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Series Editor's Preface: Few topics generate as much interest among observers and practitioners of politics as the quality of the democratic process. The expansion of democracy
during the twentieth century, which accelerated rapidly after the collapse of communism in 1990, has meant that a majority of the world’s countries are now electoral democracies. But not all democracies can be considered equal; they differ widely in terms of institutional arrangements and practices and in the levels of public support that they attract. It is the public support for democracy that the Comparative Study of Electoral Systems (CSES) project is designed to investigate. This volume series presents the key findings from this
major research project that commenced in 1994.
The first CSES volume, edited by Hans-Dieter Klingemann, has documented much of its historical background, the basic principles of data collection, and provided sample chapters showing many of the analytical possibilities of this unique data collection. This volume is based on the first module of survey questions in the CSES, completed in 2001, which examines the interaction of political institutions and political behaviour regarding attitudes towards the democratic regime, the political authorities, and the quality of the political process generally.
As with the first volume, the second one, edited by Russell J. Dalton and Christopher J. Anderson, addresses the fundamental question of whether the institutional structure of elections affects the nature of the public’s choices. The first question looks at explanations of turnout, and how institutions structure the likelihood of voting. The second question discusses determinants of individual electoral behaviour and examines the role of institutions in shaping what kinds of political information voters acquire.
The third volume in the series, by Russell J. Dalton, David Farrell, and Ian McAllister, describes and explains the role of political parties in election campaigns, in forming the electoral choice of voters and their role in government and opposition. The theoretical arguments relate to the logic of the responsible parties model. It is the first study that tests these ideas using a comprehensive and comparative design. It demonstrates the importance of the left–right schema to enable political positioning, political communication, and political representation.Elections and Democracy: Representation and Accountability, edited by Jacques Thomassen, constitutes the fourth volume of the series. Inspired by Arend Lijphart’s theory, the analyses contrast voting and elections in countries of majoritarian Westminster and consensus democracies. The volume asks the question: do consensus models of democracy serve the interests of their citizens better than majoritarian systems? The answer is that formal institutions such as the electoral system matter less than might be expected. What does matter is the characteristics of the party system, such as the level of polarization and the clarity of accountability.
Jack Vowles and Georgios Xezonakis have edited the fifth volume, to follow soon. The authors ask how globalization affects democratic mass politics, and in particular the political attitudes and behaviour of ordinary citizens and the policies of political parties—not just governments. All of the books in the series raise key questions for extending our understanding of individual citizen behaviour. Most studies of voting behaviour have been based on single country studies, often covering just a single election.
By comparing a wide range of countries, for the first time the CSES project enables the institutional environment to be brought into the equation, enhancing our understanding of the complex relationship between individual choice and institutional context. Indeed, such analyses were impossible until the CSES was established.
All of the CSES data are freely available and can be downloaded from our website .
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