The Election Watchers: AEI's "At the Polls" Volumes on Europe: A Review Essay
THE OBJECTIVE OF THIS ESSAY IS TO OFFER A COMPOSITE ASSESSMENT OF A GROUP OF VOLUMES IN THE AE SERIES WHICH APPEARED IN THE FIRST HALF-DOZEN YEARS OF THIS AMBITIOUS ENTERPRISE. ALTHOUGH THE PREPONDERANCE OF WORKS IN THE SERIES HAVE BEEN CASE STUDIES OF SINGLE NATIONAL ELECTIONS, IT ALSO CONTAINS A S...
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| Published in: | The Western Political Quarterly 1984-09, Vol.37 (3), p.490-501 |
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| Main Author: | |
| Format: | Article |
| Language: | eng |
| Subjects: | |
| Online Access: | Get full text |
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| Summary: | THE OBJECTIVE OF THIS ESSAY IS TO OFFER A COMPOSITE ASSESSMENT OF A GROUP OF VOLUMES IN THE AE SERIES WHICH APPEARED IN THE FIRST HALF-DOZEN YEARS OF THIS AMBITIOUS ENTERPRISE. ALTHOUGH THE PREPONDERANCE OF WORKS IN THE SERIES HAVE BEEN CASE STUDIES OF SINGLE NATIONAL ELECTIONS, IT ALSO CONTAINS A SMALL GROUP OF MORE EXPLICITLY CROSS-NATIONAL STUDIES, NOTABLY TWO VOLUMES ON REFERENDUMS AND A COLLECTION OF MORE GENERAL COMPARATIVE ESSAYS CALLED DEMOCRACY AT THE POOLS. STUDENTS OF POLITICS IN WESTERN EUROPE ARE WELL SERVED BY BOTH TYPES OF VOLUMES. ONE HAS TO RECOGNIZE THAT EVEN WITH HIGH EDITORIAL CONTINUITY AND AN ESTABLISHED FORMAT, THERE IS CONSIDERABLE SPREAD IN THE APPROACHES REPRESENTED IN THESE TREATMENTS OF EUROPEAN ELECTIONS. THIS OBSERVATION IS NOT SURPRISING WHEN WE NOTE THAT THIS GROUP OF FIFTEEN VOLUMES CONTAINS THE CONTRIBUTIONS OF NO FEWER THAN 89 AUTHORS. NONETHELESS, A SERIATIM READING OF THESE WORKS DOES PRODUCE A SET OF IMPRESSIONS OF WHAT COULD BE TERMED THE AEI APPROACH, WHICH WE CAN DEFINE IN RELATION TO FAMILIAR WORKS IN THE LITERATURE OF EUROPEAN AND AMERICAN ELECTION STUDIES. THE AT THE POLLS SERIES IS MUCH LESS JOURNALISTIC, CHRONOLOGICAL, AND INSIDE-DOPISH THAN TEDDY WHITE'S MAKING BOOKS; MUCH LESS CONCERNED WITH RECORDING CAMPAIGN DETAILS FOR POSTERITY THAN THE NUFFIELD GENERAL ELECTION SERIES; MUCH LESS DEVOTED TO ADVANCING AND TESTING GENERALIZATIONS ABOUT POLITICAL BEHAVIOR THAN THE STUDIES BY BUTLER AND STOKES, CREWE, ALT AND SARLVIK, VALEN PY: 1984 |
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| ISSN: | 0043-4078 2325-8675 |