Politics and Emotions: The Obama Phenomenon

Cover......Page 1
Politics and Emotions: The Obama Phenomenon......Page 4
ISBN 9783531181202......Page 5
Contents......Page 6
Politics & Emotions: An Overview......Page 8
Have emotions been marginalized in Western Tradition?......Page 9
Controversies Revolving around the Concept of Emotion......Page 12
Areas of Research......Page 17
Emotions and Research Methods......Page 22
The Book......Page 23
References......Page 24
Emotions & Contemporary Political Theory......Page 28
The Political Mind and Its Other......Page 30
The Semiotic Structure of the Reason / Passion Dichotomy......Page 33
Hyperrationality and the Theoretical Exclusion of Emotion in Mainstream Political Theory......Page 38
The Contemporary Critique of the Reason/Passion Dichotomy: From Neuroscience to Philosophy and the Social Sciences......Page 44
The Return of Passions to Political Theory......Page 56
References......Page 67
Methodological Issues......Page 72
The Influence of Affective States on the Depth of Information Processing......Page 74
Emotion and Affect......Page 75
Information Processing......Page 76
The Direct Influence of Positive and Negative Affective States on Behaviors and Judgments......Page 77
Understanding the Direct Influence of Affect......Page 78
The Indirect Influence of Positive and Negative Affective States on Information Processing......Page 79
The Bipolar Conceptualization of Affect......Page 80
Understanding the Differential Influence of Positive and Negative Affect......Page 81
The Discrete Emotion Conceptualization of Affective States......Page 83
Understanding the Differential Influence of Discrete Emotions of the Same Valence......Page 86
Issues of Measurement......Page 87
Future Directions and Conclusions......Page 89
References......Page 91
Barack Obama and the ‘Politics of Hope’......Page 96
What is Hope? Defining the Concept......Page 97
A Little of What We Know So Far about Positive Political Emotions......Page 100
A Political Science of Hope......Page 101
Hope and Campaign Rhetoric......Page 102
Hope and Staffers, Volunteers, and Activists......Page 103
A Note on Measuring and Testing ‘Political Hope’......Page 104
An Agenda for Political Hope......Page 105
References......Page 106
Perspectives on Politics & Emotions The Obama Phenomenon......Page 108
Suspending Disbelief......Page 110
Emotions in Political Communication......Page 111
The Medium is the Message: Emotional Architectures of Meaning4......Page 113
The Intimate Crowd......Page 117
Obama and the Suspension of Disbelief......Page 120
References......Page 126
Obama and ‘Change’......Page 130
Political Communicators......Page 131
Emotions, Identity and Politics......Page 132
Discourse and Emotional Engagement......Page 135
Emotion and Political Concepts......Page 136
The Political Masses and Empathy......Page 137
Emotion and Transference......Page 138
‘Real’ and ‘False’ Rhetoric and Actions......Page 139
What Next for the ‘Now’ Agenda?......Page 140
References......Page 141
Emotional Politics......Page 142
The Politics of Resentment......Page 146
The Politics of Cosmopolitanism......Page 148
Conclusion......Page 152
References......Page 153
Desiring Politics......Page 156
Hope in 1992......Page 158
Enthusiasm, Apathy, and the Ineloquence of the Political......Page 162
Hope, Now......Page 166
Hope and (Some) Leftists......Page 170
Hope and Its Doings......Page 173
Is Hope Fading Fast?......Page 178
Capacities, Potentialities, Openings......Page 181
References......Page 184
About the Authors......Page 190