Mariano Torcal - Böcker

The central concern ofThe Europeanization of National Polities? is to know and describe how far EU 'legal' citizens feel that they are actually part of a functioning European political system and how much they think of themselves as EU citizens. The authors report evidence of the levels of European identity, sense of EU representation and preferences for EU policy scope among European mass publics, which are the main dimensions of EU citizenship. The analysis uses a new comparative dataset on EU attitudes derived from a survey in 16 EU countries plus Serbia in 2007. This study shows that, despite initial expectations, levels of European identity, sense of EU representation, and preferences for EU policy scope among European mass publics did not display a strong trend in any particular direction during the period between 1975 and 2007. However, there are interesting variations in these measures of EU citizenship both across individuals and across countries that are described and explained by reference to a series of relevant hypotheses. The book pays particular attention to the inter-linkages among the three dimensions of citizenship itself. EU identity, representation and scope are all reciprocally related, but the representation dimension is key to the development of a generalised sense of a sense of citizenship at the EU level. This in turn places a significant premium on the need to address popular doubts about the EU's 'democratic deficit'.

Citizens of many democracies are becoming more critical of basic political institutions and detached and disaffected from politics in general. This is a new comparative analysis of this trend that focuses on major democracies throughout Latin America, Asia and Central Europe. It brings together leading scholars to address three key areas of the current debate:the conceptual discussion surrounding political disaffection the factors causing voters to turn away from politics the actual consequences for democracyThis is a highly relevant topic as representative democracies are coming to face new developments. It deals with the reasons and consequences of the so called ‘democratic deficit’ in a systematic way that enables the reader to develop a well-rounded sense of the area and its main debates.This book is an invaluable resource for all students of political science, sociology, cultural studies and comparative politics.

Citizens of many democracies are becoming more critical of basic political institutions and detached and disaffected from politics in general. This is a new comparative analysis of this trend that focuses on major democracies throughout Latin America, Asia and Central Europe. It brings together leading scholars to address three key areas of the current debate:the conceptual discussion surrounding political disaffection the factors causing voters to turn away from politics the actual consequences for democracyThis is a highly relevant topic as representative democracies are coming to face new developments. It deals with the reasons and consequences of the so called ‘democratic deficit’ in a systematic way that enables the reader to develop a well-rounded sense of the area and its main debates.This book is an invaluable resource for all students of political science, sociology, cultural studies and comparative politics.

This book offers a detailed analysis of affective polarisation based primarily on a unique dataset created from an online panel survey in Spain. Spain is a country that provides a rich context for the exploration of identity-based polarisation. The analysis spans particularly politically relevant times in Spain during which identities were highly politicised, providing important lessons for the comparative standpoint.A series of different individual-level measures of likes and dislikes towards different social-groups, including partisan supporters, national and subnational identifiers and other social groups are provided in the survey, allowing the authors to observe the social identities behind the growing levels of individual affective polarisation. Contributions in this volume examine the time trends of affective polarisation over this period of intense political instability and crisis and evaluate the potential factors that might explain its dynamics. The book pays special attention, on the one hand, to the party supply effect and, on the other, to the increasing partisan and ideological content of press and social media. It also looks at some potential behavioural consequences of affective polarisation such as the change and dynamics of party system, turnout, and support for radical right-wing parties (RRPs).Affective Polarisation in Spain: Electoral, Regional and Media Conflictuality will be beneficial for students, researchers and scholars of Spanish History and Politics, Sociology, and International Relations. The chapters in this book were originally published as a special issue of South European Society and Politics.

This book offers a detailed analysis of affective polarisation based primarily on a unique dataset created from an online panel survey in Spain. Spain is a country that provides a rich context for the exploration of identity-based polarisation. The analysis spans particularly politically relevant times in Spain during which identities were highly politicised, providing important lessons for the comparative standpoint.A series of different individual-level measures of likes and dislikes towards different social-groups, including partisan supporters, national and subnational identifiers and other social groups are provided in the survey, allowing the authors to observe the social identities behind the growing levels of individual affective polarisation. Contributions in this volume examine the time trends of affective polarisation over this period of intense political instability and crisis and evaluate the potential factors that might explain its dynamics. The book pays special attention, on the one hand, to the party supply effect and, on the other, to the increasing partisan and ideological content of press and social media. It also looks at some potential behavioural consequences of affective polarisation such as the change and dynamics of party system, turnout, and support for radical right-wing parties (RRPs).Affective Polarisation in Spain: Electoral, Regional and Media Conflictuality will be beneficial for students, researchers and scholars of Spanish History and Politics, Sociology, and International Relations. The chapters in this book were originally published as a special issue of South European Society and Politics.