Introduction: Democratic Reform and Political Participation Thomas Zittel and Dieter Fuchs Part 1: Democratic Reform and Political Participation: Two Theoretical Perspectives 1. Participatory Democracy and Political Participation Thomas Zittel 2. Participatory, Liberal, and Electronic Democracy Dieter Fuchs Part 2: Democratic Reform and Political Responsiveness 3. Political Participation in Party Primaries: Increase in Quantity, Decrease in Quality? Gideon Rahat and Reuven Y. Hazan 4. Scotland: A New Era for Participatory Democracy?Peter McLaverty and Sue Morris Part 3: Democratic Reform and Direct Democracy 5. The Effects of Political Institutions and City Size on Political Participation: The Swiss Case Simone Baglioni 6. Direct Democracy and Political Participation from a Cross-National Perspective Silvano Moeckli Part 4: Democratic Reform and Civil Society 7. 'Letting George Do It': Accounting for Low Participation Rates? William A. Maloney and Grant Jordan 8. Trust and Governance: How Culture and Economics Constraint the State Eric M. Uslaner 9. Workplace Democracy: Turning Workers into Citizens? Neil Carter Part 5: Democratic Reform and Local Government 10. Mobilizing for Participatory Democracy? The Case of Democracy Policy in Sweden Stig Montin 11. Democratic Renewal in Local Government? Top Down Strategies for Bottom Up Involvement Jacob Aars Conclusion: Can Participatory Engineering Bring Citizens Back In? Thomas Zittel

Zittel, Thomas; Fuchs, Dieter

A detailed new examination of the initiatives governments are exploring to reform the institutions and procedures of liberal democracy in order to provide more opportunities for political participation and inclusion.
Combining theory and empirical case studies, this is a systematic evaluation of the most visible and explicit efforts to engineer political participation via institutional reforms. Part I discusses the phenomenon of participatory engineering from a conceptual standpoint, while parts II, III and IV take a comparative, as well as an empirical, perspective. The contributors to these sections analyze participatory institutions on the basis of empirical models of democracy such as direct democracy, civil society and responsive government and analyze the impact of these models on political behaviour. Part V includes exploratory regional case studies on specific reform initiatives that present descriptive accounts of the policies and politics of these reforms.
Delivering a detailed assessment of democratic reform, this book will of strong interest to students and researchers of political theory, democracy and comparative politics.