Democracy at Risk: How Terrorist Threats Affect the Public

Author:   Jennifer L. Merolla ,  Elizabeth J. Zechmeister
Publisher:   The University of Chicago Press
ISBN:  

9780226520544


Pages:   280
Publication Date:   01 October 2009
Format:   Hardback
Availability:   Out of stock   Availability explained
The supplier is temporarily out of stock of this item. It will be ordered for you on backorder and shipped when it becomes available.

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Democracy at Risk: How Terrorist Threats Affect the Public


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Overview

How do threats of terrorism affect the opinions of citizens? Speculation abounds, but until now no one had marshaled hard evidence to explain the complexities of this relationship. Drawing on data from surveys and original experiments they conducted in the United States and Mexico, Jennifer Merolla and Elizabeth Zechmeister demonstrate how our strategies for coping with terrorist threats significantly influence our attitudes toward fellow citizens, political leaders, and foreign nations. The authors reveal, for example, that some people try to restore a sense of order and control through increased wariness of others—especially of those who exist outside the societal mainstream. Additionally, voters under threat tend to prize “strong leadership” more highly than partisan affiliation, making some politicians seem more charismatic than they otherwise would. The authors show that a wary public will sometimes continue to empower such leaders after they have been elected, giving them greater authority even at the expense of institutional checks and balances. Having demonstrated that a climate of terrorist threat also increases support for restrictive laws at home and engagement against terrorists abroad, Merolla and Zechmeister conclude that our responses to such threats can put democracy at risk.

Full Product Details

Author:   Jennifer L. Merolla ,  Elizabeth J. Zechmeister
Publisher:   The University of Chicago Press
Imprint:   University of Chicago Press
Dimensions:   Width: 1.60cm , Height: 0.30cm , Length: 2.30cm
Weight:   0.539kg
ISBN:  

9780226520544


ISBN 10:   0226520544
Pages:   280
Publication Date:   01 October 2009
Audience:   Professional and scholarly ,  College/higher education ,  Professional & Vocational ,  Postgraduate, Research & Scholarly
Format:   Hardback
Publisher's Status:   Active
Availability:   Out of stock   Availability explained
The supplier is temporarily out of stock of this item. It will be ordered for you on backorder and shipped when it becomes available.

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Reviews

This book brings good contemporary social science to the public debate about the role of terror in the modern democracy. In the natural world, we typically see that people who find terrorism threatening will be more likely to support authoritarian and security-minded policies, but it is hard to say how much of this set of beliefs stems from a genuine concern about terrorism rather than personality or political interests. Merolla and Zechmeister's original experiments give real purchase on these questions. - Michael MacKuen, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill


Author Information

Jennifer L. Merolla is the Mary Nicolai - George Blair Assistant Professor in the Department of Politics and Policy at Claremont Graduate University. Elizabeth J. Zechmeister is assistant professor of political science at Vanderbilt University.

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