Politics: Moldova’s Elections as Tug-of-War
Russia and the EU are working to help voters make up their minds as they head to the polls this weekend.
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Russia and the EU are working to help voters make up their minds as they head to the polls this weekend.
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There are two social democratic parties in Bosnia Herzegovina: SNSD and SDP BiH. These two parties differ regarding their origin and their political activity in Bosnia Herzegovina. Thus, it was assumed that voters of the two parties differ regarding their national composition, socio-demographic characteristics and political attitudes. In May of 2007 a face to face interview was conducted with 260 voters of SNSD and 147 voters of SDP BiH. SNSD’s voters were found to be less tolerant, less liberal and more prone to nationalism and the feeling of ethical superiority relative to voters of SDP BiH. As a matter of fact, SNSD’s voters were more similar to voters of some nationalistic political parties like SDS then to voters of SDP BiH. The observed differences between political attitudes of SNSD and SDP BiH voters was explained by increasing ethnic tensions in Bosnia Herzegovina in Spring of 2007 and by their essential dissimilarity: SNSD’s primary objective is Republika Srpska and its survival, while SDP BiH insist on unity of Bosnia Herzegovina.
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Albania has been under communist regime for nearly half a century. In 1991 Albania entered the path of democratic pluralism. Since then, almost a quarter of a century has passed and the counting of votes after every electoral process has been fairly contested by the opposition. Manipulations in the manual numbering process are evidenced in all the reports of the international organizations responsible for monitoring of the elections in Albania. To minimize manipulation in manual ballot papers counting, some centres are set up, equipped with computers, HD cameras and big screens for monitoring purposes only. Every counting table (about 400 in total), according to the law, engages 4-5 commissioners of main parties. The infrastructure mention above gives the other parties the possibility just to observe the counting process. In 2013 parliamentary elections had 72 political parties and imagine 72 people around a single counting table! Ballots are passed manually one by one in front of the camera. During this process, the ballot papers are grouped according to subjects and, in the end of each voting box, the manual counting starts. A long period of time is needed to produce the final results of the elections. We propose and have all the abilities to turn existing infrastructure into an electronic counting system. This monitoring system (computers - cameras - big screens), through a software and some hardware adaptations can be converted into an electronic counting system. Only one person is needed for each counting table and the ballot counting time is drastically reduced. Every ballot gets photographed, archived in digital format, its information goes to the Data Base and the results are reported in real time to the Central Election Commission. No ballot papers can be left uncounted and no sheets can be counted more than once.
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Hrvatska demokratska zajednica (HDZ) BiH još uvijek je najveća nacionalna stranka bh. Hrvata. Na dosadašnjim izborima ova je stranka, u pravilu, osvajala najviše glasova birača hrvatske nacionalnosti, a na ovima je stala na brojci od 60 posto.
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Fondacija Centar za javno pravo je nedavno objavila analizu Zaključaka VSTV-a povodom Informacije “Centra za istraživanje rata i ratnih zločina i traženje nestalih lica RS-a”. Analizirani su uslovi donošenja, razlozi i procedure iniciranja zaključaka i uloga predsjednika VSTV-a Milana Tegeltije. Pokazalo se da je aktuleni predsjednk VSTV-a pod direktnim utjecajem političkog vrha RS-a i da provodi njegove političke odluke i planove. Njegova je zasluga da se najviše pravosudno tijelo stavilo u funkciju nacionalističkih politika iz RS-a.
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Following the decision of the Constitutional Court of BiH on the unconstitutionality of some of the provisions of the electoral law, disputes over a legal solution have peaked in what is an election year. The first part of the article deals with proposals for changing the electoral law, which are polarized between the „civil" and the „national" concept, behind which are party-interests. The second part of the article starts from a political science context and argues that in fragmented societies, such as Bosnia and Herzegovina, the duty of responsible politicians is to build consensus on important issues in order to avoid the fragmentation of political society. Similarly, parliamentary democracy in BiH should respect both the civic principle (the lower house) and by the national principle (upper house). The third part of the article argues that the role of religious communities is to influence a change of public discourse, starting from the interest of the individual, who is at the center of social life as a whole. In this mission, the Church serves its social teachings.
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The famous meeting of Stalin with metropolitans in September 1943 and the subsequent elections in Moscow of Patriarch of Moscow and All Russia, Metropolitan Sergius (Stragorodsky) for many meant a major change in the religious policy of the Soviet authorities. This event could not pass unnoticed on the other side of the front too. Nazi propagandists, particularly in the frontal regions have intensified their propaganda in the key fact disavowal election in Moscow Patriarch, emphasizing uncanonical current events and capitalizing on the issue of real and contrived cooperation leadership of the Russian Orthodox Church and the Soviet authorities, including NKVD. However, this position is not widely supported by both prominent church leaders (except representatives of the Russian Orthodox Church Abroad and some autocephalists ) and ordinary Orthodox believers.
