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This paper suggests a model of EP representation with a new measure of electoral outcomes. The major concern is how we understand the EP elections under multi-level European political system and by what factors the MEPs' voting behaviors are determined. National constituents are, in my model, assumed to reveal different levels of diversity and intensity of preferences by their electoral choices in EP elections. Moreover, the differences are assumed to be caused by their relative assessment of national representation. Under these assumptions, my model tests MEPs' responsiveness to their national constituents revealed by the election results. From the theoretical perspective of party representation, it is also considered whether MEPs' responsive voting behaviors function as policy alternatives in the EP elections. Methodologically, a simultaneous equation model is presented to reflect the endogenous relationship between European citizens' electoral choices and MEPs' responsiveness. The results reported in this paper find that MEPs tend to respond to the elected party disparity between the EP and national parliament. Absenteeism and seniority also have influence on MEPs'responsiveness. In addition, MEPs' responsive voting patterns work as clear policy alternatives to European citizens as well. However, because of the lack of data currently available, the endogenous relationship is not conclusive. The possible improvements of future results are discussed in this respect. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

I present a model of bargaining under certainty to examine the effects that preferences over policy and office have on bargaining duration. In previous work I have shown that the importance of particularistic politics improves our ability to explain patterns of coalition formation cross-nationally. Simply put, the more important particularistic politics are the more politicians behave as office seekers (as opposed to policy seekers). The focus on particularistic politics thus provides a link between the two main strands of theorizing about coalition formation. The paper thus makes two types of contributions. First, it offers us insights into the factors determining the duration of coalition bargaining in a comparative perspective. Extended periods of coalition bargaining may prevent major policy decisions to be addressed and create uncertainty about the future for both political and economic actors. Furthermore, bargaining duration has occasionally been used as a proxy for the ideological divisions within the coalition. If bargaining duration, however, is influenced by the importance of particularistic politics then the proxy is not an appropriate one. The insight offered by modeling the duration of coalition bargaining does not only apply to the formation of coalition cabinets but can also be applied legislative bargaining more generally where the implications of bargaining delay may be more obvious and persistent. Second, the paper contributes to our understanding of coalition governance more generally and, in particular, provides additional support for my theory of coalitions and particularistic politics. In this paper I derive further hypotheses from that same theory but focus on a different dependent variable. By doing so I am both subjecting the theory to further testing as well increasing its scope. I test the empirical implications of the models on a sample of bargaining situations from 10 Western-European countries (although I am trying to increase that number) using an event history analysis. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper argues that traditional western political theory, because of its exclusive reliance on the western canon, is by definition a limited enterprise. A comparative perspective allows us to understand the nature and basis of a civilizational criterion against which the degree of civility and humanness of the Other is measured by different civilizations. Theoretical claims made in the paper are supported by references to several encounters between the west and its others with a special focus on European encounter with the New World. The absence of an Europe-like system of ideas among the Amerindians provides for a unique opportunity to see the role played by canonicity in the construction of Other and a re-evaluation of Self. The paper contributes to the broader argument in favor of comparative political theory as a new subfield of political theory in the west on the one hand, and serves as a critique of prevalent modes of political theorizing in the west on the other. ..PAT.-Unpublished Manuscript [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The paper takes the recent (summer 2008) intra-EU-European clash between Italy and Romania as a starting point for a critical analysis of the present state of a EU-European citizenship. The paper argues that the central problem of a EU-European citizenship, as evidenced in the clash, lies in the fissures between the construction of citizenship as a political identity associated with the protective functions of a nationally-framed "state" and "Europe" as a topos of a historical-cultural and normative identity claim. It relies in its analysis on the general literature on (EU-) citizenship and on Roma in Europe; Italian, Romanian and international news coverage; interviews with Romanian politicians, intellectuals, and a leading Roma activist as the summer events unfolded; materials provided by various national and transnational organizations. That the normative invocation of a common European identity at the moment appears less and less able to muster the force necessary to check the political allure of a return to the strong nationally-framed protective state is seen as part and parcel of the larger crisis of institutional reform that presently defines the EU-European project of regional integration. ..PAT.-Unpublished Manuscript [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

