Challenges to Democracy Political Studies Association Yearbook Series Titles include: Keith Dowding, James Hughes and Helen Margetts (editors) CHALLENGES TO DEMOCRACY Ideas, Involvement and Institutions Chris Pierson and Simon Tormey (editors) POLITICS AT THE EDGE The PSA Yearbook 1999 Political Studies Association Yearbook Series Standing Order ISBN 978-0-333-91373-4 (outside North America only) You can receive future titles in this series as they are published by placing a standing order. Please contact your bookseller or, in case of difficulty, write to us at the address below with your name and address, the title of the series and the ISBN quoted above. Customer Services Department, Macmillan Distribution Ltd, Houndmills, Basingstoke, Hampshire RG21 6XS, England Challenges to Democracy Ideas, Involvement and Institutions The PSA Yearbook 2000 Edited by Keith Dowding Professor of Political Science London School of Economics James Hughes Senior Lecturer in Comparative Economics London School of Economics and Helen Margetts Professor of Political Science Director, School of Public Policy University College London in association with Political Studies Association © Political Studies Association 2001 Softcover reprint of the hardcover 1st edition 2001 978-0-333-78982-7 All rights reserved. No reproduction, copy or transmission of this publication may be made without written permission. No paragraph of this publication may be reproduced, copied or transmitted save with written permission or in accordance with the provisions of the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988, or under the terms of any licence permitting limited copying issued by the Copyright Licensing Agency, 90 Tottenham Court Road, London W1P 0LP. Any person who does any unauthorised act in relation to this publication may be liable to criminal prosecution and civil claims for damages. The authors have asserted their rights to be identified as the authors of this work in accordance with the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988. First published 2001 by PALGRAVE Houndmills, Basingstoke, Hampshire RG21 6XS and 175 Fifth Avenue, New York, N. Y. 10010 Companies and representatives throughout the world PALGRAVE is the new global academic imprint of St. Martin’s Press LLC Scholarly and Reference Division and Palgrave Publishers Ltd (formerly Macmillan Press Ltd). ISBN 978-1-349-41862-6 ISBN 978-1-4039-4017-9 (eBook) DOI 10.1007/978-1-4039-4017-9 This book is printed on paper suitable for recycling and made from fully managed and sustained forest sources. A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library. Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Challenges to democracy : ideas, involvement, and institutions : the PSA yearbook 2000 / edited by Keith Dowding, James Hughes, and Helen Margetts. p. cm. — (Political Studies Association yearbook series ; 2000) Includes bibliographical references and index. 1. Democracy. I. Dowding, Keith M. II. Hughes, James, 1955– III. Margetts, Helen. IV. Series. JC423 .C5124 2001 306.2—dc21 2001021881 10987654321 10 09 08 07 06 05 04 03 02 01 Contents Notes on the Contributors vii Introduction xi PART I CHALLENGES FOR DEMOCRACY: EQUALITY AND SATISFACTION 1 Political Equality in the Coming Century 3 Robert A. Dahl 2 Levelling Down 18 Jonathan Wolff 3 The Political Economy of Human Happiness 33 Benjamin Radcliff 4 Freedom and the Achievement of Happiness 46 Jan Ott PART II CHALLENGES FROM SOCIETY: CHANGING PATTERNS OF POLITICAL INVOLVEMENT 5 Is There a Crisis of Democracy in Great Britain? Turnout at General Elections Reconsidered 61 Ron Johnston and Charles Pattie 6 Social Capital, Civic Literacy and Political Participation: Explaining Differences in Voter Turnout 81 Henry Milner 7 A Virtuous Circle? The Impact of Political Communications in Post-Industrial Democracies 100 Pippa Norris 8 Hacktivism: Direct Action on the Electronic Flows of Information Societies 118 Tim Jordan 9 Deliberative Democracy and Referendums 131 John Parkinson v vi Contents 10 Creating Spaces of Deliberation in Barcelona: It’s Good to Talk? 153 Georgina Blakeley PART III CHALLENGES FROM THE STATE: CHANGING INSTITUTIONS 11 External Influences on Party Development and Transnational Party Cooperation: The Case of Post-Communist Europe 169 Geoffrey Pridham 12 Promoting Parties and Party Systems in New Democracies: Is There Anything the ‘International Community’ Can Do? 188 Peter Burnell 13 Regulatory Accountability: Towards a Single Citizen-Consumer Model? 205 Martin Lodge 14 E-governance: Weber’s Revenge? 