The Chain Of Representation

A comparative analysis of why democratic institutions often produce dissonance between citizens' preferences and public policy in separation-of-powers regimes.

The Handbook of Political Representation in Liberal Democracies offers a state-of-the-art assessment of the functioning of political representation in liberal democracies. In 34 chapters the world's leading scholars on the various aspects of political representation address eight broad themes: The concept and theories of political representation, its history and the main requisites for its development; elite orientations and behavior; descriptive representation; party government and representation; non-electoral forms of political participation and how they relate to political representation; the challenges to representative democracy originating from the growing importance of non-majoritarian institutions and social media; the rise of populism and its consequences for the functioning of representative democracy; the challenge caused by economic and political globlization: what does it mean for the functioning of political representation at the national leval and is it possible to develop institutions of representative democracy at a level above the state that meet the normative criteria of representative democracy and are supported by the people? The various chapters offer a comprehensive review of the literature on the various aspects of political representation. The main organizing principle of the Handbook is the chain of political representation, the chain connecting the interests and policy preferences of the people to public policy via political parties, parliament, and government. Most of the chapters assessing the functioning of the chain of political representation and its various links are based on original comparative political research. Comparative research on political representation and its various subfields has developed dramatically over the last decades so that even ten years ago a Handbook like this would have looked totally different.

Compact yet comprehensive, Dr Brian Sloan's revised edition of Borkowski's classic text continues to bring the universally-relevant law of succession to life in a style and format perfectly pitched for modern undergraduate students.

Uses poststructuralist theory to connect inclusion, exclusion and identity, using real-world case studies from British culture, politics and lawLasse Thomassen applies a fresh, poststructuralist approach to reconcile the theoretical and practical issues surrounding inclusion, exclusion and representation. He opens up debates and themes including Britishness, race, the nature and role of Islam in British society, homelessness and social justice. Thomassen argues that the politics of inclusion and identity should be viewed as struggles over how these identities are represented. He develops this argument through careful analysis of cases from the last four decades of British multiculturalism, including public debates about the role of religion in British society, Gordon Brown and David Cameron's contrasting versions of Britishness, legal cases about religious symbols and clothing in schools, and the Nick Hornby novel How to Be Good.

The aim of this book is to provide samples of the types of questions found both at first degree level and on diploma courses. This third edition has been extensively updated, including extra introductory notes and new chapters on the nature of wills and the mental element, formalities, revocation and alterations, and intestacy. The detailed coverage of family provision, construction and the administration of estates has also been expanded. The areas of mutual and privileged wills, and the growing number of decisions involving claims in negligence brought by disappointed beneficiaries against solicitors, are also incorporated.

Unique in its depth of coverage and currency, Houseman's Law of Life Assurance has established a well-deserved reputation as an authoritative practitioner work on life assurance and is renowned for its practical insight into the workings of the industry. In addition to being fully updated to take account of new legislation and case law the new 15th edition also covers developments including: Significant structural changes to the UK regulatory framework since the 14th edition and in particular the creation of the Prudential Regulation Authority (PRA) and the Financial Conduct Authority each with their own different statutory objectives; Creation of the PRA and the introduction of a new rulebook with a different structure for conveying regulatory guidance; Implementation of the Solvency II Directive which has made fundamental changes to the way insurers calculate their capital, invest their assets and govern their businesses; Changes to insurance law on misrepresentation and warranties and the new duty on consumers to take reasonable care not to make a misrepresentation and on non-consumers to make a fair presentation of the risk; New e-commerce chapter to reflect the growing importance of this distribution channel for life insurance products; Anticipated changes to the regime applicable to insurance distribution because of the Insurance Distribution Directive and rules relating to packaged insurance investment contracts, including the impact on remuneration of intermediaries; Changes to the UK compensation scheme for insurance policyholders.

As the power and scope of the European Union moves further, beyond traditional forms of international cooperation between sovereign states, it is important to analyse how these developments are impacting upon national institutions and processes of democratic representation and legitimacy in the member countries. The authors in this book identifyfour core processes of democratic governance present in any democratic political system that link societal and state processes of decision-making: opinion formation, interestintermediation, national executive decision-making and national parliamentary scrutiny. From a normative perspective they discuss what impacts this process of Europeanizationhas on democracy in the evolving system. They conclude that more changes are seen within the state-centric than in the societal-centred processes of democracy, thus thepublic seems to have been 'left behind? in the process of constructing Europe. The empirical research and normative discussion presented in this book are designed to further our knowledge concerning the Europeanization of social and state processes of democracy and to contribute to the continuing dialogue on democracy in the EuropeanUnion. This book will be of great interest to academics and researchers of political science, public policy and international relations, as well as those interested in European studies andcomparative politics.