After the Labour Party's landslide victory in 1997, the results were analyzed. Issues at the top of the agenda included party leader image, campaign strategy, the sleaze factor, the effect of the media and changes in the electoral geography of Britain. This volume records the discussion.

In today's "trial by media" election campaigns, do you have to be crazy to run for higher office? Looking back over the past 25 years, Stanley Renshon provides the first comprehensive account of how the issue of character has come to dominate presidential campaigns. He traces two related but distinctive approaches to a candidate's psychology: mental health and character. Drawing on his clinical and political science training, Renshon has devised a theory which will allow the public to better evaluate the personal and leadership qualities of presidential candidates.

The African National Congress (ANC) has established itself as Africa's most famous liberation movement. The year 2012 is an important year in the history of the African National Congress' organisational, political and ideological development and growth. It marks 100 years of the ANC's existence; a milestone that has prompted partisans to a century of unparalleled achievement in the struggle against colonialism and racial discrimination and the year of the 53rd National Conference in Mangaung.

It is, though, a liberation whose critics have painted a less-flattering portrait of the historical ANC, as a communist puppet, a moribund dinosaur, or an elitist political parasite. For such sceptics, the ANC -- now in government for two decades -- has betrayed South Africans rather than liberated them. The politics of the ANC, and those of the country it governs, are today tumultuous. South Africans endure deep inequality and unemployment, violent community protests, murders of foreign residents, major policy blunders, an AIDS crisis, and deepening corruption. Inside the ANC there are episodes of open rebellion against the leadership, conflicts over the character of a post-liberation movement, and debilitating battles for succession to the movement's presidency.

The Idea of the ANC explores how ANC intellectuals and leaders interpret the historical project of their movement. It investigates three interlocked ideas: a conception of power, a responsibility for promoting unity, and a commitment to human liberation. It explores how these notions have shaped South African politics in the past, and how they will inform ANC leaders' responses to the challenges of the future.

Political parties are the fabric of democratic politics. In 1991 a new Russia emerged after seven decades of one-party dictatorship, claiming to be on the road towards democracy. In this volume the authors analyse the many contradictions, dilemmas, and paradoxes of reconstituting free party politics and democratic rule in a severely traumatized country. Frequently from a comparative perspective they deal with a range of topics, from the behaviour of the new parties in parliament, the role of ideology in cementing party organizations, to the character and prospects of the transient Russian party system.

Political parties are the fabric of democratic politics. In 1991 a new Russia emerged after seven decades of one-party dictatorship, claiming to be on the road towards democracy. In this volume the authors analyse the many contradictions, dilemmas, and paradoxes of reconstituting free party politics and democratic rule in a severely traumatized country. Frequently from a comparative perspective they deal with a range of topics, from the behaviour of the new parties in parliament, the role of ideology in cementing party organizations, to the character and prospects of the transient Russian party system.

An electoral system is the most fundamental element of representative democracy, translating citizen's votes into representatives' seats. It is also the most potent practical instrument available to democratic reformers. This systematic and comprehensive study describes and classifies the 70 electoral systems used by 27 democracies - including those of Western Europe, Australia, Canada, the USA, Costa Rica, India, Israel, Japan, and New Zealand - for 384 national legislative and European Parliament elections between 1945 and 1990. Using comparative and statistical analyses of these systems, Arend Lijphart demonstrates the effect of the electoral formula used, the number of representatives elected per district, electoral thresholds, and of five other key features of electoral systems on the proportionality of the election outcome, the degree of multipartism, and the creation of majority parties. In the process he reveals that electoral systems are neither as diverse nor as complex as is often assumed. Electoral Systems and Party Systems represents the most definitive treatment of the subject since Rae's classic study in 1967, based as it is on more accurate and comprehensive data (covering more countries and a longer time-span), and using stronger hypotheses and better analytical methods. The unique information and analysis it offers will make it essential reading for everyone working in the field.

