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This book explores the many aspects of transition and its role in the change from authoritarian regimes to new democracies, while highlighting all of their difficulties and challenges.
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This book explores the many aspects of transition and its role in the change from authoritarian regimes to new democracies, while highlighting all of their difficulties and challenges.
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This book offers an overview of different election systems, with their specific features, rules and methods. Case studies include Austria, Denmark, Ireland, Germany, UK, USA, Croatia and the European Union. With contributions by Martin Fehndrich and Wilko Zicht.
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While democracy in Europe took a very long time to emerge and consolidate itself, the democratization of Europe has only just begun and remains a rather remote prospect. The competing national states that composed this part of the world were originally autocratic – with the historical exception of Switzerland, which somehow continuously managed to practice its peculiar form of democracy. Indeed, Western Europe became uniformly democratic only in the mid-1970s with the regime changes in Portugal, Spain, and Greece. And parts of the former Soviet Union have still to institutionalize the accountability of its rulers by way of competitive processes of representation.
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In political theory, one of the recurring types of government described by various thinkers is democracy. In political theory or practice, democracy did not always have the significance as it has, for example, today; when we can say that it is the most dominant type of government on a global level, with 120 registered consolidated democracies and 37 restrictive democratic regimes registered in 2000. These political orders typologies, which are a product of the modern political era, are based on government and political systems being classified as democratic and undemocratic. Undemocratic orders are totalitarian and authoritarian. Regardless of the world regions, this narrowed synthetic classification of types of government might be applied in case of the 20th century societies. The 20th century is a real testing ground for political science research of government systems, waves of democratization and reversions.
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Establishment of democratic regimes in former authoritarian societies has emphasized the importance and vitality of democracy and marked large social, political and cultural changes. But, in spite of institutional and normative constitution of democracy and its general acceptability in almost all transitional societies, there are obvious and great differences in the attained democratic range within various postcommunist societies. Instead of transformation process and democratic consolidation in many transition societies, one can often find undemocratic political practice with certain retrograde processes, contrary to democratic transformation of society. Such experiences indicate that transition is not unambiguous and predictable process of social development which necessarily leads towards democratic regime, and also that normative-institutional democratic constitution is not sufficient to make a political regime democratic.
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Elections are widely justified as devices for consulting the people and thereby deriving their consent to govern (Nakamura and Johnson, 2005). At the start of the nineties of the 20th century in post-socialist states of Central and Eastern Europe, elections became a precious value as a support for the building of democratic political institutions and processes. In this respect, inclusion of the citizenry in electoral and representative processes was vital for the consolidation of democracy in post-transition setting (Birch, 2003: 10). However, holding elections in (post-)conflict societies, for example on a territory of former Yugoslavia, encompassed both dangers and opportunities for democratic and anti-democratic impulses and forces (Nakamura and Johnson, 2005). Namely, institutional choices in a broader context, heavily determined an electoral design in post-socialist settings. Institutional choices were considerably expressed in institutional preferences of leading political actors, i.e. in their interests, goals and values (Kasapović, 1997).
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Euroscepticism is a media and not a scientific term. Because of the wide-spread notion, and its importance, it has become a subject of social scientific research. The term is in fact a compound word. It consists of the words euro and scepticism. The adjective euro refers to Europe and its integration, at which Europe has to be differentiated from political economic union or the integrated Europe (EU).
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The European Commission stated in its Enlargement Report of November 2006 that ”Democratic legitimacy also means a Europe which listens to the expectations of its citizens and addresses their concerns through adequate policies. For any of its policies, including enlargement, the EU has to win the support of its citizens” (European Commission, 2006: 23). This is a notable statement from the Union,which has lost five out of the eight public referenda on the EU-issues that have been held during the present decade.
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What is “EU-criticism”? I will not offer any normative definition myself, nor will I argue that one of the various terms used for the phenomenon is more appropriate than the others. Instead, I will discuss how the entire phenomenon is discursively constructed in dominant newspapers and juxtapose those representations to EU-critics’ own representations of themselves. My assumption here is that “dominant newspapers” are something largely external to EU-criticism. In other words, nationwide newspapers are not the primary channel of expressing critical ideas regarding the EU. I will examine the “inside” perspective by analyzing texts recommended by key EU-critical actors. That is, I will ask them what texts I should read in juxtaposition to dominant newspapers, in order to get a more balanced picture of what EU-criticism is about. I do not suggest that either of the two representations - that of dominant newspapers or self-representations - is more “true” than the other.
