West European Politics articles from July 2003

West European Politics archives from July 2003

The European Union as a consociation? A methodological assessment.
July 1, 2003... The area of application of the consociative theory--first conceived in the 1960s as an instrument to analyse the specific aspects of Europe's smaller democracies--has regularly and constantly expanded. The most influential theoretician of...

The many faces of EU committee governance.
July 1, 2003... Committees are an essential part of the functioning of modern governance. Some committees are official, while others are unofficial or even ad hoc. They play a crucial role in the daily operation of the European Union (EU) system of governance...

Rethinking Corporatism and Consensus: the dilemmas of German social-protection reform.
July 1, 2003... The pressures associated with a struggling economy are transforming the consensual, gradualist model of German policy making. The government of Social Democratic Chancellor Gerhard Schroder, elected in 1998 amid promises to end the Reformstau...

Cinderella and her ugly sisters: the mainstream and extreme right in Europe's bipolarising party systems.
July 1, 2003... Far right parties (1) can no longer be thought of as somehow pathological or even parasitical. They have a significant number of loyal voters; they seem better able to survive institutionalisation than was previously assumed; and xenophobia and...

Success in opposition--failure in government: explaining the performance of right-wing populist parties in public office.
July 1, 2003... Are right-wing populist movements destined to remain radical anti-system parties and thus permanently in opposition mode? Or, alternatively, can they preserve their political essence after achieving power and thus create a distinctly new type...

Competency and bureaucracy: diffusion, application and appropriate response?
July 1, 2003... Competency--avant la lettre, perhaps--has long been at the heart of debates about administration and bureaucracy, denoting the skills and capabilities that the state machine does or should possess, as well as its legal powers. The term acquired...

From the 'rainbow coalition' back down to 'red earth'? The 2003 Finnish general election.(Elections in Context)
July 1, 2003... The night of 16 March 2003 witnessed one of the most exciting elections in Finland for years. For once, the result was not cut and dried within an hour of the polling stations closing--an election vigil in name only--and even as the clock...

The 2003 Maltese EU referendum and general election.
July 1, 2003... On 12 April, the Maltese voted to return the Nationalist Party (PN) to office in what was, by Maltese standards, another landslide victory over the Malta Labour Party (MLP). Although a margin in excess of four percentage points between these...

The place of parties in contemporary democracies.(3 books on European political parties)(Book Review)
July 1, 2003... Parties, Politics, and Democracy in the New Southern Europe. Edited by P. NIKIFOROS DIAMANDOUROS and RICHARD GUNTHER. Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press, 2001. pp.496. 44.50 [pounds sterling] (cloth), ISBN 0801865174; 14 [pounds...

Divided Government in Comparative Perspective.(Book Review)
July 1, 2003... Edited by ROBERT ELGIE. Oxford, Oxford University Press, 2001. Pp.xii + 242, biblio, index. 40 [pounds sterling] (cloth) ISBN 0-19-829565-0. What is divided government? For the purposes of this book the editor identifies the concept...

The Sources of Democratic Consolidation.(Book Review)
July 1, 2003... By GERARD ALEXANDER. Ithaca and London: Cornell University Press, 2002. Pp.xii + 289, 5 figs., 13 tables, index. 25.95 [pounds sterling] (cloth) ISBN 0-8014-3947-7. This book confronts the reader with an original, highly convincing and...

Sistemas administrativos comparados.(Book Review)
July 1, 2003... By SALVADOR PARRADO. Madrid: Tecnos Universidad Pompeu Fabra 2002. Pp.266, index, biblio. 17 (paper) ISBN 84-309-3833-8. The author has produced a very ambitious book that in design, scope and output, is the first of its kind in the Spanish...

Spanish Society after Franco.(Book Review)
July 1, 2003... By STEEN P. MANGEN. Basingstoke: Palgrave 2001. Pp.ix + 242, biblio, index, appendices. 47.50 [pounds sterling] (cloth) ISBN 0-333-65462-5. This is the first book in English to trace developments in the Spanish welfare state from the 1820s...

La europeizacion del sistema politico espanol.(Book Review)
July 1, 2003... Edited by CARLOS CLOSA. Madrid: Istmo 2001. Pp.523, biblio. 17 (paper) ISBN 84-7090-420-5. This volume should be welcomed as a contribution enlarging the European literature that, from the mid-1990s, has focused on the effects of European...

Local Governance in England and France.(Book Review)
July 1, 2003... By ALISTAIR COLE and PETER JOHN. London: Routledge 2001. Pp. 192. 57 [pounds sterling] (cloth) ISBN 0-415-23942-7. Peter John and Alistair Cole argue that the time of local government in Europe has passed and that the new local governance...

Days of Blue Loyalty: the Politics of Membership of the Fine Gael Party.(Book Review)
July 1, 2003... By MICHAEL GALLAGHER and MICHAEL MARSH. Dublin: PSAI Press, 2002. Pp.287. 16 [euro] (paper) ISBN 0-9519748-6-6. The title of this book is credited to a member of Fine Gael, Ireland's second largest political party. It emerged in response to...

Polder Politics: the Reinvention of Consensus Democracy in the Netherlands.(Book Review)
July 1, 2003... Edited by F. HENDRICKS and T.A.J. TOONEN. Aldershot: Ashgate 2001. Pp.xii + 309, 5 figs, 5 tables, biblio. 45 [pounds sterling] (cloth) ISBN 0-7546-1819-6. For outside observers, the unprecedented turmoil witnessed recently in Dutch...

The European Union and the Cyprus Conflict: Modern Conflict, Postmodern Union.(Book Review)
July 1, 2003... Edited by THOMAS DIEZ. Manchester and New York: Manchester University Press 2002. Pp.xii + 238, biblio, index. 45 [pounds sterling] (cloth) ISBN 0-7190-6079-6. The publication of this volume forms a timely academic intervention on the...

Democratic Phoenix. Reinventing Political Activism.(Book Review)
July 1, 2003... By PIPPA NORRIS. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press 2002. Pp.xiv + 290, biblio, index, 42 tables, 30 figs. 16.95 [pounds sterling] (paper) ISBN 0-521-01053-5; 47.50 [pounds sterling] (cloth) ISBN 0-521-81177-5. The author challenges the...