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Citizenship and Democracy in an Era of Crisis
Democracies are transforming worldwide, but at the same time political inequality is increasing. This development threatens to leave growing portions of mass publics effectively ‘outside’ the political process. This volume brings together leading authorities in the field of democratic citizenship and participation to address pertinent questions concerning the quality of the democratic political process at the beginning of the twenty-first century. Analysing causes and consequences of recent developments in democratic governance and citizenship, it contributes new and original research to the ongoing debate on the crisis of representative democracy. The contributors deal with a broad range of issues including aspects of democratic citizenship and citizens' perceptions of system performance, political inequality and the democratic impact of participatory innovations. This book will be of key interest to scholars and students in democratization studies, democratic citizenship, comparative politics, political sociology and political participation.
Political Representation in France and Germany
Notwithstanding its contemporary critics, political representation remains at the core of democratic politics. Based on a comparative research project that gathered data from observations, surveys, experiments and expert interviews, this book examines the process and the quality of political representation in France and Germany from a dual perspective. First, it analyzes MPs’ behavior during their district activities. Second, it investigates the perceptions and evaluations of the represented, the French and German citizens. In ten chapters different facets of MPs’ activities as well as citizens’ attitudes are comparatively investigated. The book is relevant for Politics scholars and practitioners at national parliaments to better understand representative democracies, and it may also contribute to improve representation itself.
Civil Society and Activism in Europe
This book examines the role of civil society organizations in several advanced European democracies: Germany, the Netherlands, Spain, Switzerland and the United Kingdom. Specifically the book focuses on how voluntary organizations contribute to civic and democratic health and assesses the impact of different organizational types on social capital. Building on Citizenship and Involvement in European Democracies and Social Capital and Associations in Europe (2007), this volume seeks to widen and deepen the analysis by introducing new data on activists and combining it with the organizational data and the population data. It evaluates the impact of the organizational context on individual activ...
Community Energy in Germany
In this ground-breaking book, Jörg Radtke offers for the first time within research, a comprehensive insight into the range of organizational structures of community energy projects in Germany and their contribution to the Energiewende. Based on nationwide quantitative survey data and in-depth analyses of selected case studies of solar, wind and geothermal projects, Radtke documents the social structure and motivations of participating citizens. He examines new forms of material participation, community building and co-determination within the mostly volunteer-led community energy projects based on the civic engagement patterns of active “green citizens”. The author identifies a new form of individualistic participation and collective modes of action in line with new types of project-oriented participation between business, politics and civil society within sustainability transformation processes of the early 21st century.
Europeanization and New Member States
This book examines the Europeanization of the polity and politics of a new EU Member State. Using social network analysis in a comparative research design, it provides a systematic analysis of the effects of Europeanization on the institutions, policy processes, power constellation and conflict among national elites. Providing a detailed case study on Romania in comparative perspective, the book analyses the impact of the European Union integration process on decision-making in six policy networks to develop a cross-sector and cross-time comparative analysis. It explores mandatory EU requirements in the area of immigration and asylum and the implementation of various EU directives during the...
Party Attitudes Towards the EU in the Member States
In a moment where the EU is facing an important number of challenges, there is growing interest in understanding how parties influence the way Europe evolves as a political issue, notably how parties structure domestic competition over European issues and they mobilise sentiments in referenda over European integration . This book examines the views of national parties towards the European Union and the different facets of a supranational citizenship. It provides an in-depth investigation into the variations to the cross-national patterns in ten countries, including old and new member states and different EU regions. Using original and innovative concepts, data and research techniques the aut...
Italy's Foreign Policy in the Twenty-first Century
Italy’s foreign policy has often been dismissed as too idiosyncratic, inconsistent and lacking ambition. This book offers new insights into the position Italy has attained in the international community in the 21st century. It explores how the country has sought to take advantage of its passage from a bipolar to a multipolar system and assesses the ways in which it has engaged internationally, its new responsibilities, and the manner in which it conducts its policies in the pursuit of its interests, whether political or commercial. It argues that although Italy is engaged internationally, there is a gap between its actions and what it actually delivers, and as long as this gap continues Italy is likely to remain a partial and unreliable foreign policy actor. Divided into three parts, this book explores: the context and processes which characterise Italy’s external action its relations with crucial countries and regions such as the US, the EU, and the BRICs its security and defence policies. This book will be of interest to students and scholars of European Politics, Foreign Policy analysis and Italian studies.
The Political Ecology of the Metropolis
An increasing number of citizens now live in sprawling yet interconnected urban environments, as diversified metropolitan geographies eclipse the centuries-old divide between urban and rural areas. This changing landscape has also transformed local sources of electoral politics, and the resulting patterns of electoral support and participation have shifted partisan competition to the right. This volume undertakes the first international comparative analysis of metropolitan political behavior, termed the "metropolitanization of politics," providing a powerful new thesis for explaining a number of recent shifts in political preferences and voting habits.
Between-Election Democracy
Acknowledging the elitist character of representative democracy, this book seeks new approaches to empirical studies on the relationship between citizens and their elected representatives. Focusing on the way representatives and citizens interact during mandate periods between elections, it integrates research literatures that study representative parallel relationships; it identifies new research questions; and it suggests a new understanding of the key concept ‘responsiveness’.
