Transitions Online_Around the Bloc - New Latvian Premier Vows to Fight Bank Fraud – 25 January
The small nation is a whiz at flushing billions of dollars through its banking system.
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The small nation is a whiz at flushing billions of dollars through its banking system.
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Two months before the first round, ‘undecided’ is well ahead in the polls.
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Central and Eastern Europeans together make up Britain’s largest ‘minority’ by far.
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In the news today: Minsk eyes U.S. oil; Budapest’s Russian-led bank; hard lives of Ukrainian IDPs; lightning kills in the Tatras; and Kosovo goes to the polls.
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Few studies have systematically examined the rising political and social unrest in the Balkans. This paper investigates the local dynamics and consequences of widespread anti-establishment discontent in Kosovo through the analytical framework of populism. By focusing on the case of Lëvizja Vetëvendosje (LVV), the paper sets out to consider two related questions: the unique populist style of the LVV and the complex reasons behind its electoral breakthrough and continuing support among various groups. Based on a qualitative documentary analysis of the party programme, manifesto, party publications, speeches of the leadership and interviews, the paper finds that the LVV successfully melds a populist political style, leftist/social democratic agenda and contentious politics as a means to disperse its message. The second part of the article offers three arguments to explain its appeal: structural factors (electoral availability and party system), societal dynamics (political and economic dissatisfaction) and the agency of the LVV (internal organisation, cohesion and leadership). The article contributes to the thriving literature on populism through a novel empirical scope, and to the literature on Southeast Europe through a focus on local agency, voter preferences and party system.
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This paper is a theoretically driven case study of the authoritarian populist reign of VMRO-DPMNE and its leader Nikola Gruevski in Macedonia since 2006. At the beginning, I assess the strengths and identify the pitfalls of the dominant approach to studying populism that sees populist politics as democratic illiberalism. Then I argue that this approach should be complemented with a discourse theoretical methodology that renders us more sensitive to the diachronic dimensions of the rise of Gruevski’s populism and its origins. The crucial concept I use to account for the durability of Gruvski’s reign is hegemony, which helps us to understand two important aspects of his populism. The specificity of his populism is in managing to change the political imagination of the majority of ethnic Macedonians, to create ‘the people’ and allow it to reclaim its place in history by providing channels for material, symbolic and emotional incorporation into the system of social classes that were traditionally excluded from society. This ‘democratic’ move came at a price: the nascent liberal and institutional channels for political participation in Macedonia’s young democracy were dismissed and new subalternity created. In demonstrating my findings, the paper includes a historical perspective of how the conditions allowing the rise of populism in Macedonia were created, as well as a discourse analysis of five paradigmatic speeches given by Gruevski.
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Populism is frequently understood as democratic illiberalism. Concrete policies that have been implemented by governing populist parties in Bulgaria, however, have been surprisingly liberal, at least in economic terms. This poses the question whether it is possible to have the opposite of democratic illiberalism, namely, liberal populism.This article investigates the elective affinities between liberal and populist discourses during the Bulgarian Summer protests in 2013. This investigation is done with astrong focus on intellectuals' interpretations as their function is not merely reflective description, but is also formative and prescriptive of political identities. The main argument is that throughout the 2013 Summer protests there was visible tendency of articulation between populist and liberal discourses. They were populist both in the sense of “soft” populism, that is compatible with liberalism, as well as “exclusionary”of ethnic minorities and socially marginalized groups. The Summer protests constructed an identity of a minoritarian subaltern elite, united by its opposition to figures of oligarchic elites, ethnic minorities and illiberal majorities.
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Question of the achieved level of democracy in a given society is one of the most important issues in sociology of politics. We believe that electoral democracy can serve as an accurate and valid reference system for longitudinal monitoring of the development of democracy in the country, and it can even serve as an adequate methodological framework for comparison between states. In this paper we will try to give an objective analysis of the parliamentary elections in Serbia in 2014 using the theoretical concept of minimal definition of democracy. After the application of several criteria which postulated by theoretical framework, we will try to give an assessment on whether is Serbia still can be classified into the category of countries with effective electoral democracy (as we could after the previous election held in 2012).
