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

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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
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
Copyright

Representing the Tradition of the Left
179

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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.