Bringing together scholars of inequality, both inside and outside of Asia, this book examines how the distribution of income has affected political institutions, representation, and behaviour in Asia. Through detailed data analysis, the international team of contributors engages with the existing literature, arguing that the connection between inequality and political institutions is much more complex than has been suggested by previous studies from outside the region. Instead, Inequality and Democratic Politics in East Asia demonstrates that the micro-level evidence for the correlation between inequality and democracy is mixed and the impact of distributive politics is conditioned not only by institutional but also by historical and geopolitical factors. As such, this volume suggests that the median voter theorem and simplified partisan models prove to be ineffectual in accounting for distributive politics in East Asia. Analysing history, structure, and context to further understand the politics of inequality in East Asia, this book will be invaluable to students of Asian politics, as well as students of inequality, democracy, and political economy more widely.

Bringing together scholars of inequality, both inside and outside of Asia, this book examines how the distribution of income has affected political institutions, representation, and behaviour in Asia. Through detailed data analysis, the international team of contributors engages with the existing literature, arguing that the connection between inequality and political institutions is much more complex than has been suggested by previous studies from outside the region. Instead, Inequality and Democratic Politics in East Asia demonstrates that the micro-level evidence for the correlation between inequality and democracy is mixed and the impact of distributive politics is conditioned not only by institutional but also by historical and geopolitical factors. As such, this volume suggests that the median voter theorem and simplified partisan models prove to be ineffectual in accounting for distributive politics in East Asia. Analysing history, structure, and context to further understand the politics of inequality in East Asia, this book will be invaluable to students of Asian politics, as well as students of inequality, democracy, and political economy more widely.

This timely volume puts emphasis on the effect of social capital on everyday life: how the routines of daily life lead people to get involved in their communities. Focussing on its micro-level causes and consequences, the book's international contributors argue that social capital is fundamentally concerned with the value of social networks and about how people interact with each other.
The book suggests that different modes of participation have different consequences for creating - or destroying - a sense of community or participation. The diversity of countries, institutions and groups dealt with - from Indian castes to Dutch churches, from highly competent 'everyday makers' in Scandinavia to politics-avoiding Belgian women and Irish villagers - offers fascinating case studies, and theoretical reflections for the present debates about civil society and democracy.

The spread of new information and communications technologies during the past two decades has helped reshape civic associations, political communities, and global relations. In the midst of the information revolution, we find that the speed of this technology-driven change has outpaced our understanding of its social and ethical effects. The moral dimensions of this new technology and its effects on social bonds need to be questioned and scrutinized: Should the Internet be understood as a new form of public space and a source of public good? What are we to make of hackers? Does the Internet strengthen or weaken community? In The Internet in Public Life, essayists confront these and other important questions. This timely and necessary volume makes clear the need for a broader conversation about the effects of the Internet, and the questions raised by these seven essays highlight some of the most pressing issues at hand.

This timely volume puts emphasis on the effect of social capital on everyday life: how the routines of daily life lead people to get involved in their communities. Focussing on its micro-level causes and consequences, the book's international contributors argue that social capital is fundamentally concerned with the value of social networks and about how people interact with each other.
The book suggests that different modes of participation have different consequences for creating - or destroying - a sense of community or participation. The diversity of countries, institutions and groups dealt with - from Indian castes to Dutch churches, from highly competent 'everyday makers' in Scandinavia to politics-avoiding Belgian women and Irish villagers - offers fascinating case studies, and theoretical reflections for the present debates about civil society and democracy.

National Identity Identity and Partisan Polarization examines how national identity has become a central issue in political and social life across the world. Questions of identity-who should be counted as a "true member" of a society and who deserves assistance from the government-have displaced other social and economic issues across nations in many countries. This study considers the role of identity theoretically and in the United States, the United Kingdom, France, Austria, Germany, Sweden, Hungary, Poland, Israel, and Taiwan. Identity varies over time and over countries. Some such as Sweden have a more "inclusive" sense of identity-one does not need to be born in the country or have ancestry to be considered a "true Swede." Other countries, such as Austria, France, Hungary, Poland, Israel, and Taiwan, have a more "exclusive" notion of identity-where one was born and a common heritage (race, religion, ethnicity) are seen as essential for seeing others as "true" members of society. "Outsiders" are viewed negatively, often as threatening a national culture and not deserving of government assistance. In the United States, the United Kingdom, and France, the major political parties take opposing positions on identity. In the United States and the United Kingdom, issues of identity have become highly correlated (polarized) with social and economic issues. In the former Communist countries of Hungary and Poland, the dominant parties have taken nationalist positions on identity but favor generous welfare policies for people of their own background. In Israel and Taiwan, social and economic issues have become less important than nationalism.