220 Perri 6 15 Decentralization and Development: The New Panacea 237 Elinor Ostrom Index 257 Notes on the Contributors Georgina Blakeley is currently Lecturer in Politics at the University of Huddersfield. She has recently submitted her doctoral thesis on participation and democracy in Spain. She has published articles on democracy and civil society in Spain and Chile as well as on aspects of Spanish politics more generally. Peter Burnell is a Professor of Politics at the University of Warwick. His inter- ests include democratization, the political economy of international assistance and politics in Zambia. He is joint founding editor of the journal Democratization. Robert A. Dahl is Sterling Professor of Political Science, Emeritus, at Yale University and the author of numerous books on democracy, including A Preface to Democratic Theory (1956), Who Governs? Democracy and Power in an American City (1961), Democracy and Its Critics (1989), and On Democracy (1998). Keith Dowding is Professor of Political Science at the London School of Economics. He has published widely in political theory, public administration and urban politics. His books include Rational Choice and Political Power, The Civil Service, Power and he has co-edited Preferences, Institutions and Rational Choice. He is also co-editor of the Journal of Theoretical Politics. James Hughes is Senior Lecturer in Comparative Politics. He is the author of two monographs and numerous journal articles on Russian history and poli- tics. His current research projects include developments in post-Soviet Russian federalism and a comparative study of the role of local elites in transition in Central and Eastern Europe. Ron Johnston is a Professor in the School of Geographical Sciences at the University of Bristol. He has published widely on various aspects of electoral studies; the most recent work (co-authored with Charles Pattie, Danny Dorling and David Rossiter) is From Votes to Seats: the UK’s Electoral System in Operation since 1950 (Manchester University Press, 2001). Tim Jordan is a lecturer in Sociology at the Open University. He is the author of Cyberpower: the Culture and Politics of Cyberspace and the Internet (London: vii viii Notes on the Contributors Routledge) and co-editor of Storming the Millennium: the New Politics of Change (London: Lawrence & Wishart). He has published work about on-line social movements, hackers and social theory, as well as working on recent popular protests and social movements. E-mail: [email protected] Martin Lodge is Lecturer in Public Policy in the School of Public Policy, Economics and Law at the University of Ulster at Jordanstown. His research focuses on comparative regulation, in particular railway regulation, compara- tive public administration and German and EU public policy. Helen Margetts is Professor of Political Science and Director of the School of Public Policy, University College London. She is the author of Information Technology in Government: Britain and America (Routledge) and has published widely on electoral systems, the relationship between the state and the Internet and other information technologies, administrative reform and polit- ical participation. Henry Milner is a political scientist affiliated with Laval University in Canada and the University of Umea in Sweden. He is co-editor of Inroads, a Canadian journal of opinion and policy, and has published a number of books on Scandinavian and Canadian politics. His most recent book is Civic Literacy: How Informed Citizens Make Democracy Work, University Press of New England, 2001. Pippa Norris is Associate Director (Research) of the Shorenstein Center on the Press, Politics and Public Policy, and Lecturer at the John F. Kennedy School of Government, Harvard University. The author or editor of two dozen books, her latest are A Virtuous Circle: Political Communication in Postindustrial Societies (Cambridge University Press, 2000) and Digital Divide: Civic Engagement, Information Poverty and the Internet in Democratic Societies (Cambridge University Press, 2001). More details about research and publications can be found at pippanorris.com. Elinor Ostrom is Co-Director of the Workshop in Political Theory and Policy Analysis and the Center for the Study of Institutions, Population, and Environmental Change at Indiana University. Her major area of study is insti- tutional analysis. She is currently studying with a network of colleagues the ways in which government, private, and common property affect user incen- tives and forest conditions. Jan Ott is carrying out PhD research into freedom and happiness at Erasmus University, with Ruut Veenhoven. He previously studied sociology and law, Notes on the Contributors ix specializing in development problems, social economic policies, labour rela- tions and government administration, and acting as a student-assistant in social psychology. Since 1984 he has been a policy adviser in labour relations for the Dutch Ministry of Social