Coping with Complexity

This is a breakthrough work, spotlighting the dynamics of party system instability and voters' coping strategies. -- Paul Sniderman, Stanford University

What is the effect of party system instability on the information environment of voters? What criteria do voters use when organisational instability makes it harder for voters to judge the performance of parties? Based on a novel data set about party instability in Europe, this book convincingly shows that organisational changes lower the information voters have about parties. The book also documents that party volatility influences the criteria voters use to choose among parties. This well-written and persuasive study is a must-read for everyone interested in the way that party system changes affect the ability of voters to hold parties accountable in democratic elections. -- Robert Rohrschneider, Kansas University

This groundbreaking, original and well-crafted book is a timely effort to better understand voting decision guidelines. Going beyond repetitive statements about voting, it provides a realistic approach by taking into account the fact that voters nowadays have to make their electoral decisions in erratic contexts. The study is a perfect example of what I consider to be outstanding political science. To test a set of theoretically driven hypotheses, it employs impressive research design that combines qualitative and quantitative evidence from a wide range of both mature and young European democracies. The book convincingly shows that parties condition the quality and diffusion of information to citizens. Moreover party instability makes elections low-information environments. In such environments voters take their electoral decisions based on direction and intensity, thereby often choosing parties with extreme ideological positions or alternatively with charismatic leaders. This book is a must for all political scientists who are seeking to understand the decisions of those entering the ballot box in times of party instability. -- Marta Fraile, European Union Institute

Dani Marinova is Juan de la Cierva Fellow at Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona. She completed a PhD in Political Science at Indiana University in 2012. She studies how political and economic contexts condition citizens' electoral behaviour and in turn shape democratic representation. Her research has appeared in Acta Politica, Democratization, Perspectives on Politics, Political Behavior and Political Science Research and Methods.