scholarly journals Districting that minimizes partisan bias

Author(s):  
Aaron Brick ◽  
Cameron Brick

AbstractThe shapes of electoral districts determine how votes translate into seats. When districts favor certain political parties, electoral results can be disproportionate and the public may lose faith in the political process. Disagreement about appropriate district shapes is subjective, rarely resolved, and often leads to lawsuits. Previously, many authors have called for objective districting criteria. We offer a novel synthesis of models that enables the proactive comparison of district maps, by relating a planar graph partition, the single-member plurality rule, the maximin decision rule, and any agreed measure of partisan bias with a territorial map and historical vote results. Historical vote totals avoid the complexity and uncertainty associated with counterfactual models of vote swing. Districting plans could be objectively compared on such criteria as party proportionality or compact shape to reject plans with worse bias. Objective tools to reduce partisan bias in district maps could boost collaborative participation, increase perceptions of fairness and justice, and reduce costs.

Author(s):  
أ.د.عبد الجبار احمد عبد الله

In order to codify the political and partisan activity in Iraq, after a difficult labor, the Political Parties Law No. (36) for the year 2015 started and this is positive because it is not normal for the political parties and forces in Iraq to continue without a legal framework. Article (24) / paragraph (5) of the law requires that the party and its members commit themselves to the following: (To preserve the neutrality of the public office and public institutions and not to exploit it for the gains of a party or political organization). This is considered because it is illegal to exploit State institutions for partisan purposes . It is a moral duty before the politician not to exploit the political parties or some of its members or those who try to speak on their behalf directly or indirectly to achieve partisan gains. Or personality against other personalities and parties at the expense of the university entity.


2021 ◽  
pp. 1-19
Author(s):  
Benjamin Moffitt

Abstract How does a political party become ‘mainstream’? And what makes some parties receive arguably the opposite designation – ‘pariah party’? This conceptual article examines the processes by which parties’ mainstream or pariah status must be constructed, negotiated and policed, not only by political scientists in the pursuit of case selection, but by several actors actively involved in the political process, including media actors and political parties themselves. It explains how these actors contribute to these processes of ‘mainstreaming’ and ‘pariahing’, considers their motivations and provides illustrative examples of how such processes take place. As such, the article moves beyond the literature on the ways in which mainstream parties seek to deal with or respond to threats from a variety of pariah parties, instead paying attention to how those parties have been constructed as pariahs in the first place, and how these processes simultaneously contribute to the maintenance of mainstream party identities.


Res Publica ◽  
1980 ◽  
Vol 22 (4) ◽  
pp. 547-562
Author(s):  
Catherine Guillermet ◽  
Johan Ryngaert

Ten years after they were set up, the Italian regions have fallen into general discredit. They are discredited by the central government who regards them as a source of support for the opposing Communist Party and has sought to undermine this reform by depriving the regions of all true autonomy. The regions are discredited by the public opinion by not fulfilling the expectations placed in them. Such an assessment does not stand up to a close examination of regional practices : some geographical differences rapidly become obvious, but especially evident are the political differences. In fact, the regions are the product of an apparent agreement between the political parties and have always suffered from political bargaining which explains the national scale of the issues raised at the last elections. Strengthened by the favorable results obtained in certain regions, the Communist Party was quick to turn this statement of the electoral opinion into a « referendum » about the newly formed Cossiga government.


2021 ◽  
Vol 27 (5) ◽  
pp. 63-67
Author(s):  
T. Beydina ◽  
◽  
N. Zimina ◽  
A. Novikova ◽  
◽  
...  

