Summary
Contents
Subject index
The European Union (EU) poses quite profound questions for scholars and students of the social and political sciences. This benchmark Handbook is designed to provide an authoritative state-of-the art guide to the scope of the field suitable for both established scholars and students of the EU; reflect and contribute to the debates about the nature of the field of EU studies and EU politics in particular; and explore in detail the development of the many approaches to the study of EU politics. Divided into four sections, the Handbook focuses on theorizing European integration; the EU as polity; politics and policy making in the EU; and the EU and the international system.
Political Parties in the European Union
Political Parties in the European Union
European democracy is effectively party democracy. However, according to recent literature on political parties, they are gradually undergoing transformation: ‘[I]t would be an overstatement to write the parties’ political obituary, but a pattern of partisan decline – or at least a transformation in the role played by parties – is increasingly apparent in almost all advanced industrial democracies’ (Dalton and Wattenberg 2000: 3). The party transformation thesis is based primarily on the eroding linkage between parties and citizens. But while parties may not be as firmly rooted in civil society as before, no similar decline has occurred in the legislature and government. Indeed, the member states of the European Union (EU) continue to be ...
- Loading...
