Author: Ian Budge
Publisher: Springer
ISBN: 1349223689
Category : Political Science
Languages : en
Pages : 471
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Book Description
Coalitions are the commonest kind of democratic government, occurring frequently in most countries of western Europe. It is usually assumed that political parties came together in a government coalition because they agree already, or can reach an agreement, on the policy it should pursue. This book examines this idea using evidence from party election programmes and government programmes. It demonstrates that party policies do influence government programmes, but not to the extent they would if policy-agreement were the sole basis of coalition.
Author: Christopher Baylor
Publisher: University of Pennsylvania Press
ISBN: 0812249631
Category : Political Science
Languages : en
Pages : 336
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Book Description
What determines the interests, ideologies, and alliances that make up political parties? In its entire history, the United States has had only a handful of party transformations. First to the Party concludes that groups like unions and churches, not voters or politicians, are the most consistent influences on party transformation.
Author: Richard S Katz
Publisher: SAGE
ISBN: 1446206815
Category : Political Science
Languages : en
Pages : 565
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Book Description
′This thoughtful and wide-ranging review of parties and party research contains contributions from many of the foremost party scholars and is a must for all library shelves′ - Richard Luther, Keele University ′The study of political parties has never been livelier and this genuinely international Handbook – theoretically rich, comparatively informed, and focused on important questions – defines the field. This volume is both an indispensable summary of what we know and the starting point for future research′ - R K Carty, University of British Columbia ′Political parties are ubiquitous, but their forms and functions vary greatly from regime to regime, from continent to continent, and from era to era. The Handbook of Party Politics captures this variation and richness in impressive ways. The editors have assembled an excellent team, and the scope of the volume is vast and intriguing′ - Kaare Strom, University of California, San Diego Political parties are indispensable to democracy and a central subject of research and study in political science around the world. This major new handbook is the first to comprehensively map the state-of-the-art in contemporary party politics scholarship. The Handbook is designed to: - provide an invaluable survey of the major theories and approaches in this dynamic area of study and research - give students and researchers a concise ′road map′ to the core literatures in all the sub-fields of party related theorizing and research - identify the theories, approaches and topics that define the current ′cutting edge′ of the field. The Handbook is comparative in overall approach but also addresses some topics to be addressed in nationally or regionally specific ways. The resulting collaboration has brought together the world′s leading party theorists to provide an unrivalled resource on the role of parties in the pressing contemporary problems of institutional design and democratic governance today.
Author: Ilya Somin
Publisher: Stanford University Press
ISBN: 0804789312
Category : Law
Languages : en
Pages : 277
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Book Description
One of the biggest problems with modern democracy is that most of the public is usually ignorant of politics and government. Often, many people understand that their votes are unlikely to change the outcome of an election and don't see the point in learning much about politics. This may be rational, but it creates a nation of people with little political knowledge and little ability to objectively evaluate what they do know. In Democracy and Political Ignorance, Ilya Somin mines the depths of ignorance in America and reveals the extent to which it is a major problem for democracy. Somin weighs various options for solving this problem, arguing that political ignorance is best mitigated and its effects lessened by decentralizing and limiting government. Somin provocatively argues that people make better decisions when they choose what to purchase in the market or which state or local government to live under, than when they vote at the ballot box, because they have stronger incentives to acquire relevant information and to use it wisely.
Author: Frances Rosenbluth
Publisher: Yale University Press
ISBN: 0300241054
Category : Political Science
Languages : en
Pages : 288
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Book Description
How popular democracy has paradoxically eroded trust in political systems worldwide, and how to restore confidence in democratic politics In recent decades, democracies across the world have adopted measures to increase popular involvement in political decisions. Parties have turned to primaries and local caucuses to select candidates; ballot initiatives and referenda allow citizens to enact laws directly; many places now use proportional representation, encouraging smaller, more specific parties rather than two dominant ones.Yet voters keep getting angrier.There is a steady erosion of trust in politicians, parties, and democratic institutions, culminating most recently in major populist victories in the United States, the United Kingdom, and elsewhere. Frances Rosenbluth and Ian Shapiro argue that devolving power to the grass roots is part of the problem. Efforts to decentralize political decision-making have made governments and especially political parties less effective and less able to address constituents’ long-term interests. They argue that to restore confidence in governance, we must restructure our political systems to restore power to the core institution of representative democracy: the political party.
Author: International Idea
Publisher: International Idea
ISBN: 9789187729423
Category : Political Science
Languages : en
Pages : 122
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Book Description
Politicians tied to a set of policies provide people with actual choices. They attract like-minded activists, campaign in more focused ways, and build an attractive party label. Last but not least, they are more likely to succeed in public office. Political parties in many countries are struggling to shift from personality-based or clientelistic-focused approaches -- to more programme-based strategies as they reach out to voters. What features do successful programmatic parties exhibit that others lack? How is their success related to the quality of their leadership, the prosperity of the country, or the capacity of the state? What impact do economic or political crises exert on how politicians behave? Why must programmatic parties be considered together with citizens demanding better services? This book is based on the work carried out by three teams of political scientists who examined what drives and strengthens programmatic politics, even under unlikely conditions. The authors draw lessons from Brazil, Bulgaria, the Dominican Republic, India, South Korea, Ukraine, Taiwan, Turkey, and Zambia, and uses the most up to date and comprehensive research on democratic accountability and citizen-politician linkages.