Ethno-regionalist parties are an increasingly influential political phenomenon in many Western European countries. This volume provides an exploration of the successes and failures experienced by such parties in post-war Europe, looking in detail at the fortunes of 12 regionalist parties in the Basque country, Corsica, French-speaking Belgium, Scotland, Wales, Catalonia, Flanders, Italy and South Tyrol. Using these case studies and a common conceptual framework, the contributors focus on a number of factors that influence party identity and electoral and policy success. They also address other significant areas such as how the parties operate at the European Union level, their future evolution, and the implications for the party system and the larger political system of which they are a part.

Contents:
1. Introduction, Paul Pennings and Jan-Erik Lane
PART 1: COMPARING PARTY SYSTEM CHANGE
2. Electoral Instability and Party System Change in Western Europe,Svante Ersson and Jan-Erik Lane 3. Coalitional Potential and Governmental Power,Stefano Bartolini 4. Parties, Party Systems and Policy Effects,Uwe Wagschal 5. The Triad of Party System Change: Votes, Office and Policy, Paul Pennings
PART II: CHANGE AND STABILITY IN ESTABLISHED SYSTEMS 6. Electoral and Parliamentary Aspects of Dominant Party Systems, Francoise Boucek 7. Great Britain: A Stable, but Fragile, Party System? 8. German Unification and Party System Change, Oskar Niedermayer 9. Party Sytem Change in Israel, 1949-96: A Conceptual and Typological Border_Stretching of Europe, Reuven Y. Hazan 10. Electoral Politics and Governance: Transformation of the Party System in Iceland, 1970-96, Svanur Kristjansson PART III: CHANGE AND STABILITY IN RENEWING SYSTEMS
11. Party System Change in Redemocratizing Countries, Anne Bennett 12. The End of the Beginning: The Partial Consolidation of East Central European Parties and Party Systems, Atilla Agh 13. The Logics of Party System Change in Southern Europe, Jose M. Magone

The tenth edition of this acclaimed text continues to provide a lively, comprehensive and up-to-date account of British political institutions, of the way in which they operate, and of the society in which they developed. It includes new sections on the following key areas:
* the monarchy and the House of Lords
* the 1997 general election
* the transformation of the Labour party and the demise of the Tories
* the European Union
* devolution
* the judicial system
* Northern Ireland.

eBook available with sample pages: 0203024397

Bomberg argues the 'greening' of European politics and the advancement of European integration are inextricably linked and that the EU presents a strategic dilemma to Green parties. In short, how can Greens reconcile their radical, alternative politics with the EU's mainstream, traditional institutions and practices? Bomberg's analysis is based on over 100 interviews with leading green politicians, NGO members, environmental and industrial lobbyists, EU officials and MEPs. She includes appendices showing profiles of green parties in European countries, and key policy-making institutions

Bomberg argues the 'greening' of European politics and the advancement of European integration are inextricably linked and that the EU presents a strategic dilemma to Green parties. In short, how can Greens reconcile their radical, alternative politics with the EU's mainstream, traditional institutions and practices? Bomberg's analysis is based on over 100 interviews with leading green politicians, NGO members, environmental and industrial lobbyists, EU officials and MEPs. She includes appendices showing profiles of green parties in European countries, and key policy-making institutions

The first book to provide a much-needed analysis of the current state of the party and insight into longer term trends, "New Labour in Power" helps readers to explore both past and present in order to better understand the future.
The book explores Tony Blair's victory through both its historical context and the words of contemporary media commentators, journalists, economists and politicians, including Austin Mitchell, Peter Shore, Peter Jay, A. H. Halsey and Vernon Bogdanor. It combines historical, political and practical approaches to the questions raised by the Labour election victory and addresses core themes such as Europe, the economy, welfare, education, defense and the constitution.

This volume features key political issues for 1990s Britain: the reform of the Labour party; the use of opinion polls; the impact of the media; European integration; Scotland and regional trends; and the bases of party support.