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While interest in political patronage continues to grow within popular and elite discourses and in academic circles, researchers still face daunting measurement challenges. Focusing on the case of Serbia, we propose a possible solution to the measurement challenge by examining the association between the size of local coalitions and employment in public enterprises in 165+ municipalities in Serbia. Using municipal-level public employment data from 2007 to 2009 and local election and coalition data from 2004 and 2008, this study identifies a relationship between the level of public employment and local government coalition size and composition in the aftermath of the 2008 local elections. The results not only provide support for popular and elite discourses about patronage in Serbia, but they also serve as a pilot test for a methodology that can be applied to other cases.
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The paper deals with the results of the Croatian Peasant Party (HSS) in the 1927 regional and parliamentary elections in the area of Bosnia and Herzegovina. The paper is based on the unpublished archive materials and literature. Other Croatian political parties and dissidents of HSS in Bosnia and Herzegovina welcomed the coalition of HSS with the Serbian radicals as a suitable moment to decrease influence of HSS among Croats. Croatian People's Party (HPS) and a part of Catholic Church clergy announced the victory through emphasizing HSS involvement in the authorities with Serbian radicals, giving up on republicanism and recognizing the Vidovdan Constitution with accusations that Stjepan Radic fought against Catholic religion. Having received information on possible dispersion of members and reducing of support in the following elections, HSS leadership used more aggressive campaign visiting every place with potential voters and establishing new party branches. Despite the conflict with a part of the Catholic Church clergy in B&H and the fact that Serbian radicals, state authorities and opposed Croatian parties sabotaged their party activities, HSS won among Croats. They got the majority support both in the regional and parliamentary elections with significantly decreased number of voters, therefore Radic was not politically endangered with the number of mandates he got and HSS was still the leading Croatian party in Bosnia and Herzegovina.
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The paper starts with a presentation of the global context of economic-financial crisis and its impact on election outcomes throughout Europe, including Serbia. It continues with an analysis of political divisions and changes in the Serbian political spectrum in the period between two parliamentary elections. The third issue discussed herein is a contradictory situation in the civil society in Serbia, characterized by fragmentation and confusion. The final part of the paper is devoted to an analysis of controversial processes of social and political maturation of the electoral body in Serbia. The author concludes that the results of parliamentary and presidential elections are at odds and that therefore it is uncertain whether the balance of power shall be provided and the European integration path accelerated, or the new configuration of power shall bring in additional oxygen and infusion to nationalism.
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It is evident that what have been done to improve the electoral system in the previous mandate is electoral reform and not trivial technical changes of electoral institutions and procedures. Changes in party registration, electoral register, party financing and electoral campaigns, and the deletion of provisions from the unconstitutional election laws that have enabled the parties to nominate and elect simultaneously, was reforms which have changed electoral system functioning. However, the key changes are lacking: a personalized selection of representatives, variable electoral threshold for coalitions, the introduction of multi-member districts, changing the size of the parliament. So, there was no „big” electoral reform. Veto players in this partial, incomplete reform process are political parties from parliamentary majority. Interestingly, in this slowdown and disposal of comprehensive electoral reforms they did not encounter resistance from the opposition. That is why the main shortcomings of the actual electoral model – MP depersonalization, fragmented party system and metropolisation of parliamentary representation – have still remained. Last electoral cycle has confirmed and strengthened these disadvantages. At the same time, the consequences are the best incentive to continue the process of electoral reform.
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In this text the author underlines common characteristics of the Serbian 2012 general election campaign though there were significant differences among party campaigns considered separately. First of all, the author finds that this election campaign followed a two year long preelection campaign marked out by continuous and intensive propaganda activities. Having started as an issue campaign, this campaign was finalized as a completely leadership (personalized) one. It did not bring serious changes of party and candidate images, but it made some elements of the image to be accentuated, especially when it comes to presidential candidates. Having started as an issue campaign, it was dominantly positive, though there were some negative elements. On the eve of the elections, and particularly just before the second round of presidential election, the elements of not only negative, but so called dirty campaign, prevailed. New legal measurements related to buying TV time during election campaigns caused certain changes of the communication strategy between election actors and voters. So far, we have not faced such an intensive grass-roots campaign complemented by numerous conventions and meetings. Instead of numerous live TV coverage programmes, so called party production as well as media publicity were used predominantly; the advantages of debates and duels were used as never before; billboard replaced massive production of election posters that was characteristic of previous elections; Internet and social networks were used as never before...
