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The content of 'O' and 'A' level papers on modern British and European History set by two GCE Examination Boards was analysed to find out what particular aspects of the past were emphasised and thus to throw light on the experience of history as a subject which was gained by the candidates. These papers, which are taken by the great majority of the candidates, were found to be dominated by political history, up to 77% of the questions being devoted to the affairs of governments and political leaders. Foreign politics was especially important in papers on European history reaching as high as 44% of the questions set and domestic politics was central to papers on British history attaining means in different groups of papers between 40 and 50%. At the end of the article the wisdom of the approach to school history evident in these papers is questioned. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Focuses on options for reforming European governance. White Paper of the European Commission.

Rail links between China and Europe are typically analysed in the context of China's Belt and Road Initiative, focusing on China's economic rise and the implications for international relations. This paper argues that establishment of the China–Europe Landbridge predated the BRI and has been market‐driven, as service providers identified and responded to demand for efficient freight services along pre‐existing railway lines. Governments' role was trade facilitating, that is reducing delays and costs at border‐crossing points, rather than investing in hard infrastructure. Service providers responded by linking European and Asian value chains (e.g., in automobiles and electronic goods) and reducing costs for traders shipping between China and Europe. The Eurasian Landbridge provides a case study of servicification as a component of increased trade in the twenty‐first century. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper focuses on lobbying as a political activity and the emergence of lobbying regulation in 10 new member states of the European Union (EU). The analysis begins with general observations about lobbying in post-communist states and on the development of lobbying in three of the larger new member states: Hungary, Poland and the Czech Republic. Key to how lobbying will continue to develop in the future in these 10 countries is how it will be regulated and controlled. Therefore, the paper examines this in some detail. The analysis concludes with some recommendations on the role that could be played by professional bodies, which represent lobbyists in gaining more acceptance for interest groups in these new member states. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper discusses how public administrations handle cross-sectoral government strategies such as those on sustainable development (SD), and how this could (or should) change in the future. It puts SD strategies and their key objective of improving the cross-sectoral integration of policies into the wider context of public administration in two respects. In a first step, the paper shows that SD strategies are a progressive step in the protracted debate on planning and strategic management in the public sector. In a second step, however, the paper explores the functioning of specialized public administrations as one explanation for the shortcomings of SD strategies in Europe. Consequently, the paper concludes that SD strategies should be developed further into a tool of strategic public management that helps to adapt administrative approaches to the integrative challenges of SD. Copyright © 2007 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd and ERP Environment. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper focuses on the adoption of a number of Community regulations, each for a specific sector, to be implemented not just by a supranational administration (central or peripheral), but by a plurality of national, supranational and sometimes mixed authorities, with a special role assigned to a Community office set up by the same legislation for a given sector, and granting it legal personality. The purpose of this paper is to verify whether the various regulations by sector ought not to be regarded as variants of an emergent general model of joint exercise of certain Community functions. It is argued that such general model is still in the making, but it is in the process of becoming consolidated, notwithstanding the variety of approaches adopted by European legislators. Such a pattern is characterised by specific, differentiated organisational and procedural features. This conclusion is relevant in several different ways, the first of which is that it provides new conceptual tools for interpreting and explaining the process of administrative integration between supranational and national public authorities, in particular by specifying the taxonomy of the patterns through which a Community function can be carried out by two different authorities acting jointly. Second, the decentralised integration model should be considered as a sound and feasible option for the administrative evolution of the Community legal system. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The German discourse on the future role of the state is currently at the turn of the millennium is I dominated by the joint paper by Tony Blair and Gerhard Schröder, ‘Europe: The Third Way/ Die Neue Mitte’ (Blair & Schröder 1999). Using the crisis of the post-war Fordist mode of regulation as a background, various concepts of the restructuring of the State and society are discussed. This paper intends to show that the prevailing dominant social democratic restructuring discourse is rooted in a number of important elements in preceding conservative and neo-liberal discourses about the future of society and the State. The notion of desolidarisation is identified as the common denominator of conservative and neo-liberal approaches as well as the ‘Third Way’ (Neue Mitte). To cope with growing social inequality it is argued j that only a new European political project that re-animates solidarity and sustainability is viable. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The author discusses the timeline of the "Journal of Public Affairs" in the papers of European Centre for Public Affairs (ECPA) from the 1990s up to 2012. The "Journal of Public Affrairs" started in the European Union (EU) from the 1990s. The author explains the evolution of public affairs transpired when organizations, from government to private institutions, saw its importance and power.

