From proportional representation to plurality and back: Post-Christian Democratic parties compared

Modern Italy ◽  
2008 ◽  
Vol 13 (4) ◽  
pp. 429-449 ◽  
Author(s):  
Aldo Di Virgilio

This article analyses the competition strategies adopted by the Christian Democratic (DC) and post-Christian Democratic (post-DC) parties after the electoral reforms of 1993 and 2005. Four main aspects are considered: the significance of cultural (ideological and cognitive) factors in the DC's exit from the political stage; the need to adapt post-DC strategy to bipolarism and the nostalgia for an autonomous centre; the nature and geography of the post-DC vote; and the attitudes of the middle-level elites of the three principal post-DC parties (the DL, the UDEUR and the UDC) vis-à-vis the competitive and strategic decisions they had to make. The article reaches the following conclusions: the post-DC parties share the same cultural orientations and have similar politico-electoral characteristics (a confessional background, the relevance of patronage networks and personalistic vote mobilisation); all three parties adapted, in different ways and with different degrees of success, to the new structure of coalitional bipolarism in the decade 1996–2006; and both research data on the main post-DC parties’ national congress delegates and the evolution of their electoral strategies on the eve of the 2008 elections show that the post-Christian Democrats felt more at home in the centre-left alignment, together with the post-communist PDS-DS, than in the centre-right alignment led by Berlusconi.

2019 ◽  
Vol 3 (1) ◽  
pp. 82
Author(s):  
Mhd Alfahjri Sukri

This research was conducted to see how Mohammad Natsir thought about the relationship between Islam and Pancasila. This study also explains the causes of Natsir's change of mind which initially supported Pancasila as part of Islam and later turned into an opponent of Pancasila in Konstituante on 11 November to 6 December 1957. The methodology used was a qualitative method by describing the results of the analysis carried out. The research data is obtained through a review of documents and scientific literature. The results of the study show that Mohammad Natsir's change of mind regarding the relationship between Islam and Pancasila was influenced by Mohammad Natsir's political socialization which began from Natsir's view of Islam influenced by the childhood environment (conditional and socio-cultural) in Minangkabau; direct influence from national figures such as Ahmad Hassan, H. Agus Salim, Sheikh Ahmad Syurkati and H. O Tjokroaminoto; the indirect influence of international figures throughout reading book such as Hassan Al-Banna, Amir Syakib Arselan, Rashid Ridha and Muhammad Abduh; the influence of Natsir's organization and political parties, namely Jong Islamieten Bond (JIB), Islamic Unity (Persis), and Masyumi political parties; and the influence of the political conditions at that time which made Natsir's views change, which initially accepted Pancasila and then became an opponent of the Pancasila. This research shown there are two patterns of Natsir's relationship with Pancasila, namely (1) Natsir accepted Pancasila and, (2) Natsir opposed Pancasila.


Author(s):  
Susan Franceschet

Despite electing a female president, Michelle Bachelet, and at one point achieving gender parity in cabinet appointments, women’s presence in Chile’s national congress remains small, is only slightly higher at local levels, and is extremely limited among party and coalition leaders. In her gendered analysis of representation, Susan Franceschet argues this is because of the strong formal and informal institutions that limit the size of electoral districts, require large thresholds to win seats, and require coalition negotiation over candidates for elected office. Even though women have a mixed record of representation, their presence has had important policy consequences. A gender-focused presidency has been critical for passage of gender-attentive policies. Women in Chile’s legislative arenas have been more likely to bring gender issues to the agenda. Franceschet points out that Sernam, the women’s ministry, has played a critically important role in this. The electoral reforms approved by congress in 2015 include a gender quota, creating expectations that improvements will continue.


2021 ◽  
Vol 63 (2) ◽  
pp. 1-25
Author(s):  
Giancarlo Visconti

ABSTRACTVoters’ ideological stances have long been considered one of the most important factors for understanding electoral choices in Chile. In recent years, however, the literature has begun to call this premise into question, due to several changes in the Chilean political landscape: the current crisis of representation, the high programmatic congruence between the two main coalitions, the decline in the political relevance of the dictatorship, and the rise of nonprogrammatic electoral strategies. In addition to these transformations, Chile switched to voluntary voting in 2012. This article studies whether ideology still informs electoral choices in Chile in an era of voluntary voting. It implements a conjoint survey experiment in low-to-middle-income neighborhoods in Santiago, where voters would be expected to be less ideological. It shows that candidates’ ideological labels are crucial for understanding the electoral decisions of a large part of the sample, particularly among likely voters.


2021 ◽  
Vol 24 (324) ◽  
pp. 125-141
Author(s):  
Andrzej Jaeschke

The paper concerns the evolution of the political position of the House of Lords until the end of the 19thcentury. The author presents the time of stabilisation of the relations of the two parliamentary chambers andidentifies its causes. He also discusses the increasing disruption of relations between the two chambers ofthe British Parliament following from electoral reforms and, consequently, the decomposition of the hithertounified conservative political environment and the emergence of liberal forces. This resulted in increasinglystrong ideological and political rivalry between the conservative House of Lords and the largely liberal Houseof Commons.


