Electoral Responsiveness in Closed Autocracies: Evidence from Petitions in the former German Democratic Republic

2021 ◽  
pp. 1-16
Author(s):  
HANS LUEDERS
Keyword(s):  
German Democratic Republic ◽  
Research Agenda ◽  
Democratic Republic ◽  
Response Times ◽  
Short Term ◽  
Popular Support ◽  
Electoral Mobilization ◽  
The Government ◽  
Do So ◽  
Unique Dataset

Contested elections are usually seen as precondition for constituent responsiveness. By contrast, I show that even uncontested elections can create incentives for autocratic regimes to address citizen demands. I propose that closed autocracies engage in cycles of responsiveness before uncontested elections to assure citizens of their competence and raise popular support. They do so to mitigate the short-term destabilizing effects of elections. Analyzing a unique dataset of petitions to the government of the former German Democratic Republic (GDR), I calculate that response times to petitions were up to 31% shorter before the GDR’s uncontested elections. Moreover, I introduce the concept of “substantive responsiveness,” which focuses on the material consequences of responsiveness for petitioners, and show that petitions were 64% more likely to be successful. The paper advances our understanding of electoral mobilization in closed regimes and contributes to an emerging research agenda on responsiveness and accountability in autocracies.

Debt crisis will delay Zimbabwe economic recovery

2015 ◽  
Keyword(s):  
Sovereign Debt ◽  
Debt Crisis ◽  
Vice President ◽  
Debt Financing ◽  
Illegal Immigrants ◽  
Short Term ◽  
Content Type ◽  
The Government ◽  
Remittance Flows ◽  
Do So

Subject Outlook for Zimbabwe's sovereign debt. Significance Secretary to the Treasury Willard Manungo earlier this month revealed that the government owes its diplomats 10 million dollars in salary arrears. It is the latest development in Zimbabwe's fiscal crunch, worsened by President Robert Mugabe's government's limited access to debt financing. This is forcing it to pursue complex, simultaneous negotiations with multiple creditors. Impacts Limited financing will hurt government plans to import 700,000 tonnes of maize necessary to address drought-induced shortfalls. South Africa's restrictive visa regime and clampdowns on illegal immigrants could begin to hurt remittance flows to Zimbabwe. Former Vice-President Joice Mujuru is unlikely to announce a new party in the short term, but may do so before polls in 2018.

South African lockdown easing will only do so much

2020 ◽  
Keyword(s):  
South African ◽  
Short Term ◽  
Content Type ◽  
The Government ◽  
Do So ◽  
Alcohol Sales

Significance President Cyril Ramaphosa, who had been under escalating pressure from business and organised labour to reopen the economy fully, justified the relaxation by citing reductions in new case figures. There are indications that all provinces may have reached their peak of infections by end-July. Impacts Despite the scale of the crisis, the government appears still to lack urgency in formulating a substantive economic response. Government's withdrawal of an appeal to a 2018 declaratory order will raise hopes for greater flexibility with miners in the short term. Lockdown-related drops in reported crimes will likely prove short-lived, given renewed alcohol sales, growing joblessness and hardship.

Political Development in the German Democratic Republic

1981 ◽  
Vol 16 (2) ◽  
pp. 149-166
Author(s):  
John Starrels
Keyword(s):  
Financial Institutions ◽  
German Democratic Republic ◽  
Political Development ◽  
Democratic Republic ◽  
East Germany ◽  
West Germany ◽  
Do So ◽  
National Growth

HAS ORGANIZED COMMUNISM GONE SOUR IN THE GERMAN Democratic Republic? Various signs suggest that it indeed has. Since late 1975, the regime of Erich Honecker has employed increasingly severe measures to combat internal dissent; and these measures have also been directed against West German media representatives, no less. On the economic front, estimates of national growth for 1979 vary rather widely — from 3 to 5.6 per cent. Yet no matter which figure is accepted, it is increasingly evident that growing international indebtedness to Western financial institutions (calculated to be between $5–6 billion), plus chronic energy shortages and recent agricultural failures have made East Germany's economic prospects gloomier than they have been since the late 1960s. The wave of emigration requests which eeted East Germany's signature of the Helsinki Agreement or1975 at least suggests that average citizens will take action on their own when the occasion allows them to do so. Added to the above consideration, of course, is the 'trade in humans' (Menschenhandel) which has resulted in the 'sale' of approximately 11,000 individuals from East Germany to West Germany between 1964 and 1975, according to one informed Western writer.