Political parties today are important elements of the regional political process. Parties, along with other political institutions, participate in the implementation of state policy within the region. The practice of recent years shows a negative trend in the creation of political parties, but those parties that are already registered and are actively fighting for political power at all stages of the Russian elections. Political parties participate in the regional political process to embrace the advantages of the political party space. These advantages are due to both objective factors (territorial potential, the economy of the region) and subjective reasons (personal factors associated with the rating of the leader, both the governor and the party coordinator, the nature of his acquaintance with the central financial department, and more). The study of the organization of power in the regions allows us to talk about its various modifications due to these factors. Political parties are a political institution, they represent an ideological, conceptual, personnel and electoral resource of any government. Regional branches of political parties in today’s political situation fully personify the needs of the regions and represent them at elections. They reflect regional interests, as well as the degree of democracy of the regional government


2014 ◽  
Vol 4 (1) ◽  
pp. 23
Author(s):  
Tawanda Zinyama ◽  
Joseph Tinarwo

Public administration is carried out through the public service. Public administration is an instrument of the State which is expected to implement the policy decisions made from the political and legislative processes. The rationale of this article is to assess the working relationships between ministers and permanent secretaries in the Government of National Unity in Zimbabwe. The success of the Minister depends to a large degree on the ability and goodwill of a permanent secretary who often has a very different personal or professional background and whom the minster did not appoint. Here lies the vitality of the permanent secretary institution. If a Minister decides to ignore the advice of the permanent secretary, he/she may risk of making serious errors. The permanent secretary is the key link between the democratic process and the public service. This article observed that the mere fact that the permanent secretary carries out the political, economic and social interests and functions of the state from which he/she derives his/her authority and power; and to which he/she is accountable,  no permanent secretary is apolitical and neutral to the ideological predisposition of the elected Ministers. The interaction between the two is a political process. Contemporary administrator requires complex team-work and the synthesis of diverse contributions and view-points.


2018 ◽  
Vol 14 (3) ◽  
pp. 55
Author(s):  
Rami Saleh Abdelrazeq Musleh ◽  
Mahmoud Ismail ◽  
Dala Mahmoud

The study focused on the Palestinian state as depicted in the Israeli political discourse. It showed that the Israeli strategy is based on denying the establishment of a Palestinian state alongside the Israeli one. Israel's main concern is to protect its national security at all costs. The study showed the Israeli political factions' opposition to the formation of an independent Palestinian state in addition to their refusal to give up certain parts of the West Bank due to religious and geopolitical reasons. To discuss this topic and achieve the required results, the analytical descriptive approach is adopted by the researcher. The study concluded that the Israeli leadership and its projects to solve the Palestinian issue do not amount to the establishment of a Palestinian state. This leadership simply aims to impress the international public opinion that Israel wants peace. In contrast, the Israeli public has shown that it cannot accept a Palestinian state, and the public opinion of the Palestinian state is not different from that of the political parties and leaders in Israel.


2018 ◽  
pp. 8-15
Author(s):  
Іvan Pobochiy

The level of social harmony in society and the development of democracy depends to a large extent on the level of development of parties, their ideological and political orientation, methods and means of action. The purpose of the article is to study the party system of Ukraine and directions of its development, which is extremely complex and controversial. The methods. The research has led to the use of such scientific search methods as a system that allowed the party system of Ukraine to be considered as a holistic organism, and the historical and political method proved to be very effective in analyzing the historical preconditions and peculiarities of the formation of the party system. The results. The incompetent, colonial past and the associated cruel national oppression, terror, famine, and violent Russification caused the contradictory and dramatic nature of modernization, the actual absence of social groups and their leaders interested in it, and the relatively passive reaction of society to the challenges of history. Officials have been nominated by mafia clans, who were supposed to protect their interests and pursue their policies. Political struggle in the state took place not between influential political parties, but between territorial-regional clans. The party system of Ukraine after the Maidan and the beginning of the war on the Donbass were undergoing significant changes. On the political scene, new parties emerged in the course of the protests and after their completion — «Petro Poroshenko Bloc», «People’s Front», «Self-help»), which to some extent became spokespeople for not regional, but national interests. Pro-European direction is the main feature of the leading political parties that have formed a coalition in the Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine. Conclusion. The party system of Ukraine as a result of social processes is at the beginning of a new stage in its development, an important feature of which is the increase in the influence of society (direct and indirect) on the political life of the state. Obviously, there is a demand from the public for the emergence of new politicians, new leaders and new political forces that citizens would like to see first and foremost speakers and defenders of their interests.


