Suchergebnisse

AbstractThe barriers to concerted political action on climate change mitigation are steep, especially in multilevel systems where power is diffused and authority contested. This article seeks to explain how mobilization—galvanizing resources and people to participate actively—occurs in complex multilevel systems. It compares two different polities—the United States and the European Union—to tease out the key features of multilevel systems and how they affect climate activism and mobilization. To capture this dynamic, it proposes a three‐staged model of mobilization: awareness building, alliance building, and network creation. The latter stage features "mobilization networks"—stakeholder networks able to transcend levels and institutional inertia and steer polities toward particular climate goals. The article demonstrates how each stage of mobilization is highly contingent on stakeholders' ability to exploit—or at least navigate—multilevel institutional barriers.

This thoughtful book builds on Schmitter's earlier work on
European integration and, more recently, his interest in
democratization in Latin America and southern Europe.
Schmitter joins the ever expanding ranks of scholars and
practitioners from a variety of backgrounds who have tackled
the devilish issue of European Union (EU) democracy and
legitimacy. This attempt is more hands-on than others. As the
title suggests, Schmitter offers a do-it-yourself checklist of
reforms to improve the EU's democratic credentials. His
larger self-assigned task is to "provoke as wide-ranging a
debate as possible on an issue that has just begun to receive
the attention it deserves" (p. viii).