Contemporary European Politics A Comparative Perspective

by Magstadt, Thomas M.

• ISBN13: 9780534577766
• ISBN10: 0534577768
• Edition: 1st
• Format: Paperback
• Copyright: 2006-02-27
• Publisher: Wadsworth Publishing

Summary

Enhance your understanding of European politics with CONTEMPORARY EUROPEAN POLITICS! With coverage of ideology, political culture, and social constructs of regions and countries, this political science text helps you comprehend the changing global order and the challenges that the United States will face in the years ahead. Case studies found throughout allow you to see how theory and concepts play out in real scenarios. Exam preparation is made easy with highlighted key terms, chapter overviews, summary and conclusions sections, and suggested readings.

Table of Contents

About the Author	iv
List of Tables and Figures	xiii
List of Maps and Boxes	xv
Preface	xvi
The European Dilemma: Unity or Diversity	1	(34)
What Is Europe? Civilization, Culture, and Identity	9	(11)
On the Importance of Being First	10	(1)
Feudalism and Aristocracy	11	(1)
From Renaissance to Revolution	12	(3)
The State and Society	15	(2)
Culture and Identity	17	(2)
The Turkish Question	19	(1)
Europe's Dark Side: War and Tyranny	20	(4)
Theories of Colonial Rule	20	(1)
The Balance of Power System	20	(1)
The Demise of the Eurocentric System	21	(1)
The Totalitarian Interlude	22	(2)
War and Revolution: An Ambiguous Legacy	24	(1)
Postwar Europe	25	(5)
The Long Winter: Cold War, Iron Curtain	25	(1)
Europe after the Cold War	26	(2)
Sovereignty and the Nation-State	28	(1)
The Limits of Europe	29	(1)
Summary and Conclusions	30	(5)
PART I Established Democracies	35	(146)
Western Europe: Divergent Paths to the Modern State	37	(42)
Case Studies: The United Kingdom, France, Germany, Italy, and Spain	40	(2)
The United Kingdom: How Darwin's Island Evolved	42	(6)
Made in England	42	(1)
A Fortunate Geography	43	(2)
A Seafaring Nation	45	(1)
Absolute Monarchs Need Not Apply	46	(2)
France: In Search of Lost Grandeur	48	(7)
Paris: The Capital and So Much More	48	(2)
An Ambiguous Legacy: Benevolent State, Stagnant Economy	50	(1)
Population Blues	51	(2)
A History of Triumph and Turmoil	53	(2)
The Paradoxes of French Politics	55	(1)
Germany: Nationhood, Nazism, and a New Beginning	55	(7)
A Crisis of Geography	56	(1)
The Concept of Germany	57	(3)
From Bismarck to Hitler	60	(2)
Italy: After Rome and Ruin, Respectability	62	(7)
A Tortuous Road to Nationhood	62	(3)
Italy, at Last	65	(2)
Staring into the Abyss: The Fascist Era	67	(2)
Spain: Empire or Nation?	69	(6)
Turning Point	71	(1)
First Stirrings of Democracy	72	(2)
The Spanish Civil War	74	(1)
Summary and Conclusions	75	(4)
Politics in Western Europe: Triumph of Constitutional Democracy	79	(56)
Miraculous Recovery, Postmodern Malaise	80	(7)
Europe's Postwar Economic Miracles	80	(1)
Problems of Postindustrial Society	81	(6)
Case Studies: Britain, France, Germany, Italy, and Spain	87	(1)
Britain: Mother of All Parliaments	88	(12)
Constitution By Evolution	88	(2)
Westminster: Where Lower Is Higher	90	(3)
10 Downing Street: Prime Minister and Cabinet	93	(2)
Whitehall: Administrative Nerve Center	95	(1)
Parties and Elections	96	(2)
Always a Winner: First Past the Post	98	(2)
Public Opinion and Pressure Groups	100	(1)
France's Fifth Republic	100	(13)
A Hybrid System	101	(1)
Who Rules? President and Prime Minister	102	(3)
French Technocracy: An Elite Civil Service	105	(1)
