| Description |
1 online resource (xvii, 764 pages) |
| Series |
Comparative politics |
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Comparative politics (Oxford University Press)
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| Contents |
List of Figures; List of Tables; List of Contributors; I. INTRODUCTION AND THEORY; 1. Parliamentary Democracy: Promise and Problems; 2. Delegation and its Perils; 3. Parliamentary Democracy and Delegation; II. SURVEY; 4. Democratic Delegation and Accountability: Cross-national Patterns; 5. Austria: Imperfect Parliamentarism but Fully-fledged Party Democracy; 6. Belgium: Delegation and Accountability under Partitocratic Rule; 7. Denmark: Delegation and Accountability in Minority Situations; 8. Finland: Polarized Pluralism in the Shadow of a Strong President |
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9. France: Delegation and Accountability in the Fifth Republic10. Germany: Multiple Veto Points, Informal Coordination, and Problems of Hidden Action; 11. Greece: 'Rationalizing' Constitutional Powers in a Post-dictatorial Country; 12. Iceland: A Parliamentary Democracy with a Semi-presidential Constitution; 13. Ireland: 'O What a Tangled Web. . .'-Delegation, Accountability, and Executive Power; 14. Italy: Delegation and Accountability in a Changing Parliamentary Democracy; 15. Luxembourg: A Case of More 'Direct' Delegation and Accountability |
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16. The Netherlands: Rules and Mores in Delegation and Accountability Relationships17. Norway: Virtual Parliamentarism; 18. Portugal: Changing Patterns of Delegation and Accountability under the President's Watchful Eyes; 19. Spain: Delegation and Accountability in a Newly Established Democracy; 20. Sweden: From Separation of Power to Parliamentary Supremacy-and Back Again?; 21. The United Kingdom: Still a Single 'Chain of Command'? The Hollowing Out of the 'Westminster Model'; III. ANALYSIS AND CONCLUSION; 22. Dimensions of Citizen Control; 23. Challenges to Parliamentary Democracy; Index; A |
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BC; D; E; F; G; H; I; J; K; L; M; N; O; P; Q; R; S; T; U; V; W; Z |
| Summary |
Parliamentary democracy is the most common way of organizing delegation and accountability in contemporary democracies. Yet knowledge of this type of regime has been incomplete and often unsystematic. Delegation and Accountability in Parliamentary Democracies offers new conceptual clarity on the topic. Taking principal-agent theory as its framework, the work illustrates how a variety of apparently unrelated representation issues can now be understood. This procedure allows scholarship to move well beyond what have previously been cloudy and confusing debates aimed at defining the virtues and perils of parliamentarism. This new empirical investigation includes all 17 West European parliamentary democracies. These countries are compared in a series of cross-national tables and figures, and 17 country chapters provide a wealth of information on four discrete stages in the delegation process: delegation from voters to parliamentary representatives, delegation from parliament to the prime minister and cabinet, delegation within the cabinet, and delegation from cabinet ministers to civil servants. Each chapter illustrates how political parties serve as bonding instruments, which align incentives and permit citizen control of the policy process. This is complemented by a consideration of external constraints, such as courts, central banks, corporatism, and the European Union, which can impinge on national-level democratic delegation. The concluding chapters go on to consider how well the problems of delegation and accountability are solved in these countries. Delegation and Accountability in Parliamentary Democracies provides an unprecedented guide to contemporary European parliamentary democracies. As democratic governance is transformed at the dawn of the twenty-first century, it illustrates the important challenges faced by the parliamentary democracies of Western Europe |
| Notes |
Originally published.: 2003 |
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"This paperback edition contains a few corrections, most of which had already been included in the second printing of the hard cover version published in 2004. None of these corrections change any of our interpretations or conclusions"--Preface |
| Bibliography |
Includes bibliographical references and index |
| Notes |
Print version record |
| Subject |
Legislative bodies -- Europe, Western -- History -- 20th century
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Representative government and representation -- Europe -- Cross-cultural studies
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POLITICAL SCIENCE -- Political Ideologies -- Democracy.
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Legislative bodies
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Representative government and representation
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Europe
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Western Europe
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| Genre/Form |
Electronic books
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Cross-cultural studies
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History
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| Form |
Electronic book
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| Author |
Strøm, Kaare, editor
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Müller, Wolfgang C., 1957- editor.
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Bergman, Torbjörn, editor
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| ISBN |
9780191522970 |
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019152297X |
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1423768000 |
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9781423768005 |
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