Fall 2014 Newsletter Staff Letter from the Editors the Present Is No Less Opportune a Time to Reflect on Changes in Europe Itself
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APSA-COMPARATIVE POLITICS The Organized Section in Comparative Politics of the American Political Science Association Newsletter Volume 24, Issue II, Fall 2014 Newsletter Staff Letter from the Editors The present is no less opportune a time to reflect on changes in Europe itself. Hertie School of Governance New Future of Europe Berlin has recently commemorated 25 Berlin, Germany by Mark Hallerberg and Mark Kayser years since the passing of the Cold War into history. This anniversary has invit- Editors We dedicate this issue, our last, to Eu- ed reflection on the progress of Eastern rope. After three years at the helm, Europe both in cross-national compari- Mark Hallerberg we have completed our term and are son (e.g., Schleifer and Treisman, 2014) [email protected] passing on the editorship to the capa- and relative to the expectations at the ble hands of Matt and Sona Golder at time (e.g., Milanovic, 2014). Compari- Mark Andreas Kayser Penn State. We have chosen to focus on sons relative to expectations are gener- [email protected] Europe both out of recognition of the ally disappointing. 25th anniversary since the fall of the Our first author, Jonathan Slapin, argues Berlin Wall, but also to commemorate that neither the predicted downsides of Assistant Editor the Hertie School of Governance’s role EU enlargement – governance gridlock as the first institution outside of the Marina Pavlova in an enlarged organization – nor many United States to host the Comparative of its predicted benefits – more robust Politics Newsletter. It is fitting that the democracy and the rule of law in new Comparative Politics Newsletter was, Editorial Board member states – have come to fruition. to the best of our knowledge, the first That laws passed in new member states Dani Marinova APSA newsletter to venture abroad. as a precondition for membership have That this was possible speaks not only been poorly implemented in societies Anke Hassel to the subject and interests of our sec- missing social norms to support them tion but to the theme of our first issue: suggests that the EU should adopt a Stein Kuhnle the internationalization of political sci- more measured assessment of its ability ence. US trained scholars continue to to change societies. Piero Stanig spread out geographically but neverthe- less remain active in scholarly debates Lawrence Ezrow, Jonathan Homola and that are increasingly cross-national in Margit Tavits also focus on Eastern scope. One sees a large number of col- Europe but on a different aspect: the leagues from the US at the now nearly development of party systems. In con- five year old European Political Science trast to the established democracies of Association – roughly a quarter of at- Western Europe where voters reward tendees at the first meeting – and nu- policy moderation with votes, they find merous internationally based scholars that policy extremism is electorally re- at major US conferences. At the same warded in new democracies. In low in- time, research methods and, as Gerald formation environments, radical policy positions are easier to communicate to Contact Schneider (2014) has recently shown, voters. Hertie School of Governance productivity are converging. Political Friedrichstr. 180 science has indeed globalized and we The most impressive example of policy 10117 Berlin Germany are happy that we and the Comparative extremism and the failure of liberal de- Tel: +49 (0) 30 259219-0 Politics Newsletter could play a small mocracy to take root might be Hunga- Fax: +49 (0)30 259219-111 part in the process. ry. Grigore Pop-Eleches argues that the Hungarian experience is unlikely to be raise and address. It may indeed have repeated in other parts of Eastern Eu- required a crisis to push nation states rope. Although polarization is common to pool sovereignty on banking super- across the region, and illiberal instincts vision and regulation despite that fact of many governments and ministers all that EU fiscal constraints make it diffi- too common, the ability of Prime Min- cult for nations to act as lenders of last ister Orban’s government to institution- resort. alize its advantage in the constitution is As in previous issues, we again include unique, enabled by a rare confluence of reviews of several datasets that promise circumstances. to aid research in field. Barbara Geddes, Mark Hallerberg is Professor of Public While the EU might not have brought Joseph Wright and Erica Frantz dis- Management and Political Economy about the expected shift toward politi- cuss their Autocratic Regimes Dataset, at the Hertie School of Governance, e-mail: [email protected] cal liberalism in new members, it may Frederick Solt reviews the latest version have initiated unexpected develop- of his Standardized World Income Ine- ments elsewhere. A single European quality Database, and