Policy Representation in Western Democracies [Hardcover]

This book offers a comparative analysis of policy representation in five Western Democracies: France, Germany, the Netherlands, Sweden, and the US. A leading group of authors examines the impact of belief systems and geographical and institutional characteristics on the match between the policy preferences of the electorate and those of their representatives.

1. Introduction: Elite-Mass Linkage in Representative Democracy,Warren Miller
2. Mass-Elite Issue Linkages and the Responsible Party Model of Representation,Roy Pierce
3. Political Communication between Political Elites and Mass Publics: The Role of Belief Systems,Jacques Thomassen
4. The Language of Politics: A Study of Elite and Mass Understandings of Ideological Terminology in the United States and the Netherlands,Richard Herrera
5. Collective Policy Congruence Compared,S?ren Holmberg
6. Not all Politics is Local: The Geographical Dimension of Policy Representation,Peter Esaisson
7. System Characteristics Matter: Empirical Evidence from Ten Representation Studies,Bernhard Wessels
Conclusion: Mixed Signals,Roy Pierce.