Citizens and Politics: Perspectives from Political Psychology. Edited by James H. Kuklinski. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2001. 534p. $75.00

Extract

James Kuklinski has assembled a remarkably valuable set of articles addressing the general question of citizens’ political competence and political decision making. This book is the tenth installment in the distinguished series “Cambridge Studies in Political Psychology and Public Opinion.” Divided into four sections covering affect, cognition, perception, and values, the book is organized much like panel sessions at a professional meeting. Kuklinski provides an extended introduction to each section, and three articles by some of our most talented researchers form the core of each section, followed by invited commentary critiquing those articles. Absent from the collection is a summary chapter, which could have gone a considerable distance toward providing a general model of public opinion formation and functioning, but if you are looking for the most innovative, cutting-edge articles on how citizens make sense of politics, there would be no better place to begin than this work.