bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025_split huggingface dataset:
Political Stability in European Democracies*
Authors: ERSSON SVANTE , LANE JAN‐ERIK 
Published: May 2006

ABSTRACTIt is a widely shared belief that political instability is on the rise in European democracies. In order to test such a statement in a more rigorous manner we introduce a concept of political stability that is suitable for the description of the cross‐sectional and longitudinal variation in basic aspects of the political systems of Western Europe. A confirmatory factor analysis of standard indicators on political instability applied to European data indicates that six properties are semantically relevant: public sector deficit, inflation, governmental change, party system volatility, violence, and protests. The main findings from the cross‐sectional analysis are that political instability has become less a Latin phenomenon in Europe and that theories of political stability emphasizing two‐partyism or consociationalism encounter severe counter‐instances. The main findings from the longitudinal analysis are that political instability vanes over time and that it is not on the rise in the present situation. The combined cross‐sectional and longitudinal analysis shows clearly that it is not the case that nations are either stable or unstable in all aspects of the political system, but that the major dimensions of the concept of political stability vary extensively in relation to each other.
Consociational Democracy in Switzerland: A Political‐Economic Explanation and Some Empirical Evidence*
Authors: LEHNER FRANZ 
Published: May 2006

ABSTRACTConsociational democracy is usually explained in terms of the accommodation of conflicts resulting from cultural segmentation. This explanation hardly applies to modern Switzerland. This article presents an alternative explanation which focuses on conditions and strategies of majority formation. It is argued that direct democracy combined with a high level of socio‐economic and political differentiation makes a consociational pattern of decision‐making necessary. Such decision‐making, however, involves high transaction costs and, therefore, hardly allows for the formation of a stable grand coalition. The article investigates the consequences of this situation and presents some empirical evidence.
The Intergenerational Transfer of Political Ideologies in Eight Western Nations*
Authors: JENNINGS M. KENT 
Published: May 2006

ABSTRACTPre–adult socialization is one way in which political ideologies are formed. Parents can affect the ideologies of their offspring through direct transmission or through the indirect mechanism of family social milieu. This paper analyses parent–adolescent pairs drawn from a larger sample survey study of eight western nations carried out in the mid–1970s. Three varieties of ideological perspectives are addressed: the traditional left–right continuum, pro– and anti–establishment attitudes, and material–postmaterial value structures. In general the familiar and historically rich orientations of the left–right dimension are transmitted much more successfully than are the remaining two, which are newer and less encapsulating. Regardless of particular ideology, the direct transmission model is significantly more faithful to the findings than an indirect model based on the family's social class and religious composition. The distortion in the reproduction of ideologies between the generations indicates the importance of intra–individual development and macro–level forces as sources of political ideologies.
The Effect of Aggregate Economic Conditions on the Political Preferences of the Italian Electorate, 1953–1979*
Authors: BELLUCCI PAOLO 
Published: May 2006

ABSTRACTStudies on Italian electoral behaviour have relied mainly on ideological explanations of party support. Taking a rational choice approach, this paper assesses the relevance and the impact of aggregate economic conditions upon the political preferences of the Italian electorate in the period 1953–1979. Without neglecting the strength of ideological and cultural ties with parties, it is found that economic considerations do play an important role for Italian electors. Increasing inflation reduces the electoral strength of the Christian Democratic Party while it rewards the Communist opposition. Growing unemployment shows an opposite trend, thus pointing out the peculiarity of the economic relationship that links electors to parties in the Italian system, which can be accounted for within a rational framework.
Comparative Research on the Determinants of the Welfare State: the State of the Art*
Authors: UUSITALO HANNU 
Published: May 2006

