This book traces the positions of national partisan actors towards the development of the European polity in an in-depth comparative analysis covering all member states of the European Union over a period of 60 years. The author examines the approach of the social democratic, radical left, liberal, Christian democratic and radical right party families, eliciting a comprehensive analysis of partisan positions on European integration. Demonstrating that attitudes and programmatic changes towards European integration must be understood both as the product of long-term ideological traditions and domestic opposition or incumbency-seeking strategies, this book examines how far common ideological traditions lead to the emergence of convergent European policies. Based on an interdisciplinary approach that encompasses political science, history and area studies, this book provides background and analysis, and develops theory in an open and accessible style that expands the understanding of party behaviour. Using party programmes and quantitative data, the book reveals considerable cross-family variations regarding the extent to which parties' genetic origins shape partisan responses to Europe. The Impact of European Integration on Political Parties will be of interest to students and scholars of European politics, European integration, comparative politics and political parties.

This ground-breaking and innovative book examines the influence of charisma on power, authority and nationalism. The authors both apply and challenge Max Weber's concept of 'charisma' and integrate it into a broader discussion of other theoretical models. Using an interdisciplinary approach, leading international scholars draw on a diverse range of cases to analyse charisma in benign and malignant leaderships, as well as the relationship between the cult of the leader, the adulation of the masses and the extension of individual authority beyond sheer power. They discuss idiosyncratic authority and oratory, and they address how political, social and regional variations help explain concepts and policies which helped forge and reformulate nations, national identities and movements. The chapters on particular charismatic leaders cover Abraham Lincoln, Kemal Ataturk, Adolf Hitler, Benito Mussolini, Gamal Nasser, Joerg Haider and Nelson Mandela. Political Leadership, Nations and Charisma will appeal to readers who are interested in history, sociology, political communication and nationalism studies.

This timely and insightful analysis of Conservative economic policymaking over the past half century covers the period from Ted Heath's assumption of the leadership through the Heath, Thatcher and Major governments and up to the early years of the coalition. As well as a offering a detailed commentary on the Conservative Party's macroeconomic and microeconomic policymaking for the past 50 years it also establishes a context for the controversial austerity measures implemented by the Conservative-led Coalition that established in the wake of Britain's inconclusive general election of 2010. This is a fascinating insight into policymaking within the Conservative Party as well as an indicator of the extent to which competing conservative philosophies have impacted on the policies pursued. At a time when the Conservative Party and economic policymaking loom large on the political landscape, this book is an invaluable contribution to present debates.

Contrary to the American public image of international communism as monolithic, the history of communism has been one of increasingly frequent deviation and dissension--punctuated by a process of defection and expulsion of individuals and entire national parties. In examining the fragmentation of communism as a movement, Bernard S. Morris focuses on the breakdown of its structure of authority as exercised through the organs of control. He analyzes factors contributing to the initial cohesion and later disintegration of the communist movement. The author demonstrates how the artificial attempt to maintain the Marxian vision of world revolution through the agency of the Soviet system faltered and ultimately failed. He shows how tensions between communist doctrine and foreign policy, coupled with the unexpected viability of the capitalist system in the West, accelerated pluralism within the communist movement. This led to Yugoslavia's assertion of independence, the rise of polycentrism in the post-Stalinist era, and the Russo-Chinese split. As we have seen, it ultimately led to the demise of the Soviet Union itself. Morris contends that the collapse of international communist unity underscores the inexorable hold of nationalism on human loyalties. He points out that American policy's obsession with international communism frustrated the development of a realistic policy toward radical nationalist movements which, because they were identified with communism, became equally suspect. Written by an experienced scholar and political analyst, this highly informative work skillfully balances a chronological account with a searching examination of the evolution and gradual disintegration of the dream of world revolution.

The existence of noticeable 'unified' parties is central to the theory and practice of democracy in general, and to parliamentary democracy in particular. However, legislative studies scholars have good reason to cease treating parties as monolithic, unitary actors, for they evidently are not. The first step in this direction is to ask why one of the distinguishing features of modern political parties is their legislative unity. Do parties enter parliament as unified actors, or are they moulded into this model by the legislature? The answer depends on whether one is looking at cohesion or at discipline. The goal of this collection of articles is to present a conceptual delineation between these two key concepts. This book was previously published as a special issue of the Journal of Legislative Studies.