Explores the impact interparty conflicts have on a party's coalition bargaining. Focusing on Denmark, Norway, the UK, Italy and France, the text investigates whether organizational imperatives of political parties play a role in interplay competition. The author challenges traditional views to show that the degree of centralization or decentralization of a party and the nature of the interparty conflict affects the party's elite to neutralize and pacify internal opposition. He argues that decentralized models provide a variety of ways to manage such conflict without members leaving the party or voicing dissent outside the party.

Here is the first book to cover the history of British Liberalism from its founding doctrines in the later eighteenth century to the final dissolution of the Liberal party into the Liberal Democrats in 1988. The Party dominated British politics for much of the later nineteenth-century, most notably under Gladstone, whose premierships spanned 1868-1894, and during the early twentieth, but after the resignation of Lloyd George in 1922 the Liberal Party never held office again. The decline of the Party remains a unique phenomenon in British politics and Alan Sykes illuminates its dramatic and peculiar circumstances in this comprehensive study.

From the time of the Abyssinian crisis through to the outbreak of World War II in western Europe, the British government was marked by very diverse attitudes with regard to, and adopted diverse policies towards, the fascist dictators of Europe. This work provides a complete history of the Conservative Party from 1930 to 1940 and explores its responses to the problems of fascism. It details the historical context for the foreign policy of the period and examines the historiography of the Conservative Party. The author also includes a chronological outline of the international situation between Hitler's rise to power in 1933 and the outbreak of war. Drawing on neglected sources, including little known diaries, memoirs and minutes, this book gives a new perspective on the Party's policies focusing on members of the government aside from just Chamberlain and highlights important aspects such as the controversy over national service. By exploiting new evidence and archives, the author provides alternative and original interpretations of the reactions of various elelments of the Conservative Party to the deepening international crisis.

What to make of the Tea Party? To some, it is a grassroots movement aiming to reclaim an out-of-touch government for the people. To others, it is a proto-fascist organization of the misinformed and manipulated lower middle class. Either way, it is surely one of the most significant forms of reaction in the age of Obama. In this definitive socio-political analysis of the Tea Party, Anthony DiMaggio examines the Tea Party phenomenon, using a vast array of primary and secondary sources as well as first-hand observation. He traces the history of the Tea Party and analyzes its organizational structure, membership, ideological coherence, and relationship to the mass media. And, perhaps most importantly, he asks: is it really a movement or just a form of "manufactured dissent" engineered by capital? DiMaggio's conclusions are thoroughly documented, surprising, and bring much needed clarity to a highly controversial subject.

Gennady Andreevich Zyuganov is the leader of Russia's resurgent Communist Party and was Boris Yeltsin's strongest challenger in the summer 1996 presidential elections. Although his face became familiar to the world at that time, his ideas and his program were mainly a subject of speculation. This book makes Zyuganov available to American readers for the first time -- in his own words.

A former village teacher from Orel Province, Zyuganov came to Moscow in the 1980s to work in the ideology department of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union and to complete doctoral work in philosophy at Moscow State University. He is a prolific writer who has rebuilt the Communist party on his vision of a Russian socialist great power. Today he leads the Communist faction in the Duma and is chairman of the united opposition movement -- the National Patriotic Union.

This volume is a compilation of Zyuganov's writings on Russia's past and present and her place in the world; Russia's fate under the leadership of Gorbachev and Yeltsin; his own vision of Russia's future under a new Communist leadership; and his reflections on the 1996 presidential election.

