Paolo Chiocchetti

Chiocchetti, Paolo and Frédéric Allemand (eds) (2019). Competitiveness and solidarity in the European Union: interdisciplinary perspectives. Abingdon: Routledge.
Starting in the 1980s, competitive pressures and the ideology of competitiveness have shaken and transformed traditional models of development, public policy, and governance in Europe. This edited book carries out a comprehensive, interdisciplinary, and innovative analysis of the relationship between competitiveness and solidarity in the contemporary European Union. It offers an original contribution to the scholarly debates on the current developments and challenges of welfare states, social and economic policies, and forms of governance in the European Union. Bringing together an international team of cutting-edge scholars in the social sciences and the humanities, Competitiveness and Solidarity in the European Union sheds light on the conceptual richness and policy relevance of these relationships, pointing to important avenues to make the European Union more economically successful and socially fairer. This book will be of key interest to scholars and students of European Union studies and, more broadly, of EU Law, Public Policy, Economics, Sociology, Political Science, Geography, and Contemporary History.

This book provides an innovative analysis and interpretation of the overall trajectory of the Western European radical left from 1989 to 2015. After the collapse of really existing communism, this party family renewed itself and embarked on a recovery path, seeking to fill the vacuum of representation of disaffected working-class and welfarist constituencies created by the progressive neoliberalisation of European societies. The radical left thus emerged as a significant factor of contemporary political life but, despite some electoral gains and a few recent breakthroughs (SYRIZA in Greece, PODEMOS in Spain), it altogether failed to embody a credible alternative to neoliberalism and to pave the way for a turn to a different developmental model.
This book investigates why this was the case, combining aggregate (17 countries), case study (Germany, Italy, and France), and comparative methods. It accurately charts the evolution of the nature, strength, cohesion, and influence of the Western European radical left, offering new insights in explaining its behaviour, success, and limits. It is essential reading for scholars, students, and activists interested in the radical left and in contemporary European politics.

https://www.routledge.com/9781138656185

An appropriate quantitative measurement of party strength is an essential precondition to any further qualitative assessment of partisan influence. The existing literature offers a number of individual indicators but fails to integrate them into a coherent systematic framework. This article fills that gap by proposing a new multi-dimensional and multi-level framework model to operationalise and measure party strength. The soundness of the approach is tested on the case of the evolution of German parties between 1991 and 2013.

"The literature on the "crisis of political parties" has generally focused on the decline of established mass and catch-all parties and the adoption of new organisational forms (e.g. Poguntke's "new politics" party, Carty's "franchise party", Calise's "personal party", the recent internet-based party) or mobilisation strategies (personal charisma, professional PR tools, primary elections, the net) by mainstream organisations and emerging challengers.
The implications of these developments for the parties of the radical left, however, have been so far subjected to little systematic scrutiny. Their members have generally surfaced in journalistic and scholarly discussions under a few paradigmatic guises: as Massimo D'Alema's nostalgic 'salsicciari' (sausage-makers); as lonely pseudo-charismatic leaders, as militant alter-globalist activists and as seasoned party animals constantly busy concocting internal machinations or splits. What is the truth that lies behind these exemplary figures?
The present paper will provide an overview of the changing character of the combined membership of all Italian radical left parties from 1991 to 2011. Did their numbers conform to the general declining trend of the larger party system? How did they react to the moves toward personalisation, professionalization, electoralisation and mediatisation of political activity? Based on a review of the available empirical data on the topic, the presentation will try to provide an accurate picture of the features and role of the membership of radical left parties and derive some broader lessons for party research."

Launch of the RESuME papers: scholars in law, contemporary history, economics, sociology and other disciplines working on the European socioeconomic model are invited to submit proposals by December 12, 2016. The aim of the RESuME project is to contribute to the study of the European socioeconomic model, its origins, current characteristics and future development. The project focuses on the interaction between society, economic players and public authorities, through the prism of the notion of European competitiveness. To shed further light on this subject, the RESuME project is creating an innovative new series of scholarly contributions: the 'State, Society, Market and Europe' Research Papers (RESuME Papers).