Book Review: Beliefs in Government, Volume 1: Citizens and the State, Beliefs in Government, Volume 2: Public Opinion and Internationalized Governance, Beliefs in Government, Volume 3: The Scope of Government, Beliefs in Government, Volume 4: The Impact of Values, Beliefs in Government, Volume 5: Beliefs in Government, The Monarchy and the Constitution, The Political Ecology of the Modern Peasant: Calculation and Community, The Korean War: An International History, Regulatory Takings: Law, Economics, and Politics, Regulation in the Reagan-Bush Era: The Eruption of Presidential Influence, Race: The History of an Idea in the West, The End of the Nation-State, Nationalism and Nationalities in the New Europe, Nations and Nationalism in a Global Era, for Love of Country: An Essay on Patriotism and Nationalism, between the Norm and the Exception: The Frankfurt School and the Rule of Law
| Author | George Moyser,Roger Morgan,Paul Cammack,Christine Sypnowich,Mogens N. Pedersen,Hazel Smith,Geoffrey K. Roberts,Richard H. King,William A. Maloney,Francis G. Castles,Philip Norton,Josep R. Llobera |
| Published date | 01 June 1997 |
| Date | 01 June 1997 |
| DOI | 10.1111/1467-9248.00086 |
| Subject Matter | Book Reviews |
Book Reviews
Hans-Dieter Klingemann and Dieter Fuchs (eds), Beliefs in Government, Volume 1:
Citizens and the State (Oxford, Oxford University Press, 1995), xxiii 474 pp:£35.00
ISBN 0 19 827955 8.
This ®rst volume in the `Beliefs in Government' collection consists of a `sandwich' of
essays. The editors introduce the themes with which the book is concerned. Twelve
chapters follow (by 15 authors from 9 dierent European countries) on subjects con-
cerned with the relationship between the citizen and the state, each of which takes
hypotheses relating to these subjects and tests them against cross-national empirical
data. The editors summarize the ®ndings of those chapters and discuss what can be
concluded from them about the condition of representative democracy in Europe.
So the book deals with large, signi®cant questions concerning the future of democ-
racy, but does so by close reference to empirical, often time-series, data, and by careful
operationalization of central concepts and choice of (or identi®cation of others' choice
of) suitable indicators. The lucid style of discourse is praiseworthy. Klingemann himself
has a reputation for explaining the complex in straightforward language, and seems to
have ensured that the other authors do the same. The topics are grouped into four
sections: political involvement; political linkage; the political system; and the editors'
conclusion entitled `Citizens and the State'. This allows for a logical progression of the
analysis, from electoral and non-electoral participation, through the study of inter-
mediary groups, to attitudes relating to trust in politicians and support for the political
system.
The focus of the book is on the questions: has the relationship between the citizen and
the state in western Europe undergone a fundamental change over the past few decades?
If so, do these changes constitute a challenge to democracy in western Europe? The
signi®cance of these questions is then explored by the editors in an introductory essay,
and the literature reviewed, looking at familiar notions which have been related to the
`crisis of democracy' argument, such as `government overload'. A synopsisof the central
hypotheses is provided (p. 17).
Topf examines electoral, then non-electoral, participation. Forelectoral participation,
he analyses changes of turnout in national elections within particular countries over time
(rather than relative cross-state dierences), concluding that in fact there is no
perceptible downward trend in turnout. Age, alone among the main social categories,
seems to be related to dierences in turnout: younger generations lagging behind older
generations; but, as Topf notes, this is nothing new. Investigating other forms of
political participation, he concludes that there has been a participatory revolution, with
dierences in levels of participation within states among dierent age groups or classes,
or accounted for by dierences in gender or levels of education,seeming to be diminish-
ing in recent years, and that unconventional political activity is no longer the monopoly
of the young (as television reports from the Newbury bypass route, French street
demonstrations against government cuts, or German anti-racist demonstrations would
seem to con®rm) (pp. 78± 9).
But surely there has been a decline in party membership and party activism? Was
`Parteiverdrossenheit' only a ®gment of the political reporter'simagination? Schmitt and
Homberg emphasize the signi®cance for democracy should it in fact be the case that
partisanship is disappearing: `Partisanship contributes directly to the stability of party
systems, and indirectly to the stability of the political order itself. This is what is at stake
if partisanship fades away' (p. 100). They examine periodicity of decline in some
countries, note the modest growth of partisanship in southern Europe, and test whether
the size, age or political orientation of parties account for dierential decline in
#Political Studies Association 1997. Published by Blackwell Publishers, 108 CowleyRoad, Oxford OX4 1JF, UK and 350 Main
Street, Malden, MA 02148, USA.
Political Studies (1997), XLV, 346±359
To continue reading
Request your trial