Consequences of Context

By far, the most promising development in the field of voting behavior over the last years has been its shift from methodological individualism to a more nuanced view of individuals as embedded within a given historical, socioeconomic and political context. No other book better signifies this turn than the current volume, which stresses key dimensions in which the context determines voters' preferences, elite's strategies and the interplay between the two. An invaluable source for any well-informed student of comparative political behavior. -- Elias Dinas, European University Institute

This is a superb book by a stellar collection of scholars. Based on the research in comparative political behavior, the authors observe that the micro foundations of voting tend to be the same everywhere and yet the influence of different factors varies across space and time. They then set out to theorize and empirically assess the influence of electoral context, broadly defined, on individuals' voting behavior. I am impressed by what they have accomplished - from conceptualization to modeling to estimation - and this changed both how I think about context and, especially, how I (and others) will analyze its consequences. -- Christopher Wlezien, University of Texas at Austin

Hermann Schmitt holds degrees from the University of Mannheim (Ba, Hab.), the University of Duisburg (PhD), and the Free University of Berlin (Hab.) He is Professor of Political Science at the University of Mannheim and Research Fellow at its Center for European Studies MZES.