Week X. 4/4 - 4/6. Delivering the (Public) Goods
Klingemann, Hans-Dieter, Ian Budge, and Richard Hofferbert. 1994. Parties, Policies, and Democracy. Boulder:Westview Press.
Introduction and Chapters 1, 2, 3 and 14
Introduction Why does the editor think this is an important book? What are the authors trying to do? What do they leave out of their analysis?
Chapter 1 What role do the authors thing parties play (or should play) in representative democracies? What do they mean by agenda effects? By mandate effects? What is the "power elite" counter argument against democratic government? What is the "rational choice" argument against democratic government?
Chapter 2 What is the "saliency theory" of electoral competition? How does it differ from competition between parties as described by Downs?
Chapter 3 How do the authors plan to test whether party platforms are related to policy?
Chapter 14 What do the authors conclude about the party-policy connection?