Citizenship and Democracy in an Era of Crisis (Routledge Research in Comparative Politics)

Democracies are transforming worldwide, but at the same time political inequality is increasing. This development threatens to leave growing portions of mass publics effectively ‘outside’ the political process.

This volume brings together leading authorities in the field of democratic citizenship and participation to address pertinent questions concerning the quality of the democratic political process at the beginning of the twenty-first century. Analysing causes and consequences of recent developments in democratic governance and citizenship, it contributes new and original research to the ongoing debate on the crisis of representative democracy. The contributors deal with a broad range of issues including aspects of democratic citizenship and citizens' perceptions of system performance, political inequality and the democratic impact of participatory innovations.

This book will be of key interest to scholars and students in democratization studies, democratic citizenship, comparative politics, political sociology and political participation.

Thomas Poguntke is Professor of Comparative Politics and Director of the Düsseldorf Party Research Institute (PRuF ) at the Heinrich-Heine-University, Düsseldorf and Fellow at the Mannheim Centre for European Social Research.

Sigrid Roßteutscher is Professor of Political Sociology at the Faculty of Social Sciences, Goethe University, Frankfurt am Main.

Rüdiger Schmitt-Beck is Professor of Political Science and Political Sociology at the University of Mannheim.

Sonja Zmerli is Senior Lecturer at the Faculty of Social Sciences, Goethe University, Frankfurt am Main.