The deep economic-political crisis has given rise to broad protest movements against the (proposed) cuts in welfare services in many European countries as well as the U.S. It has also fueled citizen demands for more direct influence in political affairs that have been raised in the developed democracies ever since the 1960s student movements. Three developments have contributed to the increase in “elite-challenging behavior” among citizens: the erosion of the traditional socio-political cleavages that used to provide strong ties between social groups and political parties based on common class, religious or ethnic backgrounds; value change brought about by rising educational levels; new media of communication that have facilitated the formation of ad-hoc political groups mobilizing citizen protest against government decisions. The chapter discusses how these development have made political interest aggregation much more difficult. It seeks to determine if the developments are of a merely temporary and quantitative, rather than a qualitative character likely to produce political elites whose power bases are less stable than earlier and thus make democratic politics more volatile. At the same time, political careers are increasingly insecure, making politicians more vulnerable to electoral defeat and more dependent on alternative sources of income.
