The Routledge Handbook of Local Elections and Voting in Europe

ISBN-13: 9780367444334 / Angielski / Twarda / 2022 / 536 str.

Adam Gendźwill; Ulrik Kjaer; Kristof Steyvers

Opis

This handbook represents the standard reference text and practical resource for everybody who analyses issues as local electoral systems, voting behavior or political representation in Europe. 

Recenzje

'This is a formidable book. The book provides a golden opportunity to learn about how democracy works at the local level. Forty great chapters about electoral systems, electoral participation, party politicization, and descriptive representation in 40 different countries, plus an enlightening introduction and conclusion in which the similarities and amazing variety of patterns are clearly highlighted. This is an absolute must read if you study local politics, and it is fun to read for everyone. You will learn a lot and you will want to study local elections because there are so many intriguing facts and patterns to make sense of'.

André Blais, University of Montreal, Canada

'This comprehensive volume on local elections and voting in Europe is truly impressive. It offers a well-conceived theoretical two-dimensional structure which allows the many authors to provide comparable insights on the 40 countries covered, whether large or small, well-known or completely new to the scholarly community. The study of local elections has previously often suffered from a focus on only a few selected jurisdictions, but now presentations and data-access for a huge variety of countries are made available so that a new generation of local election studies can further enrich election studies in general. The editors' effort is very commendable and there is no doubt that this volume is the new must-read for all comparativists working with elections at the local level. But there is also no doubt that even people who still prefer to focus on one country only can also benefit considerably from it'.

Jørgen Elklit, Aarhus University, Denmark

'Elections have been called "feasts of democracy". Without any doubt local governments across the globe are the main venue for such democratic feasts. It is therefore hard to believe that local polls have long been a blank spot on the map of our knowledge of democratic elections. This volume - produced by the fine-fleur of international experts in this emerging field of research - makes a giant step forward in charting this largely unknown territory'.

Bas Denters, University of Twente, The Netherlands

Spis treści

PART 1: Introduction  1. From perennial bridesmaids to fully fledged spouses: advancing the comparative study of local elections and voting  PART 2: The Nordic States  2. Denmark: How two and a half parties rule within a multiparty system  3. Finland: Local autonomy, tenacious national parties, and sovereign, but indifferent voters  4. Iceland: Where localism prevails  5. Norway: Local democracy by trial (and error)  6. Sweden: Joint election day, party dominance, and extensive turnout  PART 3: The British Isles  7. Ireland: An atypical electoral system for an atypical local government system   8. United Kingdom: Diversity amid the Cinderella elections?  PART 4: The Rhinelandic States  9. Austria: Strong participation across federal diversity  10. Belgium: Between national barometer and local atmosphere  11. Germany: A variety of local elections in a federal system  12. Liechtenstein: Two leading parties in a direct democratic framework  13. Luxembourg: Toward a thinner relationship between local and national elections?  14. The Netherlands: Increasing responsibilities and nationalized elections  15. Switzerland: Low turnout but no second-order elections  PART 5: The Southern European States  16. Andorra: Local elections in quasi-federal institutions 17. Cyprus: National parties’ dominance and the decline of electoral participation  18. France: Competition only in large cities  19. Greece: Mayors in the foreground, parties behind the scenes  20. Italy: Hard-to-decipher local elections and voting  21. Portugal: Elections and voting in a dual-tier local government system  22. Spain: One main system to govern them all? Stable institutions in heterogeneous contexts  PART 6: New Democracies: The Central and Eastern European States  23. Czech Republic: Local elections in a fragmented municipal system  24. Estonia: The consolidation of partisan politics in a small country with small municipalities  25. Hungary: The expansion and the limits of national politics at the local level  26. Latvia: Electoral drama in local governments  27. Lithuania: Between a volatile electorate and the revival of nonpartisanship  28. Poland: A hyperlocalized system?  29. Slovakia: A gradual weakening of political parties in a stable local electoral system  30. Ukraine: The first experiences with voting in the amalgamated territorial communities  PART 7: New Democracies: The Southeastern European States  31. Albania: The path to decentralized democratic governance  32. Bosnia and Herzegovina: Local elections within a weak and contested state  33. Bulgaria: More open local electoral rules  34. Croatia: Games of local democracy in the shadow of national politics  35. Kosovo: Local elections and ethnic ramifications 36. Moldova: Party-shifting mayors within a nationalized local party system  37. Montenegro: Local elections in the shadow of national politics  38. North Macedonia: Local elections and parliamentary political dynamics  39. Romania: A case of national parties ruling local politics  40. Serbia: Three phases of local electoral politics after 1990  41. Slovenia: Where strong, nonpartisan mayors are reelected many times over  PART 8: Conclusions  42. 'Happily ever after'? Comparing local elections and voting in 40 European countries