The Structure of Political Competition in Western Europe
Is European party politics hovering above society? Why do voters pick one party over others? Is it a question of class? Of religion? Of attitudes about taxes or immigration or global warming? Or is it something else entirely? The Structure of Political Competition in Western Europe takes a detailed look at the ways in which Western Europes party systems are anchored in social and ideological structures. The books first section focuses on the role of social structures particularly education, class and religion and analyzes the complex interplay among these factors. The second section addresses the manner in which sociological structures such as class and religion interact with voters values. The third section examines how these structures and values shape the space of political competition among parties. The conclusion integrates the findings of the empirical articles, putting them into broader comparative perspective, discussing whether relatively predictable structures have been overwhelmed by media-driven spectacles, political personalities and focus on short-term economic performance.
This volume will appeal to scholars and graduate students in Europe and those from North America, Asia and other regions who study European politics, political parties, cleavages and political behaviour.
This book was published as a special issue of West European Politics.
Zsolt Enyedi is Associate Professor at the Political Science Department of the Central European University, Budapest. His research interests focus on party politics, comparative government, church and state relations, and political psychology. His articles have appeared in journals like Party Politics, Europe-Asia Studies, European Journal of Political Research, West European Politics, Democratization and Social Thought and Research.
Kevin Deegan-Krause is an Associate Professor of Political Science at Wayne State University in Detroit, Michigan. He is the author of Elected Affinities: Democracy and Party Competition in Slovakia and the Czech Republic (Stanford University Press, 2006). His work has also appeared in Party Politics, the Journal of Democracy, East European Politics and Societies as well as in newspapers, magazines and his blog, www.pozorblog.com.
West European Politics Series
Edited by Klaus H. Goetz, University of Potsdam, Germany, Peter Mair, European University Institute, Italy and Gordon Smith, London School of Economics and Political Science, UK
West European Politics has established itself as the foremost journal for the comparative analysis of European political institutions, politics and public policy. Its comprehensive scope, which includes the European Union, makes it essential reading for both academics and political practitioners. The books in this series have originated from special issues published by West European Politics.
Immigration Policy in Europe
The politics of control
Edited by Virgine Guiradon and Gallya Lahav
Norway in Transition
Transforming a stable democracy
Edited by Oyvind Osterud
Policy Change and Discourse in Europe
Edited by Claudio M. Radaelli and Vivien Schmidt
Politics and Policy in Greece
The challenge of modernisation
Edited by Kevin Featherstone
Frances Political Institutions at 50
Edited by Emiliano Grossman and Nicolas Sauger
Interest Group Politics in Europe
Lessons from EU Studies and Comparative Politics
Edited by Jan Beyers, Rainer Eising and William A. Maloney
Italy A Contested Polity
Edited by Martin Bull and Martin Rhodes
European Politics
Pasts, presents, futures
Edited by Klaus H. Goetz, Peter Mair and Gordon Smith
The Politics of Belgium
Institutions and policy under bipolar and centrifugal federalism
Edited by Marleen Brans, Lieven De Winter and Wilfried Swenden
Towards a New Executive Order in Europe
Edited by Deirdre Curtin and Morten Egeberg
The Structure of Political Competition in Western Europe
Edited by Zsolt Enyedi and Kevin Deegan-Krause
First published 2011 by Routledge
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First issued in paperback 2013
2011 Taylor & Francis
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Simon Bornschier is a Senior Researcher at the Institute for Political Science at the University of Zurich. This article was written while he was a visiting fellow in the Max Weber Programme at the European University Institute in Florence. He works on the transformation of cleavages and party systems in Western Europe and the rise of right-wing populist parties, as well as evolving citizenparty linkages in Latin America. He is the author of Cleavage Politics and the Populist Right. The New Cultural Conflict in Western Europe (Philadelphia: Temple University Press, forthcoming) and co-author (with Hanspeter Kriesi, Edgar Grande, Romain Lachat, Martin Dolezal, and Timotheos Frey) of West European Politics in the Age of Globalization (Cambridge University Press, 2008).
Kevin Deegan-Krause is an Associate Professor of Political Science at Wayne State University in Detroit, Michgan, USA. His research addresses the interaction of party politics, public opinion, and political institutions with emphasis on questions of cleavage and populism. His recent publications include Elected Affinities: Democracy and Party Competition in Slovakia and the Czech Republic (Stanford University Press, 2006) and New Dimensions of Political Cleavage in the Oxford Handbook of Political Science (2007) as well as numerous book chapters and articles in refereed journals.
Martin Dolezal is Assistant Professor at the Department of Government at the University of Vienna and works as a Research Associate for the Austrian National Election Study (AUTNES). His research interests focus on party competition and electoral behaviour; as part of his collaboration in AUTNES, he is currently working on a new approach for the manual content analysis of party manifestos. He has published on Austrian and German politics, green parties, debates on Islam and political protest and is co-author (with Hanspeter Kriesi, Edgar Grande, Romain Lachat, Martin Dolezal, and Timotheos Frey) of
