Citizen Politics and Democracy: Public Opinion and Political Parties in Advanced Democracies

(Paperback, 8th edition)

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Since its first edition in 1988, Citizen Politics has provided a concise examination of citizens political behavior and politicians responses in advanced industrial democracies.It communicates findings from state-of-the-art research on parties, public opinion, and voters in a way that is at once accessible and comprehensive.It argues that ordinary people do, in fact, have what it takes to meet the demands of their roles as citizens in representative democracies.

Informed by evidence from cross-national public opinion surveys, past editions of the book offered a tone of moderationor perhaps guarded optimismthat leans against the more extreme, attention-grabbing approach of the 24-hour news cycle.The eighth edition will continue in this vein.The text will focus on opinion, voter choice, and political representation by comparing recent elections in the UK, France, Germany, and the United States. This four-nation comparison strikes the right balance between depth and breadth and does so in the space of 300 pages.The basic chapter structure will continue, with updated results from several new elections in each of the four core nations, new surveys, and new literature. This is essential to capture student and instructor interest.

This new edition will focus more on the contemporary challenges facing democracies and their citizens.The attack at the U.S. Capitol on January 6, 2021, brought to the fore how much democratic stability requires the consent of the governed and respect for established rules and norms by citizens and elites.This and other events have pushed researchers to revisit foundational questions about the role of the citizen in a democracy.One innovation is that the new edition will focus more on how citizens participation, values, opinions, and assessments contribute to how democracy does (or does not) work. Thus, we will rebrand the eighth edition as Citizen Politics and Democracy, to emphasize both continuity and change in mass politics.

Author Bio

Russell J. Dalton is a professor at the University of California, Irvine and former director of the Center for the Study of Democracy. His research and teaching focuses on the changing nature of citizen politics in contemporary democracies. He has received numerous awards and fellowships, including a Fulbright Research Fellowship, a German Marshall Fund Fellowship, Barbra Streisand Center Fellowship and POSCO Research Fellowship. He has served on the boards of the American National Election Study, the British Election Study and the Comparative Study of Electoral Systems. He has also appeared in eleven feature-length Hollywood movies.

Timothy T. Hellwig is a professor of political science at the University at Buffalo, SUNY, where he specializes in comparative politics and mass political behavior. He is the author or editor of 4 previous books.