Opposition Parties in European Legislatures

Opposition Parties in European Legislatures PDF Author: Elisabetta De Giorgi
Publisher: Routledge
ISBN: 1317200012
Category : Political Science
Languages : en
Pages : 259

Get Book Here

Book Description
Democratic theory considers it fundamental for parties in government to be both responsive to their electorate and responsible to internal and international constraints. But recently these two roles have become more and more incompatible with Mair’s growing divide in European party systems between parties which claim to represent, but don’t deliver, and those which deliver, but are no longer seen to represent truer than ever. This book contains a qualitative and quantitative analysis of the behaviour of the opposition parties in eleven European democracies across Western and East Central Europe. Specifically, it investigates the parliamentary behaviour of the opposition parties, and shows that the party context is increasingly diverse. It demonstrates the emergence of two distinct types of opposition: one more cooperative, carried out by the mainstream parties (those with government aspirations), and one more adversarial focusing on government scrutiny rather than on policy alternatives (parties permanently excluded from power). It systematically and analytically explores the sources of their behaviour, whilst acknowledging that opposition is broader than its mere parliamentary behaviour. Finally, it considers the European agenda and the economic crisis as two possible intervening variables that might have an impact on the opposition parties’ behaviour and the government-opposition relations. As such, it responds to questions that are major concerns for the European democracies of the new millennium. This text will be of key interest to students and scholars of political parties, European politics, comparative politics and democracy.

Opposition Parties in European Legislatures

Opposition Parties in European Legislatures PDF Author: Elisabetta De Giorgi
Publisher: Routledge
ISBN: 1317200012
Category : Political Science
Languages : en
Pages : 259

Get Book Here

Book Description
Democratic theory considers it fundamental for parties in government to be both responsive to their electorate and responsible to internal and international constraints. But recently these two roles have become more and more incompatible with Mair’s growing divide in European party systems between parties which claim to represent, but don’t deliver, and those which deliver, but are no longer seen to represent truer than ever. This book contains a qualitative and quantitative analysis of the behaviour of the opposition parties in eleven European democracies across Western and East Central Europe. Specifically, it investigates the parliamentary behaviour of the opposition parties, and shows that the party context is increasingly diverse. It demonstrates the emergence of two distinct types of opposition: one more cooperative, carried out by the mainstream parties (those with government aspirations), and one more adversarial focusing on government scrutiny rather than on policy alternatives (parties permanently excluded from power). It systematically and analytically explores the sources of their behaviour, whilst acknowledging that opposition is broader than its mere parliamentary behaviour. Finally, it considers the European agenda and the economic crisis as two possible intervening variables that might have an impact on the opposition parties’ behaviour and the government-opposition relations. As such, it responds to questions that are major concerns for the European democracies of the new millennium. This text will be of key interest to students and scholars of political parties, European politics, comparative politics and democracy.

Political Parties, Parliaments and Legislative Speechmaking

Political Parties, Parliaments and Legislative Speechmaking PDF Author: H. Bäck
Publisher: Palgrave Macmillan
ISBN: 9781137484543
Category : Political Science
Languages : en
Pages : 0

Get Book Here

Book Description
In analysing speeches made by legislators, this book provides theoretical and empirical answers to questions such as: Why do some Members of Parliament (MPs) take the parliamentary floor and speak more than others, and why do some MPs deviate more than others from the ideological position of their party? The authors evaluate their hypotheses on legislative speechmaking by considering parliamentary debates in seven European democracies: Czech Republic, Estonia, Finland, Germany, Ireland, Norway and Sweden. Assuming that MPs are concerned with policy-making, career advancement, and re-election, the book discusses various incentives to taking the floor, and elaborates on the role of gender and psychological incentives in speechmaking. The authors test our expectations on a novel dataset that covers information on the number of speeches held by MPs and on the ideological positions MPs adopted when delivering a speech.

Challenging Parties, Changing Parliaments

Challenging Parties, Changing Parliaments PDF Author: Miki Caul Kittilson
Publisher: Ohio State University Press
ISBN: 0814210155
Category : Political Science
Languages : en
Pages : 204

Get Book Here

Book Description


Parliamentary Roles in Modern Legislatures

Parliamentary Roles in Modern Legislatures PDF Author: Magnus Blomgren
Publisher: Routledge
ISBN: 1136456414
Category : Political Science
Languages : en
Pages : 294