Wilsonianism Redux: Inadvertent Publication of Secret Protocol, Hungarian-East German Agreement on Visa Requirements

1990 ◽  
Vol 84 (1) ◽  
pp. 281-283
Author(s):  
T. M. F.
Keyword(s):  
United Nations ◽  
Federal Republic ◽  
German Democratic Republic ◽  
Democratic Republic ◽  
Federal Republic Of Germany ◽  
The Status ◽  
East German ◽  
The United Nations ◽  
The Government

This treaty between the (East) German Democratic Republic and Hungary concerning visa requirements was deposited with the United Nations in accordance with Article 102 of the UN Charter. When the Government of Hungary decided to permit East Germans visiting Hungary to emigrate to the Federal Republic of Germany (West), the authorities in Budapest informed the East German authorities that the treaty had become inoperative. Among the reasons cited was its inconsistency with the Convention Relating to the Status of Refugees, to which Hungary had acceded on March 14, 1989.

scholarly journals Rallying round the flag of the Star of David during the first wave of Covid-19: Increased popular support for Netanyahu in the time of crisis

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Shingo Hamanaka
Keyword(s):  
Prime Minister ◽  
Political Leaders ◽  
Short Term ◽  
Popular Support ◽  
National Crisis ◽  
Death Toll ◽  
The Face ◽  
Rally Effect ◽  
The Government

The new coronavirus epidemic was perceived as a national crisis, and Israel mobilized all its security agencies to formulate countermeasures. Prime Minister Netanyahu seems to have successfully capitalized on this national crisis to boost support for himself in the short term. Prime Minister However, as discussed below, even if the growing death toll from the outbreak was reversed, there were other countries whose successes did not translate into increased support for the government, one of which was Japan.This study analyzes the surge in support for the prime minister during the first wave of the coronavirus epidemic in Israel within the framework of the rally effect. Israel was chosen as a case study for two reasons. First, the country was repeatedly polled during the first wave of infection. Second, a special policy that met the requirements for natural experimentation—a strict compartmentalized blockade limited to certain areas—had been in place for a while. These two conditions mean that a study of Israel during the first wave of the epidemic will allow us to make discoveries about the conditions under which a society supports its political leaders in the face of a national crisis.

Rias Berlin and the June 17, 1953, Uprising in East Germany

2017 ◽  
Keyword(s):  
German Democratic Republic ◽  
Democratic Republic ◽  
East Germany ◽  
Decisive Role ◽  
Radio Station ◽  
German Reunification ◽  
Political Actor ◽  
Complex Interplay ◽  
The Government ◽  
The Moment

This chapter examines the June 17, 1953 uprising in East Germany and the decisive role RIAS played in those turbulent events. RIAS's participation in the uprising is a testament to the complex interplay between the American radio station and the government of the German Democratic Republic. Throughout the revolt, RIAS was an influential political actor whose staff sought to shape the course of events in large part by trying to establish an explanatory narrative for the uprising. RIAS's commentators repeated a range of themes and ideas they hoped would explain the events, often as those events were unfolding. The ultimate expression of this approach was the declaration, in the moment, that the June 17 uprising was a popular cry for German reunification.

The German Democratic Republic and the State Churches, 1958–1989

1999 ◽  
Vol 50 (3) ◽  
pp. 523-547
Author(s):  
GERHARD BESIER
Keyword(s):  
German Democratic Republic ◽  
Democratic Republic ◽  
Church And State ◽  
Past History ◽  
Central Committee ◽  
The State ◽  
State Institutions ◽  
Specific Responsibility ◽  
Church And Society ◽  
The Government

The role of Protestantism in the German Democratic Republic (the GDR) has been strongly disputed since the ‘turn’ and reunification of 1989/90. Many of the disagreements derive from different interpretations of the relationship between State, Church and Society in the GDR. This paper first describes the state institutions which formulated and executed church policies for the Communist Party of the GDR (the SED), and then surveys relations between Church and State, offering an explanation for actions and motivations on both sides. The thesis advanced is that the decisive phase of the transformation of a ‘bourgeois’ Church into a ‘Church within socialism’ took place between 1958 and 1978, and that the preceding and subsequent periods merely had the character of ‘past history’ and ‘epilogue’.A variety of institutions influenced Church–State policies in the GDR. First, at government level, there was until 1957 a department for ecclesiastical affairs controlled by the deputy prime minister ; after that date, there was an official secretary for church affairs, answerable to the chairman of the government (Ministerrat). At party level in the SED, there was a working group for church affairs which was part of the secretariat of the SED's central committee, answerable to the first secretary or the secretary-general of the central committee. The central committee office included a member with specific responsibility for church affairs, generally the second in line after the party chairman. In the Ministry for State Security (MfS), those involved were the head of the so-called ‘main department for social superstructure’, together with a representative of the minister or the minister himself, and the heads of administration in individual ‘Lands’ or districts.

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