This timely book updates, and takes stock of, Lipset and Rokkan's classic work Party Systems and Voter Alignments: Cross-National Perspectives, an influential work since its publication in 1967. It examines the significance of the original volume for the history of political sociology, and assesses its theoretical and empirical relevance for the study of contemporary elections, voters and parties. Most importantly this volume gives scope to new areas such as consociational democracies, small island states, and newly democratising Eastern and Central European and Third World countries.

This book examines political party system change from a party-centric perspective and assesses how, and to what extent, established political parties in western Europe can maintain their dominant positions. Parties are increasingly competing in a changeable environment and this book assesses the ways in which political parties have tried to adapt to these changes, by undertaking a study of the strategies employed by established parties since 1950. It features analysis of seventeen western European countries, with eight case-studies explored in greater depth, including; France, Germany, Portugal, Greece, Denmark, Ireland, Switzerland and Luxembourg. The book assesses two groups of 'strategies': institutional strategies, by which parties aim for success through control of rules, regulations and laws; and strategies oriented towards the electorate, through which parties seek success by proving themselves responsive to voters. Offering a detailed empirical assessment of the frequency with which these strategies have been employed, this book assesses the impact on established political parties, and argues that parties can shape their own fate by strategic choices. Party Strategies in Western Europe will be of interest to students and scholars of European politics, Government and party politics.

This book examines the transition within the Japanese party system that has seen the demise of 'the old socialists', the Japan Socialist Party, and in its place, the emergence of the Democratic Party of Japan as the leading opposition party. Sarah Hyde has produced an original book which looks at the intra-left (non-communist) opposition party manoeuvrings during the 1990s through to the new millennium in a highly detailed and focused manner whilst simultaneously looking at the three most significant changes for the left nationally: the change to the electoral system, the change to public opinion regarding defense and the Constitution after the First Gulf War and the changes to the Labour Union movement. Ending with a chapter on the incredibly important 2007 Upper House election, which brings the development of the opposition full circle, this book will be a valuable source for students and scholars of Japanese politics, electoral systems and opposition politics.

This book offers a critical and comparative examination of international support to political parties and party systems in emerging and prospective new democracies in several world regions. It combines the insights of a strong international grouping of leading academics and pioneering doctoral studies, and draws on extensive new field work inquiries. The wide-ranging coverage pools evidence from countries in Europe and Eurasia, Africa, East Asia and Central America. The book shows how far international support still has to go if it is to achieve its aims of helping party politics make a constructive contribution to furthering democracy. It advances our understanding both of the role the political parties are playing in the different polities and the sometimes negative impact of democracy promotion actors from outside. By contributing original theoretical perspectives and empirical findings, the book points the way forward to agendas for future research and new courses of action. It will be of interest to academics and the policy-making and practitioner communities alike. This book was published as a special issue of Democratizations.

Eight years after the second Palestinian uprising, the Oslo accords signed in 1993 seem to have failed. The reasons for the failure continue to fascinate students, politicians, researchers and policymakers alike. This book explores one of the major aspects of the bilateral peace process the composition and behaviour of the Palestinian negotiating team, which deeply impacted the outcome of the negotiations between 1991 and 1997. It focuses on the dynamics between the PLO leadership outside the occupied Palestinian territories and the grassroots leadership within the areas under Israeli control that led to conflicts of interest at the time of the final agreement. As the author was a part of the Palestinian leadership in the occupied territories, and was present during the negotiations process in Madrid and Washington DC, the book contains original, unpublished accounts, including those of the Washington bilateral negotiations and crucial internal Palestinian meetings. It is an excellent resource to gain an understanding of Palestinian behavior during peace talks, deterioration in peace-making efforts, the resulting radicalization, and the growing tendency towards violence.

