple ‘green transformations’ are required if humanity is to live sustainably on planet Earth. Recalling past transformations, this book examines what makes the current challenge different, and especially urgent. It examines how green transformations must take place in the context of the particular moments of capitalist development, and in relation to particular alliances. The role of the state is emphasised, both in terms of the type of incentives required to make green transformations politically feasible and the way states must take a developmental role in financing innovation and technology for green transformations. The book also highlights the role of citizens, as innovators, entrepreneurs, green consumers and members of social movements. Green transformations must be both ‘top-down’, involving elite alliances between states and business, but also ‘bottom up’, pushed by grassroots innovators and entrepreneurs, and part of wider mobilisations among civil society. The chapters in the book draw on international examples to emphasise how contexts matter in shaping pathways to sustainability Written by experts in the field, this book will be of great interest to researchers and students in environmental studies, international relations, political science, development studies, geography and anthropology, as well as policymakers and practitioners concerned with sustainability.
The Politics of Gun Control
by Robert J. SpitzerThe new edition of this classic text covers the latest developments in American gun policy including the most recent shooting incidents that persist in plaguing the American landscape. Continuing a multi-decade trend, crime generally remains low throughout the US, but mass shootings have increased in both number and lethality, stoking greater support for gun laws among the public. Two seismic political events are highlighted in the eighth edition. The first is the ascendance of the gun safety movement, culminating in numerous electoral victories for gun law supporters in 2018 congressional and state races around the country. This outcome, which contributed to the Democrats’ capture of the House of Representatives for the first time since 2008, also demonstrates that support for stronger gun laws could be a winning issue for proponents in 2020 and beyond. The second political development featured is the financial, political, and legal crises that beset the nation’s oldest and most powerful gun group, the National Rifle Association. These crises are sufficiently grave that they may pose an existential threat to the organization’s traditional dominance in the realm of gun politics. Author Robert J. Spitzer has long been a recognized authority on gun control and gun policy. His even-handed treatment of the issue--as both a member of the NRA and the Brady Center--continues to compel national and international interest, including appearances on major media such as the PBS NewsHour. The eighth edition of The Politics of Gun Control provides the reader with up-to-date data and coverage of gun ownership, gun deaths, school shootings, border patrols and new topics including universal background checks, limits on large capacity ammunition magazines, and "red flag" laws. New to the Eighth Edition Covers the ascendance of the Second Amendment sanctuary and gun safety movements, resulting from heinous shootings in Las Vegas and Parkland, Florida. Tracks the financial, political, and legal crises that threaten the dominance of the National Rifle Association. Examines new policy measures including universal background checks, limits on large capacity ammunition magazines, the bump stock controversy, and "red flag" laws, among others.
The Politics of Gun Control
by Robert J. SpitzerSince its initial publication, this book has become the classic work on every important element of the tumultuous national gun debate in America. This new edition brings together the latest developments and research in gun politics, policy, law, history, and criminology to provide a comprehensive and accessible source widely used by scholars, journalists, and in classrooms. In this era of polarized politics, this book provides a unique window into how and why that polarization drives our politics. Among the new topics covered in this edition are the Bipartisan Safer Communities Act, new Supreme Court protections for concealed carry permits, and the impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic on gun violence and policy. New to the Ninth Edition • Examines current gun control legislation at both state and federal levels, particularly the circumstances that lead to the passage of the Bipartisan Safer Communities Act in 2022. • Introduces the new constitutional standards for gun control legislation set by the controversial, pro-Second Amendment Supreme Court ruling in New York State Rifle & Pistol Association v. Bruen (2022). • Provides expanded and updated consideration on related issues including: the rise of "gun carry" movements on college campuses, attempts to regulate "ghost guns," bump stocks and guns with high capacity magazines, .50 caliber sniper rifles, and the impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic, the January 6 Capitol Attack, and the Black Lives Matter movement on contemporary gun control debates. • Tracks the financial, political, and legal crises that threaten the dominance of the National Rifle Association and examines the rise of new gun rights groups, such as the National Association for Gun Rights. • Presents new and updated statistical research on gun ownership in America, gun-related fatalities, public opinion support of "red-flag" laws and other gun control measures. • Incorporates new pedagogical features of chapter summaries and discussion questions into each chapter.
