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In this interdisciplinary book in an interdisciplinary series, Dave Bridge crosses methodological boundaries to offer readers insights on the political “push­back” that historically follows Supreme Court rulings with which most Americans disagree. After developing a framework for identifying the Court's rare countermajor­itarian decisions, Bridge shows how those decisions that liberals backed in the 1950s through the 1970s consistently upset con­servative factions in the Democratic Party, which always managed to weather the storms—that is until Roe v. Wade in 1973. In Pushback, Bridge offers compelling hy­potheses about how the two major parties can use unpopular Supreme Court rulings to shift the political momentum and win elections. He then puts those hypotheses to the test, analyzing the political fallout of recent rulings on controversial issues such as Obamacare, same-sex marriage, and religious liberty. Certain to appeal to anyone interested in American political science and history, Pushback closes with a detailed exami­nation of the unequivocally counterma­joritarian Supreme Court ruling of our lifetimes, Dobbs v. Jackson Women's Health Organization, which overturned Roe. For the first time in 50 years, conditions are ripe for a party to win votes by campaign­ing against the will of the Court. Upcom­ing elections will tell if the Republicans overplayed their hand, or if Democrats will play theirs as skillfully as did the GOP after Roe.

The years following the 2008 financial crisis produced a surge of political discontent with populism, conspiracism, and Far Right extremism rising across the world. Despite this timing, many of these movements coalesced around cultural issues rather than economic grievances. But if culture, and not economics, is the primary driver of political discontent, why did these developments emerge after a financial collapse, a pattern that repeats throughout the history of the democratic world? Using the framework of'Affective Political Economy', The Age of Discontent demonstrates that emotions borne of economic crises produce cultural discontent, thus enflaming conflicts over values and identities. The book uses this framework to explain the rise of populism and the radical right in the US, UK, Spain, and Brazil, and the social uprising in Chile. It argues that states must fulfill their roles as providers of social insurance and channels for citizen voices if they wish to turn back the tide of political discontent.

This volume investigates the reasons behind voter turnout inequalities in contemporary Europe. It looks at the socioeconomic factors that can inhibit electoral participation at the individual level, and how these factors interact with the institutional constraints regulating access to the electoral arena, and considering the changes affecting the class system and occupational opportunities. The volume also reflects on the long-term effects of the 2008 Great Recession on the stability of democracy and the individual lives of voters, who are often deprived of institutional representation and left with the choice between anti-system protest and disengagement from politics.

How did far-right, hateful and anti-democratic ideologies become so successful in many societies in Europe? This volume analyses the paradoxical roles sexual politics have played in this process and reveals that the incoherence and untruthfulness in right-wing populist, ultraconservative and far-right rhetorics of fear are not necessarily signs of weakness. Instead, the authors show how the far right can profit from its own incoherence by generating fear and creating discourses of crisis for which they are ready to offer simple solutions. In studies on Poland, Hungary, Spain, Italy, Austria, Ireland, Northern Ireland, Portugal, France, Sweden and Russia, the ways far-right ideologies travel and take root are analysed from a multi-disciplinary perspective, including feminist and LGBTQI reactions. Understanding how hateful and antidemocratic ideologies enter the very centre of European societies is a necessary premise for developing successful counterstrategies.

Democracy's Meanings challenges conventional wisdom regarding how the public thinks about and evaluates democracy. Mining both political theory and more than 75 years of public opinion data, the book argues that Americans think about democracy in ways that go beyond voting or elected representation. Instead, citizens have rich and substantive views about the material conditions that democracy should produce, which draw from their beliefs about equality, fairness, and justice. The authors construct a typology of views about democracy. Procedural views of democracy take a minimalistic quality. While voting and fair treatment are important to this vision of democracy, ideas about equality are mostly limited to civil liberties. In contrast, social views of democracy incorporate both civil and economic equality; according to people with these views, democracy ought to meet the basic social and material needs of citizens. Complementing these two groups are moderate and indifferent views about democracy. While moderate views sit somewhere in between procedural and social perspectives regarding the role of democracy in producing social and economic equality, indifferent views of democracy involve disaffection toward it. For a small group of apathetic citizens, democracy is an ambiguous and ill-defined concept.

With a combined focus on social democrats in Northern and Southern Europe, this book crucially broadens our understanding of the transformation of European social democracy from the mid-1970s to the early-1990s.In doing so, it revisits the transformation of this ideological family at the end of the Cold War, and before the launch of Third Way politics, and examines the dynamics and power relations at play among European social democratic parties in a context of nascent globalisation. The chronological, methodological and geographical approaches adopted allow for a more nuanced narrative of change for European social democracy than the hitherto dominant centric perspective. This book will be of key interest to scholars and students of social democracy, the European Centre-left, political parties, ideologies and more broadly to comparative politics and European politics and history.The Introduction chapter of this book is available for free in PDF format as Open Access from the individual product page at www.routledge.com. It has been made available under a Creative Commons Attribution-Non Commercial-No Derivatives 4.0 license

