Political Branding in Cities

Eleonora Pasotti is currently Assistant Professor of Politics at the University of California, Santa Cruz. She holds a B.Sc. in economics and a master's degree in philosophy of the social sciences from the London School of Economics and Political Science, and a Ph.D. in political science from Columbia University, New York. Her research explores the dynamics of preference formation, explored through an analysis of the transformation of patronage politics.

• 1. Brands as a solution to the mobilization dilemma; 2. Catalysts of machine demise; 3. Political campaigning in the wake of the machine; 4. Changing public minds; 5. Brands and megaprojects; 6. Elusive representation; 7. Brand politics in global context.

'In Political Branding in Cities, Eleonora Pasotti gracefully lifts the veil of standard social scientific analysis, and exposes the profound shifts occurring in municipal politics across different regions of the world. From Bogotá to Chicago and Naples, fiscal retrenchment, direct elections, and low party discipline have led to the decline of patronage politics. With notable analytical aplomb, Pasotti also traces the increasing salience of political brands, and lays out the logic of branding. She masterfully demonstrates how branding redefines the relationship between urban political leaders and citizenries; and more broadly, how branding reconfigures the dynamics that connect the formation of civic identities, the mobilization of public opinion, voter behavior, and institutional change. Serious students of public affairs stand to profit greatly from this original and illuminating book.' Consuelo Cruz, Tufts University, Massachusetts