Chapter 2 - The historical development of European politics

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Further Reading

Davies, Norman (1997), Europe: A History. London: Pimlico.

Dinan, Desmond (2004), History of the European Union. Basingstoke: Palgrave.

Mason, David S. (2019), A Concise History of Modern Europe. Liberty, Equality, Solidarity. Lanham: Rowman and Littlefield.

Wegs, Robert J. and Robert Ladrech (2006), Europe Since 1945: A Concise History. Basingstoke: Palgrave.

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Further Reading

Caramani, Daniele (2004), The Nationalization of Politics: The Formation of National Electorates and Party Systems in Western Europe. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

Caramani, Daniele (2015), The Europeanization of Politics: The Formation of a European Electorate and Party System in Historical Perspective. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

Joppke, Christian (2017), Civic integration in Western Europe: three debates, West European Politics, 40:6, 1153–1176.

Lipset, Seymour Martin and Stein Rokkan (1967), Cleavage structures, party systems and voter alignments: an introduction. In: Seymour Martin Lipset and Stein Rokkan (eds.), Party Systems and Voter Alignments: Cross-National Perspectives. New York: The Free Press, pp. 1–64.

Seiler, Daniel Louis (2015), The legacy of Stein Rokkan for European polities: a short tribute. In: José M. Magone (ed.), Routledge Handbook of European Politics. London: Routledge, pp.41–51.

Websites

European Social Survey (ESS), http://www.europeansocialsurvey.org/

Every two years there is a European Social Survey. The results are posted here. The great thing about this website is that one can produce graphs, correlations and regressions using the databases online.

Websites

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Further Reading

Blondel, Jean and Ferdinand Müller-Rommel (eds.) (1997), Cabinets in Western Europe. 2nd edition. Basingstoke: Palgrave.

Blondel, Jean, Ferdinand Müller-Rommel, Darina Malová (2007), Governing New European Democracies. London: Palgrave.

Colino, César, Eloisa del Pino (2015), National and European patterns of public administration and governance. In: Magone, José (eds.) Routledge Handbook of European Politics. London: Routledge, pp. 611–639.

Elgie, Robert and Sophie Moestrup (eds.) (2008), Semi-presidentialism in Central and Eastern Europe. Oxford: Oxford University Press.

Keman, Hans and Ferdinand Müller-Rommel (eds.) (2012), Party Government in the New Europe. London: Routledge.

Lijphart, Arend (1999, 2009), Patterns of Democracy: Government Forms and Performance in Thirty-Six Countries. New Haven, CT: Yale University Press.

Müller, Wolfgang and Kaare Strøm (eds.) (2001, 2003), Coalition Governments in Western Europe. Oxford: Oxford University Press.

Pasquino, Gianfranco (2015), Governments in European politics. In: Magone, José M. (ed.), Routledge Handbook of European Politics. London: Routledge, pp. 295–310.

Websites

Political Data Yearbook, http://www.politicaldatayearbook.com/
Dataset on government politics from the European Journal of Political Research.

Who Governs EU, https://whogoverns.eu/about/
Very thorough database on government composition, including all members of government.

Parliaments and governments database (ParlGov), http://www.parlgov.org/
A good database on the government composition.

Party Government Data Set (PGDS), https://fsw.vu.nl/en/departments/political-science-and-public-administration/staff/woldendorp/party-government-data-set/index.aspx
Database on governments and political parties in OECD countries.

Sustainable Governance Indicators–Bertelsmann Foundation, http://www.sgi-network.org/2018/
This is a very useful website on the quality of democratic governance in OECD countries. It uses different indices to characterise the governance pattern of particular country. It is based on expert reviews every two years.

GovernmentEuropa, https://www.governmenteuropa.eu/
News on government policy.

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Further Reading

Arter, David (ed.) (2007), Comparing and Classifying Legislatures. London: Frank Cass. (Also electronically available as special issue of Journal of Legislative Studies, 12 [3/4].)

Norton, Philip (ed.) (1998), Parliaments and Governments in Western Europe. London: Frank Cass.

Norton, Philip and David M. Olson (eds.) (2007), Post-communist and post-Soviet legislatures. London: Frank Cass, special issue, Journal of Legislative Studies, 13(1).

Journal of Legislative Studies is an important electronic journal, excellent for research studies on European parliaments.

See also West European Politics and East European Politics and Societies

Websites

Inter-Parliamentary Union (IPU) https://www.ipu.org/
A major source for all parliaments of the world including the database PARLINE on basic facts of national parliaments. PARLINE has also historical files of previous legislatures, so that one can trace developments over time.
Another excellent database is about women in politics.

European Parliament (EP) http://www.europarl.europa.eu/meps/en/home

Chapter 6 - Judicial power in multilevel Europe

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Further Reading

Bell, John (2006), Judiciaries within Europe: A Comparative Review. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

Harmsen, Robert and Karen McAuliffe (2015), The European courts. In: José M. Magone (eds.), Routledge Handbook of European Politics. London: Routledge, pp. 280–291.

Pernice, Ingolf (2015), The EU as a citizens’ joint venture: multilevel constitutionalism and open democracy in Europe. In: José M. Magone, Routledge Handbook of European Politics. London: Routledge, pp. 184–201.
–––– (2004), The Judicial Construction of Europe. Oxford: Oxford University Press.

Websites

Council of Europe European Commission for the efficiency of justice (CEPEJ), https://www.coe.int/en/web/cepej/
Excellent website with regularly updated data on the state of judiciary in the member-states, including a ranking on quality.

European Network of Councils of the Judiciary (ECNJ), https://www.encj.eu/
The administrative councils of the judiciary of the European Union work together to develop best practices across the continent. Quite interesting is the justice scoreboard with yearly data on major indicators of the quality of the judiciary.

European Commission–Justice and Fundamental Rights, https://ec.europa.eu/info/policies/justice-and-fundamental-rights_en
The European Commission website on judiciary issues and fundamental rights.

