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Scholars and commentators increasingly wonder whether governments' failure to address socio‐economic inequalities is the result of unequal representation. Recent literature on policy responsiveness in the United States and Europe finds evidence that party and parliamentary policy proposals and actual policy outcomes are closer to the preferences of the rich than of the poor. However, the extent and character of such unequal representation remains thinly understood. Among the most thinly understood mechanisms are the political conditions that link socio‐economic inequalities to unequal representation. This paper thickens our understanding of (unequal) representation by investigating the class composition of parliamentary cabinets and its effect on social welfare policy. With the aid of a new dataset on cabinet ministers' social class, the paper shows that responsiveness to the social welfare preferences of poorer voters varies by cabinet ministers' professional backgrounds, above and beyond the partisan orientation of the government. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper applies a conjoint experiment to assess the sources of contemporary social status hierarchies in Western Europe. Social status has become a popular concept in political science to explain resentment against economic and cultural transformations. However, we do not know whether cultural sources like race and gender have an independent causal effect on social status perceptions. Furthermore, these characteristics may be more contested between societal subgroups and thus have a weaker stratifying effect than income or occupation. This study employs an innovative conjoint experiment, conducted in Switzerland, to systematically assess the multidimensional sources of status. The design asks respondents to place profiles with randomized criteria and thus captures intersubjective status perceptions. In contrast to evaluating one's own placement on the social status hierarchy, placing others provides more accurate insights about the structural force of social status. The results show that both economic and cultural sources strongly shape social status, with occupation, race/ethnicity and income being most important. Furthermore, different subgroups agree on the hierarchy no matter their own status. This study helps to understand the structural roots of political resentment by showing that both cultural and economic inequalities are recognized. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The simplification of the political landscape in terms of ‘left’ and ‘right’ is common across most democracies, if not most of the world. This would suggest that the terminology has a shared core meaning in different political contexts. While no such stable element has been established in the political science literature, various potential dividing lines that may form the core meaning have been proposed. This paper is the most extensive comparative study to our knowledge that evaluates these proposals by studying responses to open-ended survey questions on what voters associate with the terms ‘left’ and ‘right’. Data from eight different democratic political contexts are analysed using quantitative text analysis methods. The results demonstrate varied support for the different explanations. Evidence is found in all contexts for the hypothesis that acceptance of inequality divides left- from right-wing politics. That the left-right dimension is a divide between those for and against government intervention in the economy, or between those for change and against change, is mostly congruent with our findings. We find less evidence that either secular/religious divisions, or different conceptions of equality, consistently differentiate left from right. Our findings point towards the existence of a context-independent underlying dimension of left-right competition. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Are political attitudes a stable feature of individuals or a rational response to changing circumstances and contexts? This question has long been a feature of political science and underpins our theories of how political attitudes are formed and what their consequences might be. In this paper, we explore this perennial question with a focus on the case of political trust, a fundamental indicator of democratic legitimacy and a long-standing topic of debate. Theoretically, we devise a framework that highlights how different theories of political trust assume different levels of stability or volatility and the implications that this has for those theories and their normative consequences. Empirically, we study within-individual stability of political trust using six panel studies that cover five countries between 1965 and 2020. Our results consistently point to trust being stable in the long term, with potential for short-term volatility in response to changing political contexts, and for substantial changes between people’s formative years and their adulthood. Even over a period of 19 years, most people’s responses to trust questions are remarkably similar between surveys and significant life events such as unemployment and going to University do not significantly influence trust. Changes in the political environment, like incumbent government turnover, have larger effects but these appear to return to equilibrium in a few years. The exception to this general finding is individuals who are first surveyed when they are under the age of 18, who appear much more likely to change their trust levels in subsequent waves. Overall, our results complement previous research on attitude stability, indicating that trust is approximately as stable as other attitudes, such as towards immigration and redistribution. These findings have fundamental implications for our understanding of the nature of political trust and attitude formation more broadly. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Against premature claims about the declining political relevance of social class in post‐industrial democracies, recent research indicates that class continues to be a relevant determinant of political preferences. In post‐industrial societies 'old' class divides on economic issues coexist with 'new' class alignments on cultural topics. While there is cumulated evidence of social classes' distinct placement on these issues, this paper argues that the strength of class divides depends on the extent to which these issues are politicized by political parties. Studying preferences on economic and cultural issues (attitudes towards redistribution, immigration, gay rights and European integration), this study shows that class divides in preferences are context dependent. The multilevel analyses drawing on data from the European Social Survey and the Chapel Hill Expert Survey for 27 European democracies demonstrate that classes' differences in preferences are accentuated on issues strongly contested and emphasized by parties, and mitigated on issues where party conflict is weaker. Adding to recent literature on parties and class conflict, this study identifies another stage at which parties can affect the strength of class voting. The varying strength of class divides across contexts also has implications for parties' ability to garner support beyond a single class. This becomes increasingly unlikely in contexts of high issue politicization. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this paper we leverage a sudden shift in refugee settlement policy to study the electoral consequences of refugee settlements. After the 2013 Norwegian parliamentary election, the newly elected right‐wing government made a concerted effort to spread newly arrived immigrants across the country, with the consequence that some municipalities with limited experience in settling refugees accepted to do so. We propose that such policy changes have political consequences, increasing the salience of immigration issues and shifting voters' preferences to the right. We further propose that successful refugee integration can move (parts of) the electorate to the left, with stronger political polarization as a possible effect of the policy change. Applying difference‐in‐differences techniques, we find no evidence of unidirectional shifts in voter sentiments, but support for the hypothesis of stronger political polarization. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article introduces the "European Journal of Political Research." It stated that the journal will publish original articles in English or English translations of articles in other languages that may have appeared elsewhere. It will also publish review articles on significant books and other publications and on current ongoing research in specific areas of political science. Furthermore, the papers published in the "European Journal of Political Research" are copyrighted by both the publishers and the authors.