East-Central Europe has become the battlefield for a new ideological war. The lingering after-effects of the 20th century drive to create ethnically homogenous states clashes with the quest to bring down borders for free movement in a broader Europe. Yet, this clash has gone unnoticed as analysts’ tend to use lay understandings of Europeanization -- or rather, harmonizing with European Union policies. This paper unveils the clash, particularly its significance for nationalist politics, by considering how it affects the process of coming to terms with two key moments in 20th century history: the post-Second World War German expulsions and the 1920 Trianon treaty. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper theorizes that the success of European Integration thus far can largely be attributed to the ability of European political elites to limit the forces of democracy among the European citizenry; it further questions the likelihood that this 'democratic deficit' can continue to sustain.Using Comparative Manifesto data from 1945 - 2003, this research explores two primary hypotheses. The first asserts that the expansion of the EU - in size and scope - from its original five members in 1952, to the core of fifteen members in 1995, largely resulted from the ability of political elites to limit the scope of EU deliberation at the domestic level. The second hypothesis explores the possibility that the motivation for support (opposition) of the EU among citizens of Western Europe (the EU15) may be shifting from a purely economic cost-benefit analysis to a cost-benefit analysis that increasingly intertwines considerations of economic well-being with those of cultural homogeneity, and argues that such a shift will limit the degree to which elites can continue to control the reigns of integration. ..PAT.-Unpublished Manuscript [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper suggests that previous literature has focused too narrowly on the institutional limitations to democratic responsiveness, to the neglect of the cultural-identity concerns raised in democratic theory. I provide and test a framework for conceptualizing identity, and noting its determinants, which takes into account a variety of factors previously addressed in the literature on EU support. Eurobarometer survey data is utilized in a multi-level model, allowing for the simultaneous consideration of both individual-level and state-level theories of identity formation. Identity development is found to be primarily influenced by diffuse elements of policy support and latent socialization mechanisms. ..PAT.-Unpublished Manuscript [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

An exploration of the current state of European integration through the lens of a concept called Entitativity, which exams common origin and common goal as a means to assess group awareness and group agency; the paper focuses on European defense. ..PAT.-Unpublished Manuscript [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Are more politically and economically sophisticated citizens more likely to form policy opinions consistent with their interests and values? Is the answer to this question sensitive to whether elite policy discourse is characterized by consensus or conflict? This paper investigates these questions by studying the effect of elite consensus and conflict about European integration on individual policy opinions about integration in member states. The paper develops four new measures of the degree of elite consensus about various dimensions of European integration for member states over the last three decades. We estimate how the degree of elite consensus affects the extent to which individual-level measures of a respondent’s interests, values, and sophistication are correlated with opinions about regional integration in a Bayesian hierarchical model of individual European opinion from 1973-2002. We also propose an instrumental variable for the extent of elite consensus based on the historical development of each country’s electoral system to address the possibility that the degree of consensus of elite discourse in a country is at least in part a consequence rather than a cause of patterns of public opinion---a possibility that has been virtually ignored in all previous research on the interaction between the informational environment and individual opinion formation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study cross-nationally combines the public policy mood and issue emphasis concepts to empirically test the responsiveness of both American and European political parties to public opinion in terms of changing party manifesto content. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper will explore the extent to which the transnational European Political Parties have a role to play as supranational actors within the EU’s governance architecture. .x000d.It will look at their structure; role and responsibilities; response to their changing institutional environment. In so doing it will highlight an interaction between path-dependent legacies and individual agency..x000d..x000d.Against a backdrop of the 2009 European Parliamentary elections the paper argues that the Euro-parties have been suffering from four genetic deficits:.x000d..x000d.Genetic deficit: to what extent is it possible to develop political parties beyond the nation state.x000d..x000d.Functional Deficit: despite Article 191 (EC Treaty ex. Article 138a) the role of the Euro-parties has yet to be given substance within the EU institutional architecture .x000d.Linkage Deficit: Euro-parties lack a structured linkage platform with Europe’s citizens/national party members.x000d.Emotional/psychological deficit: European citizens lack the knowledge/awareness of what the Euro-parties do and what they are there for. .x000d.Thus the Euro-parties face considerable obstacles that constrain their capacity to deliver. This paper will focus on how the parties have sought to overcome those obstacles. ..PAT.-Unpublished Manuscript [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper makes the case that PR systems are likely to generate more environmentally responsive policies than Plurality/Majority systems-even in the absence of environmental legislative parties- as a result of the contagion effect they induce. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper examines why EU member states may or may not perceive that body as the appropriate level and institution for advancing national interests in the areas of foreign policy and defense and security policy. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This papers explores the constitutional protections for national identities within the European constitution. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper argues that the variation in the success of far right parties in Poland, the Czech Republic, can be explained by the different responses of mainstream political parties to them. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The paper argues that ethnic cleansing in Europe can best be explained by the interaction between institutional history and competing border setting policies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper uses Mark Lichbach's approach to collective dissent to analyze the Flemish Revolt of 1323-1328, one of the longest revolts in medieval Europe. ..PAT.-Unpublished Manuscript [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper argues that greater institutional decentralization, especially under conditions of political and social diversity, increases opportunities for police repression of protesters and civil and political rights violations overall. Differences are attributed to the level of autonomy and power sharing between national and subnational governments (vertical relations). This argument is tested on a sample of nineteen European countries to determine institutional effects on overall human rights performance (1981 - 2004). Next analysis is done to determine individual level effects of protest on repressive policing in a cross-national sample of daily level contentious events in five European countries with either federal or unitary arrangements: Germany, Switzerland, United Kingdom, Bulgaria, and Poland, from 1990 - 1995. Results for the sixteen year time series suggest that more decentralized institutional arrangements have a slight negative impact on overall respect for civil and political rights. At the daily level, we find a similar trend across the five countries, where presence of local direct elections tends to increase the magnitude of repressive policing at protest events. ..PAT.-Unpublished Manuscript [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Cabinet duration analysis has evolved methodologically and theoretically over the years, combining both system characteristics and party-level variables. Quite a few studies drew from social choice and coalition theory propositions about the specific factors that affect cabinet durability. Beginning in the 1980s, scholars like Browne et al. (1984, 1986) developed the "events" approach to the problem of cabinet stability. Recently, increasingly sophisticated techniques were used to estimate cabinet duration on the basis of both systemic and party-level variables (King, 1990; Warwick, 1994). One major trait of many of these studies is their tendency to decompose the structure of the political system into a large number of variables such as a variety of party-level attributes, coalition politics, and system characteristics in an attempt to provide a broad assessment of the factors affecting cabinet duration. This approach, while useful in many ways, has a major drawback: it is hardly parsimonious and in many cases does not add much substantive insight into the problem. Our theory is based on the concept of political polarization: the extent to which the party system is ideologically divergent. We argue that low levels of political polarization allow political maneuvering and thus make coalition shifts more likely. High polarization requires political allies to stick with each other because there are few or no alternatives to certain coalitions, hence, ceteris paribus, political polarization is hypothesized to have a strong effect on political stability defined in terms of cabinet duration. We use a new measure of political polarization derived from social networks analysis. This measure combines ideological distances between parties with the number of seats each party possesses, and measure varies from zero (when the parties are ideologically indistinguishable) to one (when the system is strictly bipolar). It allows for developing a set of feasible coalitions and generating predictions about which coalitions are more likely to form and which would make for greater stability.We use the Parliamentary Democracy Data Archive of Muller and Strom and Manifesto Research Group data, and supplement them with additional data we have collected ourselves. The data for the paper covers governments of all Manifesto Research Group countries from 1945 to 1998. We discuss the theoretical and empirical implications of our findings. ..PAT.-Unpublished Manuscript [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Although much scholarship exists to demonstrate that national parliaments in Europe are increasingly attuned to the legislative role played by their national courts, very little research has examined the relationship between European parliaments and the supranational court that now exists above national systems in European Union (EU) Member States, the European Court of Justice (ECJ). This paper investigates one EU national parliament, the German Bundestag, and its relationship to the ECJ. Are parliamentarians attuned to the jurisprudence of this supranational court? Do they account for its decisions - and even attempt to anticipate them - as they draft national legislation? I trace the use of several ECJ equal treatment decisions in the German Bundestag and use these case studies to evaluate hypotheses about the circumstances under which parties anticipate ECJ decisions. I find that, contrary to the established literature on the interactions between national parliaments and national courts, governing majorities do not engage in anticipatory behavior vis-à-vis the ECJ, nor do they feel threatened by it. The Government's lack of attention to ECJ cases was noted even when the ECJ case was well-publicized and the decision meant sweeping changes for German law. By contrast, parties in the legislative minority view the ECJ as a useful ally and make extensive strategic use of its decisions to secure important partisan victories in parliament, policy victories they may not have won without the Court's decision. ..PAT.