Michael S Lewis-Beck

"To many international experts, politicians, and commentators, Denmark stands out as an ideal society with a well-functioning welfare state, low levels of corruption, and a high degree of social and political stability. Like other countries, however, Denmark faces challenges brought on by overall social changes. Particularly the challenges of maintaining a prosperous economy and the growing number of immigrants from different ethnic and religious backgrounds have left their mark on Danish society over the past 50 years. But how have Danish voters reacted to these challenges? In order to understand the foundation of the Danish ideal, the authors analyze voter behavior from the early 1970s until 2019. The Danish Voter investigates a series of interesting questions concerning voters’ reactions to the two macrosocial challenges—and how these reactions impact the foundations for the ideal. The individual chapters consider how the challenges have weakened the traditional class cleavage while giving rise to new divisions based on gender and education. They also show how electoral polarization on economic redistribution has remained strong even in spite of depolarization in the parties’ positions on this dimension. On cultural issues like immigration, however, the challenge of diversity has resulted in a dramatic increase in polarization among both parties and voters. By investigating the drivers of political trust, the authors show how voters respond to enacted policies. The Danish Voter holds important insights for readers interested in the politics of Western Europe where countries face similar challenges. Indeed, due to an electoral system open to new influences, the Danish case is an important test case for theories about political development of contemporary Western societies."--Publisher's website.

Across representative democracies, there is a strong variation in the rules that govern the electoral process. A classic insight in political science is that these rules, e.g., the presence of a majoritarian or a proportional system have a profound effect on the way a democracy functions. We know less however, about the way voters actually respond to these electoral rules. This kind of effect presupposes that voters not only are aware of the electoral system, but also that they adapt to the incentives offered by the system. In this volume, a group of international scholars investigate whether this is indeed the case. The various chapters in this volume deal with the effect of proportionality, mixed-member systems, compulsory voting and preferential voting. The chapters are based on recent data and state-of-the-art methods. The introduction confronts the findings of the various chapters with the allegedly universal validity of vote choice models in the literature. The research presented in this volume mainly deals with elections in Europe, but the findings speak to the broader community of electoral scholars. This book was originally published as a special issue of West European Politics. Across representative democracies, there is a strong variation in the rules that govern the electoral process. A classic insight in political science is that these rules, e.g., the presence of a majoritarian or a proportional system have a profound effect on the way a democracy functions. We know less however, about the way voters actually respond to these electoral rules. This kind of effect presupposes that voters not only are aware of the electoral system, but also that they adapt to the incentives offered by the system. In this volume, a group of international scholars investigate whether this is indeed the case. The various chapters in this volume deal with the effect of proportionality, mixed-member systems, compulsory voting and preferential voting. The chapters are based on recent data and state-of-the-art methods. The introduction confronts the findings of the various chapters with the allegedly universal validity of vote choice models in the literature. The research presented in this volume mainly deals with elections in Europe, but the findings speak to the broader community of electoral scholars. The chapters originally published as a special issue in West European Politics.

The Michigan model, named after the institution where it was first articulated, has been used to explain voting behavior in North American and Western European democracies. InLatin American Elections, experts on Latin America join with experts on electoral studies to evaluate the model's applicability in this region. Analyzing data from the AmericasBarometer, a scientific public opinion survey carried out in 18 Latin American nations from 2008 to 2012, the authors find that, like democratic voters elsewhere, Latin Americans respond to long-term forces, such as social class, political party ties, and political ideology while also paying attention to short-term issues, such as the economy, crime, corruption. Of course, Latin Americans differ from other Americans, and among themselves. Voters who have experienced left-wing populism may favor government curbs on freedom of expression, for example, while voters enduring high levels of economic deprivation or instability tend to vote against the party in power. The authors thus conclude that, to a surprising extent, the Michigan model offers a powerful explanatory model for voting behavior in Latin America.

Known for its readability and clarity, this Second Edition of the best-selling Applied Regression provides an accessible introduction to regression analysis for social scientists and other professionals who want to model quantitative data. After covering the basic idea of fitting a straight line to a scatter of data points, the text uses clear language to explain both the mathematics and assumptions behind the simple linear regression model. The authors then cover more specialized subjects of regression analysis, such as multiple regression, measures of model fit, analysis of residuals, interaction effects, multicollinearity, and prediction. Throughout the text, graphical and applied examples help explain and demonstrate the power and broad applicability of regression analysis for answering scientific questions.

In der internationalen Politikwissenschaft ist Österreich vor allem für sein stabiles Parteiensystem und den Wahlerfolgen der FPÖ bekannt. Im Bereich der vergleichenden Wahlforschung wurde Österreich bisher aufgrund unzureichender Daten oft vernachlässigt. Das Buch ›The Austrian Voter‹ versucht diese Lücke zu schließen und zugleich ein besseres Verständnis für das Wahlverhalten der ÖsterreichInnen zu schaffen. Basierend auf Daten der Österreichischen Wahlstudie (AUTNES), bietet das Buch eine umfassende Analyse von Lang- und Kurzzeitfaktoren, welche das Wahlverhalten beeinflussen . Das Buch liefert dadurch einen wertvollen Beitrag zur derzeit existierenden Literatur: Erstens umfasst der Zeitrahmen der Analyse die Jahre 1986 bis 2008. Während dieser Zeit kam es im österreichischen Parteiensystem zu mehreren bedeutsamen Veränderungen, u.a. dem Bedeutungsverlust der beiden Großparteien SPÖ und ÖVP, dem Aufstieg der Grünen, dem Auf und Ab der rechtspopulitische Parteien, insbesondere der FPÖ, und damit verbunden der Bildung neuer Koalititonen. Dennoch konnten die AutorInnen eine gewisse Stabilität ausfindig machen: Zumindest die Wahlentscheidung für die beiden Großparteien basiert nach wie vor auf den tradtionellen gesellschaftlichen Konflikten, welche sich in der Lager-Mentalität widerspiegeln. Des Weiteren konnte die Nationalratswahl von 2008 aufgrund der AUTNES-Daten umfassender analysiert werden als dies in der Vergangenheit möglich war. Neben den sozio-demographischen und sozio-ökonomischen Faktoren untersuchen die AutorInnen auch den Einfluss sozio-psychologischer Variablen sowie Issue-Poistionen der Wähler, welche sich vor allem für die Wahl der Grünen und der rechtspopulitischen Parteien als ausschlaggebend entpuppt haben. Das Buch geht also auf mehrere aktuelle Entwicklungen österreichischer Politik ein und ermöglicht dadurch einerseits die Einbindung Österreichs in die vergleichende Wahlforschung und liefert andererseits eine grundlegende Vorbereitung auf die anstehende Nationalratswahl 2013.

Today we are politically polarized as never before. The presidential elections of 2000 and 2004 will be remembered as two of the most contentious political events in American history. Yet despite the recent election upheaval, The American Voter Revisited discovers that voter behavior has been remarkably consistent over the last half century. And if the authors are correct in their predictions, 2008 will show just how reliably the American voter weighs in, election after election. The American Voter Revisited re-creates the outstanding 1960 classic The American Voter—which was based on the presidential elections of 1952 and 1956—following the same format, theory, and mode of analysis as the original. In this new volume, the authors test the ideas and methods of the original against presidential election surveys from 2000 and 2004. Surprisingly, the contemporary American voter is found to behave politically much like voters of the 1950s.