Degrees of Democracy: Politics, Public Opinion, and Policy Stuart N. Soroka, Christopher Wlezien This book develops and tests a "thermostatic" model of public opinion and policy. The representation of opinion in policy is central to democratic theory and everyday politics; so too is the extent to which public preferences are informed and responsive to changes in policy. The coexistence of both "public responsiveness" and "policy representation" is thus a defining characteristic of successful democratic governance, and the subject of this book. The authors examine both responsiveness and policy representation across a range of policy domains in the United States, the United Kingdom, and Canada. The story that emerges is one in which representative democratic government functions surprisingly well, although there are important differences in the details. Responsiveness and representation are found to reflect the salience of the different domains and the design of governing institutions - specifically, federalism (versus unitary government) and presidentialism (versus parliamentarism). The findings alter our understanding of both opinion-policy relationships and the functioning of representative democratic institutions. Stuart N. Soroka is associate professor and William Dawson Scholar in the Department of Political Science at McGill University, Montreal, Quebec. He is also adjunct professor and director of the Canadian Opinion Research Archive at the School of Policy Studies at Queen's University, Kingston, Ontario, and co-director of the Media Observatory at the McGill Institute for the Study of Canada. He is the author of Agenda-Setting Dynamics in Canada (2002) and articles in journals […] Christopher Wlezien is professor of political science and faculty affiliate in the Institute for Public Affairs at Temple University. He previously was on the faculty at Oxford University and Nuffield College, where he co-founded the ESRC-funded Oxford Spring School in Quantitative Methods for Social Research. He co-edited The Future of Election Studies and Britain Votes, and his articles have appeared in numerous journals […]