In 2005, almost 700,000 immigrants acquired the citizenship of a member state of the European Union; over 600,000 became US citizens; nearly 100,000 became Australians and approximately 200,000 Canadians. 2005 was not an exceptional year. During the past decades, many advanced liberal democracies have become more ethnically diverse societies. This book breaks new ground in the analysis of the political representation of immigrants and visible minorities both theoretically and empirically. It examines the upward trend in migrant and minority representation and demonstrates that there remain crucial differences across liberal democracies in the timing of these developments; in channels of access for minority representatives, in the policy focus and outcomes of minority representation; in the nature of the connections between minority representatives and minority communities, and in the nature of their relationships with constituents at large. Part I analyses immigrants and visible minorities as voters, who must be the starting point of any analysis of political representation. Part II deals with the stage of candidate selection within political parties, a crucial and under-researched stage in the process of political representation. Part III deals with immigrants and members of visible minorities, once elected to parliament and includes analyses of the Canadian Parliament, the German Bundestag, MPs in the United Kingdom and Members of the United States Congress. The book will of interest to students and scholars of migration and ethnicity studies and political science, especially those with an interest in political representation, democratic institutions, voting behaviour, party organisation, legislative behaviour and comparative politics.

The German election of 2013 has important ramifications for the whole of Europe. Germany After the 2013 Elections: Breaking the Mould of Post-Unification Politics? provides a comprehensive analysis of this election and its wider implications for post-unification German politics. International specialists on German and EU politics examine the domestic and international context of the election and reflect on its possible consequences. In the first part of the volume, a number of contributors analyse the policy environment in which the election took place while the second part deals with voters, parties and leaders' strategies in the run-up to, and the aftermath, of the 2013 election.

The election of 2005 changed Germany's political 'landscape'. The combined share of the vote gained by the two major parties fell below 70 per cent, eliminating the option of a coalition between one of the two major parties (Christian Democrats and Social Democrats) with one of the smaller parties - the traditional pattern of government that had dominated German post-war politics since the late 1950s. The election resulted in the first national 'Grand Coalition' of the two major parties since 1969. While some have seen this government, elected in November 2005 and headed by the Christian Democrat Angela Merkel, as the symptom of a crisis of the traditional post-war German party system, others have highlighted the opportunities it opens up for constitutional and policy reform as Merkel's 'Grand Coalition' controls an overwhelming majority of the votes in both houses of the German legislature. The German Election of 2005 analyses the road to the 2005 election and provide in-depth studies of the campaign and candidates, of voting behaviour and immediate consequences of the election, with contributions from leading experts from Germany, the United Kingdom and the United States. The findings are informed by theoretical and empirical work in the comparative study of parties and elections offering a nuanced, empirically rich picture of continuity and change in German electoral politics.

Traditional comparative studies of parliaments have focused on constitutional and organizational characteristics of parliaments, or differences in the historical contexts, in which legislative assemblies have developed. The motivations of individual Members of Parliament have been neglected.
This volume provides empirical work on legislative role orientations and behaviour in six West European parliaments: Belgium, Denmark, Germany, the Netherlands, Norway and the United Kingdom. All contributions present a wealth of empirical findings on parliamentarians' role orientations in different institutional contexts.

In 2005, almost 700,000 immigrants acquired the citizenship of a member state of the European Union; over 600,000 became US citizens; nearly 100,000 became Australians and approximately 200,000 Canadians. 2005 was not an exceptional year. During the past decades, many advanced liberal democracies have become more ethnically diverse societies. This book breaks new ground in the analysis of the political representation of immigrants and visible minorities both theoretically and empirically. It examines the upward trend in migrant and minority representation and demonstrates that there remain crucial differences across liberal democracies in the timing of these developments; in channels of access for minority representatives, in the policy focus and outcomes of minority representation; in the nature of the connections between minority representatives and minority communities, and in the nature of their relationships with constituents at large.

Part I analyses immigrants and visible minorities as voters, who must be the starting point of any analysis of political representation. Part II deals with the stage of candidate selection within political parties, a crucial and under-researched stage in the process of political representation. Part III deals with immigrants and members of visible minorities, once elected to parliament and includes analyses of the Canadian Parliament, the German Bundestag, MPs in the United Kingdom and Members of the United States Congress. The book will of interest to students and scholars of migration and ethnicity studies and political science, especially those with an interest in political representation, democratic institutions, voting behaviour, party organisation, legislative behaviour and comparative politics.

Dieses Buch zieht eine umfassende politikwissenschaftliche Bilanz der Bundesregierung aus CDU/CSU und SPD von 2013 bis 2017. In Beitragen ausgewiesener Expertinnen und Experten werden zunachst die Rahmenbedingungen des Regierens analysiert, so etwa die strategische Positionierung von Regierungs- und Oppositionsparteien, das Abstimmungsverhalten im Bundestag, die Rolle des Bundesverfassungsgerichts, das Koalitionsmanagement, der Einfluss von Verbanden oder der Medientenor. In einem zweiten Abschnitt werden zum einen die groessten Herausforderungen der insgesamt dritten Grossen Koalition in Deutschland diskutiert, insbesondere die Fluchtlingsproblematik, aber auch beispielsweise die Reaktionen auf die verschiedenen Krisen auf europaischer Ebene. Zum anderen werden die wichtigsten Entscheidungen in allen relevanten Politikfeldern, von der Finanz- und der Sozial- bis zur Umwelt- und Aussenpolitik systematisch beschrieben, erklart und bewertet. Dabei wird die Frage beantwortet, wo die Regierung weitreichende Reformen durchsetzte, wo Stillstand vorherrschte und mit welchen Einflussfaktoren beides zu erklaren ist.

