Bøger af John R. Hibbing

According to a Gallup poll, 70 percent of Americans want elected officials to serve only a limited number of terms. Nevertheless, every two years American voters return, on average, more than 95 percent of incumbents to the US House of Representatives. John Hibbing's book provides unique evidence of the problems that would result from congressional term limitations.

This timely book describes and explains the American people's alleged hatred of the US Congress and political institutions, in general. Focus group sessions and a national survey indicate that much of the negativity is generated by popular perceptions of the processes of governing visible in Congress.

Americans often complain about the operation of their government, but scholars have never developed a complete picture of people's preferred type of government. In this provocative and timely book, Hibbing and Theiss-Morse, employing an original national survey and focus groups, report the governmental procedures Americans desire. Contrary to the prevailing view that people want greater involvement in politics, most citizens do not care about most policies and therefore are content to turn over decision-making authority to someone else. People's wish for the political system is that decision makers be empathetic and, especially, non-self-interested, not that they be responsive and accountable to the people's largely nonexistent policy preferences or, even worse, that the people be obligated to participate directly in decision making. Hibbing and Theiss-Morse conclude by cautioning communitarians, direct democrats, social capitalists, deliberation theorists, and all those who think that greater citizen involvement is the solution to society's problems.

Distinguished scholars detail the extent to which the US Congress has influenced democractic legislatures around the world, and the myriad factors involved in the diffusion of influence. Includes the governments of Canada, the United Kingdom, Germany, the European Parliament, plus new democracies in Latin America and Eastern Europe.