European Union Fundamental Rights Agency (FRA), https://fra.europa.eu/en
An important watchdog agency monitoring fundamental rights in the European Union.
In the past interesting studies on anti-semitism and prejudice against minorities have been posted on the website.

European Union Court of Justice (ECJ), https://curia.europa.eu/jcms/jcms/j_6/en/
Information and data on the most important court in the European Union.

World Justice Project, https://worldjusticeproject.org/
This website focuses on comparing rule of law quality across the world.

Chapter 7 - Political parties, party systems and elections in Europe

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Further Reading

Broughton, David and Mark Donovan (eds.) (1999), Changing Party Systems in Western Europe. London: Pinter.

Caramani, Daniele (2004), The Nationalization of Politics: The Formation of National Electorates and Party Systems in Western Europe. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

Caramani, Daniele (2015), The Europeanization of Politics. The Formation of a European Electorate and Party System in Historical Perspective. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

Casal Bértoa, Fernando & Ingrid van Biezen (eds.) (2014), Party regulation and party politics in post-communist Europe, a special issue of East European Politics, 30(3).

Farrell, David M. (2000), Electoral Systems: A Comparative Introduction. Basingstoke: Palgrave.

Katz, Richard S. and Peter Mair (1995), Changing models of party organization and party democracy, Party Politics, 1(1): 5–28.

Mair, Peter (1997), Party System Change. Approaches and Interpretations. Oxford: Oxford University Press.

Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) (2016b), Financing Democracy. Funding of Political Parties and Election Campaigns and the Risk of Policy Capture. Paris: OECD.

Van Biezen, Ingrid (2003), Political Parties in New Democracies. Basingstoke: Palgrave.

Electronic journals

Electoral Studies: Excellent for national election reports.

European Journal of Political Research: Excellent political data yearbook (PDY): at beginning of each volume, national yearly reports of all countries of the European Union and other OECD countries are listed. Accompanied by a dedicated website of the PDY posted at http://www.politicaldatayearbook.com/ Accessed on 5 November 2018.

Federal and Regional Studies: Excellent source for regional elections – particularly Spain, Belgium, Germany, Austria and UK.

Party Politics: Excellent on parties and party systems.

West European Politics: Excellent on party systems and national election reports.

Websites

International Institute for Democracy and Electoral Assistance (IDEA) (2018), Electoral Systems Design Database posted at https://www.idea.int/data-tools/data/electoral-system-design Accessed on 5 November 2018.

Parties and Elections in Europe (2018),  http://www.parties-and-elections.eu/
A database continuously updated with electoral results of legislative elections in all European countries; in some cases also regional elections.

Adam Carr’s Psephos website http://psephos.adam-carr.net/

Party systems and governments observatory https://whogoverns.eu/about/
An excellent database on parties and party systems. Although still in construction, it includes information on parties as well as party system institutionalisation, fragmentation, electoral volatility, number of new parties, polarisation and electoral disproportionality.

European elections database, https://nsd.no/european_election_database/
A good database on European elections, including more information on electoral systems and other aspects of elections. Unfortunately not updated, more interesting in historical terms.

Dataset of Electoral Volatility and its internal components in western Europe (1945–2018), http://cise.luiss.it/cise/dataset-of-electoral-volatility-and-its-internal-components-in-western-europe-1945-2015/

A very useful database on electoral volatility in western Europe; it is regularly updated.

Dataset of New Parties and Party System Innovation in Western Europe since 1945, https://cise.luiss.it/cise/dataset-of-new-parties-and-party-system-innovation-in-western-europe-since-1945/
This is an interesting website about the emergence of new political parties and contributions to the innovation of party systems.

European manifesto project, https://manifesto-project.wzb.eu/
This is an excellent website to study the party programmes of political parties in Europe. It scans programmes according to keywords and presents quantitative information on key topics used in party programmes. They can then be compared cross-nationally.

European Election Studies, https://www.gesis.org/en/services/data-analysis/international-survey-programs/european-election-studies/
A website with information about further research possibilities and databases.

European Political Parties Database Project (EPPD), https://www.politicalpartydb.org/
This is still a new project  the website does not havea lot of information. However, it is worth looking at it from time to time because new data and research may become available.

European Parliament Elections 2019,  https://election-results.eu/
The results of the last elections of the European Parliament in 2019.

European Parliament elections before 2019, http://www.europarl.europa.eu/about-parliament/en/in-the-past/previous-elections

Dataset of electoral volatility in the European Parliament since 1979, http://cise.luiss.it/cise/dataset-of-electoral-volatility-in-the-european-parliament-elections-since-1979/

Chapter 8 - Interest groups and systems of interest intermediation

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Further Reading

General comparative books

Crouch, Colin (1994), Industrial Relations and European State Traditions. Oxford: Oxford University Press.

European Foundation for the Improvement of Living Conditions (Eurofound) (2015), Industrial Relations in Europe 2014. Luxembourg: Office of the Official Publications of the European Communities. (Electronically available: http://ec.europa.eu/social/keyDocuments.jsp?type=0&policyArea=0&subCategory=0&country=0&year=0&advSearchKey=IRIE&mode=advancedSubmit&langId=en Accessed on 24 June 2018.

European Foundation for the Improvement of Living Conditions (Eurofound) (2017), Developments in Working Life in Europe. EurWork Annnual Review 2016. Office of the Official Publications of the European Communities. (Electronically available: https://www.eurofound.europa.eu/sites/default/files/ef_publication/field_ef_document/ef1727en.pdf  Accessed on 24 June 2018.

Greenwood, Justin (2017), Organized Interests in the European Union. Basingstoke: Palgrave.
Schmitter, Philippe (2008), The changing politics of organised interests, West European Politics, 31(1): 195–210.

