Download or read book Democracy social resources and political power in the European Union written by Niilo Kauppi and published by Manchester University Press. This book was released on 2018-02-28 with total page 224 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In this book Kauppi develops a structural constructivist theory of the European Union and critically analyses, through French and Finnish empirical cases, the political practices that maintain the Union's 'democratic deficit'. Kauppi conceptualises the European Union as both an arena for political contention and a nascent political order. In this evolving, multi-levelled European political field, individuals and groups construct material and symbolic structures of political power, grounded in a variety of social resources such as nationality, culture, and gender. The author shows how the dominance of both executive political resources and domestic political cultures has prevented the development of European democracy. Supranational executive networks have become more autonomous, reinforcing the dominance of the resources they control. At the same time, national political cultures condition the political status of elected institutions such as the European parliament. The book is particularly suited for undergraduate and graduate students in the fields of European Politics, European Union Studies and International Relations.
Download or read book Democracy Beyond the State written by Michael Th Greven and published by Rowman & Littlefield. This book was released on 2000 with total page 204 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This insightful book provides an original and thought-provoking analysis of the widening gap between democracy-in-principle and governance-in-practice as economic globalization transforms our world. Nowhere is the deepening dilemma more evident than in the European Union. This book examines the contemporary breakdown and transformation of the democratic welfare state in Europe and draws fascinating contrasts with North America. In a cohesive and insightful collection of essays, a group of distinguished political scientists debates the implications of these trends both for theory and for policy.
Download or read book Democracy and Lobbying in the European Union written by Karolina Karr and published by Campus Verlag. This book was released on 2007 with total page 210 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Can interest groups and lobbyists arguably undemocratic institutions operate in democratic systems without hindering the people s interests? Karolina Karr s "Democracy and Lobbying in the European Union" explores the role and potential impact of interest groups on democracy, both in theory and practice, in the context of a changing continent. This timely volume explores how the power of interest groups has developed due to the growing distance between elected representatives and the European people and forecasts what this development might mean for the vitality of government."
Download or read book Society and Democracy in Europe written by Silke I. Keil and published by Routledge. This book was released on 2013 with total page 314 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This comparative book draws on the European Social Survey to examine what kinds of societal forces shape an individuals' relationship towards political life and develops a theoretical perspective on the relationship between social structure and democracy, linking this to research on social capital and political behavior.
Download or read book Social Democracy and the Challenge of European Union written by Robert Ladrech and published by Lynne Rienner Publishers. This book was released on 2000 with total page 186 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: He also explores what this new form of political activity means for European politics, arguing that the traditional positions of left and right may be becoming increasingly significant within the EU's evolving, transnational political culture.
Download or read book Citizens and Democracy in Europe written by Sergio Martini and published by Springer. This book was released on 2019-07-06 with total page 242 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This book provides an innovative and in-depth analysis of how attitudes towards democracy and political institutions differ across 31 countries in Europe, and how these attitudes have fluctuated over time. After addressing conceptual and measurement issues about the evaluative dimension of political support, the authors develop a unique framework assessing the role of the institutional format, the quality of the political process, macro-economic conditions and inequality to explain trends and differences in political satisfaction and trust. The book further explores how education, employment and electoral status create gaps in political support. Citizens and Democracy in Europe will be of interest to students and scholars in comparative politics, political sociology and public opinion.
Download or read book Democratic Governance and European Integration written by Ronald Holzhacker and published by Edward Elgar Publishing. This book was released on 2007-01-01 with total page 302 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: As the power and scope of the European Union moves further, beyond traditional forms of international cooperation between sovereign states, it is important to analyse how these developments are impacting upon national institutions and processes of democratic representation and legitimacy in the member countries. The authors in this book identifyfour core processes of democratic governance present in any democratic political system that link societal and state processes of decision-making: opinion formation, interestintermediation, national executive decision-making and national parliamentary scrutiny. From a normative perspective they discuss what impacts this process of Europeanizationhas on democracy in the evolving system. They conclude that more changes are seen within the state-centric than in the societal-centred processes of democracy, thus thepublic seems to have been 'left behind? in the process of constructing Europe. The empirical research and normative discussion presented in this book are designed to further our knowledge concerning the Europeanization of social and state processes of democracy and to contribute to the continuing dialogue on democracy in the EuropeanUnion. This book will be of great interest to academics and researchers of political science, public policy and international relations, as well as those interested in European studies andcomparative politics.