This paper delineates three kinds or senses of the cycle concept as used in social science theory and research. Cycles of the weak or first kind merely refer to fluctuations or state changes. Cycles of the moderate or second kind refer to fluctuations with some constant periodicity in fact or in principle. Cycles of the strong or third kind have several analytical properties that require explanation. I argue that the term cycle should be reserved for cycles of the second or third kinds and that the terms fluctuation or alternation should be used for cycles of the first kind. The paper concludes with some comments on sources of resistance to the cycle concept. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper studies the interactions between governments, challengers and third party actors in the context of 60 contentious policy episodes in 12 European countries during the Great Recession. More specifically, we focus on the endogenous dynamics that develop in the course of these episodes. Based on the combination of a new event dataset, which allows for the construction of action sequences, and a novel method (contentious episode analysis) to study the impact of actor‐specific actions on subsequent actions within a sequence, we test a set of hypotheses on the determinants of actors' overall action repertoires within specific contexts. Overall, our results are more supportive of the interdependence of cooperation than of the interdependence of conflict: the repression‐radical mobilisation‐external legitimation of conflictive behaviour nexus is weaker than the concession‐cooperation‐mediation nexus. While the literature tends to focus on conflict dynamics, we find that there is a more systematic dynamics of cooperation in the course of contentious episodes. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Despite a rich body of literature on politicisation, knowledge of this process and its driving forces remains limited. Specifically, little empirical analysis has been carried out to assess the impact of focusing events on politicisation within global and seemingly technical venues of policy‐making. Building on existing studies, I conceptualise politicisation as a combination of three components: (1) issue salience, (2) actor expansion and (3) actor diversity. I test the impact of focusing events on the politicisation of one of the most pressing global policy issues of our age: internet regulation, specifically regarding global data protection and internet privacy rules. I use a systematic analysis of news media coverage over a 20‐year period, resulting in an original dataset of 2,100 news articles. Controlling for different factors, my findings reveal that focusing events do contribute to politicisation in technical venues, in particular regarding the actors involved in debates. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

It has proven difficult to determine the direction in which corporatism is moving. This discussion is marred by two shortcomings: A bias towards the macro-level and the lack of a clear distinction between the stages of the policy process. Trying to remedy these shortcomings, this paper follows the development of corporatism over the twenty years since 1980 and uses this material to illuminate the causes of the development of corporatism. The analysis consists of a comparative study of seven Danish policy areas. By focusing on the meso-level within one country we gain the methodological advantage of being able to hold constant a number of variables at the macro-level which are difficult to control for in cross-national analyses. We are thus in a position to illuminate the explanatory value of a number of commonly advanced explanations of corporatism: partisan influences; state traditions; and policy specific factors. These explanations are all found wanting. The paper concludes by suggesting an alternative explanation more consistent with the Danish data, namely that corporatism be studied from a perspective placing politicians and agency at center stage. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper examines the extent to which conditions for the 'representative party government' model of representation exist in the EU. It suggests that, although application of the model is obviously limited, there is some support for its relevance. Using surveys of voters and candidates for the European Parliament the paper shows that some policy positions of representatives are constrained more by their party group than their nationality, and to some degree there is obvious congruence between the opinions of candidates and their voters. This is particularly so with respect to left-right orientation; far less with respect to European Monetary Union where elites appear much more enthusiastic than their electorates. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

While there is strong evidence that a libertarian-authoritarian dimension exists in Great Britain, there is only weak evidence that it contributed to the Conservative Party's electoral victories in 1979, 1983, and 1987. The present paper addresses this empirical divergence by presenting new evidence. Using a multivariate statistical analysis of British respondents in the 1979-1987 Eurobarometers, the paper estimates the impacts of political values and class-based demographic characteristics on individual-level support for the Conservative and Labour parties. The multivariate model is estimated separately for each year in order to compare the explanatory variables' effects over time. The paper's findings demonstrate that authoritarian and libertarian values significantly influenced party support, with the strongest effects occurring in 1983 and 1984. In addition, they show that class-based support was negatively correlated with value-based support during 1979-1987. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article presents news briefs on political science, political parties, practical politics, elections, and the cabinet system in Finland under Prime Minister Matti Vanhanen. Leehna Luhtanen is Minister of Justice while Susanna Huovinen is Minister of Transport and Communication. Strikes and lockouts in the pulp and paper industry dominated presidential campaigns.

