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 The Scale of Interest Organization in Democratic Politics written by D. Halpin and published by Springer. This book was released on 2011-12-12 with total page 267 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Explores the need for political science to pay more attention to complex interactions involving politically relevant groups. Distinguished contributors report on data from around the world and at different levels of political decision making – from 'below the radar' in local communities to global negations at the World Trade Organization.

Download or read book The Oxford Handbook of Danish Politics written by Peter Munk Christiansen and published by Oxford University Press. This book was released on 2020-06-26 with total page 752 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The Oxford Handbook of Danish Politics provides the most comprehensive and thorough English language book on Danish politics ever written. It features chapters by 50 leading experts who have contributed extensively to the field they write about. Why is Denmark an interesting topic for a Handbook? In some respects, Danish political institutions and political life are very similar to that of other small, North European countries such as the other Scandinavian countries and Netherland. However, in other respects, Danish politics is interesting in its own right. For instance, Denmark has a world record in minority governments. According to standard scholarly knowledge, this should result in unstable governments and a bad economy. This is not the case, however, since Denmark has a rather stable political system and a strong and robust economy among the strongest in Europe. How? The Danes have continued reservations towards the EU despite close to 50 years of EC/EU membership, and the Danes rejected the Maastricht Treaty in 1992. Still, the EU issue is handled in ways that do not call for large political battles. How? A third example is that Denmark used to be known as a tolerant and liberal society; its Jews were almost all saved during German occupation during WWII, Denmark was the first country to free pornography, and the first country to formally register same-sex couples. Yet recent Danish politics has also been associated with xenophobia and anti-Muslim sentiments. Why?

Download or read book Policy Concertation and Social Partnership in Western Europe written by Stefan Berger and published by Berghahn Books. This book was released on 2002-02-01 with total page 400 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Policy concertation - the determination of public policy by means of agreements struck between governments, employers and trade unions - continues to thrive in Western Europe despite the impact of liberalizing trends that were expected to lead to its demise. This volume brings together a team of 23 experts with the aim to undertake paired historical and political studies of policy concertation in ten West European countries, which were then subjected to systematic comparative analysis. It shows that overall the incidence of broad policy concertation in Western Europe can be explained by the changing configurations of just three variables.

Download or read book Europeanization and Transnational States written by Bengt Jacobsson and published by Routledge. This book was released on 2004-03-01 with total page 224 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This book investigates what happens to an organized political unit when it becomes part of a larger entity and, in particular, how increased European integration and the tentative moves towards a transnational state will affect the European Union's nation state. Europeanization and Transnational States provides an extensive comparative survey of the central governments in four Scandinavian countries and analyses the ways in which the European Union has influenced the day-to-day work of their state administrations. It includes coverage of Denmark, a long-standing member of the European Union; Finland and Sweden, countries that became members in 1995 and Norway, a non-member. The book utilises various theoretical perspectives - such as adaptation to external pressure, strategic choice and path-dependencies - to explain the changes related to increased European integration in central government agencies. It concludes that the consequences of Europeanization can be described as the growth of a transnational administration where identities as well as loyalties are created in processes that transcends the borders of states.

Download or read book The Rise of the Norwegian Parliament written by Hilmar Rommetvedt and published by Routledge. This book was released on 2002 with total page 224 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:

Download or read book The Routledge Handbook of Scandinavian Politics written by Peter Nedergaard and published by Routledge. This book was released on 2017-08-09 with total page 324 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The Routledge Handbook of Scandinavian Politics is a comprehensive overview of Scandinavian politics provided by leading experts in the field and covering the polity, the politics and the policy of Scandinavia. Coherently structured with a multi-level thematic approach, it explains and details Scandinavian politics today through a series of cutting-edge chapters. It will be a key reference point both for advanced-level students developing knowledge about the subject, as well as researchers producing new material in the area and beyond. It brings geographical scope and depth, with comparative chapters contributed by experts across the region. Methodologically and theoretically pluralistic, the handbook is in itself a reflection of the field of political science in Scandinavia and the diversity of the issues covered in the volume. The Routledge Handbook of Scandinavian Politics will be an essential reference for scholars, students, researchers and practitioners interested and working in the fields of Scandinavian politics, European politics, comparative politics and international relations.

Download or read book Corporatism since the Great Recession written by Mikkel Mailand and published by Edward Elgar Publishing. This book was released on 2020-09-25 with total page 192 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In the comparative study of Denmark, the Netherlands and Austria, Mikkel Mailand explores the roles of social partners in regulating work and welfare through corporatist arrangements. This insightful book illustrates how the frequency of tripartite agreements has either been stable or has increased since the Great Recession of 2008, in spite of challenges from trade unions’ loss of power and political developments. It will be an invaluable read for academics and students in industrial relations, political economy and other social science disciplines addressing the formulation of work and welfare related policies.

