Democratic politics is a collective enterprise, not simply because individual votes are counted to determine winners, but more fundamentally because the individual exercise of citizenship is an interdependent undertaking. Citizens argue with one another and they generally arrive at political decisions through processes of social interaction and deliberation. This book is dedicated to investigating the political implications of interdependent citizens within the context of the 1984 presidential campaign as it was experienced in the metropolitan area of South Bend, Indiana. Hence this is a community study in the fullest sense of the term. National politics is experienced locally through a series of filters unique to a particular setting and its consequences for the exercise of democratic citizenship.

Democratic politics is a collective enterprise, not simply because individual votes are counted to determine winners, but more fundamentally because the individual exercise of citizenship is an interdependent undertaking. Citizens argue with and inform one another, arriving at political decisions through processes of social interaction and deliberation. This book is dedicated to investigating the political implications of interdependent citizens within the context of the 1984 presidential election campaign as it was experienced in the metropolitan area of South Bend, Indiana. National politics is experienced locally through a series of filters unique to a particular setting. Several different themes are explored: the dynamic implications of social communication among citizens, the importance of communication networks for citizen decision-making, the exercise of citizen purpose in locating sources of information, the constraints on individual choice, and institutional and organisational effects .

This short monograph lays out the theory behind, and techniques for, using dynamic modelling, taking the reader through a series of increasingly complex models. At each step, examples are used to explain the process, and also to clarify specific applications of difference equation models in the social sciences.

'It is a good example of classical mathematical model building and I may well use it as a text for the course on that subject in our MSc on Quantitative Methods in the Behavioural Sciences...in general it is to be recommended.' -- Bethlem and Maudsley Gazette, Vol 31 No 2, 1983