Assessing Political Representation in Europe

Assessing Political Representation in Europe PDF Author: Christine Arnold
Publisher: Routledge
ISBN: 1000112578
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 239

Get Book Here

Book Description
It has long been realized that democratic governance requires a two-way flow of influence. Governments must be able to respond to what people want and people must be able to react to what governments do. These mechanisms of democratic governance have contributed to two research traditions: one, the responsible party approach, views policy change as a consequence of ‘electoral turnover’; and the other, the dynamic representation approach, views policy change as occurring in ‘rational anticipation’ of electoral repercussions. The aim of this book is to evaluate the state of political representation in contemporary Europe in the light of these two approaches. The chapters present fresh insight into issue congruence between voters and parties and into the extent of dynamic representation. The chapters are logically clustered into three groups: one group of scholars base their work on the ‘responsible party model’ and apply it to voters and European parties and party groups; a second group of scholars demonstrate the importance of institutional structures on the degree of issue congruence; and a third group of scholars examine the reciprocal nature of dynamic representation and the effects of institutions on the opinion-policy connection. This book was published as a special issue of West European Politics.

Assessing Political Representation in Europe

Assessing Political Representation in Europe PDF Author: Christine Arnold
Publisher: Routledge
ISBN: 1000112578
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 239

Get Book Here

Book Description
It has long been realized that democratic governance requires a two-way flow of influence. Governments must be able to respond to what people want and people must be able to react to what governments do. These mechanisms of democratic governance have contributed to two research traditions: one, the responsible party approach, views policy change as a consequence of ‘electoral turnover’; and the other, the dynamic representation approach, views policy change as occurring in ‘rational anticipation’ of electoral repercussions. The aim of this book is to evaluate the state of political representation in contemporary Europe in the light of these two approaches. The chapters present fresh insight into issue congruence between voters and parties and into the extent of dynamic representation. The chapters are logically clustered into three groups: one group of scholars base their work on the ‘responsible party model’ and apply it to voters and European parties and party groups; a second group of scholars demonstrate the importance of institutional structures on the degree of issue congruence; and a third group of scholars examine the reciprocal nature of dynamic representation and the effects of institutions on the opinion-policy connection. This book was published as a special issue of West European Politics.

Special Issue on Assessing Political Representation in Europe

Special Issue on Assessing Political Representation in Europe PDF Author: Christine Arnold
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category : Democracy
Languages : en
Pages : 7

Get Book Here

Book Description


Political Representation in the European Union

Political Representation in the European Union PDF Author: Sandra Kröger
Publisher: Routledge
ISBN: 1317745493
Category : Political Science
Languages : en
Pages : 275

Get Book Here

Book Description
In recent years the financial and economic crisis of 2008–9 has progressed into an equally important political and democratic crisis of the EU. These troubled times have set the framework to re-assess a number of important questions in regard to representative democracy in the EU, such as the normative foundation of political representation, the institutional relationship between representatives and represented, the link between democracy and representation and new arenas and actors. This book examines the diverse avenues through which different sorts of actors have expressed their voices during the Euro crisis and how their various interests are translated into the decision-making process. It offers a state-of- the-art assessment of what political representation means in this context as well as a contribution to the ‘representative turn’ in democratic theory. The authors address three key themes: • The main actors and channels of political representation in the EU. • Interlocking levels of representation in the EU and the way in which national and supranational representation works. • How the European institutional system represents EU citizens through law and administration. Focusing on the importance of representation in the legitimation of democracy, this book will be of interest to students and scholars of European Union politics, European studies, democratic theory, representation studies, civil society and transnational democracy.

Assessing the 2019 European Parliament Elections

Assessing the 2019 European Parliament Elections PDF Author: Sylvia Kritzinger
Publisher: Routledge
ISBN: 1000057267
Category : Political Science
Languages : en
Pages : 401

Get Book Here

Book Description
Informed by and against the backdrop of the 2019 European Parliament (EP) elections, this innovative book provides a critical assessment of where Europe stands in terms of the quest to achieve democratic legitimacy. Since the 2014 EP elections, the European Union (EU) has experienced multiple crises, which arguably have undermined its legitimacy. The 2019 EP elections were hence seen as a crucial moment in the EU’s attempts to show resilience and regain trust. Using political science and legal frames of analysis, Assessing the 2019 European Parliament Elections provides an understanding and assessment of the current politico-legal framework, and its impact on European elections. Furthermore, using original data, it provides a timely examination of public opinion issue priorities and voting behaviour at the 2019 EP elections in eight countries. Given the critical conjuncture that the 2019 EP elections represent, this volume provides a key contribution to understanding both the dynamics surrounding the elections, as well as voters’ responses, and informs debates on European politics, for example, second-order elections, democratic legitimacy and political representation. This book will be of key interest to scholars and students of EU politics, public administration, European studies, European law, and sociology, along with practitioners in politics, journalism, and policy analysis.

How Europeans View and Evaluate Democracy

How Europeans View and Evaluate Democracy PDF Author: Monica Ferrin
Publisher: Oxford University Press
ISBN: 0198766904
Category : Political Science
Languages : en
Pages : 431

Get Book Here

Book Description
Based on a new data-set covering 29 European and neighboring countries, this volume shows how, Europeans view and evaluate democracy: what are their conceptions of democracy, how do they assess the quality of democracy in their own country, and to what extent do they consider their country's democracy as legitimate? The study shows that Europeans share a common view of liberal democracy, which is complemented by elements of social and direct democracy, which go beyond the basic liberal model. The level of their demands in terms of democracy varies, however, considerably across Europe and is related to their assessment of democracy: the worse the quality of democracy in a given country, the higher the respective demands on democracy. The analysis of the determinants of democratic views and evaluations shows that they depend on the political and economic (but less on the cultural) context conditions. Comparative Politics is a series for students, teachers, and researchers of political science that deals with contemporary government and politics. Global in scope, books in the series are characterised by a stress on comparative analysis and strong methodological rigour. The series is published in association with the European Consortium for Political Research. For more information visit: www.ecprnet.eu. The Comparative Politics series is edited by Emilie van Haute, Professor of Political Science, Universite libre de Bruxelles; Ferdinand Muller-Rommel, Director of the Center for the Study of Democracy, Leuphana University; and Susan Scarrow, Chair of the Department of Political Science, University of Houston.

