The Strain of Representation: How Parties Represent Diverse Voters in Western and Eastern Europe

Robert Rohrschneider received a Ph.D. in political science from Florida State University in 1989, and first taught at the University of Kentucky (1989-1991), and then at Indiana University-Bloomington (1991-2008) before moving to the University of Kansas. His first book, Learning Democracy: Economic and Democratic Values in Unified Germany, won the 1998 Stein Rokkan prize from the ECPR. He has subsequently examined the extent to Shich European publicsperceive the EU to be organized democratically. He is Sir Robert Worcester Distinguished Professor of International Public Opinion and Survey Research.

Stephen Whitefield completed a doctorate in Oxford in 1991 and has had academic appointments at the School of Slavonic and East European Studies, University of London and since 1993 at Pembroke College and the Department of Politics and International Relations, Oxford University. His first book with OUP, Industrial Power and the Soviet State (1993), won the Ed A. Hewitt Prize from the American Association for the Advancement of Slavonic Studies. He has subsequently published
extensively (with Geoffrey Evans) on the social and ideological bases of citizens' partisan choices and on support for democracy in Central and Eastern Europe. He is Professor of Politics, Department of Politics and International Relations, Oxford University and Fellow in Politics, Pembroke College,
Oxford.

The Strain of Representation examines the quality of democratic representation in Europe, focusing on the way that political parties channel the preferences of different groups of citizens into government policies.

Preface ; 1. Introduction ; 2. Theory: Representational Strain ; 3. Choices ; 4. Programs ; 5. Congruence ; 6. Party Organizations and Congruence ; 7. Social Base and Congruence ; 8. National Context and Congruence ; 9. Conclusion ; Bibliography ; Index