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West European Countries (west + european_country)
Selected AbstractsEducational production in EuropeECONOMIC POLICY, Issue 43 2005Ludger Wößmann SUMMARY Europe's schools Available data and recently developed estimation methods make it possible to assess school performance in terms of a production process, where ,inputs' of students, teachers, and resources are combined to create a very important ,output': the cognitive skills of students. This paper estimates the education production function using representative samples of middle-school students in 15 West European countries. The size of teaching classes is a particularly important feature of the educational production process because it can be relatively easily manipulated by policy makers. However, no statistically and economically significant class-size effect is detected by any of the evidence considered in this paper. The results suggest that, at least in the context of the resources and organizational structure of West European lower secondary education systems, expensive across-the-board reduction of class sizes is extremely unlikely to foster student learning. , Ludger Wößmann [source] Immigration sceptics, xenophobes or racists?EUROPEAN JOURNAL OF POLITICAL RESEARCH, Issue 6 2008Radical right-wing voting in six West European countries Given how central the immigration issue has been for the new radical right-wing parties in Western Europe, many have turned to immigration-related factors in trying to explain their emergence and electoral mobilisation. This research has convincingly shown that immigration scepticism (i.e., wanting to reduce immigration) is among the principal factors for predicting who will vote for a radical right-wing party. However, earlier studies have often uncritically equated immigration scepticism with xenophobia or even racism. By using data from the first round of the European Social Survey (2003) involving six West European countries (Austria, Belgium, Denmark, France, the Netherlands and Norway), this article differentiates between immigration scepticism and xenophobic attitudes. The analyses strongly indicate that xenophobic attitudes are a far less significant factor than immigration scepticism for predicting who will vote for the new radical right. Moreover, this article analyses the extent to which anti-immigration frames employed by radical right-wing parties resonate with attitudes held by supporting voters, and to what extent they make a difference for people's decision to vote for the radical right. The analyses indicate that frames linking immigration to criminality and social unrest are particularly effective for mobilising voter support for the radical right. Finally, the article criticises earlier research that explained radical right-wing voting with reference to ethnic competition theory. In contrast to much of the earlier research that used macro-level measures and comparisons, this study uses (self-reported) individual-level data on the degree of ethnic heterogeneity of people's area of residence. Hypotheses derived from ethnic competition theory receive less support than expected, which indicates that earlier research may have overestimated the significance of these factors. [source] Beyond corporatism: A configurational theory of policy concertationEUROPEAN JOURNAL OF POLITICAL RESEARCH, Issue 6 2003Hugh Compston Policy concertation (defined as making policy by means of agreements struck between government officials and representatives of employer associations and trade unions) is a major policy style in Western Europe. This article seeks to explain the political dynamics of policy concertation in terms of the varying configurations of three variables: perceived problems, the degree of shared economic understanding among the participants and the perceived implementation capacity of the participants. It is found that the incidence of broad policy concertation over the twentieth century in nine West European countries can be explained almost completely in terms of this configurational theory. [source] Structure versus culture again: Corporatism and the ,new politics' in 16 Western European countriesEUROPEAN JOURNAL OF POLITICAL RESEARCH, Issue 5 2003Bojan Todosijevi This article analyzes the relationships between corporatism and ,new politics' using Siaroff's (1999) corporatism scores for 16 West European countries and data from Inglehart et al.'s (1998) World Value Survey. The results of the analysis show that corporatism is related to higher membership in peace movements and also to belief in the urgency of ecological problems. However, it is unrelated to postmaterialist values, votes for ,new parties', approval of the environmentalist and feminist movements, and willingness to contribute financially to environmental protection. The relationships between corporatism and ,new politics' is shown to be somewhat mediated by economic factors, while the hypothesis that postmaterialism is a principal factor behind the popularity of the new social movements is not substantiated. [source] Working Time, Gender and Family: An East-West European ComparisonGENDER, WORK & ORGANISATION, Issue 6 2005Ning Tang This article provides a comparison of three West European countries with five Central East European countries in respect of working time and the integration of work and family life. The countries are the Netherlands, Sweden and the UK in West Europe and Bulgaria, the Czech Republic, Hungary, Romania and Slovenia in Central East Europe. As well as providing an East,West comparison, the article also takes into account the differing institutional and policy contexts in the selected countries and the different routes to flexibility. A further aim of the article is to extend our understanding of the culture and values which underpin the organization of family and work in each country. Whilst there is a clear East,West divide, all eight countries demonstrate diverse routes to flexibility and different mixes of social policies and gender cultures which have lead to considerable differences in the integration of work and family life. [source] Foreign direct investment: facts and perceptions about CanadaTHE CANADIAN GEOGRAPHER/LE GEOGRAPHE CANADIEN, Issue 2 2000BILL BURGESS Recently improved data on foreign direct economic control and foreign direct investment (FDI) are used to evaluate common perceptions of the degree of Canadian dependency. Including financial corporations in measures of foreign control yields rates of foreign control that are lower than those traditionally cited. Foreign and U.S. control in Canada declined in recent decades and only minor changes are evident since ,free' trade went into effect. Contrary to what is often assumed, Canada's rate of inward FDI is lower than in some advanced capitalist countries and its outward rate of FDI is higher than most G7 countries. The concentration of Canadian direct investment in the U.S. is similar to that many West European countries in the rest of Western Europe. The findings indicate that Canada is a ,core', not ,dependent' capitalist country. De récemment données améliorées sur le contrôle direct des avoirs économiques et sur les investissements directs étrangers sont utilisées pour évaluer les perceptions du contrôle économique et le degré de la dépendance économique canadienne. Sont aussi analysées, les institutions financières en termes de leur contrôle domestique et étranger. II appert que le contrôle étranger est moins important que l'on croit. Les contrôles étrangers et états-unien de l'économie canadienne sont en déclin aux cours des dernières années. L'influence du libre échange ne semble pas être significatif. Certes, le taux interne d'investissements directs étrangers est moindre que pour d'autres économies capitalistes avancées, mais le taux externe d'investissements directs étrangers est plus important que pour la plupart des économies du Groupe des Sept. La concentration des investissements directs canadiens aux États-Unis est similaire aux concentrations de plusieurs économies de l'Europe de l'ouest au sein de l'Europe. Les analyses tendent à indiquer que le Canada est une économic capitaliste ,centrale' et non ,périphérique'. [source] | ||||||||||