Pippa Norris is the McGuire Lecturer in Comparative Politics at the John F. Kennedy School of Government, Harvard University. Her work analyzes comparative democratization, elections and public opinion, gender politics, and political communications. Recent companion volumes by this award-winning author, also published by Cambridge University Press, include Sacred and Secular (2004), Driving Democracy (2008) and Cosmopolitan Communications (2009).

• Part I. Introduction: 1. Democratic hopes and fears; 2. The conceptual framework; 3. Evidence and methods; Part II. Symptoms: 4. Trends in the US and Western Europe; 5. Comparing political support around the world; 6. Trends in democratic deficits; Part III. Diagnosis: 7. Rising aspirations; 8. Democratic knowledge; 9. Negative news; 10. Failing performance; Part IV. Prognosis: 11. Consequences for citizenship, governance, and democratization; 12. Conclusions and implications.

“This brilliantly-reasoned assessment of public opinions about the achievements and failures of democratic governance deserves high attention from the social science community. The wide-ranging book includes nuanced analyses of such crucial issues as people’s trust in their government and its institutions, their satisfaction with regime performance, and their understanding of democratic values. The detailed findings are remarkable and surprisingly encouraging. Contrary to prevailing beliefs, the wealth of data from fifty countries clearly shows that faith in the effectiveness of democratic governance remains robust, even though it wanes and waxes in response to the tides of political events.” —Doris Graber, University of Illinois at Chicago