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E-book
Author Bedock, Camille

Title Reforming Democracy : Institutional Engineering in Western Europe
Published Oxford : OUP Oxford, 2017

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Description 1 online resource (344 pages)
Series Comparative Politics
Comparative politics (Oxford University Press)
Contents Cover; Reforming Democracy: Institutional Engineering in Western Europe; Copyright; Acknowledgements; Table of Contents; List of Figures; List of Tables; Introduction; Part I: Reforms of the Core Democratic Rules and Their Contextual Determinants; 1: Why Study Bundles of Reforms?: The Debate on Democratic Institutions; 1.1. Challenges to Legitimacy in Western Europe and Democratic Reforms; 1.1.1. 1990s-2000s: An Uncertain Context for Western European Political Elites Spurring Institutional Change; ̀Ruling the void?́ The erosion of political support and its consequences
Evolution of the level of political support in Western Europe, 1990-2014; 1.1.2. Declining Legitimacy and Democratic Reforms; The "Gattopardo argument": the consequences of dwindling legitimacy on the incentives for institutional reforms; The three mechanisms linking declining legitimacy to democratic reforms; 1.2. Identifying the Core Democratic Institutions; 1.2.1. Majoritarian vs. Consensus Democracies: Two Alternative Foundations of Political Legitimacy; Lijphart as a theoretical starting point; A distinction built on distinctive interpretations of democratic legitimacy
1.2.2. Defining the Reforms of the Core Democratic Rules; Why focus on formal rules?; Delineating the two main functions of democratic institutions; The investigation of six dimensions of reform of the core democratic rules; 1.3. The Bundle of Reforms: a Conceptual and Empirical Instrument to Analyse Multidimensional Institutional Change; 1.3.1. Two Ways to Conceptualize Bundles of Reforms: as Sequences and as Package Deals; The bundle of reforms as a package deal; The bundle of reforms as a sequence; 1.3.2. Operationalizing Bundles of Reforms Through a Mixed-method Strategy
Bundles of reforms in a large-N analysis; Bundles of reforms in a process-tracing analysis; Conclusion; 2: To Reform or Not to Reform?: The Determinants and Processes of Institutional Change in Established Democracies; 2.1. Explaining the Determinants and Processes of Institutional Change; 2.1.1. Determinants of Reform: Exogenous Factors, Endogenous Factors, and their Interaction; Exogenous factors of change: crises, transitions, and shifts of political competition; Endogenous factors of change: why are some political systems more vulnerable to change?
2.1.2. The Processes of Institutional Change: Paths and Barriers of Reform; Who initiates reform? The existence of distinctive paths for institutional reform; Barriers for change and the role of uncertainty in the outcomes of reform; Incremental institutional change: the link between the nature of reform, the actors of reform, and change; 2.2. The Three Illusions of the Literature on Institutional Reforms; 2.2.1. The Illusion of Rarity: Are Institutional Reforms so Unusual?; The overwhelming focus on major institutional reforms; Some attempts to move beyond major reforms
2.2.2. The Illusion of Parsimony: Are Reformers Pure Self-Maximizers?
Summary This volume explores when, why, and how, democratic institutions are reformed
Bibliography Includes bibliographical references and index
Notes Print version record
Subject Democracy.
POLITICAL SCIENCE -- General.
Democracy
Form Electronic book
ISBN 9780191085079
0191085073