Citizen Politics: Public Opinion and Political Parties in Advanced Industrial Democracies

by Russell J. Dalton

This is a book about people - as citizens, voters, protesters, campaign workers, community activists party members, and political spectators. Thorough, well-written and enormously informative, Citizen Politics is a valuable opportunity to examine political behavior in the United States within the context of other industrial democracies. Focusing on the United States, Great Britain, Germany, and France in a broad cross-national context, Russell Dalton offers the argument that the quality of citizen politics is alive and well whereas the institutions of democracy are in disarray.

Genres: Politics, Academic, Nonfiction, Research, School

360 pages, Paperback

First published June 1, 1996

About the author

Russell J. Dalton is Professor of Political Science and Founding Director of the Center for the Study of Democracy at the University of California, Irvine. He has received a Fulbright Professorship at the University of Mannheim, a Barbra Streisand Center fellowship, German Marshall Research Fellowship and a POSCO Fellowship at the East/West Center. His scholarly interests include comparative political behavior, political parties, social movements, and empirical democratic theory.

Reviews

[Juan Fernando · Rating 4 out of 5]

Russell J. Dalton actualiza en el 2020 este clásico de la ciencia política.

Esta séptima edición es una reflexión detallada sobre las correlaciones que mueven a los sistemas democráticos con datos detallados de opinión pública en 4 democracias "afluentes".

Es muy interesante ver en estudios de opinión y estadísticos cambios en la participación política, el impacto de la dimensión posmaterialistas en la escala de afiliación ideológica, la dispersión de partidos y la confianza en el sistema democrático, entre otros.

Al final, un optimista moderado con buenos datos no puede estar loco.

[Michael Griswold · Rating 3 out of 5]

I'm not terribly sure that I share the optimism that is a feature of Russell Dalton's Citizen Politics that the average person on the street has a meaningful impact on the political process throughout Western Europe and the United States, given how politically unaware our society is, but overall its' very well written and conscience which isn't something that can be said about many graduate level textbooks.

Many of the chapters are quick reads that are chocked full of information about how vital citizens are to the development of the political process in industrialized democracies...though at no point does this information overwhelm the reader like many grad texts that are often more concerned about how many 50 dollar words they can spread round than presenting meaningful information and debate. Bravo for the effort, Mr. Dalton.

[Tiffeni Russo · Rating 5 out of 5]

Dalton’s politics

Citizen Politics is great for any political science student who wishes to understand voting behavior. He provides an understanding of the great divide between political parties and how this country is being shaped by the people in our Oval Office.