scholarly journals Party Responsiveness and Governmental Responsibility: The Conflicting Roles of Spanish Socialist Workers’ Party Between 2008 and 2011

2019 ◽  
pp. 5-31
Author(s):  
Petra Měšťánková
Keyword(s):  
National Level ◽  
Parliamentary Elections ◽  
Dramatic Decline ◽  
The Government ◽  
Democratic Parties ◽  
The One ◽  
Social Democratic Parties ◽  
The Eu

The aim of the article is to analyse the dramatic decline of voters’ support for Spanish Socialist Workers‘Party (PSOE), a long-term established political party, between 2008 and 2011 parliamentary elections. It focuses on the government policy of PSOE during the outbreak of economic and financial crisis and attributes the drop of support to the conflicting roles of PSOE as a representative of voters‘interests on the one hand and as the governing party with corresponding responsibility to the state and also to the international community on the other hand. Moreover, it links the decision-making on the national level to the supranational level. The austerity policy, pursued by PSOE in given period, was heavily influenced by the EU institutions, and made impossible to comply with the electoral promises, concentrated on the improvements in employment and social policy. The drop of support pursued the PSOE in 2011, 2015 and 2016 parliamentary elections. Therefore, the party is a case study of the decline of social democratic parties in Europe, however temporary in her case.

Social Protection, Capitalist Production

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Philip Manow
Keyword(s):  
Social Protection ◽  
Wage Bargaining ◽  
Current Debate ◽  
Political Economies ◽  
Functional Logic ◽  
Functional Equivalent ◽  
The Government ◽  
Democratic Parties ◽  
Social Democratic Parties

The book provides a thorough analysis of the genealogy and the functional logic of German capitalism over the last 130 years. It addresses several puzzles of the existing literature, in particular how economic coordination proved possible and remained stable in a (big) country without prominent traits of neo-corporatism, without long government participation of social democratic parties, without centralized wage bargaining, without active economic steering by the government, under a “monetarist” regime, and under an allegedly liberal, namely “ordoliberal” economic policy. The central claim of the book is that the functional equivalent for all that was a “conservative-continental” welfare state which provided labor and capital with the organizational resources and the infrastructure to establish and maintain long-term economic coordination (of which we know that it is not-self-enforcing, i.e. that it needs institutional support). A better understanding of the German case, which can be seen as prototypical for other continental political economies as well, thus provides us also with a much better understanding of the different variants of coordinated market economies in northern, continental, and southern Europe, i.e. it provides us with a more profound Comparative Political Economy framework. This has important implications for contemporary debates on Germany’s role within international trade, and especially on its role within Europe and especially within the eurozone and its crisis. Much of the current debate, so the book claims, is based on an incomplete account of the functional logic of Modell Deutschland.

Modernisation of Higher Education – Willful Action or Wishful Thinking? The Case of Bulgaria

2020 ◽  
Vol 8 (3) ◽  
pp. 3-17
Author(s):  
Elena Blagoeva
Keyword(s):  
Higher Education ◽  
Economic Crisis ◽  
Negative Impact ◽  
National Level ◽  
Sustainable Growth ◽  
Research Approach ◽  
Case Study Methodology ◽  
The Impact ◽  
The Eu

The impact of the last global economic crisis (2008) on the European economy put a strain on higher education (HE), yet it also pushed the sector towards intensive reforms and improvements. This paper focuses on the “Strategy for the Development of Higher Education in the Republic of Bulgaria 2014-2020”. With a case study methodology, we explore the strategic endeavours of the Bulgarian government to comply with the European directions and to secure sustainable growth for the HE sector. Our research question is ‘How capable is the Bulgarian HE Strategy to overcome the economic and systemic restraints of Bulgarian higher education?’. Because the development of strategies for HE within the EU is highly contextual, a single qualitative case study was chosen as the research approach. HE institutions are not ivory towers, but subjects to a variety of external and internal forces. Within the EU, this is obviated by the fact that Universities obtain their funds from institutions such as governments, students and their families, donors, as well as EU-level programmes. Therefore, to explore how these pressures interact to affect strategic action on national level, the case method is well suited as it enabled us to study the phenomena thoroughly and deeply. The paper suggests the actions proposed within the Strategy have the potential to overcome the delay, the regional isolation and the negative impact of the economic crisis on the country. Nevertheless, the key elements on which the success or failure of this Strategy hinges are the control mechanisms and the approach to implementation. Shortcomings in these two aspects of strategic actions in HE seem to mark the difference between gaining long-term benefits and merely saving face in front of international institutions.

