Christoffer Green-Pedersen’s "The Reshaping of West European Party Politics"

Session Submission Type: Author meet critics

Session Description

West European party politics is in a time of flux. New parties, especially radical right-wing parties, have gained support at the expense of the parties that have usually dominated West European party politics. This development is not new, but it has accelerated in recent elections and many countries are now struggling to form viable government coalitions. This new book offers a new theoretical perspective on West European party politics and its development over the past decades. The book analyzes the issue agendas of party politics, i.e. what are the issues that parties compete about? Is it immigration, health, the environment or European Integration and how can we explain variation in issues agenda across time and countries? This new perspective allows the book to address many questions that are central to the recent development of West European party politics. These are questions like: How does the party system react to new parties with a specific issue focus? Which role does coalition building and office seeking play for party competition? What is the linkage between political parties and the electorate?

This author meets critics roundtable will be organized with a short intro to the book by Tarik Abou-Chadi from the University of Zürich and then four critical assessments focusing on different aspects of the book. These will be provided by Herbert Kitschelt (Duke), Sara Hobolt (LSE), Frank Baumgartmer (UNC Chapel Hill) and Jim Adams (UC Davies). Silja Häuserman (University of Zürich) will chair the discussion. The book will be published by Oxford University Press in the summer of 2019.

Sub Unit

• DIVISION 15: European Politics and Society

Chair

• Silja Haeusermann University of Zurich

Presenters

• Tarik Abou-Chadi University of Zurich

• Herbert Kitschelt Duke University

• James Adams University of California, Davis

• Frank R. Baumgartner University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill

• Sara B Hobolt London School of Economics

• Christoffer Green-Pedersen University of Aarhus