Siaroff, Alan (1999), Corporatism in 24 industrial democracies. meaning and measurement, European Journal of Political Research, 36: 175–205.

Traxler, Franz (2004), The metamorphoses of corporatism: from classical to lean patterns, European Journal of Political Research, 43(4): 571–598.

Electronic journals

European Journal of Industrial Relations. (Excellent articles on industrial relations in the East and West.)

Transfer. (Scientific journal of the European Trade Union Institute dedicated to the study of trade unions and industrial relations.)

Websites

Alliance for Lobbying Transparency and Ethics Regulation (ALTER-EU) (2018),  www.alter-eu.org

Excellent critical website monitoring lobbying at EU level at
European Foundation for the Improvement of Living Conditions (EUROFOUND) (2018),  www.eurofound.europa.eu
Excellent database on different aspects, including industrial relations.

European Observatory of Working Life (EURWORK) (2018), https://www.eurofound.europa.eu/de/observatories/eurwork
Database with excellent reports on the situation of industrial relations in each European country and country profiles on industrial relations, including the candidate countries to accession of the European Union at< r>

OECD Trade Union density, https://stats.oecd.org/Index.aspx?DataSetCode=TUD
Updated data on the unionisation levels of trade unions in OECD countries.

 

ICTWSS: Database on Institutional Characteristics of Trade Unions, Wage Setting, State Intervention and Social Pacts in 51 countries between 1960 and 2014, http://uva-aias.net/en/ictwss
The outstanding academic Jelle Visser has produced a website with all relevant data on conditions of work in 51 countries. The database is longitudinal and very useful.

Economic and Social Committee of the European Union, https://www.eesc.europa.eu/en
This is the website of the consultative committee of national interest groups representatives at European level. Three groups are represented: workers’ representatives, employers’ representatives and civil society organisations.

Alliance for Lobbying Transparency and Ethics Regulation (ALTER-EU), https://www.alter-eu.org/
Website of an alliance of interest groups and non-governmental organisations checking on corruption, clientelism, patronage and lobbying in the European Union. It has regular studies on these issues.

Corporate Europe Observatory, https://corporateeurope.org/en
This is a quite important critical website on the relationship between business and European politics. Particularly issues of lobbying and influence of big business corporations is a major focus of this website. The reports are certainly of high quality and worth thinking about.

Chapter 9 - Regional and local government in multilevel Europe

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Further Reading

Loughlin, John, Frank Hendriks and Anders Lidström (eds.) (2011), The Oxford Handbook of Local and Regional Democracy in Europe. Oxford: Oxford University Press

Yoder, Jennifer A. (2013), Crafting Democracy: Regional Politics in Central and Eastern Europe. Lanham: Rowman and Littlefield Publishers.

Websites

Committee of the Regions of the European Union,  https://cor.europa.eu/en
This is the website of the consultative committee of regional representatives. Major issues related to regional governance are discussed and deliberated in this forum.

Congress of Local and Regional Authorities–Council of Europe, https://www.coe.int/en/web/congress/local-and-regional-governance 
Very important best practice and benchmarking body for regional and local governance. It is used also within the European Union to identify problems in member-states and candidate countries.

Assembly of the European Regions (AER), https://aer.eu/
The major association of European regions setting the governance agenda at subnational government.

Association of European Border Regions (AEBR), https://www.aebr.eu/en/index.php
This interest group focuses on protecting the interests of border regions in Europe. The EU regional funding has been a major factor in enhancing their role in the European Union.

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Further Reading

Börzel, Tanja (2005), Europeanization: how the European union interacts with the member-states. In: Simon Bulmer and Christian Lequesne (eds.), The Member-States of the European Union. Oxford: Oxford University Press, pp. 45–69.

Hix, Simon and Bjørn Høyland (2011), The Political System of the European Union. Third Edition. Basingstoke: Palgrave.

Ladrech, Robert (2010), The Europeanization of national politics. Basingstoke: Palgrave.

Websites

Europa, Europa.eu/
Main website of the European Union with a wealth of information.

Council of the European Union, https://www.consilium.europa.eu/en/
The Council of the European Union includes quite a lot of information and documentation on the work of the institution.

European parliament, Europaparl.europa.eu
The European parliament website is very extensive and full of information. It also has databases with documents of individual committees and delegations.

European Union Court of Justice, https://curia.europa.eu/jcms/jcms/j_6/en/

European Central Bank, https://www.ecb.europa.eu/home/html/index.en.html

This website contains excellent studies on the development and impact of the euro.

The website of the European Court of Justice has lots of data on European Court of Justice

Votewatch EU, https://www.votewatch.eu/
An excellent website checking on vote patterns in the European Parliament, and the Council of the European Union. There are always regular reports on the European institutions.

Alliance for Lobbying Transparency and Ethics Regulation (ALTER-EU), https://www.alter-eu.org/
Website of an alliance of interest groups and non-governmental organisations checking on corruption, clientelism, patronage and lobbying in the European Union. It has regular excellent studies on these issues.

Corporate Europe Observatory, https://corporateeurope.org/en
This is a quite important critical website on the relationship between business and European politics. Particularly issues of lobbying and influence of big business corporations is a major focus of this website. The reports are certainly of high quality and worth thinking about.

European External Action Service (EEAS), https://eeas.europa.eu/headquarters/headquarters-homepage_en
The EEAS is the diplomatic service of the European Union headed by the High Representative of Foreign Policy and Security Affairs. The website informs well on the international work of the European Union.

Chapter 11 - The political systems of the wider Europe: Russia, Turkey, Ukraine, Moldova, Belarus and Georgia

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Further Reading

Börzel,Tanja A. and  Bidzina Lebanidze (2017), ‘The transformative power of Europe’ beyond enlargement: the EU’s performance in promoting democracy in its neighbourhood, East European Politics, 33(1):17–35.

Brzezinski, Zbigniew (1997), The Grand Chessboard. America’s Primacy and Its Geostrategic Imperatives. New York: Basic Books.

