Is Southeastern Europe Doomed to Instability?

Is Southeastern Europe Doomed to Instability?
Author: Dimitri A. Sotiropoulos
Publisher: Routledge
Total Pages: 261
Release: 2013-10-11
Genre: Political Science
ISBN: 1135289948

Considering the enormous problems of the Balkans during the 1990s, the experts who contributed to this study believe that there are solutions to the seemingly intractable situation and the legacy of the disintegration of the former Soviet Union.

Constructing South East Europe

Constructing South East Europe
Author: Dimitar Bechev
Publisher: Springer
Total Pages: 225
Release: 2011-03-15
Genre: Political Science
ISBN: 0230306314

Regional cooperation has become a distinctive feature of the Balkans, an area known for its turbulent politics. Exploring the origins and dynamics of this change, this book highlights the transformative power of the EU and other international actors.

Welfare State Reform in Southern Europe

Welfare State Reform in Southern Europe
Author: Maurizio Ferrera
Publisher: Routledge
Total Pages: 258
Release: 2005-02-07
Genre: Political Science
ISBN: 1134347316

This book offers a detailed analysis of the efforts made to reduce poverty and social exclusion in Portugal, Spain, Italy and Greece.

Social Policy and International Interventions in South East Europe

Social Policy and International Interventions in South East Europe
Author: Bob Deacon
Publisher: Edward Elgar Publishing
Total Pages: 271
Release: 2007-01-01
Genre: Political Science
ISBN: 1847208606

Social Policy and International Interventions in South East Europe proves a comprehensive, dense, and thought provoking read, particularly successful in framing both the historical and institutional contexts of the countries examined, as well as literary debates on the subject and is thus a precious resource. . . Irene Dioli, Journal of Southeastern Europe The questions broached by the volume are of interest to all who are concerned with development and politics. Experts will find the data and is presentation quite useful; others will benefit from the background information presented in each chapter. . . . Social Policy and International Interventions in South East Europe is an excellent addition to the academic literature and will serve all those who are trying to keep pace with fluid developments in the transitional states of south east Europe. Richard P. Farkas, Slavic Review This is a remarkably rich and thought-provoking collection. Its substantial case studies make it a vital resource for studying social policy in South East Europe. Its focus on the flows of international actors, agencies, ideas and resources poses critical questions about how the emergence of social policy, the emergence of new forms of governance and the creation of new spaces of welfare are connected. The implications of this concern with emergent forms and directions reach far beyond the region itself. John Clarke, The Open University, UK A brilliant book that shows conclusively that transnational actors have taken their place alongside states in setting social policy in Europe. Through careful and comprehensive case studies of a wide range of South East European countries, this volume systematically presents a wealth of new data on transnational actor interventions. It helps to shape an emerging debate on the relative power of transnational and domestic actors and makes a unique empirical contribution to the discussion. The authors have done an amazing job of coordinated digging and produced some impressive results. Mitchell Orenstein, Johns Hopkins University, US This comprehensive and engaging book investigates the role of international actors in the making of social policy in South East Europe. Introductory chapters on transnationalism and Europeanization are followed by a series of nine linked case studies depicting research undertaken within this region. The book charts the variable influence that international actors such as formal organizations, non-governmental organizations, consulting companies and individual transnational policy entrepreneurs have on key policy issues, including pensions, social protection, labour markets and health. The authors conclude that welfare settlements are a complex product of historical and institutional legacies, the neo-liberal interventions of the World Bank, the emerging impact of the EU, and the crowded international arena resulting from war and post-war reconstruction agendas. Written by leading researchers in the field, Social Policy and International Interventions in South East Europe will be of great interest to researchers and students of social policy, policy studies and regional studies, as well as policymakers within international and governmental organizations.

Democracy and the State in the New Southern Europe

Democracy and the State in the New Southern Europe
Author: Richard Gunther
Publisher: Oxford University Press, USA
Total Pages: 454
Release: 2006-11-16
Genre: Language Arts & Disciplines
ISBN: 0199202818

Analysing the evolution of selected public policies and the changing roles and structure of the state in Greece, Italy, Portugal, and Spain since the 1960s, this volume makes a major contribution to work on democratic regime transition in southern Europe.

Who Governs Southern Europe?

