Revolutionising Economic and Democratic Systems

2016 ◽  
pp. 7-58
Author(s):  
Kenneth Nordberg
Keyword(s):  
Democratic Systems

The referendum as an institution in the Black Sea Region: Does it signal the rise or collapse of democracy?

2019 ◽  
Vol 17 (4) ◽  
pp. 161-185
Author(s):  
Małgorzata Podolak
Keyword(s):  
Black Sea ◽  
Direct Democracy ◽  
The Black Sea ◽  
Moral Issues ◽  
Black Sea Region ◽  
Positive Effects ◽  
The Subject ◽  
Democratic Systems ◽  
Important State ◽  
Constitutional Changes

Views on the institution of direct democracy have changed during the period of democratic transition. The various advantages and positive effects of direct democracy have been confirmed by the practice of some democratic countries. Its educational and political activation value for society was also noted, without which civil society cannot form. The referendum is especially treated as the purest form of correlation between the views of society and the decisions of its representatives. In a situation where two representative bodies are present – the parliament and the president – a referendum is considered a means of resolving disputes between them in important state affairs. The referendum is nowadays becoming more than just a binding or consultative opinion on a legislative act, especially a constitution. First and foremost, it is important to see the extension of the type and scope of issues that are subject to direct voting. Apart from the traditional, i.e., constitutional changes, polarising issues that raise considerable emotion have become the subject of referenda. Problems of this type include, in particular, moral issues, membership in international organisations, and so-called ‘New Policy’. This article presents the role and importance of the referendum as an institution shaping the democratic systems of the Black Sea Region.

Conditionality & Coercion

2019 ◽  
Author(s):  
Isabela Mares ◽  
Lauren E. Young
Keyword(s):  
Mixed Method ◽  
Personal Characteristics ◽  
Policy Preferences ◽  
The European Union ◽  
Vote Buying ◽  
Private Benefits ◽  
Public Benefits ◽  
Local Actors ◽  
Democratic Systems ◽  
Method Approach

In many recent democracies, candidates compete for office using illegal strategies to influence voters. In Hungary and Romania, local actors including mayors and bureaucrats offer access to social policy benefits to voters who offer to support their preferred candidates, and they threaten others with the loss of a range of policy and private benefits for voting the “wrong” way. These quid pro quo exchanges are often called clientelism. How can politicians and their accomplices get away with such illegal campaigning in otherwise democratic, competitive elections? When do they rely on the worst forms of clientelism that involve threatening voters and manipulating public benefits? This book uses a mixed method approach to understand how illegal forms of campaigning including vote buying and electoral coercion persist in two democratic countries in the European Union. It argues that clientelistic strategies must be disaggregated based on whether they use public or private resources, and whether they involve positive promises or negative threats and coercion. The authors document that the type of clientelistic strategies that candidates and brokers use varies systematically across localities based on their underlying social coalitions, and also show that voters assess and sanction different forms of clientelism in different ways. Voters glean information about politicians’ personal characteristics and their policy preferences from the clientelistic strategies these candidates deploy. Most voters judge candidates who use clientelism harshly. So how does clientelism, including its most odious coercive forms, persist in democratic systems? This book suggests that politicians can get away with clientelism by using forms of it that are in line with the policy preferences of constituencies whose votes they need. Clientelistic and programmatic strategies are not as distinct as previous studies have argued.

scholarly journals Winning, Losing, and the Quality of Democracy

2021 ◽  
pp. 003232172110261
Author(s):  
Richard Nadeau ◽  
Jean-François Daoust ◽  
Ruth Dassonneville
Keyword(s):  
Comparative Study ◽  
Electoral Systems ◽  
Motivated Reasoning ◽  
Quality Of Democracy ◽  
Electoral Democracy ◽  
Democratic Systems ◽  
The Comparative Study

Citizens who voted for a party that won the election are more satisfied with democracy than those who did not. This winner–loser gap has recently been found to vary with the quality of electoral democracy: the higher the quality of democracy, the smaller the gap. However, we do not know what drives this relationship. Is it driven by losers, winners, or both? And Why? Linking our work to the literature on motivated reasoning and macro salience and benefiting from the Comparative Study of Electoral Systems project—covering 163 elections in 51 countries between 1996 and 2018, our results show that the narrower winner–loser gap in well-established electoral democracies is not only a result of losers being more satisfied with democracy, but also of winners being less satisfied with their victory. Our findings carry important implications since a narrow winner–loser gap appears as a key feature of healthy democratic systems.