Hahn, Gordon M. (2018), Ukraine Over the Edge. Russia, the West and the New Cold War. Jefferson: McFarland and Company.

Nodia, Ghia (ed.) (2016), 25 Years of  Independent Georgia. Achievements and Unfinished Projects. Tbilisi: Konrad Adenauer Foundation and Ilia State University Press, pp. 91–129. Posted http://www.kas.de/wf/doc/kas_45857-1522-1-30.pdf?160714115123 Accessed on 18 September 2017.

Websites

Carnegie Moscow Center, https://carnegie.ru/?lang=en
An excellent think tank with regular studies on Russia and the post-Soviet states.

Carnegie Europe Center, https://carnegieeurope.eu/
The same think tank but focusing more on European Union, andt also the wider Europe countries.

Country Data

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Election Data

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Newsletter

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Glossary

Cadre party

A party consisting mainly of notables that was dominant in nineteenth-century Europe. A cadre party consists mainly of the parliamentary group and has no organisational mass structures supporting it. The main vehicle of mobilisation at elections are clientelistic and patronage relationships. The number of voters is extremely restricted.

Cartel party

Richard Katz and Peter Mair have identified this new form of party. This kind of party has become more common in Europe since the 1980s and replaces the catch-all party. It is a party that no longer relies on membership as its main source of income, but public funding. Therefore, the party is characterised as office-seeking in order to survive. One speaks of the ‘cartelisation of politics’ by the political parties. It means that political parties are extremely dependent on public funding and therefore they always need good results at elections to survive as organisations. Substantial losses at elections lead to considerable reduction of the available budget. New political parties in Southern, Central and Eastern Europe are from the outset cartel parties supported by generous public funding systems and a low level of mass membership. The cartel party relies on the media to bring across its message.

Catch-all party

German-American political scientist Otto Kirchheimer identified this kind of political party in Germany and other Western European countries in the 1960s. The catch-all party, also known as Volkspartei (People’s Party), is no longer restricted to a particular group or subculture, but it reaches out to other groups. Therefore, it is no longer defined by ideology, but a more pragmatic approach to politics. Although there is still a large membership in catch-all parties, the main goal is to win elections. In Germany, both the Christian Democratic Union/Christian Social Union(CDU/CSU) and the Social Democratic Party of Germany are good examples of catch-all parties.

Civil rights

Established as a reaction to the arbitrary absolutist state and influenced by liberalism, these are rights that protect a citizen from interference of the state and other private organisations in their daily life. Such rights include the right to free speech, freedom of religion, freedom of movement and press freedom, and non-discrimination on any grounds such as race, religion, gender and sexual orientation. The EU has developed such non-discriminatory legislation that has been implemented in the member states. Civil rights are a fundamental part of European constitutions and are connected to political and, most recently, social and environmental rights. Since the terrorist attacks on 11 September 2001, there has been a strong discussion about the balance between freedom and security in most European countries.

Committee of the Regions and LocalAuthorities (CoR)

An EU consultative body. It was enshrined in the Treaty of the European Union in 1993 and set up in Brussels one year later. It is an advisory body comprising 344 representatives from regional and local authorities. The representatives are organised according to political parties. The COR has to be consulted in regional policy, the environment, education and transport – all of which concern local and regional government.

Common Foreign and Security Policy (CFSP)

A major policy area of the European Union. It was enshrined in the Treaty of the European Union in 1993. It is a further development of European Political Cooperation that has existed in the European Community/European Union since the 1970s. Only after 1998 did CFSP gain more resources and capabilities to deal with a growing number of civilian and military tasks. Since 2000, more military resources were dedicated to CFSP. The Treaty of Amsterdam created the position of High Representative of Common Foreign and Security Policy. The first incumbent of the position was the Spaniard Javier Solana. Since 1 December 2009, the position of High Representative was upgraded to one of coordination of national foreign policies and head of the increasingly important European external service. In December 2009, Javier Solana was replaced by Baroness Catherine Ashton.

Competition state

In the 1980s, the impact of globalisation led to the end of the nationally bound welfare state with the ability to control internal and external sovereignty; it was replaced by a state that was competing with other states in the global marketplace. The policies of Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher, known as Thatcherism, and United States President Ronald Reagan, known as Reaganomics, led to major market liberalisation thrusts in their respective countries in order to become more competitive globally. This led to similar reactions in other countries.

Consensus democracy

Concept coined by Dutch-American political scientist Arend Lijphart to characterise divided fragmented societies in which one single party is not able to achieve an absolute majority and has to form coalition governments with other political parties of different colour. Lijphart took as an ideal type his native Netherlands, which has a party system with more than ten parties. Some examples of consensus democracies are Belgium, the Netherlands, Luxembourg, Austria, Switzerland, Denmark, Sweden, Norway and Finland.

Constitution

The most important official document of any European democracy. The constitution is an agreed document in which the rules of the game of the way the polity works are set out. It regulates the relationship between the three main branches of the political system judiciary, government and parliament. Moreover, it includes an extensive catalogue of civil, political, social and other rights (e.g. environmental and cultural rights). The constitution is normally agreed in a Constituent Assembly among representatives of all parties and, in the ideal case, is a consensual compromise about the way politics should be conducted in a polity. An ill-designed constitution can lead to the breakdown of democracy as happened in some European countries during the inter-war period (e.g. Germany and Spain). A well-designed constitution can survive a long time (e.g. constitutions in Norway, Sweden and Denmark). All European constitutions are codified with exception of the United Kingdom, which is a non-codified collection of several documents that emerged throughout its history. It is a constitution based very much on convention.