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During the election campaign for the 2014 general election there have been very few promises made in regards to human rights. The entire field of respect and protection of the human rights was either ignored or overshadowed by the ethno-national slogans and nationalist rhetoric. The parties, as expected, devoted the maximum attention to the growing economic and social issues, which is justified, but, on the other hand, human rights were mentioned only superficially, without clear objectives or as an issue almost exclusively related to the conditions for European integration. In line with that, it has been almost impossible to find references to terms such as LGBT people, protection from discrimination based on sex, gender identity or sexual orientation.
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Po raz pierwszy w historii niepodległej Ukrainy na siedem miesięcy przed wyborami prezydenckimi trudno jest określić nie tylko głównego kandydata do zwycięstwa, ale także skład drugiej tury. Zwycięstwo któregokolwiek z polityków w pierwszej turze (31 marca 2019 roku) obecnie wydaje się wykluczone. Dostępne badania opinii publicznej jednoznacznie wskazują, że największym poparciem cieszy się Julia Tymoszenko. Jednocześnie ponad 20% wyborców nie wie lub nie chce ujawnić, na kogo odda głos, ponad 10% wybrałoby kogoś, kto nie jest ujmowany w sondażach, a prawie połowa szukałaby alternatywy wśród nowych kandydatów. Główni pretendenci, poza kandydatami prorosyjskimi, w zasadzie nie różnią się w głoszonych poglądach na kierunki strategicznego rozwoju państwa. Każdy z nich deklaruje poparcie dla integracji Ukrainy z UE i NATO, kontynuowania reform i modernizacji polityczno-gospodarczej na wzór zachodni.
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Elections constitute a central component of all democratic political systems. Conventionally, the institute of elections is seen is an instrument of conferring and renewing political legitimacy of state officials, as well as a vehicle for expressing citizens’ preferences regarding the future of their country or some other territorial entity. Their particular shape is specified by electoral systems which translate the voters’ political will into the make-up of the elected body (typically parliaments). On the face of it, such a definition emphasises the “technical” aspect of distributing seats among successful parties; we cannot however ignore the fact that elections have an important personal dimension. Their point is always also to select particular people to elected offices and functions.So understood, elections simultaneously represent the outcome of a distinct organisational process that temporally precedes them. Selection of candidates constitutes an inseparable part of the pre-election period, together with formulating election programmes, planning the election campaign and raising funds for it. As a topic of scholarly research in political science, candidate selection (also preselection) has been gradually gaining ground, and both theoretical and empirical resources have been continually expanded. However, whereas international trends are apparent in this regard, the Czech political-scientific community still treats preselection as a topic of secondary importance. This fact underlines the relevance of the present book, which aims to provide an in-depth inquiry into this issue in the Czech context.
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Regional (Kraj) elections in 2012, unlike the elections to the Chamber of Deputies in 2010 or 2013, certainly did not indicate a reversal in Czech politics. On the other hand, 2012’s elections were hardly boring, uninteresting affairs, where everything ran according to plan. Seen from the perspective of second-order elections theory, we had an opportunity to confirm that voters punished parties in the national government and rewarded the opposition, depending on the issues that dominated – whether it was for inappropriate reasons, such as salient, but national-level topics, or for appropriate, but boring, regional reasons. These and the entire gamut of other topics may be understood by arange of reasons. Superficially, through blanket “impressionism“, by way of individual independent case studies, or by pursuing a complex and deeper understanding of causes and effects. Using the format of this monograph focused on a single election (though necessarily with comparisons to previous ones) allows the topic to be investigated with the latter method. This is exactly what the authors of this book have attempted. The structure of the book corresponds to the logic of the electoral process, combining descriptive as well as interpretive and analytical methods.