CORRUPTION IN ADVERSARIAL SYSTEMS: THE CASE OF DEMOCRACY

2018 ◽  
Vol 35 (02) ◽  
pp. 221-241
Author(s):  
Daniel M. Weinstock
Keyword(s):  
Institutional Design ◽  
Theory And Practice ◽  
Institutional Framework ◽  
Central Feature ◽  
Central Task ◽  
Perverse Incentives ◽  
Democratic System ◽  
Democratic Systems ◽  
Positive Traits ◽  
In Virtue Of

Abstract:In this essay I argue that adversarial institutional systems, such as multi-party democracy, present a distinctive risk of institutional corruption, one that is particularly difficult to counteract. Institutional corruption often results not from individual malfeasance, but from perverse incentives that make it the case that agents within an institutional framework have rival institutional interests that risk pitting individual advantage against the functioning of the institution in question. Sometimes, these perverse incentives are only contingently related to the central animating logic of an institution. In these cases, immunizing institutions from the risk of corruption is not a theoretically difficult exercise. In other cases, institutions generate perverse or rival incentives in virtue of some central feature of the institution’s design, one that is also responsible for some of the institution’s more positive traits. In multi-party democratic systems, partisanship risks giving rise to too close an identification of the partisan’s interest with that of the party, to the detriment of the democratic system as a whole. But partisanship is also necessary to the functioning of such a system. Creating bulwarks that allow the positive aspects of partisanship to manifest themselves, while offsetting the aspects of partisanship through which individual advantage of democratic agents is linked too closely to party success, is a central task for the theory and practice of the institutional design of democracy.

scholarly journals Citizen Participation and Machine Learning for a Better Democracy

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Robert Procter ◽  
Miguel Arana-Catania ◽  
Felix-Anselm van Lier ◽  
Nataliya Tkachenko ◽  
Yulan He ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Machine Learning ◽  
Citizen Participation ◽  
Language Processing ◽  
Information Overload ◽  
City Council ◽  
Decision Making Processes ◽  
Development Goals ◽  
Democratic Systems ◽  
The City

The development of democratic systems is a crucial task as confirmed by its selection as one of the Millennium Sustainable Development Goals by the United Nations. In this article, we report on the progress of a project that aims to address barriers, one of which is information overload, to achieving effective direct citizen participation in democratic decision-making processes. The main objectives are to explore if the application of Natural Language Processing (NLP) and machine learning can improve citizens? experience of digital citizen participation platforms. Taking as a case study the ?Decide Madrid? Consul platform, which enables citizens to post proposals for policies they would like to see adopted by the city council, we used NLP and machine learning to provide new ways to (a) suggest to citizens proposals they might wish to support; (b) group citizens by interests so that they can more easily interact with each other; (c) summarise comments posted in response to proposals; (d) assist citizens in aggregating and developing proposals. Evaluation of the results confirms that NLP and machine learning have a role to play in addressing some of the barriers users of platforms such as Consul currently experience.

Deliberation and Equality

2018 ◽  
pp. 143-155
Author(s):  
Edana Beauvais
Keyword(s):  
Institutional Arrangements ◽  
Political Systems ◽  
Moral Equality ◽  
Close Relationship ◽  
Democratic Systems ◽  
The Relationship

Political systems are democratic to the extent that people are empowered to participate in political practices—such as voting, representing, deliberating, and resisting—that contribute to self-and collective-rule. There is a close relationship between equality and democracy, as equality distributes symmetrical empowerments that enable people affected by collective endeavors to participate in political practices that contribute to self- and collective-rule. This chapter elucidates the relationship between equality, inclusion, and deliberative practices in democratic systems. It describes two distinguishable values of equality required for distributing empowerments that enable deliberation: the value of universal moral equality, and the value of equity. The chapter then outlines different institutional arrangements that promote the values of universal moral equality and equity in deliberative practices.

scholarly journals Związek wolnego rynku z dyktaturą polityczną: przejściowy czy trwały? Przykład Chin

2018 ◽  
Vol 46 ◽  
Author(s):  
Aniela Dylus
Keyword(s):  
Market Economy ◽  
Free Market ◽  
Political Freedom ◽  
Political Life ◽  
Paradigm Change ◽  
Free Market Economy ◽  
The Enlightenment ◽  
Liberal Economy ◽  
Democratic Systems ◽  
Economy System

Aniela Dylus, Związek wolnego rynku z dyktaturą polityczną: przejściowy czy trwały? Przykład Chin [The relation between free market economy and political dictatorship – is it of temporary or permanent nature? The example of China] edited by W. Banach, M.A. Michalski, J. Sójka, „Człowiek i Społeczeństwo” vol. XLVI: Między Chinami a Zachodem. Pytanie o źródła chińskiego sukcesu gospodarczego [Between China and the West. An inquiry into the sources of the Chinese economic miracle], Poznań 2018, pp. 103–119, Adam Mickiewicz University. Faculty of Social Sciences Press. ISSN 0239-3271.The relation between free market economy and democracy has been assumed as a paradigm in the western culture since the Enlightenment. However, this paradigm seems to be violated by markets that flourish under the political dictatorship. Are these markets the exceptions to the rule or maybe their scale does not indicate the necessity of paradigm change? Or maybe we are wrong to assume that capitalism flourish mainly in democratic systems? Is it possible that the relation between communist political dictatorship and liberal economy system is only of temporary nature and people that have economical freedom will demand sooner or later their political freedom? To answer these questions, (1) the paradigm of relationship between free market, its prosperity and democracy and (2) the arguments supporting this relationship have been discussed. Referring to Samuel Huntington’s theory, (3) it has been reminded that many factors, not only economical ones, decide about democratization of political life and some exceptions to this rule have been mentioned. (4) The example of contemporary China is one of the most spectacular example. The short characteristic of (5) its economic condition, (6) its economic system and political dictatorship has been presented and then the attempts have been made to give the arguments either for (7) temporary or (8) permanent relationship between free market and political dictatorship in China. Although the idea of democracy, the rule of law and human rights seems not to be the only alternative base of economical market system, it appears to be prevalent and the only one in a longer period.

