Robert Rohrschneider

Bio: Robert Rohrschneider is an academic researcher from University of Kansas. The author has contributed to research in topics: European integration & Politics. The author has an hindex of 28, co-authored 72 publications receiving 2791 citations. Previous affiliations of Robert Rohrschneider include Florida State University & Indiana University.

The Democracy Deficit and Mass Support for an EU-Wide Government

Abstract: show that when citizens perceive that they are unrepresented, their support for the EU is reduced independent of economic perceptions; this reduction is especially strong in nations with well-functioning institutions. The study (1) suggests that transition and EU analyses converge on the import of regimes' democratic performance in shaping regime support; (2) pro? poses guidelines to model mass support for new institutions; (3) con? tains disquieting implications for Europe's political integration and its eastward enlargement. The democracy deficit of the European Union increasingly receives attention in the scholarly literature (Blondel, Sinnott, and Svensson 1998; Scharpf 1999; Katz and Wessels 1999). Surprisingly, despite the fact that these discussions focus on whether publics are represented by the EU, no crossnational study examines whether citizens feel represented by the EU. Neither do prior studies examine whether such views affect EUsupport. This article addresses these issues. Prior research about mass support for European integration often points to economic factors to explain why citizens support the EU (Eichenberg and Dalton 1993; Gabel 1998). From the perspective of demo? cratic representation, such a focus implies an output-based conception of representation: citizens presumably base their evaluations of a regime on its capacity to deliver desired goods. However, democratic representation also means that a system provides democratic procedures for expressing mass preferences (Dahl 1989). Empirically, transition research in Central Europe shows, for example, that citizens are quite concerned with the quality of the democratic process independently of regimes' economic performance. In turn, such procedural evaluations shape mass support for new systems, at times exceeding the influence of economic evaluations (Evans and Whitefield 1995; Mishler and Rose 2001). Our first goal is therefore to probe whether mass support for the EU is lowered when citizens perceive the EU as being unresponsive to their preferences. A second argument develops an insight advanced by Sanchez-Cuenca (2000) who suggests that higher levels of corruption at the national level directly increase EU-support. However, we argue that the quality of na? tional institutions mediates the effect of the perceived democracy deficit on EU-support. Accordingly, we expect perceptions of under-representation to reduce mass support for the EU when citizens reside in nations with supe? rior institutions. One theoretical contribution of this article is to show the influence of

Democratization and Political Tolerance in Seventeen Countries: A Multi-level Model of Democratic Learning

Abstract: Research on mass support for democracies shows that popular support for democratic norms is at an historic high. At the same time, research on political tolerance draws considerably bleaker conclusions about the democratic capacity of mass publics. We attempt to synthesize the essential lessons of these two literatures into a general model of democratic learning which argues that exposure to the rough-and-tumble of democratic politics should enhance political tolerance. We provide a test of the model using multilevel data from a diverse set of 17 countries. At the macro-level, we find, consistent with our theory, that: (1) political tolerance is greater in stable democracies that have endured over time (the longer the better), independent of a nation’s socioeconomic development; and (2) that federal systems increase levels of tolerance, as well. At the micro-level, we find that democratic activism, or using civil liberties, enhances political tolerance, independent of a host of other individual-level pred...

The Environmental Movement and the Modes of Political Action

Abstract: There have been widely differing claims about how environmental groups attempt to reform environmental policy—from those who see the movement as challenging the prevailing social paradigm through confrontation and violence, to those who lament the movement's reliance on conventional styles of political persuasion. This article uses data from the 1998 Global Environmental Organizations Survey (GEOS) to map the political activities used by environmental groups across the globe and to determine what best accounts for these patterns of action. The authors examine the responses of 248 environmental groups in the GEOS; these data allow the authors to compare environmental group behaviors across 59 nations and 5 continents. They find that most environmental groups engage in a mixture of political methods and activities. Although there is little evidence that institutional structures influence participation, the mix of organizational resources and ideology are potent influences on participation patterns. The resu...

