Citizen Politics: Public Opinion and Political Parties in Advanced Industrial Democracies, Edition 5

Russell J. Dalton

May 2008 · SAGE

About this ebook

Now, more than ever, people drive the democratic process. What people think of their government and its leaders, how (or whether) they vote, and what they do or say about a host of political issues greatly affect the further strengthening or erosion of democracy and democratic ideals. With helpful restructuring, the new fifth edition of Citizen Politics is even more student-friendly while continuing to offer the only truly comparative study of political attitudes and behavior in the United States, Great Britain, France, and Germany.

In addition to its comprehensive, thematic examination of political values, political activity, voting, and public images of government within a cross-national context, Citizen Politics now explores new forms of political activity, such as Internet-based activism, and new forms of political consumerism. All of the chapters have been updated with the latest research and empirical evidence, including new data from the Comparative Study of Electoral Systems project, the World Values Survey, the International Social Survey Program, and the British and German national election studies. Further, Dalton devotes more attention to current academic debates over the decline of participation, the erosion of political support, and the implications for democracy.

New Data Supplement! Give your students a firsthand opportunity to understand the process of public opinion research. A data supplement from the International Social Survey Program, along with matching SPSS files, are available online at college.cqpress.com/dalton.

About the author

Russell Dalton is a professor at the University of California, Irvine and former director of the Center for the Study of Democracy. His research and teaching focuses on the changing nature of citizen politics in contemporary democracies. He has received a Fulbright Research Fellowship, a German Marshall Fund Fellowship, Barbra Streisand Center Fellowship and POSCO Research Fellowship. He has served on the boards of the American National Election Study, the British Election Study and the Comparative Study of Electoral Systems. Among his recent authored or edited books are The Apartisan American (2012), Political Parties and Democratic Linkage (2011), Citizens, Context and Choice (2011), The Good Citizen (2009), Oxford Handbook of Political Behavior (2007), Citizens, Democracy and Markets around the Pacific Rim (2006), Democratic Challenges, Democratic Choices: The Erosion of Political Support in Advanced Industrial Democracies (2004), Democracy Transformed? The Expansion of Citizen Access in Advanced Industrial Democracies (2003), and Parties without Partisans: Political Change in Advanced Industrial Democracies (co-editor, 2001). He has also appeared in six feature-length Hollywood movies.