Download or read book Democratic Empowerment in the European Union written by David Levi-Faur and published by Edward Elgar Publishing. This book was released on 2018 with total page 310 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This book looks at democratic empowerment via institutional designs that extend the political rights of European citizens. It focuses on three themes: first, the positive and negative effects of the European Union institutional design on the political rights of its citizens; second, challenges for democratic regimes across the world in the 21st century in the context of regionalism and globalization; third, the constraints of neoliberalism and capitalist markets on the ability of citizens to effectively achieve their political rights within the Union.
Download or read book A Political Sociology of Transnational Europe written by Niilo Kauppi and published by ECPR Press. This book was released on 2024-08-22 with total page 398 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Globalisation and complex Europeanisation are two significant challenges currently influencing the restructure of the European nation-state, and redefining political power. For this volume, first-rate European scholars look at the consequences of these and other challenges faced by European societies. Contributions revisit traditional objects of political science – state sovereignty, civil society and citizenship – mixing sophisticated empirical analyses with methodological and conceptual innovations including field theory, multiple correspondence analysis, and the study of space sets. Combining qualitative and quantitative research techniques, and macro- and micro-levels, chapters have in common a contextual analysis of politics through scrutiny of configurations of groups, representations and perceptions. A transnational perspective is the common thread linking every study in this volume, which seeks to avoid methodological nationalism.
Download or read book Social Democracy in Power written by Wolfgang Merkel and published by Routledge. This book was released on 2008-03-31 with total page 407 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Globalization, European integration, and social change have devaluated traditional social democratic policy instruments. This book compares and explores how social democratic governments have had to adapt and whether they have successfully managed to uphold old social democratic goals and values in the light of these challenges. This volume examines the policy measures of social democratic parties in government in a comparative framework. The authors focus on traditional social democratic goals and tools, in particular, fiscal, employment, and social policy, in the United Kingdom, France, Germany, the Netherlands, Sweden, and Denmark. They identify three policy patterns in social democratic governments: traditional, modernized, and liberalized social democracy and provide a comparative account of the explanatory power of the national context for policy adopted by social democratic parties. Finally, the extent to which social democratic parties have been able to use the European Union as a political space for social democratic governance and policy-making is examined. Social Democracy in Power will be of interest to students and scholars of politics, comparative politics, European studies and public policy.
Download or read book Civic Resources and the Future of the European Union written by Ireneusz Paweł Karolewski and published by . This book was released on 2014-11-10 with total page 0 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This book shines new light on the political system of the European Union (EU) by focusing on civic resources as a keystone of the EU's ability to sustain. Less-tangible resources such as trust, solidarity, mutual recognition and citizens' social and political participation have been, until now, largely ignored in the research on European integration. Due to the fundamental changes to the EU in recent years and the challenges ahead, European citizens have become increasingly critical of a long-lasting unification process in Europe. This volume theoretically and empirically examines how the European citizens themselves may contribute to the long-term effectiveness, legitimacy and endurance of the EU. This book aims to examine the issues associated with the utilization of civic resources by the EU, and the ability of European citizens to develop transnational civic resources. Expert contributors in the field develop a framework to understand and explore the potential of citizens in the uncertain future of the EU. Civic Resources and the Future of the European Union will be of interest to students and scholars of European Politics and European Union Studies.
Download or read book Toward a Reflexive Political Sociology of the European Union written by Niilo Kauppi and published by Springer. This book was released on 2018-01-17 with total page 281 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This book argues that contemporary European politics creates new forms of transnational power that challenge the traditional parameters of the nation-state. Kauppi identifies and critically explores the evolving dynamics between national and transnational spaces, groups and knowledge, and suggests that European public policies and transnational institutions like the European Parliament create new spaces, types of knowledge and novel political practices. Toward a Reflexive Political Sociology of the European Union is structured around three parts. The first focuses on evolving transnational fields. The second explores the changing role of academics and universities. The third section engages with the works of Pierre Bourdieu on politics and the media. The issues discussed throughout the book revolve around the challenges to the nation-state and of knowledge production that is tied to it. This book will be an invaluable resource to academics and researchers interested in European politics, European Union studies and political sociology.