The Strain of Representation: How Parties Represent Diverse Voters in Western and Eastern Europe

Abstract: Preface 1. Introduction 2. Theory: Representational Strain 3. Choices 4. Programs 5. Congruence 6. Party Organizations and Congruence 7. Social Base and Congruence 8. National Context and Congruence 9. Conclusion Bibliography Index

Understanding Cleavages in Party Systems Issue Position and Issue Salience in 13 Post-Communist Democracies

Abstract: There has been considerable debate about the characteristics of political cleavages underlying post-Communist Central and Eastern European party competition, with views ranging from no structure, to unidimensionality, to structured diversity, to entirely sui generis country-specific approaches. Much of the disagreement, the authors argue, results from the failure to take seriously the distinction between issue position and issue salience. Taking this into account, the authors present a model of party cleavages that synthesizes the various arguments into one comprehensive model. Empirical evidence for the argument is derived from an expert survey of 87 parties in 13 post-Communist democracies. Theoretically, this study provides a much more positive picture of the character of party cleavages and of democratic responsiveness in post-Communist states than is generally accepted.

Modernization, Cultural Change, and Democracy: The Human Development Sequence

Abstract: This book demonstrates that people's basic values and beliefs are changing, in ways that affect their political, sexual, economic, and religious behaviour. These changes are roughly predictable: to a large extent, they can be interpreted on the basis of a revised version of modernisation theory presented here. Drawing on a massive body of evidence from societies containing 85 percent of the world's population, the authors demonstrate that modernisation is a process of human development, in which economic development gives rise to cultural changes that make individual autonomy, gender equality, and democracy increasingly likely. The authors present a model of social change that predicts how the value systems play a crucial role in the emergence and flourishing of democratic institutions - and that modernisation brings coherent cultural changes that are conducive to democratisation.

The New Transnational Activism

Abstract: The New Transnational Activism, first published in 2005, shows how even the most prosaic activities can assume broader political meanings when they provide ordinary people with the experience of crossing transnational space. This means that we cannot be satisfied with defining transnational activists through the ways they think. The defining feature of transnationalism in this book is relational, and not cognitive. This emphasis on activism's relational structure means that even as they make transnational claims, transnational activists draw on the resources, the networks, and the opportunities in which they are embedded, and only then - if at all - on more distant transnational links. But we can no more sharply draw a line between domestic and international politics in studying transnational activism than we could ignore local politics in studying its national equivalent. Understanding the processes that link the local, the national and the international is the major undertaking of the book.

Democracy and Its Critics

Abstract: The course is focused on historical texts, most of them philosophical. Context for understanding the texts and the course of democratic development will be provided in lecture and discussions, and by some background readings (Dunn). We begin with the remarkable Athenian democracy, and its frequent enemy the Spartan oligarchy. In Athens legislation was passed directly by an assembly of all citizens, and executive officials were selected by lot rather than by competitive election. Athenian oligarchs such as Plato more admired Sparta, and their disdain for the democracy became the judgment of the ages, until well after the modern democratic revolutions. Marsilius of Padua in the early Middle Ages argued for popular sovereignty. The Italian citystates of the Middle Ages did without kings, and looked back to Rome and Greece for republican models. During the English Civil War republicans debated whether the few or the many should be full citizens of the regime. The English, French, and American revolutions struggled with justifying and establishing a representative democracy suitable for a large state, and relied on election rather than lot to select officials. The English established a constitutional monarchy, admired in Europe, and adapted by the Americans in their republican constitution. The American Revolution helped inspire the French, and the French inspired republican and democratic revolution throughout Europe during the 19 century.

Democratic Deficit: Critical Citizens Revisited

Abstract: Many fear that democracies are suffering from a legitimacy crisis. This book focuses on 'democratic deficits', reflecting how far the perceived democratic performance of any state diverges from public expectations. Pippa Norris examines the symptoms by comparing system support in more than fifty societies worldwide, challenging the pervasive claim that most established democracies have experienced a steadily rising tide of political disaffection during the third-wave era. The book diagnoses the reasons behind the democratic deficit, including demand (rising public aspirations for democracy), information (negative news about government) and supply (the performance and structure of democratic regimes). Finally, Norris examines the consequences for active citizenship, for governance and, ultimately, for democratization. This book provides fresh insights into major issues at the heart of comparative politics, public opinion, political culture, political behavior, democratic governance, political psychology, political communications, public policymaking, comparative sociology, cross-national survey analysis and the dynamics of the democratization process.