Suchergebnisse

Was macht das Phänomen "Populismus" aus, und wie hat es sich in den letzten Jahrzehnten entwickelt? Edward Weber geht diesen Fragen nach, basierend auf quantitativen Längsschnittanalysen der drei Untersuchungsebenen: "Responsivität der politischen Eliten", "Populismus der Bürger" und "Populismus im Diskurs der Parteien". Die Arbeit stützt sich dabei auf Schweizer Daten, ist aber für westeuropäische Länder generell relevant. Die Ergebnisse zeigen unter anderem: Populismus ist ein konstanter Begleiter der Demokratie und die heutigen nationalkonservativen Parteien sind nicht deshalb populistisch, weil sie nationalkonservativ sind, sondern weil sie relativ neu sind und sich noch nicht in das politische Establishment integriert haben.

The 2005 French and Dutch referendum campaigns were characterized by an alleged disconnect between pro-European political elites and Eurosceptic masses. Past evidence regarding elite-mass linkages in the context of European integration has been conflicting. Whereas some scholars argue that political elites respond to the changing preferences of their electorates, others suggest that party elites cue the mass public through a process of information and persuasion. We contend that these conflicting results stem from the reciprocal nature of elite-mass linkages and estimate a series of dynamic simultaneous equations models to account for this reverse causation. Using Euro-barometer and expert survey data from 1984-2002, we find evidence of a dual-process model, whereby party elites both respond to and shape the views of their supporters. We also find that the strength of these results is contingent on several factors, including the type of electoral system, intra-party dissent and voter characteristics.

Expert surveys have been subject to a number of criticisms concerning their ability to produce accurate estimates of party positions. Such criticisms have particular prima facie credibility in new post-Communist democracies of Central and Eastern Europe, where party development is regarded as weak. This paper compares data from two expert surveys independently conducted between 2002 and 2004. We find, contrary to expectations, that there is a remarkable overlap in positions assigned to parties. This suggests the usefulness of expert surveys even in the 'most difficult' case of post-Communist party systems. It also suggests that parties in these countries have developed effective means of communicating their positions on major issues. [Copyright 2006 Elsevier Ltd.]

This study of deliberative politics provides the first extended empirical analysis of the role of conversation and arguments in politics. Examining parliamentary debates in Germany, Switzerland, the United Kingdom and the United States, the authors measure the preconditions and consequences of high level deliberation