Maurizio Cotta - Böcker

Parliamentary Representatives in Europe 1848-2000 deals with long-term changes in parliamentary recruitment and patterns of political careers in eleven European countries (Denmark, Finland, France, Germany, Hungary, Italy, the Netherlands, Norway, Portugal, Spain and the United Kingdom) from the middle of the 19th century to the end of the millennium. Through individual country chapters, written by international experts native to each area, the book focuses on transformations in the social background, education, political career paths, and entrenchment in pressure groups and party offices of those who sat in national parliaments. These transformations are traced on the basis of a comprehensive and integrated data-set (the DATACUBE) providing, for the first time, the prerequisites for a truly comparative study of parliamentary representation in Europe. In addition, information about institutional settings, the development of party systems, and the political events and processes of social change that helped to shape the recruitment and career paths of members of parliament, is given for each country. Further, by placing the representative at the centre, two fundamental and to some extent contradictory processes underlying the development towards parliamentary democracy in Europe, namely democratisation and political professionalisation, are addressed. The book concludes with a synopsis which proposes a developmental model of parliamentary representation in Europe during the last 150 years.

Democratic Representation in Europe: Diversity, Change and convergence explores representation as a core element of democracies in the modern era. Over the past 150 years parliamentary representation has developed into a main link between polity and society, and parliamentary representatives have come to form the nucleus of political elites. The twenty authors of the 16 chapters follow a comparative and empirical approach by exploiting the unique longitudinal data-base of the EURELITE project, which has gathered standardized evidence about the structures of parliamentary representation in 11 European countries and their development over time; in many countries over 160 years. Following on from an earlier book by the same editors (Parliamentary Representatives in Europe 1848-2000.) which focused on trends in single European countries, Democratic Representation in Europe pursues a trans-national approach by comparing the mechanisms and modes of parliamentary recruitment and career formation between the main party families and various categories of the population in European societies. Such cross-national analyses, which include a longitudinal account of female representation throughout modern European parliamentary history, have not been attempted before. The book concludes with longitudinal in-depth analyses of cleavage representation in European parliamentary history and of the impact of the institutional factor on political elites' transformations.Democratic Representation in Europe contributes to a better understanding of relations between social and political change, and of the importance of institutional factors in shaping the political elites of European democracies. In so doing it can help substantiate theoretical debates in the social and political sciences on issues such as historical institutionalism and path dependency.

The book focuses on the most recent developments in Italian politics, particularly those of the last 10-15 years. A longer historical perspective, covering the post-war period, is also supplied, providing the reader with the tools for understanding this period of change.The authors address a number of themes, paradoxes and problems inherent to Italian politics. The first theme concerns the shifting balance between the central administration and the periphery. The second theme concerns the divide between governing parties and permanent oppositions. The third theme relates to the mix of political discontinuity and instability with a simultaneous stability of political parties. Finally, the book considers the relationship between the Italian domestic system and the international system. In particular, it examines the impact of the East-West international divide on Italian politics and the Italian party system, and the relationship between Italy and Europe, and Italy's strong support of European integration.

Party and Government is an eleven-country study of the relationship between the governments of liberal democracies, mainly from Western Europe, but also including the United States and India, and the parties which support these governments.

This book explores the mechanisms of political representation and accountability in the European political system, against the backdrop of multiple crises in recent years in the economic, financial, security and immigration fields, which have triggered strong tensions and centrifugal drives inside the EU and among its member states. Exploiting a rich set of new ad hoc collected data covering elite and public opinion orientations and party positions, it investigates how the current politicization of European issues and the asymmetries among member states can challenge the sustainability of the European Union. It examines how existing policy tools were found largely unable to neutralize promptly the negative effects of these crises on the populations, economies and security of the Union and how this suggests the need to reconsider overarching theoretical frameworks and a more in-depth analysis of some crucial mechanisms of the European political system and to go beyond some of the dominant scholarly debates of the past decades. This book will be of key interest to scholars and students of the European Union and more broadly to comparative European politics and international relations.

This book explores the mechanisms of political representation and accountability in the European political system, against the backdrop of multiple crises in recent years in the economic, financial, security and immigration fields, which have triggered strong tensions and centrifugal drives inside the EU and among its member states. Exploiting a rich set of new ad hoc collected data covering elite and public opinion orientations and party positions, it investigates how the current politicization of European issues and the asymmetries among member states can challenge the sustainability of the European Union. It examines how existing policy tools were found largely unable to neutralize promptly the negative effects of these crises on the populations, economies and security of the Union and how this suggests the need to reconsider overarching theoretical frameworks and a more in-depth analysis of some crucial mechanisms of the European political system and to go beyond some of the dominant scholarly debates of the past decades. This book will be of key interest to scholars and students of the European Union and more broadly to comparative European politics and international relations.

Over the last two decades, the process of European integration has become interwoven with the theme of citizenship and the debate on the democratic quality of the EU and of its institutions has become more salient. What are the views about Europe which emerge when we interrogate the national elites of the four large South European countries, Greece, Italy, Portugal, Spain and what is their vision of a supra-national citizenship in its different facets? Are these views sufficiently homogeneous and do they distinguish themselves from those of the rest of the European Union to the point of enabling us to talk about a "distinctive region of Europe"? Which interpretation(s) of European citizenship emerges from a systematic exploration of these opinions?Using a set of survey and textual data collected in the framework of the IntUne project, the authors attempt to provide some original answers to these questions.This book was published as a special issue of South European Society and Politics.

Over the last two decades, the process of European integration has become interwoven with the theme of citizenship and the debate on the democratic quality of the EU and of its institutions has become more salient. What are the views about Europe which emerge when we interrogate the national elites of the four large South European countries, Greece, Italy, Portugal, Spain and what is their vision of a supra-national citizenship in its different facets? Are these views sufficiently homogeneous and do they distinguish themselves from those of the rest of the European Union to the point of enabling us to talk about a "distinctive region of Europe"? Which interpretation(s) of European citizenship emerges from a systematic exploration of these opinions?Using a set of survey and textual data collected in the framework of the IntUne project, the authors attempt to provide some original answers to these questions.This book was published as a special issue of South European Society and Politics.

Party and Government is an eleven-country study of the relationship between the governments of liberal democracies, mainly from Western Europe, but also including the United States and India, and the parties which support these governments.

At a time when political representation can be said to be facing its ultimate crisis, this crucial work clarifies the terms of the debate, providing an up-to-date analysis of the main conceptual and institutional controversies that have arisen surrounding this topic.Written by leading scholars in the field, contributions focus on how representation is conceptualised and its relation to democracy, examining how political institutions in different historical periods (ranging from the middle ages to the modern day) have ensured representation based on demands of various social forces. This Research Handbook also encapsulates the directions taken by the main strands of empirical research in political representation within the context of liberal democracies and beyond. Overall, this provides a major contribution to the growing understanding of one of the most important institutional inventions of contemporary politics.The Research Handbook on Political Representation is a comprehensive and agile guide to the main bodies of literature on representation for academic researchers in political science, sociology and history. It will also guide post-graduate and graduate students of the same fields in the exploration of the crucial research questions arising from the concept and reality of political representation.

This book provides an in-depth analysis of the ‘technocratic shift’ in ministerial recruitment, measuring its extent and variations over time in fourteen European countries.