scholarly journals Electoral Engineering in New Democracies: Strong Quotas and Weak Parties in Tunisia

2021 ◽  
pp. 1-18
Author(s):  
Jana Belschner
Keyword(s):  
Political Parties ◽  
Party System ◽  
Group Representation ◽  
State Funding ◽  
New Democracies ◽  
Local Elections ◽  
Gender And Politics ◽  
Electoral Quotas ◽  
Varying Compliance ◽  
Do So

Abstract Bridging the literature on gender and politics, democratization, and political parties, this article investigates the causes of parties’ varying compliance with electoral quotas. Whereas research has so far focused on parties’ willingness to comply, this article sheds light on their ability to do so. It suggests that the more quotas parties have to comply with, and the more complex the quotas’ designs, the more difficult implementation becomes for the organizationally weak parties that we often encounter in new democracies. The argument is developed and substantiated in a comparative analysis of parties’ quota compliance in the 2018 Tunisian local elections. Although the Islamist party was able to comply fully with all quotas (for women, youth and people with disabilities), small secular parties lost a number of lists and state funding due to non-compliance. While the quotas were highly effective in securing group representation, they had repercussions on party and party system consolidation.

scholarly journals Parties between thresholds: State subsidies and party behaviour in post-communist democracies

2017 ◽  
Vol 25 (2) ◽  
pp. 233-244 ◽  
Author(s):  
Fernando Casal Bértoa ◽  
Maria Spirova
Keyword(s):  
Survival Rate ◽  
Political Parties ◽  
Party System ◽  
Survival Rates ◽  
Empirical Support ◽  
State Funding ◽  
Publicly Funded ◽  
State Financing ◽  
State Subsidies ◽  
Almost All

Much has been written about what makes political parties form, persist, change and die. One factor often brought into this discussion is the availability of resources in general and of state financing of political parties in particular. However, an empirical link at the aggregate level is difficult to establish because of various issues of conceptualization, operationalization and measurement. Working at the party level and taking into consideration that state funding provides important resources that make running in elections and achieving a party’s electoral target more likely, this article provides empirical support for the claim that parties who (anticipate to be or) are being funded by the state have a higher chance of forming and surviving in an independent format in the party system. Based on a comparison of 14 post-communist party systems, the main conclusion of the article is that the survival rate for such parties exceeds the survival rate for the non-publicly funded ones in almost all cases. A second, novel and more particular, finding is that parties who find themselves outside parliament, but above the payout threshold, display higher survival rates than parties who are below it.

Intellectuals, journals, and the legitimisation of political power: the case of the Italian intellectual group of Il Mulino (1950s and 1960s)

Modern Italy ◽  
2016 ◽  
Vol 21 (2) ◽  
pp. 185-197 ◽  
Author(s):  
Marzia Maccaferri
Keyword(s):  
Social Sciences ◽  
Political Parties ◽  
Political Culture ◽  
Party System ◽  
Political Agenda ◽  
Intellectual Discourse ◽  
European Tradition ◽  
Italian Politics ◽  
Anglo American ◽  
Do So

This article explores the intellectual discourse of Il Mulino’s intellectual group in relation to the transformation of Italian politics during the period leading up to the centre-left governments. First, it investigates Il Mulino’s cultural project of overcoming the hegemony of idealism by endorsing the empiricist approach favoured by Anglo-American social sciences, while establishing a new role for intellectuals. Then, it focuses on the group’s political agenda aimed at rationalising Italy’s ‘imperfect two-party system’. We argue that, within the Italian intellectual-political scenario, Il Mulino’s intellectual discourse sought to establish a new relationship between culture and politics. It tried to do so both by anchoring Italian political culture to the liberal- and social-democratic European tradition and by contributing to the stabilisation of Italian democracy, while proposing a reduction in the number of political parties.

