Elections, parties, democracy
Subtitle: conferring the median mandate
By: Michael D. McDonald and Ian Budge.
Contributors: Budge, Ian.
Publisher: Oxford University Press
Published: 2005
Place of publication: Oxford; New York
Language: eng
Number of pages: 257
Subjects: Representative government and representation.; Elections.; Democracy.
Description: "This venture into political theory and comparative politics combines traditional concerns about democracy with modern analytical methods. It asks how contemporary democracies work, an essential stage in asking how they can be justified. An answer to both questions is found in the idea of the median mandate. The voter in the middle - the voice of the majority - empowers the centre party in parliament to translate its preferences into public policy. The median mandate provides a unified theory of democracy - pluralist, consensus, majoritarian, liberal, and populist - by replacing each qualified 'vision' with an integrated account of how representative institutions work. The unified theory is put to the test with comprehensive cross-national evidence covering 21 democracies from 1950 through to 1995." "This book will be of interest to specialists and general readers alike, representing as it does a reaffirmation of traditional democratic practice in an uncertain and threatening world."--Jacket.
Notes: Includes bibliographical references and index.
Table of contents: title: Choosing governments or identifying preferences? The role of elections in democracy; title: Mandate theories: government and median; title: Communicating preferences: the public policy space; title: Research questions for comparative investigation; title: The electoral process; title: Choices parties offer; title: Mandates without obvious majorities?; title: Representing the median voter; title: The governing process; title: Who controls short term policymaking? Government declarations; title: From declared to actual policy: shortterm influences on government policies; title: The democratic process; title: Longterm policy regimes: incrementalism put in context; title: Fluctuating political forces; title: Politics and policy regimes: setting a longterm equilibrium; title: Unifying theories of democracy through the median mandate.