An exploration and analysis of the regulation and practices of citizens' initiatives in eleven European democracies and the EU. The contributors to this volume shed light on how citizens' initiatives influence patterns of political agenda-setting in representative democracies and how they can contribute to participatory democracy.

'An important contribution to the comparative literature on direct democracy. The growing use of initiatives and the coming into effect of the new European Citizens' Initiative make this a particularly timely publication.'

• Lawrence LeDuc, Professor of Political Science, University of Toronto, Canada

'This is an impressive book. It covers an obvious need and is written by the best experts within the field. A major contribution to our understanding of democracy in Europe.'

• Palle Svensson, Professor, Aarhus University, Denmark

Autorentext
DAUNIS AUERS Associate Professor of Comparative Politics at the Department of Political Science at the University of Latvia VÍCTOR CUESTA Assistant Professor of Constitutional Law at the Universidad de Las Palmas de Gran Canaria, Spain KARIM GIESE Assistant Professor for Constitutional and Administrative Law at the University Salzburg, Spain, Austria BRUNO KAUFMANN Co-founder and President of the Initiative and Referendum Institute Europe and member of the City Government in Falun, Sweden ALGIS KRUPAVICIUS Professor and Director of Policy and Public Administration Institute, Kaunas University of Technology, Lithuania ERIK LÁ TIC Lecturer, Department of Political Science, Comenius University, Bratislava, Slovakia GEORG LUTZ Project Director of the Swiss Electoral Studies (Selects) at the Social Science Research Centre FORS, Lausanne, Sweden WILFRIED MARXER Director and Head of the Department of Political Sciences at the Liechtenstein Institute, Bendern, Liechtenstein ZOLTÁN TIBOR PÁLLINGER Associate Professor for Political Science and Dean of the Faculty of International Relations, Andrássy German-Speaking University Budapest, Hungary ANNA RYTEL-WARZOCHA Senior Research and Teaching Fellow at the Faculty of Law and Administration at the University of Gdansk, Poland THEO SCHILLER Emeritus Professor of Political Science, Philipps University Marburg Germany MAIJA SETÄLÄ Academy Research Fellow, Department of Political Science, University of Turku in Finland PIERVINCENZO ULERI Researcher in Political Science at the 'Cesare Alfieri', University of Florence, Italy

Inhalt
Introduction; T.Schiller & M.Setälä PART I: PRACTICES OF FULL-SCALE INITIATIVES Switzerland: Citizens' Initiatives as a Measure to Control the Political Agenda; G.Lutz Initiatives in Liechtenstein - Safety Valve in a Complex System of Government; W.Marxer An Electoral Tactic? Citizens' Initiatives in Post-Soviet Latvia; D.Auers PART II: SYSTEMS MIXING DIFFERENT TYPES OF INITIATIVES Institutions of Citizens' Political Participation in Italy: Crooked Forms, Hindered Institutionalization; P.Uleri Initiative Instruments in Germany Variations in Regional States; T.Schiller Citizens' Initiative in Hungary: An Additional Opportunity for Power-Sharing in an Extremely Majoritarian System; Z.T.Pállinger Citizens' Initiative in Lithuania: Initiative Institutions and their Political Impact in a New Democracy; A.Krupavicius If It Works, Fine, If Not, So What? Initiatives in Slovakia; E.Látic PART III: PRACTICES OF AGENDA INITIATIVES The Austrian Agenda Initiative: An Instrument Dominated by Opposition Parties; K.Giese The Spanish Agenda Initiative and the Reform of its Legal Regime: A New Chance for Participatory Democracy?; V.Cuesta-López Popular Initiatives in Poland: Citizen Empowerment or Keeping Up Appearances?; A.Rytel-Warzocha Transnational 'Babystep': The European Citizens' Initiative; B.Kaufmann Comparative Findings; T.Schiller & M.Setälä