Stein Rokkan was a prolific writer and scholar who became a central figure in European comparative politics and political sociology in the decades following World War II. Citizens, Elections, and Parties is the most complete guide to Rokkan's work up to 1970. The volume explains citizens' political behavior by bringing together fourteen studies, some conceptual and theoretical, others empirical and statistical, concerning the process of political development within industrializing and industrialized societies. They focus on three central themes: the extension of citizenship to the underprivileged strata of each territorial population; the mobilization of the new masses through the institutionalization of elections and the formation of parties and popular movements; and the reactions of the mobilized masses to alternatives presented by the inherited national regime, the parties, and new communication.
Rokkan's analysis of the structural underpinnings of citizen behavior remains innovative and highly ambitious today, with many of its provocative questions still unanswered.