Introduction

2020 ◽  
pp. 28-54
Author(s):  
Karen Celis
Keyword(s):  
Political Parties ◽  
Final Section ◽  
Group Representation ◽  
Political Representation ◽  
Feminist Criticism ◽  
Representative Democracy ◽  
Gender And Politics ◽  
Account Giving

Chapter 1 makes a defense of representative democracy even as it acknowledges long-standing and contemporary feminist criticism and surveys the appeal of more fashionable non-representative alternatives. As part of this, the authors consider the failure of political parties to “do good by women.” Adopting a problem-based approach, they remake the case for women’s group representation, reviewing the 1990s politics-of-presence literature in light of criticism based on women’s ideological and intersectional differences. Instead of regarding this as undermining the possibility of women’s group representation, the authors hold that these differences should become central to its successful realization. A second observation is the tendency of gender and politics scholars to disaggregate the concept of representation. Eschewing this approach, they instead hold that political representation is better understood as indivisible: a mélange of its many, overlapping, and connected dimensions. The final section of Chapter 1 introduces the structure and component parts of the book’s argument, introducing the reader to the “affected representatives of women,” and the authors’ twin augmentations, group advocacy and account giving.

Electoral Control in New Democracies: The Perverse Incentives of Fluid Party Systems

2005 ◽  
Vol 57 (3) ◽  
pp. 365-395 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jakub Zielinski ◽  
Kazimierz M. Slomczynski ◽  
Goldie Shabad
Keyword(s):  
Political Parties ◽  
Party Systems ◽  
New Democracies ◽  
Democratic Accountability ◽  
Opposition Party ◽  
Perverse Incentives ◽  
Electoral Control ◽  
Control Fluid ◽  
Better Than ◽  
Do So

How do fluid party systems that exist in many new democracies affect democratic accountability? To address this question, the authors analyze a new database of all legislative incumbents and all competitive elections that took place in Poland since 1991. They find that when district-level economic outcomes are bad, voters in that country punish legislators from a governing party and reward legislators from an opposition party. As a result, electoral control in Poland works through political parties just as it does in mature democracies. However, the authors also find that, in contrast to mature democracies, legislators from a governing party tend to switch to an opposition party when the economy in their district deteriorates. When they do so, their chances of reelection are better than those of politicians who remained loyal to governing parties and are no worse than those of incumbents who ran as opposition party loyalists. These empirical results suggest that while elections in new democracies function as a mechanism of political control, fluid party systems undermine the extent to which elections promote democratic accountability.

scholarly journals Strengthening the Multi-Party Presidential Government in Indonesia

2019 ◽  
Vol 4 (2) ◽  
pp. 208-232
Author(s):  
Moh. Ilham A. Hamudy ◽  
M. Saidi Rifki
Keyword(s):  
Political Parties ◽  
Party System ◽  
Relevant Information ◽  
Literature Study ◽  
Government Regulations ◽  
The Government ◽  
Presidential Systems ◽  
Parliamentary Support ◽  
Threshold Rule ◽  
Do So

The Multi-Party Presidential Government in Indonesia has reached a critical point. The 2.5 percent parliamentary threshold rule in the 2009 Election was incapable to address the issue. The parliamentary threshold was raised to 3.5 percent in 2014, in the hope to reduce the number of party joining the election, but it failed to do so. There were 9 national parties participating in the 2009 election, and it will be increased to 16 in the 2019 election. Theoretically, the combination of multi-party parliament in a Presidential Government is rather strange. It is not surprising that the "conflict" between the president and parliament often occurs. There suppose to be a coalition supporting the government in parliament, but the coalition is not a firm one. The coalition did not have a significant influence in strengthening the presidential government. Therefore, this study intends to provide a complete picture of multi-party system practices while trying to provide solutions for strengthening the presidential government in Indonesia. To achieve this goal, this study uses the literature study method in collecting relevant information, using a qualitative approach. This approach is considered appropriate because multi-party phenomena and presidential systems are multidimensional. In contrast to previous research which was limited to the description and problems of multiparty systems, this research besides describing the system of government also provided moderate solutions that were considered to be in accordance with the Indonesian context. This study assumes that strengthening presidential systems can be done if the political parties are more modest. In addition, parliamentary support for the president must be optimized. The results of the study concluded that the strengthening of presidential systems must be carried out through the purification of the government system contained in the constitution, forming and strengthening the ranks of government coalitions in parliament, and carrying out a number of institutional engineering through various forms. These three things must be wrapped in a constitutional frame (amendments to the 1945 Constitution) and regulations (revisions to laws and government regulations). The amendments and revisions can be done through three corridors, namely the intra-parliamentary movement, the extra-parliamentary movement, and the referendum.

