How Cities Vie for Political Conventions
SUZANNE LELAND
The final Personally Speaking presentation of 2019-20, American Cities and the Politics of Party Conventions by Suzanne M. Leland with Eric Heberlig and David Swindell, originally set for March 24, is available on UNC Charlotte’s YouTube channel.
American Cities examines decisions by contemporary American cities such as Charlotte to bid on and host one of the quadrennial major political party conventions. Leland is an award-winning core faculty member of the Public Policy Ph.D. program and professor in political science and public administration.
American Cities and the Politics of Party Conventions by Suzanne M. Leland with Eric Heberlig and David Swindell
How Cities Vie for Political Conventions
What are the politics involved when a city recruits and implements a presidential convention? On the eve of the 2020 Republican National Convention in Charlotte, Suzanne M. Leland’s American Cities and the Politics of Party Conventions examines the decisions by contemporary American cities to bid on and host one of the quadrennial major political party conventions.
Leland looks at the planning that goes into deciding to bid on conventions and the logistical efforts necessary for those that actually win the bid. She and her co-authors explore the possible benefits associated with hosting such mega events in terms of the political fortunes of local leaders, citizens’ satisfaction with being in the national limelight, economic impacts that may or may not accrue to the host city, and the marketing value of being the political capital of the world’s attention for four days.
The book also examines party conventions back to the early 1990s. But it also provides a unique behind-the-scenes look at day-to-day operations of political convention-hosting through extensive interviews with public administrators, local leaders, and national party officials responsible for hosting the 2012 National Democratic Convention in Charlotte.
A professor in the Department of Political Science and Public Administration, Leland has served as director of the Gerald G. Fox Master of Public Administration program at UNC Charlotte. Her specialties are state and local government, urban policy and public administration.
Her co-authors of American Cities are Eric Heberlig, also a political science professor at UNC Charlotte, and David Swindell, director of the Center for Urban Innovation and an associate professor in the School of Public Affairs at Arizona State University.
For more information about the Personally Speaking series, please visit cws.charlotte.edu/stage-clas/ps.