Contemporary democracies : participation, stability, and violence
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
1 online resource (xi, 279 pages)
9780674042353, 9780674166875, 0674042352, 0674166876
662599542
Contents
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 SettingConstitutional 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 / Participation or Turmoil
Getting Citizens to the Polls
A Causal Model of Voting Participation Turmoil and Its Containment7 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 DemocraciesRelationships 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
Electronic reproduction, [Place of publication not identified], HathiTrust Digital Library, 2010
English