Parliaments in Time

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Michael Koß
Keyword(s):  
Western Europe ◽  
Institutional Development ◽  
Process Tracing ◽  
Agenda Control ◽  
Ideal Types ◽  
Legislative Procedures ◽  
Legislative Agenda ◽  
Western European ◽  
System Threat ◽  
Distributive Bargaining

This book sheds light on the institutional development of four (emerging) Western European parliaments. Parliaments in Western Europe are noteworthy for several reasons. Their institutional designs differ remarkably, with distinct consequences for their policy output. Scholars have diagnosed the decline of legislatures for over a century now. Based on a model of distributive bargaining over legislative procedures, this book engages in a comparative process-tracing analysis of ninety reforms, which restructured control over the plenary agenda and committee power in Britain, France, Sweden, and Germany between 1866 and 2015. The analysis presented suggests that legislators in Western Europe rationalize procedures as a response to growing levels of legislative workload. As a consequence, legislatures evolve towards one of two procedural ideal types: talking or working legislatures. In talking legislatures, governments enjoy privileges in legislative agenda-setting (resulting in centralized agenda control) and committees are weak. In contrast, working legislatures combine decentralized agenda control with powerful committees. Which path legislators chose is determined by the appearance of anti-system obstruction. If anti-system parties obstruct legislative business, legislators surrender ancient procedural privileges and agree to a centralization of agenda control. Otherwise, their demand for legislative mega-seats on committees triggers the evolution of working legislatures. If legislators fail to respond to an anti-system threat, legislative procedures break down. For this reason, the central aim of procedural reforms in Western European parliaments is to maintain legislative democracy. Rather than a decline of legislatures, for talking legislatures to successfully overcome an anti-system threat indicates the resilience of legislative democracy.

Introduction: Legislators in the Steel-Hard Casing

2018 ◽  
pp. 1-15
Author(s):  
Michael Koß
Keyword(s):  
Industrial Revolution ◽  
Agenda Control ◽  
Legislative Organization ◽  
Legislative Procedures ◽  
Legislative Agenda ◽  
Centralize Control ◽  
The Creation

This chapter identifies the problem of legislative democracy. As a response to growing pressures to increase procedural efficiency in the wake of the Industrial Revolution and the advent of more inclusive suffrage formulae, legislators face two procedural alternatives: to centralize control over the legislative agenda, to create powerful committees. Talking legislatures combine centralized agenda control and weak committees, working ones decentralized agenda control and powerful committees, and hybrid ones centralized agenda control and powerful committees. According to the dynamic partisan perspective adopted in this book, a centralization of agenda control only occurs as a response to anti-system obstruction. Given legislators’ demand for mega-seats, the creation of powerful committees is the default way to rationalize legislative procedures. If, however, legislators fail to procedurally respond to anti-system obstruction they risk a breakdown of legislative procedures. This is why this book ultimately focuses on legislative democracy rather than legislative organization.

Democracy and Dictatorship in Interwar Western Europe Revisited

1998 ◽  
Vol 50 (3) ◽  
pp. 475-505 ◽  
Author(s):  
Thomas Ertman
Keyword(s):  
Political Parties ◽  
Economic Crisis ◽  
Western Europe ◽  
International System ◽  
Explanatory Framework ◽  
The World ◽  
Entire Universe ◽  
Western European ◽  
Methodological Advance

Almost none of the conditions that, according to the latest research, favor democratic durability were present in Western Europe between the world wars. Yet only four Western European states became dictatorships during this period, whereas the others remained democratic despite economic crisis, an unhelpful international system, and the lure of nondemocratic alternatives. Several recent works offer new explanations for this pattern of interwar outcomes. Insofar as these works analyze the entire universe of Western European cases, they represent an important methodological advance. However, they remain too wedded to a class-coalitional framework to provide both a parsimonious and a historically accurate account of why democracy collapsed in some states but not in others. This article proposes an alternative explanatory framework that focuses on how political parties can shape association life in such a way as to support or undermine democracy.

scholarly journals Current Problems of the Realization of the Right to Freedom of Conscience and Religious Вeliefs by Christians in Western European States

2020 ◽  
pp. 17-35
Author(s):  
Наталия Сергеевна Семенова
Keyword(s):  
Western Europe ◽  
Control Mechanisms ◽  
International Level ◽  
Freedom Of Conscience ◽  
National Courts ◽  
European Court ◽  
International Obligations ◽  
Freedom Of Thought ◽  
Western European ◽  
The Right