Constitutional Treaty of the European Union

In 2002/3, a European Convention consisting of government representatives, members of parliament and members of the European Parliament elaborated over several months a new constitution for the European Union that became known as the ‘Constitutional Treaty’. Subsequently, the Intergovernmental Conference during the Italian and Irish presidencies in the second half of 2003 and first half of 2004 respectively led to adjustments, particularly in relation to the voting system in the Council of Ministers of the European Union. After signing the Treaty on 13 December 2004 in Rome, the member states started the ratification process. However, after the rejection of the Constitutional Treaty in France and the Netherlands in May and June 2005 respectively, the process came to a halt and a reflection period started in view of thinking about the further procedure. During the German presidency of the European Union in the first half of 2007, a new treaty based largely on the Constitutional Treaty began to be discussed and negotiated between the member states. During the subsequent Portuguese presidency of the European Union, a new Treaty of Lisbon was signed that took out many aspects of the previous Constitutional Treaty that some member states did not support. In spite of these changes, the Treaty of Lisbon bears many similarities to the Constitutional Treaty. The Lisbon Treaty was signed in Lisbon on 13 December 2007. After a ratification process, the new Treaty of Lisbon came into force on 1 December 2009.

Council of Economy and Finance Ministers of the European Union (ECOFIN)

One of the nine formations of the Council of the European Union and one of the main institutions of the European Union. It deals with economic and financial issues.

Council of Europe

The most inclusive intergovernmental organisation of Europe, founded in 1949. It is regarded as the first major European integration step after the Second World War. However, UK opposition prevented the Council of Europe from becoming a supranational institution as some countries wanted. The Schuman declaration of 1950 led then to the foundation of the European Community of Steel and Coal (ECSC), which became the beginning of the European Union as we know today. The Council of Europe is today regarded as an important forum to create European-wide norms, values and practices. It is also perceived as being an ante chamber to potential membership to the EU. In 2010, the Council of Europe consisted of 47 countries, including Russia, Ukraine, Turkey and the Caucasus republics of Georgia, Armenia and Azerbaijan. One of the most important institutions of the Council of Europe is the European Court of Human Rights, which sets legal standards in particularly difficult human rights questions.

Council of Ministers of the European Union

One of the three main institutions of the European Union. It consists of the national governments of the member states. It is still the most important decision-making body of the EU, although the European Parliament has gained more powers since it started to be elected directly in 1979. The Council of Ministers meets in nine formations general affairs and external relations (most important formation); economy and finances; justice and home affairs; employment, social policy, consumers’ protection and health; competitiveness, internal market, research and industry; transport, telecommunications and energy; agriculture and fisheries; environment; and education, youth and culture.

Decentralisation of territory

Competences are devolved to directly elected subnational entities of a particular country. In 1997, the devolution process in the UK can be regarded as a decentralisation. Similar process took place in France (after 1983), Spain (after 1978) and Italy (after 1970).

Deconcentration of territory

Services of central public administration are relocated closer to the citizens at subnational level. As a consequence, there is a reduction of centralisation of services in the capital of a country and a geographically more balanced distribution across the country. Such deconcentration is not accompanied by any form of direct elections for these services. Deconcentration is simply a public administrative process in order to achieve more efficient delivery of services.

Democracy

Originally an ancient Greek word, it means the ‘rule by the people’. In the ancient city states, there was the principle of direct democracy in the main square of the city, the agora. This utopian representation of the ancient city state was actually constrained by the principle of citizenship. Many people in the city-state were excluded from citizenship and therefore from the political system, particularly the slaves. In spite of this, the Ancient city-state is regarded as the model of a direct democracy. In modern, complex societies it is difficult to implement such direct democratic principle so that one speaks of representative democracy. In Europe, only Switzerland still has a very strong tradition of direct democracy. Civil society has a strong role to play in making the executive accountable to the people. Another feature of Swiss direct democracy is the militia principle. Members of parliament are not professionalised politicians like in other countries, because they participate in politics parallel to their main profession. The militia system can be found at all levels of the Swiss political system. In contrast, in all other European countries the representative dimension of democracy is dominant. Professionalised politicians as representatives of political parties are elected at the regular elections and represent their constituencies. In some countries, there is no connection to the constituency at all, as in Portugal and Spain. In other countries, there is a strong emphasis on constituency representation, as in the UK and Germany.

Democratisation

A process from an authoritarian/totalitarian to a democratic regime. Normally, democratisation takes place in several phases. The first phase is the one of transition in which different groups compete in founding elections for representation in a Constituent Assembly. In the Constituent Assembly, a new democratic constitution is drafted after negotiations between all represented political groups. After the constitutional settlement is approved in the Constituent Assembly, and occasionally by a popular referendum, a second phase of democratic consolidation takes place that may last a decade or a full generation. Finally, after one or two decades, a process of institutionalisation sets in, in which democracy is taken for granted by both political elites and populations, and regular reforms of the political system may take place. Democratisation is a never-ending process because of its qualitative nature. Apart from this institutional aspect, a democratisation of the political culture includes, among other things, gender equality and a continuing effort to integrate marginalised groups of society into the political process.

Economic and Monetary Union (EMU)

A major policy area of the European Union that was enshrined in the Treaty of the European Union and came into force in 1993. The EMU was established in three stages. In stage one (1993–95), the member states entered a process of convergence of their macro-economic and monetary policies. In stage two (1995–98), a European Monetary Institute was established that monitored the further progress of convergence and prepared everything for stage three of the EMU. In stage three, which started after 1998, the European Central Bank was founded and the new currency, the euro, was implemented. Eurozone countries have to fulfil several criteria inflation not higher than 2 per cent of the lowest inflation within the Eurozone, budget deficit below 3 per cent of the gross domestic product (GDP), and public debt not higher than 60 per cent of gross domestic product (GDP). Before 2002, interest rates were also part of the criteria, however since then it has been the ECB that has set interest rates for the whole Eurozone. The Eurozone also has its own committee attached to ECOFIN called the Eurogroup. Only members of the Eurozone have decision-making powers, however other members of the European Union can take part in the meetings. On 1 January 2002, the new currency was introduced in the countries of the Eurozone. The Eurozone comprised originally of eleven countries Portugal, Spain, Italy, France, Ireland, Belgium, the Netherlands, Luxembourg, Germany, Austria and Finland. In 2001, Greece was also allowed to join the first wave of Eurozone countries. In 2007–8, Slovenia, Cyprus and Malta joined the Eurozone, and in 2009 Slovakia. Estonia is scheduled to join in 2011.