Though many analyses of the 2012 presidential election have emerged, none can match this collection's depth, diversity, or ability to critically and soundly argue where American politics will go from this point forward. This volume includes some of the most recognized scholars in the field and innovative younger scholars who provide a fresh perspective on the election. It is a diverse and award winning group, including established and respected names in presidency studies, political psychology, and election forecasting. The contributions address a wide range of subjects, from the accuracy of pre-election forecasts, the effect of the election on relations between Obama and congressional leaders, the effect of race and religion on the outcome, the consequences for the Republican Party, and prospects for leadership in a second term. Rather than a simplistic account of what happened during the campaign, the volume will contribute to our understanding of significant questions about the presidency, voting behavior, political parties, and elections.

National identity plays an increasingly important role in Western, liberal democracies. Thus, national identities are experienced as threatened by immigration and diversity and restrictions on immigration and nation-building policies are being implemented in response. Specifically, it has been suggested that diversity drives down social cohesion and thus the ties that bind people together in stable, democratic welfare states. This book addresses challenges to stable liberal democratic institutions and to social cohesion resulting from immigration and diversity. Thus, immigration has been considered an important factor in political polarization and political responses and movements. National identity plays a significant role both as something that, according to some, is threatened by diversity and as something to which populist politicians positively appeal in their justification of restrictive immigration policies and efforts towards nation-building. In some cases, political leaders have framed minorities as a threat to the nation state warranting a departure from liberal democratic institutions. This book considers the role of national identity in contemporary societies and in particular its significance for social cohesion. What role does national identity play for political polarization? Do national identities mediate/moderate the impact of diversity on social cohesion, including trust and solidarity? Has identity politics contributed to a politics of resentment and can more inclusive national identities serve to diminish polarization? In the book, these and other questions about the relation between national identity, belonging and social cohesion are considered by a number of the most prominent scholars in the field.

Generalized trust - faith in people you do not know who are likely to be different from you - is a value that leads to many positive outcomes for a society. Yet some scholars now argue that trust is lower when we are surrounded by people who are different from us. Eric M. Uslaner challenges this view and argues that residential segregation, rather than diversity, leads to lower levels of trust. Integrated and diverse neighborhoods will lead to higher levels of trust, but only if people also have diverse social networks. Professor Uslaner examines the theoretical and measurement differences between segregation and diversity and summarizes results on how integrated neighborhoods with diverse social networks increase trust in the United States, Canada, the United Kingdom, Sweden and Australia. He also shows how different immigration and integration policies toward minorities shape both social ties and trust.

Why does corruption persist over long periods of time? Why is it so difficult to eliminate? Suggesting that corruption is deeply rooted in the underlying social and historical political structures of a country, Uslaner observes that there is a powerful statistical relationship between levels of mass education in 1870 and corruption levels in 2010 across 78 countries. He argues that an early introduction of universal education is shown to be linked to levels of economic equality and to efforts to increase state capacity. Societies with more equal education gave citizens more opportunities and power for opposing corruption, whilst the need for increased state capacity was a strong motivation for the introduction of universal education in many countries. Evidence for this argument is presented from statistical models, case studies from Northern and Southern Europe, Asia, Africa, Latin America, the United States, Canada, Australia, and New Zealand, as well as a discussions of how some countries escaped the 'trap' of corruption.

Generalized trust faith in people you don't know who are likely to be different from you is a value that leads to many positive outcomes for a society. Yet some scholars now argue that trust is lower when we are surrounded by people who are different from us. Eric M. Uslaner challenges this view and argues that residential segregation, rather than diversity, leads to lower levels of trust. Integrated and diverse neighborhoods will lead to higher levels of trust, but only if people also have diverse social networks. Professor Uslaner examines the theoretical and measurement differences between segregation and diversity and summarizes results on how integrated neighborhoods with diverse social networks increase trust in the United States, Canada, the United Kingdom, Sweden, and Australia and how they increase altruism toward people of different backgrounds in the United States and the United Kingdom. He also shows how different immigration and integration policies toward minorities shape both social ties and trust.

This study seeks to explain why people place their faith in strangers, and why doing so matters. Trust is a moral value that does not depend on personal experience; we learn to trust from our parents. Trusting societies are more likely to redistribute resources from the rich to the poor, and to have more effective governments. Trust has been in decline in the United States for over 30 years. Uslaner uses aggregate time series and cross-sectional data to show that the roots of this decline can be found in declining optimism and economic inequality.

