Book Review: Europe: Political Communication in European Parliamentary Elections

Published date01 May 2013
Date01 May 2013
DOI10.1111/1478-9302.12016_112
AuthorStefanie Walter
Subject MatterBook Review
embodied in the creation of the EU,in the case of the
SFRY remained but a verbal statement not followed by
action.Therefore, Glaurdic´’s work succinctly underlines
how ineffective and divided the responses of major
Western actors actually were, for their rhetoric of a
peaceful and united Europe was in dissonance with
their inherently Cold War-inspired policies aimed at
keeping the SFRY united, and thus indirectly assisting
Miloševic´’s project, at the expense of the republics of
Slovenia, Croatia and Bosnia-Herzegovina.
To conclude, Glaurdic´’s volume is a well-researched
book written in a manner appealing not only to schol-
ars but also to a wider audience interested in the topic
of the Yugoslav crisis and dissolution. However, the
book itself does not offer any innovative approach to
the crisis and ensuing war, but rather tends to commu-
nicate, albeit in a different manner, analysis already
expressed in studies by, for example, James Gow and
Sabrina Ramet.This does not necessar ily mean that this
piece on Yugoslavia is not a valuable contribution, but
just that this may be considered a disadvantage in the
academic world. Regardless of that, I warmly recom-
mend this book as an excellent source of information
on late-1980s Yugoslavia, and a rather appropriate
reminder that the unfortunate state of affairs in Western
diplomacy of that period had an overwhelming impact
upon the Yugoslav crisis and war that in many aspects
horrif‌ied the world.
Vladimir D
¯orËevic´
(Masaryk University, Czech Republic)
The Politics of Welfare State Reform in Conti-
nental Europe: Modernization in Hard Times by
Silja Häusermann. Cambridge: Cambridge University
Press, 2010. 276pp., £15.99,ISBN 978 0 521 18368 0
Welfare state change in an era of austerity is strongly
needed, but politically impossible to realise. ‘Eppur si
muove’(p. 2) – and yet it moves – is Silja Häusermann’s
answer and the focus of her ambitious book. She sets
out to explain whether, why and how socio-economic
changes led to policy reform. The star ting point of
Häusermann’s argument is that post-industrialisation
led to new conf‌licts within society. Contrary to the
new politics view, she argues that the emerging multi-
dimensional policy space does not impede but creates
the opportunity for successful reforms. Under some
circumstances governments and policy makers should
be able to design reform packages that achieve the
support of cross-class coalitions.
Analysing pension reform in three continental welfare
states (Germany,France and Switzerland) between 1970
and 2004, she provides compelling evidence for her
argument. Even in the least likely cases, like continental
pension systems, far-reaching reforms are possible and
welfare states are able to adapt their pension systems to
f‌inancial austerity and new social risks. Multidimen-
sional reform politics, coalitional engineering by policy
entrepreneurs and a favourable institutional context
allowing for coalitional f‌lexibility and compromise are
the main conditions for successful policy change.
The precision of the theoretical argument and the
concisely laid out evidence demands considerable
attention. But it is worth the effort, and not only for
experts in the f‌ield of pensions. For those interested in
theories on welfare state reform the book provides a
novel framework to conceptualise the effect of gradual
socio-structural changes as the drivers of reform. What
is most exciting about this book is how successfully it
supports its theoretical insights with a comprehensive
and rigorous empirical analysis. The methodological
section is a brilliant example of how to combine a
quantitative analysis of actor positions with in-depth
case studies. Its success will, it is hoped, encourage
further mixed methods research – a more often
requested than actually performed line of research.
Elias Naumann
(University of Mannheim)
Political Communication in European Parlia-
mentary Elections by Michaela Maier,Jesper
Strömbäck and Lynda Lee Kaid (eds). Farnham:
Ashgate, 2011. 268pp., £60.00, ISBN 9781409411321
In Political Communication in European Parliamentary Elec-
tions the editors have gathered a signif‌icant collection
of articles covering the 2009 European Parliament (EP)
elections in depth. While previous research has mainly
focused on analyses of election coverage in print
media, this publication provides a more inclusive
approach, taking not only the media into account,but
also party election campaigns and the resulting effects
on voters. Contrary to other studies that often criticise
a lack of Europeanness in European Parliament elec-
tions, it is argued that EP elections possess a ‘hybrid
character’ (p. 5) comprising European and national
296 EUROPE
© 2013 TheAuthors. Political Studies Review © 2013 Political Studies Association
Political Studies Review: 2013, 11(2)

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