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The quality and nature of local government varies widely between countries. This introductory text looks at the workings of local government in England and Wales, Germany, France, Ireland, Italy, Sweden, Canada and the USA. The chapters have a similar format so the student has a framework for systematic comparisons of the different case studies and a comprehensive conclusion summarises major differences and relationships between the structures studied. ... Read more

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In the long debate about the failure of German democracy in the early twentieth century, most comparisons have been made, implicitly or explicitly, with Great Britain. Madeleine Hurd's Public Spheres, Public Mores, and Democracy proposes a useful alternative--the comparison of prewar Germany with Sweden, which, like Germany, was characterized by a conservative monarchy, late industrialization, and a weak, fractured bourgeoisie.
Hurd's book offers the reader a close analysis of the political impact of nineteenth-century cultural and educational crusades, linking the process of democratization to left-wing parties' use of cultural, educational, and freethinking appeals. Both socialist and left-liberal leaders emphasized the politics of taste, sobriety, and self-respect, challenging realities and perceptions of who was acceptable in the public political sphere and who was to be excluded as immature, uncultured, and uncouth.
The two-city comparison suggests interesting conclusions. Moral and educational crusades could bring liberals and socialists together in common attacks on a drunken and irresponsible plutocracy. Cultural issues could also drive them apart, as the bourgeoisie and workers established rival claims to public respectability and autonomy. Public Spheres, Public Mores, and Democracy provides a compelling account of how the moral content of citizenship claims affected each city's and each country's long-term democratic stability. In the process, it indicates new ways of understanding the historical realities, and values, of the bourgeois public sphere.
Madeleine Hurd is Assistant Professor of History, University of Pittsburgh.
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This analysis of German foreign and defence policy is particularly apposite in the present context of increasing global instability and the re-emergence of multi-polar power structures. Germany's economic strength and key strategic position in an increasingly homogenized Europe has led to the expectation of it adopting a more central role in European foreign policy, and reformulating its post-war policy of non-offensive defence. Lothar Gutjahr charts the evolution of German foreign and defence policy since Yalta, examines the differing perspectives of each of the parties and the main evolution in their thinking both before and since unification. Each chapter describes different strands of foreign policy outlooks within each respective party, in order not only to give a fuller picture of the spectrum of opinion but mostly to define emerging issues of both intra- and inter-party debate. The book concludes that there is now a broad consensus between the three main parties in the Bundestag. "Genscherism" is no longer just a distinct liberal concept, but is embraced by all three. ... Read more

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An examination of the role of the citizen in a society in which specialized knowledge confers power
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The way Germany engages with the other states of the EU is often oversimplified and misunderstood. This book offers a nuanced analysis of the German role in the EU, using a novel approach which identifies German influence in the EU in terms of "soft” power. Rather than pursuing interests at the expense of other states, this book focuses on the creation of a “milieu” of multilateral cooperation in which Germany’s diplomatic interests can flourish.
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If all parties need votes to get elected, why do some parties court voters more ardently than others? To answer this question, the book analyzes how political institutions determine the degree to which parties behave as entrepreneurial agents of voters or as inert, bureaucratic behemoths and how different levels of party responsiveness affect democratic consolidation.
Institutions and Innovations analyzes the troubled history of French and German parties between 1870 and 1939 to develop a general explanation of how the development of responsive parties constitutes a key element for the consolidation of democracies, past and present. It explains why French parties responded more swiftly than German ones to very similar changes in their economic and political environments. The book demonstrates that the national differences in party responsiveness played a key role in the collapse of the German Weimar Republic (1918ñ1933) and in the survival of the French Third Republic (1870ñ1939). It addresses the general fates of French and German democracy by asking three specific questions: Why did German socialists reject Keynesianism while their French counterparts swiftly embraced it? Why did German liberals, compared to French ones, fail to modernize their logistical infrastructure and electioneering methods? Why were German conservatives less effective than French ones in fending off the challenge posed by fascist and peasant insurgent movements that arose in the 1920s and 1930s?
In answering these questions, the book engages new institutional theories and longstanding party literature to demonstrate that the electoral conduct of parties is structured in equal parts by socioeconomic and institutional constraints. The book's interdisciplinary focus sheds a critical light on the exceptionalism of purely historical accounts and reductionist and universal claims of ahistorical political science theories.
Marcus Kreuzer is Assistant Professor of Political Science, Villanova University.
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The de-regulation of housing policies introduced in virtually every European county in the 1980s took quite different forms in Britain and West Germany; while the British determinedly broke with their own traditions, the Germans revived and sharpened up earlier liberalization trends. This book takes stock of recent developments in both countries and looks ahead to the 1990s. Twenty expert contributions cover issues such as future demand, the role of the local authorities, legal aspects, housing finance, social policy, discrimination and housing management. Attention is focused on the social consequences of deregulation, the rise in social inequality and spatial segregation within the city. The message conveyed by the authors is clear. They argue that de-regulation causes such a flood of new social conflicts that it is bound to provoke a policy of "re-regulation" in the 1990s. ... Read more

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The Little Platoons examines sub-local government--the small-scale structures of civil society that lie between the individual and large governmental actors--in England, France, Germany, the United States, Russia, China, and Japan. The work examines community councils, educational districts, neighborhood organizations, and the like, as seen in various societies in the modern age. And, in identifying common attributes of these civil and societal organizations, the work has particular relevance--and indeed makes ameliorative recommendations--for the problems of our modern cities. In a period of dissatisfaction with a self-regarding and centralized political class and with both market and bureaucratic institutions, Liebmann's thoughtful analysis of community and civil organization in a variety of societies and traditions broadens our understanding of comparative politics and sociology, urban planning, and state and local government. ... Read more

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This digital document is an article from German Policy Studies, published by Thomson Gale on September 22, 2006. The length of the article is 3448 words. The page length shown above is based on a typical 300-word page. The article is delivered in HTML format and is available in your Amazon.com Digital Locker immediately after purchase. You can view it with any web browser.