Download or read book Delegation in Contemporary Democracies written by Fabrizio Gilardi and published by Routledge. This book was released on 2006-04-18 with total page 280 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Delegation is an ubiquitous social phenomenon linked to the growing differentiation of modern societies. Delegation is one of several different modes of organisation that exist to make collective action successful, but has been overlooked and under-researched. Using a rational choice institutional analysis and principal agent models, this book brings literature on delegation to bureaucracy, electorate to legislature to government within representative democracy together with literature on new forms of delegation such as non-majoritarian institutions, to provide a more complete and synthetic analysis of delegation in political systems. With a broad and comparative approach, this is an important volume for advanced students, researchers and professionals concerned with delegation in the areas of public policy, public administration and democratic theory.

Download or read book Left of Centre Parties and Trade Unions in the Twenty First Century written by Elin Haugsgjerd Allern and published by Oxford University Press. This book was released on 2017-02-15 with total page 424 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Both parties and interest groups matter to democracy. Historically, examples of close relationships between the two abound. But perhaps the best known because it was supposedly the most intimate and politically important is the relationship between left-of-centre parties and trade unions. Whether rooted in a shared history, culture and ideology or more a 'marriage of convenience', it is widely believed that their relationship helped socialist, social democratic, and labour parties win power and ensured the working class achieved huge gains in terms of full employment, the welfare state and labour market regulation in the post war period. In recent decades, however, it has been widely argued that the links between left-of-centre parties and trade unions have declined as their collaboration has become less mutually beneficial, not least as a consequence of structural changes in the economy and labour market. This volume interrogates, qualifies, and even challenges that widespread assumption. Based on a brand new dataset, including organizational data gathered by a cross-national team of experts, it uncovers and explores what turns out to be considerable variation in the strength of contemporary organizational links between left-of-centre parties and unions in twelve different countries that have been democracies since at least the mid -to late-1940's. Testing a series of hypotheses on the importance and the impact of particular political systems and socio-economic factors, and on the costs and benefits for both parties and unions, detailed qualitative and quantitative analysis suggests that left-of-centre party-trade union links are stronger where trade unions are larger, denser, and more unified and where parties are less able to rely on the state to finance their organizational activities and electoral campaigns. Traditional partners that still have fairly strong links with each other seem to have greater incentives than others to maintain those links. Moreover, it remains the case that the links between parties and unions matter in policy terms.

Download or read book How Political Parties Respond written by Kay Lawson and published by Routledge. This book was released on 2004-08-02 with total page 280 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: How Political Parties Respond focuses specifically on the question of interest aggregation. Do parties today perform that function? If so, how? If not, in what different ways do they seek to show themselves responsive to the electorate? This fascinating book studies these questions with reference to Great Britain, France, Germany, Italy, Spain, Denmark, Norway, Sweden, and Canada. A chapter on Russia demonstrates how newly powerful private interest groups and modern techniques of persuasion can work together to prevent effective party response to popular interests in systems where the authoritarian tradition remains strong.

Download or read book The Political Class in Advanced Democracies written by Jens Borchert and published by OUP Oxford. This book was released on 2003-12-11 with total page 440 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Professional politicians have increasingly come under public attack in most democratic countries. Yet they have received surprisingly little systematic attention in political science. This book demonstrates that there are both striking similarities between professional politicians in different countries and notable national peculiarities. The introduction develops a common conceptual framework for the chapters to follow. Using Mosca's term and Weber's seminal insights it reconstructs the concept of political class to grasp the degree of common interests shared by politicians of different parties and in different institutions. Thereby, it presents an innovative perspective on politicians. The twenty country chapters written by scholars from sixteen countries both provide up-to-date information on professional politics in their countries and discuss the merits of the theoretical approach. In doing so, they follow a common format thus facilitating a comparative reading of particular aspects. Each chapter looks at the historical process of professionalization, the institutional context of professional politics, the size of the political class in each country, typical career paths, the renumeration of politicians, and recent reform debates.