Tripodos ◽  
2021 ◽  
pp. 83-104
Author(s):  
María Díez Garrido ◽  
Eva Campos Domínguez ◽  
Dafne Calvo

El escenario digital ha impulsado pro­fundos cambios en el entorno político, entre los que se puede distinguir el im­pulso de la transparencia informativa. La transparencia se ha convertido en uno de los valores democráticos que los políticos quieren demostrar de cara a la ciudadanía, ya que es un signo de le­gitimidad, evolución y lucha contra la corrupción. Los partidos políticos han introducido la transparencia en sus dis­cursos y argumentarios. Precisamente las formaciones tienen una reputación baja en cuanto a apertura informativa. Este artículo pretende estudiar la intro­ducción de la transparencia en el dis­curso electoral de los partidos políticos. Para ello, se estudia la presencia de la transparencia en los programas elec­torales de las principales formaciones políticas españolas durante las últimas Elecciones Generales (2015 y 2016). A continuación, se realiza un análisis de contenido de sus páginas web, que pretende conocer su nivel de apertura informativa. Esta metodología nos per­mite descubrir si lo que promocionan las formaciones en los programas se relaciona con el desarrollo en sus pá­ginas web. Los resultados muestran las diferencias entre los nuevos partidos y los tradicionales, así como la evolución entre unos comicios y los siguientes.   Political Parties’ Transparency As an Electoral Strategy. An Evaluation of Their Promises and Their Websites The digital scenario has produced pro­found changes in the political environ­ment, and transparency is part of this transformation. Transparency has become one of the most valued aspirations that politicians want to demonstrate to the public, as it is a sign of legitimacy, evolution, and the fight against corrup­tion. Political parties have introduced transparency in their speeches and ar­guments. At the same time, political for­mations have a low reputation in terms of informative openness. This article aims to study the introduction of trans­parency in the political parties’ electoral discourse. To this end, we explore the presence of transparency in the electo­ral programs of the main Spanish poli­tical parties during the last two General Elections (2015 and 2016). Next, we carry out a content analysis of their web sites, which aims to gain deeper insight into their level of informative openness. This methodology allows us to determine if Spanish political parties promote in their programs the same ob­jectives that they put forward on their web sites. The results also show the di­fferences between the new parties and the traditional ones, as well as their evolution between the General Elections in 2015 and 2016.


Author(s):  
Luís Guilherme Nascimento de Araujo ◽  
Claudio Everaldo Dos Santos ◽  
Elizabeth Fontoura Dorneles ◽  
Ionathan Junges ◽  
Nariel Diotto ◽  
...  

The political and economic crises faced today, evidenced by the manifestos of political parties and the texts published in social networks and in the press, point to Brazilian society the possibility of different directions, including that of an autocratic regime, with the return of the military to the public sphere. This article discusses the movements of acceptance and resistance to the military regime that was implemented in Brazil with the coup of 1964. It is observed that the military uprising received at that time the support of a large part of the Brazilian population, which sought ways to maintain its socioeconomic status to the detriment of a majority that perceived itself vulnerable in view of the forms of maintenance and expansion of power used by the regime. In this context, Tropicalism emerges as an example of a contesting movement. This text approaches the song "Culture and civilization" by Gilberto Gil, performed by Gal Costa, relating the ideas present in this composition with the understandings of politics and culture, in a multidisciplinary proposal, seeking to understand the resistance and counter-resistance movements that emerged in Brazil at the time.


2018 ◽  
Vol 112 (3) ◽  
pp. 678-697 ◽  
Author(s):  
SACHA KAPOOR ◽  
ARVIND MAGESAN

We estimate the causal effect of independent candidates on voter turnout and election outcomes in India. To do this, we exploit exogenous changes in the entry deposit candidates pay for their participation in the political process, changes that disproportionately excluded candidates with no affiliation to established political parties. A one standard deviation increase in the number of independent candidates increases voter turnout by more than 6 percentage points, as some voters choose to vote rather than stay home. The vote share of independent candidates increases by more than 10 percentage points, as some existing voters switch who they vote for. Thus, independents allow winning candidates to win with less vote share, decrease the probability of electing a candidate from the governing coalition by about 31 percentage points, and ultimately increase the probability of electing an ethnic-party candidate. Altogether, the results imply that the price of participation by independents is constituency representation in government.


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