Product Description: The focus of this book is on the decentralization reforms legislated by the Socialist government in France from 1982 to 1986. These reforms redefined the role of the central state in the periphery and gave extensive new powers to territorial governments...read more (view table of contents, read Amazon.com's description)

Product Description: Democracy in Europe is about the impact of European integration on national democracies. It argues that the oft-cited democratic deficit is indeed a problem, but not so much at the level of the European Union per se as at the national level...read more

Product Description: A new examination of the actual place of discourse in democratic policymaking. It tackles key questions, such as when and how does discourse matter during major political institutional change? and what is the power of Europeanization in domestic and international policy changes? This new study delivers enlightening answers to these key questions by examining policy discourse, Europeanization, and the classic variables of politics in their institutional context...read more

Product Description: In this path-breaking book, the author argues that European countries' political-economic policies, practices, and discourses have changed profoundly in response to globalization and Europeanization, but they have not converged...read more (view table of contents, read Amazon.com's description)

In this ground-breaking, two-volume study of the adjustment of advanced welfare states to international economic pressures, leading scholars detail the wide variety of responses in twelve countries. Volume I presents comparative analyses of differences in countries' vulnerabilities and capabilities, the effectiveness of their policy responses, and the role of values and discourse in the politics of adjustment. Volume II presents in-depth analyses of the experiences of Australia, Austria, Belgium, Denmark, France, Germany, Italy, the Netherlands, New Zealand, Sweden, Switzerland, and the United Kingdom as well as special studies on the participation of women in the labour market, early retirement, the liberalization of public services, and international tax competition. (view table of contents)

Product Description: From State to Market? examines the changing role of the French state in the economy between 1981 and 1995 and its impact on business. Professor Schmidt details the governmental policies of nationalization, privatization, deregulation, and European integration; illuminates the "statist" policymaking processes through which such policies were formulated and implemented; profiles the players, the administrative and managerial elites who share common state educational background and career track; and describes the changes in economic performance, capital structure, and managerial practice...read more (view table of contents, read Amazon.com's description)