Suchergebnisse

The chapter offers a detailed discussion of the radical transformation of the Greek party system since the beginning of the economic crisis in the country in early 2010. By comparing the Greek party system before and after the onset of the crisis, the argument is put forth that the Greek party system has transformed rapidly and profoundly on most meaningful dimensions: the number of parties and the overall fragmentation of the system, the degree of electoral volatility, the type of governments, the dimensions and logic of party competition, the degree of polarization, the reintroduction of centrifugal dynamics and, generally, the degree of institutionalization of the party system. On many of these dimensions, the economic crisis arguably acted as a catalyst, pushing the Greek party system to make a sudden leap towards the same direction that other Western parties also moved, albeit in more gradual, incremental steps. ; info:eu-repo/semantics/acceptedVersion

On occasion of the outbreak of a wave of popular mobilization in the Arab world (mainly) during the first half of 2011, the article examines the ways in which political science theories (and democratization theories in particular) have in the past analyzed and explained the relationship between Arab regimes and democracy: the potential for liberalization in the region, the factors that affect the intensification of demands for democracy and, finally, the mechanisms that facilitate the protracted survival of non-democratic forms of governance in the Arab world. The first part of the article offers a brief presentation of the ebb and flow of democratization theories, from the hypotheses of modernization theory to the contemporary 'transitology' paradigm. In the second part, the focus is transferred to the theoretical approaches that were developed mainly within the domain of Middle Eastern studies, often articulated as direct criticisms of the basic assumptions of democratization theories. The main aim of these approaches is to trace the causes that can account for the durability of Arab authoritarian regimes, while abandoning the assumption that Arab political systems are in a process of transition to democracy. The last section of the article offers an assessment of possible repercussions for democratization theory caused by the 2011 mobilizations.

The purpose of this paper is to offer a comprehensive account of the structure of ideological space in Southern Europe and contribute to the ongoing discussion concerning the impact of globalization on the domestic politics of European countries. We analyze party manifestos from Europe elections in Italy, Greece, Spain and Portugal using multidimensional scaling. Even though our findings largely support the hypothesis that components of the globalization divide tend to transform the content of the traditional cultural-political dimension, we observe that this transformation occurs in different ways across national contexts. ; info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersion