ISBN:
9780197557051
Language:
English
Pages:
1 Online-Ressource.
Series Statement:
Journalism and political communication unbound
Series Statement:
Oxford scholarship online
Series Statement:
Political Science
Parallel Title:
Erscheint auch als
DDC:
306.20973
Keywords:
Political sociology
;
Mass media Political aspects
;
Secret societies Political aspects
;
Party affiliation
;
Political sociology
;
Mass media Political aspects
;
Secret societies Political aspect
;
Party affiliation
;
United States Politics and government
;
United States Politics and government
Abstract:
'Democracy Lives in Darkness' is about why people choose to hide their political beliefs from others and how they do so. Emily Van Duyn follows a secret political organization in rural Texas whose all-female membership meets in secret out of fear of their conservative spouses, friends, family, and neighbors. Drawing on in-depth interviews and observations of this group throughout the Trump administration, as well as U.S. representative survey data on secret political expression, this book explores what it means to be politically outnumbered and how intensifying political polarization has changed that experience over the past several years.
Abstract:
"Republicans and Democrats increasingly distrust, avoid, and wish harm upon those from the other party. To make matters worse, they also increasingly reside among like-minded others and are part of social groups that share their political beliefs. All of this can make expressing a dissenting political opinion hard. Yet digital and social media have given people new spaces for political discourse and community, and more control over who knows their political beliefs and who does not. With Democracy Lives in Darkness, Van Duyn looks at what these changes in the political and media landscape mean for democracy. She uncovers and follows a secret political organization in rural Texas over the entire Trump presidency. The group, which organized out of fear of their conservative community in 2016, has a confidentiality agreement, an email listserv and secret Facebook group, and meets in secret every month. By building relationships with members, she explores how and why they hide their beliefs and what this does for their own political behavior and for their community. Drawing on research from communication, political science, and sociology along with survey data on secret political expression, she finds that polarization has led even average partisans to hide their political beliefs from others. And although intensifying polarization will likely make political secrecy more common, she argues that this secrecy is not just evidence that democracy is hurting, but that it is still alive; that people persist in the face of opposition and that this matters if democracy is to survive"--
DOI:
10.1093/oso/9780197557013.001.0001
URL:
Volltext
(lizenzpflichtig)
URL:
Volltext
(lizenzpflichtig)
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