Russell Dalton is professor of political science at University of California, Irvine. His research focuses on the changing nature of citizen politics in advanced industrial societies and how theses changes are transforming contemporary democratic politics. He has written extensively on the political beliefs of Western publics and the linkage between these beliefs and on-going changes in citizen behavior, partisan politics, and policy outcomes. His recent work concerns the growing impact of the environmental movement on the political systems of Western democracies. He is also one of the leading American experts on German politics, especially public opinion in the postwar era. He has published three books recently with Oxford University Press which include Democratic Challenges, Democratic Choices: The Erosion of Political Support in Advanced Industrial Democracies (2004), Democracy Transformed? The Expansion of Citizen Access in Advanced Industrial Democracies (co-editor; 2003), and Parties without Partisans: Political Change in Advanced Industrial Democracies (co-editor, 2001). He is the author of our Citizen Politics , 4thedition, and is coauthor on a bestselling intro to comparative politics text with Longman.