Conventional wisdom suggests that citizens in many countries have become disengaged from traditional political participation. Commentators highlight warning signs of sagging electoral turnout, rising anti-party sentiment, and the decay of civic organizations. But are these concerns justified? This book compares systematic evidence in nearly two hundred countries worldwide and suggests reasons for questioning assumptions of decline. Not only is the obituary for older forms of political activism premature, but new forms of modern civic engagement may be emerging.
PIPPA NORRIS is the McGuire Lecturer in Comparative Politics at the John F. Kennedy School of Government, Harvard University. She has also served recently as the Director of the Democratic Governance Group at the United Nations Development Program in New York.
Her research compares gender politics, democracy, elections and public opinion, and political communications in many countries worldwide. A well-known public speaker and prolific author, she has published more than three-dozen books.
This includes almost a dozen volumes for Cambridge University Press: A Virtuous Circle: Political Communications in Postindustrial Societies (2000, winner of the 2006 Doris A. Graber award for the best book in political communications), Digital Divide: Civic Engagement, Information Poverty and the Internet Worldwide (2001), Democratic Phoenix: Political Activism Worldwide (2002) and Rising Tide: Gender Equality and Cultural Change Around the Globe (with Ronald Inglehart, 2003), Electoral Engineering: Voting Rules and Political Behavior (2004), Sacred and Secular: Religion and Politics Worldwide (with Ronald Inglehart, 2004, winner of the Virginia Hodgkinson prize from the Independent Sector), Radical Right: Voters and Parties in the Electoral Market (2005), and Driving Democracy: Do power-sharing institutions work? (CUP 2008). Her most recent research concerns a new book on Cosmopolitan Communications: Cultural Diversity in a Globalizing World (CUP 2009, with Ronald Inglehart).
Other authored or coauthored books include On Message (1999), Electoral Change Since 1945 (1997), Political Recruitment (1995), British By-elections (1990), Politics and Sexual Equality (1986). Edited books include Britain Votes 2005 (co-edited with Christopher Wlezien, 2005), Framing Terrorism (2003), Britain Votes 2001 (2001), Critical Citizens (1999), Critical Elections (1999), The Politics of News (1998, 2nd edition 2007), Elections and Voting Behaviour (1998), Britain Votes 1997 (1997), Women, Media and Politics (1997), Politics and the Press (1997), Passages to Power (1997), Comparing Democracies (1996, 2nd ed. 2002, 3rd edition 2009), Women in Politics (1996), Different Voices, Different Lives (1994), Gender and Party Politics (1993), British Elections & Parties Yearbook (1991, 1992, 1993). Recently edited reports include Making Democracy Deliver: Governance for Human Development (for UNDP) and Public Sentinel: News Media and the Governance Agenda (World Bank 2009).
She has served as an expert consultant for many international bodies including the UN, UNESCO, NDI, the Council of Europe, International IDEA, the World Bank, the National Endowment for Democracy, and the UK Electoral Commission. Her work has been published in more than a dozen languages (French, German, Dutch, Italian, Swedish, Spanish, Portuguese, Russian, Polish, Hungarian, Croatian, Pashtu, Arabic, Chinese, Indonesian, Korean, and Japanese). Journals articles include those in the British Journal for Political Science, Political Studies, Political Communication, the European Journal of Political Research, the International Political Science Review, Electoral Studies and Legislative Studies, and she co-founded The Harvard International Journal of Press/Politics. She has served on executive bodies for the American Political Science Association (APSA), the International Political Science Association (IPSA), the Political Science Association of the UK (PSA), and the British Politics Group of APSA. She was President of the Political Communications section of APSA and of the Women and Politics Research Group of APSA, and Co-Founding Chair of the Elections, Parties, and Public Opinion Group (EPOP) of the PSA. She has held visiting appointments at Columbia University, the University of California-Berkeley, the University of East Anglia, the University of Oslo, the University of Cape Town, Otago University, and the Australian National University. Prior to joining Harvard in 1992, she taught at Edinburgh University. She holds a Bachelor of Arts in Politics and Philosophy from Warwick University, and Masters and Doctoral degrees in Politics from the London School of Economics (LSE). She teaches STM 103: Good Governance and Democratization (MPA/ID) and API413 Challenges of Democratization at the John F. Kennedy School of Government and Gov-20 Introduction to Comparative Politics in the Government Department. Full details and publications can be found at: www.pippanorris.com and she can be contacted at Pippa_Norris@Harvard.edu.
