Description
Book SynopsisFeaturing twelve essays that engage with national, provincial, and municipal governments across three continents, Representation examines the core elements and challenges of fair, effective political institutions, providing an invaluable roadmap to better democratic representation in the twenty-first century.
Trade Review"Bringing together work from an impressive array of scholars, this excellent volume forces us to examine the deficiencies of current democratic practice and helps us envision new ways of addressing them by rethinking representation." * Keena Lipsitz, Queens College, CUNY *
Table of ContentsIntroduction. The Multiplying Challenges of Modern Representation
—Rogers M. Smith and Jack H. Nagel
I. REPRESENTATION THROUGH ELECTIONS
Chapter 1. Evaluating U.S. Electoral Institutions in Comparative Perspective
—André Blais
Chapter 2. Are American Elections Sufficiently Democratic?
—Dennis F. Thompson
Chapter 3. Barriers to Voting in the Twenty-First Century
—Alexander Keyssar
Chapter 4. Uneven Democracy: Turnout, Minority Interests, and Local Government Spending
—Zoltan Hajnal and Jessica Trounstine
Chapter 5. Fairness and Bias in Electoral Systems
—Anthony McGann
Chapter 6. Political Party Organizations, Civic Representation, and Participation
—Georgia Kernell
II. REPRESENTATION BEYOND ELECTIONS
Chapter 7. The Paradox of Voting—for Republicans: Economic Inequality, Political Organization, and the American Voter
—Jacob S. Hacker and Paul Pierson
Chapter 8. A Democratic Balance: Bureaucracy, Political Parties, and Political Representation
—Pradeep Chhibber and Susan L. Ostermann
Chapter 9. The Closing of the Frontier: Political Blogs, the 2008 Election, and the Online Public Sphere
—Matthew Hindman
Chapter 10. The Technological Basis of Organizational Membership: Representation of Interests in the New Media Age
—Dave Karpf
Chapter 11. The Principle of Affected Interests: An Interpretation and Defense
—Archon Fung
Chapter 12. Citizen Representatives
—Mark E. Warren
Notes
List of Contributors
Index
Acknowledgments
