Kurt Richard Luther, professor of comparative politics at Keele University and currently visiting professor of politics at University of Vienna, gave a lecture titled “The Impact of European Membership on Western European Parties” at the invitation of Dr. Seaker Chan Center for Comparative Political Development Studies in room 615, Wenke Building, on the morning of September 21, 2012. Associate Prof. Ren Junfeng from Department of Politics hosted the lecture.

Prof. Kurt Richard Luther’s research concerns the impact of European integration on the organization of national political parties, and on the balance of power within them. Countries case studies are designed to testify the two hypotheses, i.e. whether European integration will strengthen the power of party elites and whether it’ll strengthen the power of EU-specialists. The formal and informal changes from 1979 to 2005 of parties in Austria, Britain, France, Germany, Spain and Sweden are studied.