scholarly journals Regional political parties in the context of the study of the process of nationalization (based on the results of the local elections in 2015)

2019 ◽  
Vol 22 (1) ◽  
pp. 78-85
Author(s):  
M. M. Shelemba
Keyword(s):  
Political Parties ◽  
Party System ◽  
National Level ◽  
Electoral System ◽  
Local Elections ◽  
Local Elites ◽  
Regional Parties ◽  
Ideological Parties ◽  
Russian Politics ◽  
High Level

The article is devoted to the study of the characteristics and typology of regional political parties in Ukraine, the assessment of the connection of the nationalization of the party system of Ukraine, the deviance (non-typology) of electoral behavior of the regions with the development of regional parties in the state by the results of local elections in 2015.In the course of the study, the main scientific approaches to the characterization and typology of regional parties in Ukraine were considered. It has been established that scholars identify the following categories of regional political parties, namely: ideological parties, political parties-projects of prominent personalities, ethnic parties, administrative parties (pro-government political parties). It is proposed to expand existing typology by introducing such categories of regional parties as projects of local elites, regional parties oriented on pro-Russian politics in Ukraine, technical political parties, which are beginning active activities before the elections, helping to ensure passing to local bodies of self-government to certain persons. It was found that regional political parties, based on the results of the local elections in Ukraine in 2015, were two pro-Russian political forces, four parties that focused on supporting the interests of local elites and one ethnic party. It is noted that the support of regional political parties is low. This is confirmed by the results of the electoral vote at the national level. It was noted that against the backdrop of a high level of nationalization of the party system for the period of 2014–2015, calculated on three approaches (the nationalization index was calculated according to the approach of M. Johns and S. Meinwering, G. Holosov and author’s modified approach), these parties did not have significant influence on the electoral picture of the country. It is also determined that since the third author’s modified approach allows to take into account the results of elections to local self-government bodies, it is relevant for the study of regional parties. Therefore, its use is most optimal for similar analytical purposes.Among the factors that had the greatest influence on party nationalization over the period of 2014–2015 were the electoral system, the transformational factors in the socio-political space, the change in the form of government, decentralization (de-volition) associated with the reform of local self-government and the territorial organization of power in Ukraine Accordingly, it has been proved that the latter of these factors has become an important prerequisite for the emergence of new regional political parties at the local elections of 2015.

A Theory of Redistribution in New Democracies

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ekrem Karakoç
Keyword(s):  
Political Parties ◽  
Voter Turnout ◽  
Party System ◽  
New Democracies ◽  
Social Spending ◽  
Social Policies ◽  
Income Equality ◽  
The Poor ◽  
Organized Interest ◽  
Weak Party

This chapter starts with the question of why new democracies have such difficulty generating income equality. It argues that low voter turnout and weak party system institutionalization motivate governments to increase targeted spending toward the nonpoor. The governments, mostly coalitions, are motivated through their social policies to appeal to likely voters, both the loyal and potential electorate. If parties can increase turnout by mobilizing the poor, this will reduce their need to use targeted social policies toward likely voters for electoral purposes. Targeted social spending causes income equality to go up by rewarding privileged social groups to the detriment of the disadvantaged. This chapter will also explain all concepts in greater detail and present empirical evidence on voter turnout by the poor. It thus demonstrates the link between organized interest groups and political parties, and the formulation of social policies and their impact on inequality, in the context of new democracies.