Encapsulation of electorate

Ability of political parties to organisationally mould a particular group into reliable long-term voters.

European Court of Human Rights (ECHR)

Founded in 1959 as one of the institutions of the Council of Europe and bases its rulings on the European Convention of Human Rights adopted by the Council of Europe in 1953. It is regarded as Court of last instance for particularly difficult human rights questions such as specific euthanasia cases or perceived law abuses in a particular country. Any person living in a European country that signed up to the European Convention of Human Rights may appeal to the ECHR.

European Court of Justice (ECJ)

Established in 1952 as one of the institutions of the European Community for Steel and Coal (ECSC). It is today one of the EU’s main institutions. Over time, it has gained more and more importance as establishing principles of European law. In the past 60 years, it has developed an important position as legal and constitutional interpreter of the Treaty. The ECJ is often compared to a Constitutional or Supreme Court, particularly by American political scientists. It consists of 27 judges, one from each member state, and 8 advocate generals. Meanwhile, the Court has become more complex, with a Court of First Instance that deals with simple cases, and the Civil Service Tribunal for employees of the European Union.

European Economic Area (EEA)

An agreement of the European Union with Iceland, Norway and Liechtenstein that came into force on 1 January 1994. EEA countries have to adopt most of the acquis communautaire, but are able to take part in the Single European Market. The main drawback is that they are not members of the European Union, and so therefore they are not able to take part in the decision-making process in the respective EU institutions. In the summer of 2009, Iceland applied for membership of the EU, and the Council of Ministers reacted positively towards it. In Norway, the majority of voters rejected to become part of the European Union in two referendums in 1972 and 1994.

European Economic and Social Committee (EESC)

Set up in 1957 as a consultative body of the European Community for Steel and Coal (ECSC) and became an established body of the European Community/European Union. The EESC comprises 344 members from representative national interest groups. The committee is divided into three groups employers’ associations, trade union confederations and other civil society actors. The Committee issues opinions to social and economic legislation prepared by the European Commission, Council and the Parliament.

Europeanisation

Defined as the ‘impact of European supranational decision-making and policies on member states’ polity, politics and policies. One differentiates between top-down, bottom-up and transnational/horizontal Europeanisation. Top-down Europeanisation is the most common and refers to the transposition of directives coming from the European Union and the impact that such policies have on the member states’ national foreign policies. A good example is the structural funds and their detailed regulations. Bottom-up Europeanisation refers to the development of new policies that have been proposed by one or more member states and, after discussions in the institutions, have been adopted as a new policy. In this context, one can mention the inclusion of a chapter on employment coordination at EU level proposed mainly by former French Prime Minister Lionel Jospin in 1997, which became part of the Treaty of Amsterdam (1999). Another example is the discussion on economic governance of the EU that became very important during the financial crisis of 2009–10, particularly in relation to Greece. Finally, horizontal/transnational Europeanisation refers to a process of slow, long-term convergence of policy areas that are firmly in member-states’ competences. An excellent example is the Bologna process in higher education that intends to make the EU more competitive in the education sector.

European Parliament

One of the main institutions of the EU. It started as a consultative assembly of the European Community for Steel and Coal (ECSC). It was established in 1958 as a Common Assembly. Until 1979, its members were nominated by the national parliaments. Since 1979, it has been directly elected and consists presently of 735 members from the 27 member states. The number of MEPs is allocated according to the size of population. Nevertheless, smaller member states such as Cyprus, Malta and Luxembourg have a disproportionately higher number of representatives. The members of the European Parliament are organised according to their political party affiliation. The parliamentary groups after the 2009 elections are as follows European People’s Party (Christian democrats, conservatives), Progressive Alliance of Socialists and Democrats (social democrats and other left-wing democrats), Alliance of Liberals and Democrats in Europe (liberals), Greens/European Free Alliance (regionalists), European Conservatives and Reformist Group (British conservatives, Czech conservatives, a new formation), European United Left/Nordic Green Left (communists, left-wing parties), and Europe of Democracy and Freedom (Euro-sceptics). The European Parliament has so far been the big winner in terms of increase of competences. Since the Single European Act (1987), the European Parliament has gained more possibilities of influence. After the Treaty of Lisbon, it is estimated that the European Parliament can participate in 38.8 per cent through the co-decision procedure – this is a considerable improvement and increase in power to the previous situation of just 17.7 per cent.

European Union

Introduced after the adoption of the Treaty of the European Union in 1993. It replaced the European Community, of which the foundations were the European Community for Steel and Coal (ECSC), the European Economic Community (EEC) and Euratom, founded in the 1950s. All these three communities merged in 1967 into one. The Treaty of the European Union consisted of three pillars the supranational European Community, the intergovernmental Common Foreign and Security Policy (CFSP) and the intergovernmental Justice and Home Affairs (JHA). Between 1993 and 2009, the two intergovernmental pillars have become more transgovernmental. The CFSP has become more militarised and integrated, particularly after 1999. Similarly, JHA has become a crucial policy area for the protection of the Single European Market, leading to convergence processes in judicial and police practices. Two important institutions are Eurojust and Europol.

European Union multilevel governance

Although the European Union is not a state, it has become a political system. The different levels (supranational, national, regional and local) have become more integrated over time. EU multilevel governance is about the interplay of all the relationships between and within the levels that political institutions, civil society organisations and the private economic sector perform. It is a complex web of networks and relations that leads to governance due to its combination of formalised and informal practices. Therefore, governance is always more than the sum of networks and relations between the levels performed by the three groups of actors.

