Democracy at the polls : a comparative study of competitive national elections / edited by David Butler, Howard R. Penniman, and Austin Ranney.

Format:

Book

Contributor:

Butler, David, 1924-2022.

Penniman, Howard R. (Howard Rae), 1916-1995.

Ranney, Austin.

Series:

AEI studies.

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Elections.

Comparative government.

Physical Description:

367 pages

Place of Publication:

Washington, D.C.: American Enterprise Institute for Public Policy Research, 1981.

Contents:

1. Introduction: democratic and nondemocratic elections / D. Butler, H.R. Penniman and A. Ranney : What is a "democratic general election"? ; Why these twenty-eight nations? ; The book's objective and strategy2. Electoral systems / D. Butler : The ground rules ; Translating votes into seats ; The effects of electoral systems3. Political parties: ideologies and programs / A. Lijphart : Introduction: ideological, programmatic, and pragmatic parties ; Dimensions of ideology ; Ideologies and cabinet coalitions ; Ideologies and transnational alliances4. Political parties: organization / L.D. Epstein : The meaning of party organization ; The institutional context ; Mass memberships ; Purposes of an organized membership ; Financing The challenge of the nonparty media ; prospects5. Candidate selection / A. Ranney : How candidates are selected ; The candidates selected ; The role of candidate selection6. Campaign styles and methods / H.R. Penniman : The length of campaigns ; The roles of national and constituency parties ; Campaign strategies ; Fighting to win7. Campaign finance: contrasting practices and reforms / K.Z. Paltiel : The need for funds ; Sources and methods of raising campaign funds ; Regulation and reform of campaign finance ; Public financing ; Democracy and party finance8. Mass communication / A. Smith : Television and its predecessors ; Political bias in the media ; The role of television in election campaigns ; Rules governing the allocation of broadcasting time ; Nature and consequences of TV campaign coverage ; The connoisseurship of the viewer9. Public opinion polls / D. Kavanagh : Background ; What opinion polls do ; The influence of private polls ; Objections to the polls10. Electoral participation / I. Crewe : Voting as a form of participation ; Who is entitled to vote ; On what occasions are people entitled to vote? ; National turnout rates since 1945 ; Explanations of variations in national turnout ; Final thoughts11. What decides elections? / D.E. Stokes : Analytic traditions ; The at the polls series ; Bases of electoral decision ; The conduct of elections ; The primacy of high politics ; Sharpening the analytic edge12. What do elections decide? / A. King : Elections and the formation of governments ; Elections and the formation of public policy13. Democratic elections, democratic government, and democratic theory / J.J. Kirkpatrick : The descriptive approach ; Ideas, ideals, and analytic systems: the rationalist approach ; Word and experience: the case for a descriptive definition of democracy