ABSTRACTThis paper makes an effort to evaluate the present state of comparative research on the determinants of the welfare state. The major thesis is that both theories and comparative results diverge to an extent that is not warranted by reality. Conflicting findings are in many cases explained by methodological features of the studies, a brief summary of which is given in the paper, and theories of the determinants of the welfare state are often presented in contradictory forms. In fact, their major claims may be integrated. The paper outlines a model of the determinants of the welfare state, which attempts to integrate the major findings of comparative research, and which also allows an analysis of the strengths and weaknesses of major theories.
Politics, Policies and Consequences:* A Cross‐national Analysis of Public Policy‐formation in Advanced Capitalist Democracies (1967–1981)
Authors: KEMAN HANS 
Published: May 2006

ABSTRACTIn this article the growing dissent and tension with regard to the relationship between political factors, public policy‐formation and the consequences (in terms of economic performance) will be investigated. Our point of departure is to find out to what extent political variables matter and which other factors may account for the above relationship. The main result is that, apart from the impact of ‘politics’, the existence of a corporatist mode of interest‐mediation and conflict‐regulation consistently strengthens the explanation of policy‐formation and policy‐performance. In addition, it appears that, especially after 1974, political factors gain influence, albeit more often than not in circumstances of political consensus and where right‐wing parties are relatively weak. If the interdependence between ‘politics’ and ‘economics’ is managed in a consensual fashion, it will lead to a better economic performance and may be an adequate response to the ongoing crisis.
The Success of the Swedish Labour Market Policy: the Organizational Connection to Policy*
Authors: ROTHSTEIN BO 
Published: May 2006

ABSTRACTThe study of public policies in the contemporary Welfare States does not give enough consideration to the character of the public organizations that handle the concrete implementation. Building on recent neo‐Marxist studies of public administration, this article examines the organizational connection to the ‘Active Labour Market Policy’ that was launched in Sweden by the Social Democrats during the late 1950s and that was exported throughout the OECD countries during the 1960s. The success of this policy was the result of a major organizational change in the public administration of the labour market in Sweden, which broke with the traditional bureaucratic mode of operation and established new principles of organizing public activities. This organizational change in the Swedish case is interpreted as an attempt to create a specific mode of Social Democratic cadre‐organization.
Popular Power and the Portuguese Far Left*
Authors: HAMMOND JOHN L. 
Published: May 2006

ABSTRACTThe Portuguese revolution of 1974–75 produced a great outpouring of mass political activity, centred on three sites: industrial workplaces, urban neighbourhoods, and southern latifundios. In each, workers or residents organized to meet immediate needs (most often, employment security and housing), but in the favourable political conjuncture they moved beyond immediate grievances to demand far‐reaching social and political changes. Small political parties of the far left attempted to interpret these demands and become their political vehicle; they failed, but achieved a surprising electoral success with the 1976 presidential campaign of Otelo Saraiva de Carvalho. Analysing the vote for him, I argue that it is best understood not (as some interpreters claim) as populist or representing Portuguese traditions of Sebastianism and the ‘saviour army’, but as a working‐class‐based expression of the demand for popular power.
Issue Volatility and Partisan Linkages in Canada, Great Britain, the United States, and West Germany*
Authors: CLARKE HAROLD , HILDEBRANDT KAI , Le DUC LAWRENCE , PAMMETT JON 
Published: May 2006

ABSTRACTAlthough the role of issues in elections has been widely studied, different approaches to the definition, classification, and measurement of issues render cross‐national comparisons difficult. Further, little attention has been paid to the stability or instability of issues across time, and the possible implications of issue change for voting behaviour and election outcomes. In this analysis, a common classification scheme is employed for measuring the salience of issues in the elections of four countries, and the linkage of issues to political parties in the thinking of individual voters is explored. Panel data are employed to test the stability of attitudes towards political issues across a series of three elections in each country. Although there are wide differences in the specific array of issues in each country, issues can be broadly typed into five general categories of public concerns. Even given the common emphasis on economic issues throughout the 1970s, considerable instability exists across time in all categories of issues. This instability makes it more difficult to sustain a consistent issue/party link over more than one election, and thereby has implications for the accountability of parties in issue/policy terms.
Towards a Conditional Model of Coalition Behaviour*
Authors: DENTERS BAS 
Published: May 2006