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.

Abstract: Europe is currently embroiled in three ongoing and interacting crises concerning the eurozone, refugees and Brexit. After briefly describing each crisis, I turn to the ways in which they intersect and the role of institutions in solving the crises. There are two central themes in the paper. The first is that the three crises intersect and feed on one another. The second is that, while institutions can often help, they are not panaceas. Existing scholarship on the EU often implies that the EU operates far from its institutional frontier and that substantial improvements in welfare are just around the corner if only we ‘get our institutions right’. But institutional fixes do not exist for all problems. I argue that there is a large space for institutional improvement in the eurozone crisis, less regarding refugees, and still less for Brexit. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The aim of this article is to contribute to understanding the changing role of government in promoting corporate social responsibility (CSR). Over the last decade, governments have joined other stakeholders in assuming a relevant role as drivers of CSR, working together with intergovernmental organizations and recognizing that public policies are key in encouraging a greater sense of CSR. This paper focuses on the analysis of the new strategies adopted by governments in order to promote, and encourage businesses to adopt, CSR values and strategies. The research is based on the analysis of an explanatory framework, related to the development of a relational analytical framework, which tries to analyze the vision, values, strategies and roles adopted by governments, and the integration of new partnerships that governments establish in the CSR area with the private sector and social organizations. The research compares CSR initiatives and public policies in three European countries: Italy, Norway and the United Kingdom, and focuses on governmental drivers and responses. The preliminary results demonstrate that governments are incorporating a common statement and discourse on CSR, working in partnership with the private and social sectors. For governments, CSR implies the need to manage a complex set of relationships in order to develop a win–win situation between business and social organizations. However, the research also focuses on the differences between the three governments when applying CSR public policies. These divergences are based on the previous cultural and political framework, such as the welfare state typology, the organizational structures and the business and social and cultural background in each country. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study presents a three-year effort to study public sector innovation in Europe from the viewpoint of the citizen. It examines a model of public sector innovation across a multinational sample of eight countries and 626 participants. The paper develops a theory of antecedents to and consequences of innovation in public administration as perceived by knowledgeable citizens and end-users. Participants were senior and mid-level managers of third sector organizations that work closely with citizens both as individuals and groups, and with public sector agencies in various domains. Structural Equation Modeling technique was used to examine two theoretical and five alternative models. Major findings that transcend national borders were found to be: (1) responsiveness, together with leadership and vision are important antecedents of innovation in the public sector; (2) public sector innovation affects trust in and satisfaction with public administration; and (3) the effect of public sector innovation on trust and satisfaction is both direct and mediated by the image of public organizations. The paper ends with a discussion of the theoretical and practical implications for public administration theory, especially for public sector innovation in Europe, and with directions for future studies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Political competition between European countries has been viewed as being a stimulus to the innovation process and part of the reason why Europe was the first region of the world to experience sustained growth. Countries that fell behind their rivals technologically and economically became more vulnerable to exploitation. In this way, the presence of rival states provided added incentive to innovate. This paper uses a simple model of conflict between countries to study the role of political competition in economic growth. The governments of each country are threatened politically by innovation and, hence, face a trade-off between the stability of their regime and keeping up with their rivals. The model shows that “institutional spillovers,” such as a decrease in the level of rent-seeking in one country, can affect growth in a competing country. Thus, political fragmentation can be growth enhancing as it can result in more political competition. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this paper we review – from a UK perspective – how the UK government and its policy process have adapted to European integration. Has adaptation been a quiet revolution, a step-change, or both? In exploring this question we draw upon the conceptual literature of Europeanization. We employ it to shed light on the longer-term pattern of UK adaptation as well as to put into context the domestic changes currently under way. Our argument is that a step-change is under way in the Europeanization of the UK government. However, at the end of the paper we will reflect on how this development remains over-shadowed by broader circumstances: the continued weak public support for the EU and the divisions which emerged with key EU partners from the UK's policy over Iraq. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Though the impact of EC law on the legal status of national powers has been fairly well examined, little attention has been paid to the overall evaluation of the relations developed between national authorities. The paper argues that the mutation of the Judiciary and the Executive role vis-à-vis the Legislature appears to be an application of an emerging doctrine in EC public law that conspicuously resembles the 'Checks and Balances' theory of American constitutionalism. The action of one public authority is— or must be—countered by the reaction of another for the benefit of EC law. Apart from identifying the features of this 'principle' in comparison to its equivalent American doctrine, the paper deals with the question of a possible coexistence of this new model of governance with the traditional one. The comparative perspective is necessary here. Whereas in Germany the constitutional model appears to cope with European demands, in France it seems largely opposed to such a dynamic conception of the separation of powers. [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]

Abstract: The paper reviews key aspects of the new constitutional framework for the European Union, once the Treaty of Amsterdam has been ratified, in the light of the core challenges of managing flexible integration in an enlarged Union and securing adequate legitimacy for the integration project. Reviewing briefly the general debates on flexibility, and its relationship to different constitutional and political futures for the Union which are suggested by those involved in the debates, the paper examines the principal provisions governing what is termed `closer cooperation' within the new Union treaties. The emphasis is placed on the framework provisions of the TEU, and those in the First Pillar. It is noticeable that the Treaty takes a `non-ideological' approach to flexibility, eschewing direct support for those who interpret flexibility as meaning more or less integration in the future. It provides a framework for future cooperation which is likely to be too restrictive to be workable, except in very limited circumstances. However, particular instances of flexibility are provided in the Treaty, in the form of the opt-outs from the new free movement title and the communitarisation of Schengen for the United Kingdom, Ireland and Denmark, and some might even describe these as `pick-and-choose'. The paper concludes by reviewing the flexibility debate against the background of the ongoing legitimacy challenge for the Union, arguing that, as currently conceived, flexibility is more to do with balancing political interests than with securing or enhancing legitimacy. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper first analyzes the question why did Czarist Russia and Ottoman Turkey fall behind the West? It is argued that interstate rivalry forced West European rulers to respect the private property rights of producers and subjects earlier and to a greater degree than czars or sultans ruling over huge contiguous territories ever had to. Incentives to work were better in Europe than elsewhere. The mobilization of available knowledge for productive purposes was easier than elsewhere. Limited government implied less political obstacles to innovation. Comparatively secure private property ownership in the means of production made the establishment of scarcity prices and the rational allocation of resources easier than elsewhere. Whereas the Western past was feudal, the Russian or Turkish past was patrimonial or even sultanistic. Feudalism is a much better starting point for establishing the rule of law and safe property rights than patrimonialism. The second issue has been the question why Czarist Russia could outperform Ottoman Turkey. Here the political consequences of the Muslim tolerance of slavery and polygyny matter. Being slaves, many members of Ottoman ruling elites were at the mercy of their owner, the sultan. Therefore, they became tools of arbitrary rule. Moreover, the practice of polygyny generated downward social mobility and political instability and thereby added another obstacle to the establishment of safe property rights for producers or merchants. The final issue is the economic prospects of Russia or Turkey. Economic freedom is better in Turkey than in Russia. Moreover, Russia is graying, whereas Turkey may look forward to a growing labor force. Although a rich endowment in natural resources seems to favor Russia, the resource curse has prevented other resource rich countries from developing. Therefore, the Turkish prospect looks much brighter than the Russian one. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper looks to the role of geographical metaphors in the ‘battle of words’ to describe Europe and its presumed identity. The facile adoption of banal cartographies such as those of a ‘New’ and ‘Old’ Europe highlights two concerns: first, that despite the imperial and isolationistic temptations of the current American administration, its geopolitical imagination remains firmly wedded to – indeed, cannot but define itself by – its relationship with the ‘Old Continent’. Secondly, it reveals an astonishing distance between such cartographic abstractions and the variety of non-territorial metaphors – in particular, those of mediation and translation – that are increasingly being invoked to inscribe possible futures for the European project. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Last year the European Commission published itsAction Planon European contract law. That plan forms an important step towards a European Civil Code. In its Plan, the Commission tries to depoliticise the codification process by asking a group of academic experts to prepare what it calls a‘common frame of reference’. This paper argues that drafting a European Civil Code involves making many choices that are essentially political. It further argues that the technocratic approach which the Commission has adopted in the Action Plan effectively excludes most stakeholders from having their say during the stage when the real choices are made. Therefore, before the drafting of the CFR/ECC starts, the Commission should submit a list of policy questions regarding the main issues of European private law to the European Parliament and the other stakeholders. Such an alternative procedure would repoliticise the process. It would increase the democratic basis for a European Civil Code and thus its legitimacy. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In almost all subfields of political science in the last third of the twentieth century, it was claimed that we are witnessing a transformation of political order from hierarchies to networks. This paper traces institutional change during the twentieth century by examining structures and modes of interaction in transboundary regions in Europe and North America. First, it challenges functionalist explanations of institution-building and institutional change. Instead, the impact of general discourses and ideas is highlighted. Second, it takes a closer look at the hierarchies-to-networks transformation thesis. Whereas this thesis can be confirmed if we define hierarchies and networks as patterns of interaction, if we define hierarchies and networks in terms of modes of interaction this is less certain. De jure, institutional elements implying a “hierarchical order” have been supplanted in newer institutions by provisions allowing for “majority voting.” De facto, nothing has changed, since these modes of interaction have never actually been used. In practice, the only way to achieve joint action has always been and still is through “agreement” or “consent.” What has changed over the years, though, is the institutionalized approach to reaching “agreement.” The older approach uses a technocratic-deductive logic. In recent years, we have been able to observe various new approaches in cross-border regions: a symbolic-inductive logic in Western Europe, a utilitarian-evolutionary logic along the U.S.-Mexican border, and a normative-constructivist logic along the U.S.-Canadian border. Based on the empirical findings, I conclude that institutional theory should pay more attention to the fact that many political institutions provide orientation, shape identities, and mobilize activities through emotional symbols. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract Since David Marquand coined his famous phrase ‘democratic deficit’ to describe the functioning of the European Community, the debate has raged about the extent and content of this deficit. However, little attention has been paid to the ambiguous nature of democracy both at the national and supranational levels. This paper argues that dissatisfaction with democracy has to do, at least for a substantial part, with the creeping expansion of constitutionalism and the parallel decline of popular impact on government. This phenomenon is often felt at the national plane and feeds outbursts of populism. But it is even more acute at the European level, which combines weak popular input with the most sophisticated and developed forms of constitutionalism. This imbalance should be redressed both at a national level as well as in the EU, as a nascent polity. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper explores some issues in representing the geographies of mayoral power in contemporary Europe. It begins by summarizing the idea of a ‘Europe of the Cities’ and an emerging new mayoral political class in Europe, and then discusses some of the insights offered by cultural geography in conceptualizing this new agenda in urban politics. [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]

Recent developments within the regulation approach have highlighted the importance of discourse in securing the conditions for the stabilisation of new modes of regulation. This paper considers the discursive construction in the UK of Britain's relationship to European integration. Despite claims that the politics of the ‘Third Way’ offer an innovative and coherent framework for New Labour's political strategy, the evidence suggests that discourses of national sovereignty and pragmatic economic national self-interest dominate. In conclusion it is suggested that the development of transnational discursive formations is a necessary precondition for the consolidation of regulatory forms and processes that break with previous nationally focused modes of regulation. [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 addresses the question of the effect of labour market institutions on economic performance. It reviews evidence to show that the performances of highly centralized, or 'corporatist' economies, such as Sweden and Austria, have in the past been superior to those of the current EC members. It considers the implications of this for European labour markets given the process of European integration. It seems likely that Europe as a whole will gravitate to a weak form of corporatism which may be associated with poor economic performance. Therefore we contrast the prospects of a neo-liberal deregulatory with a more corporatist strategy as the optimum response for the Europe Community of the 1990s. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In recent years it has become increasingly difficult to maintain that the European party systems are stable and that they reflect the societal cleavage structures of the past. One developmental aspect of the party systems is singled out for description and analysis in this paper. It is argued that European party systems in terms of electoral volatility, i.e., rates of net change in the electorates, are drifting away from each other. Some of the party systems which have traditionally been considered volatile, apparently are becoming less so, while some other systems are taking on the character of highly volatile party systems. A simple set of hypotheses, based upon the notion of party space, is proposed in order to account for the variation observed. The data lend support to the hypothesis that electoral volatility is a function of the format of the party system and of short-term changes in that format. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