This paper critiques what can be interpreted as an application of the literature on state failure in current political economy and political science to the changing role of political parties in advanced post-industrial democracies, Katz and Mair's theory of cartel parties. It develops an alternative set of hypotheses about the dynamics of parties and party systems with the objective to clarify empirical terms according to which rival propositions can be tested. Specifically, the paper rejects three propositions in the theory of cartel parties and advances the following alternatives. First, party leaders are not divorced from their members and voting constituencies, but become ever more sensitive to their preferences. Second, inter-party cooperation generates a prisoner's dilemma in the competitive arena that ultimately prevents the emergence of cartels. Ideological convergence of rival parties has causes external to the competitive arena, not internal to it. Third, conventional parties cannot marginalize or coopt new challengers, but must adjust to their demands and electoral appeals. The age of cartel parties, if it ever existed, is not at its beginning, but its end. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Probably the most famous dictum about parties' internal structures is Robert Michels' 'iron law of oligarchy'. Over the past two decades, however, the societal context within which parties are embedded has begun to change which may alter the psychological premise upon which Michels' law is based. More specifically, we hypothesize that New Politics proponents within established parties are disproportionately likely to rely on cues from local party branches, instead of leadership cues, in forming issue positions on intra-party controversies. Accordingly, this paper analyzes the influence of New Politics issues on the leadership-constituency views of party delegates within fifty-two West European parties. In addition, we analyze the relative contribution of party ideology and party structures to the evolution of mean party support for NP policies and constituency orientations. The data base for this paper is a unique study of convention delegates conducted in all major West European parties, and a study of party characteristics. We find that New Politics supporters, especially within socialist parties, are predisposed to emphasize the representation of their local party constituency, in case the views of local party branches and a party's national leadership clash. We assess the implications of this research for parties and party theories, especially Michels' law. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper investigates the determinants of state action by using the role of European integration in Austrian politics as a case study. Based on the analysis of the conditions and process that led to Austria's application for EC membership, the explanatory power of the instrumentalist and structuralist approach to state action is discussed and some conclusions are drawn regarding state theory and the theory of corporatism. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The paper addresses five constructs of policy making: policy curtain, iron triangle, issue network, policy community and an iron duet. The five constructs are distinguished on the basis of two variables: exclusion, denoting the degree of openness to new participants, and interdependence, pertaining to relationship between participants. A policy curtain prevails in the pre-agenda stage denoting both exclusion and lack of dependence. Iron triangle is characterized by exclusion and interdependence; issue network portrays inclusion and lack of interdependence; a policy community features inclusion and interdependence. A fifth construct - an iron duet combines characteristics of an iron triangle, an issue network and a policy community. The paper suggests that the five constructs of policy making are not only products of political environment but are affected by distribution of resources and primacy of values within a specific issue-area. It further argues that a sequential development may take place following alterations in the division of power between state agencies and organized groups. The involvement of powerful groups of professionals in a policy community, produced by mutual dependence of state and association, may lead to formation of a policy (iron) duet. The historical evolution of specialization entitlement in Israeli health policy serves as a case study to illustrate the major arguments of the paper. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper explores one aspect of the recent work of Jürgen Habermas on Legitimation Crisis. It focuses attention on Habermas's claim that the pre-capitalist moral values on which capitalism has hitherto relied have become progressively displaced by the growth of the capitalist economy. This has produced central problems for the state management of the economy, in the absence of an established internalized set of values which could act both as restraints upon economic demands and as reinforcements to an ethic of work. Various attempts to solve this problem proposed by Hayek and Luhman are discussed together with Habermas's own proposal for a rational consensus view of morality which could lead to a new Sittlichkeit. The conclusion of the paper is that while rational discussion of values is important, this does not entail that the possibility agreement is required to make sense of this activity. Habermas's notion of undistorted communication as a way of recommending a moral foundation for politics is not feasible. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper investigates the determinants of social inequality in a quantitative cross-sectional analysis of developed Western nations. The underlying dimensions of these determinants are classified as political and economic development on the one hand and cultural homogeneity coupled with class politics on the other. It is found that the homogeneity-class politics dimension explains a considerable proportion of the cross-national variation in social equality, but that the development dimension has little discernable impact upon degree of equality. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this paper an attempt is made to indicate some possible relations between the working of political systems and, on the one hand, some aspects of "culture" and, on the other hand, various aspects of power and market relations. The discussion begins with some recent attempts to explain the variability of modern and modernizing societies in other terms than those offered in the earlier studies of modernization which heavily emphasized the difference between "traditional" and "modern" societies and attempted to explain many of the differences. The revision of these assumptions stresses both the importance of cultural continuities (and "traditions") and various internal and international constellations of power relations in explaining the variety and variability of "modern, modernizing and transitional societies." The analyses presented here present a fuller specification of some of the institutional loci of such continuity, the nature of the cultural orientations or codes (similar to Weber's Wirtschaftsethik) which may influence the working of political systems, and the mechanisms through which such influence is exerted, These codes or models are not just abstract or intellectual orientations. They provide rather specific institutional directives. They help to define boundaries of collectives, the coalescence of different types of such collectivities - the cultural, political, ethnic and religious - , the rights of membership in these collectivities, the specification of collective goals and public goods prevalent in them, and the centers and various counter-cultures, The paper attempts to trace the influence of such codes on some crucial aspects of social and political organization in both the traditional and modern phases of the "same" society - W. Europe, Russia, and various patrimonial societies in S.E. Asia and Latin America. It attempts also to analyze some of the crucial differences between traditional and modern social phases, to indicate the nature of the process of struggle which takes place during transition, and to relate these changes to cultural models and codes. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Many previous theoretical analyses of multiparty coalition behaviour have been based either on one-dimensional policy model or on a constantsum game interpretation. For theoretical and empirical reasons this paper focusses on a competitive two-dimensional model. In this model parties are concerned with policy outcomes but choose party positions both with a view to electoral consequences and as a basis for coalition bargaining. The political heart is proposed as the set of possible coalition outcomes. The heart is either the core of the political game or is determined by a small number of party positions. Under certain conditions an equilibrium in the choice of party positions can be shown to exist. The model suggests that parties can be categorized as either strong or weak core parties, anti-core parties or peripheral parties. This categorization of parties implies a typology of party systems, which gives some theoretical foundation for the occurrence of minority, minimal winning and surplus coalitions in many of the European countries in the postwar period. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Until recent years, two major trends in European politics - the growth of State services and increased political participation - have complemented the central role of parties. This paper argues that this complementarity may have started to come unstuck, and questions the future viability of the mass party as a result of a shift in the balance of perceived advantages of the mass party by both leaders and members. The paper discusses several potential costs and benefits of party membership for leaders and members. Using membership statistics and survey data the reasonableness of these arguments is explored. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

As Layer (1992) notes, people who write about Irish politics frequently describe Ireland as a rather peculiar place. One aspect of this peculiarity is that voters in the Republic of Ireland do not behave like their European counterparts. In particular, Irish voting patterns appear to be only weakly structured by social class. Recent contributions to the debate employing a more sophisticated categorisation of classes have led to some qualification of the 'politics without social bases' description, but still lead to the broad conclusion that any relationship which does exist between social divisions, on the one hand, and party preference, on the other, is, at most, quite marginal. In this paper we draw on data from the 1990 European Values Study to re-examine this issue. We apply a variety of models to the data, including logit regression and diagonal reference models (Sobel 1981, 1984) to explore the complex fashion in which class and political preferences are related in Ireland. We argue that the relationship between such preferences and social divisions are, in fact, greater than has been hitherto thought. In particular, we show the importance of taking into account not only social class but also class origins and class mobility in understanding the nature of political partisanship in the Republic of Ireland. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Voters in a referendum obtain information and derive voting cues from a variety of sources. Some of these, such as political parties or ideological orientations, are similar to those also found to be influential in elections. Others can be quite different. In some referendums, the issue may be entirely new and unfamiliar to many voters, initiating a ‘learning’ or ‘cue–taking’ process specific to the campaign itself. In referendum campaigns, parties may be internally divided and sometimes send conflicting signals to their electorates. As a result, voting behaviour in referendums often exhibits greater volatility than is found in elections. In the ten papers included in this Special Issue of EJPR, we focus on the process of opinion formation and change which occurred in a number of European, North American and Australia/New Zealand referendums held under a variety of different institutional and political conditions. In this essay, I argue that there are three distinctive patterns of opinion formation and reversal that tend to occur in referendum campaigns, each of which has significant consequences both for voting choice and for referendum outcomes. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

