Examines why people feel disconnected from contemporary politics and suggests what might be done to address current political discontent.

Part I. Introduction: 1. The decline and renewal of democratic governance: a theoretical framework; Part II. Political Change in Britain: The Development of a Strategy Gap: 2. The mass party system and state strategic capacity in Britain; 3. Neo-liberalism and the decline of state strategic capacity; 4. Why the gap in strategic capacity poses a systemic challenge; Part III. Political Change in Australia: The Development of a Representation Gap: 5. Everyman is king: representation and strategic capacity in Australia's mass party period; 6. Pluralised society, individualised politics: the gap between citizens and the formal political system; 7. Why a representation gap poses a systemic challenge (and the populist alternative); Part IV. Political Change in New Zealand: Voting Reform, Multi-Party Politics and Minority Government: 8. Identities and capabilities in the mass party era in New Zealand; 9. Neo-liberalism, social change and democracy; 10. Is electoral reform sufficient?; Part V. Democratic Renewal: 11. Reconnecting citizens to the political system; 12. The prospect for democratic renewal.

Ian Marsh is Professor in the Australian Innovation Research Centre at the University of Tasmania.