На сегодняшний день сформирована солидная правовая база международных обязательств государств по гарантии права на свободу мысли, совести и религии. Соблюдение данных гарантий обеспечивается на международном уровне наличием разработанной системы уставных и договорных контрольных механизмов, в рамках которых государства отчитываются о выполнении своих обязательств. Тем не менее, несмотря на наличие хорошо разработанной международно-правовой системы защиты права на свободу мысли, совести и религии, проблемы реализации данного права, включая преследования и дискриминацию по признаку отношения к религии, остро стоят во многих странах Западной Европы. Причем, проблемы реализации права на свободу совести и вероисповедания возникают, как правило, у последователей Христианства - культурообразующей религии большинства государств Западной Европы. В статье рассмотрены основные проблемы и причины дискриминации христиан в Западной Европе. Приведены примеры практики национальных судов и Европейского суда по правам человека в области дискриминации христиан в западноевропейских государствах. Проанализированы последствия «политики толерантности», продвигаемой странами Западной Европы на международном уровне как основной «ценности» демократического общества, во взаимосвязи с дискриминацией христиан. To date, a solid legal base of the international obligations of states has been formed to guarantee the right to freedom of thought, conscience and religion. Compliance with these guarantees is ensured at the international level by the existence of a developed system of statutory and contractual control mechanisms, within which states report on the fulfillment of their obligations. Nevertheless, despite the existence of a well-developed international legal system for protecting the right to freedom of thought, conscience and religion, the problems of the realization of this right, including persecution and discrimination based on religion, are acute in many countries of Western Europe. Moreover, the problems of the realization of the right to freedom of conscience and religion arise, as a rule, among the followers of Christianity, the culture-forming religion of most states of Western Europe. The article discusses the main problems and causes of discrimination against Christians in Western Europe. It contains examples of the practice of national courts and the European Court of Human Rights in the field of discrimination against Christians in Western European countries are given. The consequences of the «policy of tolerance» promoted by the countries of Western Europe at the international level as the main «value» of a democratic society, in connection with discrimination against Christians, are analyzed.

scholarly journals Western European Merchants and the Process of Europeanisation of Russia in XVI Century

2012 ◽  
pp. 65-73
Author(s):  
T. V. Tchernikova
Keyword(s):  
Western Europe ◽  
Western European ◽  
The Times

The article is devoted to an examination of a question of the use of different western experts on the Russian service in the XVI century. The author tries to find out in what areas and what kind of foreign experts were used in Russia at the times of Ivan IV; what were the reasons for the use of the Western European experts as well as results and significance of this phenomenon. Changes in the position of immigrants from the Western Europe during one and a half centuries are also examined.

scholarly journals Studentification in the postsocialist context: The case of Cracow and the Tri-City (Gdansk, Gdynia and Sopot)

Geografie ◽  
2015 ◽  
Vol 120 (2) ◽  
pp. 188-209 ◽  
Author(s):  
Monika Murzyn-Kupisz ◽  
Magdalena Szmytkowska
Keyword(s):  
Higher Education ◽  
Empirical Evidence ◽  
Case Studies ◽  
Western Europe ◽  
Metropolitan Areas ◽  
Anglo Saxon ◽  
Research Results ◽  
Geographic Scope ◽  
Western European

For over a decade, the term studentification has been used to denote the process of urban changes linked with the presence of student populations in urban centres. This text broadens the geographic scope of research into studentification using two Polish metropolitan areas as case studies, analysing and comparing research results to existing findings referring to Western European and Anglo-Saxon settings. Using the example of Cracow and the Tri-City (Trójmiasto), two significant centres of higher education in Poland, the paper presents empirical evidence indicating that while some aspects of students’ impact on Polish cities are similar to trends observed in Western Europe and non-European Anglo-Saxon countries, the colonisation of Polish cities by students nonetheless displays some unique features strongly influenced by the post-socialist context in which such cities and their student populations function.

scholarly journals Scale Characteristics of Intercultural Competence Measures and the Effects of Intercultural Competence on Prejudice

2021 ◽  
Vol 12 ◽  
Author(s):  
Petia Genkova ◽  
Christoph Daniel Schaefer ◽  
Henrik Schreiber ◽  
Martina Rašticová ◽  
Jozsef Poor ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Measurement Invariance ◽  
Intercultural Competence ◽  
Western Europe ◽  
Far East ◽  
The United States ◽  
Western European Country ◽  
Multicultural Personality ◽  
Scale Characteristics ◽  
Western European ◽  
Different Cultures

Due to proceeding globalization processes, involving a rise in mobility and international interdependencies, the frequency and relevance of intercultural contact situations increases. Consequently, the ability to deal effectively with intercultural situations is gaining in importance. However, the majority of studies on measures of intercultural competence focuses on Western Europe and the United States or cultures of the Far East. For the present study, previously understudied Eastern European (former communist) cultures were included, by sampling in Hungary, Serbia, and the Czech Republic, in addition to (the Central or Western European country) Germany. Thus, this study enabled comparisons of scale characteristics of the cultural intelligence scale (CQS), the multicultural personality questionnaire (MPQ), as well as the blatant and subtle prejudice scales, across samples from different cultures. It was also examined how the CQS and MPQ dimensions are associated with prejudice. To analyse scale characteristics, the factor structures and measurement invariances of the used instruments were analyzed. There were violations of configural measurement invariance observed for all of these scales, indicating that the comparability across samples is limited. Therefore, each of the samples was analyzed separately when examining how the CQS and MPQ dimensions are related to prejudice. It was revealed that, in particular, the motivational aspect of the CQS was statistically predicting lower prejudice. Less consistently, the MPQ dimensions of open-mindedness and flexibility were statistically predicting lower prejudice in some of the analyses. However, the violations of measurement invariance indicate differences in the constructs' meanings across the samples from different cultures. It is consequently argued that cross-cultural equivalence should not be taken for granted when comparing Eastern and Western European cultures.