Interrelationships between municipal spatial policy strategy and airport operation and development. Lodz Airport case study

2018 ◽  
Vol 59 (1) ◽  
pp. 65-79
Author(s):  
Katarzyna Nikorowicz-Zatorska
Keyword(s):  
Land Use ◽  
Urban Planning ◽  
Cultural Development ◽  
The Other ◽  
Local Authorities ◽  
Spatial Management ◽  
The One ◽  
Surrounding Areas

Abstract The present paper focuses on spatial management regulations in order to carry out investment in the field of airport facilities. The construction, upgrades, and maintenance of airports falls within the area of responsibility of local authorities. This task poses a great challenge in terms of organisation and finances. On the one hand, an active airport is a municipal landmark and drives local economic, social and cultural development, and on the other, the scale of investment often exceeds the capabilities of local authorities. The immediate environment of the airport determines its final use and prosperity. The objective of the paper is to review legislation that affects airports and the surrounding communities. The process of urban planning in Lodz and surrounding areas will be presented as a background to the problem of land use management in the vicinity of the airport. This paper seeks to address the following questions: if and how airports have affected urban planning in Lodz, does the land use around the airport prevent the development of Lodz Airport, and how has the situation changed over the time? It can be assumed that as a result of lack of experience, land resources and size of investments on one hand and legislative dissonance and peculiar practices on the other, aviation infrastructure in Lodz is designed to meet temporary needs and is characterised by achieving short-term goals. Cyclical problems are solved in an intermittent manner and involve all the municipal resources, so there’s little left to secure long-term investments.

Italy's politics without policy: Balancing Atlanticism and Europeanism in the Middle East

Modern Italy ◽  
2008 ◽  
Vol 13 (2) ◽  
pp. 135-153 ◽  
Author(s):  
Raffaella A. Del Sarto ◽  
Nathalie Tocci
Keyword(s):  
Foreign Policy ◽  
Middle East ◽  
The United States ◽  
The European Union ◽  
Short Term ◽  
The Government ◽  
Specific Interests ◽  
Policy Shifts ◽  
The Eu

Focusing on Italy's Middle East policies under the second Berlusconi (2001–2006) and the second Prodi (2006–2008) governments, this article assesses the manner and extent to which the observed foreign policy shifts between the two governments can be explained in terms of the rebalancing between a ‘Europeanist’ and a transatlantic orientation. Arguing that Rome's policy towards the Middle East hinges less on Italy's specific interests and objectives in the region and more on whether the preference of the government in power is to foster closer ties to the United States or concentrate on the European Union, the analysis highlights how these swings of the pendulum along the EU–US axis are inextricably linked to a number of underlying structural weaknesses of Rome's foreign policy. In particular, the oscillations can be explained by the prevalence of short-term political (and domestic) considerations and the absence of long-term, substantive political strategies, or, in short, by the phenomenon of ‘politics without policy’ that often characterises Italy's foreign policy.

Portugal: 19 July 1987

1987 ◽  
Vol 22 (4) ◽  
pp. 444-451 ◽  
Author(s):  
Marcelo Rebelo de Sousa
Keyword(s):  
Party System ◽  
Local Level ◽  
National Level ◽  
Political Regime ◽  
Public Companies ◽  
Parliamentary Elections ◽  
Universal Suffrage ◽  
The Republic ◽  
The Government ◽  
Economic Regime

THE PORTUGUESE PARLIAMENTARY ELECTIONS OF 19 JULY 1987 initiated a profound change in the Portuguese party system and in the system of government. From 1974 onwards, Portugal had moved peacefully towards a democratic political system, enshrined in the 1976 Constitution. This evolution lasted about eight years and culminated in the revision of the Constitution in 1982. From 1982 onwards the present political regime has been a democratic one, coexisting with a capitalist economic regime attenuated by state monopoly in key sectors and by public companies which were nationalized between 1974 and 1976. It is also since 1982 that the system of government has been semi-presidential. There is pure representativeness as referendums do not exist at national level and have never been regulated at local level. But the government is semi-presidential in the sense that, owing to French influence, it attempts to balance Parliament with the election of the President of the Republic by direct and universal suffrage.

The French Parti socialiste (2010-16): from office to crisis

2017 ◽  
Author(s):  
Sophie Di Francesco-Mayot
Keyword(s):  
Financial Crisis ◽  
Economic Crisis ◽  
Global Financial Crisis ◽  
Socialist Party ◽  
Political Crisis ◽  
Social Democratic ◽  
High Unemployment ◽  
Democratic Parties ◽  
Social Democratic Parties ◽  
The Eu

This chapter examines the French Socialist Party (Parti socialiste, PS), which is one of the least successful of the major European social democratic parties. It focuses on the period between the 2008 global financial crisis until the end of François Hollande's presidency in 2017. The crisis of the PS is twofold: first, a political crisis that is revealed by the divisive nature of the Party's internal courants (factions). Whereas the factions initially contributed to the PS's internal democracy, over the past two decades they have significantly affected the PS's cohesiveness and ability to effectively develop and implement necessary policies. And second, an economic crisis that is exemplified by the PS's inability to adapt to its external and internal environments, such as the neoliberal imperatives of the EU, unprecedented high unemployment, and increasing insecurity.

