Suchergebnisse

This article provides a comparative analysis of the degree of Europeanization of national party manifestos. The research is based on a newly established database, which comprises digitized party manifestos of relevant parties in the period 1960–2003 in most of the established member states. The unit of analysis is the frequency of 'co-mentions' of 20 policy areas and (aspects of) Europe and the European Union. The results show that the degree to which parties acknowledge the increasing impact of Europe on policy-making depends on factors such as the time period, the type of policy sector, the duration of EU membership, the general attitude of parties towards European integration and the degree of internal consensus on European issues. Hence, references to Europe do not (only) reflect the process of European integration itself, but are affected by both insti tutional and party strategic factors.

There is a lively academic debate over whether political cleavages in the European Union (EU) follow mainly territorial (national) or non-territorial (ideological) patterns. This article analyses the cleavages that structure the conflict over European chemicals policy, the so-called REACH system. Taking positions on this major policy as an empirical example, we test these competing theories on the nature of cleavages on environmental policy issues in the EU. We use data from an expert survey of more than 600 individuals to fulfil this aim. The results show that neither of the hypotheses is unequivocally supported. But the data indicate that cleavages based on non-territorial interests are much more important than territorial interests in explaining positions on REACH.

"This all-new replacement for Developments in European Politics brings together specially commissioned chapters by leading authorities on European politics -- East and West -- to provide a systematic assessment of developments in political institutions and processes, politics and society, and policy"--

This book examines the effects of personnel turnover in European Union (EU) institutions. Individuals enter and exit EU institutions with remarkable frequency, and questions involving institutional personnel lie at the heart of populist and feminist critiques of the EU. Are these critiques accurate? How do personnel dynamics affect the EU's legitimacy? Will changing patterns of turnover help to redeem the EU? Personnel Turnover addresses these issues by considering turnover's effects on three aspects of legitimacy (input, throughput, and output). Authors use a common framework to explore various questions: Does turnover affect the ways that EU citizens see the EU or the likelihood that citizens will participate in EU elections? Does turnover affect the efficiency of the EU decision-making or the EU's ability to promote its interests abroad? In tackling these contemporary subjects, the authors throw light on a classical question—what difference does it make when political leaders are replaced? John A. Scherpereel is Professor of Political Science at James Madison University in Harrisonburg, USA. The author of Governing the Czech Republic and Slovakia: Between State Socialism and the European Union, his research focuses on executive politics, legislative politics, and political representation.

Containing contributions from a distinguished team of European academics, this book focuses on those institutional reforms of the European Union that may be necessary to make the enlargement possible.

Turkey's accession to the European Union is undoubtedly one of the Union's most contested potential enlargements. The narrative that dominates the debate surrounding this issue primarily relates to problems such as a lack of respect for fundamental human rights in Turkey, the Kurdish question and the continuing stalemate concerning northern Cyprus. This book looks at these issues, but also proposes that a review of Turkey's experience with the EU in its numerous incarnations suggests that these concerns may mask a deeper disquiet. Whilst there are several questions that Turkey must address, pa.

"European Union (EU) macro-regional strategies, such as the ones composed for the Adriatic Ionian, Alpine, Baltic Sea and Danube regions, aim to improve transnational cooperation and coordination in a 'territorially defined' setting. These strategies propose an integrated framework for cooperation involving a wide range of EU member states, regional organisations, sub-national authorities, civil society organisations as well as non-EU partner countries. The contributors question whether macro-regional strategies are helpful instruments for improving actor-policy linkages at the European, member/partner countries, and sub-national levels, and whether the objective of social, economic and territorial cohesion can be fulfilled through these strategies"--

"Hans Vollaard leads the debate about contemporary developments in Europe as the process of integration appears headed in reverse. His book is an essential reference point both for those who want to know what happened to existing theories and for those who are seeking to understand how popular dissatisfaction with the European project is likely to have an impact." -Professor Erik Jones, Johns Hopkins University, USA "This is a brave pioneering effort to make sense of the current European predicament. Curiously, we have numerous theories of European integration and virtually none regarding the opposite process. Hans Vollaard's book helps us to map and explain European disintegration from diverse theoretical angles. Students and practitioners of the EU should pay attention to his arguments." -Professor Jan Zielonka, University of Oxford, UK This book accounts for whether and how the path of the European Union (EU) has developed towards potential disintegration. These questions have become particularly relevant since the outbreak of the debt crises in the Eurozone and the Brexit referendum. The author critically subverts theories of European integration and analyses the rise and fall of federations, empires and states in a comparative perspective. The most promising theory presented here indicates that Brexit is not likely to be followed by other member states leaving the EU. Nevertheless, the EU has been undermined from within as it cannot adequately address Eurosceptic dissatisfaction from both the left and right. This book is an essential read for everyone interested in the EU and its future

In this paper, we seek to understand why attitudes vary among individuals regarding the issue of income distribution in European Union member states. We believe that the issue of income inequality is a potentially significant political cleavage that may have an important influence in meaningful ways in European politics. Rather than focusing on the national context to explain variation in citizen attitudes toward income inequality, we control for national context and explore the relative influence of various individual-level characteristics in shaping how Europeans think about the distribution of income in their countries. We assess how individuals' political attitude, economic self-interest, and general attitude toward society affect how they think about income equality in their own society. To test these propositions, we devise a series of hypotheses that are tested in an ordered probit model using data from the 2000—1 wave of the World Values and European Values Surveys. It is our contention that the way people think about income inequality in their society is largely a product of the ideas that they hold about politics and society, and not principally a product of their economic self-interest.