scholarly journals Did Youth Destabilize Politics? Western European Social Democracies and Student Movements in «the Long Sixties»

2019 ◽  
Vol 6 (1) ◽  
pp. 87-99 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ismail Ferhat
Keyword(s):  
Social History ◽  
Western Europe ◽  
Interdisciplinary Approach ◽  
Student Movements ◽  
International Institute ◽  
Social Democrats ◽  
Western European ◽  
Progressive Reforms ◽  
Post War ◽  
Democratic Parties

Student movements during «the Long Sixties» had a profound impact on Western politics and societies. One of the major political families in Western Europe, the social-democratic parties, were particularly affected. A major governmental force in a majority of Western European democracies, their post-war views on education, founded on optimistic and careful prospects (democratization of schools, progressive reforms) were destabilized by student protests and radicalism. How did social democrats react to the strong criticism of the universities, pedagogies and hierarchies in educational institutions that they had helped to build? This article is based on archives, documents and publications from the Socialist International, kept at the International Institute of Social History (Amsterdam), and on documents held by several national archives and libraries. It uses a transnational and interdisciplinary approach, linking political history and educational studies.

scholarly journals EFFECTIVENESS OF POLICY OF PROMOTION OF SOCIAL ORIENTATION OF AGRICULTURAL DEVELOPMENT

2020 ◽  
pp. 76-93
Author(s):  
L.V. Moldavan
Keyword(s):  
Rural Population ◽  
Western Europe ◽  
Agricultural Land ◽  
Low Cost ◽  
Social Orientation ◽  
Joint Production ◽  
Social Mission ◽  
Western European ◽  
Legal Forms

The main factors of social component of multifunctional purpose are revealed, the main of which are the limited spheres of employment of rural population, the village-forming mission of agricultural enterprises, due to their attachment to real estate, which is permanently located within a certain radius around these settlements and the mission of a single source of food for society and the arrangement of agricultural areas, preserving the fertility of land for the needs of future generations. The dependence of the employment of the rural population on the conditions of its access to agricultural lands and social (collective) forms of organization of small farms for joint use of lands and joint production activities is substantiated, the peculiarities of these organizational and legal forms common in Western European practice are analyzed. The essence of the state policy aimed at the rational distribution of agricultural land in the interests of the peasantry and society as a whole, and to encourage owners (tenants) of small plots of land to unite for joint activities as a factor, which influence on effective employment of the united entities management. The role of diversification of agricultural production in increasing farm incomes and creating additional jobs is substantiated. An analysis of the most common in Western European practice areas of diversification related to the development of agritourism and processing of agricultural products, which are a continuation of agricultural activities. The role of cooperative forms of agricultural processing organizations in increasing the profits of its producers and creating additional jobs for the rural population is shown. The importance of including in the social function of agriculture, the maintenance of food balance of society, which is the basis for food security and food independence of the country and the state's influence on the production of low-cost, but physiologically necessary food products is studied. Proposals were made to improve agricultural policy and the institutional and legal environment to support the implementation of agriculture's social mission, taking into account the experience gained in Western Europe and other countries.

scholarly journals The comparative triad "state-education-church" in Ukraine and some countries of Western Europe

2014 ◽  
pp. 53-60
Author(s):  
Yaroslav Stockiy
Keyword(s):  
Western Europe ◽  
School Curriculum ◽  
Religious Studies ◽  
Christian Ethics ◽  
European Countries ◽  
State Education ◽  
Elective Course ◽  
Western European ◽  
Church Schools

The urgency of the topic is due to the lack of research on the problem of the school curriculum with regard to the special elective course "Fundamentals of Christian ethics", its curriculum, the professionalism of teachers, the role of students in education, certain religious uniqueness in polyconfessional Ukraine, and comparison with religious studies in public, private or church schools of some Western European countries.

Immigrant Religion

2015 ◽  
Author(s):  
Richard Alba ◽  
Nancy Foner
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
Western Europe ◽  
The United States ◽  
Common Source ◽  
Lower Socioeconomic ◽  
Socioeconomic Profile ◽  
Western European ◽  
Social Divide ◽  
Immigrant Religion

This chapter describes how immigrant religion generally has become a more significant social divide, a greater challenge to integration, and a more common source of conflict with mainstream institutions and practices in Western Europe than in the United States. There are three main reasons for this. Of paramount importance are basic demographic facts. The religious backgrounds of immigrants in Western Europe and the United States are different, mostly Christian in the United States as compared to Western Europe, where a large proportion is Muslim. Muslims of immigrant origin in Western Europe also have a lower socioeconomic profile than those in the United States. Moreover, Western European native majorities have more trouble recognizing claims based on religion because they are more secular than religiously involved Americans.

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