Degrees of Democracy: Politics, Public Opinion, and Policy

by Stuart N. Soroka , Christopher Wlezien

• ISBN13: 9780521687898
• ISBN10: 0521687896
• Edition: 1st
• Format: Paperback
• Copyright: 2009-12-14
• Publisher: Cambridge University Press

Summary

This book develops and tests a 'thermostatic' model of public opinion and policy. The representation of opinion in policy is central to democratic theory and everyday politics. So too is the extent to which public preferences are informed and responsive to changes in policy. The coexistence of both 'public responsiveness' and 'policy representation' is thus a defining characteristic of successful democratic governance, and the subject of this book. The authors examine both responsiveness and representation across a range of policy domains in the United States, the United Kingdom, and Canada. The story that emerges is one in which representative democratic government functions surprisingly well, though there are important differences in the details. Variations in public responsiveness and policy representation responsiveness are found to reflect the 'salience' of the different domains and governing institutions - specifically, presidentialism (versus parliamentarism) and federalism (versus unitary government).

Table of Contents

Preface	p. vii
Public Opinion and Policy in Representative Democracy	p. 1
Policy Representation	p. 4
Public Responsiveness	p. 14
Synopsis and Prognosis	p. 20
The Thermostatic Model	p. 22
The Mechanics of Public Responsiveness	p. 22
The Mechanics of Policy Representation	p. 35
Public Preferences and the Polls	p. 40
The Reasonableness of the Thermostatic Model	p. 41
Adding Issues and Institutions	p. 43
Adding Salience	p. 43
Adding Institutions	p. 45
System Efficiency	p. 59
From Theory to Practice	p. 60
Public Preferences and Spending - A Preliminary Analysis	p. 63
Measuring Public Preferences	p. 64
Measuring Spending Policy	p. 78
The Measures Summarized	p. 87
Parameters of Public Responsiveness	p. 88
Modeling Public Responsiveness	p. 89
A First Test: Defense and the Domestic Domains Taken Together	p. 90
Public Responsiveness, by Domain	p. 99
Parameters of Public Responsiveness	p. 106
Public Responsiveness Explored	p. 107
Budgetary Policy versus Actual Spending	p. 108
The Timing of Responsiveness	p. 111
Policy, Outcomes, and Public Responsiveness	p. 115
Federal versus Consolidated Spending	p. 119
"Global" versus "Specific" Responsiveness	p. 121
The Focus of Public Responsiveness	p. 123
Policy Representation	p. 125
Modeling Policy Representation	p. 126
A First Test: Policy Representation in Defense and the Social Domains	p. 128
Policy Representation, by Domain	p. 133
Representation in Budgetary Policy	p. 135
Representation and Marginality: The Electoral Connection	p. 137
Representation or Manipulation?	p. 140
Responsiveness and Representation	p. 142
Disaggregating Public Responsiveness and Policy Representation	p. 145
On Equality	p. 145
Group Differences in the Literature	p. 148
Parallel Publics?	p. 150
Groups and Public Responsiveness	p. 157
Groups and Policy Representation	p. 161
The Homogeneity of Opinion-Policy Dynamics	p. 165
Degrees of Democracy	p. 168
On Responsiveness and Representation	p. 168
Institutions and Representative Democracy	p. 173
The "Efficiency" of Political Systems	p. 177
Final Thoughts	p. 182
Appendix	p. 183
Bibliography	p. 219
Index	p. 239
Table of Contents provided by Ingram. All Rights Reserved.