Talking Europe, Using Europe - The EU’s role in Parliamentary Competition in Italy and Spain (1986-2006)

The EU's influence, pressure for adaptation exercised on domestic political institutions and actors, has been studied in different and complementary ways. Regarding political parties and party competition, the analyses have been mainly centred on electoral competition, while studies on parliaments have focused more on institutional adaptation, the development of European committees and other control mechanisms. However, in addition to this more technical role, parliament also plays an important role as an institution for debating political and policy alternatives. The relevance of the parliamentary arena is even more important when dealing with the EU and how parties and leaders ‘domesticate’ and use European opportunities and constraints. The increasing European competences and their growing relevance for an increasing number of policy domains means that references to EU's processes and decisions have become almost unavoidable for presenting coherent and feasible political and policy proposals, which is a crucial and distinctive aspect of the parliamentary arena. In this article, rather than focusing on specific European issues (such as treaty ratifications or government conclusions on Council meetings) the analysis will be centred on general policy debates analysing the role that the EU plays in parties’ and leaders’ discourses. This approach can be useful in different ways. First, in contrast to elections, some parliamentary debates are held annually, which is crucial when dealing with a time sensitive issue such as integration and its policies. Second, strategies and issues may vary between the electoral and the parliamentary arena, where certain debates may be unavoidable and parties have to take a more or less clear position. Third, parties’ and leaders’ strategies may vary depending on their role on the system and whether they are in government, in opposition or supporting the incumbent party. Thus, political competition dynamics, the role of “Europe” on parties’ and leaders’ discourses and the way they conceptualise it vis-à-vis the citizens can be different than in electoral competition, providing us with new and complementary insights in the ways parties adapt and react to integration. The article therefore analyses the usages of “Europe” in parliamentary debates in the two largest Southern European countries Italy and Spain, including 13 parties/coalitions covering the whole political spectrum. Two broad and relevant types of debates have been selected, investiture debates and budget debates covering a long time span (1987-2006). The comparative research design, analysing different parties and debates in a 20 year period, allows us to observe whether the EU is gaining importance over time (or not), the impact of Europe on parliamentary competition, the evolution of parties’ position towards the EU and, more generally, the consequences of integration for parties and citizens

Reforma constitucional y modelo territorial. Preferencias ciudadanas y propuestas partidistas entre el 40 aniversario de la Constitución española y las elecciones de 2019

Nel 40° anniversario dell’adozione della Costituzione spagnola, gran parte delle questioni trattate dall’Assemblea costituente – forma dello Stato, modello territoriale, identità, cultura politica – risultano messe in discussione, soprattutto in seguito allo sviluppo del conflitto d’indipendenza catalano. Tanto a livello dell’opinione pubblica come tra i principali partiti del sistema vi sono profonde divergenze riguardo alla valutazione della democrazia spagnola, del rendimento costituzionale e del modello territoriale. Ciò ha avuto un profondo effetto sulla competizione politica e sul sistema partitico. Se inizialmente i nuovi partiti sono entrati nel sistema con idee e proposte di rigenerazione democratica, riforma costituzionale e “nuova politica” contro i partiti tradizionali, con le elezioni di aprile 2019 alla polarizzazione ideologica si è aggiunta una polarizzazione identitario-territoriale, che ha prodotto due novità. Da un lato, Vox, un partito di estrema destra, ha ottenuto una significativa rappresentanza parlamentare ponendo fine all’eccezionalità spagnola; dall’altro, il sostegno diffuso di tutti i partiti al decentramento territoriale è svanito ed il modello autonomico è contrastat

On, Off or Stand By? The EU, its policies and domestic political competition in Italy and Spain (1983-2006)

