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This book provides a detailed account of the gilets jaunes, the yellow vest movement that has shaken France since 2018. The gilets jaunes are a group of French protesters named after their iconic yellow vests worn during their demonstrations, who have formed a new type of social movement. They have been variously interpreted since they began their occupation of French roundabouts: at first received with enthusiasm on the right of the French political establishment, and with caution on the left. They have provided a fundamental challenge to the social contract in France, the implicit pact between the governed and their political leaders. The book assesses what lessons can be drawn from their activities and the impact for the contemporary relationship between state and citizen. Informed by a dialogue with past political theorists — from Hobbes, Spinoza and Rousseau to Rawls, Nozick and Diderot — and reflecting on the challenges posed by the yellow vest movement, the book rethinks the concept of the social contract for contemporary societies around the world. It proposes a new relationship between the state and the individual, and establishes the necessity of rethinking the modern democratic nature of our representative polities in order to provide a genuine process for the healing of social ills.

Throughout the history of European integration economic wealth has increased to the benefit of citizens in the European Union (EU). Yet inequalities in well-being persist within and between Europe’s regions, which may undermine the legitimacy of the EU in the eyes of citizens and fuel populist nationalism. This book investigates how the EU can use its regional funding programmes in ways that increase citizen well-being. The book shows that while EU social investments improve labour market performance in rich EU regions, they exacerbate income inequality in poor regions. Based on this insight, the book presents a theory on the conditions under which EU spending will enhance well-being. Crucially, it argues the case for enhancing the inclusivity of EU growth, which yields the promise of a more legitimate and stronger union.

This book provides a comprehensive coverage of current challenges to the very essence of local self- government. Authors from different European countries present a picture of the current situation and of the future developments laying ahead of us. Europe provides an extremely diverse ground for Local Government studies: modes of governance, the position of the leader, reform intensity, emphasis on democratic forms of governance – all these aspects pose a very vivid and dynamic picture. At the same time, Local Governments in Europe face common challenges, like climate change, increasing populism, and democratic deficit. This volume aims to answer the diversity and communalities between these country-specific features. It is a comprehensive volume gathering the most classical research perspectives in the studies of European territorial (mainly local) government and presenting both new research approaches as well as new trends. The main set of topics include local territorial reforms, local leadership and democracy, and local finances. The authors represent the leading Local Government researchers in Europe, including a strong representation of Eastern European Countries.

This book provides the first comprehensive examination of the practice of policy analysis in Belgium and its federated entities. The book integrates available and new knowledge about the science, art, and craft of policy analysis by all relevant policy actors at different levels of government. The book’s investigation of policy analysis in and outside government in Belgium highlights key comparative features of policy analysis in federal systems, in polities with a neo-corporatist consensus tradition in policy-making, and in countries with partitocratic features. The book also adds to a comparative understanding of how such international trends towards professionalizing policy analysis, and towards greater participation and co-production are translated into specific contexts. It also reveals whether there is any ground to claim that European member states are converging their policy-analytical styles under the pressures of Europeanisation.

Immigration has transformed the social, economic, political and cultural landscapes of global cities such as London, Melbourne, Milan and Amsterdam. The term 'superdiversity' captures a new era of migration-driven demographic diversifications and associated complexities. Superdiversity is the future or, in many cases, the current reality of neighbourhoods, cities, countries and regions, yet the implications of superdiversification for governance and policy have, until now, received very little attention. This book explores the ways in which superdiversity has shaped the development of policy and considers challenges for the future. It begins with an overview of superdiversity. Patterns of migration to high-income countries until the 1990s mainly consisted of many migrants coming from a few countries to a small number of places. Around the turn of the 1990s, a new pattern of migration and associated diversification was observed. Since its inception, the concept of 'superdiversity' was meant to move beyond an observation of ethnic and national diversity, to capture the multidimensional aspect of the processes of diversification driven by new migration. The book critically assesses an 'intercultural policy turn' evident in many European cities, and then examines whether governance mainstreaming forms a suitable policy response to situations of superdiversity. It moves on to assess transmigration and how local urban governance has come to incorporate migration-driven superdiversity in policies. The book concludes with an assessment of how the urban setting conditions emerging us/them distinctions at the neighbourhood level. The analysis involves paying particular attention to the nature and make-up of backlash narratives, as these essentially represent localised responses to changing power dynamics and resource allocations.

The drive to create a common labour market in Europe has proceeded with little thought given to the particular needs of labour. After all, a large (geographic) market benefits investors and consumers more than workers, ceteris paribus, as it is costly for workers to move great distance. This book examines the process of market integration in Europe to show how it has undermined the power and influence of European workers, and results in a market that generates significant human costs. In the absence of tools for stabilizing local labour markets, European workers now bear the main burden of economic adjustment. This burden comes in the form of high unemployment levels, falling wages, shrinking welfare supports and market-forced migration, or workaway.