This book explores the mechanisms of political representation and accountability in the European political system, against the backdrop of multiple crises in recent years in the economic, financial, security and immigration fields, which have triggered strong tensions and centrifugal drives inside the EU and among its member states. Exploiting a rich set of new ad hoc collected data covering elite and public opinion orientations and party positions, it investigates how the current politicization of European issues and the asymmetries among member states can challenge the sustainability of the European Union. It examines how existing policy tools were found largely unable to neutralize promptly the negative effects of these crises on the populations, economies and security of the Union and how this suggests the need to reconsider overarching theoretical frameworks and a more in-depth analysis of some crucial mechanisms of the European political system and to go beyond some of the dominant scholarly debates of the past decades. This book will be of key interest to scholars and students of the European Union and more broadly to comparative European politics and international relations.

By re-examining the political thought of Max Weber, Carl Schmitt and Hans Kelsen, this book offers a reflection on the nature of modern democracy and the question of its legitimacy. Pedro T. Magalhães shows that present-day elitist, populist and pluralist accounts of democracy owe, in diverse and often complicated ways, an intellectual debt to the interwar era, German-speaking, scholarly and political controversies on the problem(s) of modern democracy. A discussion of Weber's ambivalent diagnosis of modernity and his elitist views on democracy, as they were elaborated especially in the 1910s, sets the groundwork for the study. Against that backdrop, Schmitt's interwar political thought is interpreted as a form of neo-authoritarian populism, whereas Kelsen evinces robust, though not entirely unproblematic, pluralist consequences. In the conclusion, the author draws on Claude Lefort's concept of indeterminacy to sketch a potentially more fruitful way than can be gleaned from the interwar German discussions of conceiving the nexus between the elitist, populist and pluralist faces of modern democracy. The Legitimacy of Modern Democracy will be of interest to political theorists, political philosophers, intellectual historians, theoretically oriented political scientists, and legal scholars working in the subfields of constitutional law and legal theory. The Open Access version of this book, available at https://doi.org/10.4324/9781315157566, has been made available under a Creative Commons Attribution-Non Commercial-No Derivatives 4.0 license

This book sheds light on the role that grievances play for mobilisation dynamics in a context of material deprivation. Why do people protest? To what extent do grievances account for the varying size of protest events over time? Covering different levels of analysis, the author argues that effects of socioeconomic aspects (both objective-material deprivation and subjective-attitudinal grievances) are mediated by political attitudes, especially political dissatisfaction. He develops a framework to account for the dynamics, trajectory and timing of the cycle of contention that unfolded in Spain in the shadow of the Great Recession, contributing not only to the field of social movement studies but to our broader understanding of European politics, political sociology, political economy and economic sociology.

In this book, Enrico Padoan proposes an original middle-range theory to explain the emergence and the internal organisation of anti-neoliberal populist parties in Latin America and Southern Europe, and the relationships between these parties and the organised working class.Padoan begins by tracing the diverging evolution of the electoral Lefts in Latin America and Southern Europe in the aftermath of economic crises, and during the implementation of austerity measures within many of these nations. A causal typology for interpreting the possible outcomes of the realignments within the electoral Lefts is proposed. Hereafter, the volume features five empirical chapters, four of which focus on the rise of anti-neoliberal populist parties in Bolivia, Argentina, Spain and Italy, while a fifth offers an analysis on four ‘shadow cases'in Venezuela, Uruguay, Portugal and Greece.Scholars of Latin America and Comparative Politics will find Anti-Neoliberal Populisms in Comparative Perspective a highly valuable resource, offering a distinctive perspective on the impact of different populisms on party systems and on the challenges that such populisms posed to syndicalism and to traditional left-of-centre parties.

This book analyses emerging trends in the politicisation of EU conflicts in Western Europe between 2006 and 2019, evaluating the transformative effects arising from multiple crises – the Euro crisis, the migration crisis and the Brexit Referendum. It describes how EU issues have been increasingly emphasised and polarised by various political parties – both the mainstream pro-EU and anti-EU protest parties – and have been transformed into more meaningful determinants of voting. The respective chapters investigate the fluctuations in EU issue entrepreneurship and EU issue voting, identifying which party types have been more likely to benefit from their EU issue proximity to voters, and assessing the growing politicisation of the EU conflict in both South European and North-Western countries. This book will be of particular interest to students and scholars of political parties, European politics, Euroscepticism and voting behaviour.