This study seeks to explain why people place their faith in strangers, and why doing so matters. Trust is a moral value that does not depend on personal experience; we learn to trust from our parents. Trusting societies are more likely to redistribute resources from the rich to the poor, and to have more effective governments. Trust has been in decline in the United States for over 30 years. Uslaner uses aggregate time series and cross-sectional data to show that the roots of this decline can be found in declining optimism and economic inequality.

"Institutionalism" is the buzzword of the 1980s and 1990s in the social sciences. What is new in the contemporary analysis of institutions and what does it offer to the study of social order? In this book a distinguished group of social scientists drawn from political science, economics, and sociology, explore this question and show us how different theoretical approaches to institutional analysis can be joined to build a more thorough understanding of institutions.
The modern analysis of institutions has taken two separate paths. Rational choice theories identified institutions as a strategic response to collective action problems and as instruments for the promotion of cooperation. Contrary to these theories, such cooperation is fundamental to social order and a prerequisite for economic growth and development. An alternate form of institutionalism, drawn from sociological and historical analysis, de-emphasized the role of choice, strategy, and design in the construction of many of the major institutions in social life. This form of institutional analysis pointed to the role of prior choices, common norms, and culture in making certain options and choices unthinkable or impossible. Institutions, according to this view, may represent a certain kind of social order, but they do not always promote cooperation and economic growth. The more recent theories in the "new institutionalism" bring these seemingly irreconcilable perspectives closer together. New institutionalists argue that institutions must be grounded in the social fabric, and thus rational choice must be combined with historical and cultural variables. The papers collected in this volume address the merging of rationalchoice and historical-sociological institutionalism in the "new institutionalism."
The contributors are Randall L. Calvert, Christopher Clague, Kathleen Cook, Peter Hall, Virginia Haufler, James Johnson, Gary Miller, Karol Soltan, Rosemary C. R. Taylor, Eric M. Uslaner, and Barry Weingast.
Karol Soltan is Associate Professor of Political Science, University of Maryland. Eric M. Uslaner is Professor of Political Science, University of Maryland. Virginia Haufler is Assistant Professor of Political Science, University of Maryland.

Corruption flouts rules of fairness and gives some people advantages that others don't have. Corruption is persistent; there is little evidence that countries can escape the curse of corruption easily - or at all. Instead of focusing on institutional reform, in this book Eric M. Uslaner suggests that the roots of corruption lie in economic and legal inequality, low levels of generalized trust (which are not readily changed), and poor policy choices (which may be more likely to change). Economic inequality provides a fertile breeding ground for corruption, which, in turn, leads to further inequalities. Just as corruption is persistent, inequality and trust do not change much over time, according to Uslaner's cross-national aggregate analyses. He argues that high inequality leads to low trust and high corruption, and then to more inequality - an inequality trap - and identifies direct linkages between inequality and trust in surveys of the mass public and elites in transition countries.

Corruption flouts rules of fairness and gives some people advantages that others don't have. Corruption is persistent; there is little evidence that countries can escape the curse of corruption easily - or at all. Instead of focusing on institutional reform, in this book Eric M. Uslaner suggests that the roots of corruption lie in economic and legal inequality, low levels of generalized trust (which are not readily changed), and poor policy choices (which may be more likely to change). Economic inequality provides a fertile breeding ground for corruption, which, in turn, leads to further inequalities. Just as corruption is persistent, inequality and trust do not change much over time, according to Uslaner's cross-national aggregate analyses. He argues that high inequality leads to low trust and high corruption, and then to more inequality - an inequality trap - and identifies direct linkages between inequality and trust in surveys of the mass public and elites in transition countries.

What is the nature of representation? Why do some legislators seem to pursue their own policy agenda and others only vote for the wishes of a majority in their district? Eric M. Uslaner sheds new light on this important debate, demonstrating that current notions of representation are too narrow and that members of Congress do both pursue a policy agenda and represent their constituents's interests.
Uslaner argues that most representatives do not have to choose between following their ideals or constituency preferences, because voters usually elect public officials who are in tune with their beliefs. And because the constituency is a complex organization of sub-groups--some of which are more critical to achieving re-election than others--the legis-lator is able to form alliances with those who support the legislator's policy preferences. The views of these groups within the constituence become the views to which the legislator pays most attention. In short, the author argues, politics are both local and ideological.
Uslaner explores the intersection of a legislator ideology and the preferences of various constituencies. In looking at how they interact and how representation affects reelection, the book sheds new light on the place of ideology in American politics.
This book will be of interest to those concerned with representation in all legislative bodies, including political scientists and historians.
Eric M. Uslaner is Professor of Government, University of Maryland. He is the author of "The Decline of Comity in Congress,"