Author(s):  
Maria das Dores Campos Machado

Brazil has experienced a great deal of political instability and a strengthening of conservatism since the last presidential election and which, during the impeachment of President Dilma Rousseff, suffered one of its most critical moments. The objective of this communication is to analyse the important role played by religious actors during this process and to demonstrate how the political alliances established between Pentecostals and Charismatic Catholics in the National Congress has made possible a series of political initiatives aimed at dismantling the expansion of human rights and policies of the Workers Party governments. With an anti-Communist spirit and a conservative vision of sexual morality and gender relations, these political groups have in recent years approached the social movement Schools without Party (Escola sem partido) and today represent an enormous challenge to Brazilian democracy.


Buana Bastra ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 5 (1) ◽  
pp. 18-23
Author(s):  
Gosita Ifantias Meisawitri ◽  
Luluk Isani Kulup

Every human being would socialize with other humans. Humans interact by using a tool called language. Language itself is often inerpreted as arbitrary system sounds symbol, languageis universal, that language has meaning or has intention to nonvey something. Language as a meansof social communication can be illustrated in the social network facebook. The phrase is notpredicative and does not have verb and phrases are groups of words. The phrase can be dividedinto phrases and phrases eksosentrik and endosentrik. The use of the phrase alone is consideredless sufficiet when used to make facebook social media users use the appropriate phrase. Facebookuser community consists of some society levels, the top level society, middle level society andbottom level society. Many Facebook users do not care about it because each of them has a styleand language in their own words. No exception educated people, for example, teachers also use alot of slang phrase because era development factors which one of them is language. This studyused a qualitative approach because the research aimed to explain itself and to describe errors ofphrase using that appear in the facebook social media. This research data was screenshot of thestatus sentences .The data source was facebook. Based on the findings of the data and data analysis,it is found some the use of noun phrase, verb phrase, the adjecive phrase, numeralia phrases andprepositional phrase as its function in facebook. According to Samsuri, There are five kinds ofphrases: (1) noun phrase, (2) verb phrase, (3) the adjective phrase, (4) the numeralia phrase, and(5) prepositional phrase. Thus, it can be concluded that there are some the use of phrase thatappears in the status which is written by facebook users.  


Author(s):  
Tariq Modood

This chapter examines the political and cultural challenges posed by the growth of the non-white population in Europe. It reviews the chief current policy responses – assimilation, integration, and multiculturalism – in the context of claims by politicians in Germany, France, and the UK that ‘multiculturalism is dead’. The chapter distinguishes between two multicultural approaches: a valuing of diversity that accords full recognition to differences between cultural groups within a liberal democratic framework; and a multiculturalism that values cultural interaction and social mixing but withholds institutional recognition from groups, especially religious ones. The first approach may unintentionally strengthen barriers between groups and foster segregation, whilst the second may marginalise certain cultural orientations and communities. The chapter concludes by analysing the emerging ethnic fault lines across Europe and stresses the significance of a shift from colour to religion as the foundation of group identity, with major implications for the relationship between religion and politics.


1985 ◽  
Vol 37 (2) ◽  
pp. 238-266 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jean C. Oi

Despite its widespread currency in political science, the concept of clientelism has rarely found its way into the literature on communist systems. Students of communist politics regularly note the importance of personal ties, and many recognize the significance of informal bonds in economic and political spheres atalllevels of society. Some even apply the term “clientelism” to the political behavior they describe. Yet these studies are generally limited to elite-level politics, to factionalism, career mobility, recruitment patterns, and attainment of office at the top- to middle-level echelons of the bureaucracy.2Few have considered clientelism as a type of elite-mass linkage through which the state and the party exercise control at the local level, and through which individuals participate in the political system.


1974 ◽  
Vol 33 (4) ◽  
pp. 549-577 ◽  
Author(s):  
Michael Roberts

Political developments in Ceylon during the 1950's drew attention to the forward thrust of a social formation in the Sinhala districts which has been described variously as “the rural middle classes,” “the lower middle-class traditionalists,” a “new village leadership” and so on. The political antecedents of this “group” were not traced beyond the 1930's, though several writers recognized that it was part of a social category which existed in British times. In recent articles it has been argued that the political activities of individuals drawn from this social category date back to the late nineteenth century. Be that as it may, it is obviously of value to clarify the lines of differentiation between this middle-level social category and the indigenous elite placed hierarchically above them. The former can be described as a “sub-elite,” a “subordinate elite,” an “intermediate elite,” or a “local elite.” The latter can be described as a “macro-elite,” a “central elite” or a “national elite.” Though convenience dictates the choice of one of these combinations, a reference to the alternatives is necessary because each captures a facet which the other labels do not convey.


2004 ◽  
Vol 65 ◽  
pp. 173-175
Author(s):  
Reiner Tosstorff

This is a very useful bibliographical tool produced by the efforts of the International Association of Labour History Institutions (IALHI). This association comprises more than one hundred archives, libraries and research centers all over the world, though the vast majority are located in Europe, and not all of them have the same importance, reflecting the geographical and political unevenness of socialism's history. This particular volume aims to list all the publications of the social-democratic internationals after 1914, i.e. from the time of the political split due to the support for World War I by most social-democratic parties. This means that the left-wing, beginning with the Kienthal-Zimmerwald movement during the war and leading to the “Communist International” from 1919 on, is not represented here. But also left-wing splits from social democracy in later years, as in the 1930s with the “London Bureau” of left-wing socialist parties (and also the Bureau's predecessors) are excluded here, as they openly campaigned against social democracy. Also, a few international workers' institutions (mainly in the cultural field) that had been founded before 1914, but tried to maintain their independence after 1914 faced with the political split, are therefore not listed as well.


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