Revised throughout, the second edition of this comprehensive and highly respected textbook continues to provide a thorough introduction to European and European Union politics. Pairing a genuinely comparative approach with in-depth analysis of the national, supranational, local and regional political systems of large and small countries across Europe, including Central and Eastern Europe and the Balkans, this accessible book covers history, theory, institutions, parties and party systems, and interest groups, among others.Key topics and features of this book: Examines the European Union multilevel governance system and uses a regional cluster approach to highlight differences across Europe. Contextualises European politics in a theoretical framework explaining the major political, social and economic transformations taking place in the information age. A new chapter on the comparative political systems and cultures of wider Europe, particularly Russia, Ukraine, Moldova, Georgia, Belarus and Turkey. Engages with the latest challenges and crises facing Europe, including new streamlined chapters on parties, elections, politics and policy-making of the European Union. Extended coverage of hot topics such as finance and the Eurocrisis, immigration, populism and xenophobia. Uses a wide range of pedagogical features including further readings and revision questions. Includes a fully updated companion website containing rich reference data, chapter summaries and weblinks. Richly illustrated throughout, this work is an indispensable resource for all students and scholars of European politics.

This comprehensive book analyses the development of the legislatures in the Iberian countries over the past 40 years, since democracy was introduced, to comparatively understand their role in these political systems and in sustaining their democratic systems. Sharing many historical developments and institutional characteristics, Spain and Portugal also present crucial differences, notably Spain's pure parliamentary system, a King as Head of State and a quasi-federal structure, and Portugal's semi-presidential democracy. Starting with a historical and institutional contextualization of these two legislatures, the book examines the most important organizational and behavioural features of legislative life in Iberian legislatures in a comparative perspective. It also shows how new legislatures develop resilience capacity to support lasting democratic systems as fully fledged institutionalized bodies.This book will be of key interest to scholars and students of Spain and Portugal, legislative politics and parliamentarianism, and more broadly to European politics and comparative politics, journalists and practitioners.

Standing out from all other books on direct democracy, Citizenship and Contemporary Direct Democracy connects the study of direct democracy to the broader field of comparative democratization and to an important strand in normative democratic theory. Analyzing the relationship between direct democracy and representative government, this book is organized around three main sections: the origins of contemporary direct democracy, its functioning, and the ways to improve the use of direct democracy and its abuse. David Altman argues that citizen-initiated mechanisms of direct democracy constitute an important and viable way to re-invigorate current representative regimes by strengthening democracies'normative foundations - freedom and equity among citizens - which are particularly fragile in the context of unequal societies. Citizenship and Contemporary Direct Democracy demonstrates how citizen-initiated mechanisms of direct democracy empowers citizens, channels social demands, defuses violence, re-enchants citizens with politics, and breaks through some of the institutionalized barriers to accountability that arise in representative systems.

With contributions from leading international scholars, this Handbook offers the most rigorous and up-to-date analyses of virtually every aspect of Brazilian politics, including inequality, environmental politics, foreign policy, economic policy making, social policy, and human rights. The Handbook is divided into three major sections: Part 1 focuses on mass behavior, while Part 2 moves to representation, and Part 3 treats political economy and policy. The Handbook proffers five chapters on mass politics, focusing on corruption, participation, gender, race, and religion; three chapters on civil society, assessing social movements, grass-roots participation, and lobbying; seven chapters focusing on money and campaigns, federalism, retrospective voting, partisanship, ideology, the political right, and negative partisanship; five chapters on coalitional presidentialism, participatory institutions, judicial politics, and the political character of the bureaucracy, and eight chapters on inequality, the environment, foreign policy, economic and industrial policy, social programs, and human rights.This Handbook is an essential resource for students, researchers, and all those looking to understand contemporary Brazilian politics.

When people discuss politics, they often mention the promises politicians make during election campaigns. Promises raise hopes that positive policy changes are possible, but people are generally skeptical of these promises. Party Mandates and Democracy reveals the extent to and conditions under which governments fulfill party promises during election campaigns. Contrary to conventional wisdom a majority of pledges—sometimes a large majority—are acted upon in most countries, most of the time. The fulfillment of parties'election pledges is an essential part of the democratic process. This book is the first major, genuinely comparative study of promises across a broad range of countries and elections, including the United States, Canada, nine Western European countries, and Bulgaria. The book thus adds to the body of literature on the variety of outcomes stemming from alternative democratic institutions.

This book examines the ways in which the welfare state impacts levels and distributions of political participation and democratic support in Western democracies. Going beyond the traditional contextual accounts of political behaviour, which primarily focus on political institutions or the socio-economic climate, this book looks specifically at the impact of public policy on a variety of political behaviours and attitudes. Drawing on the theoretical insights from the policy feedback approach, the author argues and empirically demonstrates that generous social policy offerings can not only foster democratic citizenship by promoting a more inclusive political culture, but are most beneficial to citizens who are otherwise excluded from political life in many other societies. This book will appeal most to scholars in the fields of political science and sociology who are especially interested in the welfare state, public policy, political sociology, and inequality.