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The link between turnout and election outcome remains somewhat of a mystery as many scholars try to estimate whether and what kind of effect different levels of turnout have on election results. Numerous studies, showing that participation is in decline, fostered the debate around this link. Researchers are trying to measure whether the ever-growing number of non-voters would, if they decided to vote, produce some changes or whether voters politically well represent the whole population. We would expect turnout to matter to election results when the party of non-voters is homogenous. This is why we are looking again at this question in the Montenegrin context, where one party, nowadays often perceived as pro-Montenegrin, has dominated the country’s politics and been the incumbent party since the introduction of pluralism. Voters of the opposition parties, from the main social cleavage in the country, are rather homogenous. But even though they are voting for the opposition, they lack the belief that change might happen in elections. Using the first post-electoral study and the first exit poll survey in Montenegro, we run a series of logistic regressions, testing the most prominent theories about voting abstention. Afterwards, we create a simulation for election results under universal turnout. We find evidence that Serbians have a lower probability of turning out than Montenegrins. The effect is not strong enough to produce a different outcome in the case of 100% turnout.
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The article explores source cue effects on policy attitudes in the context of the multiparty system of the Czech Republic. This context requires a more complex experimental design compared to the common source cue research of a two-party setup in the US research tradition. The cues in this research are conceptualized as either positive or negative feelings towards political actors, which is a more general and applicable concept compared to party identification, and enables us to measure the effects of negative attachments towards both political parties and party leaders. Negativity is a well-known psychological factor influencing a wide range of processes, from impression formation to memory retrieval, and thus it is also highly desirable to test its role in the formation of political attitudes. A simple laboratory experiment reveals that negative feelings influence policy attitudes more than positive feelings. Despite the widely-discussed role of individual politicians in citizens’ perception of politics, leaders do not work as stronger affective cues compared to parties. However, when the experimental design includes subjects’ prior attitudes towards an issue, the effects of affective cues diminish. Affective source cues matter mostly in case of novel issues without strong priors. The conclusions have implications for source cue experimental research because the effects are a matter of design.
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The year of 1848 brought about important changes in the political life of Eger, a town in northern Hungary. After a century-long struggle, the market town had finally achieved its aim of having independent parliamentary representation of its own. This opened the way before doing politics actively. Whereas suffrage had previously only belonged to the urban nobility, now a wide layer of burghers had access to the right to vote. Parallelly, the circle of those electing, and potentially elected to, the local body of representatives also expanded considerably. The present study analyses these two groups of voters in the period of the first general elections. Based on the electoral rolls, it explores the development in the numbers and composition of the group of voters, and tries to define those possibilities of social historical research which can possibly be undertaken with the help of such lists. Electoral rolls are frequently neglected sources of social history. Yet their importance in the case of settlements and electoral districts is beyond doubt, as they generally contain some 20 to 25 per cent of the adult male population, and some basic data (age, habitation, profession, wealth and revenues as suggested by census category) can easily be gained from them. In the case of Eger, in particular, the electoral rolls drafted for the first general elections make it possible to have a closer view of the town’s society in the middle of the 19th century, or more exactly of that part of it which had the right to vote. Although an examination of the story’s actors with regard to the registers is inhibited by the lack of sources, certain remarks in the electoral rolls, and the peculiarities in the application of the various categories, can nevertheless be put to use in this important topic of the history of mentality as well.
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All levels of goverment have to guide and promote the development of their regions. The goverment collect taxes and increase public borrowing to finance the development. Since 2009, in Mexico that ideal does not work well. The mexican subnational governments have increased public borrowing to finance electoral campaigns and current expenditure. This paper reports the results of a econometric model for testing that increased public borrowing is not associated with long run development. In Mexico, the states with the highest level of development and access to financial markets began to expand the demand for bank loans to cover the reduction in income; developed by the regression model we conclude that the expansion of debt is correlated with electoral periods; also pursues the strategy of borrowing short-term purposes such as electoral campaigns or fund current expenditure and part of the debt was used to finance investment in public works. Such financial strategy in the long term is gravely irresponsible for regional development, as the states financed partisan interests at the expense of future public spending cuts.
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This paper examines the legitimacy vs. the legality of the electoral process having the right to vote as one of the main indicators of democratization. To be more precise, it will closely analyze the last 10 years of governance and the settings in the Macedonian society where no clear separation of powers is present along with explicit usurpation of public institutions by the ruling political party. Having this Orwellian setting with the state as the main source of employment, control on public institutions, influence on judiciary, interception of citizens’ communications, ordered news stories streamed through media and exaggerated propaganda during political campaigns, this essay will delve into the content vs. the bare legal form of elections. If elections define democracy and voting is regarded as mechanism for expressing free will, in Macedonia it is questionable if this is imposed (free) will based on citizens’ direct dependence on the political party in power. The research is based on elections monitoring reports by the OSCE/ODIHR mission as well as the progress reports of the EU institutions. The opinions and recommendations in this paper are directed not only to the current government in Macedonia, but also refer to all democratically elected governments and authorities that underestimate the power of citizens. Because, that is what the quest for democracy urges us to do – holding politicians accountable for their actions, having people in power that represent citizens with dignity and never forget the source of their legitimacy.
