Beschreibung

This book reveals the diverse worlds of history, civic culture and values of South Africa, South Korea, Chile, Poland, Turkey, Germany and Sweden. It explores the similarities and contrasts between the values of the elites and the ordinary people. Written from various disciplinary perspectives and offering both empirical evidence and insiders’ knowledge, this book is bound to interest a wide variety of readers.    

 The study on which the book reports was in the main based on analyses of value orientations of the parliamentary and media elites and those of the ordinary citizens. The data for the elites were obtained from surveys conducted for the purposes of the study; the data for the general population were drawn from the latest World Values Surveys.

The volume is divided into two parts. The first part, entitled Theory and history, considers the quality of democracy in the context of the historical and cultural heritage of the seven countries, their civic culture and notions of citizenship, and their constitutions as foundations of the democratic political order. The second part of the book, entitled Theory and empiricism, assesses the quality of democracy by means of comparative analyses of the convergence and divergence in value orientations of the elites and the masses, both within each case and across all the seven cases.

The editor:

Prof. Ursula J. van Beek,

Head of Transformation Research Initiative (TRI), University of Stellenbosch, South Africa.

Zusätzliche Information

Autor*innen

Ursula J. van Beek

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Rezensionen

Based on a cross-country evaluation this volumemakes a major contribution to whatcould be labelled comparative consolidationof democracy literature.

Ulf Engel auf H-Net.org, April 2011

This book makes an important contribution to the study of political attitudes and all scholars who work in the field of political behaviour, as well as democratization ought to read it.

Prof. Amanda Gouws in: Politikon,  March 2011

There are many positive features of this book, and those interested in citizen-elite comparisons in developing nations should be especially interested. The role of elites in democratic transitions is widely recognized, but seldom is systematic empirical evidence available. Even though many of the comparisons are partial, or uncertain because of limitations on the elite sample, the TRI plots a research course that should be followed. And while the patterns of mass-elite comparisons often fulfill theoretical expectations, these expectations now have empirical evidence to support prior theorizing.
The TRI is a significant research project that extends beyond the seven nations in this project. Its innovative use of the World Values Survey and paired surveys of political elites has great potential to expand our understanding of the democratic process and its variation, especially in developing nations.

Russell J. Dalton in Taiwan Journal of Democracy, Volume 6, No. 2

„The starting premise of the study is the belief that the sharing of values buildsbridges between the elites and the citizens, and that the closer the convergence ofdemocratic values between them, the greater the potential for the strengthening ofthose democratic values and the quality of democracy in general” (15), schreibt die an der Universität Stellenbosch in Südafrika lehrende Herausgeberin in ihrer Einführung zu diesem Band. Er resultiert aus einem internationalen Forschungsprojekt. In dessen Rahmen wurden die Wertvorstellungen von Eliten aus Parlament und Medien mit denen der sogenannten Normalbevölkerung eines Landes verglichen, um Rückschlüsse auf die Entwicklung der jeweiligen Demokratie ziehen zu können. Länderbeispiele sind Südafrika, Südkorea, Chile, Polen, die Türkei, Deutschland und Schweden.

pw-portal.de, 21.09.2010