Elections and democracy: representation and accountability

This volume addresses the contrast between the view that elections are a mechanism to hold government accountable and the view that they are a means to ensure that citizens' views and interests are properly represented in the democratic process. The general conclusion of the book is that formal political institutions are less relevant for people's attitudes and behaviour than often presumed. Rather than formal political institutions like the electoral system, it seems to be characteristics of the party system like polarization and the clarity of responsibility that really matter

This volume addresses the contrast between the view that elections are a mechanism to hold government accountable and the view that they are a means to ensure that citizens' views and interests are properly represented in the democratic process. The general conclusion of the book is that formal political institutions are less relevant for people's attitudes and behaviour than often presumed. Rather than formal political institutions like the electoral system, it seems to be characteristics of the party system like polarization and the clarity of responsibility that really matter.

Representation and accountability / Jacques Thomassen -- New patterns of democracy in the countries of the comparative study of electoral systems 2 / Julian Bernauer, Nathalie Giger, and Adrian Vatter -- Meaningful choices : does parties' supply matter? / Bernhard Wessels and Hermann Schmitt -- Policy-based voting and the type of democracy / Biana Burlacu and Gábor Tóka -- Political institutions and the social anchoring of the vote / Pedro C. Magalhães -- Political institutions, perceptions of representation, and the turnout decision / André Blais, Shane Singh, and Delia Dumitrescu -- Democratic structures and democratic participation : the limits of consensualism theory / Steven Weldon and Russell Dalton -- Feeling policy represented / Sören Holmberg -- Output-oriented legitimacy : individual- and system-level influences on democracy satisfaction / David Sanders, Harold Clarke, Marianne Stewart, and Paul Whiteley -- The muliple bases of democratic support : procedural representation and government outputs / Mark Peffley and Robert Rohrschneider -- Globalization, representation, and attitudes towards democracy / Kees Aarts, Jacques Thomassen, and Carolien van Ham -- Consenting to lose or expecting to win? : inter-temporal changes in voters' winner-loser status and satisfaction with democracy / Eric Chang, Yun-han Chu, and Wen-chin Wu.

Elections and Democracy is based on data from the Comparative Study of Electoral Systems, spanning 36 countries. It considers the majoritarian and consensus models of democracy and how and their embodiment in institutional structures influence vote choice, political participation and satisfaction within a functioning democracy.