Westerbeek also helped me to clarify a number of confusing points.

Bob Danziger help

with the data reading and in speeding up "Iow-priority-SPSS" was valuable. The
Computing Service progressively increased my disk quota in luecalc and helpfully
refrained from migrating some of my old files.
A number of people have contributed to the thesis by reading earlier drafts and
commenting on them. I am very grateful to Jose Ramón Montero (for his careful
comments and encouragement), Simon Hug (who also participated in the ECPR
workshop but read much more than the paper I presented there), Wolfgang Hirczy (for
his detailed and encouraging comments on the first chapter as well as for keeping me
regularly informed on issues related to turnout and 'motor voter' in the US) and Colin
Crouch. Joan Font gave me extensive and useful comments on every chapter so as to
become my first 'virtual' professor and friend. Ana Lasaosa and Aline Coudoucl read
and made extremely useful remarks on chapters III and V, being witnesses to my fights
with logistic regression in the lab and the Minicloister. Alinc's help with the weighting
procedure was invaluable. Olga Cantó and Quico Trillas also read parts of the thesis and
made interesting comments. I must also thank Stanley Feldman, although he has not
seen this thesis, for an excellent course on advanced regression in the 1995 Essex
Summer School.
Many other people have also helped me to write and finish this thesis, and to
resolve the small problems of everyday life in Florence and the Badia: the Library, the
Xeroxing Service, the Academic Service (with a special mention to Françoise Thauvin),
the Operative Service, the Language Centre, the Portineria, the Mensa and in particular
Cinzia, the Bar, and the various Fiasco committees. Special thanks go to Ana Rosa del
Castillo, for her friendship and help. Monica, Teresa and Mr. Mugnaini made good
company in the late evening hours at the Badia. Eva Breivik, Marie Ange Catotti and
Nancy Altobelli were always very efficient and friendly, and very special thanks go to
Maureen Lechleitner, who always, and specially at the end, helped me far beyond the
requirements of her job. I must also thank the Area de Ciencia Política of the University
of Salamanca for their support during the last months. Dan Oakey did a wonderful job
correcting my English — any remaining errors are mine, and he also cooked some of
the few proper meals that I had during my last weeks before handing in (a few others
were made by James Heenan).