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Democratic innovations aim to strengthen citizen participation in democratic decision‐making processes. Building on theories of deliberative democracy, participatory democracy and direct democracy, different types of democratic innovations have been developed, ranging from mini‐publics, to participatory processes and referendums and citizens’ initiatives. Over the last four decades, an expanding number of scholars have investigated the effects of these democratic innovations on citizens. However, even though a considerable amount of research has been done, there currently exists no overview of the effects of different types of democratic innovations on citizens’ attitudes, behaviour and capabilities. In addition, it is unclear which effects prove robust across studies, and which effects require more investigation.The aim of this paper is to systematically evaluate what we know and what we do not know yet about the effects of democratic innovations on citizens who participate in them. In order to do so, we conduct a meta‐analysis of 100 quantitative empirical studies published between 1980 and 2020. We find, perhaps unsurprisingly, that mini‐publics are widely researched for their effects on citizens, whereas studies into the effects of participatory processes and referendums and citizens’ initiatives on participating citizens are much less frequent. We also find that participation in mini‐publics changes citizens’ policy attitudes and positively affects citizens’ political attitudes, knowledge, internal efficacy and reasoning skills. For participatory processes, our analyses indicate that they appear to have a positive effect on participants’ political attitudes and knowledge and no effect on participants’ internal efficacy, but there are too few studies to draw robust conclusions. Participation in referendums and citizens’ initiatives appears to have a positive effect on participants’ knowledge and internal efficacy, even though these findings should also be considered preliminary due to the limited number of studies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The Internet is playing an increasingly important role in shaping citizens' political experience. We turn to it to consume political news and, in some countries, to even cast our ballots at parliamentary elections. Leading the way in embracing Internet voting (i‐voting) is Estonia where nearly half of the ballots cast during the 2019 parliamentary election were submitted online. Using original data from the 2019 Estonian Candidate Study, this paper explores the relationship between how candidates campaign and their electoral performance. It finds greater use of both offline and online campaign tools to contribute to higher vote shares as candidates win more traditional and i‐votes. These positive effects are similar in size, in terms of candidates' overall electoral performance as well as their ability to attract different types of votes. The results show not only that individual‐level campaigns continue to matter, but that online campaigns have become as important as offline campaigns for candidates, and voters' political activity often transcends the medium through which they receive political communication. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Partisans view their own candidates through rose‐coloured glasses and see competing candidates much more negatively. However, recent advances in political behaviour reveal that such directional motivated reasoning is not simply about love and hate, but also about more nuanced shifts in preferences. Combining two insights from the psychological sciences – coalitional reasoning and a general dislike of self‐interested leaders – we form the novel prediction that voters pay more attention to out‐party than to in‐party candidates' warmth. We show firm evidence for this prediction relying on election studies data with candidate warmth impressions from 27 elections from seven countries (Australia, Denmark, Germany, Norway, Sweden, the United Kingdom and the United States) between 1984 and 2016; and a re‐analysis of existing experimental data (total N = 140K). Our paper reveals sophisticated psychological mechanisms regulating the importance of candidate warmth and implies that candidates seeking to reduce the partisan gap should establish a warm image. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The principal concerns of this paper are with the roles partisan politics have played in the making of fiscal and monetary policies within OECD countries as well as the extent to which these policies have complemented each other. It is argued that parties of the left pursue fiscal policies that are distinctly different from those pursued by the right. The critical difference is in the way these parties use fiscal policy as a corrective mechanism for dealing with macroeconomic problems: leftist parties adopt counter-cyclical fiscal policies while right-wing parties adhere to pro-cyclical fiscal stances. The paper also examines two arguments regarding monetary policy and how partisan politics affect this policy area. The first and most conventional argument sees the formal independence of the central bank from government as a means of negating partisan influences on monetary policy; the second advances the proposition that, regardless of central bank independence, monetary authorities are not politically neutral but instead share views similar to those of parties on the right-hand side of the political spectrum. Empirical analysis, using a pooled cross-section time-series design with data from 14 countries between 1961 and 1994, produces evidence in favor of the argument concerning the role of partisanship in fiscal policy; it also shows little support for the view that central bank independence inhibits partisan influences while at the same time provides support for the thesis that central banks are politically non-neutral. Thus, coordination between fiscal and monetary policies is far less likely to occur when left-wing parties are in power. