Reforming Democracy: Institutional Engineering in Western Europe

Author:   Camille Bedock (FNRS Postdoctoral Researcher, the Centre d'etude de la vie politique (CEVIPOL), Universite libre de Bruxelles)
Publisher:   Oxford University Press
ISBN:  

9780198779582


Pages:   352
Publication Date:   08 June 2017
Format:   Hardback
Availability:   To order   Availability explained
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Reforming Democracy: Institutional Engineering in Western Europe


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Overview

When, why, and how are democratic institutions reformed? This is the broad question guiding this research, rooted in a context of crises of representative democracy. Core democratic rules can be understood as the formal political rules regulating the direct relationship between elites within the political system, parties, and citizens. They are therefore the cornerstone of the functioning of any political system. This book deals with the context, the motives, and the mechanisms explaining the incidence of institutional engineering in consolidated European democracies between 1990 and 2015. It is centred on the choice of political elites to use - or not to use - institutional engineering as a response to the challenges they face. This study provides both a better empirical understanding of the world of democratic reforms in consolidated democracies, thanks to a new data-set covering six dimensions of reform in 18 European countries. Secondly, the book provides evidence about the link between the lack of political support and democratic reforms, and the role of electoral shifts in fostering reforms. Thirdly, this research shows that the final outcome of a given reform depends on the type of reform at stake and on the process used during the phase of discussion of the reform, though case studies in Ireland, France and Italy. Ultimately, the book demonstrates that contrary to what has been commonly assumed, reforms of the core democratic rules are frequent and constitute in most cases an answer of challenged political elites to the erosion of political support and electoral change.

Full Product Details

Author:   Camille Bedock (FNRS Postdoctoral Researcher, the Centre d'etude de la vie politique (CEVIPOL), Universite libre de Bruxelles)
Publisher:   Oxford University Press
Imprint:   Oxford University Press
Dimensions:   Width: 17.80cm , Height: 2.50cm , Length: 24.00cm
Weight:   0.668kg
ISBN:  

9780198779582


ISBN 10:   0198779585
Pages:   352
Publication Date:   08 June 2017
Audience:   College/higher education ,  Postgraduate, Research & Scholarly
Format:   Hardback
Publisher's Status:   Active
Availability:   To order   Availability explained
Stock availability from the supplier is unknown. We will order it for you and ship this item to you once it is received by us.

Table of Contents

Part I: Reforms of the Core Democratic Rules and their Contextual Determinants 1: Why Study Bundles of Reforms? The Debate on Democratic Institutions 2: To Reform or Not to Reform? The Determinants and Processes of Institutional Change in Established Democracies 3: The Changes to Core Democratic Rules in Western Europe, 1990-2010: An Overview 4: Disentangling the Long- and Short- Term Determinants of the Reforms of Core Democratic Rules: A Model for Western Europe, 1990-2010 Part II: The Mechanisms of Reform of the Core Democratic Rules 5: The Mechanisms of Institutional Reforms in Action: The Politics of Bundles of Reforms 6: You Win Some, You Lose Some: The Various Fortunes of Institutional Reforms in Ireland Since 2011 7: An Unexpected Journey: The Quinquennat and the Reordering of the Electoral Calendar in France, 2000-2001 8: Bundling the Bundles: Coalition Dynamics and Institutional Reforms in Italy, 2003-2006 Conclusion

Reviews

This book most importantly makes significant theoretical contributions to the study of institutional change. As scholarship at its best, it will likely elicit many responses, especially regarding the frequency of changes in core democratic rules and their bundling... Highly recommended. * T. D. Lancaster, (Emory University), Choice Reviews Vol 55. *


Author Information

Camille Bedock is a FNRS postdoctoral researcher in the Centre d'etude de la vie politique (CEVIPOL) at the Universite libre de Bruxelles since September 2016. Her work focuses on democratic reforms in consolidated democracies, and on the changes of democracy in a context of decline of political support. She has published in numerous journals such as The European Political Science Review, Representation, French Politics, the Revue Francaise de Science Politique, and the European Review of Social Sciences.

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