As late as the 1960s, religion was a decidedly nonpartisan affair in the United States. In the past forty years, however, despite abundant evidence that Americans care about their candidates' personal faith, Democrats have beat a retreat in the competition for religious voters and the discussion of morality, effectively ceding religion to the Republicans. Elections show that voters have gotten the message: Democrats are on the wrong side of the God gap. With unprecedented access to politicians, campaign advisers, and religious leaders, Amy Sullivan skillfully traces the Democratic Party's fall from grace among religious voters, showing how the party lost its primacy -- and maybe its soul -- in the process. It's a story that begins with the party's ineffectual response to the rise of the religious right and culminates with John Kerry's defeat in the 2004 presidential election. Sullivan documents key turning points along the way, such as the party's alienation of Catholics on the abortion issue and its failure to emulate Bill Clinton's success at reaching religious voters. She demonstrates that there was nothing inevitable about the defection of values voters to the GOP and the emergence of the God gap: it was not just a Republican achievement but the Democrats' failure to embrace their own faith and engage religious Americans on social issues. Sullivan's story has a hopeful ending. She takes readers behind the scenes of the Democrats' recent religious turnaround. She offers insight into the ways Democrats have reoriented their campaigns to appeal to religious voters -- including their successes at framing the abortion issue in less-divisive terms and at finding common ground with evangelical leaders and communities. Timely, informative, and immensely thought-provoking, The Party Faithful is a tough and revealing analysis of the Democratic Party's relationship to religion and an essential primer for evaluating the outcome of the 2008 presidential election.

The must-read summary of Amy Sullivan's book: “The Party Faithful: How and Why Democrats Are Closing the God Gap”. This complete summary of "The Party Faithful" by Amy Sullivan, a Time magazine editor and specialist in religion and politics, presents her examination of the changing relationship between faith and politics in America. She traces how the Democrats lost favour with religious voters through their framing of moral and ethical issues such as abortion, and how they are gradually gaining popularity again by finding common ground with evangelical communities. Added-value of this summary: • Save time • Understand how the Democratic party lost and found favour with religious voters • Expand your knowledge of American politics and culture To learn more, read "The Party Faithful" and discover the changing relationship between religion and politics in the US, and how the parties are faring in these circumstances.

An assessment of the Democratic Party's separation from faith-based agendas identifies its past alliances with church leaders and historical role in social justice movements, citing new initiatives that are changing the party's stance on religion and morality.

Cowell-Meyers examines the continued sectarian conflict on the island of Ireland from a comparative and historical framework. Analyzing the process through which sectarian conflict was managed on the continent, she identifies the unique evolution of the Irish situation. Whereas European Catholics, such as those in the new Germany, developed an institutional pillar to defend themselves and protect their interests in the modern plural state, Irish Catholics developed a radical nationalist movement in the same period at the end of the 19th century. As elements of the British political system pushed the Irish Catholic mobilization toward more separatist goals and means, they thwarted the process of accommodation seen in other European settings. The shape and dynamics of Catholic mobilization in the last three decades of the 19th century set Catholics and Protestants on a path toward the management of sectarian conflict in Germany and continental Europe and toward the perpetuation of conflict in Ireland. Much like conflict resolution literature, as well as liberal and pluralist theory mischaracterizes the role of exclusive voluntary associations in the amelioration of conflict, Cowell-Meyers asserts that voluntary organizations, if they are encouraged to do so as they were in continental Europe in the late 19th century, can provide the channels through which intense conflicts are managed. Although exclusive mobilizations reinforce social cleavages, careful handling may make them constructive political formations that allow for the channeling of differences. Of particular interest to scholars, students, and other researchers involved with peace and conflict resolution, religion and politics, and the history of modern Ireland and Germany.

This study focuses on the Brazilian Empire's Conservative Party and its success and failure in constructing a representative, constitutional monarchy to defend a slaveholding plantation society.

This lively and sophisticated study describes the opinions and attitudes of the electors in one electoral district (Vancouver-Burrard) during the federal and provincial elections held from 1963 to 1965. Based on interviews with a random sample of 800 people in the riding, it examines voting patterns in relation to age, sex, religion, ethnicity, social class, party preference, knowledge of politics, and level of education. Using these data Professor Laponce measures and identifies the distinguishing characteristics of voters and non-votes; of Liberals, Conservatives, New Democrats, and Social Creditors; of party "faithfuls" and party "migrants" (in particular those who support different parties in provincial and federal elections); and it describes the electors' attitudes to the parties competing for their support. The results of the study are compared to the results of surveys carried out in other parts of Canada, Britain, and the United States. Important sociologically for its contribution to research in the establishment of universal political patterns, this study also has immediate application to present political events in Canada and the United States.

Contains committee report, which includes April 25, 1962 testimony on alleged Communist Party campaign to discredit the Senate and House anti-communist investigating committees.