Around the Bloc: Around the Bloc - Romanian Cabinet Ministers Bounced as EU Presidency Nears
Justice commissioner visits Bucharest to drive home serious concerns over government’s steps to blur the separation of powers.
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Justice commissioner visits Bucharest to drive home serious concerns over government’s steps to blur the separation of powers.
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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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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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The US presidential election results (2016) threw dust into the eyes of the intellectual superstructure of the political sphere (political analysts, specialized observatories). The most frequent questions were: “Who would have believed it?” and “How was this possible?” Those who could “believe” it were the open-minded thinkers, who evaded from the dominant ideological referential, imposed in the last decades, and who could foresee the evolution trends of the public consciousness in the US. As regards the second question, we shall try to provide an answer in two phases: 1) by analyzing the consequences of the end of the Cold War; 2) by assessing the actuality of the Enlightenment project of human emancipation. As such, we discover several causality links between Donald Trump’s victory, Brexit and the ascension of the national parties in the West. These events have a common cause: the change of the social evolution mechanisms and of the legitimation ideologies.
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Democracy is beneficial to people provided the democratic rule is adopted while democracy cannot be achieved unless there are periodic elections. Elections, though, considered as pre-requite for good governance, however, mere elections without ensuring credibility is also tantamount to despotism. An election cannot be judged as credible, free and fair unless the following agents of democracy - security, media and civil society organizations – perform their constitutional roles. This paper focuses on the evaluation and dynamics of role of security, media and civil society organization in Nigerian democracy. It explores the pertinent roles of the security, media and civil society organizations to the conduct of credible elections which in turn may beget true democracy. The existing literatures have drawn the linkage between security democracy and elections. However, this paper does not only argues that security men, press men and civil society organizations have not done well in the conduct of elections in Nigeria but also highlights some other core issues that have dominated the discourse and explores the challenges on democratization process in Nigeria. Finally, a recommendation is made that all stakeholders should be honest and moral in discharging their duties.
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Taking the position of the Constitutional Court of Republic of Croatia that constitutionality of apportionment in Croatian parliamentary elections depends on whether such an apportionment affects electoral results as a starting point, the author discusses the methodological strategies by which the effects could be scientifically verified and measured. Discarding methodological suggestion of the Constitutional Court itself as a demanding and "non-economic" in terms of research, the article offers an alternative methodological strategy, also based on simulation as the only appropriate method for resolving such a research puzzle. Simulation of electoral results of parliamentary elections in Croatia from 2000 to 2016, under conditions of electoral units of different magnitude that assure real equality of voting rights, shows significant differences to actual electoral results at the level of electoral districts and personal level. Effects on distribution of seats among parties at the level of entire parliament as well as on the chances of parties to form government are either minimal or non-existent. There are no juristic obstacles for the research finding to be used in the praxis of the Constitutional Court.
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This article discusses the political effects of two different conceptions of democracy in ethnically deeply divided societies. It considers the conflicts with clear historical roots by analysing the case of the Election Law of Bosnia and Herzegovina which involves two irreconcilable ideas of democracy expressed by the political elites of two communities, the Bosniaks and the Croats. The first part explains the conflict between Bosniak and Croat political elites, which have respectively, been trying to impose either the majoritarian or the consociational system since the 1990s. The second part discusses the decisions of the European Court of Human Rights and of the Constitutional Court of Bosnia and Herzegovina on electoral rules. It is argued that the imposition of integrationist-like rules and the suspension of consociational arrangements in the Election Law has increased divisions between the two ethnic communities. Finally, the article analyses the proposed amendments to election rules submitted to both state and entity parliaments, which confirm the existence of clearly irreconcilable visions of democracy within the Bosniak-Croat Federation.
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In this paper we analyze the influence of populist ideas on the emergence and organization of new political parties in Serbia after the elections in 2007 and 2008. These elections represent the turning point in the development of the party system because only after the pro-European consensus among Democrats and Socialists was formed, the division within Serbian Radical Party occurred and the ideological space occupied by the relevant parties has narrowed. On the other hand, high level of distrust in politics among the citizens and lowering of the state of democracy facilitate the emergence of new actors who are, almost by rule, under the influence of the growing wave of populism in the world. In this paper, we apply the ideational approach to populism and, using the new actors as example, we aim to identify ideological and organizational variations which can develop under the influence of populism, as well as differences which emerge from the interpretation of populism in Serbia compared to some other countries.
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Presidential elections in March 2012 have been followed with interest by international community. Vladimir Putin won and returned to the Kremlin. Under Putin’s first two presidential mandates (2000-2008) Russia has returned to the international arena as an important player. Now, Russia is different, international situation is, also, different and very challenging. Putin’s return might be followed by the Russia’s stronger affirmation as an important international player. The study analyzes the first two presidential mandates, context, perspectives of the future internal and external evolutions and significance of Putin’s return, impact, perspectives and challenges he might face.
