Democracy Transformed?: Expanding Political Opportunities I

Description:
'Comparative Politics' is a series for students and teachers of political science that deals with contemporary issues in comparative government and politics. The General Editors are Max Kaase, Professor of Political Science, Vice President and Dean, School of Humanities and Social Science, International University Bremen, Germany; and Kenneth Newton, Professor of Comparative Politics, University of Southampton. The series is published in association with the European Consortium for Political Research. The popular pressures for reforms of the democratic process have mounted across the OECD nations over the past generation. In response, democratic institutions are changing, evolving, and expanding in ways that may alter the structure of the democratic process. These changes include reforms of the electoral process, the expansion of referendums, introduction of open government provisions, and more access points for direct political involvement. Indeed, some observers claim that we are witnessing the most fundamental transformation of the democratic process since the creation of mass democracy in the early 20th Century. This international team of distinguished scholars assembles the evidence of how democratic institutions and processes are changing, and considers the larger implications of these reforms for the nature of democracy. The findings point to a new style of democratic politics that expands the nature of democracy, but also carries challenges for democracies to include all its citizens and govern effectively in an environment of complex government.

Table of Contents:
Foreword; INTRODUCTION; 1. New Forms of Democracy?: Reform and Transformation of Democratic Institutions; PART I: ELECTORAL CHANGE; 2. Expanding the Electoral Marketplace; 3. Making Elections More Direct? Reducing the Role of Parties in Elections; 4. Political Parties and the Rhetoric and Realities of Democratization; 5. Changing Party Access to Politics; PART II: CHANGE IN NON-ELECTORAL INSTITUTIONS; 6. Toward More Open Democracies: The Expansion of Freedom of Information Laws; 7. The Decentralization of Governance: Regional and Local Delegation; 8. Reforming the Administrative State; 9. Participation, Representative Democracy, and the Courts; PART III: THE CONSEQUENCES OF POLITICAL REFORM; 10. A Second Transformation of Democracy; 11. Democratic Publics and Democratic Institutions: New Forms or Adaptation