Power Diffusion and Democracy: Institutions, Deliberation and OutcomesDeparting from the established literature connecting the political-institutional patterns of democracy with the quality of democracy, this book acknowledges that democracies, if they can be described as such, come in a wide range of formats. At the conceptual and theoretical level, the authors make an argument based on deliberation, redrawing power diffusion in terms of the four dimensions of proportionality, decentralisation, presidentialism and direct democracy, and considering the potential interactions between these aspects. Empirically, they assemble data on sixty-one democracies between 1990 and 2015 to assess the performance and legitimacy of democracy. Their findings demonstrate that while, for example, proportional power diffusion is associated with lower income inequality, there is no simple institutional solution to all societal problems. This book explains contemporary levels of power diffusion, their potential convergence and their manifestation at the subnational level in democracies including the United States, Switzerland, Germany and Austria. |
Contents
Introducing Power Diffusion in Democracies | 1 |
A Theory of Power Diffusion Deliberation and Democracy | 16 |
A Taxonomy of Power Diffusion | 56 |
Performance | 103 |
Legitimacy | 136 |
Explaining Power Diffusion | 170 |
Convergence | 197 |
Subnational Power Diffusion | 212 |
Conclusions | 230 |
| 262 | |
| 282 | |
Other editions - View all
Common terms and phrases
alternative analysis Armingeon Austria bicameralism Boix cabinet type centripetal Chapter character of democracy coded consensus democracy constitutional rigidity convergence corruption country scores country-level decentral and direct decentral power diffusion decentralisation democ democratic diff dimensions of power direct democracy direct power diffusion effective number elections electoral disproportionality electoral system empirical patterns executive federalism Figure Gallagher index Ganghof Germany Gerring and Thacker Golder government performance highest posterior density hypotheses inclusiveness income inequality indicators instance institutions judicial review latent levels of proportional Lijphart majoritarian measurement model migrant integration policies Mongolia multilevel model number of parties parliament parliamentary party systems patterns of democracy policy congruence political system political-institutional posterior density intervals presidential and direct presidential power diffusion presidential systems proportional and decentral proportional power diffusion quality of deliberation referendums satisfaction with democracy Steiner subnational entities subnational level Switzerland Taagepera theoretical tion United Kingdom variables variance veto players votes Yes SM