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There is no unified theory that can explain both voter choice and where choices come from. Hinich and Munger fill that gap with their model of political communication based on ideology. Rather than beginning with voters and diffuse, atomistic preferences, Hinich and Munger explore why large groups of voters share preference profiles, why they consider themselves \"liberals\" or \"conservatives.\" The reasons, they argue, lie in the twin problems of communication and commitment that politicians face. Voters, overloaded with information, ignore specific platform positions. Parties and candidates therefore communicate through simple statements of goals, analogies, and by invoking political symbols. But politicians must also commit to pursuing the actions implied by these analogies and symbols. Commitment requires that ideologies be used consistently, particularly when it is not in the party's short-run interest. The model Hinich and Munger develop accounts for the choices of voters, the goals of politicians, and the interests of contributors. It is an important addition to political science and essential reading for all in that discipline. \"Hinich and Munger's study of ideology and the theory of political choice is a pioneering effort to integrate ideology into formal political theory. It is a major step in directing attention toward the way in which ideology influences the nature of political choices.\" --Douglass C. North \". . . represents a significant contribution to the literature on elections, voting behavior, and social choice.\" --Policy Currents Melvin Hinich is Professor of Government, University of Texas. Michael C. Munger is Associate Professor of Political Science, University of North Carolina.

This book presents the results of systematic comparative analyses of electoral behaviour and support for democracy in thirteen countries on four continents. It is based on national election surveys held in ‘old’ and ‘new’ democracies in Europe (Germany, Britain, Spain, Greece, Italy, Portugal, and Bulgaria), North and South America (the United States, Chile and Uruguay), and Asia (Hong Kong) between 1990 and 2004. The book's core concern is ‘political intermediation’ (i.e. the flow of political information from parties and candidates to voters through the mass media, membership in secondary associations, and face-to-face contacts within interpersonal networks), which was first introduced to the study of electoral behaviour by Paul Lazarsfeld and his collaborators in the 1940s. In addition to reviving that long-neglected analytical framework, this book explores the impact of socio-political values on electoral behaviour. It also analyzes the role of political intermediation in forming basic attitudes towards democracy (which are crucial for the consolidation of new democracies) and, in turn, channelling those orientations into various forms of political behaviour. Some of the findings presented in this book are dramatic, and clearly reveal that these channels of information are among the most powerful factors influencing the development of political attitudes and partisan electoral behaviour. So, too, are socio-political values in some countries (particularly the United States).

In 2005, almost 700,000 immigrants acquired the citizenship of a member state of the European Union; over 600,000 became US citizens; nearly 100,000 became Australians and approximately 200,000 Canadians. 2005 was not an exceptional year. During the past decades, many advanced liberal democracies have become more ethnically diverse societies. This book breaks new ground in the analysis of the political representation of immigrants and visible minorities both theoretically and empirically. It examines the upward trend in migrant and minority representation and demonstrates that there remain crucial differences across liberal democracies in the timing of these developments; in channels of access for minority representatives, in the policy focus and outcomes of minority representation; in the nature of the connections between minority representatives and minority communities, and in the nature of their relationships with constituents at large. Part I analyses immigrants and visible minorities as voters, who must be the starting point of any analysis of political representation. Part II deals with the stage of candidate selection within political parties, a crucial and under-researched stage in the process of political representation. Part III deals with immigrants and members of visible minorities, once elected to parliament and includes analyses of the Canadian Parliament, the German Bundestag, MPs in the United Kingdom and Members of the United States Congress. The book will of interest to students and scholars of migration and ethnicity studies and political science, especially those with an interest in political representation, democratic institutions, voting behaviour, party organisation, legislative behaviour and comparative politics. Karen Bird is Associate Professor in the Department of Political Science, McMaster University, Canada. Thomas Saalfeld is Professor of Political Science at the University of Bamberg, Germany. Andreas M. Wüst is Research Fellow at the Mannheim Center for European Social Research, University of Mannheim, Germany. List of Tables List of Figures List of Contributors Series editor’s preface Preface Acknowledgements 1. Migration and Political Representation: An Introduction and a Framework - Karen Bird, Thomas Saalfeld, and Andreas M. Wüst Part I: Immigrants and Members of Visible Minorities as Voters: Turnout and Party Choice 2. Voter Turnout amongst Immigrants and Visible Minorities in Comparative Perspective 3. Party Choices amongst Immigrants and Visible Minorities in Comparative Perspective Part II: Immigrants and Members of Visible Minorities as Candidates for Elective Office 4. New Citizens – New Candidates? Candidate Selection and the Mobilisation of Immigrant Voters in German Elections - Sara Claro da Fonseca 5. Minority Representation in Norway: Success at the Local Level, Failure at the National Level - Johannes Bergh and Tor Bjørklund 6. Ethnic Inclusion or Exclusion in Representation? Local Candidate Selection in Sweden - Maritta Soininen 7. Yes They Can: An Experimental Approach to Eligibility of Ethnic Minority Candidates in France - Sylvain Brouard and Vincent Tiberj Part III: Immigrants and Members of Visible Minorities as Legislators 8. Minority Representation in the US Congress - Jason Casellas and David Leal 9. Patterns of Substantive Representation Among Visible Minority MPs: Evidence from Canada’s House of Commons - Karen Bird 10. Presence and Behaviour: Black and Minority Ethnic MPs in the British House of Commons - Thomas Saalfeld and Kalliopi Kyriakopoulou 11. Migrants as Parliamentary Actors in Germany - Andreas M. Wüst 12. Epilogue: Toward a Strategic Model of Minority Participation and Representation - Thomas Saalfeld, Andreas M. Wüst and Karen Bird

This book provides a comparative overview and account of how the parties in Western Europe have perceived contemporary challenges of electoral dealignment and how they have responded - whether organizationally, programmatically, or institutionally.

Most theories of elections assume that voters and political actors are fully rational. While these formulations produce many insights, they also generate anomalies--most famously, about turnout. The rise of behavioral economics has posed new challenges to the premise of rationality. This groundbreaking book provides a behavioral theory of elections based on the notion that all actors--politicians as well as voters--are only boundedly rational. The theory posits learning via trial and error: actions that surpass an actor's aspiration level are more likely to be used in the future, while those that fall short are less likely to be tried later. Based on this idea of adaptation, the authors construct formal models of party competition, turnout, and voters' choices of candidates. These models predict substantial turnout levels, voters sorting into parties, and winning parties adopting centrist platforms. In multiparty elections, voters are able to coordinate vote choices on majority-preferred candidates, while all candidates garner significant vote shares. Overall, the behavioral theory and its models produce macroimplications consistent with the data on elections, and they use plausible microassumptions about the cognitive capacities of politicians and voters. A computational model accompanies the book and can be used as a tool for further research.

Where did the “Red” states and “Blue” states come from? Jerry F. Hough, professor on the US Presidency at Duke University, looks at the American experience and examines the fundamental change in party alignment that took place in the second half of the 20.

Capturing Campaign Effects is the definitive study to date of the influence of campaigns on political culture. Comprising a broad exploration of campaign factors (debates, news coverage, advertising, and polls) and their effects (priming, learning, and persuasion), as well as an impressive survey of techniques for the collection and analysis of campaign data, Capturing Campaign Effects examines different kinds of campaigns in the U.S. and abroad and presents strong evidence for significant campaign effects.

This book looks at the newly empowered citizens of Russia's protodemocracy facing choices at the ballot box that just a few years ago, under dictatorial rule, they could not have dreamt of. Colton finds that despite their unfamiliarity with democracy, subjects-turned-citizens learn about their electoral options from peers and the mass media.