General Interest:
I have pursued my general fascination with political institutions and the historical dynamics of democratic development through three separate projects:
A) Party Development and Democratization in interwar France and Germany
The project dealt with the question of why some parties in interwar France and Germany courted voters more ardently than others when allegedly all parties need votes to gain office ? In answering this question, I demonstrated how political institutions determine the degree to which parties behave as entrepreneurial agents of voters or as inert bureaucratic behemoths and how different levels of party responsiveness affect democratic consolidation.
The project is now completed and has produced two articles and a book (see cover below):
The Book:
Have a look at: Table of Contents, Introduction:*
Publisher: University of Michigan Press
Reviews: American Political Science Review (Dec. 2002), Central European History (Spring 2004); Comparative Political Studies (Aug. 2002), History (Fall 2001); German Studies Review (Feb. 2003); French Politics, Culture and Society (Summer 2003); Journal of Interdisciplinary History (Nov. 2002).
*Should be interested in more but can't afford the book, please contact me I will be happy to send you the chapters that interest you.
The following articles related to this project have appeared:
Electoral Institutions, Political Organization and Party Development. French and German Socialists and Mass Politics. Comparative Politics 1998, 30/3, (April): 273-289. (PDF)
Money, Votes, and Political Leverage. Explaining the Electoral Performance of Liberals in Interwar France and Germany. Social Science History 1999, 23:2 (Summer) 211-40. (PDF)
B) Structuring Political Representation in Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania (in collaboration with Vello Pettai)
This project grapples with the paradox that in post-communist democracies political parties are the central agent of political representation even though they are barely formed themselves. Parties lack well established governance structures, mass membership, brand names, partisan electorates, yet they are far more important than the even more disorganized civic organizations and economic interest groups. The fact that post-communist parties are by default the primary vehicle of political of representation make it crucial that we learn more about their organizational development and how these developments structure the overall party system and its ability to provide adequate political representation. The project so far has focused primarily on the conceptual issues related to the organizational effervescence of post-communist parties, gathering data on their organizational (dis-) continuity and understanding the calculus of party affiliation in post-communist democracies. The next stage will proceed to explain the cross-national and cross-party patterns in party affiliation and electoral alignments.
The following articles related to this project have appeared
"Political Parties and the Study of Political Development: New Insights from the Post-Communist Democracies" World Politics vol. 56/4, July, 2004. (with Vello Pettai) (PDF)
"Institutions and Party Development in the Baltic States," Party Development and Democratization Paul Lewis, ed. (London: Frank Cass, 2001) (with Vello Pettai) 107-25. (PDF)
Patterns of Political Instability. Party System Institutionalization in Postcommunist Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania Studies in Comparative International Development. 2003 vol. 38/2 (Summer): 73-95. (with Vello Pettai) (PDF)
The Calculus of Party Affiliation. Party Switching, Fusion, Fission and Institutionalization of Party Systems. (2002 ASPA Paper) (Word)
C) The Development of Liberal Democracy in 19th Century Europe
Resulting from my earlier work on interwar party politics, I was struck by the fact that the historical origins of liberal democracy frequently were neither liberal nor democratic and that the circumstances propelling its development were only tangentially related to people's desire for self-government and to limit governmental power. If viewed historically, liberal democracy remains an only partly understood mystery. This project is in the very early stages trying to sort out conceptual issues, identifying relevant theoretical literatures and exploring potential cases.
"Parliamentarization and the Question of German Exceptionalism: 1867-1918," Central European History vol. 36/3, 2003: 327-59. (PDF)
For responses on my article in Central European History Jonathan Sperber "Responses," (PDF) Kenneth Ledford "Comparing Comparisons," (PDF) and Marcus Kreuzer "Reply to Commentaries" (PDF) in Central European History vol. 36/3, 2003: 359-82.
“Und Sie Parliamentarisiert Sich Doch ! Die Entwicklung der kaiserlichen Verfassungsordnung in vergleichender Perspektive,” in Parliamentarismus in Europe im 19. und 20. Jahrhundert Marie-Luise Recker, ed. (Munich: Oldenbourg Verlag,, 2004 (PDF)
“From Co-Optation to Competition: Changing Forms of Electoral Corruption in Nineteenth Century France,” in Political Corruption in Latin American and European Perspective Walter Little and Eduardo Posada-Carbo, ed. (London: McMillan, 1996), pp. 97-114. (PDF)
"France: Enduring Notables, Weak Parties and Powerful Technocrats," in The Political Class in Advanced Democracies Jens Borchert and Jürgen Zeiss eds. (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2004), pp. 124-41 [with Ina Stephan] (PDF)
D) Miscellaneous Research:
„Post-war Germany’s Personalized Proportional Representation: Institutional Engineering in the Shadow of Weimar,” in Electoral Systems and Choice Josep Colomer ed. (New York: Palgrave, 2004) (PDF) (Word)
Electoral Mechanisms and Electioneering Incentives. Party Politics 2000. 6 (4): 487-504. (PDF)
"New Politics: Just Postmaterial ? The Case of the Austrian and Swiss Greens," West European Politics, 1990, 13/1 (January): 12-30. (PDF)