The CDU/CSU’s election victory is in stark contrast to the experiences of other Christian Democratic parties across Europe.

On Sunday, Angela Merkel’s CDU/CSU won 41.5 per cent of the vote in Germany’s federal election, falling just short of an absolute majority of seats in the Bundestag. Tim Bale and André Krouwel note that the success of Germany’s Christian Democrats is at odds with their sister parties across Western Europe. The strength of Merkel’s leadership, and the fact that the CDU/CSU have not faced strong competition from right-wing populist parties, might offer a partial explanation for this success

Finding the Way Forward. Positioning of Europe’s Progressive Parties and their Voters

Four main strategies of social democratic competition can be distinguished when the official party positions on salient political issues are compared with the positions of core voter groups on the same issues: 1) Corbynism (Left-wing economic polarisation); 2) Macronism (pro-market economic polarisation coupled with culturally progressive/libertarian stances); 3) Progressive-libertarian distancing (the adoption of moderate economic stances with culturally progressive policies) and 4) Catch-all (traditional social democratic centrism). The results from the European countries included in the study show that, with regard to the relative positioning of social democratic parties visà-vis their core voter groups, the most beneficial strategies, in terms of electoral appeal, are the traditional social-democratic catch-all strategy of moderation along both the economic and cultural dimensions, as well as the Corbynist strategy of polarisation along the economic dimension

Talk of a revived European centre-left is premature

Recent election results have led some commentators to suggest a successful ‘repurposing’ of social democracy is underway in post-pandemic Western Europe. André Krouwel and Nick Martin argue that despite this optimism on the left, the patchy recovery of social democratic parties has been driven by the tactical considerations of voters. Meanwhile, to the left of social democracy, Europe’s radical left is facing its biggest electoral crisis in a generation

Outdoor management development: A house built on sand?

A sympathetic but critical examination of Outdoor management Development through interviews with practitioners. A key finding is that there is no clear theoretical foundation for the medium which instead relies on theory borrowed from a number of sources

Vrijwillig gebonden: het behouden van cyclische loopbaanzoekers aan de hand van een toegespitst bindingsbeleid

In een tijd waarin over het algemeen het aanbod op de arbeidsmarkt de vraag lijkt te overtreffen, wordt het belang van investeren in het huidige personeelsbestand nogal eens veronachtzaamd. In het geval dat er een vacature vrijkomt, is men al gauw geneigd om uit de arbeidsmarkt de beste te plukken. Waarom zou men veel investeren in het omturnen van een huidige medewerker, wanneer de vacature direct kan worden ingevuld door een gekwalificeerde nieuweling? Hoewel dit op het eerste gezicht een vrij logische gedachtegang lijkt, bestaat het risico dat de voordelen van het investeren in het bestaande personeelsbestand worden onderschat. Dit lijkt met name te gelden voor het investeren in het behoud van de cyclische medewerker