Federalism

Political power in a country is divided between a central government and locally autonomous units such as states or regions. In Europe, Germany, Austria, Switzerland and Belgium are the only federal states. Spain is a de jure regionalised unitary state, but comes close to a de facto federal structure.

Gender Empowerment Measure (GEM)

An index to determine how important the role of women is in a particular society. The calculation is based on several indicators share of national parliamentary seats to measure participation and decision-making; share of positions as legislators, senior officials, managers and professional and technical workers to measure economic participation and decision-making; and share of estimated earned income to measure power over economic resources.

Governance

The interplay of relations between three kinds of actors political, civil society and private economy actors. All three groups build networks with formalised and informal elements in policy areas. Prominent instruments of governance are public-private partnerships (PPPs).

Gross Domestic Product (GDP)

Total market value of goods and services produced by a country in a specific period of time.

Gross National Product (GNP)

Total market value of goods and services produced within and outside a country in a specific period of time. It includes all final products and services that are produced within and without by residents of the country.

Human Development Index (HDI)

It measures the human quality of life in a particular society. The index consists of three indicators life expectancy at birth; adult literacy rate and enrolment in primary, secondary and tertiary education; and gross domestic product per capita. The top countries are in Northern Europe. The countries with the lowest HDI can be found in Africa and Asia.

Legitimacy

Lawful political government and/or action conforming to the constitution and laws of the land.

Majoritarian democracy

Concept used by Dutch-American political scientist Arend Lijphart to characterise a democratic order dominated by a polarised two-party/coalition system. Originally, Liphart used the British Westminster model as the ideal type of such majoritarian democracy. Today, majoritarian democracies can be found in other countries such as Southern Europe, Hungary, Malta and France.

Mass party

The dominant party in the first half of the twentieth century up to the end of the 1950s. It is a political party based on a well-defined ideology and relying on a strong subculture. The mass party relies on a large membership that pays fees and thus sustains the strength of the party. Traditional mass parties are the socialist and communist parties that relied on the working class. Good examples of a mass party are the Italian Communist Party (PCI) and the French Communist Party (PCF) until the 1970s.

Materialism

American social scientist Ronald Inglehart used the concept in The Silent Revolution Changing Values and Political Styles Among Western Publics (Princeton University Press, 1977) to characterise a post-Second World War generation that was central to the rebuilding of European economies. Their values were based on survival, so the emphasis was in consumption of material goods such as cars, fridges and housing. Moreover, materialists have a preference for rigid traditional institutions such as the main churches and established political parties. This contrasts with the younger generation, born after 1960, that emphasises post-materialist self-expressive values.

New public management

Administrative and state reform based on instruments coming from private sector enterprises. The main aim is to achieve more efficient services that are also more accountable to the public. It emerged in the 1970s and has been, until now, the main thrust of reform in all Organisation for Economic Development and Cooperation countries.

Neo-corporatism

A coordinated, cooperative, and systematic management of the national economy by the state, the centralised unions and employers within an advanced industrial society and democratic political system in order to achieve long-term stability in economic matters. Good examples are Austria, the Netherlands, Belgium and the Nordic countries. Neo-corporatism has been declining since the early 1990s due to the decline of membership in trade unions, increased globalisation pressures and Europeanisation.

Organisation for Economic Development and Cooperation (OECD)

Originally, this was called the Organisation for European Economic Cooperation (OEEC). The OEEC was established in 1948 and was the main vehicle to channel the Marshall Plan assistance. After 1960, it was renamed the OECD. The OECD is mainly an intergovernmental coordinating and research institution that supports its member states. The OECD consists of 33 countries that are all advanced or emerging economies. Among them are also South Korea, Mexico and Chile.

Parliament

Historically, parliaments go back to the thirteenth century. The Model Parliament of 1295 in England is regarded as the origin of parliament. There, the different estates decided about taxation requested by the monarch. The British Westminster Parliament is regarded as the mother of all parliaments. The modern form of parliamentarianism began to emerge in the eighteenth century. The establishment of universal suffrage transformed parliament as the centre of parliamentary democracy. The members are representatives of their constituencies, but in some countries of the whole country without any linkage to the constituency (e.g. Portugal and Spain).

Parliamentary democracy

Parliament is the supreme body of legitimacy of the political system. Every major decision has to have the approval of parliament. This also means that a newly appointed government (normally by the head of the state) has to be confirmed by the parliament with absolute majority.

Pluralism

Free competition between organised interest groups in a particular polity. There may be supportive relations between groups and government.

Political rights

Emerged as a reaction to the arbitrary absolutist monarchy until the eighteenth century. Together with civil rights, political rights are a fundamental part of any European constitution. Political rights include a citizen’s right to a fair trial based on the rule of law and the presumption of innocence before he/she is proven guilty, passive and active (stand as a candidate) voting rights, the right to assemble in public places and the right to take part in civil society through associations or similar. Again, the dilemma between freedom and security has become a major issue for civil and political rights activists due to draconic legislation introduced in some countries (e.g. the UK) against terrorism suspects linked to the Islamist terrorist group Al Qaeda. Such measures include preventive arrest without charge, which contravenes various principles of the rule of law.

Post-materialism

American social scientist Ronald Inglehart first introduced this concept in The Silent Revolution Changing Values and Political Styles Among Western Publics (Princeton University Press, 1977). It refers to values of a younger generation after 1970 that emphasised more self-expressive values such as support for environmental protection, tolerance towards homosexuality and other living forms, and flexible instead of rigid institutions.

Post-sovereignty

The growing erosion of the traditional meaning of sovereignty, which was based on absolute and non-transferable authority over a territory. Europeanisation and globalisation in the past four decades have eroded this traditional meaning of sovereignty. Countries live in an increasingly globalised world and have to share sovereignty with other countries to master highly complex transnational problems such as climate change or tax evasion. Post-sovereignty refers to these new developments of shared sovereignty in the European Union and world-wide.

