TY - BOOK AU - Montpetit,Éric TI - In defense of pluralism: policy disagreement and its media coverage T2 - Cambridge studies in comparative public policy SN - 9781107146785 (hardback) AV - JF1525.P6 M76 2016 U1 - 320.6 MON.D 23 PY - 2016/// CY - Cambridge, United Kingdom PB - Cambridge University Press KW - Political planning KW - Decision making KW - Press and politics KW - Mass media KW - Political aspects KW - Biotechnology KW - Government policy KW - Europe KW - North America KW - Pluralism N1 - Includes bibliographical references and index; Machine generated contents note: 1. Introduction: shouts, shoes, and insults; 2. Disagreement and tone in the media; 3. Frames, metaphors and disagreement in the media; 4. Measuring disagreement among policy actors; 5. Do contentious actors stall policy?; 6. Who disagrees with whom and why?; 7. Appreciating the pluralist politics of policy-making; Appendix N2 - "The work of early pluralist thinkers, from Arthur Bentley to Robert Dahl, inspired much optimism about democracy. They argued that democracy was functioning well, despite disagreements arising among the diversity of interests represented in policy-making processes. Yet it is unlikely that anyone paying attention to news coverage today would share such optimism. The media portray current policy-making processes as intractably polarized, devoid of any opportunity to move forward and adopt essential policy changes. This book aims to revive our long-lost sense of optimism about policy-making and democracy. Through original research into biotechnology policy-making in North America and Europe, Éric Montpetit shows that the depiction of policy-making offered by early pluralist thinkers is not so far off the present reality. Today's policy decision-making process - complete with disagreement among the participants - is consistent with what might be expected in a pluralist society, in sharp contrast with the negative image projected by the media"--; "The work of early pluralist thinkers, from Arthur Bentley to Robert Dahl, inspired much optimism about democracy. They argued that democracy was functioning well, despite disagreements arising among the diversity of interests represented in policy-making processes. Yet it is unlikely that anyone paying attention to news coverage today would share such optimism. The media portray current policy-making processes as intractably polarized, devoid of any opportunity to move forward and adopt essential policy changes. This book aims to revive our long-lost sense of optimism about policy-making and democracy. Through original research into biotechnology policy-making in North America and Europe, Eric Montpetit shows that the depiction of policy-making offered by early pluralist thinkers is not so far off the present reality. Today's policy decision-making process- complete with disagreement among the participants-is consistent with what might be expected in a pluralist society, in sharp contrast with the negative image projected by the media"-- UR - http://assets.cambridge.org/97811071/46785/cover/9781107146785.jpg ER -