Professor Rensmann Publishes Article on Ethnic Diversity and "Cosmopolitanization" in European Party Politics
JCU Professor Lars Rensmann has just published a new research article in German Politics and Society, the leading peer-reviewed journal for the study of German politics.
Using Germany as a case study, the article explores the conditions, causes and scope of the “cosmopolitanization” and transformation of European party politics in relation to ethnic diversity, immigration, and post-ethnic self-understandings. In so doing, the study examines the evolution of political discourse and programmatic party positions on immigration, citizenship, identity, and ethno-cultural diversity; the changing policy regimes of mainstream parties on immigration and the inclusion of ethnic minorities; and the fielding of minority candidates for national public office and political representation in national parliament.
It is argued that postethnic cosmopolitanizations of party politics, often only belatedly reflecting postethnic changes of society at large, are primarily caused by transformed demographic realities, value change, and new electoral demands to which mainstream political parties have ultimately been reacting—even if reluctantly—as rational strategic agents in the electoral market.
Yet, the scope and character of cosmopolitanization depends on external and internal supply side conditions that enable parties to make programmatic changes, depolarize key issues of the immigration and citizenship policy regime, and recruit ethnic minorities for political representation. The German case hereby serves a model for theorizing the European cosmopolitanization of party politics.
Read Professor Rensmann’s article, “The Reluctant Cosmopolitanization of European Party Politics: The Case of Germany,” German Politics and Society 32, 3 (2014).
Prof. Lars Rensmann is Associate Professor of Political Science and Chair of the Department of Political Science and International Affairs at John Cabot University, where he teaches courses on world politics, European comparative politics, international political theory, and global politics and sports.
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