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In several studies from the 1940s and 1950s, Paul Lazarsfeld, Bernard Berelson and William McPhee developed one of the most famous and provocative models of the electoral behavior – the Columbia model. Their empirical researches, that were conducted on two different communities, in two different electoral moments, led to similar conclusions, according to which the social context (the group of affiliation) exercises the main influence in the process of forming voters’ political options. This paper aims to discuss the theories advanced by the Columbia model, by linking them to the development of the communication technologies in the last few years (especially those regarding the social media). Consequently, the purpose of this paper is to use some of the conclusions advanced by Lazarsfeld and his collaborators based on their theories in order to prove that, even after half a century (period during which the way of making and understanding politics has substantially evolved), the Columbia model remains relevant and is able, in many cases, to overcome many of the limitations of the economical and psychological explanatory models of voting behavior. In order to better articulate our research inquiry, the paper will present a case study – the Romanian presidential elections from 2014.
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W listopadzie i grudniu 1918 r. polski rząd, wraz z Józefem Piłsudskim, wykonał gigantyczną pracę. Przygotowano wybory do Sejmu. Wydano dekrety ustanawiające równouprawnienie obywateli, w tym pełne prawa dla kobiet. Fundamenty państwa w stolicy i w terenie zostały ustanowione.
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This presents the evolution of the electoral legislation in Romania, focusing on the main electoral law elaborated up to 1900. Despite its limitations, the electoral system based on qualification contributed to the modernization of the Romanian society, to the knowledge of modern political rules. In this context, the article focuses on the modernization of the states at political level occurred as a result of the progress registered by the democratic system over time. The shifting scales of the electoral reform represent one of the expressions of political democracy to grant voting rights to a larger as possible number of citizens, presenting historically the introduction of this principle of national election (universal suffrage).
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Political representation is an extremely important issue for every democracy and it should closely reflect voters’ opinions. Therefore, the technical aspects that have an impact upon representation – the party system, the electoral system, the government – must be in complete accordance with the type of society in order for the outcomes to be positive. This paper aims to analyze the manner in which electoral reforms have been performed in Romania during the past 24 years, their strenghts and their week points, in an attempt to identify the grounds for a new electoral reform. In the last years, there were many voices who argued against the current electoral system and sustained the return to the previous one, of proportional representation. There are, however, another groups, who consider that neither the propportional representation, nore the single member majority system are the proper solution and, instead, the most suitable for Romania would be a mixed electoral system. The second part of this paper is based on the assusmption that the effects of the electoral law that functions in Romania after 2008 were not the expected ones and, worse, they contributed to the decrease in the population’s voting participation and in the diminished trust Romanians have in the political class. If we agree that, indeed, Romania needs a new electoral law, then we must answer to – what we consider to be – the main question: what would be the most appropriate type of electoral law for Romania? In order to do that, we try to search for a third solution, different from the ones we mentionned above and argue that Romania is prepared for and could apply one of the most „proportional” types of the proportional representation – the Single Transferable Vote.
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La guerre d’Irak est le principal facteur de la campagne présidentielle de 2008. Aujourd’hui elle représente le problème central de l’opinion publique Américaine. Cet article est une approche analytique intégrative de cette campagne, portant surtout trois questions: les sondages concernant les préférences des Americains pour l’élection présidentielle de 2008, le vote de la population hispanique et les déclarations des candidats sur le problème Irakien.
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This paper presents several features of the Romanian electoral process. At the theoretical level, the study presents the main theoretical directions for exploring political behaviour. The recent theoretical perspectives underline the role played by cognitive and ideological variables in shaping electoral behaviour. At the empirical level, the study proposes the analyses of the Romanian parliamentary elections among 2000-2016. In this context, we have tested the relationship between: voter turnout, white and null votes, ideological vote, unemployment rate and inflation rate. The statistical results reflect a positive correlations between voter turnout and ideological vote (R2= 0.717, p = 0.01) and inflation rate (R2= 0.632, p = 0.03). Thus, at the behavioural level we can stress the hybrid model based on ideological beliefs and economic interest.
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After the disappearance of communism and the entrance in the transition period, Romania experienced a series of changes regarding the entire social and political life. The present article challenges the evolution of the the electoral system from communism to democracy.
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In the year 1866, Romania moved to a new stage of its modernisation process and both the electoral system and the party system supported this process, which had been initiated by the political and cultural elite, formerly educated in various European universities. In this article, I intend to show the relationship between the electoral system and the two-party system while studying historical facts by the aid of political science instruments. In my research, I am using a methodological approach based on critical text analysis and comparison of both primary sources (discourses, memories etc.) and specialized literature in history and in political science. However, the evolution of the two-party system permitted the appearance of a few specific features starting from not only the resemblances, but also the differences between the British and the Romanian political systems.
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