Download or read book Political Parties in Advanced Industrial Democracies written by Paul Webb and published by OUP Oxford. This book was released on 2002-09-26 with total page 400 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: How relevant and vital are political parties in contemporary democracies? Do they fulfill the functions that any stable and effective democracy might expect of them, or are they little more than moribund anachronisms, relics of a past age of political life, now superseded by other mechanisms of linkage between state and society? These are the central questions which this book aims to address through a rigorous comparative analysis of political parties operating in the world's advanced industrial democracies. Drawing on the expertise of an impressive team of internationally known specialists, the book engages systematically with the evidence to show that, while a degree of popular cynicism towards them is often chronic, though rarely acute, parties have adapted and survived as organizations, remodelling themselves to the needs of an era in which patterns of linkage and communication with social groups have been transformed. This has enabled them to remain central to democratic systems, especially in respect of the political functions of governance, recruitment and, albeit more problematically, interest aggregation. On the other hand, the challenges they face in respect of interest articulation, communication and participation have pushed parties into more marginal roles within Western political systems. The implications of these findings for democracy depend on the observer's normative and theoretical perspectives. Those who understand democracy primarily in terms of popular choice and control in public affairs will probably see parties as continuing to play a central role, while those who place greater store by the more demanding criteria of optimizing interests and instilling civic orientations among citizens are far more likely to be fundamentally critical. Comparative Politics is a series for students and teachers of political science that deals with contemporary issues in comparative government and politics. The General Editors are Max Kaase, Vice President and Dean of Humanities and Social Sciences, International University Bremen, and Kenneth Newton, Professor of Government at Southampton University. The series is published in association with the European Consortium for Political Research.

Download or read book European States and the Euro written by Kenneth Dyson and published by OUP Oxford. This book was released on 2002-03-07 with total page 431 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: With Economic and Monetary Union, the European Union has embarked on one of the biggest projects in its history. Previous literature has focused on how EMU came into being and on the policy issues that it raises. European States and the Euro seeks to move the discussion forwards by offering the first systematic evaluation of how it is affecting EU states, both members and non-members of the Euro-Zone. It is the first book to explicitly situate EMU in the growing literature on Europeanization. It examines the effects on public policies, political structures, discourses, and identities. The book seeks to identify the scope of EMU's effects, the direction that it imparts to political and policy changes, the mechanisms by which it produces its effects, and the role of domestic institutions, political leadership and specific forms of discourse in shaping responses. In addition, the book assesses how, and with what effects, EMU is affecting key policy sectors labour markets and wages, welfare states, and financial market governance. What conditions the degree of convergence discernible in these sectors? Finally, the book seeks to 'contextualize' EMU by assessing its effects both in comparison with other variables like globalization and in a historical perspective of the European Monetary System as a 'training ground'. The book combines sectoral and country case studies with a thematic treatment by recognized experts in their fields. It moves from globalization, through EU-level changes, to member states and finally to specific sectors. The main conclusions are that EMU is most important in affecting the timing, tempo and rhythm of domestic change that these changes are experienced pre-eminently at the level of policy; that it strengthens pressures for convergence; but that different domestic institutional arrangements and discourses lead to variations in policy processes and effects and in the way change is 'framed'. In particular, whilst EMU contains a neo-liberalizing tendency exhibited most clearly in financial market effects, it is not to be characterized as a neo-liberal project by means of which the EU is becoming an economic and social space simply converging around Anglo-American market capitalism.

Download or read book Modern Welfare States written by Eric S. Einhorn and published by Bloomsbury Publishing USA. This book was released on 2003-07-30 with total page 424 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Einhorn and Logue analyze the political, economic, and social challenges facing five small, affluent, and advanced industrial democracies in Scandinavia: Denmark, Finland, Iceland, Norway, and Sweden. Updated and expanded from its successful predecessor, this edition emphasizes how global and European developments have affected democratic policymaking in areas such as: • Social welfare policy • Employment policy • Labor relations • Economic policy • Social change A comprehensive yet accessible survey of political history, governmental institutions, policymaking, political parties, interest groups, political culture, and foreign relations is also included. The comparative and interdisciplinary focus makes this a stimulating source of ideas for anyone interested in democracy and social justice in the global era.

Download or read book Community Viability Rapid Change and Socio ecological Futures written by Jónas Gunnar Allansson and published by . This book was released on 2000 with total page 598 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Conference theme : How the small West-Nordic (Vestnorden) nations - the Faroe Islands, Greenland, and Iceland - will cope the global world technical changes.

Download or read book The Organization Ecology of Interest Communities written by Darren Halpin and published by Springer. This book was released on 2016-04-29 with total page 285 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This volume summarizes the origins and development of the organization ecology approach to the study of interest representation and lobbying, and outlines an agenda for future research. Multiple authors from different countries and from different perspectives contribute their analysis of this research program.