摘要:

Abstract.How well do party programmes and statements of government intent anticipate policy priorities across the history of a modern parliamentary democracy? This article examines the operation of a coalition government in the Federal Republic of Germany from its founding in 1949 through 1987. We analyze relationships between the electoral programmes of governing parties and central government policy priorities. We also examine the linkage function of ‘government declarations’, which are formal statements of intent offered by the leader of each in‐coming government. Content analyses of party programmes and government declarations are fitted to variations on a model of cabinet government in order to predict spending shares. The level of explanatory power of party programmes is rather impressive. But likewise, the capacity of the minor coalition partner, the Free Democrats, to extract ‘blackmail’is much higher than expected. The analyses are fitted to three lines of inquiry: democratic theory, comparative policy analysis, and coalition theory

ISSN:0304-4130    

DOI:10.1111/j.1475-6765.1990.tb00234.x

出版商:Blackwell Publishing Ltd    

年代:1990

数据来源: WILEY

摘要:

Abstract.This article reviews two decades of survey evidence regarding the attitudes of Italian industrial workers towards labour politics. Convention has it that, whereas Italian industrial workers were probably the most radical in western Europe at the time of the hot autumn (1969), they have since then become progressively more disenchanted with trade union involvement in politics and increasingly more cynical and apolitical. Using the numerous sample surveys conducted since the hot autumn, I show that there is no evidence to support this view. Rather, industrial workers in Italy have always been highly differentiated in their views of union politics and it is the politically‐relevant behaviour of union elites that is more important than the attitudes of the rank and file in shaping union interaction with the political sphere. Theoretical context is provided by a discussion of trade unions as institutions, and by attention to the analytic distinction between preferences, behaviour, and contex

ISSN:0304-4130    

DOI:10.1111/j.1475-6765.1990.tb00235.x

出版商:Blackwell Publishing Ltd    

年代:1990

数据来源: WILEY

摘要:

Abstract.The centre is an interesting concept for formal models of, for instance, political coalition formation, but also for European party systems. In this article, the focus will be on centre parties and their impact on coalition cabinet formation. Using game theory, we describe one concept of the centre, the central player, and we introduce a concept of a strong centre, the dominant central player. With these concepts of the centre, we will predict what kind of coalitions will be formed. These prediction principles will be confronted with data of cabinet formations in France, the Federal Republic of Germany, Italy, Ireland and The Netherlands (1945–1988). We show that these centre‐oriented prediction principles of coalition formation perform well in our data

ISSN:0304-4130    

DOI:10.1111/j.1475-6765.1990.tb00236.x

出版商:Blackwell Publishing Ltd    

年代:1990

数据来源: WILEY

摘要:

Abstract.The entire West German federal executive elite, politicians and top level bureaucrats, who held office between 1949 and 1984, is analyzed with respect to social background, professional training and career patterns. The time dimension is dealt with in a dual way by distinguishing legislative periods and political generations. The composition of the elite, it is argued, is the product of the kind of supply offered by a specific generation and the demands generated during political periods. It is demonstrated that the important government changes of 1969 and 1982 accelerated or retarded developments inherent in the recruitment basis. The time series reveal, apart from short‐term oscillations, some long‐term changes. While politicians tend to be more from the middle class, working class background among civil servants has slightly increased. Furthermore, among bureaucrats the monopoly of jurists is waning and uninterrupted civil service careers are being replaced by unorthodox careers. Politicians, on the other hand, have increasingly studied law and have acquired administration experience. Taken together with a considerable recruitment from civil service families, it might be justified to conclude that the state affinity of the German political executive is mediated to some extend through bureaucratic cult

ISSN:0304-4130    

DOI:10.1111/j.1475-6765.1990.tb00237.x

出版商:Blackwell Publishing Ltd    

年代:1990

数据来源: WILEY

摘要:

Abstract.Instead of using an all‐encompassing model of individual voting behaviour for drawing aggregate inferences from individual level data, this article proposes an alternative approach by employing a normal vote‐model. Three levels of abstraction are distinguished in the notion of a normal vote: the normal vote‐concept, the normal vote‐approachand the normal vote‐model.A discussion of the most detailed empirical elaboration of the notion of the normal vote, that by Converse, is given and then an inventory of criticisms is made. Although valid in their own right, these criticisms fall short of damaging the veryconceptof a normal vote. Finally, it is argued that if one intends to transfer theconceptto an electoral context other than the American, normal vote‐approaches(and consequently normal vote‐models) may differ across countries

ISSN:0304-4130    

DOI:10.1111/j.1475-6765.1990.tb00238.x

出版商:Blackwell Publishing Ltd    

年代:1990

数据来源: WILEY