-Unpublished Manuscript [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper explores the effects of European integration on national level legislatures in European Union member states. Many economic and political decisions previously made by democratically elected national legislatures are now decided at a supranational, or European, level. National legislatures have responded to this change by increasing their oversight of European affairs in order to impose more democratic accountability and transparency into the opaque decision-making process of developing European legislation. While all national legislatures of European Union member states have established European Affairs Committees to help strengthen oversight of European affairs, there is considerable variation in the institutional strength and political control invested in these committees. I argue that the more recently a country joined the European Union, the more likely its European Affairs Committee will have the power to issue binding recommendations to the government. Cross-sectional statistical analysis shows a strong correlation between the timing of membership and a legislature's approach to parliamentary oversight of European affairs. ..PAT.-Unpublished Manuscript [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The idea that politicians try to draw attention to those issues that benefit them and their party is well-established in the literature on "issue-ownership" and party competition. What we do not know from this literature is when a political party succeeds in this agenda setting endeavor, forcing its opponents to pay attention to the same set of issues. Inspired by the policy agendas literature and the concept of a party system known from the literature on political parties in Western Europe, this paper develops an agenda setting model of issue competition that addresses this central question. ..PAT.-Unpublished Manuscript [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper examines the role of rapporteurs in the EP. I argue that the rapporteurs have constrained but substantial agenda-setting power to be conditional trustees for the MEPs. I test hypotheses to prove this by analyzing their voting behaviour. ..PAT.-Conference Proceeding [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper seeks to clarify the relationship between support for European integration and linguistic and/or politicized minority nationalism at the regional level, thus trying to find patterns of well-needed citizen support for the European project. ..PAT.-Conference Proceeding [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The paper examines the underlying causes of dramatic differences in corruption patterns pertaining to the process of privatizing state-owned assets in Eastern Europe. ..PAT.-Conference Proceeding [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper evaluates the extent to which MEPs' voting behavior works as electoral information. Focusing on inter and intra variations of parties' ideal positions in the EP, it builds a theoretical foundation for the European party representation. ..PAT.-Conference Proceeding [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper aims to demonstrate how important the tenets of social linguistics are in the study and comprehension of all political phenomena, including the setting up of a European conflict prevention policy. ..PAT.-Conference Proceeding [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper re-reads the vicissitudes of the making of Europe's Constitutional Treaty from the vantage point of the multi-regional political tradition that characterises the making of constitutions in Europe. The peculiarity of the "constitutional" tr ..PAT.-Conference Proceeding [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Prior research shows that public opinion influences domestic politics. But does peoples’ attitudes toward the environment affect whether governments are more or less likely to participate in international environmental treaties. I argue that whether the government pays attention to public opinion on the environment is conditioned by the partisanship of the government. Because left oriented governments are more inclined to include environmental issues in their platforms, they are more likely to follow the public in terms of signing environmental treaties. However, more right oriented governments, given their pro business orientation, should ignore public opinion on this matter. That is government should be more likely to participate when both the preferences of the electorate and government are similar. I test my expectation using Euro-barometer data and a recently compiled data set of environmental treaty signings for 10 European countries over 25 years. ..PAT.-Unpublished Manuscript [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

When states fail to Europeanize in a specific area, they are providing a true input toward a new way to integrate that I call “un-adaptive integration”. This failure happens because non-negotiable domestic power, interests, norms and beliefs prevail. ..PAT.-Unpublished Manuscript [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Using data on coalition governments in 13 European countries, I demonstrate that the institutional arrangements affect portfolio allocations. In particular, the investiture vote promotes the formateur advantage, while bicameralism obstructs it. ..PAT.-Unpublished Manuscript [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This analysis focuses on the endogenous factors, such as public opinion, and exogenous factors, such as security threats, which affect foreign policy outputs. I find that threat mitigates the relationship between public opinion and foreign policy. ..PAT.-Unpublished Manuscript [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Party effects on legislative behavior are difficult to isolate due to multiple forms of party influence and non-party influences on legislators. ..PAT.-Unpublished Manuscript [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

I will demonstrate that religion emerged as a salient division within Europe in the 1990's, thus, addressing a significant thesis that church-state relations have primarily determined the level and degree of accommodation of Muslim needs at present. ..PAT.-Unpublished Manuscript [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Applying the principal agent theory to the European model of governance.As a case study, I will choose the Common Foreign Security Policy. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

