Kirby Goidel – författare

Democracy’s Meanings challenges conventional wisdom regarding how the public thinks about and evaluates democracy. Mining both political theory and more than 75 years of public opinion data, the book argues that Americans think about democracy in ways that go beyond voting or elected representation. Instead, citizens have rich and substantive views about the material conditions that democracy should produce, which draw from their beliefs about equality, fairness, and justice.The authors construct a typology of views about democracy. Procedural views of democracy take a minimalistic quality. While voting and fair treatment are important to this vision of democracy, ideas about equality are mostly limited to civil liberties. In contrast, social views of democracy incorporate both civil and economic equality; according to people with these views, democracy ought to meet the basic social and material needs of citizens. Complementing these two groups are moderate and indifferent views about democracy. While moderate views sit somewhere in between procedural and social perspectives regarding the role of democracy in producing social and economic equality, indifferent views of democracy involve disaffection toward it. For a small group of apathetic citizens, democracy is an ambiguous and ill-defined concept.

The 2008 presidential election provided a ""perfect storm"" for pollsters. A significant portion of the population had exchanged their landlines for cellphones, which made them harder to survey. Additionally, a potential Bradley effect - in which white voters misrepresent their intentions of voting for or against a black candidate - skewed predictions, and aggressive voter registration and mobilization campaigns by Barack Obama combined to challenge conventional understandings about how to measure and report public preferences. In the wake of these significant changes, Political Polling in the Digital Age, edited by Kirby Goidel, offers timely and insightful interpretations of the impact these trends will have on polling.In this groundbreaking collection, contributors place recent developments in public-opinion polling into a broader historical context, examine how to construct accurate meanings from public-opinion surveys, and analyse the future of public-opinion polling. Notable contributors include Mark Blumenthal, editor and publisher of Pollster.com; Anna Greenberg, a leading Democratic pollster; and Scott Keeter, director of survey research for the Pew Research Center.In an era of increasingly personalized and interactive communications, accurate political polling is more difficult and also more important. Political Polling in the Digital Age presents fresh perspectives and relevant tactics that demystify the variable world of opinion taking.

The Bill of Rights—the first 10 amendments to the U.S. Constitution—are widely misunderstood by many Americans. This book explores the widely held myths about the Bill of Rights, how these myths originated, why they have persisted, and the implications for contemporary politics and policy.Interestingly, most Americans today—even professional political commentators—misinterpret or misunderstand what the Bill of Rights' intended meaning and purposes were. Culturally ingrained myths about the Bill of Rights have helped to define what it means to be an "American" but also limited the range of political debate and justified unfair and unequal treatment of minorities. This book addresses the top ten myths regarding the Bill of Rights from the standpoint of public understanding (and misunderstanding) from a non-partisan, objective point of view, provoking independent thought and enabling readers to reach their own educated conclusions and opinions.Written by two experts in the fields of political science, public policy, media law, and civil liberties, the work explores the key role of modern news and entertainment media in contributing to public misunderstanding of individual rights and liberties. The authors also apply and interpret data from public opinion surveys to further examine public beliefs about the Bill of Rights and closely connect the analysis of misperceptions to existing political beliefs.

America’s Failing Experiment: How We the People Have Become the Problem, makes the controversial claim that the American political system suffers from too much democracy. An accomplished public policy expert coeditor of the Journal Survey Practice, Kirby Goidel argues that our elected officials are overly responsive to public opinion which is often poorly informed, incoherent, and uncertain. The result is a more polarized political system, rising inequality, and institutional gridlock. These concerns are not new but take on deeper political significance in a digital age where information flows more quickly and opportunities for feedback are virtually unlimited. If the diagnosis is too much democracy, the counterintuitive solution runs against our cultural norms—less citizen involvement, greater discretion for political elites, and greater collective responsibility.

Donald Trump transformed the Republican Party and, in the process, reset American politics. He redefined what it means to be a Republican by breaking the party establishment, and turning the GOP into a populist, nationalist, and working-class coalition. In 2016, Trump was an outsider running against the establishment. By 2024, Trump was the Republican Party establishment.  In response, the Democratic Party has shifted toward the progressive left and is the party of educated, urban, and professional elites. The Trump Realignment traces how this transformation unfolded and what it means for the future of American politics. One thing is clear: American politics is not returning to the pre-Trump era. Trump recognized issues that were being ignored by the Republican and Democratic establishments. He gave voice to grievances over economic and cultural shifts, expressing the public’s deep-seated resentment and anger. Trump did not shift public opinion so much as harness attitudes on culture, immigration, and trade that had already drifted out of step with both major parties. The issue cleavages that once divided Democrats from Republicans (an activist versus a restrained federal government) have fundamentally and irrevocably shifted toward questions of immigration and trade. No other book captures how Donald J. Trump engaged in a hostile takeover of the Republican Party, forced the Democrats to respond, and realigned the American party system.  Even after Donald Trump exits the political arena, his impact on American politics will continue to be felt. The Trump Realignment is essential reading for anyone seeking to understand our transformed political landscape.

This book presents nativism – the notion that foreign-born immigrants are not "real" Americans – as the leading ideological feature of American politics. Clifford Young and Kirby Goidel offer a rigorous and operational definition of nativism that, in combination with original survey data, explores public attitudes about who counts as an American.They explain the economic, demographic, and cultural circumstances that cause this condition to break through and demonstrate its distinguishing policy preferences. Not only do the authors define the US as a Nativist Nation historically, they also show how it has profoundly affected contemporary politics.Specifically, they look at the primary elections in 2015–2016, during which Donal Trump tapped into a wellspring of nativist sentiment and found a receptive audience thanks to bold rhetoric.