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Internet users around the globe demand different information and experiences that correspond to their geography. The most immediate difference is language: people want news, entertainment and services in their own language. Other things that vary by geography are culture, currency, climate and consumer norms. Geo-targeting is a common tool for targeting information to a specific geographical area and is widely used in digital marketing, in combination with information gleaned from available user data about consumer preferences, to deliver location-specific content. Itis a cost-effective way to match information with consumers.
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The book analyses the threats to democracy that are associated with the rise of extreme-right parties and xenophobia in European Union countries. The authors show that the growing distrust towards democratic institutions and the increasing strength of populism and nationalism are connected with persistent inequalities and the malign focus on immigrants as scapegoats for the misery. Case studies from Germany, Great Britain, and Poland examine the details of the anti-democratic movements in these countries. They demonstrate the real threats to democracy and peaceful coexistence, and to the very future of the European project, its principles of solidarity and its political ambitions of convergence through mutual support. The reader will find in the book extensive empirical material outlining the situation in the European Union, along with proposals for solving the region’s social, economic and political dilemmas, for reversing the trends of fragmentation and for revitalising Europe’s democratic culture.
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Biračka masa u Bosni i Hercegovini je pretežnim dijelom tradicionalno opredijeljena. Sva politička aktivnost naroda kao da se svodi na sudjelovanje na izborima. I tu se pokazuje slab odziv birača što bi moglo značiti da je taj dio biračkog tijela izgubio nadu u boljitak ili željenu promjenu vlasti. Ne samo da izbori gube moć privlačenja interesa javnosti, ne uspijevaju ni u rješavanju kriza. Ljudi su počeli gubiti zanimanje za njih. Vlada široko rasprostranjeno mišljenje da se radi o „igri bez pobjednika“. Otud svaka rasprava o izborima i izbornim pravilima zaokuplja pažnju političke i intelektualne javnosti. Odjeljenje društvenih nauka sa svojim odborima za političke, prave i sociološke nauke ANUBiH smatralo je korisnim organizirati naučno-stručni simpozij o reformi izbornog zakonodavstva Bosne i Hercegovine. Pred čitateljima je Zbornik radova o temi Reforma izbornog zakonodavstva BiH, nastao na osnovu priopćenja prispjelih za naučno-stručni simpozij o istoj temi. Prilozi pokazuju da se temi prišlo iz različitih perspektiva: političke (radovi S. Kovačevića, A. Arapovića, G. Kovačevića i N. Korajlića, D. Arnauta, E. Fejzića, E. Huruz Memović, M, Pejanovića, S. Arnautovića, E. Sadikovića), pravne (radovi M. N. Simovića i M. Simović, Z. Begića), sociološke (radovi S. Vukadinovića, S. Kukića, A. Ždralović, P. Mijovića, Ž. Papića), iskustvene (radovi B. Borić i V. Šehića). Omogućilo je to iznošenje različitih stavova i pogleda što i jeste cilj ovakvih simpozija: sagledati temu iz raznih znanstvenih perspektiva i iznijeti različita mišljenja.
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Non-governmental organisations (NGOs), researchers, journalists, and the private sector are often the main actors actively countering disinformation and influence operations. While governments maintain some counter-disinformation capabilities, they tend to outsource much of the day-to-day work through, for example, programmatic funding. It is more cost-effective and credible to fund independent, non-partisan NGOs to debunk disinformation than for a government to get caught up in trying to correct the sensitive issues that disinformation often entails. Indeed, in a recent Washington Post op-ed, former Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty President Thomas Kent lauds the role of NGOs in countering disinformation and urges governments to keep finding funding for them: “Volunteer activists fight it out with trolls online, penetrate and disrupt conspiracy chat rooms, campaign for companies to stop advertising on disinformation sites, and post memes ridiculing Russian propaganda.”1 They do all the things, in other words, that governments can’t or won’t do at scale.
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Even though Democratic Party Kosovo (PDK) did start election campaign, long before official time, impression was that somehow it would get over without any further problems. But, only after couple of days, when the election campaign began, particularly from (PDK) campaign language of communication started to get ugly, especially the one against Democratic League of Kosovo (LDK). PDK with its unexpected attacks, with its strong language of communication, exceeded unusually, red line, of tolerance and calmness, which is well known standard of political communication in Kosovo.
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