This book presents a unique perspective on the relationship between politics and the media in different kinds of political regimes in Europe, North America and Asia. These essays show that media effects on politics are the product of interactions among media technologies, the structure of the media market, the legal and regulatory framework, the nature of basic political institutions, and the characteristics of individual citizens. The authors' conclusions challenge conventional wisdom concerning the political roles and effects of the mass media on regime support and change, on the political...

This book presents a unique perspective on the relationship between politics and the media in different kinds of political regimes in Europe, North America and Asia. These essays show that media effects on politics are the product of interactions among media technologies, the structure of the media market, the legal and regulatory framework, the nature of basic political institutions, and the characteristics of individual citizens. The authors' conclusions challenge conventional wisdom concerning the political roles and effects of the mass media on regime support and change, on the political...

Nine upper houses are analyzed in this book: the United States Senate, the German Bundesrat, the Australian Senate, the Canadian Senate, the French Senat, the British House of Lords, the Italian Senato, the Spanish Senado, and the Polish Senat. Although about a third of the world parliaments are bicameral, bicameralism has only recently come under scrutiny by political leaders in both stable and emerging democracies. In the United Kingdom and Canada, long-established upper houses are under intense pressure to reform; in Germany and Italy, upper houses have evolved to play a major role in...

In theory, parliamentary elections are a contest between political parties whose leaders do not have a separate identity from their party in the public eye.