Jonathan Olsen – författare

This is the first book in either English or German to analyse the development of Germany's newest political party, the Left Party. It compares and contrasts the party's development with that of Germany's most well-known outsider party - the Greens. It also analyses the party's performance in office in two eastern German Länder.

Thoroughly revised, the eighth edition of this accessible and highly respected text provides a rigorous yet digestible introduction to the European Union. It authoritatively explains developments that continue to bring challenges to this powerful institution in times of great political change.Key features include:Clearly covers the history, governing institutions, and policies of the EU.Thorough reflection on destabilizing issues such as immigration and the years of refugee crisis in Europe, stagnating economies in the Eurozone, the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic, tensions with China, continued Euroscepticism and populism, and the Ukraine war.A new focus on people and their experiences in the EU and an increased diversity of coverage and inclusion/exclusion, painting a richer picture of life in the EU.Fully updated with new colourful illustrations and in-text features such as Chapter Overviews, Questions to Consider, and Further Reading to encourage deeper research and debate.The authors present the EU as still one of the world's economic and political superpowers, which has brought far-reaching changes to the lives of Europeans and has helped its member states to take a newly assertive role on the global stage.Essential reading for students of European and EU politics, this book offers an up-to-the-minute look at both the opportunities and existential threats facing the EU.

Thoroughly revised, the eighth edition of this accessible and highly respected text provides a rigorous yet digestible introduction to the European Union. It authoritatively explains developments that continue to bring challenges to this powerful institution in times of great political change.Key features include:Clearly covers the history, governing institutions, and policies of the EU.Thorough reflection on destabilizing issues such as immigration and the years of refugee crisis in Europe, stagnating economies in the Eurozone, the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic, tensions with China, continued Euroscepticism and populism, and the Ukraine war.A new focus on people and their experiences in the EU and an increased diversity of coverage and inclusion/exclusion, painting a richer picture of life in the EU.Fully updated with new colourful illustrations and in-text features such as Chapter Overviews, Questions to Consider, and Further Reading to encourage deeper research and debate.The authors present the EU as still one of the world's economic and political superpowers, which has brought far-reaching changes to the lives of Europeans and has helped its member states to take a newly assertive role on the global stage.Essential reading for students of European and EU politics, this book offers an up-to-the-minute look at both the opportunities and existential threats facing the EU.

This illuminating book provides an overview of best practices to introduce and develop critical thinking (CT) skills in the political science classroom. Featuring contributions from leading experts in a range of academic positions and subdisciplines, it presents perspectives from the various institutional settings that characterize contemporary higher education.Chapters are organized into four key parts, covering themes such as writing and activities to promote CT, simulations, countering cognitive bias and how to foster CT in different educational environments. Contributors discuss detailed pedagogies and examples, from the use of internet memes to combat cognitive bias to classroom simulations that model how EU institutions function. The book outlines how these strategies can enable the development of problem-solving skills and the ability to approach complex issues from diverse viewpoints.Teaching Critical Thinking in Political Science is an essential resource for instructors of political science, political theory and public policy. Its evidence-based, practical insights will be invaluable to classroom practitioners who are looking to innovate their curriculum and pedagogy while fostering transferrable critical thinking skills.

This is the first book in either English or German to analyse the development of Germany's newest political party, the Left Party. It compares and contrasts the party's development with that of Germany's most well-known outsider party - the Greens. It also analyses the party's performance in office in two eastern German Länder.

This book traces the rise of the far-right Alternative for Germany (AfD) from its inception in 2013 to its re-election to the Bundestag in 2021, emphasising the party’s nature as a “populist issue entrepreneur” and covering the three major crises that have shaken European party politics – the Eurozone crisis, the so-called refugee crisis and the COVID pandemic. Currently, books on the AfD are largely limited to historical accounts and surface-level analyses of the party. This volume is both empirically rigorous and conceptually nuanced: it seeks to understand the party’s political trajectory and its appeal to its supporters by using advanced quantitative methodologies to analyse voter behaviour, as well as by interpreting the party’s communication strategies through mixed empirical methods. It embeds this account within a well-grounded theoretical argument. The argument emphasises three important explanatory conditions – a favourable political opportunity structure, issue entrepreneurship, and the party’s stages of political development.

This book traces the rise of the far-right Alternative for Germany (AfD) from its inception in 2013 to its re-election to the Bundestag in 2021, emphasising the party’s nature as a “populist issue entrepreneur” and covering the three major crises that have shaken European party politics – the Eurozone crisis, the so-called refugee crisis and the COVID pandemic. Currently, books on the AfD are largely limited to historical accounts and surface-level analyses of the party. This volume is both empirically rigorous and conceptually nuanced: it seeks to understand the party’s political trajectory and its appeal to its supporters by using advanced quantitative methodologies to analyse voter behaviour, as well as by interpreting the party’s communication strategies through mixed empirical methods. It embeds this account within a well-grounded theoretical argument. The argument emphasises three important explanatory conditions – a favourable political opportunity structure, issue entrepreneurship, and the party’s stages of political development.

In this new edition of his now classic 1999 book, Jonathan Olsen explores the relationship between the far right and the environment, or what he terms “right-wing ecology.” Arguing that radical environmentalism is not exclusively a domain of the left, Olsen shows how many of Germany's far right parties and groups ground their ecological ideology in an anti-universalist anthropology which sees human beings as naturally 'rooted' in specific nations and cultural traditions. Pollution in this discourse signifies not only the disruption of the natural world, but the social world as well, thus providing an environmental justification for an anti-immigrant politics which finds resonance outside the specific milieu of the far right. A rigorously theoretical book, Nature and Nationalism challenges our understanding of the deeply ambiguous ways in which 'nature' functions to legitimate a wide variety of political ideas.

Thoroughly revised, the seventh edition of this accessible and highly respected text provides a rigorous yet digestible introduction to the European Union. Additionally, it authoritatively explains developments that continue to bring challenges to this powerful institution in times of great political change. Key features: Clearly covers the history, governing institutions, and policies of the EU; Fully updated with new tables, figures, and photographs; In-text features such as Chapter Overviews, Questions to Consider, and Further Reading encourage deeper research and debate; Sustained discussion of transformative and historical change in the upheaval of Brexit and its ramifications, and the future relationship of the UK with the EU; Through reflection on destabilizing issues such as immigration and the years of refugee crisis in Europe, the continued crisis in the eurozone, tensions with Poland and Hungary, Euroskepticism, Russia, and the rise of populism; Increased coverage throughout of women or minorities within the EU.Jonathan Olsen presents the EU as one of the world's economic and political superpowers, which has brought far-reaching changes to the lives of Europeans and has helped its member states to take a newly assertive role on the global stage. Essential reading for students of European and EU politics, this book offers an up-to-the-minute look at both the opportunities and existential threats facing the EU.