Die vorliegende Arbeit geht der Frage nach, ob sich in China eine Zivilgesellschaft in der Entstehung befindet. Die Autorinnen und Autoren widmen sich hierfür einer Reihe politischer und sozialer Entwicklungen und Phänomene, die auf ein sich änderndes Beziehungsgefüge zwischen Staat und...

This article argues that against all odds, the corporatist inclusion of the major societal interests in public decision-making is still a relevant governance mechanism in the European multi-level system. At the national level,a diversity of systems continues to operate. At least in some cases,...

Abstract: In Europe the public role of the religions appears to be directly proportional to the fall in trust in the procedural mechanisms at the basis of the liberal democracies. Compared to the strong identities attributed to the United States and to the Islamic world Europe is accused of...

Multi-level governance theory states that interest groups play an important role in decision-making processes. However, the implications of the assumed trend from government to multi-level forest governance for interest groups have not been sufficiently examined. This paper examines the case of...

Many studies have underlined the existence of clear and persistent differences in the levels of political interest among European citizens. In this report these differences and developments in political involvement and political apathy are described and analysed, and conventional explanations in...

Political interest of citizens usually is depicted as an individual attribute that can be explained by referring to the resources and skills of the people concerned. The analyses presented here are based on a critical assessment of the explanatory power of these approaches in cross-national and...