Co-Production and Public Service Management

Preface

My Ph.D. dissertation was a comparative study of voting behavior, “Voluntary Associations and Nordic Party Systems: A Study of Overlapping Memberships and Cross-Pressures in Finland, Norway and Sweden” (1977). So, I have had occasion during the past four decades to ask myself what voting really means to individuals and society. Is voting merely a symbolic action or does it make a difference in a democracy? Is voting every second, third, fourth or fifth year sufficient to make democracy work and work well? Or, do citizens perhaps need to find other channels of political engagement? How do they express their views in the years in between elections? How accurate are opinion polls? This is where and why questions about participation in other ...