George C Wallace And The Politics Of Powerlessness

Download or read book George C. Wallace and the Politics of Powerlessness written by Jody Carlson and published by Transaction Publishers. This book was released on 1981-01-01 with total page 364 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This is the only complete study of the Wallace phenomenon. It covers all of the presidential campaigns and views wallace from a variety of vantage ints: historical context, content anal­ysis of speeches, and analysis of elec­tion data, including voting statistics and attitudinal patterns of supporters. Poli­tics of Powerlessness examines na­tionwide support for George C. Wal­lace in the presidential campaigns of 1964, 1968, 1972, and 1976. A number of election and candidate preference surveys are used as sources of data on supporters. An understanding of Wal­lace's appeal is provided through an examination of themes noted through­out his speeches and an analysis of his political history from biographical sources, personal interviews, and newspaper accounts of the time. The picture of Wallace that emerges is one of a man who saw himself as a crusader for his supporters' interests, while de­liberately heightening and intensifying their feelings of powerlessness as a means of getting votes. Carlson shows that Wallace voters were not marginal. They did not reflect a loss of status, nor were they simply outside the mainstream of political life. They were very much like major party voters, with the exception of their feel­ings of political powerlessness that me about by increased government ..rticipation in state politics. This work informed not only by a careful anal­ysis, but by interviews with Wallace, many of his followers, and people active in his campaigns. The work has the additional advantage of having follow-up analyses and interviews as, late as 1978. In this sense, it represents not only a scholarly analysis of the Wallace phenomenon, but the most up-to-date analysis as well.