Party organization and activism in the American South

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Matthew D. Lassiter

"In The Silent Majority, Matthew Lassiter provides the first regionwide account of the suburbanization of the South from the perpsective of corporate leaders, political activists, and especially of ordinary families who lived in booming Sunbelt metropolises such as Atlanta, Charlotte, and Richmond. This book examines crucial battles over racial integration, court-ordered busing, and housing segregation to explain how the South moved from the era of Jim Crow fully into the mainstream of national currents." "The Silent Majority traces the emergence of a "color-blind" ideology in the white middle-class suburbs that defended residential segregation and neighborhood schools as the natural outcomes of market forces and individual meritocracy rather than the unconstitutional products of discriminatory public policies. Lassiter rejects the framework of southern distinctiveness and the conventional wisdom that Republican growth in the region resulted primarily from a top-down, race-driven "Southern Strategy."" "The Silent Majority is critical reading for those interested in urban and suburban studies, political and social history, the civil rights movement, public policy, and the intersection of race and class in modern America."--Jacket.

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Thomas Byrne Edsall

Provides a sobering account of how pitched battles over scarce resources will increasingly define American politics in the coming years--and how citizens might avoid, or at least mitigate, the damage from these ideological and economic battles.

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John Löwenhardt

"Political parties are the fabric of democratic politics. In 1991 a new Russia emerged after seven decades of one-party dictatorship, claiming to be on the road towards democracy. In this volume the authors analyse the many contradictions, dilemmas and paradoxes of reconstituting free party politics and democratic rule in a severely traumatized country. Frequently from a comparative perspective they deal with a range of topics, from the behaviour of the new parties in parliament, the role of ideology in cementing party organizations, to the character and prospects of the transient Russian party system."--BOOK JACKET.

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Leonard J. Schoppa

"In August 2009, the Democratic Party of Japan (DPJ) won a crushing victory over the Liberal Democratic Party (LDP), thus bringing to an end over fifty years of one-party dominance. Around the world, the victory of the DPJ was seen as a radical break with Japan's past. However, this dramatic political shift was not as sudden as it appeared, but rather the culmination of a series of changes first set in motion in the early 1990s. The Evolution of Japan's Party System analyses the transition by examining both party politics and public policy. Arguing that these political changes were evolutionary rather than revolutionary, the essays in this volume discuss how older parties such as the LDP and the Japan Socialist Party failed to adapt to the new policy environment of the 1990s. Taken as a whole, The Evolution of Japan's Party System provides a unique look at party politics in Japan, bringing them into a comparative conversation that usually focuses on Europe and North America."--Pub. desc.