Der Band enthält die wichtigsten Beiträge des Autors zum Verständnis gesellschaftlicher Transformationsprozesse im Lichte der soziologisch informierten Akteur- und Wahlhandlungstheorie. Im Zentrum stehen die Probleme der Selbstgestaltung und Selbststeuerung, mit denen kollektive Akteure konfrontiert sind, wenn sie zentrale gesellschaftliche Institutionen in der unsicheren Ereignisumwelt zu verändern suchen.Das besondere akteurtheoretische Interesse gilt den Bedingungen, unter denen es Parteien, Verbänden, sozialen Bewegungen oder Regierungen gelang, sich im sozialen Wandel ergebende Gelegenheitsfenster zu nutzen, um Richtung, Verlauf und Ergebnis der Transformation zu beeinflussen. Zu den untersuchten Transformationsfällen zählen einerseits die Ersteinführung sozialstaatlicher Sicherungssysteme in Westeuropa und die Transformation ehemals sozialistischer Staaten (einschließlich der DDR), andererseits unabgeschlossene Transformationsprozesse im Kontext von Globalisierung, umweltangepasster Produktion und Klimawandel.

Daniel Weber beschäftigt sich mit den Licht- und Schattenseiten von nationaler und europäischer Identifikation in Deutschland. Mithilfe einer quantitativ-empirischen Analyse zeigt er, dass gruppenbezogene Identifikation vor allem dann mit negativen Konsequenzen wie Fremdenfeindlichkeit und Vorurteilen verbunden ist, wenn diese auf exklusiven Mitgliedschaftskriterien beruht. Positive Aspekte von Identifikation wie Solidarität oder die Unterstützung des politischen Systems zeigen sich indes allein schon durch das Gefühl der Zugehörigkeit. Seine Arbeit verdeutlicht die Relevanz einer aufgeklärten Diskussion über die Bedeutung und Merkmale von Identität.

Notwithstanding its contemporary critics, political representation remains at the core of democratic politics. Based on a comparative research project that gathered data from observations, surveys, experiments and expert interviews, this book examines the process and the quality of political representation in France and Germany from a dual perspective. First, it analyzes MPs'behavior during their district activities. Second, it investigates the perceptions and evaluations of the represented, the French and German citizens. In ten chapters different facets of MPs'activities as well as citizens'attitudes are comparatively investigated. The book is relevant for Politics scholars and practitioners at national parliaments to better understand representative democracies, and it may also contribute to improve representation itself.

The global financial, economic and sovereign debt crisis since 2008 has led to increases in political disaffection among citizens, a loss of legitimacy of political institutions, the discredit of mainstream parties and the rise of extremist or anti-system political alternatives. This comparative volume sheds greater light on this critical juncture in the recent history of the European Union (EU) by focusing on the evolution of attitudes of national political elites. It examines whether the crisis has affected the legitimacy of the EU integration project as perceived by national political elites and, consequently, if the elite consensus that constituted one of the most solid fundamentals supporting that project has been eroded. Analysing these changes across the different dimensions in which support for the EU is organized and its relationship with the evolution of support towards European integration among citizens in member states, the book addresses a basic question: How have these events affected the perceptions of the EU of national political elites? Ultimately, it sheds light on the evolution of the relationship between the perception of the EU and the national contexts, as well as the likely evolution of the project of European integration in the near future. This book will be of key interest to scholars and students of political elites, EU politics, European integration, political parties, and more broadly to comparative politics, European studies and sociology.

This book analyses social movements and radical political parties'strategies in Spain, Greece, Portugal and Italy from 2008 to today. Events in 2011 such as the Arab Spring and the indignados movement in Spain initiated a new cycle of social protest. This book explores how the economic crisis and policies of austerity have transformed and continue to transform social movements, trade unions and radical political parties in Southern Europe. The economic crisis has led to a rise in protest movements, which confront political institutions and conventional forms of democracy, and develop new spatial and organisational strategies. This book examines these cases, in addition to those groups who, contrastingly, have used institutional politics to achieve their aims, such as new political parties like Podemos in Spain or Movimento 5 Stelle in Italy. Analysing the extent to which there has been a change in approach when it comes to contesting neo-liberal capitalism, this book makes an important contribution to the study of social movements and radical politics. With a comparative perspective and an emphasis on studying the largely unexplored recent social and political dynamics in the European periphery, this book is essential reading for students, scholars and activists interested in social movements, radical politics and European politics more generally.

Das Spannungsverhältnis von Freiheit und Sicherheit beschäftigt die praktische Politik und die normative politische Theorie gleichermaßen. Dieser Band bietet Einblicke, wie die Bevölkerung die beiden Prinzipien gegeneinander abwägt. Die Beiträge zeigen, inwiefern sich die Bürger für verschärfte Sicherheitsmaßnahmen und für Änderungen an der Sicherheitsarchitektur aussprechen, wie sich gesellschaftliche Werteprioritäten verschieben und ob die Einschränkung von Freiheitsrechten unterstützt oder abgelehnt wird.