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Title: Introduction: think tanks in Austria, Switzerland and Germany - a recalibration of corporatist policy making?
Author: Sven Jochem
Publication: German Policy Studies (Magazine/Journal)
Date: September 22, 2006
Publisher: Thomson Gale
Volume: 3Issue: 3Page: 139(14)

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This digital document is an article from German Policy Studies, published by Thomson Gale on September 22, 2006. The length of the article is 11008 words. The page length shown above is based on a typical 300-word page. The article is delivered in HTML format and is available in your Amazon.com Digital Locker immediately after purchase. You can view it with any web browser.

From the author: Policy advice can help political actors design and implement institutional reforms through the generation of political and substantial legitimacy. This article clarifies the institutional preconditions of effective supply and transfer of policy advice with particular respect to the field of labor market and social policy reform and to corporatist arrangements where academic think tanks and social partner bodies for policy advice exist side by side. It shows how policy advice is structured and to what it extent it could influence actual policy-making in Germany, the Netherlands, and Sweden over the last decade. Our main argument is that the structure of policy advice is essential for its effectiveness. Highly reputable and less contested expert committees and research institutes that provide balanced policy-oriented advice to political actors and the public are most influential and conducive to furthering labor market and welfare state reforms in corporatist settings. If government provides a shadow of hierarchy they can also facilitate social partner consensus. Hence, an appropriate supply of policy advice can help ensure sufficient legitimacy for institutional reforms and increase societal problem-solving capacities. If government is weak for institutional reasons and policy advice rather fragmented, challenged and less policy-oriented, as in the German case, policy advice cannot realize its full potential.

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Title: Generating legitimacy for labor market and welfare state reform-the role of policy advice in Germany, the Netherlands, and Sweden.
Author: Werner Eichhorst
Publication: German Policy Studies (Magazine/Journal)
Date: September 22, 2006
Publisher: Thomson Gale
Volume: 3Issue: 3Page: 268(42)

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Revolutionary changes in global and European politics have reawakened old fears that Europe will be dominated by an unpredictable German giant. The same changes have fueled new hopes for Germany and Europe as models of political pluralism in a peaceful and prosperous world. In fact, Peter J. Katzenstein explains, the current reality is too complex to fit either expectation. Katzenstein contends that a multilateral institutionalization of power is the most distinctive aspect of the relationship between Europe and Germany. Only the observer who is aware of this important fact can understand why Germany is willing to give up its new sovereign power. Although Germany is larger than any other member of the European Union and plays a crucial role in the economic and political life of Eastern Europe, its power is now funneled through the institutions of the European Union rather than erupting in a narrow, power-defined sense of national self-interest. The empirical chapters of this book explore the institutionalization of power relations between the European Union and Germany, as well as the relations of Germany and the European Union with most of the smaller European states.Contributors:

Jeffrey J. Anderson, Brown UniversityWlodek Aniol, University of WarsawDanes Brzica, Slovak Academy of ScienceSimon J. Bulmer, University of ManchesterTimothy A. Byrnes, Colgate UniversityPeter Gedeon, Budapest University of EconomicsHynek Jerabek, Charles University, PraguePeter J. Katzenstein, Cornell UniversityPaulette Kurzer, University of ArizonaMichael P. Marks, Willamette UniversityZuzana Polackova, Slovak Academy of ScienceIvo Samson, Slovak Institute of International StudiesFrantisek Zich, Czech Academy of Sciences ... Read more

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This volume presents a broad survey of the Republikaner Party, its program and ideology, its organization, and the composition of its voters and sympathizers. The authors maintain that any analysis of the Republikaners must distinguish between the party as represented by its platform and party officials, and the party as seen by its voters. Republikaners draw potential voters from two very differently motivated groups: (1) a small, ideologically oriented segment dominated by right-wing conservative and right-fringe extremist attitudes, and (2) a larger, flucating pool of sympathizers less committed to the REP and primarily concerned with economic and social issues. Until recently, the Republikaners were mainly able to exploit narrowly focused, pent-up resentments. The "foreigner problem" is at the center of Republikaners' propaganda and serves as a catalyst that adroitly combines numerous related social problems such as housing shortage, unemployment, and the widespread fear of being shunted aside by "interlopers." Although the Republikaners still lack the social foundation and ideological consensus necessary to build a stable core constituency, the organization serves as a vehicle for diverse protest. The authors warn that the Republikaners potentially comprise a base for organizing a party on the far right of the German political spectrum. ... Read more

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This study of two successful divestment agencies - the US Resolution Trust Corporation and the German Treuhandanstalt - presents a complex understanding of the two agencies' performance in privatizing hundreds of billions of dollars of assets following two very different crises, the savings and loan debacle in the US and unification in Germany. Cassell argues that privatization must be understood as a political and administrative puzzle rather than simply an exercise in economic efficiency. He identifies the importance and effects of managerial structures, including market-based administrative reforms, and of national institutions - legislatures and executives - on the outcomes of the reform efforts. This book is an important contribution to public administration, public policy and comparative political economy. ... Read more

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"insightful and interesting"
Cassell provides interesting insights into how two important agencies privatized thousands of dollars worth of assets in a short amount of time. Vital reading for anyone interested in comparative politics, privatization or public policy. ... Read more

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Munch and his colleagues provide a comparative sociological study on how democracy works in the practice of political regulation regarding clean air in the United Kingdom, France, Germany, and the United States. They argue that challenges of the established regulatory style and political order are pushing each country towards a more open democracy. ... Read more

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