This open access book provides an updated and fully revised 4th edition of this authoritative analysis of Swiss democracy. It particularly explains the institutions of federalism and consensus government through political power sharing. In this new edition, the authors also address several important changes and challenges that have affected Swiss democracy, including the country's relationship with the EU, fiscal equalisation, direct democracy and the legitimacy of national referendums, te...

The age of party democracy has passed, argues Peter Mair in Ruling the Void. The major parties have become so disconnected from society that they no longer seem capable of sustaining democracy in its present form.First published in 2013, Ruling the Void presciently observed that the widening gap between citizens and their political leaders posed a crisis of legitimacy for the governing class, and was fuelling populist mobilizations against it. Europe's political e...

George Louis Beer Prize WinnerWallace K. Ferguson Prize FinalistA Marginal Revolution Book of the Year“A groundbreaking contribution…Intellectual history at its best.”—Stephen Wertheim, Foreign AffairsNeoliberals hate the state. Or do they? In the first intellectual history of neoliberal globalism, Quinn Slobodian follows a group of thinkers from the ashes of the Habsburg Empire to the creation of the ...

By the early 1980s the average American had a lower standard of living than the average Norwegian or Dane. Standards of living in the Netherlands, Belgium, Sweden, Switzerland, and Austria also rivaled those in the United States. How have seven small democracies achieved economic success and what can they teach America?In Small States in World Markets, Peter Katzenstein examines the successes of these economically vulnerable nations of Western Europe, showing that they hav...

Why have some countries have been more successful in welfare state reform than others? This book examines the experiences of various countries in reforming their welfare states through renegotiations between the state and peak associations of employers and employees. This corporatist concertation has been blamed for bringing about all the ills of the welfare state, but lately corporate institutions have learned from their bad performances, modified their structures and style of operation, ...

Written from a pan-European perspective, this book examines the decision-making processes in immigration and integration policies in Europe across decades, focusing on several key moments of Europe’s postwar history.The analysis of factors taken into consideration by states in key moments of immigration policy (re)formulation shows that Europe is moving away from rational, economic arguments towards more political ones. This book contributes to the theoretical and practical debate ...

This new volume presents a wealth of fresh data documenting and analyzing the different positions taken by governments in the development of the European Constitution.It examines how such decisions have substantial effects on the sovereignty of nation states and on the lives of citizens, independent of the ratification of a constitution. Few efforts have been made to document constitution building in a systematic and comparative manner, including the different steps and stages of t...

Migration and immigration are high on any nation’s agenda but have particular resonance in Europe in light of recent events. The new edition of this book has been fully updated in this respect and explores:Immigration policy in individual EU nationsThe treatment of migrants, including immigrant policiesThe development and effects of the Shengen agreementThe movement towards common EU policies.It looks specifically at the contexts o...

Should citizens be allowed to propose legislation? Should they even be allowed to recall politicians if they do not live up to their expectations? These questions and many others form the subject of this timely book.In addition to presenting an up to date review of the empirical literature, Direct democracy provides a survey of the political philosophers who have theorised about this subject. It is the central tenet in the book that the demand for direct democracy is a consequence ...

Political Change in Switzerland explains the striking recent political developments in Switzerland, an important but surprisingly little known and often misunderstood country, aiming to dissipate prevailing myths about Switzerland in its European context. Firstly, the title provides an analysis of the way the practice and processes of Swiss politics have so dramatically changed over the last 25 years, setting out the differences between outside perceptions and changing Swiss reali...

This book focuses on the varied support for the populist radical right in the Benelux countries: Belgium, the Netherlands and Luxembourg. Despite many common characteristics, right-wing populist parties have historically been more successful in the Netherlands and Flanders than in Luxembourg and Wallonia.This book argues that the variation in the success of right-wing populist parties depends to a large extent on the way in which they are perceived and received in a given polity. I...

In his years as president of the European Council, Herman Van Rompuy met with an impressive series of leading thinkers to discuss the future of Europe. He set the bar high by asking them to tell him something he had not heard before. The philosophers, economists, political scientists and legal experts who took up his invitation met the challenge brilliantly. In openhearted and stimulating discussions, they expressed both fears and hopes for the European project at a point when Europe, with...