Discussions of the recent austerity measures in Southern Europe as a response to the sovereign debt crisis have been usually framed in terms of their economic impact. However, the general impoverishment of these countries has induced other massive social and political changes, a fact which is ignored in the literature. This volume seeks to fill this gap and break ground by analyzing these trends in the Portuguese context. Portugal has been portrayed as the Troika's good pupil by obediently adopting all prescribed austerity measures. In the process, the nation's fragile social fabric has been destroyed. Massive emigration, particularly by young people, massive increases in poverty and a foundering economy have triggered a collective framing of the crisis and austerity as unjust and punitive of a collectivity that, at the beginning, naively believed in the neoliberal narrative of the benign effects of the cuts. This reframing unleashed an unprecedented wave of social and political mobilization in an otherwise traditionally apathetic society. This resistance needs to be addressed as a direct effect of austerity policies and properly analyzed for what it really represents: a process of repoliticization and re-democratization sweeping Europe. These mobilizations include direct democracy experiments, the growing influence of social movements (the massive March 2011 demonstrations were a direct inspiration for the creation of the Indignado movement in Spain, attesting the contagion effect), solidarity economy and the major political change in the country's 42 years of democratic rule: an alliance of the left parties, unthinkable before the crisis, and which is reframing relations with the European Union. This volume offers a first approach to the massive political, social and cultural transformations taking place in the country that make Portugal, in certain aspects, a lab for innovative practices (e.g. participatory budgets and the alliance of the left parties) that may be used elsewhere as alternatives to current understandings of economic and political orthodoxy

'After decades of isolation and a turbulent transition to democracy, Portugal's integration into the European Union has given political, economic, social, and cultural stability to a country that had to overcome the trauma of losing an empire. This volume clearly is a major contribution to the study of how Portugal became part of the European Union as a political system and its development towards Europeanization and domestication.Magone first lays a theoretical framework for the study of Europeanization and discusses political parties, the political system, and Portuguese society in terms of Europeanization. He then examines public administration, how the European Union and the OECD impacted on the modernization agenda, and includes a discussion of the national EU policy coordination. Magone also considers the Portuguese Euro-elite and how they interacted with the Portuguese presidency and the processes of decision-making going on among the different levels of the governance system of the European Union. He highlights a case study of the Portuguese presidency of the European Union, which took place in the first half of 2003. In addition, Magone discusses the impact of the EU structural funds on Portugal, and scrutinizes Portuguese foreign and defense policies, in particular its reconstructed foreign policy, which was clearly instrumental in achieving the independence of East Timor. He reviews the growing integration of Portugal into the emerging structures of the Common Foreign and Security Policy (CFSP), concluding with the challenges that Portugal will face in the future in the education, health, and business sectors.An interesting finding is the growing alienation of the population from the political class, who clearly make all the decisions in relation to the European Union without proper consultation of the population through referenda. In sum, this book is vital to understand one of the oldest nation-states of the world.JosÚ M. Magone is senior lecturer'

What explains differing levels of support for democracy in postauthoritarian countries? Do young people value democracy simply because they have grown up with it? Or do older generations, having experienced the alternative, value democracy more highly? Does the socialization of new generations into the norms of democratic citizenship herald the normalization of democratic governance? Or have frustrations with political corruption and economic stagnation led to the rejection of democracy or, at a minimum, the view that it is irrelevant? These questions are at the heart of this groundbreaking study of the impact of generational change on support for democracy and opposition to authoritarian rule in countries and regions around the world.

This book makes the case that several East Central European countries have emerged as fully consolidated democracies. As such, they may be integrated into the mainstream of political science research, and not consigned forever to a transitional category encompassing countries that are now fully democracies as well as some that are not democratic at all. The author outlines the steps of another transition - from post-communist studies to political science research. He demonstrates how institutionalist, or rational choice, theories can be applied to the analysis of political processes in the successfully democratized countries, and proposes a new research agenda for political scientists studying the region. The results of this work can enrich political science as well as our understanding of both democracy and the polities of contemporary Eastern Europe.

Democracies evolve. Their evolution is not only key to their survival; it is also a reflection of the changing environment in which they operate. This book contributes to the analysis and understanding of how democratic states have transformed over time by examining a number of challenges and opportunities that they face. With a focus on ‘Europe 31', understood as the EU28 plus Switzerland, Norway, and Iceland, the book brings together separate strands of literature which often remain disconnected in political science narratives. Looking at citizen–state relations, the restructuring of politics and institutions of the state, and developments which reach'beyond and below'the state, it interrogates a variety of issues ranging from the decline of parties or the re-emergence of nationalism as a political force, to liberal challenges to social democracy, terrorist threats, and climate change. The book combines these different dimensions into a comprehensive overview of the state of contemporary democracy, its challenges and opportunities, and its dynamic capacity to adapt. In other words, it deals with the perpetual threats to and transformations of democracy, and the state's ability to protect and strengthen its democratic attributes.This text will be of key interest to scholars of European Politics, Comparative Politics, and Democracy Studies.

Das Handbuch Vergleichende Politikwissenschaft stellt - erstmals im deutschsprachigen Raum - Beträge zu den wichtigsten Aspekten der Vergleichenden Politikwissenschaft zusammen. Neben der Darstellung der zentralen Begriffe und Kategorien sowie konzeptionellen und methodischen Ausführungen bietet der Band zudem Übersichten über die relevanten komparativen Forschungen und Forschungsergebnisse in den jeweiligen Bereichen. Mit über sechzig Beträgen wird ein umfassender Überblick zur Entwicklung und aktuellen Situation dieser Teildisziplin gegeben.

It has been argued that the emergence of a European collective identity would help overcome growing disparity caused by the increasing diversity of today's European Union, with 28 member states and more than 500 million people.Research on European integration is facing the pressing question of what holds ‘Europe'together in times of crisis, growing distributional conflict and instability in its neighbourhood. This book departs from the ideas of group cohesion in the EU, and reflects on the newest dynamics and practices of European identity. Whilst applying innovative qualitative, quantitative and experimental research methods and an interdisciplinary approach, this volume looks at a variety of issues such as European citizenship, mobility of European citizens, space-based identities, dual identities, student identity and value-sharing. In doing so, this volume presents new perspectives on this complex and dynamic subject and points to potential solutions both in the academic discourse and the political practice of the EU.This text will be of key interest to scholars and students of European integration, European studies, international relations, citizenship studies, political sociology as well as more broadly in the social sciences.

Au sommaire de ce numéro : Au nom de l'efficacité. L'évaluation des politiques européennes de développement, un rituel de conformité? / La précaution réglementaire. un mode européen de gouvernement des objets techniques / Quelles expertises urbaines pour une Europe des villes? Le réseau Eurocities et ses experts / Parliamentary Collective Action under the Early Warning Mechanism. The Cases of Monti II and EPPO / L'européanisation comme ressource politique. Le cas des réformes du code du travail au Portugal / Lectures

El descrédito de los principales partidos políticos conlleva el riesgo de que la desafección ciudadana favorezca la aparición de candidaturas extrasistema, cuya llegada al gobierno puede tener consecuencias imprevisibles. Carentes de trayectoria anterior, apoyándose sobre todo en el malestar de los ciudadanos y en un discurso de condena genérica de los partidos anteriores, estas candidaturas extrasistema tal vez tomen decisiones que hipotequen seriamente el futuro del país, además de polarizar a la sociedad al negar legitimidad al resto de los partidos. En el caso de estos regímenes fundacionales, no es descabellado temer la aparición creciente de tendencias autoritarias.

Voting in Old and New Democracies examines voting behavior and its determinants based on 26 surveys from 18 countries on five continents between 1992 and 2008. It systematically analyzes the impact on voting choice of factors rooted in the currently dominant approaches to the study of electoral behavior, but adds to this analysis factors introduced or reintroduced into this field by the Comparative National Elections Project (CNEP)—socio-political values, and political communication through media, personal discussion, and organizational intermediaries. It demonstrates empirically that these long-neglected factors have significant political impact in many countries that previous studies have overlooked, while'economic voting'is insignificant in most elections once long-term partisan attitudes are taken into consideration. Its examination of electoral turnout finds that the strongest predictor is participation by other family members, demonstrating the importance of intermediation. Another chapter surveys cross-national variations in patterns of intermediation, and examines the impact of general social processes (such as socioeconomic and technological modernization), country-specific factors, and individual-level attitudinal factors as determinants of those patterns. Complementing its cross-national comparative analysis is a detailed longitudinal case study of one country over 25 years. Finally, it examines the extent of support for democracy as well as significant cross-national differences in how democracy is understood by citizens.Written in a clear and accessible style, Voting in Old and New Democracies significantly advances our understanding of citizen attitudes and behavior in election settings.

The power granted to the courts, both in a nation's constitution and in practice, reveals much about the willingness of the legislative and executive branches to accept restraints on their own powers. For this reason, an independent judiciary is considered an indication of a nation's level of democracy. Vineeta Yadav and Bumba Mukherjee use a data set covering 159 developing countries, along with comparative case studies of Brazil and Indonesia, to identify the political conditions under which de jure independence is established. They find that the willingness of political elites to grant the courts authority to review the actions of the other branches of government depends on the capacity of the legislature and expectations regarding the judiciary's assertiveness. Moving next to de facto independence, Yadav and Mukherjee bring together data from 103 democracies in the developing world, complemented by case studies of Brazil, India, and Indonesia. Honing in on the effects of electoral institutions, the authors find that, when faced with short time horizons, governments that operate in personal vote electoral systems are likely to increase de facto judicial independence whereas governments in party-centered systems are likely to reduce it.

der Titel umfasst eine systematische Analyse politischer Systeme auf der Grundlage eines gemeinsamen Vergleichskonzepts, das alle Beiträge strukturiert. Neben dem Einbezug von formalen und informellen Institutionen liegt ein besonderer Reiz des Bandes in seiner Prozessorientierung, die den Wandel der politischen Systeme einschließt. Beachtet werden die relevanten Akteurskonstellationen und die kulturellen Rahmenbedingungen. Der historische Rückblick beginnt nach 1945. Analysiert werden maßgeblich die letzten zwei bis drei Dekaden. Die gewonnenen Kenntnisse betreffen nicht nur die empirischen Fälle, sondern ermöglichen weiterführende Studien zu anderen Ländern anhand des vorgestellten konzeptionellen Ansatzes.

