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Despite Britain's first past the post‐electoral system, which generally produces single‐party majorities, Britain has become more politically fragmented in recent years. This makes a hung parliament—a parliament in which no single party has a majority—much more likely. Hung parliaments pose a dilemma for the sovereign. For, it will often not be obvious in such a situation who is the most appropriate Prime Minister; nor whether a dissolution requested by a Prime Minister should be granted—there may well be an alternative combination capable of governing within the existing legislature. These problems can be illuminated by analysis of past hung parliaments—1923–24, 1929–31, and 1974. The problems would be exacerbated with the introduction of proportional representation, for this would mean that nearly every parliament would then be a hung parliament.

This chapter presents the main theoretical framework of the book. After defining the concept of political fragmentation, the chapter identifies three major types of political fragmentation (i.e., functional, territorial, and intergovernmental) and specifies the effects of each type on the policy process.

Orange County, California, became the largest municipality in U.S. history to declare bankruptcy when it filed for Chapter 9 protection on December 6, 1994. Municipal bankruptcies are rare events that generally occur only in rural places. Large cities had always sidestepped bankruptcies when their state governments came to the rescue. Three factors are at the heart of the Orange County financial crisis: the political fragmentation in local government, voter distrust of local government officials, and the condition of fiscal austerity in the state government. This introductory chapter presents a framework for understanding the unique nature and outcome of the Orange County financial crisis. It traces the events that led up to the bankruptcy, through the local officials' response to the fiscal emergency and the road to fiscal recovery, to the local government reforms implemented in response to the crisis. It also examines the New York City fiscal crisis and contrasts it with the Orange County bankruptcy.

Many of the problems Europe faces in coming to terms with a rising China stem from domestic politics. The European political landscape has changed as the focus of political contestation has moved away from ideology to issue and identity politics that is characteristic of post-material societies. In consequence of these shifts, political party systems have gradually become more fragmented. Fragile governing coalitions in many EU member states diminish the incentives European of decision-makers to exercise leadership and invest personal political capital to upgrade relations with China. As Europe finds itself in a process of relative economic and political decline vis-�is China, public opinion about China has turned increasingly negative.

The conclusion synthesizes the results of the book and describes the implications of the study for urban preservation, social justice, and broader urban changes. It examines the explanatory power of the theory of political fragmentation by discussing its potential application to the preservation practice in a number of major world cities.

This chapter shows that, whereas urban preservation in Paris had long been a privilege of the state, the municipal government has begun to claim more autonomy over its urban territory and attempted to incorporate urban preservation into a larger frame of urban development. Hence, urban preservation in Paris is gradually transformed from the monopoly of the state to a joint venture between the city and the state.

This chapter details how the state's use of media to disseminate law and report on certain local problems, paired with political fragmentation and the marketization of the press, provided conditions for certain media and legal professionals to build networks and collaborate. Such collaboration pushed the boundaries of critical news reporting and expanded the concept of rights beyond socioeconomic issues. The chapter first demonstrates the rise of critical news reporting in the mid-2000s. Next, it describes how media marketization—a process that accelerated starting in the early 1990s—reshaped the political, economic, and professional environment in which Chinese newspapers were embedded. After briefly describing a parallel process in the transformation of the legal profession, the chapter then shows how the national process of media marketization and law dissemination programs unfolded differently in localities with dissimilar political and market conditions.

This chapter focuses on Indira Gandhi’s turn to populism and authoritarianism from the late 1960s and 1970s. It is argued that populism and authoritarianism had a long-term impact on Indian politics and political economy by creating the conditions that facilitated the emergence of long-term processes of political fragmentation – due to the decline of the Congress Party and the rise of various social forces and political formations – and economic reform. The chapter first shows how Cold War interventionism played a key role in Indira Gandhi’s shift toward agrarian populist policies and authoritarianism. It then details the ways in which the outcomes of populism and authoritarianism laid the path for the turn to pro-business and pro-market policies as well as political fragmentation and democratic deepening. Hence, the chapter makes the case for seeing the 1970s as a critical juncture in Indian history which laid the foundations for the major economic and political changes India has recently experienced. Within this period, the Cold War context was a crucial factor in the decisions and choices made by the Indian leadership.

