Political Discussion in Modern Democracies: A Comparative Perspective

The study of political discussion has been broken into sub-categories including deliberative democracy, discursive studies, dynamics of interpersonal communication, and discussion network analyses, with substantial numbers of books and articles covering each. However, these areas are often treated distinctly and not brought together in a comprehensive and systematic way.Political Discussion in Modern Democracies: a comparative perspective reviews the breadth of the different literatures on political science and provides original comparative analyses of the nature of political discussion and its consequences on political deliberation and behaviour in numerous advanced industrial democracies worldwide. It is divided into two main sections that provide both a review of the field and context for the chapters that follow:Part I studies deliberation and discussion as the object of analysis.Part II concentrates on the consequences of political discussion and deliberation.Covering ten countries across Europe, Asia, and North and South America, this book makes a significant contribution toward broader theories of political communication, deliberative democracy, discussion networks, and political behaviour. It will be of interest to scholars of comparative politics, political communication, political behaviour, governance and democracy.

1. Introduction Michael Wolf and Ken'ichi Ikeda Section 1. Deliberation and Discussion as the Object of Analysis 2. Booming Diversity in Deliberative Democracy. An Overview of Normative Concepts and Empirical Findings André Bächtiger 3. Equality and Political Deliberation Kasper Møller Hansen 4. What political discussion means and how do the French, the (French speaking) Belgians and the British deal with it Florence Haegel and Sophie Duchesne 5. Voters' Political Conversations During the 2005 German Parliamentary Election Campaign Rüdiger Schmitt-Beck 6. Participatory Budget, Discussion Networks and Electoral Information: The Brazilian Elections of 2002 and 2006 Barry Ames, Andrew Baker and Lucio Renno 7. Local Partisan Context and Political Discussion Network Construction: Minority Party Loyalty under Challenge Michael Wolf Section 2. Consequences of Discussion and Deliberation 8. Group Dynamics, Interpersonal Communication and Political Behaviour Robert Huckfeldt and Ken'ichi Ikeda 9. The Impact of Everyday Political Talk on Political Knowledge and Voting Correctly Gábor Tóka 10. Getting a Single Message? The Impact of Homogeneous Political Communication in Spain in a Comparative Perspective Laura Morales 11. Social Networks, Voting, and Campaign Participation in Japan Ken'ichi Ikeda 12. Patterns of Support for the Welfare State: Lessons Learned from 10 Years of Direct Democratic Votes in Switzerland Lionel Marquis 13. The Role of Political Talk in Developing Democracies. Evidence from Hungary Oana Lup 14. Conclusion Laura Morales and Ken'ichi Ikeda