Download or read book Democracy in Transition written by Kyriakos N. Demetriou and published by Springer Science & Business Media. This book was released on 2012-12-22 with total page 293 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: ,The papers in this collection, written by a cross-regional group of experts, provide insights into the causes of declining levels of citizen participation and other distinct forms of civic activism in Europe and explore a range of factors contributing to apathy and eventually disengagement from vital political processes and institutions. At the same time, this volume examines informal or unconventional types of civic engagement and political participation corresponding to the rapid advances in culture, technology and social networking. The volume is divided into three interrelated parts: Part I consists of critical essays in the form of theoretical approaches to analysing weakening political participation and citizen estrangement; Part II is dedicated to an exploration of the role and deployment of technologically advanced media, such as the internet, as determinants of changing patterns of political participationist behaviour. Finally, Part III presents findings of empirical research on the issue of political participation. Combining theoretical and empirical perspectives, the book contributes towards a better understanding of the disquieting trend of voter apathy and disenchantment with politics in the context of the ongoing process of European integration, and offers a variety of analytical tools for decoding both the emergence of alternative conceptualizations of citizenship and other forms of meaningful civic and political engagement.
Download or read book Governance and Democracy written by Arthur Benz and published by Routledge. This book was released on 2006-04-18 with total page 316 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: For the first time, this new collection brings together country specialists, researchers on the European Union, and leading international relations scholars to tackle a crucial question: how compatible are today’s new patterns of ‘policy networks’ and ‘multi-level’ governance with democratic standards? This important question is attracting attention both in political science and in political practices. In political science, the question is mainly dealt with in separated sub-disciplines, which focus on different levels of politics. So far, no serious exchange has actually taken place between authors working on these different levels. The editors of this book – both specialists of network and multi-level governance – show that although the issue is raised differently in the institutional settings of the national state, the European Union, or transnational governance, excellent insights can be gained by comparison across these settings. This major new contribution includes cutting edge work from junior scholars alongside chapters by leading specialists of governance such as Guy Peters, Jon Pierre, Philippe C. Schmitter and Thomas Risse. It also contains a collection of new case studies, theoretical conceptualisations and normative proposals for solutions dealing with the issue of democratic deficits, which all give the reader a better understanding of the most crucial problems and perspectives of democracy in different patterns of "governance" beyond conventional ‘government’ approaches. This is a valuable book for policy analysts, students of the European Union and international relations, and all students in social and political science.
Download or read book Social Media and European Politics written by Mauro Barisione and published by Springer. This book was released on 2017-07-19 with total page 324 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This volume investigates the role of social media in European politics in changing the focus, frames and actors of public discourse around the EU decision-making process. Throughout the collection, the contributors test the hypothesis that the internet and social media are promoting a structural transformation of European public spheres which goes well beyond previously known processes of mediatisation of EU politics. This transformation addresses more fundamental challenges in terms of changing power relations, through processes of active citizen empowerment and exertion of digitally networked counter-power by civil society, news media, and political actors, as well as rising contestation of representative legitimacy of the EU institutions. Social Media and European Politics offers a comprehensive approach to the analysis of political agency and social media in European Union politics, by bringing together scholarly works from the fields of public sphere theory, digital media, political networks, journalism studies, euroscepticism, political activism and social movements, political parties and election campaigning, public opinion and audience studies.
Download or read book Centre left Parties and the European Union written by Isabelle Hertner and published by . This book was released on 2018 with total page 200 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This book investigates how the British Labour Party, the French Socialist Party (PS), and the German Social Democratic Party (SPD) deal with the European Union (EU).
Download or read book Representation and Democracy in the EU written by Richard Bellamy and published by Routledge. This book was released on 2016-04-14 with total page 175 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This book explores the various ways in which citizens are represented in EU policy-making. Most accounts naturally focus on the European Parliament as the prime source of democratic representation. This collection focuses instead on four other channels that are as and often more important: namely, representation via governments, national parliaments, civil society organisations and directly, via referenda. Based on original research, the book combines democratic theory with detailed empirical analysis to provide an innovative, timely and up-to-date evaluation of the nature of representation in the EU. Policy advisors, practitioners and those scholars interested in democracy and the European Union will find this volume to be a valuable resource. This book was published as a special issue of the Journal of European Integration.
