Contemporary Democracies: Participation, Stability, and ViolenceHarvard University Press, 1982 - 279 pages Why do some democracies succeed while others fail? In seeking an answer to this classic problem, G. Bingham Powell, Jr., examines the record of voter participation, government stability, and violence in 29 democracies during the 1960s and 1970s. The core of the book and its most distinguishing feature is the treatment of the role of political parties in mobilizing citizens and containing violence. |
Contents
Introduction Democracy Parties and Performance | 1 |
The Contemporary Democracies | 2 |
Political Parties and the Democratic Order | 7 |
Standards of Political Performance | 8 |
Political Performance The Initial Comparison | 12 |
Stable and Effective Government | 17 |
Maintaining Political Order | 20 |
Compatibility of the Performance Dimensions | 25 |
PartySystem Dynamics | 98 |
Party Systems and Democratic Performance | 105 |
Citizen Involvement Participation or Turmoil | 111 |
A Causal Model of Voting Participation | 120 |
Turmoil and Its Containment | 123 |
Government Performance Executive Stability | 133 |
Durability of Governments | 144 |
Presidential Government | 151 |
The Social and Economic Environment | 30 |
Population Size | 31 |
Modernization and Economic Development | 34 |
Social Cleavages | 41 |
Economic Divisions | 47 |
A Brief Multivariate Consideration | 49 |
The Constitutional Setting | 54 |
Constitutional Design and Political Performance | 59 |
Constitution and Culture | 66 |
Socioeconomic and Constitutional Effects | 69 |
Party Systems and Election Outcomes | 74 |
Attributes of Party Systems | 75 |
Fractionalization | 80 |
Parties and Social Groups | 85 |
Extremist Parties | 92 |
Volatility of Party Strength | 96 |
Managing Violence and Sustaining Democracy | 154 |
Strategic Objectives and Consequences | 157 |
Military and Executive Coups | 170 |
Democratic Performance Liberty Competition Responsiveness | 175 |
Political Competition | 177 |
Policy Responsiveness | 186 |
Conclusion Constraint and Creativity in Democracies | 201 |
Executive Control and Economic Manipulation | 208 |
Consociational Practices | 212 |
Requirements for Performance and Survival | 218 |
Limits and Directions | 226 |
Appendix | 231 |
Notes | 238 |
| 275 | |
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Contemporary Democracies: Participation, Stability, and Violence G. Bingham Powell Limited preview - 1982 |
Common terms and phrases
alignments Arend Lijphart associated Austria average Belgium cabinet capita Ceylon changes Chapter Chile citizens class voting cleavage competition compulsory voting conflict constitutional arrangements correlation Costa Rica countries deadly violence decade democracies democratic democratic performance democratic regime Denmark dimensions economic development effects election outcomes electoral laws environmental equations ethnic fractionalization executive stability extremist parties factor Finland government stability impact income India involvement Ireland Italy Jamaica Japan leftist legislative legislature less Lijphart linkages majoritarian measures Median minimum winning minority governments mobilize modernization multiparty systems nations Netherlands parliamentary systems party systems percent Philippines political order political parties political performance political violence population presidential systems protest regression analysis relationship representation riots and deaths Sidney Verba significant single-party social societies standardized regression coefficients strong studies substantial support for extremist Switzerland terrorist tion Turkey Uruguay variables Venezuela volatility voters voting participation voting turnout West Germany World Handbook