Democracy in the Age of Globalization and Mediatization

This book provides a comprehensive overview over the models of contemporary democracy, its social, cultural, economic and political prerequisites, empirically existing varieties, and the two major challenges globalization and mediatization confronting established democracies today. As the boundaries of the national political communities increasingly dissolve, democracy as we know it is put into question. Similarly, as the role of the media in politics increases, the way established democracies function is being transformed. The book covers the transformation of established democracies, democracy's global expansion into new countries, as well as its spread into supranational polities such as the European Union. It confronts head on democracy's constantly changing nature; its diversity of institutions and practices; its repeated need to respond to exogenous challenges and, most importantly, its perpetually unsatisfactory quest to make 'real-existing democracy' conform better to 'potentially ideal democracy.'

HANSPETER KRIESI holds the Stein Rokkan Chair in Comparative Politics at the European University Institute in Florence. Previously, he has been teaching at the universities of Amsterdam, Geneva and Zurich. His wide ranging research interests include the study of direct democracy, social movements, political parties and interest groups, public opinion, the public sphere and the media. He is the director of a Swiss national research programme on the 'Challenges to democracy in the 21st century'.

DANIEL BOCHSLER is Assistant Professor in Democratisation at NCCR Democracy at the University of Zurich. His research deals with elections and representation in ethnically divided countries, democratisation, and the quality of democracy, and he is particularly interested in Central and Eastern European politics.

JÖRG MATTHES is a Professor in the Department of Communication at the University of Vienna. His reseacrh interests include political communication, political behaviour and advertising research.

SANDRA LAVENEX is Professor of International Politics at the University of Lucerne (Switzerland) and Visiting Professor at the College of Europe in Natolin (Warsaw). She holds a PhD from the European University Institute in Florence and works on democratization in the international realm, EU external relations, and international migration policy.

MARC BÜHLMANN has published in the fields of participation behaviour, methods, social capital, democratic theory, and comparative politics. At the National Centre of Competence in Research's 'Challenges to Democracy,' he has led a project that aims to measure the quality of democracy. He currently works at the Institute of Political Science at the University of Bern where he is executive director of the Swiss Political Yearbook.

FRANK ESSER is Professor of International and Comparative Media Research at the University of Zurich and co-director of the NCCR Democracy. He publishes cross-national research on news, journalism, political communication and media systems and co-edited the books 'Comparing Political Communication' and 'Handbook of Comparative Communication Research'.