Centre-Left Parties and the European Union

Isabelle Hertner is Lecturer in the Politics of Britain in Europe at King’s College London

• 1. Centre-left parties and the European Union2. Labour, the PS, and SPD: organising for multi-level governance3. The European policies of the Labour Party, the PS, and the SPD4. Principals, agents, and the delegation of power inside political parties5. Cheerleaders or players? Centre-left parties on the ground and the EU6. Lions or toothless tigers? The parties in central office and the EU7. Winners or losers? The parties in public office and the EU8. Centre-left parties and the European Union: what next?ReferencesIndex

'Isabelle Hertner provides a fascinating comparison of how three major social-democratic parties in Britain, France and Germany responded to the key policy issue of European integration. She uses an insightful principal-agent approach to uncover power relationships between the three faces of party organisation in public office, in central office and on the ground, as well as at national and European levels. Based on an impressive array of methods, this book shows clearly how oligarchic pressures were regularly at work in the selection of candidates and policies.'Tom Quinn, Senior Lecturer, Deparment of Government, University of Essex'The overall answer of the book ... is that even though EU matters are being discussed at the grassroot- and local level, these inputs remain largely unheard at the higher ranks of the party organization. This insight is highly relevant for understanding the difficulties that social-democratic parties currently have in mobilizing voters against the rise of populist and eurosceptic parties. From a scholarly perspective, in turn, this book is one of the first empirical confirmations that party elites have lost touch with their constituencies.'Journal of Common Market Studies