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In the contemporary constitutional and democratic state, political parties represent one of the most important organizations of modern political action. Their constitutionalization, or introducing into the constitution the provisions which govern the principal position of the political parties and which recognize their (democratic) role in the constitutional system, influenced the appearance of different mechanisms of control and prohibition of their operation and activities. This paper analyzes the position and role of contemporary constitutional courts in controlling the operation and activities of political parties. The analysis of the practice of constitutional courts which exercise these powers, as well as of the practice of the European Court of Human Rights and of the opinions of the Venice Commission expressed by “Guidelines on Prohibition and Dissolution of Political Parties and Analogous Measures” is essential if we wish to critically evaluate the place and role of modern constitutional courts in the control of operation and activities of political parties.
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This article discusses the reasons for Macedonia's early elections to be deferred yet again.
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The discussion about justification for the very existence of Senate, as it was the case in previous years, also took place prior to the 2015 parliamentary elections. Postulates for the second chamber of parliament to be abolished are the inseparable element of election campaigns in Poland. Announcements of total abolishment or change of: form, competencies or number and the election principles for members of Senate, although they found their expression in the 2015 election programs of some of the political parties, but they were never applied after elections. The single member Senate constituencies secured seats almost exclusively for candidates supported by one of the two strongest political parties, that is the Law and Justice (PiS) and the Civic Platform (PO). Even if in the result of 25 October 2015 elections four independent candidates were elected for senators, three of them used support of political parties, using a rule well proven four years earlier: there is not senator without a political party protector. The 40% support for PiS which turned into 61% of seats indicates that the election system for Senate leads to overrepresentation of election winners.
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The article deals with the aristocratic thesis about the character of the elections in representative governments, which has been widely discussed in political theory in previous decades. according to the thesis, the elections have two faces – they are in the same time aristocratic and democratic by nature. as a mixture of democratic and aristocratic principle, representative democracy remains a mixed form of government. The main difference between this form of government and the older form of mixed republic is that general elections have become a method of legitimating the government. This form of government is allied with democratic elitism in their effects, despite the differences in justification of the essential role of elections in democratic processes. according to critics, the aristocratic element in contemporary democracies is more like oligarchic or plutocratic in traditional sense of the word. These critics occasionally refer to this state of affairs as a state of postdemocracy. The main thesis of the article is that differentiation between the two faces of elections is a powerful toll for analysis of contemporary democracies. The author does not defend the aristocratic thesis itself.
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The author recapitulates the effects of certain aspects of the electoral system and the consequences they have produced in the political system. It is shown that in the last 24 years, Serbian citizens spent nearly one month in the polls, casting their ballots for committee members, deputies, the President or voting in referenda. Only twice have elections for deputies been held independently and separately from elections for other levels of government, while the majority–namely seven, were extraordinary elections. The ten election cycles show an increasing trend of electoral abstention, which in the 2014 elections, reached an alarming point. There are two phases in the development of the electoral system. The first one, ending in 2000, was characterised by frequent and large electoral reforms. The second phase, since 2000, shows that the disproportional system assumes the character of an „unchangeable institution“. The closed blocked list and the relatively low election threshold in a constitutency <have led to a great number of parties in the Parliament and to weak coalition governments. Indices of disproportionality and of the number of effective parties show a weak instutionalisaton of the party system, lack of rootedness of political parties within the society and a low level of party identification. The conclusion is that the electoral system has failed to contribute to the stability of the parliamentary and party sistem, which has had negative consequences for the functioning of the political system overall and requires a well designed electoral reform.
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The domination of economic and social issues in 2014 Serbian parliamentary election campaign could have lead to a conclusion it had been an issue one. However, once again, as it happened in the campaign two years ago, very similar promises made in a general manner have made voters’ emotional and value-orineted attitudes and not their rational motivation to be in the foreground.
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In this paper we analyze the reasons for the extraordinary parliamentary elections in Serbia, its political context and the most important issues. We begin with insight in the major competitors, structure of candidate lists and composition of electoral coalitions, with special attention devoted to parties of national minorities. This is followed by analyses of government formation process and the major losers of these elections. 2014 elections in Serbia were political purgatory and scaffold. Three parliamentary and relevant parties did not make over the 5% threshold (DSS, URS and LDP), and only 4 coalitions and 3 minority lists entered the parliament. After these elections Serbia has party system with dominant party (SNS) and very weak opposition leading to lack of democratic balance and counterweight which could be damaging for further democratic consolidation process. Party systems with clientelistic electoral competition instead of programmatic one, has weaker chances for consolidation of democracy.
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Elections are a tool for the competing entities to achieve political goals. Therefore, electoral procedures are a significant element affecting their political perspectives. A change in the electoral system depends on balance of power in the parliament. In practice, two models of electoral reforms are possible. In the first of them, political parties collaborate to reform the system. Thus, they protect the interests of as many parties as possible. In the second one, the majority can force others to accept the solutions that are beneficial for them. The majority promote the institutional patterns and procedures that give them a chance to consolidate or increase the relative power of influence of elections. The presented paper includes the analysis of social preferences concerning a reform of the electoral system in Poland. The study revealed the preference for the cooperative model of changing the electoral system. Only the respondents who identified themselves as having right-wing inclinations approved of the competitive model.