scholarly journals Presseförderung als Mittel gegen Medienkonzentration und für die publizistische Vielfalt? Quasi-experimentelle Untersuchung der Schweiz im Vergleich zu Belgien, Österreich, Irland sowie Deutschland

2018 ◽  
Vol 17 (2) ◽  
Author(s):  
Steffen Kolb ◽  
Mathias Oertel
Keyword(s):  
Experimental Design ◽  
Media Content ◽  
Communication Research ◽  
Daily Newspapers ◽  
Media Companies ◽  
Media Diversity ◽  
Quasi Experimental ◽  
Democratic Systems ◽  
Media Concentration ◽  
Experimentelle Untersuchung

Mass media play a certain role for society in democratic systems. Communication research faces this role by analyzing media performance. Well performing media provide the society with a diversity of topics, opinions, and sources. Mostly economically driven processes of media concentration endanger media diversity by decreasing the amount of independent media companies most probably causing less diverse media content. To counteract processes of media concentration in the field of daily newspapers many countries have established various kinds of press subsidies. This study examines empirically what kind of impact press subsidies have on media concentration. It uses a quasi-experimental design

scholarly journals Argentinian Elections

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Maria Celeste Ratto ◽  
Michael S. Lewis-Beck
Keyword(s):  
Structural Models ◽  
Legislative Elections ◽  
National Elections ◽  
Election Forecasting ◽  
Vote Intention ◽  
Democratic Systems ◽  
Democratic Elections ◽  
Established Democracies ◽  
Public Opinion Polls ◽  
Opinion Polls

Election forecasts, based on public opinion polls or statistical structural models, regularly appear before national elections in established democracies around the world. However, in less established democratic systems, such as those in Latin America, scientific election forecasting by opinion polls is irregular and by statistical models is almost non-existent. Here we attempt to ameliorate this situation by exploring the leading case of Argentina, where democratic elections have prevailed for the last thirty-eight years. We demonstrate the strengths—and the weaknesses—of the two approaches, finally giving the nod to structural models based political and economic fundamentals. Investigating the presidential and legislative elections there, 1983 to 2019, our political economy model performs rather better than the more popular vote intention method from polling.

scholarly journals La inviolabilidad regia en perspectiva comparada: revisión histórica e interpretaciones contemporáneas

2020 ◽  
pp. 403
Author(s):  
Leyre Escajedo San Epifanio
Keyword(s):  
Political Psychology ◽  
Constitutional Law ◽  
Historical Review ◽  
Comparative Law ◽  
The People ◽  
Democratic Systems ◽  
Historical Antecedents ◽  
Systematic Framework ◽  
Sobre Todo

Recurriendo a García Pelayo, son bastantes los elementos de los actuales sistemas democráticos en los que cabría hallar, sobre todo en lo formal, una cierta homogeneidad armónica con sus precedentes históricos o referentes de Derecho comparado. De todos ellos, sin embargo, parece que la inviolabilidad regia es uno de los pocos —sino el único— de los elementos en los que se duda si las previsiones constitucionales deben interpretarse dentro del marco sistemático que les da cobijo o si, por el contrario, cabe la posibilidad de eludir ese marco y basarse en antecedentes históricos o referentes comparados para proceder a su interpretación. Pareciera que, al menos respecto del estatuto regio, se defiende no sólo una cierta suprapositividad sino, incluso, la supuesta existencia anclaje preconstitucional inamovible, ubicado lejos del alcance de la soberanía que reside en el pueblo. Desde la perspectiva del Derecho constitucional, aunque sin perder de vista la historiografía y, hasta cierto punto, la Psicología política, este trabajo aborda el estudio de dicho fenómeno, procediendo a una revisión histórica de la inviolabilidad regia y al análisis de las interpretaciones contemporáneas de la misma.Recalling García Pelayo, there are quite a few elements of the current democratic systems in which it would be possible to find, especially in formal terms, a certain harmonic homogeneity with their historical precedents or comparative law references. Of all of them, however, it seems that royal inviolability is one of the few —if not the only one— of the elements in which it is doubted whether the current constitutional provisions should be interpreted within the systematic framework that shelters them or whether, on the contrary, it is possible to circumvent this framework and rely on historical antecedents or comparative references to proceed with its interpretation. It would seem that, at least with respect to the royal statute, not only a certain suprapositive nature is defended, but even the supposed existence of an immovable pre-constitutional anchor, situated far from the reach of the sovereignty that resides in the people. From the perspective of Constitutional law, although without losing sight of historiography and, to a certain extent, Political psychology, this work addresses the study of this phenomenon, proceeding to a historical review of royal inviolability and an analysis of contemporary interpretations of it.

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