Political Institutions in Europe

Abstract

This is a clear, accessible and at the same time analytical and critical exposition of the institutional regimes of fifteen countries in Western Europe. It covers such political institutions as electoral rules, political parties, elections, parliaments, national, regional and local governments and the relationship between state-institutions and the European Union. The applied analyses presented in this book fill a gap between mere factual description and pure formal theory. Using a common analytical framework, all the authors of the chapters devoted to single-country or sub-area studies interpret the political process as a series of decision-making steps, from elections through parties to parliament and government and their outputs as well as inter-institutional relations. The result of this is a detailed panorama of the design and working of the political institutions of Western Europe at the end of the twentieth century.