While in the older literature, low levels of political trust were routinely interpreted as a lack of
support for democracy, more recently authors have claimed that the value pattern of critical …

The emergence of the economic and financial crisis has already shown important electoral
and political consequences in southern Europe. Drawing on the experience of two bailed …

Voting advice applications (VAAs) are online tools designed to match voters with specific
parties and/or candidates. Because candidate-centred electoral systems incentivize …

For a number of decades now, scholars have been indicating that ties between citizens and
parties are eroding. As a consequence, electoral behaviour has become more volatile and …

This book examines whether parties' ability to channel voter interests into political
institutions has in fact declined in the wake of decline of party membership figures and the …

Democratic elections imply that the electorate holds incumbents accountable for past
performance, and that voters select the party that is closest to their own political preferences …

This essay introduces a collection of papers dealing with the responsive–responsible
dilemma of party government. The political developments surrounding the Eurozone crisis …

Political theorists have argued that democracies should strive for high turnout, leading to an
argument for the introduction of compulsory voting, one of the surest ways to increase …

Members of parliament in representative democracies can be considered as representative
elites, since they have decisive impact on policies and the institutional order of the polity and …

Diagnoses of a democratic recession or 'hollowing out'of democracy are numerous and
varied but usually encompass the following symptoms: a decline in turnout and other forms …