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In this article we discuss the importance and characteristics of internet usage in electoral campaigns in 2012 Serbian elections, with specific interest in structural conditions and social significance of internet. Therefore our interest is more related to the ways in which parties and media use internet, and less concerned with content and form of messages. Although it is clear that internet has growing importance for younger population and their political preferences, our intention is to evaluate the role of internet campaign regarding the entire political community and mainstream political scene.
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This paper discusses the elections for the Assembly of the Autonomous Province of Vojvodina held in May 2012, focusing on the election campaign, the electoral system and their consequences for the parliamentary scene of Vojvodina. The paper outlines the key protagonists of the electoral process, analyses the central topics in relation to which the protagonists have positioned themselves, and presents some conclusions on the distinctiveness of the campaign. Finally, the results of the election and the most likely structure of the future executive government in Vojvodina are presented.
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This paper analyzes pre-electoral coalitions in Serbian 2012 parliamentary elections. Pre-electoral period has been characterized by negotiations over electoral coalitions. There are several reasons for entering electoral coalition. Large parties are trying to become leaders of party blocks they belong to. Small parties have “threshold fear”. Most parties are making coalitions in attempt to create “synergy effect”. 11 parties entered parliament through SNS list, while 7 parties were included on DS list. Small parties’ demands usually were not in accordance with their popular support and electoral strength. During these elections national minority parties were more competitive than before and they acted in compliance with the syndrome “two Serbs – three parties”. Drafting of electoral lists according to new electoral rules had inter and intra party consequences. It was not easy to respond to a request to include high rank party officials, one third of women, representatives of different municipalities, towns and regions on the electoral lists and at the same time to award local politicians that had good results and could bring many votes. Simultaneous elections on all levels (national, provincial and local) allowed forming of different coalitions on each level. Coalition agreements played an important role in the second round of presidential elections regarding the support to one of the candidates. Key questions that influenced forming of the government were about coalition partners, prime minister, government program and division of ministries.
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This paper analyzes the participation of political parties of national minorities in Serbian elections on May 6th 2012. The first part of the paper is dedicated to presenting the results of parliamentary, presidential, provincial and local elections for the electoral lists of national minorities, while the second part points to certain characteristics of these elections in terms of participation of minority parties and groups.
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An organized campaign of “white ballots” for the parliamentary and presidential elections in Serbia 2012th as a form of electoral abstention, had a purpose to, in the propriate way, delegitimise election bid and to encourage political actors to changes in electoral legislation. The legal framework for elections in Serbia, by their nature throw away any type of electoral abstention from the impact of the final election result of political actors, so that the number and impact of “white ballots” based on the assumption remains that can be discussed on a given topic. After elections, the estimates of the impacts of this campaign are very interesting for political analysis.
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Parliamentary, presidential, provincional and local elections, held in May 2012 in Serbia, as well as preceeding election campaign was followed by international and national observers and relevant state institutions. The text presents various aspects of currently published monitoring findings, including data about work of international observers from relevant bodies of OSCE and CoE, Republican Electoral Committee, Republican Broadcasting Agency, Agency for Fight Against Corruption and several non-governmental organizations (CESID, Transparency Serbia, Fond BKV, Birodi) that monitored, among other things, regularity of election process and its compliance with international standards, representation of election participants in media, election campaign financing, selection and approach to various topics of election campaign.
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Election games are hands with the highest possible stake - the very position of government is the stake. Winning the game and position of the party / coalition in power offers the possibility to manage politics, and distribute funds while placing officials and party favorites in the government’s crib. To win a lot, one needs to invest a lot, and even to borrow from those who expect their debt will be returned in the form of lucrative jobs and privileges, upon arrival to power. For this reason, in democratic societies, people must know who and under what circumstances gives money to those who they vote for. It is not the same whether parties and candidates are funded by millions of small contributions, or depend solely on few dozen richest people, in addition to public to funds. Not every contribution is legitimate and welcome - especially those from anonymous sources, from foreign governments or public enterprises and private firms in contractual relations with the state. For the political competition to be fair, cash flow must be controlled by an independent body equipped with the means that make actual control possible, and not by bodies controlled by political parties.
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