At first sight, the electoral systems in Denmark, Germany, South Africa and Sweden may seem different and an attempt to categorize them together odd. All four, however, belong to the same category, which Arend Lijphart calls 'proportional representation two-tier districting systems', and the effects of these systems on the proportionality of the representation of political parties are, indeed, comparable. The four electoral systems were the basis of their countries' general elections during 1994. The results of these elections are used for analyses and discussions of the relative importance of the differences which one also finds between them. The paper ends with an examination of the behavioural consequences of these institutional arrangements, which are also found elsewhere, i.e. in Estonia, Iceland, Norway and New Zealand (in the new electoral system currently being implemented there). [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Comparative political analysis at the macro-level of political systems can reduce the inevitably high complexity of such comparisons by the systematic matching or contrasting of cases, depending on the particular problem. Such 'most similar systems' or 'most different systems' designs, in Przeworski & Teune's terminology, thus constitute one of the major ways out of the usual 'small N many variables' dilemma. This paper proposes a detailed and comprehensive method to establish such similarities and dissimilarities in a systematic and at all stages transparent way. The examples chosen refer to an analysis of the conditions of survival or breakdown of democratic systems in the inter-war period in Europe. [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]

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 considers the powers, or more correctly the lack of powers, of the European Parliament. Attention is focused on the legislative powers of the Parliament; its financial powers following the revision of Article 203 of the Treaty of Rome; and its control, or oversight, powers. Comparisons are made between the powers of the European Parliament and those of the national parliaments of the European Community's nine Member States. The detailed examination of the powers of the European Parliament reveals that in no widely accepted comparative sense can it be considered a parliament as it fails to meet a series of basic political, constitutional, and decision-making requirements concerning the performance of legislative, financial, and control functions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Rational choice models of bargaining power are usually held to justify the pluralist methodology of decision analysis. This paper rejects this view and argues that such models are able to combine the pluralists' concern with overt behaviour and the operationalizability of the concept of power with their critics' emphasis upon the systemic or structural features of power and its cognates. We overcome charges of conservative bias which tend to be directed at rational choice theories by deriving from the model reasons why a rational actor would object to concentrations of power within his community. A theory which provides us with a measure of power which is at least notionally empirical and is capable of determining why, and to what extent moral sensibilities are offended by power concentrations would, we feel, enable the discipline to throw off the straitjacket which has constrained the analysis of power over the past two decades. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper has been written from the standpoint of a student of political science (with an evident international bias). It has in no way been concerned with the question whether a European union would, or would not, bring prosperity to its populations, or whether it would be a good thing or not for Britain to join it. As a student I have sought an answer to two questions: What kind of political construction was a European union likely to be, and what would be its temper—for if, as I think, function determines structure, this also means that structure must affect practice. And therefore, in the second place, what would be its relevancy to the prospects for a general international system? Admittedly, to try to examine the 'European' idea thus is like trying to hold a line on a political rainbow with its many fleeting hues—a rainbow with one horizon among those who are clear that they were not seeking 'a new fatherland' and wanted Europe united that it may work the better for international union, and the opposite horizon falling in Dr. Hallstein's camp. For Dr. Hallstein is no less clear that they were after 'awakening a new European patriotism'; and that— while the old nations may be left to dream their national dreams (and after dismissing any idea of supplanting the national with the supranational as 'another illusion')—that 'perhaps it is true that only States can act politically. Then let us create the European State—or is Europe finally to abdicate?' If the aim is political union, a 'United States of Europe', Dr. Hallstein's picture, with all its tactical tergiversations, is clearly nearer the mark. Both lines of inquiry have led to the same point, that by its nature and tendency a political union must be nationalistic; and that as such it must impede, and may defeat, the great historic quest for a general system of peace and development. Under the pressures of a planned and radical social transformation it is bound to shape... [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

