Susan Banducci

TL;DR: This article examined minority empowerment theory from a cross-national perspective, making use of surveys that sampled minorities in the United States and New Zealand and found that in both countries descriptive representation matters: it increases knowledge about and contact with representatives in the U.S. and leads to more positive evaluations of governmental responsiveness and increased electoral participation in New Zealand.

TL;DR: This paper analyzed the news coverage of the 2004 European Parliament elections in all 25 member states of the European Union (EU) and provided a unique pan-European overview of the campaign coverage based on an analysis of three national newspapers and two television newscasts in the two weeks leading up to the elections.

TL;DR: In this paper, the authors analyzed the news coverage of the 2004 European Parliament elections in all 25 member states of the European Union (EU) and provided a unique pan-European overview of the campaign coverage based on an analysis of three national newspapers and two television newscasts in two weeks leading up to the elections.

TL;DR: This article found that those with high levels of political knowledge rely more heavily on evaluations of EU institutions when assessing democracy in the EU and also found evidence that evaluations of democratic performance are motivated by the economic benefits and costs associated with membership.

TL;DR: This article examined the negative influence of disproportional electoral systems on political minorities and found that broad coalitions, which are likely to be a feature of these systems, reduce political efficacy.