Bilderberg People explores the hidden mechanisms of influence at work in the private world, and personal interactions, of the transnational power elite. It is not concerned with conspiracy theories; instead it is about certain fundamental forces that shape the world in which we live. These forces, with their power to bring about transitions in emotion and preference within, and beyond, the elite community have potentially profound implications for all of us. Through exclusive interviews with attendees of the most prestigious of all informal transnational networks -- Bilderberg -- this book provides a unique insight into the networking habits and motivations of the world's most powerful people. Moreover, it demonstrates that elite consensus is not simply a product of collective common sense among the elite group; rather, it is a consequence of subtle power relationships within the elite circle. These relationships, which are embedded in the very fabric of elite institutions and interactions, result in a particular brand of enlightened thinking within the elite community. This exciting new volume sheds light for the first time on the critical question of who runs the world and why they run it the way they do.

Some fledging democracies in the world have encountered setbacks due to political parties trying to grapple with the expectations of sophisticated electorates and introducing gradual political reforms over the years.

This book describes how democracy is evolving in East Asia and how it assumes different forms in different countries, with political parties adapting and evolving alongside. It has a two-fold intent. First, it contends that the existing variety of party systems in East Asia will endure and may even flourish, rather than converge as liberal democracies. Second, it highlights the seeming political durability of one party systems unlike two-part or multi-party systems in the US and Europe and their enduring predominance in countries such as Cambodia, China, Singapore and Vietnam.

Bilderberg People explores the hidden mechanisms of influence at work in the private world, and personal interactions, of the transnational power elite. It is not concerned with conspiracy theories; instead it is about certain fundamental forces that shape the world in which we live. These forces, with their power to bring about transitions in emotion and preference within, and beyond, the elite community have potentially profound implications for all of us. Through exclusive interviews with attendees of the most prestigious of all informal transnational networks -- Bilderberg -- this book provides a unique insight into the networking habits and motivations of the world's most powerful people. Moreover, it demonstrates that elite consensus is not simply a product of collective common sense among the elite group; rather, it is a consequence of subtle power relationships within the elite circle. These relationships, which are embedded in the very fabric of elite institutions and interactions, result in a particular brand of enlightened thinking within the elite community. This exciting new volume sheds light for the first time on the critical question of who runs the world and why they run it the way they do.

Julius Evola's writing covered a vast range of subjects, from a distinctive and categorical ideological outlook and has been extremely influential on a significant number of extreme right thinkers, activists and organisations. This book is the first full length study in English to present his political thought to a wider audience, beyond that of his followers and sympathisers, and to bring into the open the study of a neglected strand of contemporary Western thought, that of traditionalism. Evola deserves more attention because he is an influential writer. His following comes from an important if largely ignored political movement: activists and commentators whose political positions are, like his, avowedly traditionalist, authoritarian, anti-modern, anti-democratic and anti-liberal. With honourable exceptions, contemporary academic study tends to treat these groups as a minority within a minority, a sub-species of Fascism, from whom they are held to derive their ideas and their support. This work seeks to bring out more clearly the complexity of Evola's post-war strategy, so as to explain how he can be adopted both by the neo-fascist groups committed to violence, and by groups such as the European New Right whose approach is more aimed at influence from within liberal democracies. Furlong also recognises the relevance of Evola's ideas to anti-globalisation arguments, including a re-examination of his arguments for detachment and spontaneism (apolitia).

Countless studies have assessed the dramatic reforms of Mikhail Gorbachev, but their analysis of the impact on European communism has focused overwhelmingly on the Soviet Union and Eastern bloc nations. This ambitious collection takes a much broader view, reconstructing and evaluating the historical trajectories of glasnost and perestroika on both sides of the Iron Curtain. Moving beyond domestic politics and foreign relations narrowly defined, the research gathered here constitutes a transnational survey of these reforms' collective impact, showing how they were variably received and implemented, and how they shaped the prospects for "proletarian internationalism" in diverse political contexts.

Since the collapse of the Soviet Union, Central Asian states have developed liberal-constitutional formal institutions. However, at the same time, political phenomena in Central Asia are shaped by informal political behaviour and relations. This relationship is now a critical issue affecting democratization and regime consolidation processes in former Soviet Central Asia, and this book provides an account of the interactive and dynamic relationship between informal and formal politics through the case of party-system formation in Kazakhstan.

