Why do some countries have 'Culture Wars' over morality issues such as abortion and same-sex marriage while other countries hardly experience any conflict? This book argues that morality issues only generate major conflicts in political systems with a significant conflict between religious and secular parties.

Values form fundamental principles that help orient individuals in their daily life, and as such are rather stable across time. Changes in the political, economic, and social environment, as those experienced by Switzerland in the last two decades, may affect these value priorities through generational change and individual reorientations. The present book documents how values have changed over the last twenty years in Switzerland as it navigated in the rough waters of an increasingly globalized environment and a changing international political context. The contributions show how Swiss citizens position themselves in their social relations, including the large share of foreigners among the residents in the Alpine republic. In particular, the book highlights how religious values have changed in their meanings. Contributions to this volume also show the consequences of value change in the social and political sphere. Values influence the citizens' views on European integration, their disposition to provide volunteer work, their electoral choices, etc. The volume thus offers a detailed view on how values have changed in Switzerland and how these changes affected the social and political sphere.

Why do some countries have 'Culture Wars' over morality issues such as abortion and same-sex marriage while other countries hardly experience any conflict? This book argues that morality issues only generate major conflicts in political systems with a significant conflict between religious and secular parties.

Gender Equality and Policy Implementation in the Corporate World takes a unique approach to the issue of gender equality in corporations in the 21st century. It examines the implementation of specific policies that seek to promote women's presence on corporate boards in 15 democracies in Western and Central Eastern Europe, North America, and Australasia through the lens of the Gender Equality Policy in Practice Approach. The thirteen empirically rich country chapters by leading country experts and two separate comparative chapter answer core questions. How were policies adopted and implemented? Did they achieve any degree of success that would allow for real and lasting equality? What were the politics of the pursuit of corporate gender equality across the 15 countries? What worked and did not work and why? What are the lessons to be drawn from these experiences? The findings of the book show that policy implementation does matter, but that in this last bastion of male domination, policies have had more success in increasing women's numbers over challenging gender-biased norms that block women of all cultural and socio-economic backgrounds from gaining real power on boards. The path-breaking study shows that the reasons for this slow change are highly complex and case specific, in the details of each policy mix. While progress has been slow in coming, it has still been made even in these challenging times. Future policy success, the book concludes, is in the hands of men and women willing to come forward to overcome these well entrenched obstacles.

The celebration of the 50th anniversary of the ECPR is an opportunity to reflect on the origins and development of European political science and provide a critical assessment of the achievements and challenges lying ahead. As disciplines go, 50 years is a short period of time. Yet, this half-century has been a defining period for the development of political science in Europe: disciplinary norms have emerged and become institutionalized in training and research units and in professional organizations - such as the ECPR; the scholarly community and production have dramatically grown across the continent; the sophistication of the analytical and methodological tools of the discipline has significantly increased and the knowledge production and exchange disseminated under the label "political science" is bigger than it has ever been. Political Science in Europe aims to reflect on these achievements and challenges. It is structured around 14 chapters that reflect on the intellectual and professional development of the discipline in Europe. Section I reviews what European political science means in terms of objects, paradigms, data, and methods to assess the "European touch" in producing political science. Section II moves the focus to the producers of European political science to discuss the professional challenges related to inclusiveness and professionalization. Section III addresses what European political science is for and how it responds to the external environment. The 14 chapters will be structured along a common line of inquiry: they review what European political science was at the time of inception, reflect on how and why it changed thereafter, and discuss the current state of the discipline and the challenges ahead.

The last half-century has been a defining period for the development of political science in Europe: disciplinary norms have become institutionalized in professional organizations, training units, and research centres; the scholarly community has dramatically grown in size across the continent; the analytical and methodological tools of the discipline are increasingly sophisticated; and the knowledge disseminated under the label "political science" is bigger than it has ever been. Political Science in Europe takes stock of these developments and reflects on the achievements of the discipline, and the challenges it faces. Is there a distinctive "European" blend of political science? Is the European political science community cohesive and inclusive? How does the discipline cope with the neoliberalisation of academia, and the diffusion of illiberal politics? Leading and up-and-coming political scientists answer these questions by discussing the discipline's key concepts and intellectual trends, its professional structures, and its relationship with its social, economic, and political environment.