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Graduate
Workshop
State
of the Art in Comparative European Politics:
From
Stories of States to Visions of the EU
Saturday
13 April 2002, University of Wolverhampton
This
one-day research workshop brought together a democratic cross-section
of over thirty academics to discuss challenges to comparative theoretical
approaches in current European political research. Sean McGough
(chair, graduate network) began by presenting the committee's latest
campaign on behalf of graduates' working conditions. This was followed
by four thematic panels focusing on: political extremism, French
political culture, transition politics, and in the spirit of collaboration,
a panel of UACES academics were invited to talk on trans-national
social democracy. The 16 contributions tended to be of two kinds:
established academics offered a contemporary assessment of the state
of their art combined with methodological research advice. This
was complemented by six PhD students' presentations of their own
research challenges, which provoked questions and lively debate
from the predominantly-post-graduate audience.
Extremism
in comparative perspective
Roger
Eatwell (Bath) led the first panel by explaining how current research
trends followed patterns of fascist studies in the 1950s. Stating
that macro-level grand theory was not a suitable past time for graduates,
he instead encouraged doctoral researchers to study localised instances
and individual activists; as well as policies, consequences and
responses to the rising problem; and a greater focus on Eastern
Europe.
He
then put forward his own synthetic 'three-dimensional' model to
theorise the supply-side and demand-side approaches, to offer competing
explanations for the extreme right wing's success. Martin Durham
(Wolverhampton) next argued for potential contagion from American
extremist movements; whereas Catherine Fieschi (Nottingham) set
out conceptual definitions of the 'fascist minimum' and visions
of 'radical populism' in opposition to the notion of cosmopolitanism.
Graduate papers by Wolfgang Deicke (Northampton) and Fraser Duncan
(Glasgow) analysed the achievements, impact and potential 'contamination'
of the Austrian 'Black-Blue' coalition.
Cross-national
comparisons: European social democracy
John
Callaghan (Wolverhampton) opened the second panel with an historical
overview of Marxist perspectives on European social democracy, dispelling
the myth of UK exceptionalism. Whereas Robert Ladrech (Keele) focused
on conceptual definitions of Europeanisation in terms of policy
reformation through a combination of bottom-up and top-down interaction.
Graduate Erol Kulachi (ULB) argued that parties fail to provide
coherent policy platforms at EU level; and Giacomo Benedetto (LSE)
explained the relevance of competitive patterns of office distribution
within the European Parliament. In his assessment of the trans-national
research agenda, Robert Ladrech called for more case studies; closer
monitoring of the reform implications of the next IGC; and more
cross-national studies and EU public policy analysis as a comparative
enterprise.
Theorising
France
After
lunch, John Gaffney (Aston) dissected current French political research,
describing a shift towards a clearer theoretical framework for a
more coherent comparison of case studies. David Bell (Leeds) began
with a talk on rhetoric, leadership and the study of politics. Whereas
Nick Hewlett (Oxford Brookes) argued the fors and againsts of French
exceptionalism, calling for a greater sensitivity to the relationship
between political analysis and its political and social role. Graduate
Nathalie Collomb-Robert (Queens, Belfast) analysed youth participation
in the diverse political arenas of Marseilles and Belfast, through
linguistic allusion and interpretation of local folklore. In closing,
John Gaffney (Aston) responded to the French exceptionalism debate
by referring to 'shared secrets' of cultural, linguistic and mythological
influences on politics, and showing how - through political iconography
- French aspirations to political leadership revealed contradictory
and complementary imagery to that of doctrine, discourse and ideology.
Transition
to new democracies
In
the final panel, Paul Heywood (Nottingham) introduced the notion
of 'transitology' to draw comparative concepts across the second
and third waves of European democratisation, encouraging graduates
to focus on more than one aspect and country. He called instead
for applications of transitology to decipher single and dual transitions;
analyse institutional design and good governance for new states;
and explain corruption.
His
paper underlined the correlation between economic and democratic
development, calling for exploration of their causal relationship
by identifying useful themes, depicting a discipline trapped in
a pattern of descriptive models rather than analysis. In contrast,
Marcin Zaborowski (Aston) outlined the differences between the waves,
applying a typology of political transfers to describe the later
wave as more complex, difficult and adventurous in its environmental
context. Finally, graduate student Robertas Pogorelis (Essex) analysed
Lithuania's strategic voting patterns through a Duvergerian model.
Research
advice
Methodological
concerns touched upon the lack of studies to monitor individual
political activists, whereas interviewing extreme political leaders
risked legitimising their status; and warned against gathering copious
amounts of qualitative data which may be difficult to apply. In
terms of funding, comparative politics topics were exposed as often
falling between the two camps of the AHRB and ESRC (despite identification
as priority subjects), and researchers were encouraged to apply
to the EU's 6th framework research programme as a potential alternative
funding source. Finally, it was accepted that while case studies
remain the safe domain of the post-graduate, they risk 'sui generis'
specificity and a lack of generalisability, whereas more difficult
comparisons are under-researched: yet this skill is needed to increase
understanding. Tight funding deadlines were blamed for pressure
to finish PhDs quickly, and thus responsible for producing a dangerous
trend in safe, narrowly focused, unimaginative projects rather than
asking more risky questions.
The
day closed in good spirits, with post-graduate presentations published
as working papers. Membership of the CEPSG costs only £5 per year;
£2.50 for graduate students.
For
further details please contact John Gaffney at j.gaffney@aston.ac.uk