Based on extensive interviews with political actors and a wide range of historical and contemporary documentary sources, the book utilises and develops neopatrimonialism as an analytical concept for studying post-Soviet authoritarian consolidation and failed democratisation. It illustrates how personalism of political office, patronage and patron-client networks and factional elite conflict have influenced and shaped the institutional constraints affecting party development, the type of emerging parties and parties relationship with society. The case of Kazakhstan, however, also demonstrates how in the former Soviet space political parties emerge as central to the legitimization of informal political behavior, the structuring of factional competition and the consolidation of authoritarianism. The book represents an important contribution to the study of Central Asian Politics.

The Justice and Development Party (AKP) were elected to power in 2002 and since then Turkish politics has undergone considerable change. This book is a comprehensive analysis of the AKP, in terms not just of its ideological agenda, but also of its social basis and performance in office in the main theatres of public policy -- political reform, and cultural, economic and foreign policies. Based on an extensive analysis of official and party documents, interviews, academic sources and media coverage, the book outlines the main features of the current global debate on the relationship between Islam, Islamism and democracy. While most top AKP leaders come from an Islamist background, the party has behaved as a moderate, centre-right, conservative democratic party who are fully committed to democracy, a free market economy and Turkey's EU membership. The book explores and analyses these changes in Turkish politics, and provides coverage of the workings of the contemporary Turkish political systems, policy and ideological issues that go to the heart of Turkish identity. Filling a gap in the existing Turkish and English literature on the subject, this book will be an important contribution to Political Science, particularly the areas of Turkish politics, Middle Eastern studies, Islamic studies and comparative politics.

At a time when populism and appeal for national and popular sovereignty are on the rise - in Europe, the USA, and beyond - this volume proposes a new research agenda in political science that focuses on the linkages between populist and sovereignism in Europe. The book's core question is to know and describe whether, how, and to what extent populism has been able to articulate the calls for 'taking back control' of the national borders and authority, by looking at both the 'demand' and 'supply' sides. Through compelling empirical analyses, the authors offer fresh data and theoretical insights on the determinants of the support for sovereigntist claims and its impact on voting choices, as well as on the features of the sovereignist discourse in populist parties. Coupled with the growing electoral success of party-based populism, sovereignism actually poses challenges to the ongoing processes of supranational integration. This urges a timely rethinking of democratic politics and calls for far-sighted alternatives to 'taking back control' to address the impact of globalisation and regionalisation on contemporary societies. The chapters in this book were originally published as a special issue of the journal, European Politics and Society.

This book examines the recent development of the far right in Britain, with a particular focus on the British National Party (BNP) the most electorally successful far right party in British history. It brings fresh perspectives to our understanding of the BNP in order to make a significant contribution to scholarly debate on the nature of far right extremism both nationally and internationally. The book is significantly different from other literature in the field primarily because of its focus on three important yet underdeveloped themes, which are reflected in the structure of the book itself. These are: * the ideological and cultural politics of contemporary BNP * responses to the BNP * the BNP's place within the contemporary domestic and international far-right milieu. Written by an outstanding line-up of renowned experts in this field, this is essential reading for all those with an interest in British politics, fascism, political parties, race relations and extremism.

Party literature is largely focused on the rise and success of new parties and their effects on party systems and older parties. This book, on the other hand, provides a valuable and original addition to such literature by analyzing what happens to a party when it enters government for the first time.

Leading contributors assess how these parties, whether old or new, change when entering government by answering a set of questions:

• How and why has their role changed?
• What are the consequences of change?
• What explains the evolution from principled opposition to loyal opposition and eventually to participation in the executive?
• Which characteristics of the parties can be held responsible?
• Which characteristics of the parties context should be brought into the picture?
• What have been the effects of the status change on party organization, party ideology and electoral results?

Covering a wide range of European parties such as the Finish Greens, right wing parties (FN, Lega Nord and Alleanza Nazionale) and new parties in Italy, The Netherlands and Sweden to name a few; this book will be of particular interest to scholars and students concerned with party systems, political parties and comparative politics.

