This book focuses on Prime Ministers (PMs) in the post-communist democracies of Central and Eastern Europe (CEE). It shows how the survival of PMs in chief executive office depends on their interrelations with other actors in three different arenas. The first arena encompasses the linkages between PMs and their parties. In this respect, being a party leader is a major power resource for PMs to retain office even under critical circumstances. At the heart of the second arena is the PMs’ relationship to other parliamentary parties. In this regard, the high fragmentation and fluidity of many post-communist party systems pose enormous challenges for PMs to secure constant parliamentary support. In the third arena, PMs are confronted with state presidents. Given their relatively strong powers in most CEE countries, presidents may use their constitutional powers to interfere in the political domain of PMs and thus jeopardise the stability of party governments. The book offers new evidence on these relationships from case studies and a broader comparative perspective. This volume will be of great use to students and researchers interested in comparative politics and government, European studies as well as political leadership. The chapters in this book were originally published as a special issue of East European Politics and are accompanied by a revised introduction and a new conclusion.

This book discusses how the extension of voting rights beyond citizenship (i.e., to non-national immigrants) and residence (i.e., to expatriates) can be interpreted in the light of democratization processes in both Western countries and in developing regions. It does so by inserting the globalization-specific extension of voting rights to immigrants and expatriates within the long-term series of historical waves of democratization. Does the current extension enhance democracy by granting de facto disenfranchised immigrants and emigrants political rights or does it jeopardize the very functioning of democracy by undermining its legitimacy through the removal of territorial and national boundaries? The book offers a preliminary synthesis in a broad comparative perspective covering both alien and external voting rights in Europe, Sub-Saharan Africa and Latin America. It shows that reforms toward more expansive electorates vary considerably and that their effects on the inclusion of migrants largely depend on the specific regulations and the socio-political context in which they operate. The book was originally published as a special issue of Democratization.

This book discusses how the extension of voting rights beyond citizenship (i.e., to non-national immigrants) and residence (i.e., to expatriates) can be interpreted in the light of democratization processes in both Western countries and in developing regions. It does so by inserting the globalization-specific extension of voting rights to immigrants and expatriates within the long-term series of historical waves of democratization. Does the current extension enhance democracy by granting de facto disenfranchised immigrants and emigrants political rights or does it jeopardize the very functioning of democracy by undermining its legitimacy through the removal of territorial and national boundaries? The book offers a preliminary synthesis in a broad comparative perspective covering both alien and external voting rights in Europe, Sub-Saharan Africa and Latin America. It shows that reforms toward more expansive electorates vary considerably and that their effects on the inclusion of migrants largely depend on the specific regulations and the socio-political context in which they operate. The book was originally published as a special issue of Democratization.

This book is dedicated to Joachim Jens Hesse, a scholar whose multi-faceted work may be characterised as an attempt at "crossing borders" in several respects. These primarily include fostering interdisciplinary cooperation between law, economics and social sciences, analysing public sector developments in an international and intercultural perspective as well as bridging the "gap" between academia and practical politics. Therefore, the volume deals with a subject that covers these features in an exemplary manner: the interrelationship between nation-state constitutions and their international environments. In this context, ongoing processes of transnationalisation have not only contributed to blurring the formerly clear-cut boundaries between these two domains, but also provoked a growing interest in and demand for comparative, interdisciplinary and applied research on constitutional developments. The authors of this Festschrift include eminent lawyers, economists and political scientists from Europe, the United States and East Asia who worked together with Joachim Jens Hesse in various contexts.

This book offers a systematic, theory-based, and empirically grounded introduction to the political system of Germany. Compared to other textbooks on government and politics in Germany, it has two particular benefits. First, it analyzes the individual dimensions of the German political system from a uniform theoretical perspective based on the well-known distinction between majoritarian and consensus democracy. Second, it particularly explains how political decision-making in the multi-level system takes place, including the local, state, federal as well as EU levels. This way, the book provides a comprehensive, detailed, and clear picture of how German democracy is organized and how it works.

Dieses Lehrbuch bietet eine systematische, theoriegeleitete und empirisch basierte Einfuhrung in das politische System Deutschlands. Es wendet sich vornehmlich an Studierende der Politikwissenschaft, aber auch an alle Interessierten, die einen theoretisch und empirisch fundierten UEberblick uber die politischen Institutionen und Prozesse in der Bundesrepublik gewinnen wollen. Die einzelnen Dimensionen des politischen Systems werden aus einer einheitlichen Perspektive analysiert, die auf der Unterscheidung zwischen Mehrheits- und Konsensdemokratie basiert. Ein besonderer Schwerpunkt der Darstellung liegt auf der politischen Willensbildung und Entscheidungsfindung im Mehrebenensystem, das von der kommunalen bis zur europaischen Ebene reicht. So ergibt sich ein umfassendes und ubersichtliches Bild, wie die bundesdeutsche Demokratie aufgebaut ist und wie sie funktioniert.

Dieser Band bietet eine systematische Einfuhrung in die mittel- und osteuropaischen Regierungssysteme. In themenspezifischen Kapiteln wird jeweils der Stand der wissenschaftlichen Literatur zusammengefasst dargestellt und mit empirischem Material fur den Zeitraum von 1989/90-2009 unterlegt. Die relevanten Daten werden zudem in einem ausfuhrlichen Materialanhang dokumentiert. Insofern kommt es zu einem gleichermassen theoriegeleiteten wie empirisch fundierten Vergleich der demokratischen Regierungssysteme in den neuen EU-Staaten.

Elections in Asia, written by experts in the field, presents the first-ever compendium of electoral data for all the 62 states in Asia, Australia, and Oceania from their independence to the present. Exhaustive statistics on national elections and referendum are given in each chapter. The two volumes provides the definative resource for historical and cross-national comparisons of elections and electoral system worldwide.