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Party Patronage and Party Government in European Democracies brings together insights from the worlds of party politics and public administration in order to analyze the role of political parties in public appointments across contemporary Europe. Based on an extensive new data gathered through expert interviews in fifteen European countries, this book offers the first systematic comparative assessment of the scale of party patronage and its role in sustaining modern party governments. Among the key findings are: First, patronage appointments tend to be increasingly dominated by the party in public office rather than being used or controlled by the party organization outside parliament. Secon...
This volume makes a significant contribution to the debate about the development of post-communist civil society by focusing on its alleged 'dark side', i.e., on the groups that are excluded from 'civil society' on both conceptual and normative grounds. The chapters, written by specialists in the field, explore in rich empirical detail the complexities involved when such groups - like the skinheads in Hungary, the farmers' 'Self Defence' movement in Poland or the war-veterans in Croatia - challenge the state, engage in community activism, or get involved in protest actions. It also offers a contrasting perspective by focusing on similar activities by the alleged 'pro-democratic' actors of civil society, such as Impulse 99 in the Czech Republic. The book maintains that political protest, or contentious politics, should be included under a broad and positive development of associational activity in the region. Uncivil Society? Contentious Politics in Post-Communist Europe is a fascinating study, and will be of interest to scholars of Eastern European politics and history.
Scholars of post-communist politics often argue that parties in new democracies lack strong organizations - sizable membership, local presence, and professional management - because they do not need them to win elections and they may hinder a party's flexibility and efficiency in office. Post-Communist Democracies and Party Organization explains why some political parties are better able than others to establish themselves in new democracies and why some excel at staying unified in parliament, whereas others remain dominated by individuals. Focusing on the democratic transitions in post-communist Europe from 1990 to 2010, Margit Tavits demonstrates that the successful establishment of a political party in a new democracy crucially depends on the strength of its organization. Yet not all parties invest in organization development. This book uses data from ten post-communist democracies, including detailed analysis of parties in the Czech Republic, Estonia, Hungary, and Poland.
Previously published as a special issue of The Journal of Communist Studies and Transition Politics, this volume analyzes the party-state linkages in post-communist Europe alongside three analytical dimensions.
In this book, an international team of specialists reflects, more than a dozen years after the fall of the Berlin Wall, on the implications of that momentous conjuncture for the study of party politics in Europe. In particular, the authors and editors seek to address two inter-connected questions: To what extent is there evidence of convergence in patterns of party politics across Eastern and Western Europe? And how far has the theory of parties and party systems coped with the emergence of democratic politics in Eastern Europe? In a wideranging and stimulating set of essays, these issues are confronted in respect of themes such as the impact of institutional contexts like electoral systems and presidentialism, the evolving nature of cleavage structures, party organizational developments, and intra-party factionalism. This book will make a significant addition to any course reading list on comparative and party politics.
The search for identity is a continuous challenge in the global world: from personal identity to social, national, European or professional identities, each person experiences nowadays a multi-dimensional self-representation. Placing the topic against an intercultural background, with a focus on communication, this book addresses the complicated relationship between self, identity, and society, from an academic perspective. The authors of the chapters in this book offer a complex landscape of professional and scholar approaches and research, in various parts of the world, including Canada, China, Estonia, France, Greece, Israel, Romania, and the United States of America.
This exciting new handbook provides a global overview of the process of democratization, offering chapter by chapter discussion at both the country and regional levels and examining the interaction between the domestic and external factors that affect the progression of countries from authoritarian to democratic rule. Bringing together 29 key experts in the field, the work is designed to contrast the processes and outcomes of democratic reform in a wide range of different societies, evaluating the influence of factors such as religion, economic development, and financial resources. It is structured thematically into four broad sections: Section I provides a regional tour d’horizon of the c...
The Routledge Handbook of East European Politics is an authoritative overview that will help a wide readership develop an understanding of the region in all its political, economic, and social complexity. Including Central Europe, the Baltic republics, South Eastern Europe, and the Western Balkans, as well as all the countries of the former Soviet Union, it is unrivalled in breadth and depth, affording a comprehensive overview of Eastern European politics provided by leading experts in the fields of comparative politics, international relations, and public administration. Through a series of cutting-edge articles, it seeks to explain and understand patterns of Eastern European politics today. The Routledge Handbook of East European Politics will be a key reference point both for advanced-level students developing knowledge about the subject, researchers producing new material in the area, and those interested and working in the fields of East European Politics, Russian Politics, EU Politics, and more broadly in European Politics, Comparative Politics, Democratization Studies, and International Relations.
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 unst...