The Taming of Parliament	105	(2)
A Multiparty System	107	(1)
From de Gaulle to Chirac: Testing the System	108	(4)
The Elections of 2002 and 2005	112	(1)
Germany's Unified Federal Republic	113	(9)
The Basic Law	114	(2)
The Chancellor	116	(1)
The German Parliament	117	(2)
How Laws Are Made in Germany	119	(1)
Parties and Elections	120	(1)
A Limited Government	121	(1)
Italy's Fractious Democracy	122	(6)
The 1948 Constitution: Too Much of a Good Thing?	122	(1)
Economic Success, Political Morass	123	(1)
The Road to Reform	124	(3)
Two Cheers (and Votes) for Change	127	(1)
Spain's Rejuvenated Polity	128	(2)
A Belated Economic Miracle	128	(1)
A People's King: The Failed Coup of 1981	129	(1)
A Parliamentary Democracy Fit for Europe	129	(1)
Summary and Conclusions	130	(5)
Western Europe Today: Democracy in Postmodern Societies	135	(46)
The Downside of Modernity	136	(1)
Welfare States: Broken beyond Repair?	137	(4)
The Bumpy Road Ahead	141	(3)
Britain: The Great Dilemma	144	(7)
Britain's Early Postwar Blues: A Stalled Economy	144	(1)
The Politics of Economic Policy	145	(1)
Making a ``Major'' Change	146	(1)
Northern Ireland: Peace at Last?	146	(2)
The Democratic Republic of Scotland	148	(1)
Foreign and Defense Policy	148	(1)
Blair in the Chair: A New Look for Labour	149	(1)
Blair at War	149	(2)
France: Model or Relic?	151	(5)
Chirac and France's ``Highs''	152	(1)
An ``Old'' Problem	153	(1)
The Ghost of de Gaulle: France's Foreign Policy	154	(2)
Germany: Beyond Unification, What?	156	(7)
The Kohl Era	157	(1)
German Unification	158	(3)
Exit Kohl, Enter Schroder	161	(1)
The 2005 Election: And The Winner Is	161	(1)
Germany's Economy: A Miracle No More	162	(1)
Italy: Reform or Relapse?	163	(6)
Italy's Postwar Economic Renaissance	164	(1)
Rich Italy, Poor Italy	165	(1)
A Passion for Politics	165	(1)
Berlusconi's Debut: The 1994 Election	165	(2)
The Center-Left Takes a Turn	167	(1)
Berlusconi's Second Coming	167	(1)
The Character Issue	168	(1)
A Higher-Profile Foreign Policy	168	(1)
An Embattled Leader	169	(1)
Spain: Nation of Region or Region of Nations?	169	(7)
An Economy Fit for Europe	171	(2)
Turnabout: The 2004 Elections	173	(1)
Spain's Regions	174	(2)
Summary and Conclusions	176	(5)
PART II Emerging Democracies	181	(134)
Eastern Europe: The Slavic Zone	183	(50)
Slavic Europe	184	(6)
The Influence of Geography	186	(1)
Russia and Ukraine	186	(1)
Empire or Power Vacuum?	187	(3)
The Imprint of History	190	(1)
Decline of the Romanov Dynasty	190	(1)
The Age of Anarchism: Prelude to Revolution	190	(1)
The Origins of Soviet Totalitarianism	191	(6)
Lenin and the Bolsheviks	191	(1)
The October Revolution	192	(1)
The Stalin Era	193	(1)
The Great Terror	193	(1)
Collectivization and the Gulag Archipelago	194	(2)
The Soviet Phoenix	196	(1)
The Cold War Era (1945--1991)	197	(6)
The Red Zone	197	(1)
Stalin's Heirs	198	(2)
Toward the Prague Spring	200	(1)
Detente and Decline	201	(2)
Ideology and Political Culture	203	(3)
The Virtues of Stalinism	204	(1)
Thinly Disguised Nationalism	205	(1)
Eastern Europe before 1945	206	(2)
Slavic But Not Russian: Poland, Ukraine, Czechoslovakia, and Yugoslavia	208	(20)
Poland: Flat Land, Fluid Borders	210	(4)
Ukraine: In Russia's Shadow	214	(3)
Czechoslovakia: Slavic Outside, Western Inside	217	(4)
Yugoslavia: Federation or Tinderbox?	221	(7)
Summary and Conclusions	228	(5)
Politics in Eastern Europe: Blending the Old and the New	233	(44)
The Legacy of Soviet Communism	234	(14)
