Publication Type: Session Paper
Abstract: In the 1950s the concept of mass, which has a long and respectable history, came under attack with Edward A. Shils and Daniel Bell in the vanguard. Criticisms drew on an accumulation of evidence from social science studies about the continuing significance of informal social relationships in modern society. This paper traces the varying definitions of "mass" back to their origins and to their underlying assumptions about the nature of changes attending industrialization and and advances in communication technology that made possible rapid transmission of a uniform content to a geographically dispersed audience. Much of the criticism of the concept of mass strikes us as misdirected, on the one side, at conservatives who fear the masses and, on the other, at the disdain felt mostly, but not exclusively, by neo-Marxist intellectuals toward the culture of the market place. When mass behavior is sociologically rather than ideologically defined, as it should be, its increasingly important role in contemporary life becomes unavoidably clear.

Publication Type: Conference Paper/Unpublished Manuscript
Abstract: We are used to thinking about the public sphere as spreading much more easily in the Netherlands and Great Britain than in typically Continental European powers like France and Germany. While this was true with respect to the early and somewhat elitist brand of the public sphere arising and spreading in the century preceding the French Revolution, this is not equally true if we shift the focus to the mid-to-late 19th century. Instead, during this period, early runners like Great Britain and latecomers like Germany exhibit major similarities. Thus, the paper argues that the introduction of mass politics in Western Europe through franchise extensions in Britain and the gradual introduction of parliamentary features to the German system, had significant effects on the institution of popular legitimacy, manifesting itself through a considerable deterioration of the public sphere, which lasted for several decades in all three countries. The paper aims to show this through data collected from parliamentary debates, election campaigns, newspaper articles, and not the least foreign policy rhetoric by influential state and non-state actors. One important consequence of the deterioration of the public sphere was a recourse to political demagoguery from the ruling elites, seeking to preserve popular legitimacy by using foreign politics to attract the masses. Hence, the late 19th century saw imperialism and foreign policy strife between major European powers, as the introduction of mass politics meant an end to the relative calm of the elitist consensus of the Concert of Europe and the introduction of a foreign policy paradigm where mass politics and nationalism created a far more volatile foreign policy environment.

Publication Type: Conference Paper/Unpublished Manuscript
Abstract: Over the last century, campaigning has changed enormously. No longer can a candidate rely on party loyalty or giving speeches off the back of a train on whistle stop tours. The advent of radio, television and the Internet forces today’s politician to make finite resources go as far as they can with evolving news media._x000d__x000d_This paper examines how campaigns utilized mass media theories to promote themselves, woo undecided voters and hurt their opponents throughout the 2008 presidential primaries and election. Mass media theories can explain how two different media outlets portray the same event differently (consumers rely on mass media to fill certain needs; mass media knows this and seeks to fill those needs), why campaigns are comfortable with insinuating borderline—and sometimes full blown—falsities (most viewers are not going to sift through other sources to test its veracity) and how media gatekeepers control what we talk about at the water cooler (mass media may lack the power to tell us what to think, but they can certainly tell us what to think about). _x000d_The paper focuses on Uses and Gratifications, Dependency, Cultivation and Consistency theories, as well as Agenda Setting, Status conferral and Selective Exposure.

Publication Type: Conference Paper/Unpublished Manuscript
Review Method: Peer Reviewed
Abstract: Democratic capitalism's end-of-millennium success presented new cultural challenges within pluralist societies with Anglo-celtic majorities. It also presented new foreign policy challenges to such societies, fuelled by traditional backlashes within illiberal societies. In a liminal moment in World Politics, Saddam Hussein invaded Kuwait – a clear miscalculation in hindsight. With the left of centre in democratic capitalist societies capturing the economic homeland of the right of centre, the latter are largely left with their traditional territory in relation to security issues. The development of a tolerance of extremist method in the face of 'evil' has led to a new divide in public attitudes in the Western democracies, a divide generated partly by the relative use of medis distraction and instruction by foreign policy elites. In a mediated world of world politics, the Weapons of Mass Destruction became in effect weapons of mass distraction in the struggle between the US (upholding World Security) and Saddam Hussein, fighting for his own survival. The paper examines the role of media distraction and instruction between states at war and peace in the contemporary world.

Publication Type: Conference Paper/Unpublished Manuscript
Review Method: Peer Reviewed
Abstract: This paper delves further into the relationship between regime type and state-sponsored mass murder. I disaggregate regimes into theoretically relevant component elements and, revisiting the analyses of the State Failures Task Force published by Harff (2003), I examine which if any institutional or procedural components of democracy negatively affect the likelihood of the state using lethal force to eliminate an entire domestic communal or political group. The results confirm some of R. J. Rummel's findings regarding democracy and the lethal state, but are unable to help explain how and why democracies decrease the likelihood of genocide or politicide.