Intimate Politics

It is often remarked that politicians' private lives arebecoming a feature of political communication in many advancedindustrial democracies. However, there have so far been nogenuinely comparative studies examining the personalized nature ofpolitical communication. Intimate Politics provides for thefirst time a systematic comparative analysis of such developmentsin Australia, France, Germany, Italy, Spain, the UK and the US.Drawing on a wide range of primary and secondary sources, itassesses the extent to which the private lives of politicians havebecome a feature of political communication in each democracy. Thebook provides a comprehensive account of the shifting boundariesbetween the public and private, and whether any developments areuniversal or more advanced in some democracies than others, andseeks to explain why this might be. Intimate Politics willbe of great value for students and scholars of communication andmedia studies and political science and is required reading foranyone who wants a fuller understanding of the transformation ofmediated politics in advanced industrial democracies.