In the entire history of the United States of America: We've never elected a woman as our president. We've only had one president who is not a white man. With two presidential campaigns under her belt, Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton, MSNBC's political analyst and SiriusXM Host Zerlina Maxwell gained first-hand knowledge of everything liberals are doing right--and everything they are doing wrong to make progress. Barack Obama's eight-year presidency unearthed what had always been right beneath the surface, a racism that America has struggled to leave behind. We watched as President Donald Trump effectively ran a campaign on white identity politics. He exploited race and class privileges, and successfully tapped into a white male angst. In an unvarnished, impassioned assessment, Maxwell's book lays bare, what now, liberals? In the 2020 race, with the most diverse presidential candidates of our time having run in the primary elections, THE END OF WHITE POLITICS dismantles the past and present problems of the Left--challenging the discriminatory agendas of the "Bernie Bros" and centrist thinkers like Joe Biden--to address the liberal framework that has traditionally focused on the white working-class, specifically male. The biggest issue, Maxwell argues, is that the "liberal-minded" party still struggles to engage communities of color, even though the population majority will be non-white by 2045. Historically public policies, even those enlisted by the Left, have valued certain people's needs over others and there remains a one-sided representation at the top. But times are changing. Ultimately, in a page-turning analysis, Maxwell skillfully examines how progressives can use factors that Trump exploited during his rise to power in 2016 to heal the liberal divide. A gradual transition of power over to those marginalized groups who haven't traditionally had one has created a shift and a growing demand for equity across all areas of American life, which is the central tension in American politics in the Trump era. Instead of turning away from identity politics, progressives can lean into it to unite in a common vision, and make progressive politics into a winning movement. Everyone post-the 2016 presidential election has shared their "analysis" of what went wrong and what went right for liberals. Everyone is wrong but the answers are staring us right in the face.

The patent disconnection between the institutions of the European Union and the citizens of Europe has been widely attributed by political leaders and scholars to a 'communications gap', that is, to the way EU affairs are mediated by the media, and to the apparent lack of interest by national elites in conveying the importance of Europe. This book challenges this 'mediation theory' and suggests instead a cultural and systemic explanation for the distant and bureaucratic character of the European Union. Apportioning the blame for the communication gap to the media and national politicians neglects two real deficits which prevent Europe from enjoying a vibrant public sphere: a deficit of domesticisation, a popular disconnection with the idea of the EU, and a deficit of politicisation with European politics, it being difficult to categorise as through traditional methods of 'left vs. right'. This book suggests that popular disengagement with the EU is a consequence of the fact that Europe as a cultural community is an interdependent continent rather than a nation and that, as an political institution, the EU is a pseudo-confederation full of anti-publicity bias, elite-driven integration, corporatism and diplomacy. The result is a book that is an essential read for students and scholars of political communication and of the European Union.

In this introduction to the theme of political parties, attention is given to those theoretical works that have the most direct bearing on the subject. To illustrate these theoretical ideas, the book applies comparative approaches to the British case. The book focuses on concepts which highlight various "trade offs" confronting party leadership and their impact on party behaviour. It addresses concepts that relate to competitive parties - party institutionalization, organizational models, intra-party competition, and the impact of intra-party conflicts on party behaviour. The latter aspect takes the reader through to the second part of the book, namely competitive party systems. Here, notions that pertain to multiparty electoral competition, the impact of regional integration on a party's behaviour, issue orientation, and party system change are discussed. Students taking courses on political parties should find this book a useful introduction to the basic conceptual paradigms and salient theories of the topic.

Attlee is undoubtedly one of the key figures in modern British history. An important figure in Churchill's War Cabinet, and premier of the first majority Labour Government, he created the Welfare State, nationalised a substantial part of industry and secured the independence of India. Yet his political stature remains unresolved. Was he Churchill's "modest man with much to be modest about" who squandered the fruits of victory, or, as many now claim, one of the truly great prime ministers? Robert Pearce's lucid and drily amusing study goes behind the stern exterior to find ambition and indecision, and a uniquely moral vision.

Emerging as a formidable opposition party in Taiwan in 1986, the Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) is now a major challenger on the island's political scene. This text presents a dialogue between DPP's policy-makers and the leading critics from the international scholarly community.

Emerging as a formidable opposition party in Taiwan in 1986, the Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) is now a major challenger on the island's political scene. This text presents a dialogue between DPP's policy-makers and the leading critics from the international scholarly community.

A major new edition of this introductory survey of the two main political parties, from the rise of the Liberal Party under Gladstone until the period of Conservative domination under Salisbury in the late nineteenth century. As well as assessing the impact of major political landmarks such as the Great Reform Acts, it also describes the nineteenth century political scene.