Soviet ``Democracy'' and Potemkin's Ghost	235	(1)
The Negation of Economics: How Not to Compete (or Succeed)	236	(1)
Marxism versus the Marketplace	237	(1)
The Concept of Central Planning	237	(1)
Problems of Planning	238	(1)
The Gorbachev Reforms	239	(5)
Why Gorbachev Failed	244	(2)
The August Coup: Prelude and Aftermath	246	(2)
Postcommunist Russia	248	(5)
A Strong President (Getting Stronger)	249	(1)
A Weak Parliament (Getting Weaker)	250	(1)
A Figurehead Prime Minister	251	(1)
Putin's Meteoric Rise to Power	252	(1)
Eastern Europe: From Stalinism to Pluralism	253	(5)
Eastern Europe during the Cold War	253	(1)
Moscow's Clones	254	(1)
Cloned Economies, Too	254	(1)
The Revolutions of 1989	255	(3)
Case Studies: Poland, Ukraine, Czech Republic, Serbia (formerly Yugoslavia)	258	(1)
Poland: Free at Last	258	(2)
Ukraine: The Long Winter	260	(2)
Czech Republic: Reinventing Democracy	262	(6)
The Velvet Revolution	263	(1)
A Cumbersome Constitution	263	(1)
One State, Three Governments	264	(1)
The Velvet Divorce	265	(1)
One Government, Two Heads	266	(2)
Slavic Italy?	268	(1)
Serbia: The Long Road Ahead	268	(4)
The Failed Experiment Called Yugoslavia	268	(1)
In Search of the Workers' Paradise: ``Self-Management''	269	(1)
Yugoslavia's Last Stand	270	(1)
Toward a New Political Order	270	(2)
Summary and Conclusions	272	(5)
Eastern Europe Today: The Long (But Wide Open) Road West	277	(38)
Russia: Neither East Nor West	280	(9)
The Unplanned Economy: A Dismal Decade	280	(3)
Putin to the Rescue (?)	283	(3)
Russia's Nettlesome Nationalities	286	(1)
The War in Chechnya	286	(2)
Russian or Citizen?	288	(1)
Eastern Europe: Heading West	289	(5)
The Baggage Problem	289	(3)
Preparing for Takeoff	292	(2)
Poland: The Shock Treatment	294	(5)
Ukraine: Geography Is Destiny . . . Or Maybe Not	299	(2)
The Czech Republic: Challenges Ahead	301	(4)
The Best of the Worst	301	(1)
Czechs without Slovakia	302	(1)
A Botched Privatization	302	(1)
Winners Not Quite In, Losers Not Quite Out	303	(1)
The Opposition Agreement: A Stab at Stability	303	(2)
Serbia (formerly Yugoslavia): Rejecting Dictatorship	305	(6)
Into the Abyss	306	(1)
A Dirty War: Bosnia	307	(1)
Whistle While You (Skip) Work: Serbia in Revolt	308	(1)
Another Dirty War: Kosovo	308	(1)
Milosevic the Loser	309	(2)
Summary and Conclusions	311	(4)
PART III The European Union	315	(61)
Beyond East and West: What Is Europe?	317	(20)
What Makes Europeans European?	319	(13)
The Embrace of Liberty	321	(1)
Rising Expectations	322	(2)
A Cherished Diversity	324	(5)
A Sense of Unity	329	(3)
Summary and Conclusions	332	(5)
The United States of Europe: Inevitable or Impossible?	337	(39)
Becoming Europe: The EU as Catalyst	340	(17)
First Things First: Integration before Federation	340	(1)
The European Coal and Steel Community	341	(2)
The European Defense Community	343	(2)
The Mother of All Common Markets	345	(1)
Coming of Age: Beyond the Common Market	346	(2)
Putting the Euro in Europe	348	(2)
The Apparatus of Integration: EU Institutions	350	(2)
States and Weights: Qualified Majority Voting	352	(4)
The Three Pillars of the New Europe	356	(1)
The Mother of All Treaties: The European Constitution	357	(5)
The Constitutional Fiasco	358	(1)
Whither Europe?	359	(3)
Is Europe Weak?	362	(7)
Power in the Postmodern Age	363	(2)
Soft Power versus Superpower	365	(1)
Europe and America: Partners or Rivals?	366	(1)
The Limits of Europe	367	(2)
Summary and Conclusions	369	(7)
Index	376