William M. Downs

Pariahs in their midst: Belgian and Norwegian parties react to extremist threats

When extremist parties enter representative institutions through legitimate democratic means, how do established, mainstream parties respond? Traditional conservative parties throughout Europe face the reality that radical right‐wing parties are winning representation across all levels of the polity: subnational councils, national legislatures, and the European Parliament. While the political science literature has endeavoured to explain the recent electoral gains of such parties as Belgiums Vlaams Blok and Norways Progress Party, scant attention has been paid to the equally important question of how established democratic parties cope with extremists once inside legislative assemblies. This article compares the observations and preferences of elected representatives who, by democracys lot, are confronted by pariahs in their midst. Evidence from local councillors in Antwerp and Oslo reveals significant internal party uncertainty over strategy and suggests that electoral ambition and perceptions of ‘democratic responsibility ‘ help shape strategic preferences.

Decentralisation, Governance and the Structure of Local Political Institutions: Lessons for Reform?

Abstract Many governments are devolving power to elected local councils, hoping to improve service delivery and citizen representation by bringing officials closer to the people. While these decentralisation reforms hold the promise of improved governance, they also present national and sub-national leaders with a complex array of options about how to structure newly empowered local political institutions. This article draws on cross-national experience and the latest research to identify the trade-offs inherent in structuring local political institutions. The studys specific interest is in the impact of strong, locally elected councils on governance and representation. Proceeding from an empirical basis that competitive elections are vital for the legitimacy and efficiency of local political institutions, the analysis first questions the impact of four institutional features – central versus local control, local executive versus local council authority, local council structure, and the role of parties – on service provision and fiscal solvency. The articles second section analyses the impact of decentralisation on political representation, with a particular focus on the role of institutional design in combating the threat of extremist parties. A final section summarises empirical findings and advances some policy-relevant conclusions.

Regionalism in the European Union: Key Concepts and Project Overview

One of the apparent contradictions of the twenty-first century is that, in a world of globalisation and interdependence, there is an increase in the number of constitutional regions and stateless nations aggressively seeking autonomy and influence. Despite powerful arguments that inherent in globalisation is a process of deterritorialisation, the politics of place enjoys a reinvigorated salience. Uncertainty generated by the countervailing forces of integration and disintegration prompts contentious questions about shared sovereignty, viability of small entities, possibilities for transborder co-operation, competing loyalties, and democratisation via devolution. Perhaps nowhere are the dilemmas associated with these questions better illustrated than in the European Union. This issue of the Journal of European Integration introduces a collaborative research project that addresses the reciprocal relationship between regionalism and European unification. In this introductory essay, the projects core concerns are briefly outlined. Summaries are provided of how these concerns are empirically applied in the studies of seven scholars whose work is presented in this volume.

Denmark's referendum on the euro: The mouse that roared ... again

Just as they had almost a decade earlier, Danish voters on 28 September 2000 went to the polls and sent Shockwaves through the European Union by rejecting a government‐sponsored referendum on joining the EUs single currency, the ‘euro’. Danes said ‘Nej’ to the embattled currency, casting new doubt on their countrys commitment to the European project and emboldening eurosceptics throughout the continent and across the English Channel. The decision to remain outside the eurozone is notable for the humiliation it caused Prime Minister Poul Nyrup Rasmussen and his government, as well as for the impetus is gives to a two‐tier EU. The ‘yes ‘ camps failure to keep the campaign based on economic rather than political logic, the euros precipitous decline, and the EUs sanctions against Austria contributed to the referendums dramatic outcome.

Revisiting the ‘Moderating Effects of Incumbency’: A Comparative Study of Government Participation and Political Extremism

This article seeks to achieve three goals:(1) clarification of ‘extremisms’ conceptual boundaries and problematic relationship with democracy; (2) articulation of a framework for locating incumbency among a range of strategic responses to political extremists; and (3) systematic cross-national comparison of incumbencys consequences for right-populist/nationalist politicians and parties. In particular, the study addresses a fundamental question in the study of political extremism—how accurate (and how generalisable) is the argument that participation in government will ultimately serve to moderate ‘extreme’ parties and politicians? The subsidiary question is whether denying power to electorally successful extremist parties is in the interest of—or antithetical to—democracy. Pursuit of answers to these questions should advance our understanding of the fates of extremist parties under democratic political rules.

