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Professor Paul Lewis

Profile summary

Professional biography

Paul Lewis joined The Open University in 1972 following graduate work in Poland and the Centre for Russian and East European Studies at the University of Birmingham, where he also gained his first degree. His PhD was awarded in 1974.

Research interests

Prof Lewis has conducted research in numerous areas of comparative politics and published widely on the politics of communist and post-communist Eastern Europe, most recently on changes in party politics in the context of EU membership. A joint publication (with Zdenka Mansfeldova): The European Union and Party Politics in Central and Eastern Europe, Palgrave Macmillan (2006), was the first book in this field. He is joint editor of the widely used Palgrave series Developments in Central and East European Politics, which has been in print since 1993 and whose fourth edition was published (2007).

Prof Lewis's recent work has been concentrated in a multi-national British Academy-funded Research Network on The Impact of EU Enlargement on Central European Party Systems and Electoral Alignments, which he initiated and has been directing since 2004. Its work continued until the end of 2008 and produced a number of further publications, including a book on Emerging Party Systems and the European Context, concerned with processes of party system institutionalisation in East Central Europe and an article on 'Party systems in post-communist central Europe: patterns of stability and consolidation' (Democratization, vol. 13, 2006). Prof Lewis has participated in many sessions and directed workshops of the European Consortium of Political Research, and is also co-convenor of its Standing Group on Central and Eastern Europe. He is a visiting Research Fellow at the European Institute of the University of Sussex.

A repository of research publications and other research outputs can be viewed at The Open University's Open Research Online.

Last updated: 19 November 2010

Teaching interests

Prof Lewis has worked on a wide range of OU courses in a broadly conceived politics area. They included various aspects of comparative politics, Soviet politics, political sociology, international and global politics, and European studies. He chaired a number of these courses at various stages of their production and presentation, and he was working on the production of a short level 2 course on Politics, Media and War: 9/11 and its Impacts.

Publications

Changes in the party politics of the new EU member states in Central Europe: patterns of Europeanization and democratization (2008-08)
Lewis, Paul G.
Journal of Southern Europe and the Balkans, 10(2) (pp. 151-165)


Party systems in Post-communist Central Europe: patterns of stability and consolidation (2006-08)
Lewis, Paul G.
Democratization, 13(4) (pp. 562-583)


EU enlargement and party systems in central Europe (2005-06)
Lewis, Paul G.
Journal of Communist Studies and Transition Politics, 21(2) (pp. 171-199)


The 'Third Wave' of democracy in Eastern Europe: comparative perspectives on party roles and political development (2001-09)
Lewis, Paul G.
Party Politics, 7(5) (pp. 543-565)


Poland: domestic discord makes for a problematic partner (2010)
Lewis, Paul G.
In: Carbone, Maurizio ed. National Politics And European Integration : From the Constitution to the Lisbon Treaty (pp. 108-125)
ISBN : 9781848443464 | Publisher : Edward Elgar | Published : Cheltenham


Political parties (2007)
Lewis, Paul
In: White, Stephen; Batt, Judy and Lewis, Paul G. eds. Developments in Central and East European Politics 4 (pp. 174-192)
ISBN : 0 230 51737 4 | Publisher : Palgrave Macmillan | Published : Houndmills


Questions and Issues: The European Union and party politics in Central and Eastern Europe (2006-10)
Lewis, Paul G.
In: Lewis, Paul G. and Mansfeldova, Zdenka eds. The European Union and Party Politics in Central and Eastern Europe. Palgrave Studies in European Union Politics (pp. 1-19)
ISBN : 0 230 00 183 1 | Publisher : Palgrave Macmillan | Published : UK


Developments in Central and East European politics 4 (2007-08)
White, Stephen; Batt, Judy and Lewis, Paul G. eds.
ISBN : 978 0 8223 3944 1 | Publisher : Palgrave Macmillan | Published : Houndmills, UK


Developments in Central and East European Politics 3 (2003-05)
White, Stephen; Batt, Judy and Lewis, Paul G. eds.
ISBN : 333948777 | Publisher : Palgrave Macmillan | Published : UK


Party development and democratic change in post-communist Europe (2001-05-07)
Lewis, Paul ed.
Democratization studies
ISBN : 714651559 | Publisher : Routledge | Published : UK


Party system stabilisation in Central Europe: Record and prospects in a changing economic context (2009-09)
Lewis, Paul
In : General Conference of European Consortium for Political Research (10-12 Sep 2009, Potsdam)


Party system institutionalisation in east-central Europe: empirical dimensions and tentative conclusions (2008-04)
Lewis, Paul G.
In : Joint Sessions of European Consortium for Political Research (11-16 Apr 2008, Rennes, France)


The European Union and party politics in Central Europe (2007)
Lewis, Paul
In : International Studies Association (28 Feb - 3 Mar 2007, Chicago)


The Awkward New Member: Poland's Changing European Identity (2007)
Lewis, Paul
In : International Symposium on the Lisbon Treaty and the Future of the European Union (6-7 Dec 2007, University of Glasgow)