The Politics of Market Discipline in Latin America uses a multi-method approach to challenge the conventional wisdom that financial markets impose broad and severe constraints over leftist economic policies in emerging market countries. It shows, rather, that in Latin America, this influence varies markedly among countries and over time, depending on cycles of currency booms and crises exogenous to policy making. Market discipline is strongest during periods of dollar scarcity, which, in low-savings commodity-exporting countries, occurs when commodity prices are high and international interest rates low. In periods of dollar abundance, when the opposite happens, the market's capacity to constrain leftist governments is very limited. Ultimately, Daniela Campello argues that financial integration should force the Left toward the center in economies less subject to these cycles, but not in those most vulnerable to them.

Für die vollständige Konsolidierung einer Demokratie ist eine demokratische politische Kultur vonnöten. Vertrauen stellt in diesem Zusammenhang einen wesentlichen Aspekt dar und gilt zudem als unerlässliche Voraussetzung für Demokratien. Erstaunlicherweise hat die politikwissenschaftliche Forschung der Frage nach der Entwicklung des politischen Vertrauens in neuen Demokratien bislang jedoch nicht die notwendige Aufmerksamkeit geschenkt. Vor diesem Hintergrund untersucht die Autorin drei wesentliche Fragestellungen anhand von empirisch-quantitativen Analysen: Wie entwickelt sich politisches Vertrauen in Ländern nach einem Systemumbruch? Handelt es sich dabei um eine stabile Vertrauensbeziehung? Inwiefern wirkt sich das Regimeerbe auf die Herausbildung und Entwicklung des politischen Vertrauens aus? Die Ergebnisse beinhalten sowohl einen theoretisch-konzeptuellen Beitrag zur politischen Vertrauensforschung als auch inhaltliche Erkenntnisse über die Vertrauensentwicklung in neuen Demokratien.

Au sommaire de ce numéro : Le soutien à l'intégration européenne dans les nouveaux Etats membres / Economie politique du soutien à l'UE dans les PECO / Les nouveaux états membres et les vieux malentendus de l'intégration européenne / Support for the European Union in Central and Eastern Europe before and after Accession / Public Budgeting in the EU Commission / Expliquer l'impuissance partisane dans le policy making européen / Faire carrière dans les métiers de l'Europe politique

Das Buch beschäftigt sich mit der Frage, wie Demokratie als eine moderne Ordnung politischer Herrschaft theoretisch definiert werden kann und defekte Demokratien von liberal-rechtsstaatlichen Demokratien unterschieden werden können. Es wird ein dreidimensionales Demokratiekonzept präsentiert und eine Typologie defekter Demokratien entwickelt.

Entgegen aller Skepsis, welche die Transformationsforschung der ersten Jahre dominierte, wurde das Jahrhundertprojekt eines kompletten Systemwechsels in einer Vielzahl von Fällen erfolgreich bewältigt. Infolgedessen ist eine Revision jener Teile des sozialwissenschaftlichen Wissens erforderlich, in denen die Möglichkeit umfassender Gesellschaftsreformen bestritten wurde. Mittels avancierter quantitativer und qualitativer Methoden der vergleichenden Forschung werden die politischen Entscheidungen aufgedeckt, denen positive Resultate geschuldet sind. Die kompakten Studien zur politischen und ökonomischen Transformation machen aber auch die fehlerhaften Annahmen kenntlich, welche der These von der generellen Unmöglichkeit holistischer Reformen zugrunde liegen.

In this important new introductory textbook, José Magone provides an accessible and comprehensive introduction to contemporary European politics. The unification of the European continent since the Fall of the Berlin wall in 1989 and the collapse of communist regimes in Central and Eastern Europe has changed the nature of European politics. This book seeks to address the new European politics that emerged out of this coming together of West and East. Utilizing a pan-European comparative approach the book: covers key topics, with chapters on the history, theory, institutions, parties and party systems, interest groups, systems of interest intermediation and civil society, the impact of European public policy and the emergence of a European common and foreign policy provides detailed comparisons of the national political systems across Europe, including Central and Eastern Europe and the Balkans contextualises national politics in the growing importance of European integration examines the European Union multi-level governance system approach, highlighting relationships and interactions between the global, supranational, national, regional and local levels analyses the change from modern politics, in which the nation-state was still in command of domestic politics and its own borders, to postmodern politics in which de-territorialisation, de-nationalisation and internationalisation processes have transformed the national politics of European states facilitates learning through a wide range of pedagogical features, including chapter summaries, guides to further reading, questions for revision and extensive use of maps, figures, case studies and tables. Richly illustrated throughout, this work is an indispensable resource for all students and academics of European politics.

