Now, more than ever, people drive the democratic process. What people think of their government and its leaders, how (or whether) they vote, and what they do or say about a host of political issues greatly affect the further strengthening or erosion of democracy and democratic ideals. With helpful restructuring, the new fifth edition of Citizen Politics is even more student-friendly while continuing to offer the only truly comparative study of political attitudes and behavior in the United States, Great Britain, France, and Germany.

In addition to its comprehensive, thematic examination of political values, political activity, voting, and public images of government within a cross-national context, Citizen Politics now explores new forms of political activity, such as Internet-based activism, and new forms of political consumerism. All of the chapters have been updated with the latest research and empirical evidence, including new data from the Comparative Study of Electoral Systems project, the World Values Survey, the International Social Survey Program, and the British and German national election studies. Further, Dalton devotes more attention to current academic debates over the decline of participation, the erosion of political support, and the implications for democracy.

New Data Supplement! Give your students a firsthand opportunity to understand the process of public opinion research. A data supplement from the International Social Survey Program, along with matching SPSS files, are available online at http://www.cqpress.com/cs/dalton/.

With helpful restructuring, the new fifth edition of Citizen Politics is even more student-friendly while continuing to offer the only truly comparative study of political attitudes and behavior in the United States, Great Britain, France, and Germany. In addition to its comprehensive, thematic examination of political values, political activity, voting, and public images of government within a cross-national context, Citizen Politics now explores new forms of political activity, such as Internet-based activism, and new forms of political consumerism. All of the chapters have been updated with the latest research and empirical evidence, including new data from the Comparative Study of Electoral Systems project, the World Values Survey, the International Social Survey Program, and the British and German national election studies. Further, Dalton devotes more attention to current academic debates over the decline of participation, the erosion of political support, and the implications for democracy.

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1. Introduction
The Comparative Study of Public Opinion
The Choice of Nations
A New Style of Citizen Politics
Suggested Readings
Notes

PART ONE: POLITICS AND THE PUBLIC

2. The Nature of Mass Beliefs
The Supercitizen
The Unsophisticated Citizen
Elitist Theory of Democracy
Political Sophistication Reconsidered
Politics and the Public
Suggested Readings
Notes

3. How We Participate
The Modes of Participation
Voting
Campaign Activity
Direct Contacting
Communal Activity
Protest and Contentious Action
Wired Activism
Changing Publics and Political Participation
Suggested Readings
Notes

4. Who Participates
The Civic Voluntarism Model
Who Votes?
Campaign Activity
Direct Contacting
Communal Activity
Who Protests?
Internet Activism
Comparing the Correlates of Different Activities
Participation and Contemporary Democracies
Suggested Readings
Notes

PART TWO: POLITICAL ORIENTATIONS

5. Values in Change
The Nature of Value Change
The Distribution of Values
Modeling the Process of Value Change
The Consequences of Value Change
Value Change and Value Stability
Suggested Readings
Notes

6. Issues and Ideological Orientations
Domestic Policy Opinions
Foreign Policy Opinions
Left/Right Orientations
Public Opinion and Political Change
Suggested Readings Notes

PART THREE: THE ELECTORAL CONNECTION

7. Elections and Political Parties
An Overview of Four Party Systems
The History of Party Systems
The Structure of Political Alignments
Contemporary Party Systems
Suggested Readings
Notes

8. The Social Bases of Party Support
The Social Group Model of Voting
Social Class and the Vote
Religion and the Vote
Other Social Group Differences
New Politics and the Vote
The Transformation of Social Cleavages
Suggested Readings
Notes

9. Partisanship and Electoral Behavior
A Sociopsychological Model of Voting
Partisan Attitudes
The Impact of Partisanship
Partisan Dealignment
The Consequences of Dealignment
The Causes of Dealignment
Politics in a Dealigned Era
Suggested Readings
Notes

10. Attitudes and Electoral Behavior
Principles of Issue Voting
Position Issues and the Vote
Performance Issues and the Vote
Candidate Images and the Vote
The End of the Causal Funnel
One Electorate, or Many?
Citizen Politics and Voting Behavior
Suggested Readings
Notes

11. Political Representation
Collective Correspondence
Dyadic Correspondence
The Party Government Model
Patterns of Political Representation
Suggested Readings
Notes

PART FOUR: DEMOCRACY AND THE FUTURE

12. Citizens and the Democratic Process
Different Aspects of Political Support
Declining Confidence in Authorities
Views of Political Institutions
Support for a Democratic Regime
Community Support
Dissatisfied Democrats
Suggested Readings
Notes

Appendix A: Major Data Sources

Appendix B: 2004 International Social Survey Codebook

References

Index

Citizen Politics was an instant classic when first published and has improved with each subsequent edition. Nicely organized and beautifully written, the volume confronts competing political theories with a rich array of genuinely comparative data, encouraging and enabling students to undertake further analyses on their own.

"Russell J. Dalton’s Citizen Politics is a masterful achievement, a seamless uniting of the foundation of behavioral research on voting, political attitudes and party systems on a comparative basis in explaining political performance in advanced democratic states. The ability within this framework to establish trends and project future developments is compelling. I find it essential to my teaching while at the same time admiring the book as a pathbreaking contribution to political understanding."

Russell J. Dalton is a professor of political science at the University of California, Irvine. He has been a Fulbright Professor at the University of Mannheim, a German Marshall Research Fellow, and a POSCO Fellow at the East/West Center. His recent publications include The Good Citizen; Democratic Challenges, Democratic Choices; and The Green Rainbow. He coauthored Critical Masses and is editor of The Oxford Handbook of Political Behavior; Citizens,Democracy and Markets around the Pacific Rim; Democracy Transformed?; and Parties without Partisans.

New Data Supplement! Give your students a firsthand opportunity to understand the process of public opinion research. A data supplement from the International Social Survey Program, along with matching SPSS files, are available online at http://www.cqpress.com/cs/dalton/

Elections in West Europa: An Online Simulation