The Oxford Handbook of Political Representation in Liberal Democracies

The Oxford Handbook of Political Representation in Liberal Democracies PDF Author: Robert Rohrschneider
Publisher: Oxford University Press
ISBN: 0192558692
Category : Political Science
Languages : en
Pages : 731

Get Book Here

Book Description
The Handbook of Political Representation in Liberal Democracies offers a state-of-the-art assessment of the functioning of political representation in liberal democracies. In 34 chapters the world's leading scholars on the various aspects of political representation address eight broad themes: The concept and theories of political representation, its history and the main requisites for its development; elite orientations and behavior; descriptive representation; party government and representation; non-electoral forms of political participation and how they relate to political representation; the challenges to representative democracy originating from the growing importance of non-majoritarian institutions and social media; the rise of populism and its consequences for the functioning of representative democracy; the challenge caused by economic and political globlization: what does it mean for the functioning of political representation at the national leval and is it possible to develop institutions of representative democracy at a level above the state that meet the normative criteria of representative democracy and are supported by the people? The various chapters offer a comprehensive review of the literature on the various aspects of political representation. The main organizing principle of the Handbook is the chain of political representation, the chain connecting the interests and policy preferences of the people to public policy via political parties, parliament, and government. Most of the chapters assessing the functioning of the chain of political representation and its various links are based on original comparative political research. Comparative research on political representation and its various subfields has developed dramatically over the last decades so that even ten years ago a Handbook like this would have looked totally different.

Political Representation and Legitimacy in the European Union

Political Representation and Legitimacy in the European Union PDF Author: Hermann Schmitt
Publisher: OUP Oxford
ISBN: 0191522708
Category : Political Science
Languages : en
Pages : 323

Get Book Here

Book Description
How severe a problem is what many call the 'democratic deficit' of the European Union? Despite a voluminous theoretical literature dealing with this question, there is hardly any systematic empirical investigation of the effectiveness of the system of political representation in the EU and of the legitimacy beliefs of EU citizens that spring from it. This volume elaborates a conceptual framework for the empirical analysis of the alleged democratic deficit. Four dimensions of legitimacy beliefs are identified and analysed: the European political community, the scope of EU government, the institutions and processes of EU government, and EU policies. Based upon large-scale representative surveys among the mass publics, and different strata of the political elite of the EU and its member-states, the book examines the conditions of political representation in the EU. The results demonstrate, by and large, that legitimacy beliefs of EU citizens are the more positive, the less specific the object of identification and evaluations is; and that the process of political representation works pretty well as long as issues other than European Union issues are concerned. These findings are finally discussed in view of familiar strategies for institutional reform of the European Union.

The Strain of Representation

The Strain of Representation PDF Author: Robert Rohrschneider
Publisher: Oxford University Press
ISBN: 0191612316
Category : Political Science
Languages : en
Pages :

Get Book Here

Book Description
The Strain of Representation assesses and explains the extent to which political parties across Europe as a whole have succeeded in representing diverse voters. The authors note two important features of the European political landscape that complicate the task of assessing party representation and that require its reassessment: First, the emergence of new democracies in post-Communist Central and Eastern Europe point to the possibility that representation is not only differentially achieved in West and East but may also be attained by different mechanisms. Second, parties in both West and East must now seek to represent voters that are increasingly diverse, specifically between partisan and independent supporters. The book refers to the challenges of representation of diverse voters as 'the strain of representation'. The evidential basis for the empirical analysis are expert surveys conducted in 24 European countries on party positions that have been merged with other available data on voters, party characteristics, and country conditions. The results point to both the representational capacities of parties in West and East and to the strain that parties face in representing diverse voters.

Political Representation and European Union Governance

Political Representation and European Union Governance PDF Author: Peter Mair
Publisher: Routledge
ISBN: 1317986644
Category : Political Science
Languages : en
Pages : 161

Get Book Here

Book Description
This book confronts and discusses different conceptions of political representation with respect to their application to the system of multi-level governance in the European Union. Political representation is an essentially contested concept. Its meaning has evolved with the development of representative democracy at the level of the nation state, and normative theories of political representation often evolved as a reflection on developing practices rather than the other way around. Since the EU is not a conventional nation state, and since the effectiveness and legitimacy of classic notions of political representation at the level of the national state has also become a matter of dispute, the EU has become a playground for the development of alternative or additional conceptions of democracy. The contributions to this volume evaluate these alternative conceptions with regard to both their effectiveness and their legitimacy, and combine both conceptual and empirical analyses. This book was based on a special issue of Journal of European Public Policy.

Political Representation

Political Representation PDF Author: Mario Damen
Publisher:
ISBN: 9789004352414
Category : Representative government and representation
Languages : en
Pages : 0

Get Book Here

Book Description
Political Representation: Communities, Ideas and Institutions in Europe (c. 1200 - c. 1690) offers a wide consideration of the nature of representation in the political assemblies of pre-modern European, evaluating their creation, evolution, membership and ideological context.