Title:Bini Smaghi vs. the Parties: Representative government and institutional constraints
Author(s):MAIR, PeterDate:2011Type of Publication:Working PaperSeries/Report no.:EUI RSCASAbstract:Although it is generally seen as desirable that parties in government are both responsive and responsible, these two characteristics are now in increasing tension with one another. Prudence and consistency in government, ...
Title:Bread, Freedom, Human Dignity: Tales of an unfinished revolution in Egypt
Author(s):WARKOTSCH, JanaDate:2012Type of Publication:Working PaperSeries/Report no.:EUI SPSAbstract:When at the height of the 'Arab Spring' Egyptians from all walks of life took to the streets to oust one of the Arab world's most long-standing dictators, it took both Egyptians and outside observers by surprise. This ...
Title:The Challenge to Party Government
Author(s):MAIR, PeterDate:2007Type of Publication:Working PaperSeries/Report no.:EUI SPSAbstract:At a time when the literature on political parties is brimming with health and vitality, the parties themselves seem to be experiencing potentially severe legitimacy problems and to be suffering from a quite massive ...
Title:The City without Qualities. Political Theories of Globalization in European Cities
Author(s):DE FRANTZ, MonikaDate:2007Type of Publication:Working PaperSeries/Report no.:EUI SPSAbstract:While urban political economy tends to generalize the functional economic pressures upon socio-political transformations of cities, European research has stressed the importance of historical context and political institutions. ...
Title:Civil Society and the Paralyzed State: Mobilizing for democracy in East Germany
Author(s):RITTER, Daniel P.Date:2012Type of Publication:Working PaperSeries/Report no.:EUI SPSAbstract:Among cases of transition to democracy from below, the East German one constitutes a particularly challenging puzzle. Whereas social movements taking advantage of an oppositional space within a repressive context have ...
Title:Civil Society and the Velvet Revolution: Mobilizing for democracy in Czechoslovakia
Author(s):RITTER, Daniel P.Date:2012Type of Publication:Working PaperSeries/Report no.:EUI SPSAbstract:In the late 1980s Czechoslovakia was considered one of the most repressive countries in Eastern Europe and a staunch Soviet ally. In the aftermath of the 'Prague Spring' of 1968, repressed with Soviet help, the regime ...