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3 Legis. Stud. Q. 1 (1978)

handle is hein.journals/lgvessqy3 and id is 1 raw text is: Editor's Introduction: The Role of European Parliaments in Managing Social Conflict The articles in this issue of the Legislative Studies Quarterly are revised versions of papers originally presented at a conference on The Role of European Parliaments in Managing Social Conflict, held at the University of Iowa in May, 1977. The conference was sponsored by the Benjamin F. Shambaugh Fund. Gerhard Loewenberg, who organized the conference, is serving as guest editor for this special issue. In the introduction which follows, he explains the background of the collaborative research project on-parliaments in Belgium, Italy and Switzerland on which these articles are based, and summarizes and compares their findings. -M. E. J. The Effect of Parliaments on Handling Political Issues The articles in this issue are the first products of a collaborative research project undertaken by European and American political scientists to examine the role of European parliaments in the management of social conflict.1 Since these articles cover only a few aspects of this project, it might be useful to introduce them with a description of the general study of which they are a part. The project focuses on a set of political issues which occupied a cen- tral place in the politics of Belgium, Italy, and Switzerland in the years 1975 and 1976. Although the issues selected differed from one country to another, they had certain properties in common. They were all related to long-term social cleavages existing in these three countries, cleavages which divide the community along religious, linguistic, regional, or social class lines. They were all issues which had attracted widespread public attention, on which there were strong feelings, and on which differences of opinion considerably frag- mented the politically attentive public. In this sense they were all difficult issues whose treatment was important for the maintenance of underlying political consensus in the community. We selected four to six issues having these same properties in each country because we believed they would prove particularly challenging to political leaders and political institutions.2 LEGISLATIVE STUDIES QUARTERLY, III, 1, February 1978 1

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