Power Diffusion and Democracy

Institutions, Deliberation and Outcomes

Julian Bernauer, Adrian Vatter

• Publisher: Cambridge University Press
• Year: 2019
• Print ISBN: 9781108483384
• eBook ISBN: 9781108606486
• Topic: Politics & International Relations
• Subtopic: Politics
• Index: Politics & International Relations

Departing from the established literature connecting the political-institutional patterns of democracy with the quality of democracy, this book acknowledges that democracies, if they can be described as such, come in a wide range of formats. At the conceptual and theoretical level, the authors make an argument based on deliberation, redrawing power diffusion in terms of the four dimensions of proportionality, decentralisation, presidentialism and direct democracy, and considering the potential interactions between these aspects. Empirically, they assemble data on sixty-one democracies between 1990 and 2015 to assess the performance and legitimacy of democracy. Their findings demonstrate that while, for example, proportional power diffusion is associated with lower income inequality, there is no simple institutional solution to all societal problems. This book explains contemporary levels of power diffusion, their potential convergence and their manifestation at the subnational level in democracies including the United States, Switzerland, Germany and Austria.

Table of contents

• Cover
• Half-title page
• Title page
• Copyright page
• Dedication
• Contents
• List of Figures
• List of Tables
• Preface
• Acknowledgements
• List of Abbreviations
• 1 Introducing Power Diffusion in Democracies
• 2 A Theory of Power Diffusion, Deliberation and Democracy
• 3 A Taxonomy of Power Diffusion
• 4 Performance
• 5 Legitimacy
• 6 Explaining Power Diffusion
• 7 Convergence
• 8 Subnational Power Diffusion
• 9 Conclusions
• Appendix
• References
• Index