Following the Thatcher and Major administrations there was an apparent renaissance of planning under New Labour. After a slow start in which Labour's view of planning owed more to a neo-liberal, rolled back state model reminiscent of the New Right the Government began to appreciate that many of its wider objectives including economic development, climate change, democratic renewal, social justice and housing affordability intersected with and were critically dependent upon the planning system. A wide range of initiatives, management processes, governance vehicles and policy documents emanated from Government. Planning, like other areas of the public sector, was to be reformed and modernised as well as given a prime role in tackling national, high profile priorities such as increasing housing supply and improving economic competitiveness. Drawing upon an institutionalist framework the book also seeks to understand how and in what circumstances change emerges, either in an evolutionary or punctuated way. It will, for the first time, chart and explore the changing nature of development and planning over the Labour era whilst also stepping back and reflecting upon what such changes mean for planning generally and the likely future trajectories of reform and spatial governance.

Following the Thatcher and Major administrations there was an apparent renaissance of planning under New Labour. After a slow start in which Labour s view of planning owed more to a neo-liberal, rolled back state model reminiscent of the New Right the Government began to appreciate that many of its wider objectives including economic development, climate change, democratic renewal, social justice and housing affordability intersected with and were critically dependent upon the planning system.

A wide range of initiatives, management processes, governance vehicles and policy documents emanated from Government. Planning, like other areas of the public sector, was to be reformed and modernised as well as given a prime role in tackling national, high profile priorities such as increasing housing supply and improving economic competitiveness. Drawing upon an institutionalist framework the book also seeks to understand how and in what circumstances change emerges, either in an evolutionary or punctuated way. It will, for the first time, chart and explore the changing nature of development and planning over the Labour era whilst also stepping back and reflecting upon what such changes mean for planning generally and the likely future trajectories of reform and spatial governance.

In the last two decades of the twentieth century, many countries in Latin America freed themselves from the burden of their authoritarian pasts and developed democratic political systems. At the same time, they began a process of shifting many governmental responsibilities from the national to the state and local levels. Much has been written about how decentralization has fostered democratization, but informal power relationships inherited from the past have complicated the ways in which citizens voice their concerns and have undermined the accountability of elected officials. In this book, Andrew Selee seeks to illuminate the complex linkages between informal and formal power by comparing how they worked in three Mexican cities. The process of decentralization is shown to have been intermediated by existing spheres of political influence, which in turn helped determine how much the institution of multiparty democracy in the country could succeed in bringing democracy "closer to home."

This book examines the recent development of the far right in Britain, with a particular focus on the British National Party (BNP) the most electorally successful far right party in British history. It brings fresh perspectives to our understanding of the BNP in order to make a significant contribution to scholarly debate on the nature of far right extremism both nationally and internationally. The book is significantly different from other literature in the field primarily because of its focus on three important yet underdeveloped themes, which are reflected in the structure of the book itself. These are: * the ideological and cultural politics of contemporary BNP * responses to the BNP * the BNP's place within the contemporary domestic and international far-right milieu. Written by an outstanding line-up of renowned experts in this field, this is essential reading for all those with an interest in British politics, fascism, political parties, race relations and extremism.

This book is concerned with Turkey's political evolution, the role of Kemalism, and why a social democratic alternative has never fully developed. Concentrating on the electoral weaknesses of the Turkish centre-left, represented by the Republican People's Party (CHP), Sinan Ciddi examines the roles of nationalism and the political establishment and the role of Kemalist ideology. Established by Kemal Ataturk, the CHP is seen to be the founding party of modern Turkey. Kemalism sought to create a secular and democratic society based on the principles of republicanism, populism, secularism, nationalism and revolutionism. Although this leftist ideology became an integral part of Turkish politics by the early 1960s, it has remained a comparatively weak representative movement. Its strong ideological stance advocates an authoritarian and exclusionary position, particularly in relation to matters such as multiculturalism and democratisation, fuelling many debates concerning the role of religion and nationalism within Turkey and perpetuating elements of xenophobia and intolerance. This book will be of interest to students of politics, history and current affairs, and of Turkish politics in particular.