ABSTRACTThis is an attempt to formulate a conditional model of coalition formation. Predictions from this model are tested against data on coalition formation in Dutch local government in 1982. Starting from a simple model of the behaviour of party politicians, it is assumed that the coalition behaviour of parties depends on the competitiveness of the (local) political system. The choice of a coalition strategy (minimizing size, minimizing policy range or proportional representation) is contingent upon two dimensions of the competitiveness of local politics. These are the amount of electoral volatility and the extent to which local election results follow national trends. Our conditional theory predicts different coalition behaviour in polities differing with regard to these two factors. Though the hypothesis was falsified, a more detailed analysis showed that (local) political competitiveness did make a difference in the choice of at least some of the coalition strategies. These differences, moreover, were in line with what was to be expected from the theoretical model.
Political parties and coalitional behaviour in Belgium: the perspective of local politics
Authors: PIJNENBURG Bert 
Published: May 2006

Abstract. What constitutes the starting point of this analysis is the limitations of traditional coalition theories. A particular weakness of the traditional approach is its treatment of political parties as unitary actors, largely unaffected by less formal determinants of coalitional behaviour, and each making rational calculations about the utility of coalition formation.The alternative is a new multidimensional perspective of coalitional behaviour, based on a number of components. The aim of the article is a first and exploratory assessment of the relevance and usefulness of this multidimensional reorientation of coalition theory with regard to local politics (i.e. the municipal‐council arena).This assessment is based on a general analysis of the coalitional behaviour of political parties in Belgium (the Flemish part of the country) at the local level. The most important elements of both the formal and the multi‐dimensional approaches for a study of local‐coalition phenomena in Flanders are briefly summarized. It is along these lines that the results of the municipal‐council elections in 1982 are discussed. Finally, a provisional evaluation is made of what and how the multi‐dimensional alternative could contribute to a better understanding of coalition politics at the local level.
Minority governments, minimal winning coalitions and surplus majorities in parliamentary systems
Authors: CROMBEZ CHRISTOPHE 
Published: May 2006

AbstractThis paper studies government formation in parliamentary systems. A formal model is presented to explain the emergence of minority governments, minimal winning coalitions and surplus majorities, as a function of the largest party's share of the seats in the legislature and its location in the policy space. I conclude that as the largest party becomes larger and more central, the government changes from a surplus majority to a minimal winning coalition and from a minimal winning coalition to a minority government. I find empirical support for these conclusions in a study of government formation in eleven parliamentary democracies.
The emergence of new political parties from a game theoretic perspective
Authors: HUG SIMON 
Published: May 2006

AbstractThe literature on new political parties is vast but often neglects strategic aspects that are important in the formation period. In this article I develop a simple incomplete information game consisting of the interactions between an established party and a potential new party. The game shows that higher ‘costs’ for forming a party decrease the likelihood of new actors appearing on the electoral scene. Apart from this intuitive result the paper also shows that important demands from potential new parties are less likely to be taken seriously by the established party than more modest demands. Consequently, established parties often change their policies only marginally and are likely to refuse important modifications to their platform.
Political parties and democracy: A mutual murder?
Authors: DESCHOUWER KRIS 
Published: May 2006

Democracy is good at generating demands and bad at satisfying them. Autocracy, on the other hand, is in a position to stifle demands and is better placed to meet them. (Bobbio 1987: 39)
AbstractAccording to the classical Eastonian approach a political system faces stress when it is not able to respond to an acceptable number of demands. The support for the system then drops. In this article we use this conceptual tool to attempt to explain in very general terms the existing anti‐party sentiment in Western democracies. We try to show how democracy itself produces substantial stress for the system that could however be contained as long as political parties were able to act as collective identities between the citizens and the state. The adaptation and change of the traditional parties has made democratic systems more vulnerable to the erosion of support, and the parties themselves, as central actors in the systems, are the target of the protest.
The intellectual basis of right‐wing anti‐partyism
Authors: IGNAZI PIERO 
Published: May 2006