To what extent are variations in public attitudes and outcomes of social/economic policies caused by institutions like consociational democracy, corporatism and regimes of veto players? In dealing with this question, this paper starts from a critical review of Arend Lijphart’s argument in Patterns of Democracy that consensus democracies are better, kinder and gentler democracies. I agree that consociational democracy, corporatism, and regimes with veto players have different effects on attitudes and policy outcomes – even after controlling for effects of political power distribution, as well as domestic and international contexts of policymaking. However, consociational democracy is not a ‘better, gentler and kinder’ democracy, though neither is it worse than majoritarian democracy in governing societies. Corporatism is efficient in reducing unemployment and inflation, and in expanding public receipts and the reach of the welfare state. Finally, regimes of veto players constrain expansion of public receipts. This analysis is based on data covering 22 OECD countries, 1971–1996. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper summarizes how the partisan influence literature assesses the relation- ship between the left-right party composition of government and policy outputs through a meta-analysis of 693 parameter estimates of the party-policy relationship published in 43 empirical studies. Based on a simplified ‘combined tests’ meta-analytic technique, we show that the average correlation between the party composition of government and policy outputs is not significantly different from zero. A mutivariate logistic regression analysis examines how support for partisan theory is affected by a subset of mediating factors that can be applied to all the estimates under review. The analysis demonstrates that there are clearly identifiable conditions under which the probability of support for partisan theory can be substantially increased. We conclude that further research is needed on institutional and socio-economic determinants of public policy. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

European Union (EU) studies have entered a highly contentious and, arguably, creative phase. A range of theoretical perspectives, seemingly quite highly differentiated from one another, now compete for influence and ‘space’. However, the questions remain: is EU studies developing theories which are truly competing theories? Or is it developing theories that do not compete so much as they aim to explain distinctly different pieces of the EU puzzle? This paper responds directly to these two questions, while reviewing recent literature on EU governance. It argues, first, that we lack theories of EU governance that are true rivals; and, second, that leading models explain different outcomes at different levels in a multi-level system of governance. The result is somewhat phoney debates between compatible theories masquerading as rivals, and between ‘comparative politics’ and ‘international relations’ approaches. Above all, perhaps, we find middle range theories posing as general or ‘meta-theories’. In the absence of a plausible general theory of EU governance, theorists must choose precisely which type of outcome they wish to explain. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Most conventional accounts of voting behaviour fit single models to the entire electorate, implicitly assuming that all voters respond to the same sets of influences, and do so in similar ways. However, a growing body of research suggests that this approach may be misleading, and that distinct groups of voters approach politics, and the electoral decision, from different perspectives. The paper takes a disaggregated look at voting in the 1997 British General Election, dividing voters into different groups according to their formal educational qualifications. Results suggest that different groups of voters respond to different stimuli, depending on their education, and on the party they are voting for. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper addresses the arguments in favour of both the decentralization and centralization of public policy making. It points out that the same arguments are sometimes used to advance either claim and that in different countries opposite arguments are used to support the same claim. Clearly, the inherent features of centralization and decentralization are far from obvious. A closer look at the attention given to the issue by political parties at the national level in four European countries reveals that decentralization becomes an issue in these countries at different periods and as a cause of different arguments, which rather reflect the dominant values in the political culture than refer to inherent properties of decentralization itself. An analysis of opinions of local elites points at the relation between their opinion on decentralizing responsibilities in a specific field and the support for existing institutional arrangements, their own influence in the policy field and the predisposition towards decentralization tendencies. This results in the conclusion that the support for decentralization tendencies is more closely related to existing specific institutional arrangements, and to the degree to which it is expected to influence one's own position, than to its inherent merits. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper seeks to reconstruct and revitalize the famous Hirschman framework by providing a comprehensive review of the current use of 'exit, voice and loyalty'. We begin by critically examining Hirchman's original account, and then look at the way his argument has been extended in different fields both conceptually and empirically. We suggest that while advances have been made, the results so far are somewhat disappointing given the perceptiveness of the original insight. We believe this is because his apparently simple schema is more complex than it first appears, and different aspects of exit, of voice, and of empirical foundations of loyalty need to be analytically distinguished in order to produce testable empirical hypotheses about their relationships. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Of all the links in the democratic delegation chain, the first link (from voters to legislators) may be fraught with the greatest potential for agency losses. Voters — the ultimate principals — may lack the information and resources to select the best legislators and subsequently ensure that they do the public's bidding. This paper uses some of the insights of the principal-agent approach to examine the Voter-MP relationship by focusing primarily on two sets of organisational and institutional rules: methods of candidate selection and electoral laws. Since the emphasis is on direct links between voters and legislators (rather than on the intermediary role of parties), we examine electoral laws in terms of the incentives they provide for candidates to seek a personal vote. Since agency losses are most likely when the MPs' careers do not directly depend on voters, electoral systems are arranged on a continuum from party-centred systems (little or no incentive to seek personal votes), to intermediate systems (limited effectiveness of personal voting) to candidate-centred systems (where personal voting is most effective). One of the arguments is that a trade-off often exists between the directness of the link between voter and agent and the choice of agents that is crucial to voters' abilities to sanction agents. If it is thought desirable that voters have the ability to directly sanction representatives, then an institutional design involving effective preferential voting in districts of moderate magnitude should be optimal. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The politics of representation has become increasingly complex in recent years. Amid weakening traditional political cleavages, the emergence of new political divides and mounting anti‐elitism that have helped the rise of radical populist parties, voters face significant cross‐pressures when casting their ballots. Despite a wealth of studies on the role of issue preferences in voting behaviour, there are still many unknowns when it comes to understanding how voters trade off competing issue preferences against each other. Studying issue trade‐offs is also important against the backdrop of the well‐documented preferences of radical left and right voters for redistribution and restrictive immigration policies, respectively. To investigate the strength of issue preferences among radical left, radical right and mainstream party voters and the willingness to compromise on their most important issues, we conducted a conjoint survey experiment with 2,000 participants in France, Germany, Italy and Spain. The voting scenario in the experiment featured proposals on salient political issues and different (non)populist stances on political representation. The results from the cross‐country study, as well as a large replication study with a sample of 4,000 German respondents, show that voters of radical right parties are willing to accept large trade‐offs regarding their other issue preferences as long as their preference for restrictive immigration policies is fulfilled. Differently, radical left, Green and mainstream party voters have a more variegated range of issue preferences, some of them so strong that they are not traded off for their preferred redistribution and European Union integration positions, respectively. The findings shed light on trade‐offs related to emerging issues such as climate change and the distinct logics behind support for radical parties. They also have implications for the electoral prospects of mainstream and radical parties when trying to reposition themselves in the diversifying issue space of contemporary democracies. As such, understanding how voters navigate issue cross‐pressures helps to explain the broader dynamics that are (re)configuring political conflict and voting behaviour in Europe. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The relationship between democracy and bureaucracy is the object of both classic and contemporary studies in political science. In classic works, scholars argue that there is an inherent conflict between democracy and bureaucracy, whereas contemporary scholars often assert that democracy is positively related to the development of bureaucracy. We argue that both classic and recent interpretations of the relationship are too simplistic since the two dimensions of democracy, contestation and inclusiveness, are likely to affect bureaucratic development in different ways. On the one hand, electoral contestation strengthens bureaucracy if voters demand public goods that politicians cater to by employing meritocratic recruitment. On the other hand, we cannot take for granted that all voters demand public goods. As poorer people are enfranchised, popular demands for particularistic goods increase, which incentivizes politicians to keep a patrimonial state administration, thus facilitating clientelistic linkages with the electorate. Based on new and improved data on electoral contestation and meritocratic recruitment and a measure of male suffrage, we examine the separate and combined effects of contestation and suffrage on meritocracy worldwide from 1790 to 2012. We find that contestation is positively related to meritocracy after the advent of World War II when universal suffrage and contested elections were generally introduced simultaneously. Before World War II, when suffrage was limited and only gradually extended to poorer segments, contestation is significantly related to meritocracy only at lower levels of suffrage. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper surveys the strengths and weaknesses of three widely-discussed egalitarian standards of interpersonal comparison: welfare, resource, and capability. We argue that welfare egalitarianism is beset by numerous serious problems, and should be rejected. Capability and resourcist standards conform with egalitarian convictions more closely, but each faces distinctive problems. We itemise a set of desiderata which a fully adequate account of interpersonal comparison would satisfy. We conclude that the choice between capability and resourcist standards turns on the relative importance of such an account being able to accommodate reasonable pluralism and identify inequality in a publicly verifiable manner. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper uses cross-national data for 21 OECD nations to examine whether there is evidence of a connection between measures of political and fiscal decentralization and the major, long-term, performance parameters of the post-war political economy. Findings of what is necessarily an exploratory analysis of a wide range of policy outcomes suggest that federalism and the proliferation of constitutional veto-points have inhibited the expansion of the socially protective state and that a low level of fiscal centralization appears to have restrained post-war inflationary pressures and gone along with higher rates of post-war economic growth. No evidence is found to connect either political or fiscal measures with postwar labour market performance. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In recent years, pooled time-series cross-section data analysis has been advocated as a method for overcoming the ‘small N, many variables’ problem in comparative political economy in order to derive valid inferences from statistical comparisons of nation states. Moreover, the approach seemed promising in handling both comparisons among different countries and developments over time. However, due to the complex structure of pooled data sets, this approach cannot simply be regarded as a convenient way of increasing the number of cases and getting more significant results. This paper exemplifies the fallacies of pooled data sets by reanalyzing a study done by Paul Boreham and Hugh Compston on the effect of labour participation in policy formation on unemployment. Reanalysis of their data set controlling for the panel structure of the data by using ‘panel corrected standard errors’ and a more detailed analysis of the bivariate relationships show that the causal effect is less clear-cut than suggested and becomes considerably weaker during the 1980s. These dynamics are simply averaged out by pooled analysis. This leads to the conclusion that the currently most popular approach to pooled time-series cross-section analysis in comparative political economy — the constant-coefficients model — neither solves the small-N problem nor draws attention to dynamics over time. Thus, the article concludes that a sensitive interpretation of the findings obtained by advanced statistical methodology in comparative political economy is still dependent on small-N comparative analysis. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article addresses the issue of whether a model of deep European integration might be envisaged in a continent-wide process that might accompany eastern enlargement of the European Union. The paper argues that deep integration in Western Europe has been built on three dimensions: the functional; the territorial; and affiliational. The articulation of these three dimensions has evolved through not only the EU, but also a dense pattern of other transnational linkages, including those between immediate neighbours. Moreover, different west European countries have been linked into this process through varied patterns for ‘domesticating’ Europe. Efforts to develop an EU polity require the interplay of all three dimensions of integration, a tough goal for post-cold-war Europe in the western part of the continent, let alone in ‘pan-Europe’. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper presents new data on the differential impact of the East German 'participatory revolution' on attitudes of youth in both Eastern and Western regions of unified Germany. A 1991 Youth Survey indicates that the overall 1991 level of approval for most noninstitutional tactics was roughly similar to the 1980 levels reported in the Political Action Studies. The notable exception was support for political demonstrations which was considerably higher, presumably in response to the participatory mobilization in the East. There was a strong regional effect with demonstrations receiving higher ratings in the East (the former German Democratic Republic) than in the West for all age groups. This apparent 'tactic-specific' effect suggests the 'participatory revolution' is characterized by a 'lead' in the more dramatic tactics and a 'lag' in the more subtle techniques of democratic participation. Western males showed hints of a different age-related pattern than did males in the East, or females in both regions - a finding that may indicate a combination of gender and regional effects. In both regions approval for demonstrations was associated with left-of-center political party preference and with identification with 'new social movements'. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper presents evidence of initial steps taken since 1989 towards the enhancement of social democratic transnational party co-operation, manifesting itself on both a programmatic and an organizational level. To explain this development, a thesis based on the neo-functionalist logic of political spillover together with a theory of party change is presented. An emerging European-level presence is explained by increased EC policymaking since the adoption of the Single European Act, interacting with the internal preconditions for organizational innovation present in many social democratic parties. Evidence of such trends is then submitted, focusing on the French Socialist, German Social-Democratic and British Labour Parties; the European Parliament Socialist Group; and the Socialist transnational party federation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Schumpeter's account of the relationship between capitalism, socialism and democracy is reviewed by means of a critical analysis of four contemporary neo-liberal theorems about the market and democracy. It is argued that they each embody partial truths that can only be accepted with considerable qualifications, which the paper seeks to provide. The connection of the four theorems with Schumpeter's work is then traced through the continuities of the liberal political tradition. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The paper offers a favourable re-assessment of the thought of Gaetano Mosca, a most unfashionable thinker. Three elements of his thought are examined: (1) his 'historical method', (2) his 'unmasking' of the democratic ideal, and (3) his critique of Marxian socialism. It is argued that his model of an objective political science, based on empirical observation, was essentially sound, though he himself did not live up to its rigorous requirements. Whatever the flaws in his methodology, however, his analysis of the parliamentary system seems convincing enough. As for his complaints against marxism and socialism, these cannot be dismissed as the fulminations of a reactionary, for the simple reason that most of them have been echoed, in one form or another, by Marxists and socialists themselves. It is concluded that social critics could learn much from Mosca, in spite of his conservative leanings. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Schumpeter argued that the norms of what he called the 'classical' theory were unrealisable within modern societies and offered what he believed to be a more realistic alternative. However, his critics accuse him of confusing 'is' with 'ought'. This paper seeks to save him from this criticism. It shows that Schumpeter's attack on the classical model rested on a correct appraisal of the constraints on individual autonomous action within modern societies. Unlike the 'competitive theory' of Downs and others, Schumpeter's own alternative cannot be treated as a naive apologia for contemporary parliametary party democracy. He was well aware that such systems easily degenerate into oligopolies. Indeed he welcomed this development, viewing the party elections as means for moulding rather than responding to the people's will. Nevertheless, a series of procedural norms underlay his theory which are elucidated with reference to Wittgenstein's account of language. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A dynamic model is set out of the historical process by which political science in Europe has developed from the sporadic writings of insightful and cosmopolitan individuals, often more or less isolated within their own country, into a profession with well defined standards for training and employment; institutionally based in national university systems; and with substantial transnational links between individuals and institutions throughout Europe. The paper concludes with a review of dynamic trends within political science and in the world of politics that may affect political science up to the year 2000. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The paper examines public opinion about the political involvement of trade unions in the UK and Denmark. Both are systems in which trade unions are linked to a political party and both have high rates of union density. However, whereas British unions have contested governments of both parties and opposed regulation of industrial relations, Danish unions have a tradition of cooperation with government and are entangled in a web of institutionalized industrial relations. Results, however, are amazingly similar. Both the public at large and union members accept unions in general and also their political involvement, but oppose contestation of political authority. Irrespective of union behaviour, beliefs in the supremacy of parliament seems to be firmly rooted in public opinion. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper is the product of a collaborative, comparative study of nine policy areas in British Government. It does not describe these several policy areas but summarises recent theoretical discussions in Britain of the concept of policy networks; provides a typology which encompasses the variety identified in the individual, detailed case studies; discusses a set of key problems in the analysis of networks; and identifies some directions for future research. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper compares the structure of policy networks in two different policy domains. Policy networks are seen as clusters of relatively autonomous but interdependent actors that are incorporated into the process of public policy making. Policy networks have to be seen as specific actor configurations beyond 'policy markets' and 'policy hierarchies Their emergence is seen as a response to an increasing societal dispersion of resources, policy growth and governmental overload. Growing governmental activities in a context of more complex policy problems and a greater dispersion of policy resources within society makes governments increasingly dependent upon the horizontal cooperation of private actors in policy formulation and implementation. Institutional devices facilitating this mode of political resource mobilization range from formal advisory bodies, semi-institutionalized working groups to highly informal and even 'secret' forms of cooptation of private actors (organizations and individuals) in the 'production process' of a policy. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper argues against the merely metaphorical use of concepts such as 'network' in the analysis of policy processes that involve relationships between government and interests. It juxtaposes some contributions from anthropology and sociology with the more familiar literature of political science and policy studies. It considers the question of norms, upon which an analysis of networks has some bearing. Next, it focuses upon the understanding of human agency and trust as a micro-analytic strategy for research on meso-level interactions, or 'networking'. In the light of this, it then looks at the education policy process in Britain, with particular reference to Scotland, as seen in recent literature. It ends by discussing the changing education 'partnership' in Britain, construing this concept as one that serves both actors as well as observers, and which has affinities with other analyses of policy networks. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The paper offers a refined and systematic concept of state-business relations based on the 'policy network' idea. The major dimensions of policy networks are presented as (1) number and type of actors, (2) function of networks, (3) structure, (4) institutionalization, (5) rules of conduct, (6) power relations, (7) actor strategies. Certain popular conventional policy making arrangements (e.g. sectoral corporation, sponsored pluralism, clientelism) are examined in terms of the network dimensions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper examines attitudes to the role of women in the public and private spheres among West European men and women. There are inter-country differences that are partly explained by history, politics, and religion. There are also consistent gender differences in these attitudes, a finding quite different from that in the U.S. Overtime, gender role attitudes have become more egalitarian. The sources of these changes seem to be changing attitudes of individuals toward the public role of women, and generational replacement in the case of the private roles. Finally, the determinants of men's and women's attitudes vary across countries in patterns that are generally predictable. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]