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The present text discusses the opinions of the Poles on the method of conducting the election campaign, which consists in the election candidate or his/her representative directly visiting homes of voters (the door-to-door method). The objective of the study described in this article was to find out whether the door-to-door method is regarded by voters as helpful to the candidate in the election and to what extent the voters are inclined to receive at their homes the candidate conducting the election campaign.
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Distinctions of electoral behavior among different regions of Ukraine are analyzed in the article. The election results in the period 1991 – 2012 made it possible to conclude that the fundamental importance of regional factors is present in the system of electoral preferences of citizens. The main reasons and factors of ideological differences among the regions are presented. Main attention is paid on the clarifying the regional polarity of political culture and electoral behavior of citizens according to an axis “east – west”.
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Describes the index of the effective number of electoral and parliamentary parties. Explained by the peculiarity of their application for the analysis of party systems. In the paper calculated the effective number of parties in the electoral and parliamentary levels for Ukraine after the elections to the Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine, 1994, 1998 , 2002, 2006, 2007, 2012.
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The author analysis the origin of idea of proportional representation. The study focuses on origins of two basic forms of proportional representation electoral systems – Party-list Proportional System and Single Transferable Vote System. The article also focuses on the way the idea of proportional representation was introduced into practice.
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The study analyzes the process of electoral districts delimitation. The main focus is on gerrymandering – the practice attempting to establish geographic boundaries to create partisan advantage in the electoral process. The term Gerrymander originated in 1812, when the Massachusetts Legislature divided the County of Essex into two senatorial districts to dilute the strength of the opposing party. The study emphasizes the history of gerrymandering, its goals and the Supreme Court’s decisions dealing with manipulative redistricting process.
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The study focuses on the use of outdoor advertising media in the 2010 Presov mayoral election campaign. It aims to outline the theoretical framework underlying the research, describe the methodological approach to the research, and provide the results of analysing and comparing the use of outdoor advertising by the mayoral candidates in the campaign. The pieces of data for this research were acquired in three phases: at the beginning of the campaign, in the middle of it and at its end. The author of the study comes to the conclusions that a wide variety of outdoor advertising media was used in 2010 Presov mayoral election campaign; the way of using the advertising media was specific to one candidate, however, the way of using the advertising media by other candidates was similar in many aspects and it cannot be ruled out that their campaign strategies were reactive or interactive in character.
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This study looks at electoral reforms in Romania made since the end of the communist period. It identifies two broad periods of reform corresponding to two different types of pressures on the policy-makers. (1) In the 1990s, there was a need for party system consolidation, and this led to the adoption of a highly inclusive first electoral law, followed up by two increases in the electoral threshold. (2) In the 2000s, a vociferous movement demanded more individual responsibility from parliamentary representatives. This led to the electoral reform of 2008, stipulating that candidates must run in single-member districts. The two different pressures outlined correspond to different stages of democracy and indicate a healthy evolution from the proto-democratic order of the 1990s, concerned with party system consolidation, to the more developed democratic order of the 2000s, when the public was concerned with the quality of representation and the power to unseat unresponsive MPs. In practice, however, as the academic literature shows, the 2008 reform has fallen short of its promises: the individual responsiveness encouraged by the reform seems instead to be leading to stronger political clientelism.
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The contributions to this special issue describe and analyse the institutional and behavioural dynamics of the political processes that have occurred in Romania since 1989. The country is one of the largest of the East European members of the European Union (EU) with a population and territorial area exceeded only by that of Poland, and the idiosyncrasies of its economic, political and social transition make it an appealing case study of political dynamics in a new democracy. There are the circumstances of its elite continuity and the question of corruption to consider, the positions of minorities, the comparative lateness of its democratic achievements as well as its more recent social convulsions. Largely as a consequence of many of the problems associated with those matters, Romania was able to join the EU only in 2007, although its accession process had been initiated at the same time as in other countries which were admitted to the EU in 2004.
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The concept of the centre-left symbolises an important and groundbreaking period in the ideological history of the Republican People’s Party (Turkish Abbreviation CHP), which considered to be valuable not only for party itself, but also for the Turkish political life as well. With the approach of centre-left it has been laid the foundations of Turkish social democracy at all. Although this new discourse hold on especially in 1960s and 1970s, its effect has lasted to the nowadays. However it must be stressed that the tradition of social democracy in Turkey is relatively new compared to West European countries. Within this context the Republican People’s Party has been defined itself as a social democratic party in the 1960s, “democratic left” in the 1970s, “new left” in the 1990s and the “new CHP” since 2010. The concept of centre-left has been gradually abandoned from political scene of Turkey, instead of which Bülent Ecevit used the concept of "democratic left".
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On 26 May 2010, not long after the formation of the new government, the Hungarian Parliament approved an amendment to the law on Hungarian citizenship with an overwhelming majority, which allowed for the simplified naturalization of Hungarians living beyond the borders of Hungary as of the year 2011. The Fundamental Law, approved in spring 2011, did not set residency in Hungary as a condition to the exercise of suffrage, thus it eliminated the constitutional obstacle for Hungarian citizens without residence in Hungary to exercise their right to vote.
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