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

This book compares the political process and role of the media using controversy over abortion.

Myra Marx Ferree (Author), William Anthony Gamson (Author), Jürgen Gerhards (Author), Dieter Rucht (Author)

9780521793841, Cambridge University Press

Paperback, published 19 September 2002

372 pages, 24 b/w illus. 14 tables
22.7 x 15.5 x 2 cm, 0.52 kg

'I recommend Shaping Abortion Discourse to others interested in finding new ways to question our assumptions about the role the media plays in democratic public life.' Mobilization

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 both countries, 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. By examining how these debates are conducted and by whom in light of the normative claims made by democratic theorists, the book also offers a means of judging how well either country lives up to the ideals of democratic debate in practice.

Tables and figures
Foreword Friedhelm Neidhardt
Preface
Glossary
Part I. Introduction: 1. Two related stories
2. Historical context
3. Methods
Part II. Major Outcomes: 4. The discursive opportunity structure
5. Standing
6. Framing
Part III. Representing Different Constituencies: 7. Representing women's claims
8. Representing religious claims
9. Representing the tradition of the left
Part IV. The Quality of Abortion Discourse: 10. Normative criteria for the public sphere
11. Measuring the quality of discourse
12. Metatalk
13. Lessons for democracy and the public sphere
Methodological appendix
References
Index.

Subject Areas: Political economy [KCP], Sociology & anthropology [JH]