"Das in zweiter Auflage überarbeitete Lehrbuch führt konsistent und verständlich in Theorie, Methodik und Gegenstandsbereiche der international vergleichenden Mediensystemforschung ein. Es macht mit deren Fragestellungen vertraut und arbeitet die für den Vergleich relevanten Strukturelemente her
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aus. Der Forschungsbereich wird einerseits inhaltlich, d. h. durch ausgewählte Themenstellungen (z. B. Kommunikationspolitik, Medienkonzentration), und andererseits räumlich, d. h. durch bedeutende Länder und Weltregionen, erschlossen." (Verlagsbeschreibung)
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"Since the start of the “third wave” of democratization, in 1974, the proportion of states that are electoral democracies has more than doubled, and the number of democratic governments in the world has tripled (Diamond 2001). Countries as diverse as the Czech Republic, Mexico, and South Africa
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have experienced a radical transformation of their political systems through the establishment of more effective party competition, free and fair elections, and a more independent and pluralistic press. Many hoped that these developments would expand the voice of the disadvantaged and the accountability of governments, so that policy makers would become more responsive to human needs, and governments could be removed from power through the ballot box if citizens became dissatisfied by their performance. Yet in practice, after the initial surge in the early 1990s, many electoral democracies in Latin America, Central Europe, and Sub-Saharan Africa remain fragile and only poorly consolidated, often divided by ethnic conflict and plagued by a faltering economic performance, with excessive executive power in the hands of one predominant party and a fragmented opposition (Linz and Stephan 1996). The central danger, illustrated by the nations of the Andean region, lies in disillusionment with democracy, and even occasional reversals (Norris 1999; Pharr and Putnam 2000; Lagos 2001; Plattner and Diamond 2001)." (Summary)
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