This essa, first, presents a short overview of various discussions and research trends in the field of politcal interest mediation; send, it clarifies some basic categories in this field; third, it locates parties, pressure groups and movements in a model of the political sphere; fourth, the paper...

On the basis of the Eurobarometer survey data of 1982, 1984, 1986, and 1989, trends as well as levels of support for new social movements are analysed comparatively. The countries involved are France, the Netherlands, Germany, Italy, and Great Britain. The analysis is based on a concept of...

Der von Noelle-Neumann entwickelten Theorie der Schweigespirale liegt die zentrale Hypothese zugrunde, daß es einen Zusammenhang gibt zwischen der individuellen Perzeption der öffentlichen Mehrheitsmeinung zu einem Thema und der Bereitschaft von Individuen, sich öffentlich zu diesem Thema zu...

Die Ausführungen haben zum Ziel, einen konzeptionellen Rahmen und theoretisch fruchtbare Perspektiven für eine soziologische Analyse von Öffentlichkeit zu entwickeln. Unter Öffentlichkeit wird ein ausdifferenziertes Kommunikationssystem verstanden, dessen Funktion darin besteht, zwischen den...

The paper addresses the observation of public opinion as one form of communication between the governmental system and its environment. It starts with the premise that public opinion is the major point of reference of the governmental system, when it comes to the question of how and how strongly...

This paper reports preliminary findings generated by a German-Israeli research project on the production and consumption of media by and for ethnic and minority communities. It discusses questions of social integration of ethnic minorities and mass media with respect to dilemmas of identity...

The paper proceeds as follows: The first section sketches some main theoretical arguments concerning the dynamics of executive governance: first a set of arguments based on organisation theory is developed, after which we look into how policies can determine politics. The subsequent section...

[...] The discussion below is organized into four sections. The first reviews the powers of the Commission President. Comparison with heads of government at the national level brings out its weakness. The second examines how Commission Presidents before Barroso approached the office. It shows...

Persönliche Merkmale von Mitgliedern der Organisationseliten, wie etwa Beruf, Nationalität oder Parteizugehörigkeit, sind wichtige Bausteine, um politische Entscheidungen zu erklären. Sie rücken zusehends in den Fokus systematischer Analysen europäischer Politik. Die Europäische...

The European Commission, Europe's central supranational bureaucracy, is often depicted as a playground for external interests. The scholarly literature offers a range of sensible explanations how the Commission position is bound by national, organised societal, or party political interests....