Policy Representation in Western Democracies

• 1. Introduction: Elite-Mass Linkage in Representative Democracy ; 2. Mass-Elite Issue Linkages and the Responsible Party Model of Representation ; 3. Political Communication between Political Elites and Mass Publics: The Role of Belief Systems ; 4. The Language of Politics: A Study of Elite and Mass Understandings of Ideological Terminology in the United States and the Netherlands ; 5. Collective Policy Congruence Compared ; 6. Not all Politics is Local: The Geographical Dimension of Policy Representation ; 7. System Characteristics Matter: Empirical Evidence from Ten Representation Studies ; Conclusion: Mixed Signals

This book does a fine job of educating the reader on the complexity and difficulty in determining what policy representation entails. Furthermore, the authors make a significant contribution to the comparative study of the subject. Those who are intrigued and challenged by the concept of representation will find this book to be an interesting piece of the policy representation puzzle.