As Europe enters a significant phase of re-integration of East and West, it faces an increasing problem with the rise of far-right political parties. Cas Mudde offers the first comprehensive and truly pan-European study of populist radical right parties in Europe. He focuses on the parties themselves, discussing them both as dependent and independent variables. Based upon a wealth of primary and secondary literature, this book offers critical and original insights into three major aspects of European populist radical right parties: concepts and classifications; themes and issues; and explanations for electoral failures and successes. It concludes with a discussion of the impact of radical right parties on European democracies, and vice versa, and offers suggestions for future research.

/pdf/populist-radical-right-parties-in-europe-14f3tjtdrt.pdf

Populist radical right parties in Europe

Introduction: Explaining the EU Political System PART I: GOVERNMENT Executive Politics Legislative Politics Judicial Politics PART II: POLITICS Public Opinion Democracy, Parties and Elections Interest Representation PART III: POLICY-MAKING Regulation of the Single Market Expenditure Policies Economic and Monetary Union Citizen Freedom and Security Policies Foreign Policies Conclusions: Rethinking the European Union Appendix: Decision-making Procedures of the European Union Bibliography

The political system of European Union

Giandomenico Majone and Andrew Moravcsik have argued that the EU does not suffer a ‘democratic deficit’. We disagree about one key element: whether a democratic polity requires contestation for political leadership and over policy. This aspect is an essential element of even the ‘thinnest’ theories of democracy, yet is conspicuously absent in the EU.

/pdf/why-there-is-a-democratic-deficit-in-the-eu-a-response-to-5akfaz0s2w.pdf

Why There is a Democratic Deficit in the EU: A Response to Majone and Moravcsik

How is contestation on European integration structured among national political parties? Are issues arising from European integration assimilated into existing dimensions of domestic contestation? We show that there is a strong relationship between the conventional left/right dimension and party positioning on European integration. However, the most powerful source of variation in party support is the new politics dimension, ranging from Green/alternative/libertarian to Traditional/authoritarian/nationalist.

Does Left/Right Structure Party Positions on European Integration?

Low voter turnout is a serious democratic problem for five reasons: (1) It means unequal turnout that is systematically biased against less well-to-do citizens. (2) Unequal turnout spells unequal political influence. (3) U.S. voter turnout is especially low, but, measured as percent of voting-age population, it is also relatively low in most other countries. (4) Turnout in midterm, regional, local, and supranational elections -- less salient but by no means unimportant elections -- tends to be especially poor. (5) Turnout appears to be declining everywhere. The inequality problem can be solved by institutional mechanisms that maximize turnout. One option is the combination of voter-friendly registration rules, proportional representation, infrequent elections, weekend voting, and holding less salient elections concurrently with the most important national elections. The other option, which can maximize turnout by itself, is compulsory voting. Its advantages far outweigh the normative and practical objections to it. This article has been removed from the eRepository website since it is now published: American Political Science Review vol. 91 (March 1997): 1-14.

/pdf/unequal-participation-democracy-s-unresolved-dilemma-4pyeuue7y8.pdf

Unequal Participation: Democracy's Unresolved Dilemma

The composition of the directly elected European Parliament does not precisely reflect the 'real' balance of political forces in the European Community. As long as the national political systems decide most of what there is to be decided politically, and everything really important, European elections are additional national second-order elections. They are determined more by the domestic political cleavages than by alternatives originating in the EC, but in a different way than if nine first-order national elections took place simultaneously. This is the case because European elections occur at different stages of the national political systems' respective 'electoral cycles'. Such a relationship between a second-order arena and the chief arena of a political system is not at all unusual. What is new here, is that one second-order political arena is related to nine different first-order arenas. A first analysis of European election results satisfactorily justifies the assumption that European Parliament direct elections should be treated as nine simultaneous national second-order elections.

Nine second‐order national elections – a conceptual framework for the analysis of european election results

The composition of the directly elected European Parliament does not precisely reflect the ‘real’ balance of political forces in the European Community. As long as the national political systems decide most of what there is to be decided politically, and everything really important, European elections are additional national second-order elections. They are determined more by the domestic political cleavages than by alternatives originating in the EC, but in a different way than if nine first-order national elections took place simultaneously. This is the case because European elections occur at different stages of the national political systems‘respective’electoral cycles'. Such a relationship between a second-order arena and the chief arena of a political system is not at all unusual. What is new here, is that one second-order political arena is related to nine different first-order arenas. A first analysis of European election results satisfactorily justifies the assumption that European Parliament direct elections should be treated as nine simultaneous national second-order elections.

Second–order elections

National middle-level party elites have begun to claim control over their leadership's transnational engagements particularly since preparations for the first European Elections have greatly increased transnational party (leadership) cooperation and organisation Using a common questionnaire, political scientists from all EC countries have surveyed delegates to 39 national party conferences and 3 transnational party federation congresses, in order to compare systematically the structure of middle-level party elites and their attitudes towards transnational policy-making Some preliminary results are presented here: interest in EC-politics, federalism vs confederalism, the powers of the European Parliament, Europe's relationship to the superpowers, coalition tendencies in the European Parliament The data for this article were provided by the following national project directors and their teams:



Belgium:	Nicole Loeb, Paul Claeys	Universite Libre de Bruxelles	
Denmark:	Ib Faurby, Ole P Kristensen	University of Aarhus	
Germany:	Hermann Schmitt	Universitat Mannheim	
France:	Roland Cayrol, Colette Ysmal	Fondation Nationale des Sciences Politiques, Paris	
Ireland:	Neil Collins	University of Birmingham	
Italy:	Gianfranco Pasquino, Angelo Panebianco	Universita di Bologna	
Luxembourg:	Mario Hirsch	Luxembourg	
The Netherlands:	Isaac Lipschits	Universiteit Groningen	
United Kingdom:	Ian Gordon Paul Whiteley	Kingston Polytechnic University of Bristol	
Coordination:	Oskar Niedermayer	Universitat Mannheim	
Project-Directors:	Karlheinz Reif Roland Cayrol	Universitat Mannheim FNSP, Paris

Karlheinz Reif

Papers

Nine second‐order national elections – a conceptual framework for the analysis of european election results

Second–order elections

National political parties' middle level elites and european integration

The European parliament and the political parties

Der Hauptwahlzyklus und die Ergebnisse von Nebenwahlen