To examine the sources of varying adherence among European citizens to a collective European identity in the EU and consider how these sources of identity may affect a single legal and political "personality" implied with the EU constitution [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We analyze, on the basis of the full set of electronic contributions submitted to the Convention on the Future of Europe, whether differences can be seen regarding preferences of political actors in old and new EU states for specific ECB policies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Boom or Bust: Impact of the EU enlargement on future integration of Europe [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Using duration analyses of mainstream party reactions to niche parties in 17 Western European countries from 1970-2003, I model the effect of niche party success and the salience of niche party issues on the timing of mainstream party response. ..PAT.-Unpublished Manuscript [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The member states of the European Union each have different security needs. Their national security policies each member reflects not only the needs of the states, but also the goals of the public and the domestic institutions. ..PAT.-Unpublished Manuscript [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

I consider a theory of portfolio allocation that provides a rationale for the empirical phenomenon termed Gamson's law. The theory focuses on how portfolio allocations influence the stability of coalitions. The theory is tested on European cabinets. ..PAT.-Unpublished Manuscript [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

There is significant fear that giving power to judges is bad for democracy. Many American scholars particularly question the legitimacy of having courts oversee the electoral process. Constitutional makers in the emerging democracies in post-communist Europe entrusted courts with significant oversight of democratic rights and processes. Despite Western fears, this had not hindered democratic development. In fact, constitutional courts in many of these countries (here Lithuania and the Czech Republic) have interpreted democratic rights and procedures in ways that foster democratic development. ..PAT.-Unpublished Manuscript [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The issue of democracy and participation within regional integration processes has acquired big relevance in the last few years. In this context, one can find many studies on the determinants of public support for the European integration process. However, studies for other regional blocs are scarce. For this reason, this study focuses on a Latin American integration process: the MERCOSUR, conformed by Argentina, Brazil, Paraguay and Uruguay, and studies the opinion of Uruguayan citizens about it. Specifically, the study analyses the knowledge of Uruguayans about the integration process, and which are the determinants of not knowing it. It also evaluates the probability of supporting MERCOSUR and voting for it in a hypothetical referendum. Information from the ISSP Survey for year 2004 in Uruguay was used. Surprisingly, in spite of the fifteen-year history of the bloc, almost 55 percent of the sample had heard "nothing" or "few" about MERCOSUR. Results show that being a man, older than 55 years old, and with secondary or university studies rises the probability of having read or heard about the integration process. Knowing nothing about the integration process leads to a non- support for it and raises the probability of a negative vote in a hypothetical referendum to maintain Uruguay as a member of MERCOSUR. Last, the so called "democratic vocation" of Uruguayans is confirmed: a referendum to evaluate Uruguay's incorporation into MERCOSUR would be approved by almost 70 percent of the citizens at the moment the survey was carried out, even when the percentage of supporters is much lower. This result is positively influenced if the person feels identified with any national political party. We can conclude that there exist information deficits within MERCOSUR that leads to a lower level of knowledge and that contributes to keep the democratic deficit of the bloc. ..PAT.-Unpublished Manuscript [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The emergence on a new idea - that liberalism constituted a threat to the European monarchies - has more power in explaining the peace of the Congress of Vienna system than distribution of power or institutional landscape ..PAT.-Conference Proceeding [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Examines the development of grand strategy in the common European security framework. Using a six point framework the major actors in the security debate are compared with their convergence to or divergence from a common security structure. ..PAT.-Conference Proceeding [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Using a new measure of welfare policy, one based on structural changes in five policies, I show how governments affect policy. I systematically analyze how governments create welfare policy in thirteen European post-communist countries from 1989-200 ..PAT.-Conference Proceeding [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Political knowledge is a public good, both in provision and acquisition. This study shows that the level of media subsidization in a country has a significant impact on the amount of political knowledge demonstrated by its citizens. ..PAT.-Conference Proceeding [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A reexamination of the relationship of Friedrich Nietzsche's political theory to proto-fascism, as seen through the novel prism of his atitudes toward the Protestant Reformation and the pre-revolutionary European ancien regime. ..PAT.-Conference Proceeding [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study examines and evaluates the ratification of the EU Constitution. It compares and contrasts the 2004-2005 ratification process in Europe with that of its American counterpart in 1787-1788. ..PAT.-Conference Proceeding [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]