After an explosive year for politics and the media, Gadi Wolfsfeld’s Making Sense of Media and Politics will appeal to those interested in gaining a thorough understanding of the powerful role that media has in shaping political outcomes, finds Andreea Moise.

Last month, Azerbaijan hosted the 2012 Eurovision Song Contest. In an interview with EUROPP editors Chris Gilson and Julian Kirchherr, the Azerbaijani political activist Yegana Hajiyeva argues that the event has been a tool of change in Azerbaijan. However, many challenges remain before the country can become a democracy.

Matthew Partridge reviews The Force of Obedience, a book on the corruption and corporatism at work in Tunisia, and how the rhetoric of “modernisation” has in some cases been used to justify policies that have increased the power of the state. The Force of Obedience: The Political Economy of Repression in Tunisia. Béatrice Hibou. Polity. June 2011.

Voter Advice Applications (VAAs) can engage the electorate, and have the potential to educate them on key issues in an election. Nick Anstead argues that in addition to their obvious civic function, VAAs have the potential to give researchers some ideas for new frameworks that bind together citizen’s political views.

2011 was a year of protests around the globe. In Europe and its wider neighbourhood, citizens took to the streets and squares to protest against austerity, inequality, and financial mismanagement and to call for greater accountability from political leaders. In Citizens’ Initiatives in Europe: Procedures and Consequences of Agenda-Setting by Citizens, Armine Ishkanian finds an informative and timely publication about how citizens across Europe attempt to influence agenda-setting and policy making processes. Citizens’ Initiatives in Europe: Procedures and Consequences of Agenda-Setting by Citizens. Maija Setälä and Theo Schiller (eds). Palgrave Macmillan. March 2012. 280 pages.

Following his work with the Cabinet Office’s Efficiency and Reform Group (ERG), Matt Wood finds that political scientists must ask themselves two questions: precisely how they hope to make impact, and which society groups they want their work to be relevant to.

Voter turnout is declining across all groups, but the slide is even more pronounced amongst young people. In this new joint IPPR and Democratic Audit publication, Guy Lodge, Glenn Gottfried, and Sarah Birch set out the scale of the problem, and propose a radical solution: a requirement for first time eligible voters to turn out on polling day. Doing so, they argue, would help redress the political power gap which sees spending skewed towards the oldest members of society, at the expense of the young.

No group of people currently within the UK borders has less control of their own futures than people who have reached these shores seeking political asylum or fleeing as refugees. With the poll poised to open Avery Hancock considers the prospects ahead for them.

The past twenty years has seen three government shutdowns and an unprecedented number of filibusters. While these trends seem symptomatic of increasing political polarization it is exceedingly difficult to measure the difference between the two parties over a long period of time. Using data from the American National Election Survey, Stefan Krasa and Mattias Polborn examine policy divergence in presidential elections between 1972 and 2008, finding a sharper contrast between the parties today. They attribute this divide to the realignment of both parties on cultural issues.

Voter turnout has fallen as income inequality has risen, in the US and other advanced democracies. Daniel Laurison considers this phenomenon an effect of how political campaigns are organised, and how campaign staff are recruited. Based on evidence from elections in the US, he explains why campaigns are reluctant to focus efforts on voters from disadvantaged communities.

Recent decades have seen an increasingly hostile and negative environment towards immigrants in the U.S., especially in the attitudes of law enforcement towards undocumented immigrants. In new research, Helga Leitner looks at the ways in which the groups and networks that advocate on immigrants’ behalf are challenging this discursive environment and are creating new political spaces. She writes that these groups seek to frame undocumented migrants as worthy of inclusion in society based on their humanity rather than their potential contribution to economy and society, and that they also aid in the creation of welcoming policies at different scales such as ‘sanctuary cities’, day laborer centres and immigrant serving organizations.

Recent Congresses have been marked by levels of political polarization between Democrats and Republicans rarely seen in the past. But what is feeding this polarization? In new research, Danielle Thomsen argues that this polarization is being driven partly by which state legislators seek Congressional office. She finds that seeing the existing level of polarization in Congress, ideologically moderate state legislators are less likely to run office, because of their concerns about winning their primary or the general election, and their perceived likely difficulties in pushing their legislative agenda forwards if elected.

"Symbolic Power, Politics and Intellectuals: The Political Sociology of Pierre Bourdieu." David L. Swartz. University of Chicago Press. May 2013. --- Power is the central organizing principle of all social life, from culture and education to stratification and taste. And there is no more prominent name in the analysis of power than that of Pierre Bourdieu. In Symbolic Power, Politics, and Intellectuals, David L. Swartz delves into Bourdieu’s work to show how central – but often overlooked – power and politics are to an understanding of sociology. This book can be regarded as a superb piece of analysis, as well as a great read, and one which successfully sheds light on a neglected aspect of Bourdieu’s work, concludes Luke McDonagh.

"Political Emotions: Why Love Matters for Justice." Martha C. Nussbaum. Harvard University Press. October 2013. --- Martha C. Nussbaum makes the case that amid the fears, resentments, and competitive concerns that are endemic even to good societies, public emotions rooted in love – in intense attachments to things outside our control – can foster commitment to shared goals and keep at bay the forces of disgust and envy. Jules Evans finds this book an interesting read that attempts to re-connect modern philosophy to emotions, psychology, the arts, and to public policy.

Chris Gilson and Jane Tinkler bid goodbye to 2010 with a short round up of some of the main trends in the political blogging scene this year.

Lees-Marshment, author of The Political Marketing Game, shows how the marketing game is played and how to win it, reviewed by Joel Suss

This week’s riots in London and beyond have sparked a frenzy of comment that characterises those who riot and loot as ‘scum’. Mary Evans argues that this strict, emotional, moralism is overruling any chance for a meaningful political debate on the causes of the riots.

James Moran reviews an extensively well-researched and thorough book dealing with every level and stage of political campaigning.

With this book Michael Foley sets out to present the basic components of political leadership and examine the key dimensions relating to leadership activity and development. Chapters cover types of leadership, the factors that influence followers, and international leadership. Ben Mueller would have liked to see the author take a more innovative approach, though this book will surely become a staple for politics students in the UK, owing to its careful and complete coverage of the main aspects of leadership.

We study how inefficiencies of market failure may be further amplified by political choices made by interest groups created in the inefficient market. We take an occupational choice framework, where agents are endowed heterogeneously with wealth and talent. In our model, market failure due to unobservability of talent endogenously creates a class structure that affects voting on institutional reform. In contrast to the world without market failure where the electorate unanimously vote in favour of surplus maximising institutional reform, we find that the preferences of these classes are often aligned in ways that creates a tension between surplus maximising and politically feasible institutional reforms.