AbstractThis paper shows the long and prestigious intellectual tradition of anti‐party arguments. Even before political parties emerged as unitary political actors, there were already well‐developed arguments with which to express hostility towards them. The emphasis on unity and harmony in Western civilization moulded political thought. While this cultural framework was broken in the brief but extraordinarily powerful experience of the Medieval Italian Republican Cities, the acceptance of organized dissent failed to emerge. Instead, this experience left the vivid memory of the danger of factionalism. In eighteenth century France, both revolutionaries and counter‐revolutionaries viewed parties as political maladies, and nineteenth century liberalism produced only a diffident defence of parties. At the end of the nineteenth century, hostility towards parties was nurtured in both Germany and France by elevating the ideals of the State and of the Nation. Italian and German fascists drew on and developed these philosophical anti‐party traditions in the 1920s and 1930s. Since 1945, however, few anti‐party parties have developed their own detailed or comprehensive philosophical critiques of parties; the Italian MSI is a notable exception.
Apartisanship and anti‐party sentiment in the United Kingdom: Correlates and constraints
Authors: WEBB PAUL D. 
Published: May 2006

AbstractThis article seeks to examine evidence of the existence and growth of anti‐party sentiment in the UK. While it is clear that the available data cannot unambiguously confirm these phenomena, at least aprima faciecase can be made on the basis of such evidence. Regression analysis suggests that while erosion of the class cleavage in the country is associated with the loosening of partisan commitments, the shortcomings of party governments in the area of economic policy management might contribute significantly to a sense of popular alienation from the major parties. Notwithstanding this, anti‐party sentiment is perhaps not as high as might be expected in a country where perceptions of national economic decline have been widespread. Political culture and the electoral system are very real constraints that do much to account for this.
Duverger and the Jacobins
Authors: MAVROGORDATOS GEORGE Th. 
Published: May 2006

AbstractAgainst the heightened awareness brought about by the bicentennial of the French Revolution, it is surprising to (re)discover that Duverger chooses to dismiss the Jacobins as a mere parliamentary group. In fact, they became the first mass party. This is the key to an organizational explanation of the course taken by the Revolution. It raises new and compelling doubts about the identification of mass parties with the working class and about the democratic credentials of such parties. It also raises the broader question whether the modernity of political parties is a matter of organization or, rather, of legitimacy.
Social movements and direct democracy in Switzerland
Authors: KRIESI HANSPETER , WISLER DOMINIQUE 
Published: May 2006

AbstractTaking a political process approach to the study of social movements, we analyze the impact of the availability of direct democratic institutions on the action repertory of Swiss social movements. Comparing social movements in the German and the Latin parts of the country, we show that the availability of direct‐democratic instruments induces most social movements to use them. This has a moderating impact on their action repertory. However, we have to relativize this general result in two ways. On the one hand, direct‐democratic institutions are selective to the extent that they favour the mobilization of certain types of movements at the expense of others. On the other hand, very radical movements such as counter‐cultural movements may refuse to rely on this type of instrument altogether. We also note that in a polity with an important direct‐democratic opening, such movements have little legitimacy and are likely to be less successful than in a polity where no such opening exists at all, or where it provides only a limited access to the political system.
The dissatisfied society: The roots of political change in Italy
Authors: MORLINO LEONARDO , TARCHI MARCO 
Published: May 2006

