Globalization and Mass Politics
Retaining the Room to Maneuver

Analyzes how increases in international trade, finance, and production have altered voter decisions, political party positions, and the issues that parties focus on in postindustrial democracies.

Timothy Hellwig (Author)

9781107075078, Cambridge University Press

Hardback, published 17 November 2014

232 pages, 38 b/w illus. 32 tables
23.5 x 15.7 x 2 cm, 0.48 kg

'Economic globalization doesn't so much constrain democracy as transform it, shifting the locus of politics from economic to more noneconomic issues of voter and policy maker contestation. This is the central, controversial message of Hellwig's important book, which promises to be seminal in debates on the future of democratic politics in our globalization age.' Brian Burgoon, University of Amsterdam

This book analyzes how increases in international trade, finance, and production have altered voter decisions, political party positions, and the types of public issues that parties focus on in postindustrial democracies. Although many studies interrogate whether internationalization matters in regard to policy outcomes and how globalization relates to mass protest, few examine globalization and mass politics more generally. This book argues that by reducing the room in which to maneuver in policy making, globalization reduces the importance of economic-based issues while increasing the electoral importance of non-economic issues. The argument is tested on original and existing data sources.

1. Globalization and democracy in advanced industrial societies
2. Theoretical framework: political demand and supply in globalized economies
3. The world economy and the composition of policy demands
4. Globalization and the attribution of responsibility
5. Globalization and the shifting bases of retrospective voting
6. Position issues and voter choice in open economies
7. Representational linkages and the room to maneuver
8. Credible responses: globalization, parties, and the supply side
9. Conclusion.

Subject Areas: International relations [JPS], Regional government [JPR], Central government [JPQ], Political structure & processes [JPH], Comparative politics [JPB], Political science & theory [JPA], Politics & government [JP]