Description:
In this geographically wide-ranging assessment of the figure of the politician in modern and contemporary Europe, Pasi Ihalainen, Rosario López, Kari Palonen, and Henk te Velde re-examine the trajectory of terms like 'politician' and 'statesman', in order to spotlight how profoundly the concept of representative democracy is shifting.
Brief description:
Pasi Ihalainen is Professor of Comparative European History at the University of Jyväskylä, Finland. His many publications include his most recent book The Springs of Democracy: National and Transnational Debates on Constitutional Reform in the British, German, Swedish and Finnish Parliaments, 1917-1919 (2017). He is a board member of the research network EuParl.net.
Review Quotes:
"Edited by a group of historians and a political philosopher who have been thinking innovatively about parliaments, politics and language for a number of years, this is a stimulating and timely book that does much to open up a new area of study in a new and striking way." - Paul Seaward, History of Parliament