Shaping Abortion Discourse: Democracy and the Public Sphere in Germany and the United States

Myra Marx Ferree

Cambridge University Press, Sep 19, 2002 - Political Science - 350 pages

Using controversy over abortion as a lens through which to compare the political process and role of the media in these two very different democracies, this book examines the contest over meaning that is being waged by social movements, political parties, churches and other social actors. Abortion is a critical battleground for debates over social values in Germany and the U.S., but the constitutional premises on which arguments rest differ, as do the strategies that movements and parties adopt and the opportunities for influence that are open to them.

Contents

• Two Related Stories: 3
• Historical Context: 24
• Methods: 45
• The Discursive Opportunity Structure: 61
• Standing: 86
• Framing: 105
• Representing Womens Claims: 131
• Representing Religious Claims: 154
• Representing the Tradition of the Left: 179
• Normative Criteria for the Public Sphere: 205
• Measuring the Quality of Discourse: 232
• Metatalk: 255
• Lessons for Democracy and the Public Sphere: 286
• Methodological Appendix: 305
• References: 325
• Index: 339

Popular passages

Page 3 - This right of privacy, whether it be founded in the Fourteenth Amendment's concept of personal liberty and restrictions upon state action, as we feel it is, or, as the District Court determined, in the Ninth Amendment's reservation of rights to the people, is broad enough to encompass a woman's decision whether or not to terminate her pregnancy.‎

Page 182 - We do not denigrate the importance of decent, safe and sanitary housing. But the Constitution does not provide judicial remedies for every social and economic ill. We are unable to perceive in that document any constitutional guarantee of access to dwellings of a particular quality or any recognition of the right of a tenant to occupy the real property of his landlord beyond the...‎

Page 131 - The core of the definition rests on an integral connection between two propositions: gender is a constitutive element of social relationships based on perceived differences between the sexes, and gender is a primary way of signifying relationships of power.‎

Page 182 - Well, as you know there are many things in life that are not fair, that wealthy people can afford and poor people can't. But I don't believe that the federal government should take action to try to make these opportunities exactly equal, particularly when there is a moral factor involved.‎

Page 217 - In a public, as we may understand the term, (1) virtually as many people express opinions as receive them. (2) Public communications are so organized that there is a chance immediately and effectively to answer back any opinion expressed in public. Opinion formed by such discussion (3) readily finds an outlet in effective action, even against — if necessary — the prevailing system of authority. And (4) authoritative institutions do not penetrate the public, which is thus more or less autonomous...‎

Page 211 - Active citizens govern themselves directly here, not necessarily at every level and in every instance, but frequently enough and in particular when basic policies are being decided and when significant power is deployed. Self-government is carried on through institutions designed to facilitate ongoing civic participation in agenda-setting, deliberation, legislation, and policy implementation (in the form of "common work").‎

Page 70 - ... Resonances increase the appeal of a frame by making it appear natural and familiar. Those who respond to the larger cultural theme will find it easier to respond to a frame with the same sonorities. Snow and Benford (1988: 210) make a similar point in discussing the "narrative fidelity" of a frame. Some frames, they write, "resonate with cultural narrations, that is, with stories, myths, and folk tales that are part and parcel of one's cultural heritage.‎

Page 14 - Media frames, largely unspoken and unacknowledged, organize the world both for journalists who report it and, in some important degree, for us who rely on their reports.‎

Page 212 - In such communities, public ends are neither extrapolated from absolutes nor "discovered" in a preexisting "hidden consensus." They are literally forged through the act of public participation, created through common deliberation and common action and the effect that deliberation and action have on interests, which change shape and direction when subjected to these participatory processes.‎

Page i - Protest (Wadsworth, 2d ed., 1990) among other books and articles on political discourse, the mass media and social movements. He is a past president of the American Sociological Association.‎

About the author

Myra Marx Ferree is the Alice H. Cook Professor of Sociology at the University of Wisconsin Madison. She is the author of Varieties of Feminism: German Gender Politics in Global Perspective (2012), co-author of Shaping Abortion Discourse (2002) and Controversy and Coalition (2000), and co-editor of Gender, Violence, and Human Security (2013), Global Feminism (2006), and Revisioning Gender (1998) as well as numerous articles and book chapters. She is the recipient of various prizes for contributions to gender studies, including the Jessie Bernard Award and Victoria Schuck Award. She continues to perform research on global gender politics. You can learn more on her website at ssc.wisc.edu/ mferree.

Bibliographic information

• Title: Shaping Abortion Discourse: Democracy and the Public Sphere in Germany and the United States; Communication, Society and Politics
• Author: Myra Marx Ferree
• Editor: Myra Marx Ferree
• Edition: illustrated
• Publisher: Cambridge University Press, 2002
• ISBN: 052179384X, 9780521793841
• Length: 350 pages
• Subjects: Political Science / General; Political Science / Political Ideologies / Democracy; Political Science / Political Process / General; Political Science / Public Policy / Economic Policy; Social Science / Abortion & Birth Control; Social Science / Sociology / General