Die vorliegende Arbeit wurde im Sommersemester 1993 von der Philosophi schen Fakultat der Ludwig-Maximilians-Universitat Munchen als Dissertation angenommen. Erstgutachter war Herr Professor Dr. Dr. h.c. Kurt Sontheimer, das Zweitgutachten verfasste Herr Professor Dr. Rolf Ziegler, als Drittgut achter fungierte Herr Professor Dr. Dieter Grosser. Wer eine wissenschaftliche Arbeit schreibt, wird in vieler Hinsicht zum Schuldner. Mit dem Dank an Kollegen und Freunde soll selbstverstandlich nicht die Verantwortung fur das dem Vorwort Folgende auf andere abgewalzt werden. Doch ohne den Rat und Beistand von Lehrern, Kollegen, Freunden und Verwandten hatte das Buch so nicht geschrieben werden konnen. Ganz besonders danke ich meinem akademischen Lehrer, Kurt Sonthei mer. Er stand dem Vorhaben stets sehr aufgeschlossen gegenuber und half immer dann schnell und erfolgreich mit Rat, Tat und nachdrucklicher Ermuti gung, wenn es notig war. Thomas Kolbeck unterstutzte mich bei Materialbe schaffung und Graphikerstellung fur die Drucklegung. Jorge CorbaIan half beim Abgleich der eingegebenen Daten. Melitta Gores, TllOmas Kolbeck, Sabine Lemke-Muller und Johannes Paulmann lasen das Manuskript ganz oder in Teilen mit sehr grosser Sorgfalt. Die Freunde, die mir neben meiner Familie in einer auch personlich nicht ganz einfachen Zeit beistanden, kann ich gar nicht aufzahlen. Sie werden mir die kollektive Danksagung verzeihen. Besonderen Dank schulde ich Melitta und Johannes, die mir in unserer ge meinsamen "britischen Zeit," in der die vorliegende Arbeit fertig gestellt wurde, mit ihrer grossartigen Freundschaft durch manches Wellental halfen."

In the past two decades, democratic institutions have faced a crisis of representation. From authoritarian backsliding in countries with recent democratic transformations, to severe challenges to established liberal democracies, the meaning of political representation and whether and when it succeeds has become highly debated. In response to an increasingly fraught political climate, Contested Representation brings together scholars from across the United States and Europe to critically assess the performance of representative institutions in Europe and North America. Taking an interdisciplinary, comparative approach, this volume looks at the viability of electoral institutions, the responsiveness of government to public preferences, alternative institutions for more inclusive democracy, and the political economy of populism. Chapters also address the broader normative question of how democratic institutions can be adapted to new conditions and challenges. Expertly researched and exceedingly timely, Contested Representation provides critical frameworks that highlight realistic pathways to democratic reform.

Legislatures are political bodies essential to democracy and the rule of law. They present social scientists with numerous intriguing puzzles, with far-reaching implications for our understanding of political institutions. Why, and how, have these ancient assemblies, established in pre-democratic times, survived the transition to mass democracies? How have they adapted? How do they structure such processes as budgeting, legislation, and executive oversight? How do their members get selected, and what consequences flow from differences in these rules? What roles do committees and political parties play in contemporary legislatures? What functions do legislatures perform in autocratic, semi-democratic or recently democratized societies? What explains the similarities and differences in legislative rules, powers and recruitment? What are the policy and other consequences of variation in how legislatures are organized and function? The 33 chapters in The Oxford Handbook of Legislative Studies, written by 47 of the most distinguished legislative scholars, provide a comprehensive and up-to-date description and assessment of the state of the art in legislative studies. Key themes explored include theoretical paradigms and methodological approaches to the study of legislatures, representation and legislative careers, internal organization, the role of parties within legislatures and the role of legislatures in policy making and accountability. The Handbook also explores the emergence of parliaments in historical and contemporary contexts, including new democracies and trans-national institutions.

Legislatures are political bodies essential to democracy and the rule of law. They present social scientists with numerous intriguing puzzles, with far-reaching implications for our understanding of political institutions. Why, and how, have these ancient assemblies, established in pre-democratic times, survived the transition to mass democracies? How have they adapted? How do they structure such processes as budgeting, legislation, and executive oversight? How do their members get selected, and what consequences flow from differences in these rules? What roles do committees and political parties play in contemporary legislatures? What functions do legislatures perform in autocratic, semi-democratic or recently democratized societies? What explains the similarities and differences in legislative rules, powers and recruitment? What are the policy and other consequences of variation in how legislatures are organized and function? The 33 chapters in The Oxford Handbook of Legislative Studies, written by 47 of the most distinguished legislative scholars, provide a comprehensive and up-to-date description and assessment of the state of the art in legislative studies. Key themes explored include theoretical paradigms and methodological approaches to the study of legislatures, representation and legislative careers, internal organization, the role of parties within legislatures and the role of legislatures in policy making and accountability. The Handbook also explores the emergence of parliaments in historical and contemporary contexts, including new democracies and trans-national institutions.

Traditional comparative studies of parliaments have focused on constitutional and organizational characteristics of parliaments, or differences in the historical contexts, in which legislative assemblies have developed. The motivations of individual Members of Parliament have been neglected.
This volume provides empirical work on legislative role orientations and behaviour in six West European parliaments: Belgium, Denmark, Germany, the Netherlands, Norway and the United Kingdom. All contributions present a wealth of empirical findings on parliamentarians' role orientations in different institutional contexts.