Comparative European Politics 

About: Comparative European Politics is an academic journal published by Springer Science+Business Media. The journal publishes majorly in the area(s): European union & Comparative politics. It has an ISSN identifier of 1472-4790. Over the lifetime, 713 publications have been published receiving 14042 citations. The journal is also known as: CEP.

Measuring Political Deliberation: A Discourse Quality Index

Abstract: In this paper, we develop a discourse quality index (DQI) that serves as a quantitative measure of discourse in deliberation. The DQI is rooted in Habermas' discourse ethics and provides an accurate representation of the most important principles underlying deliberation. At the same time, the DQI can be shown to be a reliable measurement instrument due to its focus on observable behavior and its detailed coding instructions. We illustrate the DQI for a parliamentary debate in the British House of Commons. We show that the DQI yields reliable data and we discuss how these data could be used in subsequent analysis. We conclude by discussing some limitations of the DQI and by identifying some areas in which it could prove useful.

Varieties of residential capitalism in the international political economy : old welfare states and the new politics of housing

Abstract: Comparative and international political economy (CPE and IPE) are justifiably obsessed with finance as a source of power and as a key causal force for domestic and international economic outcomes. Yet both CPE and IPE ignore the single largest asset in people's everyday lives and one of the biggest financial assets in most economies: residential property and its associated mortgage debt. This special issue argues that residential housing and housing finance systems have important causal consequences for political behavior, social stability, the structure of welfare states, and macro-economic outcomes. The articles examine specific instances across a range of countries. This introduction has broader aims. First, it shows that housing finance systems are not politically neutral. We argue that the kind of housing people occupy and the property rights surrounding housing can constitute political subjectivities and objective preferences not only about the level of public spending, but also the level and nature of inflation and taxation. Second, like the varieties of capitalism literature, we show that housing finance systems also have important complementarities with the larger economy. But we diverge from the varieties literature, suggesting that ‘varieties of residential capitalism’ are not explained by domestic institutional complementarities alone. Rather, what we refer to as financially repressed and financially liberal systems are globally interdependent. While welfare and taxation systems show high degrees of path dependence, transnational trends in the deregulation of housing finance have altered incentives and preferences for financial institutions, home owners, and would-be home owners. Finally, the introduction offers some speculation about how pocketbooks will drive politics as the global housing busts tightens mortgage belts around the waists of average Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development home owners.

What's left of the radical left? The European radical left after 1989: decline and mutation

Abstract: We make a three-fold contribution to research on the European radical left. First, we will offer a clear and comprehensive definition of the term ‘radical left’. Second, we will look at the main developments within the European radical left as a whole, and not just at one sub-set of political parties. Third, we will take a pan-European perspective, focusing on both Eastern and Western Europe. The radical left in Europe post-1989 is both in decline and in mutation. Decline is evident in both the marginalization and moderation of Communist organizations (notably parties), a direct result of the fall of the Soviet Union, and the fissiparous nature of many radical left groupings. But the end of the USSR has also given space for mutation, that is, the emergence of a New Radical Left employing ‘new’ ideological approaches (principally ‘social-populism’) and modern forms of trans-national cooperation (particularly through the European Parliament and the ‘anti-globalization’ movement). This mutation indicates future potential, however unrealized so far.

Is there really a retreat from multiculturalism policies? New evidence from the multiculturalism policy index

Abstract: In much of the Western world, and particularly in Europe, there is a widespread perception of a wholesale ‘retreat’ from multiculturalism. Governments that once embraced a multicultural approach to diversity are said to be replacing it with a strong emphasis on civic integration. This assumption that new civic integration policies displace older multiculturalism policies (MCPs) has not properly been tested. Existing indices of immigrant integration policies (such as Migrant Integration Policy Index (MIPEX) or Civic Integration Policy Index (CIVIX)) have captured the rise of civic integration policies, but are not designed to measure the presence of MCPs. Drawing on an updated version of the Multiculturalism Policy Index introduced earlier, the article presents an index of the strength of multicultural policies for European countries and several traditional countries of immigration at three points in time (1980, 2000 and 2010). The results paint a different picture of contemporary experience in Europe. While a small number of countries, including most notably the Netherlands, have weakened established multicultural policies during the 2000s, such a shift is the exception. Most countries that adopted multicultural approaches in the later part of the twentieth century have maintained their programmes in the first decade of the new century, and a significant number of countries have added new ones. In much of Europe, multicultural policies are not in general retreat. As a result, the turn to civic integration is often being layered on top of existing multicultural programmes, leading to a blended approach to diversity. The article reflects on the compatibility of MCPs and civic integration, arguing that more liberal forms of civic integration can be combined with multiculturalism but that more illiberal or coercive forms are incompatible with a multicultural approach.

Political Trust, Satisfaction and Voter Turnout

Abstract: This article studies how citizens’ evaluations of the political system and its actors affect their propensity to vote Based on the earlier theoretical and empirical research, we analyse the concepts of political trust and satisfaction that are often used in survey research We argue that political trust has to do with the normative expectations towards political institutions and actors, whereas satisfaction may be regarded as an indicator of attitudes to policy outputs Furthermore, we differentiate between attitudes to democratic system on the one hand and political actors on the other hand, because in representative democracies it should be possible to replace incumbent politicians at elections We hypothesize that trust in parliament and satisfaction with democracy increase turnout, whereas trust in politicians has a smaller impact on turnout, and satisfaction with the incumbent government does not affect turnout at all The empirical evidence is based on the first round of the European Social Survey, which was collected simultaneously in 22 countries in 2002–2003 Our analysis confirms that trust in parliament has a positive impact on turnout, and also satisfaction with democracy increases it These effects are especially high when aggregated at a country level and when hard data on turnout are used At the individual level, in particular trust in parliament increases the likelihood of voting