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Sound democratic decisions rely on a citizenry with at least a partial mastery of the rules and workings of democratic government. American high schools, where students learn the basics of citizenship, thus ought to play a critical role in the success of democracy. Yet studies examining the impact of high school government and civics courses on political knowledge over the past quarter-century have generally shown that these courses have little or no effect. In this important book, Richard G. Niemi and Jane Junn take a fresh look at what America's high school seniors know about government and politics and how they learn it. The authors argue convincingly that secondary school civics courses do indeed enhance students' civic knowledge. This book is based on the most extensive assessment to date of civic knowledge among American youth--the 1988 National Assessment of Education Progress (NAEP) Civics Assessment. The authors develop and test a theoretical model to explain the cognitive process by which students learn about politics and they conclude by suggesting specific changes in the style and emphasis of civics teaching.
This book provides you with a theoretical and comparative understanding of the major topics related to elections and voting behaviour. It explores important work taking place on new areas, whilst at the same time covering the key themes that you’ll encounter throughout your studies. Edited by three leading figures in the field, the new edition brings together an impressive range of contributors and draws on a range of cases and examples from across the world. It now includes: New chapters on authoritarian elections and regime change, and electoral integrity A chapter dedicated to voting behaviour Increased emphasis on issues relating to the economy. Comparing Democracies, Fourth Edition will remain a must-read for students and lecturers of elections and voting behaviour, comparative politics, parties, and democracy.
A reader gathering highlights of the best original work in the study of American voting behavior from the late 1950s through the mid-1980s. The editors provide introductory essays that summarize each of a half-dozen areas of voting behavior research. Drawing from the first two editions of Controvers
This book shows how specific agents shape the political character of adolescents, how response to these agents varies according to sex, race, and other factors, and how political learning changes through the life-cycle and across generations. Originally published in 1974. The Princeton Legacy Library uses the latest print-on-demand technology to again make available previously out-of-print books from the distinguished backlist of Princeton University Press. These editions preserve the original texts of these important books while presenting them in durable paperback and hardcover editions. The goal of the Princeton Legacy Library is to vastly increase access to the rich scholarly heritage found in the thousands of books published by Princeton University Press since its founding in 1905.
`This excellent collection of essays provides a highly knowledgeable and insightful overview of current knowledge in the sub-field of elections and voting in the world's democracies. Coherent in organization and wide-ranging in content and perspective, this is a book that should be read by anyone interested in political science.' - Anthony Mughan, The Ohio State University In this major new edition the world's leading international scholars have again produced an indispensable guide and up-to-date review of the whole field. Each of the chapters (the majority of which are completely new) provide a broad theoretical and comparative understanding of all the key topics, making this essential reading for students and lecturers of elections and voting behavior, comparative politics, parties, and democracy.
With the passage of the Voting Rights Act in 1965, the right of minorities to register and vote was largely secured. It was soon discovered, however, that minority voting did not guarantee the election of minorities or minority-preferred candidates. Indeed, efforts by states and localities in the second half of the 1960s were aimed at denying any substantial minority representation to go along with the ability to cast ballots. Eventually congressional amendments to the Act along with the Supreme Court opinion in Thornburg v. Gingles (1986) have led to efforts to eliminate electoral laws that have the effect of diluting the minority vote, whether or not they were enacted with discriminatory i...
Legislative term limits adopted in the 1990s are in effect in fifteen states today. This reform is arguably the most significant institutional change in American government of recent decades. Most of the legislatures in these fifteen states have experienced a complete turnover of their membership; hundreds of experienced lawmakers have become ineligible for reelection, and their replacements must learn and perform their jobs in as few as six years. Now that term limits have been in effect long enough for both their electoral and institutional effects to become apparent, their consequences can be gauged fully and with the benefit of hindsight. In the most comprehensive study of the subject, e...
It has been predicted that term limits in state legislatures--soon to be in effect in eighteen states--will first affect the composition of the legislatures, next the behavior of legislators, and finally legislatures as institutions. The studies in Term Limits in State Legislatures demonstrate that term limits have had considerably less effect on state legislatures than proponents predicted. The term-limit movement--designed to limit the maximum time a legislator can serve in office--swept through the states like wildfire in the first half of the 1990s. By November 2000, state legislators will have been "term limited out" in eleven states. This book is based on a survey of nearly 3,000 legis...
What explains differing levels of support for democracy in postauthoritarian countries? Do young people value democracy simply because they have grown up with it? Or do older generations, having experienced the alternative, value democracy more highly? Does the socialization of new generations into the norms of democratic citizenship herald the normalization of democratic governance? Or have frustrations with political corruption and economic stagnation led to the rejection of democracy or, at a minimum, the view that it is irrelevant? These questions are at the heart of this groundbreaking study of the impact of generational change on support for democracy and opposition to authoritarian rule in countries and regions around the world. David Denemark is professor of political science and international relations at the University of Western Australia. Robert Mattes is professor of political studies and director of the Democracy in Africa Research Unit at the University of Cape Town. Richard G. Niemi is Don Alonzo Watson professor of political science at the University of Rochester.