Get Book Here

Book Description
This book gathers the most influential authors on role research and legislative studies to examine the different roles that MPs are playing in modern-day legislatures. It provides a comprehensive and critical overview of current research on legislative roles, summarises previous research, presents a large variety of methodological approaches and also explores the latest developing approaches to role theory. The concept of political roles has become increasingly relevant for understanding contemporary political systems. Parliamentary, legislative and representative roles are professional roles that provide a way of connecting the individual legislator to their institution that can also explain a legislator’s attitude and behaviour. Drawing upon case studies with as much as 40 years of data that include Germany, the Netherlands, UK, Austria, Hungary, Australia, New Zealand and the European Parliament, this book examines the link between representative roles, different institutional settings and parliamentary behaviour. It argues that the roles MPs play depend of who they think they should represent; between their voters, their party, the people of their country and also themselves, conflicts of loyalty can occur. This book provides a framework to analyse MPs’ choices by searching both the reasons for their views about representation, and the consequences of those views in parliament. Parliamentary Roles in Modern Legislatures will be of strong interest to students and scholars of government, legislative studies, political parties, comparative politics, political sociology and deliberative democracy.

The Madisonian Turn

The Madisonian Turn PDF Author: Torbjörn Bergman
Publisher: University of Michigan Press
ISBN: 0472117475
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 428

Get Book Here

Book Description
Parliamentary democracy is the most common regime type in the contemporary political world, but the quality of governance depends on effective parliamentary oversight and strong political parties. Denmark, Finland, Iceland, Norway, and Sweden have traditionally been strongholds of parliamentary democracy. In recent years, however, critics have suggested that new challenges such as weakened popular attachment, the advent of cartel parties, the judicialization of politics, and European integration have threatened the institutions of parliamentary democracy in the Nordic region. This volume examines these claims and their implications. The authors find that the Nordic states have moved away from their previous resemblance to a Westminster model toward a form of parliamentary democracy with more separation-of-powers features—a Madisonian model. These features are evident both in vertical power relations (e.g., relations with the European Union) and horizontal ones (e.g., increasingly independent courts and central banks). Yet these developments are far from uniform and demonstrate that there may be different responses to the political challenges faced by contemporary Western democracies.

The Oxford Handbook of Legislative Studies

The Oxford Handbook of Legislative Studies PDF Author: Shane Martin
Publisher: Oxford University Press, USA
ISBN: 0199653011
Category : Political Science
Languages : en
Pages : 785

Get Book Here

Book Description
Legislatures are arguably the most important political institution in modern democracies. The Oxford Handbook of Legislative Studies, written by some of the most distinguished legislative scholars in political science, provides a comprehensive and up-to-date description and critical assessment of the state of the art in this key area.

Party Discipline and Parliamentary Government

Party Discipline and Parliamentary Government PDF Author: Shaun Bowler
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category : Political Science
Languages : en
Pages : 330

Get Book Here

Book Description
Brings together empirical studies of the internal cohesiveness of political party groups in European parliaments and the leadership behavior that leads to disciplined parties in parliament, in sections on theories and definitions, the "Westminster Model," established continental European systems, newly emerging systems, and parliamentary discipline and coalition governments. Chapters originated as papers presented at a spring 1995 workshop held in Bordeaux, France. Annotation copyrighted by Book News, Inc., Portland, OR

Building Parliament

Building Parliament PDF Author: Yves Mény
Publisher:
ISBN: 9789282323687
Category : European Parliament
Languages : en
Pages : 0

Get Book Here

Book Description


Legislatures in the Policy Process

Legislatures in the Policy Process PDF Author: David M. Olson
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
ISBN: 9780521381031
Category : Political Science
Languages : en
Pages : 252

Get Book Here

Book Description
Thi book will be of interest to specialists and students of politics and economic policy making.

Party System Change in Legislatures Worldwide

Party System Change in Legislatures Worldwide PDF Author: Carol Mershon
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
ISBN: 1107244285
Category : Political Science
Languages : en
Pages : 239

Get Book Here

Book Description
In this book, Carol Mershon and Olga Shvetsova explore one of the central questions in democratic politics: how much autonomy do elected politicians have to shape and reshape the party system on their own, without the direct involvement of voters in elections? Mershon and Shvetsova's theory focuses on the choices of party membership made by legislators while serving in office. It identifies the inducements and impediments to legislators' changes of partisan affiliation, and integrates strategic and institutional approaches to the study of parties and party systems. With empirical analyses comparing nine countries that differ in electoral laws, territorial governance and executive-legislative relations, Mershon and Shvetsova find that strategic incumbents have the capacity to reconfigure the party system as established in elections. Representatives are motivated to bring about change by opportunities arising during the parliamentary term, and are deterred from doing so by the elemental democratic practice of elections.