Overview
- Studies the strategy of the Left at the European level in the context of the “populist era”
- Combines a theoretical reflection on the Left and the EU with a range of case studies
- Brings together analyses of electoral results, online communication, party manifestos and opinion surveys
Part of the book series: Challenges to Democracy in the 21st Century (CDC)
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Table of contents (12 chapters)
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The Campaigns
Keywords
About this book
This edited volume revolves around two sets of questions. First, what do the 2019 European elections suggest about the extent to which the mainstream parties of the left are attempting to deal with their decline through an increased, common, emphasis on their project for a more integrated, 'social Europe' as opposed to an emphasis on the more 'traditional', domestically-focussed, issues? Given the heightened profile of Europe in domestic politics; given the polarisation around Europe; given the way in which (especially in the countries of the Eurozone) media discussion of the domestic implications of EU decision-making can influence the climate of opinion regardless of the actions of domestic party actors themselves, we would expect the social democrats among them to seek to reassert control over the conditions of opinion formation through a renewed emphasis on integration (as well as its benefits and its potential as a source of identities to rival national, exclusionary identities) in opposition to their populist and Eurosceptical adversaries. To what extent do the campaigns waged by these parties bear out this expectation? Second, how well are the parties coping with the internal and external, institutional and political obstacles in the way of pursuit of this agenda?
Reviews
“While much has been written about what the European left ought to do to resolve its crisis of decline, this collection takes us much further by starting from what social democratic parties have actually been doing, based on their conduct and programmes during the 2019 European parliamentary elections. This provides a crucial point of departure for future work and study.” (Colin Crouch, Professor Emeritus, University of Warwick, UK, and External Scientific Member, Max Planck Institute for the Study of Societies, Germany)
“This thought-provoking book addresses the important issues of decline of mainstream parties of the left, and shortfalls in democratic accountability of the European Union. The nationalist/international co-operation cleavage is tending to replace the traditional right/left divide, and the book rightly advocates efforts towards democratisation of the EU as a means of promoting renewal and redefinition of social democratic parties.” (Susan Senior Nello, Associated Professor, University of Siena, Italy)Editors and Affiliations
About the editor
James Newell is former Professor of Politics at the University of Salford. His recent books include, Silvio Berlusconi: A Study in Failure (2019); Corruption in Contemporary Politics: a New Travel Guide (2019) (both with Manchester University Press); Italy's Contemporary Politics (Routledge, 2020). He is founder and co-editor of the quarterly journal, Contemporary Italian Politics.
Bibliographic Information
Book Title: Europe and the Left
Book Subtitle: Resisting the Populist Tide
Editors: James L. Newell
Series Title: Challenges to Democracy in the 21st Century
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-54541-3
Publisher: Palgrave Macmillan Cham
eBook Packages: Political Science and International Studies, Political Science and International Studies (R0)
Copyright Information: The Editor(s) (if applicable) and The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Switzerland AG 2021
Hardcover ISBN: 978-3-030-54540-6Published: 13 October 2020
Softcover ISBN: 978-3-030-54543-7Published: 14 October 2021
eBook ISBN: 978-3-030-54541-3Published: 12 October 2020
Series ISSN: 2946-3416
Series E-ISSN: 2946-3424
Edition Number: 1
Number of Pages: XXIV, 275
Number of Illustrations: 26 b/w illustrations, 5 illustrations in colour
Topics: European Politics, Comparative Politics, Political Communication