Michael Laver – författare

Combining superb scholarship and rigorous empirical data with an accessible and engaging writing style, Representative Government in Modern Europe remains the leading textbook on comparativeEuropean politics. The fifth edition reflects key events and changes including the impact of the world financial and economic crisis; the EU’s adoption of the Lisbon Treaty; and the election of a centre-right governments in Germany and the UK.

Retaining its comprehensive thematic approach to Europe as an integrated whole, while reflecting the continued importance of the EU, the new edition explores the key themes emerging in European politics:

The broad-ranging scope of the book introduces the theory at many levels of analysis, including: the private desires of individuals; the social context of how people fulfil their desires; and the problems of collective action. The discussion of these problems extends into the arena of politics, where the activities of `political entrepreneurs' or politicians and the formation of political parties and coalitions are addressed.

A new and wide-ranging empirical overview of party policy in 47 modern democracies, including all of the new democracies of Eastern Europe.

It updates and radically extends Policy and Party Competition (1992), which established itself as a key mainstream data source for all political scientists exploring the policy positions of political parties.

This essential text is divided into three clear parts:

Part I introduces the study, themes and methodology

Part II deals in depth with the wide range of issues involved in estimating and analyzing the policy positions of key political actors.

Part III is the key data section that identifies key policy dimensions across the 47 countries, detailing their party positions and median legislators, and is complemented by graphical representations of each party system.

This book is an invaluable reference for all political scientists, particularly those interested in party policy and comparative politics.

A new and wide-ranging empirical overview of party policy in 47 modern democracies, including all of the new democracies of Eastern Europe.

It updates and radically extends Policy and Party Competition (1992), which established itself as a key mainstream data source for all political scientists exploring the policy positions of political parties.

This essential text is divided into three clear parts:

Part I introduces the study, themes and methodology

Part II deals in depth with the wide range of issues involved in estimating and analyzing the policy positions of key political actors.

Part III is the key data section that identifies key policy dimensions across the 47 countries, detailing their party positions and median legislators, and is complemented by graphical representations of each party system.

This book is an invaluable reference for all political scientists, particularly those interested in party policy and comparative politics.

Party competition for votes in free and fair elections involves complex interactions by multiple actors in political landscapes that are continuously evolving, yet classical theoretical approaches to the subject leave many important questions unanswered. Here Michael Laver and Ernest Sergenti offer the first comprehensive treatment of party competition using the computational techniques of agent-based modeling. This exciting new technology enables researchers to model competition between several different political parties for the support of voters with widely varying preferences on many different issues. Laver and Sergenti model party competition as a true dynamic process in which political parties rise and fall, a process where different politicians attack the same political problem in very different ways, and where today''s political actors, lacking perfect information about the potential consequences of their choices, must constantly adapt their behavior to yesterday''s political outcomes. Party Competition shows how agent-based modeling can be used to accurately reflect how political systems really work. It demonstrates that politicians who are satisfied with relatively modest vote shares often do better at winning votes than rivals who search ceaselessly for higher shares of the vote. It reveals that politicians who pay close attention to their personal preferences when setting party policy often have more success than opponents who focus solely on the preferences of voters, that some politicians have idiosyncratic "valence" advantages that enhance their electability--and much more.

The broad-ranging scope of the book introduces the theory at many levels of analysis, including: the private desires of individuals; the social context of how people fulfil their desires; and the problems of collective action. The discussion of these problems extends into the arena of politics, where the activities of `political entrepreneurs′ or politicians and the formation of political parties and coalitions are addressed.