Foreword

2017 ◽  
Author(s):  
Sheri Berman
Keyword(s):  
Republican Party ◽  
Democratic Party ◽  
National Level ◽  
Labour Party ◽  
Social Democratic ◽  
Western Democracy ◽  
British Labour ◽  
State And Local ◽  
The Government ◽  
Democratic Parties

The decline of the centre-left over the past years is one of the most alarming trends in Western politics. During the latter part of the 20th century such parties either ran the government or led the loyal Opposition in virtually every Western democracy. Germany’s Social Democratic Party (SPD), once the most powerful party of the left in continental Europe, currently polls in high 20s or 30s. The French Socialist Party was eviscerated in the 2017 elections, as was the Dutch Labour Party. Even the vaunted Scandinavian social democratic parties are struggling, reduced to vote shares in the 30 per cent range. The British Labour Party and the US Democrats have been protected from challengers by their country’s first-past-the-post electoral systems, but the former has recently taken a sharp turn to the hard-left under Jeremy Corbyn, while the latter, although still competitive at the national level, is a minority party at the state and local levels, where a hard-right Republican Party dominates the scene....

scholarly journals European Integration as a Determinant Factor of Macedonian National Identity

2021 ◽  
Vol 101 (1) ◽  
pp. 209-218
Author(s):  
Anastasia Salavatova ◽  
Keyword(s):  
National Identity ◽  
National Level ◽  
External Pressure ◽  
National Narrative ◽  
Basic Principles ◽  
European Standards ◽  
European Periphery ◽  
Determinant Factor ◽  
The Eu

The concept of the EU normative power implies transformation challenges which project norms on the national level of European periphery. The research aims to assess extent the EU requirements contradict the Macedonian national identity and determine changes that either are perceived as imposed or reflect implicit European norms. Depending on the level of the EU engagement europeanization of national identity takes different forms ranging from institutional changes with the European mediators’ assistance (conflict settlement, the name issue) to the search of alternative national legitimation models apart from socialist Yugoslavia. Conditionality of explicit requirements that refer to disputes with neighbouring countries is integrated into national narrative in the form of sacrifice, which still is perceived as external pressure. Implicit norms like decommunization are more difficult to identify but imply a long-term deconstruction of national identity. Such deconstruction could provide not just prospects for the future of the Macedonian nation and state but allows to select and describe implicit European norms that are disseminated into the periphery. The article outlines conditionality between European standards and requirements and transformations in basic principles of Macedonian national identity.

scholarly journals The role of SMEs in innovation-oriented economic development

2017 ◽  
pp. 95-99
Author(s):  
Tamás Köpeczi-Bócz ◽  
Mónika Lőrincz
Keyword(s):  
Rural Areas ◽  
Tertiary Education ◽  
National Level ◽  
Business Environment ◽  
The Other ◽  
Sectoral Structure ◽  
Other Hand ◽  
Knowledge Intensive ◽  
The One

Both at European and national level tertiary and quaternary sectors are concentrated in the metropolitan centre. In the rural areas only the sites of such sectors can be found the premises of which temporarily transform the sectoral structure of these areas, but from the regional development aspect they did not prove to be an effective strategy.The European Commission is now focusing on growth from innovation, which could become the driving force behind productivity growth and the economy’s long-term trend. The innovation-oriented economic development’s key players are on the one hand the knowledge-intensive enterprises, on the other hand the universities. Tertiary education can play a role – among others – in shaping and creating the development of knowledge intensive business environment and conditions, on the other hand it can assist the development of network contacts – another precondition of employment growth.

scholarly journals What Happened to Transitional Justice in Croatia After the EU Accession?

Politologija ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 101 (1) ◽  
pp. 8-51
Author(s):  
Lina Strupinskienė ◽  
Simona Vaškevičiūtė
Keyword(s):  
Transitional Justice ◽  
Minority Rights ◽  
The European Union ◽  
Eu Accession ◽  
Societal Issues ◽  
International Pressure ◽  
Before And After ◽  
The Government ◽  
The One ◽  
The Eu

This paper proposes to see Croatia’s becoming a member state of the European Union in 2013 as a particular critical juncture that created uncertainty over the type of decisions the government would take in the field of transitional justice once international pressure had stopped. It compares the period before and after the accession by looking into the three elements of transitional justice policy that were given priority by the EU conditionality framework – fighting impunity for war crimes, fostering reconciliation and respect for and protection of minority rights. It finds that all three have deteriorated in the post-accession period. On the one hand, the findings illustrate the power of international pressure, but on the other hand, they question the overall effectiveness of the conditionality policy, as it seems to not have affected deeper societal issues at stake and has not resulted in true transformation.

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