Who Governs Southern Europe?
Author: Pedro Tavares de Almeida
Publisher: Routledge
Total Pages: 236
Release: 2004-08-02
Genre: Political Science
ISBN: 1135763232

This collection is a comprehensive, empirical account of the composition and patterns of recruitment of ministerial elites in Southern Europe throughout the last 150 years, thus encompassing different historical circumstances and political settings.

Transformation and European Integration

Transformation and European Integration
Author: B. Dallago
Publisher: Springer
Total Pages: 249
Release: 2006-07-13
Genre: Political Science
ISBN: 0230377963

The Balkan countries have been looking for good examples and ideas to pursue development and internal integration in destabilized and ethnically complex and conflicting areas. This book about transformation in the framework of European outlines the path of the Balkans to European integration.

The Balkans and Caucasus

The Balkans and Caucasus
Author: Ivan Biliarsky
Publisher: Cambridge Scholars Publishing
Total Pages: 350
Release: 2012-01-17
Genre: History
ISBN: 1443837059

The overall character of the Black Sea region has been defined over time in various ways. For specialists in economy and trade, it has represented a region at the crossroads of the trade routes between Europe and Asia; for political scientists and historians, it has been a space of confrontation between the great terrestrial and naval powers; for the scholars attentive to its cultural dimensions, it has been a contact zone, a space of interaction between different peoples, religions and cultures. These attempts at a definition all revolve around an essential (and ambivalent) feature of the Black Sea as a factor of connection, a bridge, and at the same time a border, a dividing line between Europe and Asia, between the Baltic and the Mediterranean region. In this fluctuation between the two, the predominance of one over the other (“bridge” or “border”) has depended on a number of factors, first among them the distribution of power relations in the region. This volume, which originated in a symposium hosted by the New Europe College – Institute for Advanced Study in Bucharest, brings together contributions coming from scholars within the Black Sea region and outside it, in an attempt to look at the Balkans and Caucasus from a comparative and multi-disciplinary perspective, highlighting their differences, as well as their common features. The overarching question this volume and the papers included in it address – and leave open – is to what extent we are dealing with a coherent zone, whose past, present and future can legitimately be considered as being traversed by meaningful interrelations, suggesting a shared destiny.

European Union Peacebuilding and Policing

European Union Peacebuilding and Policing
Author: Michael Merlingen
Publisher: Routledge
Total Pages: 350
Release: 2006-09-27
Genre: Political Science
ISBN: 1134151799

This new book provides an in-depth analysis of the projects of improvement carried out by the civilian peacebuilding missions in Bosnia and Macedonia, drawing on the work of Michel Foucault to make the case that the EU’s (self-) image as a model peacebuilder conceals another side of the European Security and Defence Policy. The authors explore the double-sided nature of peacebuilding missions, on the one hand, as a way to pacify, democratize, humanize and improve life in societies emerging from crisis or violence and, on the other hand, as a kind of political pastorate that limits the range of acceptable heterogeneity by refashioning, repositioning and reorganizing subjects in line with transcendentalized notions of good governance. The authors develop a limited reform agenda for how EU police missions can fold an agonistic generosity more deeply into their civilizing ethos in order to ensure they have a light expatriate footprint in their host countries. The prescriptive part of the book also discusses generic problems in the implementation of EU police reforms and suggests ways to overcome these challenges. This book will be of great interest to students of European politics, sociology, political science and theory.

What is Europe?

What is Europe?
Author: Anna Triandafyllidou
Publisher: Bloomsbury Publishing
Total Pages: 400
Release: 2015-11-02
Genre: Political Science
ISBN: 1350311480

Europe is imbued with a multitude of social, cultural, economic and political meanings. The authors of this comprehensive text present an authoritative yet accessible introduction to understanding Europe today, moving beyond accounts of European integration to provide a holistic and nuanced study of contemporary Europe and its historical development. This book explores evolving definitions of Europe from antiquity, to the Cold War, right through to Europe in the midst of the Eurozone and global financial crises. By examining the different roles and meanings that Europe has held inside and outside of the continent, including the European Union's 'branding' of Europe, the text grounds its analysis in an understanding of Europes plural. Chapters explore concepts of Europe as civilization, Europe as progress, Europe as unity and Europe as diversity. How do Europeans think of themselves and their respective national identities in a multicultural and multi-ethnic age? How has modernity and the pre- and post-industrial values of Europe affected the Europe of now and what are the political legacies of Europe? To what extent are notions of social solidarity shared across the continent? This is the first text to systematically answer these questions, and others, in order to better determine 'what is Europe?'