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While all industrial nations have been plagued by the setback to economic growth since the mid-1970s, a wide range of variation marks the economic performance, policy outputs and policy outcomes of Western nations. The basic question addressed in this paper is the extent to which economic, socioeconomic and political variables account for the differences in economic performance, unemployment, public debt and the growth of social security expenditure. In general, the forces which shape public policies in periods of economic crisis tend to be different in character from the major determinants of policy-making in periods of prosperity. The analysis does not support the view that bourgeois and socialist governments produce clear-cut policy differences. It suggests that the major determinants of policies are the power relations in extra-parliamentary arenas, the level of national economic strength prior to the crisis, the extent to which 'solidaristic' values characterize the political culture, and the extent to which a correspondence exists between the power relationships in the political 'superstructure' and in the party system and industrial arenas. An expanding capitalist order is, in theory, not incompatible with low unemployment and a developed welfare state. However, the governments' room to manoeuvre is strongly restricted by political and technological developments. One of the major political restrictions is the `paradoxical' outcome of elections. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Although there has been considerable research on the changing politics of women in advanced industrial societies, there has been little consistent, cross-national research to identify the sources of these changes. This paper uses closely comparable data collected in 11 countries in the early 1980s to examine gender differences in political alignments. The results show that in 10 of the 11 countries, women are more conservative than men, by differing degrees. The exception is Australia, where women are more leftwing than men. The sources of these gender differences are shown to be differential levels of workforce participation and religiosity between men and women. Once these and other factors are taken into account through multivariate analysis, women follow the Australian pattern and emerge as more leftwing than men in six of the 10 countries. In the remaining four countries, greater female conservatism is substantially reduced once these factors are taken into account. Various explanations to account for these patterns are discussed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The environmental "crisis" is now a top priority in many industrialized countries. Perceived of as a threat to a society's resources, the environmental problem raises important questions regarding competing system goals. The problem cuts across traditional political and administrative structures and thus carries Several implications for political change. Since the environmental issue has gained political recognition at the same time in many political systems, the auspices for comparative research are good. This paper contains an analysis of the Swedish response to the environmental problem. The most spectacular changes seem to have appeared in policy content, and in the performance levels of the actors, while the structures of the system remain almost unchanged. A general framework for comparative environmental analysis is developed, followed by a discussion of certain aspects of environmental policy and political change. Drawing from Swedish, American and Canadian data, the complex adaptation processes between innovative agents, public opinion and institutionalized power mechanisms are discussed. Some propositions are offered for further comparative research. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The paper examines the problems for social protection and economic growth that arise from the development of a dualistic labor force-- divided into a privileged core and a disadvantaged periphery--created by the dynamic interaction of labor supply rigidities and rapid technological growth. It concluded that reforms of labor market institutions have to be introduced in order to solve the existing problems.

The post-office occupation of former cabinet members remains basically unexplored in both single-case and comparative studies. Is being a minister just a career tout court, or does serving in executive office facilitate movement to other positions? This article sheds new light on this question by advancing the theoretical development and empirical understanding of the various types of post-ministerial occupation. The analysis takes into account ex-ministers' ambition, political capital resources and the institutional opportunity structures that might well affect both ambition and individual resources. Additionally, given that access to executive office is profoundly gendered, the article addresses the central question of whether post-ministerial occupations similarly present differential patterns for women and men. The empirical results of a cross-national comparison of 23 advanced industrial democracies show that, for most departing ministers, serving in executive office is indeed a stepping stone to other positions. Post-office trajectories are not only shaped by ex-ministers' political capital resources such as seniority, party office, policy expertise and type of portfolio held while in cabinet, but also by different institutional factors that present country-specific combinations. Specifically, systemic variables shape the relevance of political capital resources and affect how ambition is constructed and towards which goals. Strong gendered post-office patterns are not found, although some intriguing gender differences are observed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Party systems diverge in their levels of nationalisation. While in some countries parties obtain similar levels of electoral support in all districts, in others parties get very asymmetric electoral shares across districts. The distributive consequences of this have been seldom studied. The argument tested here is that when political parties have nationalised electorates they have stronger incentives to provide social policies that spread benefits all over the territory. This argument is tested in 22 OECD democracies for the period 1980−2006. The results show that, regardless of the electoral system in place, there is a positive relation between party system nationalisation and social spending. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

