The twentieth century gave rise to profound changes in traditional sex roles. This study reveals how modernization has changed cultural attitudes towards gender equality and analyzes the political consequences. It systematically compares attitudes towards gender equality worldwide, comparing almost 70 nations, ranging from rich to poor, agrarian to postindustrial. This volume is essential reading to gain a better understanding of issues in comparative politics, public opinion, political behavior, development and sociology.

This book compares the consequences of electoral rules and cultural modernization for many dimensions of political representations and voting behavior. It includes patterns of party competition, the strength of social cleavages and party loyalties, levels of turnout, the gender and ethnic diversity of parliaments, and the provisions of constituency service. The study covers elections held from 1996 to 2002 in newer as well as established democracies that range from the U.S., Australia, and Switzerland to Peru, Taiwan and Ukraine.

The core puzzle which this book resolves is to explain why radical right parties have advanced in a diverse array of democracies--including Austria, Canada, Norway, France, Italy, New Zealand, Switzerland, Israel, Romania, Russia, and Chile--while failing to make comparable gains in similar societies elsewhere, such as Sweden, Britain, and the United States. This book expands our understanding of support for radical right parties by presenting an integrated new theory which is then tested systematically using a wealth of cross-national survey evidence covering almost forty countries.

This book explores the nature of electoral change in Britain during the last half century. The period from 1945-70 was the classic era of two-party dominance at every level of British politics: at Westminster, county hall, and in the electorate. Since the early seventies Conservative and Labour hegemony has remained virtually unaltered in Parliament, but their grip has been loosened in local government, and the popular foundations of the two-party system have been eroded among voters.

Why has Britain evolved from a dominant to a declining two-party system during the last fifty...

To what extent are the techniques of campaigning and media management critical to the outcome of modern elections? This book brings together a group of leading scholars to provide a comprehensive analysis of the role and impact of political communications during election campaigns.

Draws together research on elections and political communication to explore the role of the news media in British voting behaviour. The authors locate the framework within broader theories of campaign communications literature, including that from Canada, Germany, Netherlands and the USA.

Did Labour's landslide victory in 1997 mark a critical watershed in British party politics? Did the radical break with 18 years of Conservative rule reflect a fundamental change in the social and ideological basis of British voting behaviour?

Critical Elections brings together leading scholars of parties, elections and voting behaviour to provide the first systematic overview of long-term change in British electoral politics.

Explores the struggle between journalists, political actors, and the public for control of the news in democratic countries. This book shows how the news media function as an intermediary between governments and citizens, as well as between political actors (such as parties and interest groups) and the public.

Conventional wisdom suggests that citizens in many countries have become disengaged from traditional political participation. Commentators highlight warning signs of sagging electoral turnout, rising anti-party sentiment, and the decay of civic organizations. But are these concerns justified? This book compares systematic evidence in nearly two hundred countries worldwide and suggests reasons for questioning assumptions of decline. Not only is the obituary for older forms of political activism premature, but new forms of modern civic engagement may be emerging.

There is widespread concern that the explosive growth of the Internet is exacerbating existing inequalities between the information rich and poor. Digital Divide sets out to examine the evidence for access and use of the Internet in 179 nations across the world. A global divide is evident between industrialized and developing societies. A social divide is apparent between rich and poor within each nation. And within the online community, evidence for a democratic divide is emerging between those who do and do not use Internet resources to engage, mobilize and participate in public life.