Book reviews
Book Review: Policy Without Politicians: Bureaucratic Influence in Comparative Perspective
In Policy without Politicians a leading expert on public policy has devoted four years to interviewing middle-ranking civil servants in three languages over six jurisdictions, to construct a comparative survey of bureaucratic influence on secondary legislation. The venture may sound worthy at best, but Patricia Hogwood finds that Edward C. Page has produced a little gem: an intellectually honest, well-constructed, impeccably […]
Book Review: Local Democracy, Civic Engagement and Community: From New Labour to the Big Society
This accessible book includes an analysis of local democracy, civic engagement and participation across a range of policy areas and in the context of debates around accountability, legitimacy, sustainability, localism and the ‘big society’. Drawing on a wide range of examples, Hugh Atkinson argues that local democracy is a vibrant terrain of innovation, civic engagement and participation, […]
Book Review: The Limits of Electoral Reform
This book is about how and why electoral reforms disappoint: when we consider campaign finance, direct democracy, or legislative term limits, electoral reforms have limited, and in many cases, no effects. Despite reform advocates’ claims, and contrary to the ‘institutions matter’ literature, findings from Shaun Bowler and Todd Donovan suggest there are hard limits to effects of […]
Book Review: On Voter Competence
A half century of research shows that most citizens are shockingly uninformed about public affairs, liberal-conservative ideologies, and the issues of the day. This has led most scholars to condemn typical voters and to conclude that policy voting lies beyond their reach. On Voter Competence breaks sharply from this view, with author Paul Goren providing analysis of opinion data from […]
Book Review: Political Parties in Britain by Matt Cole and Helen Deighan
This introductory textbook examines the factors contributing to parties’ fortunes and identities, and the causes of recent changes in both. It examines Britain’s main and minor political parties as well as peripheral parties like the BNP and UKIP. Eunice Goes contends Political Parties in Britain is a highly informative, accessible and up-to-date introductory text that should be included in […]
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