Why are traditional nation-states newly defining membership and belonging? In the twenty-first century, several Western European states have attached obligatory civic integration requirements as conditions for citizenship and residence, which include language proficiency, country knowledge and value commitments for immigrants. This book examines this membership policy adoption and adaptation through both medium-N analysis and three paired comparisons to argue that while there is convergence in instruments, there is also significant divergence in policy purpose, design and outcomes. To explain this variation, this book focuses on the continuing, dynamic interaction of institutional path dependency and party politics. Through paired comparisons of Austria and Denmark, Germany and the United Kingdom, and the Netherlands and France, this book illustrates how variations in these factors - as well as a variety of causal processes - produce divergent civic integration policy strategies that, ultimately, preserve and anchor national understandings of membership.

Why do some countries have 'Culture Wars' over morality issues such as abortion and same-sex marriage while other countries hardly experience any conflict? This book argues that morality issues only generate major conflicts in political systems with a significant conflict between religious and secular parties.

Politics and Society in Western Europe is a comprehensive introduction for students of West European politics and of comparative politics. This new edition has been extensively revised and updated to meet with the new needs of undergraduate students as they come to terms with a changing social and political landscape in Europe. This textbook provides a full analysis of the political systems of 18 Western European countries, their political parties, elections, and party systems, as well as the structures of government at local, regional, national and European Union levels. Throughout the book, key theoretical ideas are accessibly introduced and examined against the very latest empirical data on civil society and the state.

Examining such issues as the welfare state, the politics of unemployment and government-industry relations, this work looks at the developments in western European politics up to and during the 1980s.

The close of the twentieth century has brought changes to Europe of such magnitude that some predict the return of the Age of Europe. In this timely update of Politics in Wesern Europe, editors Gerald A. Dorfman and Peter J. Duignan and numerous distinguished contributors examine the events leading to the tumultuous changes and the impact these changes will have on the peoples of Western Europe. This new edition includes a fresh study of the history of European efforts to defend and unite twelve independent nations into one common market from 1946 to 1992. Another essay examines the partitioning and reunification of Germany and how German unification will affect the rest of Europe and the United States. In addition, the authors analyze how the fall of the Iron Curtain and the demise of communism may affect the countries of Western Europe. This comprehensive work features new chapters on Ireland and Greece; updated chapters on Great Britain, France, Belgium, the Netherlands, Spain, Portugal, Italy, and Austria; in addition to chapters on the Nordic countries and Switzerland. Politics in Western Europe offers valuable insights for students, journalists, diplomats, and the international business community.