A project ‘doomed to succeed’? Informational asymmetries, euroscepticism, and threats to the locomotive of integration

Evidence abounds about the fortunes to be gained in national and European Parliament elections by avowedly eurosceptic political parties. Consequently, a rich literature exists on the broad phenomenon of euroscepticism, in particular its frequent and volatile packaging with nationalism, xenophobia and anti-immigrant welfare chauvinism. This article takes up an ongoing debate about the intervening role of information (sources of information, understanding of the way the EU works, forms of information seeking) in shaping negative attitudes. Eurobarometer data along with original survey responses from elected representatives in subnational assemblies of three countries reveal (1) the significant relationship between euroscepticism and information deficiency, (2) the surprising receptivity of some eurosceptics to gaining new information about the EU, and (3) the potency of information exposure in mitigating anti-EU sentiments.

Constructing a New Scottish parliament for the ‘Europe of regions’: Can institutional engineering assure subsidiarity?

The creation of an elected parliament in Scotland raises questions for legislative scholars, among them how a parliamentary body representing a stateless nation within a member state of the European Union can influence and implement European legislation. One version of the ‘principle of subsidiarity’ states that decisions are taken as closely as possible to the citizen, encouraging assemblies throughout the EU to articulate and implement their own preferences in key policy areas. Reporting findings from a survey of the Scottish parliaments first cohort of legislators, this article identifies conflicting perceptions of subsidiarity, charts how best to pursue it, and evaluates the institutional norms, rules and procedures put in place to help secure it. Data demonstrate that preferences vary by level of MSP knowledge about European policy, by party membership and by method of election. Low levels of legislator knowledge combined with internal divisiveness constitute barriers to institutional strength in the pursuit of subsidiarity.

The Moderating Effects of Incumbency

On its face, the biggest gamble a liberal democracy can take is to hand some measure of power to a seemingly illiberal party. Here, the “lessons of Weimar” are presumably clear and immutable … just as the National Socialists in Germany came to power—initially not by force but by an invitation to govern in 1933—so, too, could well-organized extremist parties in contemporary democracies exploit membership in a governing coalition with potentially dire consequences. Letting the fox into the hen house, as it were, is not supposed to be the optimal path for defense of democracy. Yet, there may be equally powerful “lessons of Antwerp” or even “lessons of Algeria” that militate against this logic. Quarantining and ostracizing an electorally successful (but democratically dubious) populist party, as exemplified so powerfully by the Belgian case, can unwittingly result in more—rather than less—public support for the offending party. Looking outside the community of established European democracies, the refusal to accept a pariah party’s actual or imminent electoral success (as happened when Algeria’s nascent multiparty regime cancelled elections following a first-round victory by the Islamic Salvation Front in 1991) can likewise lead to disastrous outcomes.2

El Parlament de Catalunya: A Model for Regional Assertiveness in the EU?

Abstract Without the guarantees of a de jure federal system or clearly defined jurisdiction in external affairs, how can a regional legislature play a meaningful role in the European Union policy process? Such is the dilemma faced by constitutional regions and devolved parliaments in multiple EU member states, particularly Spain, Italy, France and the UK. Motivated by the observation that regional legislators in such countries increasingly profess to emulate the putative successes of the ‘Catalan model’, this article compares the observations and preferences of regional legislators in Catalonia and Scotland-with an eye to understanding why El Parlament de Catalunya lays claim to greater influence in EU decision-making and policy implementation processes. While not easily exportable to other similarly situated regions, the Catalan model reveals the significance not just of wresting competences from the centre, but also of professionalism, collective legislative competence and commitment to supranationalism.

Federalism achieved: The Belgian elections of may 1995

The general election held on 21 May 1995 crowned Belgiums much heralded and long awaited federalisation, for the first time applying a recently reformed constitutions blueprint for national, regional and linguistic community governance. By Belgian standards, the event was an exceptional exercise in democracy: 6.3 million voters chose representatives to a new and much smaller Chamber of Representatives, a refashioned Federal Senate, three autonomous regional parliaments (Flanders, Wallonia, Brussels‐Capital), and a Community Council for the countrys German‐speaking population. The result was an astounding reprieve for two scandal‐plagued Socialist parties and a deliverance from electoral disaster for Jean‐Luc Dehaenes centre‐left coalition government.