"Political decision making, deliberation and participation

Research in Micropolitics: Political Decision Making, Deliberation and Participation is the sixth in a series dating back to 1989 and third under the editorship of Delli Carpini, Huddy and Shapiro. The purpose of this series is to publish original essays on a variety of substantive, conceptual and methodological issues of relevance to political psychology, with particular emphasis on promising new areas of theory and research. The essays contained in this latest volume address three important and interrelated themes in the theory and practice of democratic politics: the use of information short cuts in political decision making; the role of deliberation in citizens' attitude and opinion formation; and, the pathways to civic and political participation.Drawing on well-established theory and findings from both political science and psychology (as well, on occasion, on the author's own original research) each essay provides an interpretative review of recent and important research. Taken together, the essays offer a valuable contribution to our understanding of the complex and context-dependent dynamics of mass politics today, pointing out questions that remain unanswered and promising ways to answer these questions in future research.