The organisational, institutional and political development of the European Union (EU) has implied a major change in domestic politics. While the Union objectives were just the longterm development of a common market but with just few policy competences, the EU arena was not so relevant for domestic policies and parties. But since the 1980s with the Single European Act and especially the Maastricht treaty and the development of the political Union, the growing relevance of the EU, conceptualised as a new polity, has an important effect on national political systems. This change is fairly shown by the new specific subfield on the research agenda regarding EU studies, that is, the analysis of the effects of European integration on member states’ actors and institutions. That is what it has been labelled as Europeanisation, the reaction and adaptation of Member states to the process of European integration. Nowadays the EU has many policy competences in very different domains. Therefore, it is interesting to analyse how political parties react to these European policies. Because the EU is a general project of economic and political integration, but is also a new polity with certain outputs and policy outcomes. The aim of this paper is to analyse the saliency of Europe in electoral and parliamentary competition in 11 parties/coalitions in Italy and Spain in three broad policy domains, Foreign, Economic and Social policies. Thus, what is the importance parties give to Europe? Does it vary from electoral to parliamentary competition? Why do parties enact or downplay the European issue in political competition? For answering these questions, this paper is structured as follows. In the first part, a necessarily brief a review of the current debate on Europeanisation and political parties will be done. Then the main theories, hypotheses and research design will be explained. The second part is the empirical analysis of Europeanisation and political conflict focusing on the evolution in time, the different policies analysed and on individual parties. Finally, different conclusions of the empirical analysis will be assessed

Talking Europe, Using Europe: The EU and Parliamentary Competition in Italy and Spain (1986–2006)

The analysis of how the European Union (EU) affects domestic political competition and political parties has mainly been centred on elections, whereas studies on parliaments have focused more on institutional adaptation. However, parliaments also provide forums for debating alternative domestic and EU policies. This study examines how Europe is used in parliamentary competition in Italy and Spain by analysing party discourses in investiture and budget debates. Covering two decades (1986–2006), the study investigates whether or not the EU has gained importance over time in the way parties use European policies, the evolution of party positions towards the EU and, more generally, the consequences of integration for party policies and discourse

Berlusconi, el dueño de la Segunda República

Es reseña de: El saqueo de Roma: de como un bonito país con un pasado glorioso y una cultura deslumbrante se sometio a un individuo llamado Silvio Berlusconi Alexander Stille Papel de Liar, 2010. ISBN 978-84-936678-1-

La derecha española dividida: posiciones ideológicas y clivaje territorial

Entre los diferentes cambios que han tenido lugar en el sistema de partidos español, el presente artículo se centra en el cese de la hegemonía de un único partido en el ámbito de la derecha. Se necesita de un análisis detenido de la distribución del electorado de derecha alrededor de un partido histórico (PP) y de dos nuevos partidos (Ciudadanos y Vox), este último, de derecha radical. Mediante diversas fuentes de evidencia empírica que incluyen datos de opinión pública, de expertos y programas electorales, se aborda la orientación, perfil ideológico y posiciones en materia territorial de los tres partidos de derecha que cuentan con proyección en toda España. El trabajo pone de manifiesto la existencia de espacios de proximidad entre los tres partidos que se contraponen a las orientaciones de partidos de otros bloques. A la vez, el análisis pone de relieve los matices en las posiciones entre PP, Vox y Ciudadanos que permiten hablar de la existencia de competición en el interior del bloque de derecha por la conquista de espacios y de electore

