Democratic Challenges, Democratic Choices: The Erosion of Political Support in Advanced Industrial Democracies

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Democratic Challenges, Democratic Choices: The Erosion of Political Support in Advanced Industrial Democracies. By Russell J. Dalton. New York: Oxford University Press, 2004. 230p. $45.00.

Russell Dalton has written an impressive, thoughtful, and useful comparative analysis of the origins, character, and consequences of variations in public support for a number of advanced industrial democracies, all of them long-term (since 1960) member states of the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD). Following David Easton's landmark study (A Systems Analysis of Political Life, 1965), Dalton distinguishes three broad objects of political support—political communities, political regimes, and political authorities—and two types of support, diffuse and specific. These are operationalized by the author in Table 2.1. Most of his empirical data are derived from a variety of National Election Studies in member states, as well as World Value and Eurobarometer surveys. The book is organized in three parts.