While the politics of immigration in destination countries has been a prominent topic of research in comparative political science in Europe, the same does not apply to emigration and to the perspective of peripherical EU countries. This is true even though the flows of people moving from east to west and from south to north pose potentially significant challenges to 'sending countries' in Europe. This article sets up a research agenda aimed at contributing to redress this imbalance. It highlights the need to explore more systematically themes such as (1) the impact of emigration on the political behaviour of both those who stay and those who leave and (2) and how emigration is framed and politicized by relevant societal actors. Ultimately, it draws attention to the fact that a lot of the questions that have been asked about 'entry' (immigration) need to be asked about 'exit' too (emigration). [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Two recent reports, from the ippr and UNICEF have provided disturbing evidence on the behaviour and well-being of young people in the UK. The ippr's Report suggests that a significant explanatory factor is the lack of time children spend with parents and other adults. But is mere ‘presence’ the key? The paper briefly reviews the possibilities parents in the UK have to spend time with their children by exploring how much and when they work in relation to parents in other European countries, and goes on to report on evidence from interviews with parents and children, which signal the importance of parenting style. I suggest that time with children is not unimportant, which has implications for Government's decision not to extend the right to request flexible working patterns to parents with older children, but that it is far from being the only factor at stake. The increasing difficulties parents face in negotiating the transition to independence with their teenage children indicate a need for parenting to be on the policy agenda. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract With the Convention on the Future of the European Union (EU) now in progress, it is opportune to examine the processes and forces currently shaping the EU's constitutional development and impacting on governmental arrangements. For some time, debate on the constitutionalization of the EU has focused on whether the EU needs a constitution and, if so, what kind of constitution. It is argued that analysis of these core issues cannot be conducted in isolation from the processes and forces currently shaping the EU, chief among which are micro-regionalization, Europeanization and globalization. Moreover, a comprehensive understanding of the nature and degree of interaction between these processes and forces is required to inform theory and guide constitutional practice. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article examines the growth of the new pattern of lobbying called direct interest representation in the decision making processes in European Union (EU). It argues that this development of direct influence and participation is characterized by fragmentation and specialisation where elements of corporatism becomes essential. An overview of the literature on EU lobbying is given, including various types of studies regarding EU interest groups and lobbying as well as their findings. Moreover, it explores the strengths and weaknesses of attempts to predict patterns of the behaviour and lobbying of these interest groups.

This article deals with the use made by Christian people of the image of a chosen people for national and political purposes, while identifying a specific Christian nation or kingdom as the "New Israel." It begins by describing the idea of "New Israel" as a pan‐Christian idea that underwent a fundamental change when its use began with reference to a specific nation. The article continues with a detailed mapping of the phenomenon in Ethiopian Christianity, in the Catholic world in the Middle Ages, in the Russian Orthodox world, and in the Protestant countries in the early days of the modern era. The article describes the broad context of the phenomenon in the framework of ethnocentric imagery in different cultures and the continuation of the research required for its full description. This phenomenon is interesting because it indicates the importance that many people attributed in the premodern period to the formulation of a national narrative and the centrality of religion in formulating a national narrative during this period. It emphasizes the political inspiration that Europe drew from the Bible in the formulation of national narratives, as well as the prominence of the national idea in the Bible itself, which made it an accessible source of inspiration for national ideas of Christian people. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article presents proceedings of a symposium on political centralization and decentralization in Europe and North America. The six articles in this symposium issue address the diverse trends of political centralization and decentralization in the U.S. and some countries of Europe in the period 1970-1988. They are particularly concerned with the sources of these trends and, to a lesser degree, with their implications for the design and implementation of public policies. The six articles explore the causes and implications of political decentralization in terms of either one or both of its manifestations.

The article presents information on articles that are published in the October 2001 issue of "Journal of Sex, Education and Therapy." Topics include Recent development and political acceptance of organic farming in Europe, Organic farming in a regulatory perspective - The Danish Case, Some reflections on late twentieth century agrarian political economy, Transnational co-operation between rural areas: Elements of a political economy of Europe's rural development, Conservation of biodiversity as a European directive: The challenge for France, Death in Town and Country, An Analysis of Urban-Rural Differences in Mortality.