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper deals with the 1994 Italian elections to both the Senate and the Chamber of Deputies. It discusses: the new electoral system introduced for these elections; the realignment of the Italian party system since the previous election; patterns in the election results and the implications of these for the future. The paper argues that crucial differences in electoral law explain differences in the pattern of Senate and Chamber results. Considering regional patterns of voting, only the southern part of the country showed signs of close competition between the main party cartels. Comparing plurality and PR voting at constituency level, the paper highlights the inability of candidates of the left to mobilise supporters of other parties in their cartel in plurality elections, a factor that does not augur well for the left in future elections. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Despite the voluminous literature on the 'normalisation of protest', the protest arena is seen as a bastion of left‐wing mobilisation. While citizens on the left readily turn to the streets, citizens on the right only settle for it as a 'second best option'. However, most studies are based on aggregated cross‐national comparisons or only include Northwestern Europe. We contend the aggregate‐level perspective hides different dynamics of protest across Europe. Based on individual‐level data from the European Social Survey (2002–2016), we investigate the relationship between ideology and protest as a key component of the normalisation of protest. Using hierarchical logistic regression models, we show that while protest is becoming more common, citizens with different ideological views are not equal in their protest participation across the three European regions. Instead of a general left predominance, we find that in Eastern European countries, right‐wing citizens are more likely to protest than those on the left. In Northwestern and Southern European countries, we find the reverse relationship, left‐wing citizens are more likely to protest than their right‐wing counterparts. Lessons drawn from the protest experience in Northwestern Europe characterised by historical mobilisation by the New Left are of limited use for explaining the ideological composition of protest in the Southern and Eastern European countries. We identify historical and contemporary regime access as the mechanism underlying regional patterns: citizens with ideological views that were historically in opposition are more likely to protest. In terms of contemporary regime access, we find that partisanship enhances the effect of ideology, while ideological distance from the government has a different effect in the three regions. As protest gains in importance as a form of participation, the paper contributes to our understanding of regional divergence in the extent to which citizens with varying ideological views use this tool. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper attempts an application of Nordlinger's theory of conflict regulation to Northern Ireland. This represents a shift away from an institutional focus on consociational 'devices' to the more basic concern of establishing whether the basis for any conciliatory action actually exists in the first place. The first section concludes that structured elite predominance (a virtual precondition for conflict regulation) charactenses the main Northern Ireland political parties (although it is relatively weak in the case of the Ulster Unionist Party). However. section two, in an addition to Nordlinger's framework, argues that the existence of a dual party system severely hamstrings the development of elite political security, by stimulating within-bloc electoral competition. Moreover, section three stresses that the key to an acceptable consociational formula is the balance which is struck between the internal and external dimensions of the problem. Finally, the paper assesses the prospects for 'coercive consociationalism', in the light of the Anglo-Irish Agreement and the political developments over the last five years which it induced. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Focusing on individual-level determinants of public support for EU membership, this paper brings the literature on Western European integration to bear on the Eastern and Central European accession. Existing theories have focused on utilitarian expectations, political values, and domestic politics as determinants of public attitudes toward European integration. The paper discusses the applicability of the proposed theories and measures in the Eastern European context and develops a model that identifies micro-level economic expectations, support for democratic norms, trust in the national government, and perceptions of ethnic tension as possible determinants of public support for EU membership. These propositions are tested with survey data from Estonia, Latvia, and Lithuania, using logistic regression. The results lend strong support to the expected gains and domestic politics hypotheses but suggest that individual competitiveness, a frequently used proxy for economic expectations, may be a poor predictor of attitudes toward the EU in the CEE context. Perceptions of increased ethnic tensions were found to decrease minority support for EU membership in Latvia, the Baltic country that has pursued particularly stringent citizenship and minority policies. Identification with democratic norms did not influence opinions in Latvia and Estonia, while having an unexpected negative effect on the attitudes of the Lithuanian public. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Analyzing data obtained from the literature and our own calculations, significant differences were found among countries in their levels of class voting. The Scandinavian countries had the highest and Canada and the USA the lowest levels of class voting. Since the 1950s, there was a decline in almost all countries in the level of class voting. In this article, several hypotheses were deduced from a limited number of individual assumptions, each purporting to explain the differences among and declining trends within countries. Testing these hypotheses with multilevel techniques revealed that differences among countries can best be explained by their population's religious-ethnic-linguistic diversity, and by the union density within countries. The decline in most countries can best be explained by the rise in their standard of living. Furthermore, a rise in the percentage of union members, especially among the nonmanual classes, accelerated the decline in the level of class voting in some countries. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Most decisions by the European Parliament are taken by an absolute majority of its members. Some decisions however- such as the approval of the budget of the European Union - require a two-thirds majority. The paper analyzes the a priori voting strength of the member states when their representatives vote coherently. It is shown that the increase in votes for Germany in the 1994 reallocation enhanced its position. A less favourable effect, however, can be seen for the other large members (France, Italy, the United Kingdom, and Spain). However, since votes in the EP tend to be cast according to partisan rather than national affiliation, the relative voting power of the political groups with respect to the two quotas is also analyzed. The tool to measure this is the (normalized) Banzhaf power index, partially extended to account for connected coalitions. The paper demonstrates that the distribution of votes between the present EU member states as allocated in proportion to their population size indeed roughly corresponds to their a priori voting power. However, the relative influence of the largest political groups, the European Socialists and the European People's Party, tends to be overestimated by their share of seats in the framework of the simple majority rule, but it is considerable if the quota is two-thirds. Finally, under the two-thirds majority rule, the European Liberal, Democratic and Reformist Party as well as the small groups appear to be almost powerless. The more the EP gains political leverage - a further increase in its institutional powers is to be expected in the framework of the ongoing Intergovernmental Conference - the more the distribution of voting power between the member states and between the political groups will be a crucial factor in the shaping of EU policies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Many previous theoretical analyses of multiparty coalition behaviour have been based either on one-dimensional policy model or on a constantsum game interpretation. For theoretical and empirical reasons this paper focusses on a competitive two-dimensional model. In this model parties are concerned with policy outcomes but choose party positions both with a view to electoral consequences and as a basis for coalition bargaining. The political heart is proposed as the set of possible coalition outcomes. The heart is either the core of the political game or is determined by a small number of party positions. Under certain conditions an equilibrium in the choice of party positions can be shown to exist. The model suggests that parties can be categorized as either strong or weak core parties, anti-core parties or peripheral parties. This categorization of parties implies a typology of party systems, which gives some theoretical foundation for the occurrence of minority, minimal winning and surplus coalitions in many of the European countries in the postwar period. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Until recent years, two major trends in European politics - the growth of State services and increased political participation - have complemented the central role of parties. This paper argues that this complementarity may have started to come unstuck, and questions the future viability of the mass party as a result of a shift in the balance of perceived advantages of the mass party by both leaders and members. The paper discusses several potential costs and benefits of party membership for leaders and members. Using membership statistics and survey data the reasonableness of these arguments is explored. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Probably the most famous dictum about parties' internal structures is Robert Michels' 'iron law of oligarchy'. Over the past two decades, however, the societal context within which parties are embedded has begun to change which may alter the psychological premise upon which Michels' law is based. More specifically, we hypothesize that New Politics proponents within established parties are disproportionately likely to rely on cues from local party branches, instead of leadership cues, in forming issue positions on intra-party controversies. Accordingly, this paper analyzes the influence of New Politics issues on the leadership-constituency views of party delegates within fifty-two West European parties. In addition, we analyze the relative contribution of party ideology and party structures to the evolution of mean party support for NP policies and constituency orientations. The data base for this paper is a unique study of convention delegates conducted in all major West European parties, and a study of party characteristics. We find that New Politics supporters, especially within socialist parties, are predisposed to emphasize the representation of their local party constituency, in case the views of local party branches and a party's national leadership clash. We assess the implications of this research for parties and party theories, especially Michels' law. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper deals with the relationship between election campaign innovation and organisational change within parties. Using the case of the British Labour Party, the paper considers how far campaign changes of the past few years entail the organisational transformation of the party. Broadly speaking, it seems reasonable to conclude that the professionalisation of Labour's election campaign personnel has had significant implications both for policy and for the autonomy of the party leadership. These developments indicate a partial, but nonetheless significant, transformation of Labour's organisation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper focuses on the floating vote and the floating voter at three critical junctures in modern Swedish political history: the general elections of 1928, 1948, and 1968. The topic is in the mainstream of electoral research, but with one important proviso: it is a study of floating without the benefit of survey data. The analysis is based on Thomsen's (1987) method of ecological inference. The ecological estimates confirm the conventional wisdom that the Swedish elections of 1928, 1948 and 1968 were mobilizing elections, bringing large numbers of new voters to the polls, and marked by considerable mobility between the parties. They were also realigning in that they held out the possibility of a new status quo. In 1928 and 1948 the parties of the right were on the offensive; in 1968 the Social Democrats held the initiative. But the new coalitions were potentially unstable; it was the floating voters, particularly those with a previous history of non-voting, who spelled the difference between defeat and victory. The paper makes an important contribution to the validation of Thomsen's method. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Until recent years, two major trends in European politics — the growth of state services and increased political participation — have complemented the central role of parties. This paper argues that this complementarity may have started to come unstuck, and questions the future viability of the mass party as a result of a shift in the balance of perceived advantages of the mass party by both leaders and members. The paper discusses several potential costs and benefits of party membership for leaders and members. Using membership statistics and survey data the reasonableness of these arguments is explored. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper offers a critique and application of Adam Przeworski's 'dilemma of electoral socialism' by examining the Scandinavian case with a major focus on the Swedish Social Democrats. The critique questions several assumptions underpinning Przeworski's argument and the statistical analysis employed to support the argument. Using data from election surveys, the paper provides an additional test of Przeworski's hypotheses and discloses a number of problems. A major difficulty is that certain axiomatic tendencies in Przeworski's line of reasoning obstruct fully developing the potential of making party strategies and class formation variables in explaining the electoral performance of socialist parties. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper is concerned with the two underlying dimensions of the people's welfare - economic growth and social protection - and their realization in the diverse processes which determine the character of budgeting and of budgetary outcomes. These conflicting conceptions of welfare and the diverse agents involved in the budgetary process generate a government fiscal policy, which expresses the clash between ideology and political feasibility and between politicians' intentions and actual outcomes. This paper focuses primarily on the budgetary process in West Germany, but also makes some reference to fiscal policy in the UK and the USA. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The electoral law in mans' European countries permits voters to indicate preferred candidates within a party list rather than to make a choice only between parties. This paper examines briefly the various voting arrangements which allow this and considers in some detail the patterns of their utilization and their possible consequences. Whilst such behaviour can be understood as a form of political participation it is evident that patterns vary and consequences are uncertain due to the complex interrelationship between the different elements in the electoral situation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

At the beginning of the 1990s a new discourse emerged at the European Union level, insisting on the necessity of ‘civil society’ participation in decision-making processes. Based on a ‘strategic-constructivist’ research design, this article addresses the question of the emergence of this participatory turn in the official discourse and its transformation into a norm. It argues that the continued activism of an elite forum, consisting of political and administrative actors as well as academics, created the momentum that brought the concerned actors to accept the participatory norm and to play the roles required by it. However, due to internal competition amongst norm entrepreneurs, and a changed political situation, this norm is still contested, making it difficult to assess how its implementation will function. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper summarizes how the partisan influence literature assesses the relation- ship between the left-right party composition of government and policy outputs through a meta-analysis of 693 parameter estimates of the party-policy relationship published in 43 empirical studies. Based on a simplified ‘combined tests’ meta-analytic technique, we show that the average correlation between the party composition of government and policy outputs is not significantly different from zero. A mutivariate logistic regression analysis examines how support for partisan theory is affected by a subset of mediating factors that can be applied to all the estimates under review. The analysis demonstrates that there are clearly identifiable conditions under which the probability of support for partisan theory can be substantially increased. We conclude that further research is needed on institutional and socio-economic determinants of public policy. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Recent research on European integration has largely profited from the institutionalist turn in political science. Theoretical progress has, however, been hampered by the diverse understandings of this new research tradition. This paper tries to tackle the conceptual diversity in a positive way. We first analyze the neo-institutionalist turn in political science and European studies and then move on to a detailed analysis and comparison of the three competing approaches - sociological, historical, and rational choice institutionalism. Next, we will show that the main differences are as much epistemological as theoretical. A convergence towards a unifying institutionalist approach can thus only be possible if some sort of a methodological convergence takes place. We sketch how a synthesis between the competing schools might appear. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper seeks to reconstruct and revitalize the famous Hirschman framework by providing a comprehensive review of the current use of 'exit, voice and loyalty'. We begin by critically examining Hirchman's original account, and then look at the way his argument has been extended in different fields both conceptually and empirically. We suggest that while advances have been made, the results so far are somewhat disappointing given the perceptiveness of the original insight. We believe this is because his apparently simple schema is more complex than it first appears, and different aspects of exit, of voice, and of empirical foundations of loyalty need to be analytically distinguished in order to produce testable empirical hypotheses about their relationships. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Under what conditions and to what extent do national publics come to accept the increasing efforts of state elites to build new political institutions that transcend the constitutional frontiers of the nation-state and affect their interests beyond their direct control? This paper explores the role of national publics and social policy in the process of national and European integration. A theory of allegiance is proposed as particularly useful for analyzing this topic. Allegiance is defined as the willingness of a national public to approve of and to support the decisions made by a government, in return for a more or less immediate and straightforward reward or benefit. National publics accept the efforts of their national state elites to build new trans- or supranational political institutions on the condition that this guarantees or reinforces economic (e.g. employment) and social (e.g. income maintenance) security in the national context. European integration depends on a double allegiance, consisting of a primary allegiance to the nation-state and its political elite and a secondary or derived allegiance to the EC or EU. Secondary allegiance, however, exists only to the extent that European integration facilitates nation-states to provide the resources upon which primary allegiance hinges. The theory of double allegiance specifies theoretically the mechanism explaining the link between national economic and social conditions, and public support for the European Union. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

As representative democracy is increasingly criticized, a new institution is becoming popular among academics and practitioners: deliberative citizens' assemblies. To evaluate whether these assemblies can deliver their promise of re‐engaging the dissatisfied with representative politics, we explore who supports them and why. We build on a unique survey conducted with representative samples of 15 Western European countries and find, first, that the most supportive are those who are less educated and have a low sense of political competence and an anti‐elite sentiment. Thus, support does come from the dissatisfied. Second, we find that this support is for a part 'outcome contingent', in the sense that it changes with respondents' expectations regarding the policy outcome from deliberative citizens' assemblies. This second finding nuances the first one and suggests that while deliberative citizens' assemblies convey some hope to re‐engage disengaged citizens, this is conditioned on the expectation of a favourable outcome. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The phenomenon of populism and its relationship with modern democracy has gained considerable attention in recent years. This article aims at advancing our understanding of how populism affects different models of democracy and tests the proposed arguments empirically. Building on a large scholarly literature on populism and democracy, we take stock of existing arguments and theorize which democratic models may be affected by populism in a positive or negative way. Moreover, we move beyond the normative debate and analyse the effect of populism in power on different models of democracy empirically. We do so by merging data on populist governments in Europe and Latin America from 1995 until today with the Varieties of Democracy dataset, which enables us to capture the relationship between populism and different democratic models in these regions. Despite mixed‐theoretical expectations, our results suggest a rather negative impact of populism on the electoral, liberal and deliberative models of democracy. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Analyses of turnout in British general elections fall broadly into two camps: those based on constituency-level data, and those based on survey data. The former stress the importance of local context, while the latter stress personal characteristics and viewpoints. Underlying both are a range of theories purporting to explain turnout. However, to date, there has been little systematic attempt to analyse turnout in the round. In this paper, we combine survey and constituency data to study the individual and contextual correlates of turnout at the British general election and 1992. Constituency level analyses seem to confirm the importance of local context, though it declined during the 1980s. However, and contrary to analyses which employ constituency data only, while individual electors' decisions on whether or not to turn out are influenced by their personal circumstances, they are not influenced by local context. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper presents results from a study of turnout in the 1994 European Parliament elections which inserted several new questions into the post-election Eurobarometer, including some open-ended questions. It distinguishes between circumstantial and voluntary abstention and shows how each type varies depending on the institutional arrangements for the election. Using both the subjective reasons given for abstention and a range of more objective measures of attitudes, it makes the case that conventional views as to the impact of Sunday-voting and the proportionality of the electoral system and as to the non-impact of attitudes to the European Union need to be modified. It concludes by identifying some practical institutional and political measures that could encourage higher levels of participation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The development of political science was closely connected to the democratic changes and the restoration of statehood at the end of the 1980s in Lithuania. This paper examines the historical and contemporary social and academic roots of political science in the country. The other issue investigated in detail is the institutionalisation of political studies, which required the development of new academic curricula. Major vehicles for the institutionalization of political science were the decentralisation of academic activities and the establishment of new institutions, such as the Institute of Political Science and International Relations (University of Vilnius) and the Lithuanian Political Science Association, and intensive cooperation with Western universities and funding organizations. Nonetheless, the growth and efficiency of political studies and research depend very much on their successful integration into the environment of the existing universities. The research output of Lithuanian political science is characterised by a widening of research interests and the further introduction of statistical and computer methods of investigation, with problems of Lithuania's foreign and security policy and issues of democratisation as topics of continuing popularity. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The literature on new political parties is vast but often neglects strategic aspects that are important in the formation period. In this article I develop a simple incomplete information game consisting of the interactions between an established party and a potential new party. The game shows that higher 'costs' for forming a party decrease the likelihood of new actors appearing on the electoral scene. Apart from this intuitive result the paper also shows that important demands from potential new parties are less likely to be taken seriously by the established party than more modest demands. Consequently,established parties often change their policies only marginally and are likely to refuse important modifications to their platform. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The purpose of this paper is to test a rational actor model of political participation against rival models to see which provides the best theoretical account of participation. This is done using data from the first panel survey of Labour party members in Britain. The tests use encompassing methodology, an approach to model building which arises out of recent developments in applied econometrics. The rational choice model is tested against a social-psychological model, and a 'general incentives' model which has been utilized in earlier research to explain party activism. The results show that while the rational choice model has important explanatory power, it provides an incomplete account of participation. A 'reduced form' model is developed which encompasses the other models, and provides the best explanatory account of party activism. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper uses newly available Canadian data to address long-standing debates on the rationality of the political economy of party support. We find that the subjective economic variable driving governing party support is sociotropic, not egocentric, and, pace recent American and British studies, prospections do not dominate retrospections. Rather, models using national economic evaluations encompass rivals employing national expectations, personal expectations and perceived trends in personal expectations. Egocentric considerations are not irrelevant; rather, their effects on party support are indirect. We argue that these findings are consistent with an image of voters whose party-support decisions are governed by a 'rough-and-ready' rationality appropriate to the information available to them and the politico-economic systems of contemporary Western democracies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper studies government formation in parliamentary systems. A formal model is presented to explain the emergence of minority governments, minimal winning coalitions and surplus majorities, as a function of the largest party's share of the seats in the legislature and its location in the policy space. I conclude that as the largest party becomes larger and more central, the government changes from a surplus majority to a minimal winning coalition and from a minimal winning coalition to a minority government. I find empirical support for these conclusions in a study of government formation in eleven parliamentary democracies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Based on data from Denmark from the end of the 1970s and 1980s the paper analyzes the development of feminist attitudes during a period characterized, on the one hand, by a high, and still growing, integration of women into the labour market and political life, and on the other, by an organizational decline of the women's movement and a decline in the politicization of women's issues. At the end of the 1970s, feminist attitudes, especially among women, were unidimensionally structured and closely related to other political factors. The most feminist were the young, the well-educated, the politically interested, and left-wing women. At the end of the 1980s, feminist attitudes were at the same level as ten years before, but different dimensions had emerged, a social and political dispersion of feminist attitudes had taken place, and feminism no longer influenced political behaviour. In many respects, the experience of the United States in the 1970s was reversed in Denmark in the 1980s. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Accounting for regional divides in British electoral behaviour during the 1980s has proved controversial. Critics have argued that, once individual characteristics are taken into account, regional context is unimportant. Supporters of the regional divide have pointed to the connection between economic conditions and voting, but have been unable to show direct links between local economies and voters' decisions. The paper employs new data to examine the controversy. Voters at the 1992 General Election are shown to judge their regional economies, and to act on those judgements, even when their personal positions are controlled for. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper analyses the spending preferences of local government elected politicians. It is argued that the median voter model is inappropriate in multi-party systems that provide multiple government services, and that the preferences of the representatives are consequential to local resource allocation. We develop a micromodel in which service demand is conditioned by exogenous public revenue, prices, and demographic factors. We hypothesise that politicians' demands are affected by party affiliation, public sector occupation and committee assignment. The estimates of the micro demand functions are based on data pertaining to Norwegian local governments. It is found that the estimated income elasticities correspond approximately with elasticities of output studies. Party affiliation has an impact on demand patterns, while government occupation and committee appointment are major determinants of politicians desired allocation of public services. Further analyses reveal that the numerical strength of parties impacts weakly on the actual service allocation, whereas the representation of government employees has occasional effect. The budgetary allocations are imperfect expressions of the elected council's underlying preferences. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The role played by Soviet ideology during the perestroika reforms has not been fully analyzed because ideology has not been seen as a structural force influencing Soviet political life. This paper charts the effect that this neglect of ideology has had on some explanations of perestroika and seeks to redress the balance. Various ways of dealing with ideology during perestroika are examined and an alternative approach to Soviet ideology (viewing it as a discourse) is developed. This approach to Soviet ideology shows that it was a vital, but unstable, element of the Communist Party's power. The approach is then applied to the Gorbachev reforms to show how ideology played a crucial part in breaking up the power of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union (CPSU) from 1985 onwards. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Consolidated democracies involve structured linkages between citizens and political decision making elites that are typically organized via political parties. Given the economic and institutional instability and uncertainty in post-communist emerging democracies, it has often been maintained that a structuring of party systems in such countries is slow to emerge. This paper demonstrates with data from a 1991 pre-election study in Bulgaria that significant aspects of political structuring may in fact appear in post-communist polities quite early. The structuring is based on citizens' individual resources which they expect to convert into economic benefits in the economic market economy, their market location in occupational terms, their general ideological dispositions, and their evaluation of the economic performance of the incumbent governments. While the structuring of party systems may still be weaker than in Western Europe, the Bulgarian evidence casts doubt on the tabula rasa hypothesis in the study of post- communist politics. Of course, further comparative analysis of post-communist democracies is required to buttress our conclusions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper presents new data on the differential impact of the East German 'participatory revolution' on attitudes of youth in both Eastern and Western regions of unified Germany. A 1991 Youth Survey indicates that the overall 1991 level of approval for most noninstitutional tactics was roughly similar to the 1980 levels reported in the Political Action Studies. The notable exception was support for political demonstrations which was considerably higher, presumably in response to the participatory mobilization in the East. There was a strong regional effect with demonstrations receiving higher ratings in the East (the former German Democratic Republic) than in the West for all age groups. This apparent 'tactic-specific' effect suggests the 'participatory revolution' is characterized by a 'lead' in the more dramatic tactics and a 'lag' in the more subtle techniques of democratic participation. Western males showed hints of a different age-related pattern than did males in the East, or females in both regions - a finding that may indicate a combination of gender and regional effects. In both regions approval for demonstrations was associated with left-of-center political party preference and with identification with 'new social movements'. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Despite the similarities between the Nordic countries with regard to social and political structures, major differences in grass roots participation are found. Participation is highest in Sweden and lowest in Finland, with Denmark, Norway and Iceland falling in between. There are also striking differences between the countries regarding the relationships between participation and factors as age, gender, education, social class and party choice. Two theories may help us to understand these differences. The first, mobilization theory, claims that grass root participation is used to mobilize new social groups. This theory is supported by evidence from Denmark, Norway and Iceland. During the 1970s and the 1980s all three countries experienced political mobilization of the well-educated, the new middle class and the women. The second theory, supplement theory, claims that grass root participation is nothing but an extension of the conventional modes of participation. This theory is supported in Sweden. The last section of the paper argues that differences between countries may be explained by differences in the strength of traditional political organizations. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper examines the politicization of gender inequality through a cross-national analysis of attitudes towards inequality between men and women. The data were obtained from national surveys in the United States, Britain, West Germany, Australia and Italy. In all of these countries, attitudes towards gender inequality were found to be associated with the 'left- right' cleavage over economic inequality and redistribution, but they were unrelated to 'new politics' issues. It was also found that attitudes towards gender inequality were more closely integrated into the left-right cleavage in those countries where there was greater awareness of gender issues, and that they had very little net impact on partisanship. Thus high levels of awareness of gender inequality are not associated with the emergence of a new cross-cutting political cleavage. It is concluded that inequality of opportunity between men and women does not constitute part of a new politics agenda, nor does it cross-cut other sources of political interests. It is more plausibly seen as a new element of the well-established left-right cleavage. Consequently, it leaves the structure of political divisions relatively intact. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The paper presents an ecological analysis evaluating two explanatory perspectives on third/minor party advances in recent English general elections. The impact of community cohesion on third/minor party mobilisation is complex and differentiated. Cohesion stemming from the socio-economic homogeneity of constituency environments tends to buttress support for the two main class-based parties. However, communal cohesion stemming from workplace-residence proximity tends to favour the channeling of collective protest into third/minor parties. Third/minor party advances are also shown to be positively related to prior situations of major party dominance in constituencies, particularly in the 1983 election. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The sudden rise of the extreme right-wing party 'The Republicans' in the late 1980s in the Federal Republic of Germany has attracted high attention within and outside Germany. After a few remarks on the definition and history of right-wing extremism in the Federal Republic of Germany, the paper gives an overview of the Republicans' genesis, organization, membership, platforms and style of electoral campaigns. The final part concentrates on the empirical test of hypotheses deduced from various theoretical approaches to explain support for extreme right-wing parties. The results of this analysis indicate that a considerable part of the Republicans' electorate does not have an extreme right-wing ideology but consists of protest voters. The party has benefited from socioeconomically and politically motivated dissatisfaction and feelings of threat. At the same time, the established parties have failed to respond adequately to these problems. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper provides an empirical analysis using power indices derived by regarding the Conference and Electoral College as weighted majority games. It is shown that both main power indices, the Shapley-Shubik and the Banzhaf, may be computed with reasonable accuracy by an approximation method based on probabilistic-voting assumption. The results show voting power to be more concentrated than voting weight, that of some large trade unions being enhanced at the expense of smaller affiliated organisations and constituency parties (and, in the Electoral College, MPs). The results also provide insights into the comparative properties of the two classical power indices. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Studies of political participation have traditionally differentiated conventional from non-conventional, legal from illegal, modes of participation. In this paper we to develop a more complex scheme. using the technique of multidimensional scaling (MDS). We look at the perceptions that individuals hold about different forms of political participation that range from voting to armed violence and include other legal or illegal manifestations. The results show the existence of two meaningful underlying dimensions. The first relates to 'within-system' versus 'out-of-system' activities; the second relates to 'progressive' versus 'conservative' activities. A cluster analysis is then used to develop a typology of political participation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper examines the record of western democracies to measure the impact of differing electoral formulae on the rate of voter turnout. The record of 509 national elections in 20 countries provides the basis for a regression analysis that clearly identities higher turnout rates in PR systems that cannot be explained by a wide variety of control variables or traditional arguments about PR. The data also reveal a marked increase in electoral turnout over the last century. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper examines the evolution of debates as a significant element of the strategy of election campaigns in a number of countries. Analyzing survey data from two Canadian cases (the elections of 1979 and 1984), it is found that the effects of debates on individual voting behaviour are primarily reinforcing, but that debates have nevertheless grown considerably in importance in strategic decision making by parties and candidates. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper deals with the question of how political parties define their electoral strategies in a multiparty system within a segmented society. In trying to answer this question various concepts as developed by Sam and Sartori are discussed, especially the distinction they make between 'expansive' and 'defensive' strategies and the exclusion from their analysis of so-called `non-relevant' parties. A brief study of electoral strategies of the Dutch political parties during the heyday of pillarization in the 1940s and 1950s supports this criticism. It also stresses the fact that party strategies are defined by the perceptions of partisan elites at a given moment and cannot be explained by post hoc constructs like the stability of the party system or the closedness of the segments in society. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper examines the relationship between macroeconomic performance and party popularity for the Conservative government of Margaret Thatcher in Britain from 1983 to 1987. A popularity function is estimated which shows that government support was significantly influenced by inflation and unemployment; perceptions and expectations of economic performance; and a variety of non-economic variables and political shocks. A monetary policy reaction function is also estimated which shows that the Conservative government manipulated the money supply in order to stimulate the economy in the election year. Finally, an outcome function is estimated showing that monetary policy had a significant influence on inflation and unemployment. The results demonstrate that the Conservatives pursued a strategy of manipulating the economy for political profit, in a way consistent with the political business cycle. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper analyzes whether left-right scales provide an interval measure of citizen issue attitudes that is comparable across eight Western European countries. Two commonly held views of left-right self-placement are juxtaposed: (1) the theory that issue attitudes are the primary component of left-right self-placement, and (2) the theory that partisanship is the primary component of left-right self-placement, which entails that left-right scales will take on different substantive meanings in countries with different types of party systems. Distance measures and least squares regression show that left-right scales are generally an appropriate instrument for cross-national tests of theories that have as an explanatory variable the ideological orientations of voters. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]