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Tim Bale's Internet Guide to European Politics

If you've made it this far, you probably know the basics about using and searching the web. If you don't and/or if you would like to know more about using the internet as a tool in university study, try Palgrave's Hague and Harrop's Internet Guide to Comparative Politics for a clear introduction.

The main purpose of these pages is 

• to provide a jumping-off point for other European politics sites;
• to provide summaries, selected websites, discussion questions and links to updates, on the topic covered by each chapter of European Poltics;
• to provide, twice yearly, new boxes on important issues in European politics in a section called Updating European Politics;
• to solicit your feedback, on the book, on the website and on European politics (and its teaching) more generally.

There are many sites that provide links and information on the politics of European states on a country-by-country basis. Two particularly comprehensive sites are Radio Radicale's Political Resources on the Net and Richard Kimber's Political Science Resources. Information and discussion of both European and EU politics is well provided by EurActiv 

Also useful as starting points are the websites provided by European and EU studies websites around the world, most of which are based out of universites. The following seem to me to be particularly helpful:

Australia

• University of Melbourne's Contemporary Europe Research Centre 
• ANU's National Europe Centre 
• University of New South Wales's Centre for European Studies 
• Monash University's European and EU Centre 
• University of Adelaide's Centre for European Studies 
• Flinders University of South Australia Centre for Scandinavian Studies 
• The University of Sydney's European Studies Centre 

Canada

• University of British Columbia's Institute for European Studies 
• Carleton University's Centre for European Studies 
• The Canadian Centre for German and European Studies 
• University of Victoria's European Studies Program 

New Zealand

• Univesity of Canterbury's National Centre for Research on Europe 

UK

• Chatham House 
• Social Science Information Gateway 
• University Association for Contemporary European Studies 
• Sussex European Institute 
• UCL's School of Slavonic & East European Studies
• University of Birmingham's European Research Institute 

USA

• University of California, Berkeley's Institute of European Studies 
• Columbia University's Institute for the Study of Europe 
• Cornell University's Institute for European Studies 
• Duke University's Center for European Studies 
• Georgetown University's Center for German and European Studies 
• Harvard Univerity's Center for European Studies 
• Indiana University's West European Studies (WEST) 
• University of Michigan's Center for European Studies 
• NYU's Center for European Studies 
• University of North Carolina's Center for European Studies 
• University of Pittsburgh's Center for West European Studies 
• Washington University's Center for West European Studies 
• US Centre for European Studies 

Note, though, that surfing is not a substitute for, but a rather a complement to, reading - and that (unless you have superhuman self-discipline) you can waste an awful lot of valuable time just browsing. Often the sites are most useful for keeping up to date with current developments; but you can also do this anyway by reading newspapers and news magazines like Time and the Economist (each issue of which contains a few pages on Europe). The best academic sources for keeping up to date are the yearly 'political data handbooks' produced (as special editions at the end of each annual volume) by the European Journal of Political Research 
: these devote a short chapter to each European country. Electoral Studies is also worth keeping an eye on since, like some of the other journals (such as West European Politics which is highly recommended), it provides up-to-date analyses of recent elections: these often tell you more about the country in question than just its election results.

Other academic journals that are particularly useful for European politics include the Journal of European Public Policy, Comparative European Politics, the Journal of Common Market Studies, the Journal of Contemporary European Studies, Political Studies, Parliamentary Affairs, British Journal of Politcs and International Relations, French Politics, German Politics, South European Society and Politics, the Journal of Communist Studies and Transition Politics, and Scandinavian Political Studies

Specific web resources relevant to the subject matter of each chapter of European Politics are provided in the chapter by chapter resources on this site:

Chapter by Chapter web links:

• Chapter One Europe: a continent in the making
• Chapter Two The end of the nation state? Federalism, devolution and the EU
• Chapter Three From government to governance: running the state, making policy and policing the constitution
• Chapter Four Governments and parliaments: a long way from equality
• Chapter Five Parties: how the past affects the present, and an uncertain future
• Chapter Six Elections, voting and referendums: systems, turnout, preferences and unpredictability
• Chapter Seven  The media: player and recorder
• Chapter Eight Pressure politics: civil society, organized interests and new social movements
• Chapter Nine Politics over economics: enduring differences between left and right
• Chapter Ten Not wanted but needed: migrants and minorities
• Chapter Eleven Making the world a better place? Europe's international politics

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