Hazel Feigenblatt market lowers the cost of regional seces- discusses the indicators for the Global sion by allowing small countries to still Integrity Report. enjoy economies of scale. Laia Balcells, Finally, as fits our final issue, we in- drawing on work with Alexander Kuo clude an article by one of our co-edi- and Jose Fernandez-Albertos, investi- tors, Mark Hallerberg, on the promise gates the degree to which demands for of a greater role for area studies centers greater autonomy stem from economic from the shift toward causal identifica- inequalities as opposed to, in the case of tion in comparative politics research. Spanish regions, language-based iden- Mark Kayser is Professor of Applied tity. Economic inequality between re- So long. We are no longer editors but Methods and Comparative Politics gions seems to play a smaller role than we look forward to seeing many of you at the Hertie School of Governance, expected. in person out there! e-mail: [email protected] In contrast to secessionist minorities, Table of Contents identity politics for majorities is often driven by national-level “our people NEW FUTURE OF EUROPE first” parties. Elisabeth Ivarsflaten -ob Post-Communist Transitions and European Integration 3 serves that the Sweden Democrats de- by Jonathan Slapin viate from the profile of their successful Party Positioning and Election Outcomes: Comparing Post-Communist Europe counterpars abroad. Radical right par- to Established Democracies 5 by Lawrence Ezrow, Jonathan Homola, Margit Tavits ties most often fail where they are least Authoritarian Backsliding in Eastern Europe - “Achievements” and Limitations 7 able to distance themselves from charg- by Grigore Pop-Eleches es of racism. Ivarsflaten points out that Redistribution and Regional Independence Movements 10 other than the French National Front by Laia Balcells – and now the Sweden Democrats – Unlikely New Kid on the Western European Radical Right Bloc 12 no other extremist party in Europe has by Elisabeth Ivarsflaten succeeded after directly embracing un- (Not) Completing Economic and Monetary Union through Banking Union 14 by David Howarth, Lucia Quaglia adorned nativism as their central plank. While many of this issue’s authors ex- DATA SECTION amine the consequences of EU expan- The Autocratic Regimes Data Set 16 by Barbara Geddes, Joseph Wright, Erica Frantz sion, David Howarth and Lucia Quaglia Version 5.0 of the Standardized World Income Inequality Database 18 explain its deepening. A decade and by Frederick Solt a half after the introduction of EMU, The Global Integrity Report 19 Europe has moved toward its comple- by Hazel Feigenblatt tion with the introduction of a banking union. Why only now, and why in such THE PROFESSION a modest form, are questions that they The Enhanced Role of Area Studies Centers at American Universities 20 by Mark Hallerberg APSA-CP Newsletter Vol. 24, Issue II, Fall 2014 2 NEW FUTURE OF EUROPE es that some thought enlargement lock that many thought would happen would have on EU decision-making immediately following enlargement has have not come to fruition. On the other also failed to materialize. Indeed, de- Post-Communist hand, enlargement has not proved to be spite its recent enlargements, the EU Transitions and European a panacea for problems of democratic has managed to react reasonably well Integration transition in Eastern Europe. to the economic crisis and has taken arguably unprecedented steps towards In a recent special issue of the Journal economic integration. In the same is- by Jonathan Slapin of European Public Policy, my co-edi- sue, Julia Gray and I find that the EU is tors Dan Kelemen, Anand Menon and The fall of Communism twenty-five not unique in comparative perspective. I have collected articles that explore the years ago has had profound effects on When examining regional agreements, complicated relationship between EU European integration. In the late 1980s we find that those with more members enlargement and integration (Kelemen it was virtually inconceivable that the often harbor greater ambitions than et al. 2014a). The volume’s contributors borders of the European Community those with fewer, but size has no im- find little evidence for the “conven- (as the European Union (EU) was then pact on the ability of the members of an tional wisdom” that suggests a trade-off known) would extend to Warsaw bloc agreement to meet the goals they set for between a wider organization – that is, nations. By the early 1990s, it seemed themselves (Slapin and Gray 2014). almost inevitable. Today eight post- one with more members – and a deeper Communist countries have been EU one – that is, one which fosters more Meanwhile, EU membership has not members for a full decade and two cooperation. In our own contribution had the transformative effect on new more for seven years. Prior to EU en- to the issue, we argue that there are members that some had hoped it largement, many predicted its effects strong theoretical reasons to think that might.