In The Costs of Justice, Brian K. Grodsky provides qualitative analyses of how transitional justice processes have evolved in diverse ways in postcommunist Poland, Croatia, Serbia, and Uzbekistan, by examining the decision-making processes and goals of those actors who contributed to key transitional justice policy decisions. Grodsky draws on extensive interviews with key political figures, human rights leaders, and representatives of various international, state, and nongovernmental bodies, as well as detailed analysis of international and local news reports, to offer a systematic and qualitatively compelling account of transitional justice from the perspective of activists who, at the end of a previous regime, were suddenly transformed from downtrodden victim to empowered judge. Grodsky challenges the argument that transitional justice in post-repressive states is largely a function of the relative power of new versus old elites. He maintains that a new regime's transitional justice policy is closely linked to its capacity to provide goods and services expected by constituents, not to political power struggles. In introducing this goods variable, so common to broad political analysis but largely overlooked in the transitional justice debate, Grodsky argues that we must revise our understanding of transitional justice. It is not an exceptional issue; it is but one of many political decisions faced by leaders in a transition state.

Does the democratic nation state remain a legitimate regime form in the current age of globalization? This book uses a novel, analytical approach to probe this topical question, drawing on a comparative study of legitimation discourses in the media of four Western democracies (Switzerland, Germany, Britain, and the United States.)

This unique study presents the results of a cross-national analysis of citizenship and participation among citizens in twelve European democracies.Research on the future and quality of contemporary democracy is usually restricted to focus either on political participation, on particular aspects of citizenship, or on social activities, exclusively. This new book offers the first empirical investigation of the relationships both between social and political involvement, and between ‘small-scale'and ‘large-scale'democracies. Citizenship and Involvement in European Democracies offers representative samples of the populations in a selection of European countries between 2000-2002, including: Denmark, Germany (East and West), Moldova, the Netherlands, Norway, Portugal, Romania, Russia, Slovenia, Spain, Sweden, and Switzerland. The leading contributors provide new theoretical insights and offer a broad conceptualization of citizenship, stimulating the ongoing discussions about the problems and challenges of democratic political systems.This book has a companion volume entitled Social Capital and Associations in European Democracies edited by William A. Maloney and Sigrid Roßteutscher (Routledge, 2006). Both volumes will be of great interest to students and researchers of European politics, comparative politics and sociology.

Challenging the conventional wisdom that constitutional courts are the best device that democratic systems have for the protection of individual rights, Wojciech Sadurski examines carefully the most recent wave of activist constitutional courts: those that have emerged after the fall of communism in Central and Eastern Europe. In contrast to most other analysts and scholars he does not take for granted that they are a “force for the good”, but rather subjects them to critical scrutiny against the background of a wide-ranging comparative and theoretical analysis of constitutional judicial review in the modern world. He shows that, in the region of Central and Eastern Europe, their record in protecting constitutional rights has been mixed, and their impact upon the vibrancy of democratic participation and public discourse about controversial issues often negative. Sadurski urges us to reconsider the frequently unthinking enthusiasm for the imposition of judicial limits upon constitutional democracy. In the end, his reflections go to the very heart of the fundamental dilemma of constitutionalism and political theory: how best to find the balance between constitutionalism and democracy? The lively, if imperfect, democracies in Central and Eastern Europe provide a fascinating terrain for raising this question, and testing traditional answers. This innovative, wide-ranging and thought-provoking book will become essential reading for scholars and students alike in the fields of comparative constitutionalism and political theory, particularly for those with an interest in legal and political developments in the postcommunist world.

This book is unique as the only book on the Portuguese parliament in English. The Portuguese parliament is a valuable case study to understand the different stages of development of a newly democratic parliament. From Legislation to Legitimation shows that, as democracy developed, the role of the Portuguese parliament changed considerably. Whereas in the first years of democracy the Assembleia da Republica was centred on its legislative role, during the second decade its legitimation role expanded, making scrutiny parliament's main function.

The end of the twentieth century saw an unprecedented coincidence of electoral success for social democratic parties in western Europe leading to intensive discussion on the future of this new European left. The debates often centred on the notion of a'Third way'and generated major expectations for policy change among social democratic politicians and voters. The authors collected here examine the recent social and employment policies of these progressive parties, looking for change in the guiding principles of policy and on actual policy decisions. They show how the maxims of demand management and egalitarianism have been replaced by social investment and equality of opportunity and demonstrate the full extent of convergence on policies such as employment maximization, the containment of social expenditure and a shift towards a social investment welfare state.

In modern politics, cabinet ministers are major actors in the arena of power as they occupy a strategic locus of command from which vital, authoritative decisions flow continuously. Who are these uppermost policy-makers? What are their background characteristics and credentials? How are they selected and which career paths do they travel in their ascent to power?This set of research issues has guided this collection, a comprehensive, empirical account of the composition and patterns of recruitment of ministerial elites in Southern Europe throughout the last 150 years, thus encompassing different historical circumstances and political settings - liberal, authoritarian and democratic. With original, comparative data from the 19th century to the present, it provides valuable material for debates about how regime change and economic development affect who governs.First published in 2003 by Frank Cass / Reprinted in 2012 by Routledge