Cover: Contemporary Democracies: Participation, Stability, and Violence, from Harvard University PressCover: Contemporary Democracies in PAPERBACK

Contemporary Democracies

Participation, Stability, and Violence

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Product Details

PAPERBACK

$50.00 • £40.95 • €45.00

ISBN 9780674166875

Publication Date: 01/01/1984

Short

294 pages

6 x 9-1/4 inches

37 tables

World

Related Subjects

  • 1. Introduction—Democracy, Parties, and Performance
    • The Contemporary Democracies
    • Political Parties and the Democratic Order
    • Standards of Political Performance
  • 2. Political Performance—The Initial Comparison
    • Citizen Voting Participation
    • Stable and Effective Government
    • Maintaining Political Order
    • Compatibility of the Performance Dimensions
  • 3. The Social and Economic Environment
    • Population Size
    • Modernization and Economic Development
    • Social Cleavages
    • Economic Divisions
    • A Brief Multivariate Consideration
  • 4. The Constitutional Setting
    • Constitutional Design
    • Constitutional Design and Political Performance
    • Constitution and Culture
    • Socioeconomic and Constitutional Effects
  • 5. Party Systems and Election Outcomes
    • Attributes of Party Systems
    • Fractionalization
    • Parties and Social Groups
    • Extremist Parties
    • Volatility of Party Strength
    • Party-System Dynamics
    • Party Systems and Democratic Performance
  • 6. Citizen Involvement I Participation or Turmoil
    • Getting Citizens to the Polls
    • A Causal Model of Voting Participation
    • Turmoil and Its Containment
  • 7. Government Performance / Executive Stability
    • Parliamentary Systems: Government Formation
    • Parliamentary Systems: Durability of Governments
    • Presidential Government
  • 8. Managing Violence and Sustaining Democracy
    • Elite Bases of Deadly Violence
    • Organized Violence: Strategic Objectives and Consequences
    • How Democracies Are Replaced: Military and Executive Coups
  • 9. Democratic Performance—Liberty, Competition, Responsiveness
    • Civil Liberties
    • Political Competition
    • Policy Responsiveness
  • 10. Conclusion—Constraint and Creativity in Democracies
    • Relationships among the Dimensions of Performance
    • Executive Control and Economic Manipulation
    • Institutionalizing Compromise: Consociational Practices
    • Requirements for Performance and Survival
    • Comparative Analysis: Limits and Directions
  • Appendix
  • Notes
  • Index

Awards & Accolades

  • 2000 George H. Hallett Award, Representation and Electoral Systems Section of the American Political Science Association
  • 1983 Woodrow Wilson Foundation Award, American Political Science Association
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