Overview

Does European integration contribute to, or even accelerate, the erosion of intra-party democracy? This book analyses the impact of European Union (EU) membership on power dynamics, focusing on the British Labour Party, the French Socialist Party (PS), and the German Social Democratic Party (SPD). Utilising a principal-agent framework, it investigates who within the parties determines EU policies and selects EU specialists. Drawing on original interviews with EU experts from Labour, the PS, the SPD and the Party of European Socialists (PES), as well as an e-mail questionnaire, this book reveals that European policy has remained in the hands of the party leadership. The study also suggests that the party grassroots are interested in the EU, but that interest rarely translates into influence. As regards the selection of EU specialists, this book highlights that the parties' processes are highly political, often informal, and in some cases, undemocratic. -- .

Full Product Details

9781526120335

Table of Contents

Reviews

'The study of parties' internal decision-making processes is an important and developing area of political science. In this book, Isabelle Hertner provides a fascinating comparison of how three major social-democratic parties in Britain, France and Germany responded to the key policy issue of European integration and put in place internal structures to deal with it. She uses an insightful principal-agent approach to uncover power relationships between the three faces of party organisation in public office, in central office and on the ground, as well as between parties' sub-national, national and European levels. Based on an impressive array of methods, including numerous interviews with key actors within the three parties, this book shows clearly how oligarchic pressures were regularly at work in the selection of candidates and policies, despite each of the parties priding itself on its open and democratic structures.' Dr Tom Quinn, University of Essex -- .

'Isabelle Hertner provides a fascinating comparison of how three major social-democratic parties in Britain, France and Germany responded to the key policy issue of European integration. She uses an insightful principal-agent approach to uncover power relationships between the three faces of party organisation in public office, in central office and on the ground, as well as at national and European levels. Based on an impressive array of methods, this book shows clearly how oligarchic pressures were regularly at work in the selection of candidates and policies.' Tom Quinn, Senior Lecturer, Deparment of Government, University of Essex 'The overall answer of the book ... is that even though EU matters are being discussed at the grassroot- and local level, these inputs remain largely unheard at the higher ranks of the party organization. This insight is highly relevant for understanding the difficulties that social-democratic parties currently have in mobilizing voters against the rise of populist and eurosceptic parties. From a scholarly perspective, in turn, this book is one of the first empirical confirmations that party elites have lost touch with their constituencies.' Journal of Common Market Studies -- .

Author Information

Isabelle Hertner is Lecturer in the Politics of Britain in Europe at King's College London

Tab Content 6

Customer Reviews

Recent Reviews

Countries Available