Organizing Democratic Choice

Party Representation Over Time
1. Auflage 2012
ISBN: 978-0-19-965493-2
Verlag: OUP Oxford

Buch, Englisch, 296 Seiten, Format (B × H): 161 mm x 240 mm, Gewicht: 663 g

Reihe: Comparative Politics

This bold venture into democratic theory offers a new and reinvigorating thesis for how democracy delivers on its promise of public control over public policy. In theory, popular control could be achieved through a process entirely driven by supply-side politics, with omniscient and strategic political parties converging on the median voter's policy preference at every turn. However, this would imply that there would be no distinguishable political parties (or even any reason for parties to exist) and no choice for a public to make. The more realistic view taken here portrays democracy as an ongoing series of give and take between political parties' policy supply and a mass public's policy demand. Political parties organize democratic choices as divergent policy alternatives, none of which is likely to satisfy the public's policy preferences at any one turn. While the one-off, short-run consequence of a single election often results in differences between the policies that parliaments and governments pursue and the preferences their publics hold, the authors construct theoretical arguments, employ computer simulations, and follow up with empirical analysis to show how, why, and under what conditions democratic representation reveals itself over time. Democracy, viewed as a process rather than a single electoral event, can and usually does forge strong and congruent linkages between a public and its government. This original thesis offers a challenge to democratic pessimists who would have everyone believe that neither political parties nor mass publics are up to the tasks that democracy assigns them.

Comparative Politics is a series for students, teachers, and researchers of political science that deals with contemporary government and politics. Global in scope, books in the series are characterised by a stress on comparative analysis and strong methodological rigour. The series is published in association with the European Consortium for Political Research. For more information visit: www.ecprnet.eu
The Comparative Politics series is edited by Professor David M. Farrell, School of Politics and International Relations, University College Dublin, Kenneth Carty, Professor of Political Science, University of British Columbia, and Professor Dirk Berg-Schlosser, Institute of Political Science, Philipps University, Marburg.

Zielgruppe

Scholars and students of political science, especially those interested in comparative politics, political behaviour, political parties, and electoral studies

Autoren/Hrsg.

Budge, Ian

Keman, Hans

McDonald, Michael

Pennings, Paul

Fachgebiete

• Sozialwissenschaften Politikwissenschaft Politische Systeme Politische Parteien
• Sozialwissenschaften Politikwissenschaft Politische Systeme Demokratie
• Sozialwissenschaften Politikwissenschaft Politische Systeme Vergleichende Politikwissenschaft
• Sozialwissenschaften Politikwissenschaft Politische Kultur Politische Kommunikation und Partizipation

Inhaltsverzeichnis

Precis
Acknowledgements
Introduction: Representation as Process
Part I: Party Convergence and Beyond
1: Convergence in Context: Simulating Party-Elector Interactions within a Downsian Framework
2: Party Stability, Voting Cycles and Convergence: Comparative Evidence
3: Unpacking the Convergence Model
Part II : Party Divergence: Causes and Consequences
4: The Dynamics of Divergence - Ideology, Factionalism and Representation
Part III: Representing Voters
5: Identifying Majority Preferences: Median or Plurality Voter?
6: Representation over Time: Empowering both Modal and Median Preferences Through Policy Inertia - A Model and Simulation
7: Representation and the Pace of Policy Change - A Comparative Over-Time Analysis
Part IV: Representing Citizens
8: The Nature of Citizen Preferences: Meaningful and Stable?
9: Relating Elector to Voter Preferences
10: Citizen Preferences and Public Policy
Part V: The Representational Process
11: Parties Diverge Around Electors - But Not Too Much. Policy Responds - But Not Too Fast.
12: Partisan Governments, Centrist Electors: Resolving the Paradox of Party Representation
13: Representing Representation: A Core Theory for Political Science

Über Autor(innen)

Ian Budge, Emeritus Professor of Government, University of Essex, Michael McDonald, Professor of Political Science, Binghamton University, Paul Pennings, Associate Professor of Comparative Political Science, VU University, Amsterdam, and Hans Keman, Professor of Comparative Political Science, VU University