‘We are neither Left nor Right, we are out in front’ was the mantra of the environmental movement in the 1970s and early 1980s. This research examines the relationship between the traditional left/right economic cleavage and the environmental cleavage in structuring party competition in advanced industrial democracies. It begins by discussing the theoretical rationale for the separation of environmentalism from the traditional economic cleavage, and utilises new expert data to describe the evolution of party positions between 1989 and 2002–2003. An initially strong relationship between party positions on both dimensions in 1989 has strengthened over time. The convergence occurs largely because of changes by Green parties and by the addition of new parties that define themselves on both dimensions. This points to the ability of democratic party systems to integrate a new political cleavage, and the process of integration. However, leftist parties still continue to diverge with respect to how they respond to the environmental cleavage. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The conventional literature on international cooperation in general, and intergovernmental organization membership in particular, depicts a regular, positive relationship between wealthy capitalist democracies and participation in international institutions. While empirical evidence supports this assertion, it says little about the mechanisms, and the accompanying variation among them, by which states enter into international institutions. This study distinguishes industrialized democracies along two dimensions: the nature of their constitutional structures and the organization of their electoral politics. Variations in these features produce variations in the institutional constraints and electoral incentives that matter in determining state participation in international organizations. Results of a pooled cross-sectional time series analysis of 23 democracies in 1981 and 1992 indicate that the structure of governing institutions and the nature of electoral systems account for much of the variation in intergovernmental organization membership. This study concludes that domestic institutions matter in determining international cooperation through international organizations– a novel insight overlooked by most international relations theories. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

According to the classical Eastonian approach a political system faces stress when it is not able to respond to an acceptable number of demands. The support for the system then drops. In this article we use this conceptual tool to attempt to explain in very general terms the existing anti-party sentiment in Western democracies. We try to show how democracy itself produces substantial stress for the system that could however be contained as long as political parties were able to act as collective identities between the citizens and the state. The adaptation and change of the traditional parties has made democratic systems more vulnerable to the erosion of support, and the parties themselves, as central actors in the systems, are the target of the protest. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Values and ideologies seem to be changing rapidly in many countries of Western Europe. These developments imply a shift among the adherents of political parties. On the one hand, we expect to see a process of deideologization weakening the traditional ties between parties and their adherents. On the other hand, increasing pluralization is suggested by the ongoing process of individualization. In this study we analyze the orientations of the adherents of the main political parties in 12 Western European countries in the last two decades. We expect to find clear traces of ongoing deideologization as well as pluralization, but this expectation proves to be inaccurate. Neither deideologization nor pluralization can be accepted as a common feature of party adherents in advanced industrial societies. On the contrary. Each of these processes seems to follow a different path of development in distinct countries and in distinct party families. A general 'decline-of-the-party' or an 'end-of-ideology' is not to be found among the adherents of the main parties in Western Europe in the last decades. The processes appear to be more complicated, with divergent developments in different countries. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this article we try to disentangle the constraints between traditional lines of political polarization (left-right placement) and newer distinctions (materialist/postmaterialist values) among mass publics. It is shown that voting or party preference is most clearly related to the left-right placement of the respondents. However, this placement is directly and strongly dependent on the materialist/postmaterialist orientation, while background variables like education. income and age are linked to voting via this value orientation. The materialist/postmaterialist orientation appears to be the present-day interpretation of the dominant political conflict in advanced industrial society. Although alignments and orientations count to a substantive part of the variance in voting, the power of these models to predict the actual vote of people turns out to be rather poor. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article analyzes the political factors that supports or slows down the economic growth among advanced capitalist societies. It also aims to extract an overview of the factors that influence the growth in advanced industrial societies. The discussions in the study originated mainly in the analysis which is developed by Olson regarding economic growth. Economic growth is defined as the increase in the gross domestic product per capita over time at the constant price. The relationship of domestic political environment in a country and its wealth-creating capacity is also investigated.