Presidentialisation of government

Concept developed by Thomas Poguntke and Paul Webb in their edited book Presidentialisation of Politics (Oxford University Press, 2005). Growing tendency of prime ministers across Europe to centralise power around them. One important factor leading to this presidentialisation is the growing importance of the personalisation of politics through the instruments of electoral marketing. Presidentialisation can be interpreted as the development of increasing leadership power resources and autonomy within the party and political executive respectively, and increasingly leadership-centred electoral processes.

Rule of law

The most important foundation of a functioning democracy in order to prevent arbitrary decision-making and abuse of power. The main document for national rule of law is a democratic constitution and all laws deriving from it. Fundamental to the rule of the law is the protection of human, civil and political rights of citizens. The judiciary system and, in many countries, the Constitutional Court are important interpreters of the rule of law. Therefore, the judiciary ought to be independent from the executive.

Semi-presidential democracy

A democratic order in which the president of the republic is directly elected and shares the executive with a prime minister who traditionally belongs to the largest party after parliamentary elections. Semi-presidentialism can be strong, medium or weak depending on how many competences the president has. France is an example of strong semi-presidentialism, because the president has a wide range of powers, particularly foreign policy ones. Other European countries such as Portugal, Poland and Romania are examples of medium semi-presidentialism. Finally, in some countries, the president is directly elected, but has only formal powers and is therefore similar to presidents in parliamentary democracies. The best examples are Austria, Ireland, Slovakia and Slovenia.

Separation of powers

The separation of the three main powers of the political system executive (government), legislative (parliament) and judicative (courts). According to Montesquieu (1689–1755) in his book The Spirit of Laws (L’Esprit des Lois), all three branches of government should be separated from each other in order to preserve a system of checks and balances. In today’s European politics, government and parliament work closely together, while a major principle remains the independence of the judiciary.

Single European Market

The central piece of the European integration process. The Single European Market is based on four freedoms freedom of goods, services, capital and people. During the presidency of the European Commission under Jacques Delors (1985–95), the Single European Market programme was re-launched through a white paper in 1985. The Single European Act adopted in 1987 allowed a large number of directives to be approved by a qualified majority. After a first wave of directives until 1 January 1993, further waves of legislation further widened the Single European Market. After more than two decades, the Single European Market is still in construction, although it has progressed quite considerably.

Social market economy

Developed in Germany in order to characterise their economic system in relation to a liberal market economy, the Soziale Marktwirtschaft. The term emphasises both competition in the economy against the idea of a planned economy, but also the importance of a social dimension in order to achieve social cohesion through welfare policies. The main architect of such social market economy was Christian democrat politician Ludwig Erhard, who was the finance minister in Konrad Adenauer’s governments between 1949 and 1963. He became German Chancellor between 1963 and 1966. Although it is a German concept, it is a dominant model in most Western European countries. The EU has been instrumental in trying to expand the model to Central and Eastern Europe, with mixed results.

Sovereignty

A concept going back to French philosopher Jean Bodin (1530–96). It means the supreme authority over a particular independent territory. One can differentiate between internal and external sovereignty. While the former defines the supreme authority exerted by a government in a defined territory, the latter requires the recognition of the international community. Today’s international community of states is based on the recognition of each other’s sovereignty over their own territory. A present case of controversy is Kosovo, which is not recognised by all states of the international community.

Third wave of democratisation

Originally coined by American political scientist Samuel Huntington in his book The Third Wave Democratization in the Late Twentieth Century (Oklahoma University Press, 1991), the third wave of democratisation refers to the countries that engaged in processes of democratisation from authoritarian/totalitarian rule after 1974. The Portuguese Revolution of Carnations on 25 April 1974 is referred to as the beginning of a long wave of democratisation processes in Southern, Central and Eastern Europe, as well as Latin America, Africa and Asia.

Treaty of Lisbon

The present treaty setting up the workings and the policies of the European Union. It consists of the updated Treaty of the European Union (TEU, Maastricht Treaty of 1993) and the updated Treaty on the Functioning of the European Union (TFEU, Rome Treaty of 1958). During the German presidency of the European Union in the first half of 2007, a new treaty based largely on the Constitutional Treaty began to be discussed and negotiated between the member states. During the subsequent Portuguese presidency of the European Union, a new Treaty of Lisbon was signed that took out many aspects of the previous Constitutional Treaty that some member states did not support. In spite of these changes, the Treaty of Lisbon bears many similarities to the Constitutional Treaty. The Lisbon Treaty was signed in Lisbon on 13 December 2007. After a ratification process, the new Treaty of Lisbon came into force on 1 December 2009. The main innovations are 1) the double qualified majority in the Council of Ministers of the European Union based on 55 per cent of votes, but at least 15 countries and 65 per cent of the population of the EU; 2) the upgrading of powers for the European Parliament, with more areas in which co-decision procedure is used; 3) the creation of a President of the European Council elected for 2 and a half years renewable, who is in charge of coordinating the positions of the member states and representing the EU externally; 4) the High Representative of the Union for Foreign Affairs and Security, who coordinates the foreign and security policy of the member states and is also vice-president of the European Commission; 5) a clear distribution of the competences of the EU, member states, and those that are shared; 6) more rights for European citizens in terms of influencing policies and decisions taken by the EU institutions; and 7) the right to leave the European Union.

Volatility

The net change within the electoral party system resulting from individual vote transfers. One can differentiate between total volatility, interblock volatility and intrablock volatility. Interblock volatility refers to net change between the left and right blocks of an electoral party system resulting from individual vote transfers. Intrablock volatility refers to the net change within one of the left or right block of an electoral party system resulting from individual vote transfers (based on Mogens Pedersen).

Annotated Bibliography

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