A direita espanhola dividida: posições ideológicas e clivagem territorial

Among the different changes that have taken place in the Spanish party system, this article tackles the end of one single party’s hegemony on the right of the ideological spectrum. Further attention is needed to analyze the emergence of a three-party logic within the right wing, consisting of a historic party (PP) and two new ones (Ciudadanos and Vox), being the latter a radical right-wing party. A wide variety of empirical evidence including public opinion data, experts’ data and analysis of electoral programs is used to study the three right-wing parties’ orientation, their ideological profiles, as well as their positions on the territorial cleavage. The work highlights the existence of closeness between the three parties in contrast to other political parties’ positions. At the same time, the analysis discovers nuances in political positions among PP, Vox and Ciudadanos that allow competition within right-wing parties regarding issues and voters.Entre los diferentes cambios que han tenido lugar en el sistema de partidos español el presente artículo se centra en el cese de la hegemonía de un único partido en el ámbito de la derecha. Se necesita de un análisis detenido de la distribución del electorado de derecha alrededor de un partido histórico (PP) y de dos nuevos partidos (Ciudadanos y Vox) siendo este último de derecha radical. Mediante diversas fuentes de evidencia empírica que incluyen datos de opinión pública, de expertos y programas electorales, se aborda la orientación, perfil ideológico y posiciones en materia territorial de los tres partidos de derecha que cuentan con proyección en toda España. El trabajo pone de manifiesto la existencia de espacios de proximidad entre los tres partidos que se contraponen a las orientaciones de partidos de otros bloques. A la vez, el análisis pone de relieve los matices en las posiciones entre PP, Vox y Ciudadanos que permiten hablar de la existencia de competición en el interior del bloque de derecha por la conquista de espacios y de electores.Entre as diferentes mudanças que têm tido lugar no sistema de partidos espanhol, o presente artigo se foca no fim da hegemonia de um único partido no âmbito da direita. É necessária uma análise cuidadosa da distribuição do eleitorado de direita em torno de um partido histórico (PP) e dos dois novos partidos (Ciudadanos e Vox) sendo este último de direita radical. Mediante diversas fontes de evidência empírica que incluem dados de opinião pública, de especialistas e programas eleitorais, aborda-se a orientação, perfil ideológico e posicionamentos em matéria territorial dos três partidos de direita que tem presença em toda a Espanha. O trabalho revela a existência de espaços de proximidade entre os três partidos que se contrapõem às orientações de partidos de outros blocos. Ao mesmo tempo, a análise evidencia as nuances nas posições entre o PP, Vox e Ciudadanos que nos permitem falar da existência de competição no interior do bloco de direita pela conquista de espaços e de eleitores

El impacto del aprendizaje universitario colaborativo el rendimiento académico del estudiante: Una wiki para la ciencia política y de la administración

El objetivo del proyecto es llevar a la práctica una acción formativa basada en la web 2.0 con la participación de profesores y alumnos pertenecientes a distintos grados, facultades y universidades. En concreto, esta iniciativa pretende continuar con la wiki, www.dcpa.wikidot.com, que comenzó a realizarse en 2015 en virtud de la convocatoria de PIMCD. La wiki contribuye a que los estudiantes, de manera colaborativa, diseñen un proyecto educativo de integración curricular a partir de unos supuestos establecidos previamente por el profesor. Por lo tanto, este tipo de experiencia permite crear una base documental de gran utilidad para otros alumnos que estudian este tipo de asignaturas o para cualquier persona que muestren una inquietud o necesidad de buscar, encontrar o ampliar el conocimiento sobre determinadas cuestiones relacionadas con la ciencia política y la ciencia de la administració

Les droits disciplinaires des fonctions publiques : « unification », « harmonisation » ou « distanciation ». A propos de la loi du 26 avril 2016 relative à la déontologie et aux droits et obligations des fonctionnaires

The production of tt‾ , W+bb‾ and W+cc‾ is studied in the forward region of proton–proton collisions collected at a centre-of-mass energy of 8 TeV by the LHCb experiment, corresponding to an integrated luminosity of 1.98±0.02 fb−1 . The W bosons are reconstructed in the decays W→ℓν , where ℓ denotes muon or electron, while the b and c quarks are reconstructed as jets. All measured cross-sections are in agreement with next-to-leading-order Standard Model predictions.The production of $t\overline{t}$, $W+b\overline{b}$ and $W+c\overline{c}$ is studied in the forward region of proton-proton collisions collected at a centre-of-mass energy of 8 TeV by the LHCb experiment, corresponding to an integrated luminosity of 1.98 $\pm$ 0.02 \mbox{fb}^{-1}. The $W$ bosons are reconstructed in the decays $W\rightarrow\ell\nu$, where $\ell$ denotes muon or electron, while the $b$ and $c$ quarks are reconstructed as jets. All measured cross-sections are in agreement with next-to-leading-order Standard Model predictions