What's New at the CSPP?
*THE EU: REPRESENTING EUROPEANS? The rejection of major EU initiatives in national referendums and non-voters being more numerous than voters in the European Parliament election implies a "democratic disjunction" between EU citizens and EU institutions. Richard Rose and Patrick Bernhagen have a new 2.5 year ESRC grant to study under what circumstances EU institutions represent people or principles; how consistent they are with theories of representative democracy; and what this implies for the EU's future? Comments on the EP election.
*RUSSIA: A NEW ADMINISTRATION? The New Russia Barometer has been monitoring Trends in Russia since 1992. NRB surveys show how voters respond to unfair elections; how Russians view the world and whether a party system has been institutionalized. The 18th survey, fielded in June, 2009, gives special attention to Russian responses to the economic crisis and its political significance.
*SCOTLAND IN THE WORLD. As a non-partisan contribution to the national conversation on Scotland's constitutional future, the CSPP is inviting public policy experts from abroad to Scotland to contribute their experience of working in a world of interdependent states. The programme was launched by First Minister of the Scottish Government, Alex Salmond, and is followed by academics and policymakers from the European Union, the United States and the United Kingdom government.
*NEW BOOK ON ELECTIONS. The ECPR Press has just brought out Parties and Elections in New European Democracies by Richard Rose & Neil Munro. It searched sources in 12 languages to produce a definitive text of election results in 10 new EU member states plus Russia. Each chapter gives the names and acronyms of all parties in their national language as well as English. There are also five chapters with an innovative model comparing the impact on voters of the elite supply of parties and of election laws. For SPP papers on elections.
*WHAT COMES AFTER THE FALL OF THE WALL? To mark the twentieth
anniversary of the fall of the Berlin Wall, there is a new paperback: Richard
Rose: Understanding Post-Communist Transformation.
The subtitle--A Bottom Up Approach--reflects its use of New Europe Barometer
surveys to chart how ordinary people have responded to decades of stress and
opportunities. The book covers 10 societies that have become new EU members
plus the post-Soviet experience of Russia, Ukraine and Belarus.
*NEW EUROPE BAROMETER SURVEYS. Since 1991 more than 110 Barometer
surveys have covered the ten new EU member states: Bulgaria, Czech Republic,
Estonia, Hungary, Latvia, Lithuania, Poland, Romania, Slovakia and Slovenia,
plus Russia, Belarus, Moldova, Ukraine and Croatia. The programme also includes
a special set of New Baltic Barometer studies
and, in collaboration with the Paul Lazarsfeld Society, Vienna, surveys
of Yugoslav successor states.
*THE QUALITY OF EUROPEAN SOCIETIES. The CSPP is preparing two studies drawing on the 2007 European Quality of Life Survey covering all 27 EU member states. Following the recommendations of the Stiglitz report “Beyond GDP” one report develops innovative indicators of the Quality of Society and of Public Services. The other looks at changes since the 2003 pre-enlargement EQLS survey sponsored by the European Foundation for Living and Working Conditions, Dublin. Richard Rose is principal investigator for each study, in collaboration respectively with Kenneth Newton and with Claire Wallace and Neil Munro.
*EUROPEAN UNION ENLARGEMENT. Instead of debating what Brussels thinks of applicant governments, the CSPP asks people who live in countries seeking EU membership whether they think their government meets the EU's Copenhagen criteria for membership. Although the Internet and English as a foreign Language offer the potential for a European public space, current EU linguistic policies are an obstacle to European discourse while trust in other Europeans has a positive effect.
*TURKISH SOCIETY IN A EUROPEAN CONTEXT. Turkey is a challenge to the EU’s potential to accept new members. A major study compares social, cultural and economic divisions in Turkey with new and old EU member states. Following up the CSPP's participation in nationwide surveys of the 2007 Turkish general election, there are papers on Turkish voting, party identification and how winners and losers compare in the evaluation of Turkish governance.
*MULTIPLE DIVISIONS WITHIN UKRAINE. As the climax to Barometer surveys started in Ukraine in 1992, a specially designed study was fielded immediately after the Orange Revolution elections. As a follow up, there are studies of perceptions of Ukraine's neighbours and rethinking the Orange Revolution.
*HEALTH, AGEING AND WEALTH IN EUROPE. The CSPP researches the effect on health of post-Communist transformation in collaboration with Sir Michael Marmot and Professor Martin Bobak at University College London. The research also covers the relationship between health, ageing and pensions. The studies use Barometer surveys covering old and new EU member states and post-Soviet states.
*SOCIAL CAPITAL. The CSPP social capital programme has developed innovative survey methods to understand the informal networks that people use to get things done in societies in transformation. New SPP papers analyze the role of social capital and class and social capital and citizenship.
*A HAT TRICK OF AWARDS. Richard Rose, director of the CSPP, was awarded the Sir Isaiah Berlin Prize for Lifetime Contribution to political studies at the annual luncheon of the UK Political Studies Association in in late November. At the biennial conference of the European Consortium for Political Research at Potsdam September 10-12 he received the Mattei Dogan Foundation prize for work in European Political Sociology. At the beginning of the year Rose received a lifetime achievement award for his work in promoting electoral studies from the International Committee for the Study of Comparative Elections.