Includes bibliographical references (pages 243-252) and index.
Choosing governments or identifying preferences? : the role of elections in democracy -- Mandate theories : government and median -- Communicating preferences : the public policy space -- Research questions for comparative investigation -- Choices parties offer -- Mandates without obvious majorities? -- Representing the median voter -- Who controls short-term policymaking? -- From declared to actual policy : short-term influences on government policies -- Long-term policy regimes : incrementalism put in context -- Fluctuating political forces -- Politics and policy regimes : setting a long-term equilibrium -- Unifying theories of democracy through the median mandate.
0
The authors combine traditional concerns about democracy with modern analytical methods to assess how contemporary democracies function. Their theory on the median mandate, the voice of the majority, which empowers the centre party, is tested with evidence from 21 democracies from 1950 through to 1995.
Elections, parties, democracy.
0199286728
Democracy.
Elections.
Representative government and representation.
Democracy.
Elections.
POLITICAL SCIENCE-- Political Process-- Elections.