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The political relations of Austria with the developing countries, or with so-called 'third world’ countries, are characterized by a marked rapprochement and closer cooperation in the past decade. This occurs within the United Nations system, and can be substantiated by quantitative indicators — Austria’s voting record on various issues. This does not mean, however, that there are no departures from general programmatic stances in voting on particular problems, e. g, on the international economic order and similar matters. Another important form of rapprochement are bilateral relations of the Austrian Government with the governments of developing countries. Factors of political relevance are also the problems of foreign workers and the admission of refugees from 'third world’ countries to Austria. In economic relations, there has been a substantial increase of the share of ’third world' countries in Austrian foreign trade, both exports and imports. This increase applies, however, primarily to trade with particular regions and groups of developing countries — e. g. Austrian export has recorded the highest growth in Africa and the Middle East, as well as in the OPEC countries. Among the export items, capital and arms occupy a special place. One of the central problems in the relations between Austria and the developing countries still remains an unsatisfactory quantitative and qualitative level of Austrian state aid to those countries With regard to quantity. Austria belongs among the so-called 'tight-fisted Europe’, and with regard to quality she is one of the states which offer relatively unfavourable terms of assistance (financial terms, conditional aid. budget adjustment, etc.).
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The results are discussed of a survey conducted In the course of two electoral processes: in 1978 and in 1982. The differences are analyzed in the respondents' answers in relation to a series of dependent variables: knowledge, motivation, interest, willingness to accept the function of delegate, activity In electoral processes, perception of influence, perception of democracy, opinion on »closed lists«. The results show systematic differences in two groups of variables. With regard to the activity variable, the 1982 election involves a substantially greater participation of citizens and a greater readiness to accept the functions of delegate. In the perception and opinion variables, the year 1982 demonstrates a considerably higher degree of criticism, frustration and demand for the democratization of procedures. These differences are explained by higher political culture, on the one hand, and by the disproportion between Initial expectations when the system was inaugurated and its practical realisation, on the other, as well as by a generally stronger critical attitude and dissatisfaction caused by difficulties in socio-economic relations.
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An enquiry into the election of delegates to the assemblies of socio-political communities and of self-managing communities of interest was conducted by means of questionnaires. It covered 410 subjects. The nomination processes were defined as the crucial democratic element in the election of delegates. The main subjects of the enquiry were: the time of nomination of candidates, the actual initiators of nominations, the explanations given for proposing candidates, and some activities and assessments of delegates The results reveal differences in certain aspects of electoral activity depending on the type of electorate. Socio-political organizations exercise a greater influence on the election of delegates to communal assemblies than those delegated to the assemblies of self-managing communities of Interest. Delegations and the electorate propose most candidates for the chambers of local communities and for the chambers of the assemblies of self-managing communities of interest. Data on the delegates' activities indicate slighter interest and participation in electoral activities of delegates to the self-managing communities of interest. Comparative figures for the 1978 and 1982 elections reveal that delegates are less willing to undertake delegational functions and greater pessimism on their part in estimating the possibilities for effective work in the assemblies.
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Author deals with the problem of constructing national identity based on work of Jasna Čapo about researching of ethnic identity. He trays to speculate about ethnic and national values through three elements: constitution law, values in elections and value research in Belgium and Croatia.
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Declining trust is one of the central problems in modem politics. Trust declines in collective action arrangements. Trust is one of the "big questions," and "one of the normal obligations of political life." Embedded within it are fundamental issues of politics and democratic theory. In this article, I want to discuss which different conceptions of trust (and relations to democracy). The paper proceeds as follows. In the first part, the conceptual and theoretical definition of trust is given. In the second part it points to one of the basic division of trust which is present in the literature. Finally, in the third part, the relationship between trust and democracy is pointed out and appropriate argumentation is offered.
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The ideological reorientation and political reorganisation of the PKK has been a subject of debate. While some authors recognise that significant changes occurred within the PKK, others have dismissed the PKK’s transformation as a communication strategy and window-dressing. Based on interviews with key informants, this article reconstructs debates and developments within the party at the beginning of the 2000s. A main conclusion is that the transformation of the PKK was more than a reorientation involving organisational adjustment; it was no less than the development of a new mindset, one that involved the questioning of historically entrenched gender hierarchies and deeply held political axioms. In the process of this major change, the PKK lost a substantial number of long-time activists and cadres. Although at times it looked as if the movement might fall apart, the result was a transformation that gave the PKK a new impetus.
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