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Multiparty Elections in Authoritarian Regimes
Susanne Michalik analyzes why authoritarian regimes allow for multiparty elections and how they affect political outcomes. Even though their introduction rarely leads to a change in power, such elections should not be regarded as mere window-dressing. She argues that competitive elections are installed to deal with a split among the incumbent elite and to facilitate the formation of a new ruling coalition. In a cross-national study the author finds that elections matter and the ruling party does more than just manipulate election results in order to be reelected. Incumbents provide a mix of public goods and targeted public goods depending on the level of electoral competition they are experiencing. The outcome of authoritarian multiparty elections in the form of the legislature’s party composition also has an effect on the regime’s international relations in the form of foreign aid allocation.
Lobbying in the European Union
Thousands of lobbyists lobby decision-makers in Brussels every day, but little is known about their impact on policy. Lobbying in the European Union addresses this research gap and analyzes the conditions under which interest groups can successfully lobby the European institutions.
Conflict, Negotiation and European Union Enlargement
This book argues on EU enlargement looks at how EU members and applicant states negotiate enlargement benefits and costs.
Identities in Civil Conflict
Eva Bernauer predicts civil conflicts based upon the political exclusion of identity groups and their transnational links to external governments. The innovation lies in a simultaneous consideration of three identities – ethnicity, religion, and class-based ideology – thus extending previous studies with merely an ethnic focus. Most importantly, such a perspective implies a shift towards a society’s unique three-dimensional identity setup, upon which the excluded population and their transnational links can be determined. The author presents original data on the three-dimensional identity setup for 57 countries and introduces a formal model where rebel leaders strategically use identities to garner the support of the population. Key quantities of interest, such as the largest excluded subgroup or the number of identity links to external governments, are tested in several quantitative analyses as predictors for the onset of civil conflicts. The author shows that there is an added value of extending the mere ethnic perspective to also encompass religion and class-based ideology.
Party Communication in Routine Times of Politics
Simona Bevern addresses the questions what and why political parties communicate in the time between elections, focusing on the dynamic rise and fall of policy issues. Despite the central role of political parties and the alleged importance of communication, only few scholars have taken a closer look at the content and dynamics of parties’ communication in routine times of politics. In this study, interactions between parties’ communication, their party competitors, the legislative agenda and public opinion are studied in Germany for the years 2004–2009, making use of a novel data set and quantitative methods.
Parliaments and Legislative Activity
Martin Brunner aims at solving the puzzle of why opposition parties or government backbenchers propose legislation even though the chance to influence policy outcomes in this manner is almost nil. He argues that instead of influencing policies directly most parliamentary bills serve different purposes: They are used in order to signal own policy positions and to show alternatives to government policies. Or they point at topics that rank high on the public agenda but low on the government agenda. They can also be a means for individual Members of Parliament to build up an independent personal profile. Using formal models and comparative empirical evidence from Belgium, France, Germany, and the United Kingdom the author shows that parliamentary initiatives of opposition and backbenchers are not simply “much ado about nothing”, but the result of vote-seeking motivations.
Deutsche und italienische Verwaltungssprache im digitalen Zeitalter
Bürgernähe, Verständlichkeit, Transparenz und Digitalisierung sind Prinzipien, nach denen öffentliche Verwaltungen heute ihre Tätigkeiten auszurichten versuchen. Der Band untersucht Dokumente von Schweizer Behörden auf Deutsch und Italienisch. Er fokussiert die kommunikativen Aufgaben der Verwaltungen im komplexen Umfeld von Rechtsetzung und Politik und arbeitet den allgemein als unbefriedigend bezeichneten Forschungsstand auf. Thematisch liegt der Schwerpunkt auf der Einbürgerung in der Schweiz, einem Vorgang, der verschiedene Verwaltungsebenen berührt. Der Band ermittelt relevante Texte und Textsorten in ihren Relationen und Vernetzungen. Er leistet einen wichtigen Beitrag zu intra- und interlingualen Vergleichen von Texten, die das öffentliche Leben und den Alltag von Bürgerinnen und Bürgern mitbestimmen, deren systematische Erforschung bisher jedoch nur in geringem Maße erfolgt ist.
