Chapter 14: Comparative Political Behaviour: What is being Compared?

Shaun Bowler

Comparative political behaviour: What is being compared? The literature on electoral studies and electoral behaviour is vast, and growing. Any review of the literature must therefore necessarily be limited, and this chapter is no exception in picking out only a few elements from that vast literature. In what follows we are concerned not so much with the specific part of political behaviour being modelled so much as the implications and limitations of the kinds of comparisons being made. That is, there are a large number of studies of political behaviour – of turnout or of vote choice and so on but in this chapter the focus is not just on the kinds of political behaviour under view but also the kinds of comparisons being made. For a considerable period the intellectual history of electoral studies was driven by American experience and examples. While there are important intellectual strands that still ...

Users without subscription are not able to see the full content on this title. Please, subscribe or login to access all content on this website.

• Buy The Book