Charles Lees

The Red-Green coalition in Germany: politics, personalities and power

Explaining the Red-Green coalitions; the long march through the Lander; Then we take Berlin; Niedersachsen and the irresistible rise of Gerhard Schroder; party strategy and the 1998 Bundestag elections; party programmes, coalition strategy and bargaining; Red-Green in power

Growing China’s renewables sector: a developmental state approach

ABSTRACT Over the last decade China expanded its renewable energy sector with unprecedented speed. This success story presents a challenge to Western modes of environmental governance, where stakeholder participation is often deemed a necessary pre-condition for effective policy outcomes. Drawing on new research (including previously unpublished interview data), the article first discusses established modes of environmental governance before examining the growth of China’s renewables sector through the theoretical lens of the ‘developmental state’. The article then analyses renewable energy policy design and implementation in China, illustrating how top-down command and control strategies have successfully diffused renewable energy technology from a standing start. We argue that (1) China’s distinct approach to the sector differs from Western modes of environmental governance and (2) this has revealed a new path towards renewable energy diffusion that authoritarian states in particular might regard as an attractive alternative to participatory models.

The red‐green coalition

In a recent interview with the magazine Stern, Green Environment Minister Jurgen Trittin claimed that, on the basis of his experience, there was no longer much to choose between the SPD and the CDU. As a result, Trittin argued, the Greens should no longer be in thrall to the Social Democrats but should be prepared to consider the Christian Democrats as potential coalition partners, at least in the medium term. Trittins remarks were immediately condemned by politicians within his own party, as well as the SPD and - more surprisingly - the CDU itself! Few can doubt that they were at least in part the product of frustration with the red-green coalitions somewhat shaky start in office.

The European Union and South East Europe : The Dynamics of Europeanization and Multilevel Governance

Explores the degree to which the European Union s engagement with the democracies of South East Europe has promoted Europeanization and Multi-Level Governance. The European Union and South East Europe explores the degree to which the European Unions engagement with the democracies of South East Europe has promoted Europeanization and Multi-Level Governance.Utilising a comparative approach, the book examines states that have experienced different degrees of engagement with the EU. It compares changing modes of governance in three policy areas: cohesion, environment, and migration, from 1995 to the present, in order to establish how successful multilevel governance policies have been.The European Union and South East Europe will be of interest to students and scholars of European politics, and European Union governance and integration. This book explores the interaction of the EU in Greece, Slovenia, Croatia, and Macedonia in three key policy sectors cohesion, border managements and the environment and assesses the degree to which the European Unions engagement with the democracies of South East Europe has promoted Europeanization and Multi-Level Governance. Although there is a tendency to view the Balkans as peripheral, this book argues that South East European states are central to what the EU is and aspires to become, and goes to the heart of many of the key issues confronting the EU. It compares changing modes of governance in the three policy areas selected because they are contentious issues in domestic politics and have trans-boundary policy consequences, in which there is significant EU involvement. The book draws on over 100 interviews conducted to explore actor motivation, preferences and perceptions in the face of pressure to adapt from the EU and uses Social Network Analysis. Timely and informative, this book considers broader dilemmas of integration and enlargement at a time when the EUs effectiveness is under close scrutiny. The European Union and South East Europewill be of interest to students and scholars of European politics, public policy, and European Union governance and integration.

Environmental policy in the United Kingdom and Germany

The essay examines developments within environmental policy making in the United Kingdom and the Federal Republic of Germany and asks: (i) can we identify patterns of convergence and/or divergence between the two countries?; and (ii) to what extent does the European integration process impact upon these patterns? It uses an historical institutionalist framework within which to frame the analysis.

The German Party System(s) in 2005: A Return to Volkspartei Dominance

The article assesses the socio-structural underpinnings and systemic dynamics of the contemporary German party system and identifies four phenomena: an increased level of fractionalisation that has made it more difficult for small parties to assume the ‘kingmaker’ or ‘pivot’ role; the continued strengthening of a two-bloc dynamic; the emergence and persistence of the new territorial cleavage in the united Germany; and, a skew in the party system to the left that has shifted the position of the median legislator. It is argued that all these changes have served to re-assert the dominance of the two Volksparteien and have been particularly advantageous to the SPD. The article concludes by arguing that the outcome of the 2005 federal election can thus be seen as very much in keeping with these trends.

The paradoxical effects of decline Assessing party system change and the role of the catch-all parties in Germany following the 2009 federal election

This article examines the impact of party system change in Germany on the role, status and power of the two catch-all parties (CDU/CSU and SPD) in the light of the 2009 federal election. It argues that party system change has had a paradoxical impact. On the one hand, the decline in the overall catch-all vote undermines the two parties’ integrative function. On the other, the presence of three small parties (FDP, Greens, Left Party) means that, with the possible exception of the Greens, no single small party has the potential to be ‘kingmaker’ and, because of their relative positions in ideological space, neither can they act in concert to extract concessions from the two catch-all parties. Thus, despite the impressive performance of the FDP in the 2009 federal election and the electoral meltdown suffered by the SPD, in office-seeking terms the catch-all parties are currently less vulnerable to small party threats of defection to alternative coalitions.

Getting ethnic questions on the agenda: Party formation as a strategy for social movements

The purpose of this article is twofold: firstly, to examine party formation as an option for social movements; secondly, to explore in more detail the reasons and conditions as to why a party with an explicit ethnic agenda and with an aim to represent various migrant communities emerged in the Swedish but not in the Dutch context. The article argues that this type of mobilization should be viewed as a strategy adopted by social movements rather than as a traditional party and as such should be related to the prevailing political opportunity structures. The Swedish context offers more favourable conditions for this type of mobilization than the Dutch, although structural arrangements and dominating cleavage lines influence the type of success this type of option has in the long run.

Christian Democracy is Dead; Long Live the Union Parties: Explaining CDU/CSU Dominance within the German Party System

Since 1949, the CDU/CSU has been the dominant party grouping in the German party system yet has rarely occupied the political centre ground, as represented by the so-called median legislator within the Bundestag. This article seeks to explain the paradox of how a right of centre party faction came to dominate what has historically been seen as a consensual and centrist party system by drawing upon the conceptual tools of (1) formal coalition theory and (2) the notions of path-dependence, rules, norms, beliefs and standard operating procedures. The article argues there is little reason to believe that the pattern of dominance established over the last six decades is in any immediate danger.

Reconstituting European social democracy: Germany's pivotal role

After a long period of dominance by the centre‐right, social democracy is once more in the ascendancy in Europe. At the same time social democracy is cross‐cut by competing ideological paradigms, ranging from an unreformed or ‘traditional’ model through to the neo‐liberal tinged ‘Third Way’ agenda. With social democratic‐led governments in power in France, Germany and Great Britain, this ideological competition has to a certain extent been mapped onto these member states’ statecraft agendas. The article makes three points. First, that there is a high degree of institutional ‘fit’ between of the Federal Republic and the European Union and that this potentially favours the successful transfer of German policy initiatives to the EU level. Second, that the ‘Red‐Green model’ of political co‐operation between the SPD and Greens is grounded within the parameters of sub‐national politics and is not easily adapted to the demands of the national and supranational levels. Third, that as a result of this, any distinctively ‘German’ social democratic agenda for Europe is more likely to have the ideas of the ‘Neue Mitte’ at its core.