This article aims to deepen our understanding of the transatlantic circulation of scientific ideas during the Cold War by looking at the importation of behavioralism in European political science. It analyses the social, institutional, and intellectual dynamics that led to the creation, in 1970, of a transnational organization that aimed to promote behavioralism in Europe: the European Consortium for Political Research (ECPR). Using qualitative material drawn from archives and interviews, the study shows that the creation of the ECPR was the joint product of academic, scientific, and political rivalries. It argues that the founding of the organization served a purpose for several agents (chiefly, academic entrepreneurs and philanthropic foundations) who pursued different strategies in different social fields in the context of the Cold War. More broadly, it suggests that the postwar development of the social sciences and the circulation of scientific ideas are best accounted for by mapping sociological interactions between scientific fields and neighboring social spheres. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Improved fiscal management is a frequent justification for promoting boundary consolidations. However, whether or not this is actually the case is rarely placed under rigorous empirical scrutiny. Hence, this article investigates if fiscal outcomes are improved when municipalities are merged. The basic argument is that the conceptualisation of fiscal management in political science is often too narrow as it focuses on the budget and pays hardly any attention to balances in the final accounts and debts - elements of management which are central to policy making. On this background, the causal relationship between municipal mergers and fiscal outcomes is analysed. Measured on the balance between revenues and expenses, liquid assets and debts, municipal mergers improve the fiscal outcomes of the municipalities in a five-year perspective, although the pre-reform effects tend to be negative. For liquidity and debt, however, the improvement only entails re-establishing the levels prior to the reform. The testing ground is the recent mergers of Danish municipalities, which, it is argued, constitute a quasi-experiment. This forms the basis of a Difference-in-Difference design, allowing the alleviation of endogeneity problems and enabling causal inference. The analysis is based on administrative data from the Danish municipalities in the period 2003-11. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Public affairs, in relation to European governance system, checks and balances between country interests and public affairs operations at different levels of governance. Copyright © 2012 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Governmentality theory is a tool to study networked governance beyond the state. Its research profile is characterized by a focus on power and micro-practices from a critical perspective. This article identifies the theory's comparative strengths and its distinct analytical style. It lays out the conceptual tools of governmentality theory before applying them to internal CSDP governance and the external governance by the CSDP of post-conflict societies. These short case studies serve the didactic purpose of demonstrating the kinds of research questions, analytical concerns, arguments, empirical evidence and methods that governmentality research calls for and the sorts of findings that it can generate. The article concludes by pinpointing shortcomings of the theory that will be of concern to some CSDP researchers. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article maps out the role played by national identity in modern European constitutions. It does this by comparing its impact on constitutions across Gellner's time zones of European nationalism, and shows how the impact of nationalism has increased gradually over time, and is now strongest in Central and Eastern Europe. It concludes with a reflection on why this has been the case, and why constitutional politics have increasingly lent themselves to nationalist influences in the modern era. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Tony Travers analyses the outcome of the 2009 local and European elections – contrasting the difference between first past the post and proportional representation-based results – and predicts trouble for Labour, whose support, he argues, has been reduced to its core vote [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article presents a comparative analysis of population ageing in urban and rural areas of two European countries namely England and Wales, and Poland, over the last three census intervals. It notes that the comparisons are based on the analysis of statistics from the last four censuses in the said countries. Results has identified population growth in England and Wales' rural areas and in Polish gminy. It states that the population ageing in the areas of England and Wales occurred earlier, while Poland sped up in the number of elderly people on recent intercensal period. The population ageing reflects from socio-economic adjustments and demographic and political issues. Charts are also presented.

The article discusses the epistemic politics in the European imperial formations and the forms of colonial governance on which they relied. It mentions that colonial governance entailed a constant assessing of what colonial agents could know and how they could it. Moreover, epistemic formations provide what people assume to know about their worlds. The author also notes that it was vernacular epistemic practice rather than transcendental epistemology on which imperial agents depended to cope with what they could not know and could not change. Additionally, several concepts about epistemology coined from different authors are also included.