AbstractSince early 1990s in Italy there has been a major change in the party system. Some of the explanations that are often mentioned, such as corruption, the April 1993 referendum, the new electoral laws, or the secularization of the society and the economic crisis, are important aspects of a complex funnel of causality. Together, however, they do not satisfactorily explain the change. Thus, we identify an idiosyncratic factor, the chronic, widespread dissatisfaction, that existed since the end of the 1940s, and explore the reasons why this dissatisfaction caused change only in the 1990s. The main explanations we suggest provide the basis for some speculations on changes in an Italian democracy that is still in a phase of transformation in the mid‐1990s.
Two steps forward ‐ one step back?
Authors: SCHMID JOSEF 
Published: May 2006

AbstractFrancis Castles has dealt with the issue of whether Catholicism makes a difference. This paper provides some critical remarks and further reflections about the topic. My point is that Castles neglects the relevance of Catholic churches and welfare organizations for the development of the modern welfare state. In countries with a strong state‐church‐cleavage (Rokkan) this aspect is characteristic for the delivery of social services. Thus, a more political‐institutional theory of religion and public policy can be reached.
Acamprosate Enhances N‐Methyl‐D‐Apartate Receptor‐Mediated Neurotransmission But Inhibits Presynaptic GABAB Receptors in Nucleus Accumbens Neurons
Authors: Berton Fulvia , Francesconi Walter G. , Madamba Samuel G. , Zieglgänsberger Walter , Siggins George Robert 
Published: May 2006

Acamprosate (calcium acetylhomotaurine) is used therapeutically in Europe to reduce relapse in weaned alcoholics. However, the mechanisms of acamprosate action in the central nervous system are still obscure, although early studies suggested an action on GABA receptors. The nucleus accumbens (NAcc) is a brain region thought to underlie ethanol reinforcement. Recent studies from our laboratory have demonstrated that ethanol inhibits both N‐methyl‐D‐aspartate (NMDA) and non‐NMDA types of glutamatergic synaptic transmission in the NAcc.1,2 In the present study, we used voltage‐ and current‐clamp intracellular recording of NAcc core neurons in a slice preparation to examine acamprosate actions on resting membrane properties and pharmacologically isolated synaptic responses. We isolated NMDA and non‐NMDA receptor‐mediated excitatory postsynaptic potentials or currents (EPSP/Cs) with 6‐cyano‐7‐nitro‐quinoxaline‐2,3‐dione (CNQX) and DL‐2‐amino‐5‐phosphonovaler‐ate (d‐APV), respectively. Bicuculline was also included to block GABAA receptors. Superfusion of acamprosate (5, 50, and 300 μM) did not alter the resting membrane properties of NAcc neurons. However, 300 μM acamprosate significantly increased the NMDA receptor‐mediated components of EPSP/Cs (NMDA‐EPSP/Cs) with recovery on washout. In contrast, 300 μM acamprosate had no significant effect on the non‐NMDA receptor component of the EPSP/Cs (non‐NMDA‐EPSP/Cs). To test acamprosate actions on the GABA system, we superfused 60 μM d‐APV and 20 μM CNQX to block glutamatergic transmission and evoked monosynaptic GABAA receptor‐mediated synaptic responses within the NAcc. Acamprosate (300 μM) did not change these monosynaptic GABAA‐IPSCs. We also used a paired‐pulse paradigm to test whether acamprosate could act on presynaptic GABAB, autoreceptors, in the presence of d‐APV and CNQX to block glutamatergic transmission. Like 0.5 μM CGP 34358 (a GABAB receptor blocker), acamprosate significantly decreased the paired‐pulse inhibition (PPI) of GABAA‐IPSCs at short interstimulus intervals (ISIs). Thus, acamprosate may concomitantly enhance NMDA‐EPSP/Cs while blocking presynaptic GABAB receptor‐mediated inhibition of GABA release. These results suggest that acamprosate's clinical efficacy in preventing relapse in weaned alcoholics could derive from its interactions with both the glutamatergic and GABAergic systems in the NAcc.Synaptic Transmission, Alcohol, Ethanol, EPSPs, NMDA Receptors.