Author: John H. Aldrich
Publisher: University of Chicago Press
ISBN: 022649540X
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 319
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Book Description
Since the founding of the American Republic, the North and South have followed remarkably different paths of political development. Among the factors that have led to their divergence throughout much of history are differences in the levels of competition among the political parties. While the North has generally enjoyed a well-defined two-party system, the South has tended to have only weakly developed political parties—and at times no system of parties to speak of. With Why Parties Matter, John H. Aldrich and John D. Griffin make a compelling case that competition between political parties is an essential component of a democracy that is responsive to its citizens and thus able to address their concerns. Tracing the history of the parties through four eras—the Democratic-Whig party era that preceded the Civil War; the post-Reconstruction period; the Jim Crow era, when competition between the parties virtually disappeared; and the modern era—Aldrich and Griffin show how and when competition emerged between the parties and the conditions under which it succeeded and failed. In the modern era, as party competition in the South has come to be widely regarded as matching that of the North, the authors conclude by exploring the question of whether the South is poised to become a one-party system once again with the Republican party now dominant.
Author: John H. Aldrich
Publisher: University of Chicago Press
ISBN: 0226012751
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 401
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Book Description
Since its first appearance fifteen years ago, Why Parties? has become essential reading for anyone wishing to understand the nature of American political parties. In the interim, the party system has undergone some radical changes. In this landmark book, now rewritten for the new millennium, John H. Aldrich goes beyond the clamor of arguments over whether American political parties are in resurgence or decline and undertakes a wholesale reexamination of the foundations of the American party system. Surveying critical episodes in the development of American political parties—from their formation in the 1790s to the Civil War—Aldrich shows how they serve to combat three fundamental problems of democracy: how to regulate the number of people seeking public office, how to mobilize voters, and how to achieve and maintain the majorities needed to accomplish goals once in office. Aldrich brings this innovative account up to the present by looking at the profound changes in the character of political parties since World War II, especially in light of ongoing contemporary transformations, including the rise of the Republican Party in the South, and what those changes accomplish, such as the Obama Health Care plan. Finally, Why Parties? A Second Look offers a fuller consideration of party systems in general, especially the two-party system in the United States, and explains why this system is necessary for effective democracy.
Author: Larry Diamond
Publisher: JHU Press
ISBN: 9780801868634
Category : Political Science
Languages : en
Pages : 396
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Book Description
Political parties are one of the core institutions of democracy. But in democracies around the world—rich and poor, Western and non-Western—there is growing evidence of low or declining public confidence in parties. In membership, organization, and popular involvement and commitment, political parties are not what they used to be. But are they in decline, or are they simply changing their forms and functions? In contrast to authors of most previous works on political parties, which tend to focus exclusively on long-established Western democracies, the contributors to this volume cover many regions of the world. Theoretically, they consider the essential functions that political parties perform in democracy and the different types of parties. Historically, they trace the emergence of parties in Western democracies and the transformation of party cleavage in recent decades. Empirically, they analyze the changing character of parties and party systems in postcommunist Europe, Latin America, and five individual countries that have witnessed significant change: Italy, Japan, Taiwan, India, and Turkey. As the authors show, political parties are now only one of many vehicles for the representation of interests, but they remain essential for recruiting leaders, structuring electoral choice, and organizing government. To the extent that parties are weak and discredited, the health of democracy will be seriously impaired. Contributors: Larry Diamond and Richard Gunther • Hans Daalder • Philippe Schmitter • Seymour Martin Lipset • Giovanni Sartori • Bradley Richardson • Herbert Kitschelt • Michael Coppedge • Ergun Ozbudun • Yun-han Chu • Leonardo Morlino • Ashutosh Varshney and E. Sridharan • Stefano Bartolini and Peter Mair.
Author: Kenneth Benoit
Publisher: Routledge
ISBN: 1134206186
Category : Political Science
Languages : en
Pages : 308
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Book Description
A new and wide-ranging empirical overview of party policy in 47 modern democracies, including all of the new democracies of Eastern Europe. It updates and radically extends Policy and Party Competition (1992), which established itself as a key mainstream data source for all political scientists exploring the policy positions of political parties. This essential text is divided into three clear parts: Part I introduces the study, themes and methodology Part II deals in depth with the wide range of issues involved in estimating and analyzing the policy positions of key political actors. Part III is the key data section that identifies key policy dimensions across the 47 countries, detailing their party positions and median legislators, and is complemented by graphical representations of each party system. This book is an invaluable reference for all political scientists, particularly those interested in party policy and comparative politics.