The biggest municipal bankruptcy in U.S. history is now over. There remain some nagging questions about what we can learn from Orange County's mistakes. When the surprising losses in the Orange County Investment Pool were discovered in December 1994, many seemed to think that this strange event could only occur in this unusual suburban county. County Treasurer Bob Citron and the Wall Street investors that lent him money were not the sole causes of the Orange County financial crisis. But Citron was the catalyst for this event. The bankruptcy was made possible by the political, organizational, and fiscal context in which these actors were operating during the 1990s— specifically, the political fragmentation of local government, voter distrust of local government officials, and fiscal austerity in the state government. A resilience of the political fragmentation is seen in the local government reforms that were a product of the bankruptcy. This chapter informs policymakers and scholars about the lessons to be learned from Orange County in order to limit the chances of a repeat of the fiscal crisis.

This chapter examines how local officials’ purposes of pursuing urban growth and enhancing the global image of Beijing are filtered through the structure of functional fragmentation, thus generated a pattern of symbolic preservation in Beijing.

This chapter discusses the following: the dichotomy of Orpen and MacNeill; Curtis's attempted reconciliation; the history of colonial, political, and administrative institutions; underdeveloped areas of study: Gaelic society; the church; archaeology; the two nations: their changing balance as a main theme of this period; acculturation; ‘degeneracy’: a colonial problem; political fragmentation; and regional history and national history: an international perspective.

This chapter demonstrates that, while urban preservation in Chicago has become a tool to increase property value and promote community revitalization, the territorial fragmentation along ward boundaries has divided local communities and generated a model of mosaic preservation in the city.

Political communication is becoming increasingly mediatized. Mediatization refers both to a gradual increase in the role of the media in political communication and the spillover effects that this increase has had on the way politics takes place and is organized and relatedly, the performance of political leadership. Of particular importance for political leadership styles is the surge of drama politics, the fragmentation of political communication and the active role of citizens in political communication. Chapter 9’s typology of democratic political leadership performance lays the ground for an analysis of how paternalist, populist, engaged, and interactive political leadership styles are affected by the increased mediatization. The analysis suggests that an interactive political leadership style is more viable than the other three political leadership styles to patterns of mediatization in the age of governance.

This chapter traces the historical process that led to the rise of one of the specific features of the Western legal tradition, the emphasis on private law and the reliance on adjudication disputes. It examines a parallel historical process of fragmented power structures in Japan that partly accounted for the emergence of a similar Japanese legal tradition of adjudication as the primary means of formal law enforcement. However, in comparison with Western legal tradition, there is a distinct absence of a conceptual system of law or legal rights that could enable recognition of substantive rules and analogous principles of private or public laws. Still, this chapter notes that this historical background of political fragmentation and reliance on adjudication laid the foundation for the successful reception of European private law during the late nineteenth century.

This chapter provides a survey of the key events that have demonstrated the opposition’s difficulties in undertaking collective action since the beginning of the uprising in Syria. The regime, as well as certain factors in the Syrian political landscape, contributed to the political fragmentation of the opposition. The historical and structural factors that animated the rise and development of the Syrian opposition continue to set the stage for divisiveness within society as the uprising continues. The chapter identifies the four most important factors behind the fragmentation of and obstacles faced by the opposition: the geography of Syrian cities; a profoundly heterogeneous society; a polarized and still unfledged media environment; and a regional and international context in which many opposing and competing players are attempting to manipulate the uprising to their own benefit. This chapter also demonstrates the ways these factors have influenced key events in the uprising as well as relations within the opposition and between the opposition and outside actors.