Nuclear Energy in Western Europe: Revival or Rejection? An Introduction -- Understanding Policy Reversals and Policy Stability -- Comparative Policy Indicators on Nuclear Energy -- The Conflict over Nuclear Energy: Public Opinion, Protest Movements, and Green Parties in Comparative Perspective -- Austria : Rejecting Nuclear Energy--From Party Competition Accident to State Doctrine -- Nuclear Politics in France : High-Profile Policy and Low-Salience Politics -- Germany : Party System Change and Policy Reversals -- Why Italian Nuclear Energy Policy Failed Twice -- Nuclear Power and Politics in the Netherlands -- The Will of the People? : Swedish Nuclear Power Policy -- Switzerland -- Conclusion: explaining nuclear policy reversals. Appendix: other European countries - an analytical reconstruction. Appendix: policy scales for a country's nuclear energy policy.

This volume investigates nuclear energy policies in Western Europe over the entire post-war period, but with special attention to the two most recent decades. The comparative analytical perspective draws on the interplay between voters' attitudes, challenging movements, party competition, and coalition formation. Spanning more than 60 years and 16 countries, the researchers examine the underlying causal processes leading to the observed varieties of Western European nuclear energy policies.