Forging the Franchise

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Dawn Langan Teele
Keyword(s):  
Political Parties ◽  
Strategic Alliances ◽  
National Level ◽  
Conventional Wisdom ◽  
Competitive Environments ◽  
Political Preferences ◽  
Massive Change ◽  
Political Emancipation ◽  
Women’S Preferences ◽  
Do So

In the 1880s, women were barred from voting in all national-level elections, but by 1920 they were going to the polls in nearly thirty countries. What caused this massive change? Contrary to conventional wisdom, it was not because of progressive ideas about women or suffragists' pluck. In most countries, elected politicians fiercely resisted enfranchising women, preferring to extend such rights only when it seemed electorally prudent and necessary to do so. This book demonstrates that the formation of a broad movement across social divides, and strategic alliances with political parties in competitive electoral conditions, provided the leverage that ultimately transformed women into voters. As the book shows, in competitive environments, politicians had incentives to seek out new sources of electoral influence. A broad-based suffrage movement could reinforce those incentives by providing information about women's preferences, and an infrastructure with which to mobilize future female voters. At the same time that politicians wanted to enfranchise women who were likely to support their party, suffragists also wanted to enfranchise women whose political preferences were similar to theirs. In contexts where political rifts were too deep, suffragists who were in favor of the vote in principle mobilized against their own political emancipation. Exploring tensions between elected leaders and suffragists and the uncertainty surrounding women as an electoral group, the book sheds new light on the strategic reasons behind women's enfranchisement.

From Circles to Parties. Genesis of Party System in Russia in the Beginning of 20th Century

2020 ◽  
Vol 102 ◽  
pp. 464-470
Author(s):  
Kirill A. Solovyov
Keyword(s):  
Political Parties ◽  
20Th Century ◽  
Party System ◽  
Revolutionary Era ◽  
The Public ◽  
Party Organizations ◽  
Political Forces ◽  
In The Beginning

The article is devoted to the general patterns of political parties formation in Russia at the beginning of the 20th century. They were preceded by proto-party organizations that were far from being ideologically monolithic. Under the conditions of rapid differentiation of political forces, the existing alliances were often accidental and situational. They hung on to the legacy of the pre-revolutionary era, when the public was just “learning” to talk about politics, and the boundaries between different ideological structures were quite rather relative.

Activity of modern right-wing radical parties in the Czech Republic

2019 ◽  
pp. 164-173
Author(s):  
Tetiana Fedorchak
Keyword(s):  
Czech Republic ◽  
Political Parties ◽  
European Integration ◽  
Democratic Party ◽  
Party System ◽  
Social Programs ◽  
Right Wing ◽  
The Czech Republic ◽  
Almost All ◽  
Political Radicalism

The author investigates political radicalism in the Czech Republic, a rather heterogeneous current considering the structure of participants: from political parties to the extremist organizations. The peculiarity of the Czech party system is the existence, along with typical radical parties, of other non-radical parties whose representatives support xenophobic, nationalist and anti-Islamic statements. This is primarily the Civil Democratic Party, known for its critical attitude towards European integration, and the Communist party of the Czech Republic and Moravia, which opposes Czech membership in NATO and the EU. Among the Czech politicians, who are close to radical views, analysts include the well-known for its anti-Islamic position of the Czech President M. Zeman and the leader of the movement ANO, billionaire A. Babich. Voters vote for them not because their economic or social programs are particularly attractive to the electorate, but because of dissatisfaction with the economic situation in the state. Almost all right populist parties oppose European integration, interpreting it as an anti-national project run by an elite distorted by a deficit of democracy and corruption. Keywords: Czech Republic, right-wing radical political parties, European integration, nationalism.

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