The Politics of Gun Control: Sixth Edition
by Robert J. SpitzerThe new edition of this classic text covers the latest developments in American gun policy, including shooting incidents plaguing the American landscape--especially the Orlando nightclub shootings, the San Bernardino incident, and the ongoing legacy of Sandy Hook--placing them in context with similar recent events. The incidents described in the book sparked a wave of gun control legislation at local, state, and national levels, some of which was successful, some doomed and all controversial. Robert J. Spitzer has long been a recognized authority on gun control and gun policy. His even-handed treatment of the issue--as both a member of the NRA and the Brady Center--continues to compel national and international interest, including interviews by the likes of Terry Gross, Tom Ashbrook and Diane Rehm. The seventh edition of The Politics of Gun Control provides the reader with up-to-date data and coverage of gun ownership, gun deaths, school shootings, border patrols and new topics including social media, stand-your-ground laws, magazine regulation, and shooting-related mental health initiatives. New to the Seventh Edition Reports on the pivotal 2016 elections, including the rise and victory of one-time gun control supporter-turned gun rights advocate Donald Trump. The latest data on gun ownership and use, revealing contradictory trends. New developments in the push to allow civilian gun carrying on college campuses, the controversy over so-called "gun-free zones," and a new examination of restrictions imposed on the Centers for Disease Control.
The Politics of HBO's The Wire: Everything is Connected (Popular Culture and World Politics)
by Jonathan Havercroft Shirin DeylamiThis innovative new work suggests that The Wire reflects, not simply a cultural take on contemporary America, but a structural critique of the conditions of late-modernity and global capitalism. As such, it is a visual text worth investigating and exploring for its nuanced examination of power, difference and inequality. Deylami & Havercroft bring together nine essays addressing issues of interest to a range of academic fields in order to engage with this important cultural intervention that has transfixed audiences and sparked debate within the social scientific community. While the TV show is primarily focused upon the urban politics of Baltimore, the contributors to this volume read Baltimore as a global city. That is, they argue that the relations between race, class, power, and violence that the series examines only make sense if we understand that inner city Baltimore is a node in a larger global network of violence and economic inequality. The book is divided into three interrelated sections focusing on systemic and cultural violence, the rise and decline of national and state formations, and the dysfunctional and destructive forces of global capitalism. Throughout the series the relation of the urban to the global is constantly being explored. This innovative new volume explains clearly how The Wire portrays this interaction, and what this representation can show social scientists interested in race, neo-liberal processes of globalization, criminality, gender, violence and surveillance.
The Politics of Happiness: What Government Can Learn from the New Research on Well-Being
by Derek BokNew insights into what makes people happy and how policymakers can foster greater satisfaction for allDuring the past forty years, thousands of studies have been carried out on the subject of happiness. Some have explored the levels of happiness or dissatisfaction associated with typical daily activities, such as working, seeing friends, or doing household chores. Others have tried to determine the extent to which income, family, religion, and other factors are associated with the satisfaction people feel about their lives. The Gallup organization has begun conducting global surveys of happiness, and several countries are considering publishing periodic reports on the growth or decline of happiness among their people. One nation, tiny Bhutan, has actually made "Gross National Happiness" the central aim of its domestic policy. How might happiness research affect government policy in the United States--and beyond? In The Politics of Happiness, former Harvard president Derek Bok examines how governments could use the rapidly growing research data on what makes people happy--in a variety of policy areas to increase well-being and improve the quality of life for all their citizens.Bok first describes the principal findings of happiness researchers. He considers how reliable the results appear to be and whether they deserve to be taken into account in devising government policies. Recognizing both the strengths and weaknesses of happiness research, Bok looks at the policy implications for economic growth, equality, retirement, unemployment, health care, mental health, family programs, education, and government quality, among other subjects. Timely and incisive, The Politics of Happiness sheds new light on what makes people happy and how government policy could foster greater satisfaction for all.
