Europe at the Polls - (Europe in Transition: The NYU European Studies) by P Perrineau & G Grunberg & C Ysmal (Hardcover)

About the Book

Twenty years after the first democratic European elections, the 1999 elections are the occasion to take stock of the fifteen European countries' citizen's attitudes towards Europe, the state of political forces in Europe, and of the new emerging European institutions

Book Synopsis

In election after election for the European parliament there has been a growing ability for voters to deal with Europe, by-passing categories that are still used to think about essentials political issues within individual countries. Europe at the Polls highlights this liberation of the 'European Question' from the old left-right conflicts that have marked political life within the 15 members of the European Union. Across national borders, this study of those elections shows that diverse trends are taking root in homes, towns, and in the workplace, and are reflected in the electoral geography at the level of the European Union. The increasing strength of Green parties, the continued decline of European Communism, and ethno-regionalism are just some of the issues that this book explores with the hope that Europe can begin constructing a real European public space within which a strong link to citizens can be woven.

About the Author

PASCAL PERRINEAU is Professor of Political Science at the IEP, Paris, and has been the director of the Center for the Study of French Politics (CEVIPOF), a research center at Sciences Po., Paris since 1991. His research focuses primarily on the French elections and on the extreme-right in Europe. His published works include Political Behavior (1992) with Nonna Mayer and The Le Pen Symptom, Radiographie des Électeurs du Front National (1997).

GERARD GRUNBERG is a researcher at CEVIPOF and is the coordinator of the European Thematic Network Political Science. He is interested in electoral behavior and the European social democracy. His books include Towards a European Socialism (1997) with Alain Bergounioux and The Proof for Utopia, European Socialism in the 20th Century (1996).

COLETTE YSMAL is a researcher at the CEVIPOF, where she works on electoral behavior and on European right-wing political forces. Her main publications are Electoral Behavior of the French (1990) with Piero Ignazi, Eds. and The Organization of Southern Parties (1998).