At CEU, political party expert Peter Mair talks governance and party politics

As part of CEU's sixth annual doctoral conference, Professor Peter Mair delivered a public lecture -- "How Parties Govern" -- on the challenges to party politics and governance. Using the Irish economic crisis as a case study, Professor Mair discussed how governments are often torn between doing what's responsible and doing what their constituents demand. An expert on political parties, he contended that political parties matter, but questioned whether or not party politics would have a firm future in Europe.

His talk was part of a two day conference organized by CEU's Doctoral School of Political Science, Public Policy, and International Relations, and he was introduced by the head of the doctoral program, Professor Zsolt Enyedi.