Why Politics Matters: Making Democracy Work

Enhanced descriptions from Syndetics:

Achieving mass democracy was the great triumph of the last century. Learning to live with it will be the greatest achievement of this one. Stoker suggests that democracy must create a new politics, making it as easy as possible for as many people to participate. Winner of the Political Studies Association Book of the Year Prize 2006

Table of contents provided by Syndetics

• List of Tables and Figures (p. x)
• Preface (p. xi)
• Acknowledgements (p. xiii)
• List of Abbreviations (p. xiv)
• Introduction (p. 1)
• The Dynamics of Politics (p. 1)
• Why Politics? (p. 3)
• Why Politics Matters (p. 5)
• Democratic Politics in Trouble: An Overview of the Argument (p. 7)
• Part I Mass Democracy: Triumph and Disappointment
• 1 The Triumph of Democracy? (p. 19)
• The Nature of Democratic Governance (p. 20)
• Democracy as a Universal Value (p. 21)
• The Triumph of Democracy (p. 25)
• Conclusions: A 'Dark Side' to Democracy? (p. 29)
• 2 Global Dissatisfaction with Politics (p. 32)
• The Changing Pattern of Politics in the UK (p. 33)
• Disenchantment in Other Advanced Industrial Democracies (p. 35)
• Political Disenchantment beyond the Industrial Democracies (p. 41)
• Should Disenchantment be a Matter of Concern? (p. 44)
• 3 Explanations for Political Disenchantment (p. 47)
• Is Politics Failing because Politicians are More Venal or Incompetent? (p. 47)
• Does Disenchantment Reflect the Emergence of a More Critical or Fragmented Citizenry? (p. 52)
• Is Politics in Trouble because Issues are Moving beyond its Control? (p. 58)
• Conclusions: Politics in Hard Times (p. 65)
• 4 The Politics of Mass Democracies: Designed-In Disappointment? (p. 68)
• Introduction (p. 68)
• Proposition 1 Politics is an Inherently Centralized Form of Collective Decision Making (p. 70)
• Proposition 2 Politics is Driven by Complex Communication That is Demanding and Prone to Failure (p. 74)
• Proposition 3 Political Decisions usually Involve Mutual Adjustment among Governing Elites and Result in Messy Outcomes and a Complex Distribution of Costs and Benefits (p. 78)
• Conclusions (p. 82)
• Part II The Pathologies of Political Practice
• 5 The Decline of Citizen Engagement? (p. 87)
• How Do Most Citizens Engage? (p. 88)
• Uneven Capacity to Participate: Exploring and Addressing the Issues (p. 93)
• Concerns about the Quality of Participation (p. 99)
• Conclusions (p. 101)
• 6 The Professionalization of Activism? (p. 103)
• High-Intensity Activism (p. 103)
• Party Activists (p. 104)
• The Rise of the Citizen Lobby (p. 107)
• Protest and Dissent (p. 112)
• Concluding Comment: Participation by and through Experts (p. 116)
• 7 The Dangers of Cynicism (p. 118)
• A Cynicism Index? (p. 119)
• Public Choice Theory: An Academic Framing for Cynicism (p. 121)
• Do Politicians Lie More Today? (p. 125)
• The Role of the Media: Defender of Democracy or Creator of Corrosive Cynicism? (p. 127)
• Conclusions (p. 130)
• 8 The Perils of Populism (p. 132)
• The People and the Truth (p. 132)
• Populism Today: Its Range and Variety (p. 133)
• Exploring Populism (p. 137)
• Assessing Populism (p. 138)
• Populism and Democratic Theory: A Minor Detour (p. 140)
• Concluding Note (p. 144)
• Part III Searching for Solutions
• 9 Politics for Amateurs (p. 149)
• Political Engagement is Good (Up to a Point) (p. 151)
• Over-Prescription of Citizen Engagement (p. 154)
• Intensive Engagement is not Always Effective or an Option Open to All Citizens (p. 158)
• Towards a Strategy of Engagement: Public and Civic Politics (p. 160)
• 10 Reviving Political Institutions (p. 163)
• Making Representation Better (p. 166)
• Three Mainstream Reforms (p. 168)
• Three Unconventional Reforms (p. 172)
• A New Architecture of Multi-Level Governance (p. 174)
• The Prospects for Reform (p. 178)
• Conclusions (p. 181)
• 11 Creating a New Civic Arena (p. 182)
• New Forms of Citizen Engagement (p. 183)
• Encouraging 'Civicness' and Voluntary Activity (p. 194)
• Information Flow and Understanding: Citizen Education and the Media (p. 196)
• Concluding Note (p. 199)
• Conclusions (p. 201)
• Notes and References (p. 207)
• Index (p. 223)