It is generally believed that the relationship between citizens and the state in Western European democracies has undergone a fundamental change in the last decades. Many observers regard this change as a challenge to representative democracy. This book addresses the problem form the citizen's perspectiv. Singling out the ten fundamental components of the view that representative democracy is under threat, the book goes on to test them empirically by drawing on the extraordinary data set supplied by the Beliefs in Government research project.

Singling out the ten fundamental components of the view that representative democracy is under threat, the book goes on to test them empirically by drawing on the extraordinary data set supplied by the Beliefs in Government research project.

Enriching and empowering its readers, this work gives the most detailed and extensive data available on the policies and preferences of key democratic actors: parties, governments, and electors in twenty-five democracies over the whole post-war period. It provides a helpful CD-ROM, documentation and suggested uses for data, as well as extensive background information. Economists, socialists, and historians will find the book highly useful; political scientists, policy analysts, rational choice theorists, and comparativists will find it a must.

This book is probably the most important source of evidence published up to now on the consolidation of democracy in Eastern Europe. It provides estimates of party positions, voter preferences and government policy from election programmes collected systematically for 51 countries from 1990 onwards. Time-series are presented in the text. This also reports party life histories (essential to over time analyses) and provides updated and newly validated vote statistics. All this information and much more is available on the devoted website described in the book. The final chapter gives...

What is the relationship between democracy and political culture in countries undergoing major systemic change? Have subjective political orientations of citizens been important in shaping the development of democracy in central and eastern Europe after the fall of communism?

These core questions are tackled by an impressive range of twenty political scientists, sixteen of which are based in the central and eastern European countries covered in this essential new book. Their analyses draw on a unique set of data collected and processed by the contributors to this volume within the...

A guide to planning, implementing and measuring public information and communication campaigns, using survey research.

Citizens living in presidential or parliamentary systems face different political choices as do voters casting votes in elections governed by rules of proportional representation or plurality. Political commentators seem to know how such rules influence political behavior. They firmly believe, for example, that candidates running in plurality systems are better known and held more accountable to their constituencies than candidates competing in elections governed by proportional representation. However, such assertions rest on shaky ground simply because solid empirical knowledge to evaluate...

Dieser Band ist -je nach zahlweise - die fiinfte oder siebte (schlieBt man Beitriige zur Bundestagswahl 1969 in der Politischen Vierteljahresschrift 1970 und zur Bundestagswahl 1972 in der Politischen Vierteljahresschrift 1973 ein) wahlsozio logische Veroffentlichung, in der sich die Herausgeber und andere Sozialwissen schaftler bemiiht haben, die Entwicldung insbesondere der deutschen Wahlsozio logie zu fordem und ihre Ergebnisse Offentlichkeit und Wissenschaft zugiingllch zu machenl. Unsere implizite und explizite Priimisse, daB sich in diesen einen Zeit raum von mehr als zwanzig Jahren...

Wohlfahrtsstaat, Sozialstruktur und Verfassungsanalyse sind Schlusselbegriffe po litikwissenschaftlicher Forschung. Die Entwicklung des modemen Wohlfahrts staats gehort zu den bedeutenden politischen Errungenschaften westlicher Demo kratien. Dennoch ist das Projekt des Wohlfahrtsstaats heute, und das nicht nur von Rechts, zunehmend der Kritik ausgesetzt. Hans-Hermann Hartwich, Dieter Claes sens und Manfred G. Schmidt beschaftigen sich mit dieser Problematik aus unter schiedlicher Perspektive. Der Wohlfahrtsstaat hat die Sozialstruktur verandert. Diese Veranderungen be ruhren die Koalitionen...

Der Zusammenbruch der DDR im November 1989 und die Wiedervereinigung Deutschlands im Oktober 1990 haben in den alten und in den neuen Bundeslandern zu tiefgreifenden politischen, wirtschaftlichen und kulturellen Veranderungen gefuhrt. Diese Entwicklung ist in Berlin besonders gut zu beobachten. In der wieder zu einer Metropole zusammenwachsenden Stadt zeigen sich Gemeinsamkeiten und Unterschiede deutlicher als in den anderen Teilen Deutschlands, lassen sich die Integrationsprobleme wie in einem grossen sozialwissenschaftlichen Labor studieren.Die Studie, deren erste Ergebnisse in diesem Band...