The Politics of Hate: How the Christian Right Darkened America's Political Soul (Religious Engagement in Democratic Politics)
by Angelia R. WilsonChristian Right organizations have darkened America’s political soul by strategically constructing a theological justification for hate. Angelia Wilson supports this claim in The Politics of Hate by detailing how Christian Right organizations have pushed voters toward polarization and primed religious conservatives to support Donald Trump. Based on original research, participant observation at events, and data collection, Wilson follows the money to provide a meticulous analysis of how Christian Right political elites operate. She traces the evolutionary development of the Christian Right’s political professionalism and their allegiance to a grand vision that articulates a grammar of war to fulfill their Biblical worldview. The Politics of Hate demonstrates how Christian Right organizations educate and train networks of soldiers to tactically engage the enemy in local, state, and national legal and political battles. Wilson carefully documents their history of co-belligerency, their strategies of political warfare, and, importantly, the impact of this war that has, over the past fifty years, forever changed American politics.
The Politics of Haunting and Memory in International Relations (Interventions)
by Jessica AuchterInternational Relations has traditionally focused on conflict and war, but the effects of violence including dead bodies and memorialization practices have largely been considered beyond the purview of the field. Drawing on Jacques Derrida’s notion of hauntology to consider the politics of life and death, Auchter traces the story of how life and death and a clear division between the two is summoned in the project of statecraft. She argues that by letting ourselves be haunted, or looking for ghosts, it is possible to trace how statecraft relies on the construction of such a dichotomy. Three empirical cases offer fertile ground for complicating the picture often painted of memorialization: Rwandan genocide memorials, the underexplored case of undocumented immigrants who die crossing the US-Mexico border, and the body/ruins nexus in 9/11 memorialization. Focusing on the role of dead bodies and the construction of particular spaces as the appropriate sites for memory to be situated, it offers an alternative take on the new materialisms movement in international relations by asking after the questions that arise from an ethnographic approach to the subject: viewing things from the perspective of dead bodies, who occupy the shadowy world of post-conflict international politics. This work will be of great interest to students and scholars of critical international relations, security studies, statecraft and memory studies.
The Politics of Health Promotion: In the European Union (Palgrave Studies in Science, Knowledge and Policy)
by Charlotte GodziewskiMuch has been written about policy efforts to achieve ‘Health in All Policies’: an ambitious attempt to improve population health and reduce health inequalities by ensuring multiple policy areas are more attuned to their health impacts. However, most accounts focus on technical challenges, such as implementing impact assessments. In contrast, and focusing on the European Union, this book argues that ‘Health in All Policies’ is essentially a political project shaped by institutional power, competing ideas, and discourses. We can only really understand the failure to realise its ambition through political analysis.
The Politics of Healthcare Reform in Turkey
by Volkan YilmazThis book explores the transformation in the healthcare system in Turkey since 2003, which has been portrayed as a benchmark for building universal healthcare systems in emerging market economies. Focussing on healthcare politics in an under-researched developing country context, it fills a significant lacuna in existing scholarship. This study answers these questions: What were the political dynamics that enabled the introduction of healthcare reform in Turkey? What political conflicts did the reform generate? How and to whose benefit have these conflicts been resolved? Drawing on qualitative interviews with a diverse set of actors, Yılmaz explores the actors’ subjective interpretations of the reform, the discourses and strategies they used to influence the reform, and the changing healthcare politics scene. He demonstrates that the reform has been a complex political process within which actors negotiated whether and to what extent healthcare remains a citizenship right or a commodity. This book will appeal to students and scholars of social policy, politics, health policy, public health and sociology.
The Politics of Herding Cats: When Congressional Leaders Fail (Legislative Politics And Policy Making)
by John LovettIn The Politics of Herding Cats, John Lovett looks at the relationship between media, Congress, and public policy, showing that leaders in Congress under normal circumstances control public policy on issue areas due to their status both within Congress and in the media by and large. When issue coverage on topics increases in media, however, other members seize on the opportunities to engage in the issue and shift public policy away from leader desires. As more members engage and more groups become involved, leaders lose the ability to control the process and are more likely to have problems actually getting public policy enacted. Lovett look at this phenomenon using newspaper coverage in the Washington Post over a 40-year period, both in terms of general analysis as well as individual case studies exploring agricultural subsidies (a low coverage topic), immigration (a changing coverage topic), and health care (a high coverage topic). As coverage increases, the amount leaders can control in the process decreases. Only under extreme circumstances, as seen in the Affordable Care Act, can leaders get anything done at all. The Politics of Herding Cats would be useful for those who wish to better understand the relationship between the media and Congress. It will also be useful to those who want to understand the relationship between actors in government and how the media has influenced American politics, as well as how individual members of Congress can go against party leaders on major issues.