Elections, Parties, Democracy Conferring the Median Mandate

by McDonald, Michael D.; Budge, Ian

• ISBN13: 9780199286720
• ISBN10: 0199286728
• Format: Hardcover
• Copyright: 2005-12-29
• Publisher: Oxford University Press

Summary

How does representative democracy work in the modern age? Examining 21 post-war democracies, this strikingly innovative approach by two world-class scholars demonstrates how the voter in the middle--the median elector--empowers the centre party in parliament to translate political preferences into public policy.

Table of Contents

List of Figures	xii
List of Tables	xiv
The Mandate Process	1	(58)
Choosing Governments or Identifying Preferences? The Role of Elections in Democracy	3	(16)
Mandate Theories: Government and Median	19	(11)
Communicating Preferences: The Public Policy Space	30	(19)
Research Questions for Comparative Investigation	49	(10)
The Electoral Process	59	(80)
Choices Parties Offer	61	(30)
Mandates Without Obvious Majorities?	91	(25)
Representing the Median Voter	116	(23)
The Governing Process	139	(30)
Who Controls Short-Term Policymaking?	141	(13)
From Declared to Actual Policy: Short-Term Influences on Government Policies	154	(15)
The Democratic Process	169	(74)
Long-Term Policy Regimes: Incrementalism Put in Context	171	(10)
Fluctuating Political Forces	181	(22)
Politics and Policy Regimes: Setting a Long-Term Equilibrium	203	(24)
Unifying Theories of Democracy Through the Median Mandate	227	(16)
Bibliography	243	(10)
Index	253