Political parties, parliamentary lobbies and embryo research

1995 ◽  
Vol 4 (1) ◽  
pp. 31-55 ◽  
Author(s):  
Michael Mulkay

Evidence drawn from the parliamentary record, from the scientific press and from the popular press is used as the basis for a description of some of the political processes involved in the lengthy debate over experimentation on human embryos which occurred in the British Parliament during the 1980s. The study examines the balance of support for, and opposition to, embryo research within the two main political parties and shows how this balance altered over the course of the debate. The changing pattern of opposition and support is explained by reference to ideological divisions within the two parties and to the impact of organized campaigns of parliamentary lobbying.

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Kurdistan Saeed

This study deals with the political parties’ pluralism in Iraq under the Parties Law No. 36 of 2015. The importance of the study lies in the fact that it looks at a topic that is at the heart of democracy and it is necessary for the success of any democratic processes. The study focuses on parties’ pluralism in Iraq since the establishment of the Iraqi state in 1921 until the end of the Baath Party regime in 2003, it also covers the period after 2003 and pays particular attention to the Parties Law No. 36 of 2015. It focuses on the legal framework of political parties after the adoption of the Political Parties Law and studies the impact of this law on parties’ pluralism in Iraq after its approval in 2015. The study concludes that Law No. 36 of 2015 is incapable of regulating parties’ pluralism for reasons including: the lack of commitment by the political parties to the provisions of the law, the inability of the Parties Affairs Department to take measures against parties that violate the law the absence of a strong political opposition that enhances the role of political parties, the association of most Iraqi parties with foreign agendas belonging to neighboring countries, and the fact that the majority of Iraqi parties express ethnic or sectarian orientations at the expense of national identity.


Author(s):  
Joel Gordon

This chapter examines the rhetoric of the March crisis as well as the ideals proferred and the programs espoused by both sides. In the wake of the March crisis, the Command Council of the Revolution (CCR) announced steps to end the period of transitional rule and facilitate the return of parliamentary life. It also proclaimed an end to all press censorship. The chapter first considers the debates over issues confronting the CCR, including the constituent assembly that would work on a new constitution, the idea of limiting the number of political parties in Egypt, and the political, economic, and social status of women. It also discusses the impact of the March crisis on the Democratic Movement for National Liberation (DMNL) and other communist movements, along with the notion that the liberal intelligentsia failed to support the revolution.


2002 ◽  
Vol 20 (4) ◽  
pp. 27-47
Author(s):  
Daniel Hough

In the years since unification, Germany’s political parties have faceda number of formidable challenges. They range from incorporatingthe citizens of the German Democratic Republic (GDR) into the FederalRepublic’s political processes, reassessing Germany’s role in thewider world, overcoming gridlock on many pressing policy questionsat home (perhaps best understood as the overcoming of the Reformstau),to finding a way out of Germany’s much maligned economicmalaise.1 Such challenges have had a not inconsiderable effect on theGerman party system, the end product of which has been that thissystem, once a bastion of cast-iron stability, has become characterizedby diversity and genuine electoral competition in a way that it hasnot been since the late 1950s. Therefore, the electoral position of themuch-vaunted Volksparteien, if perhaps not their control of the politicalprocess, has slipped considerably.


2020 ◽  
Vol ahead-of-print (ahead-of-print) ◽  
Author(s):  
Tasmia Matloob ◽  
Malik Shahzad Shabbir ◽  
Noreen Saher

Purpose The purpose of this study to identify the role of women in political agenda at Azad Jammu Kashmir. The political parties are always considered main gatekeepers to women’s political representation. Existing scholarship highlights the significance of centralized political institutions (parties) with structured set up for the effective representation of women at different levels. However, the functioning of these institutions is greatly influenced by the social and cultural context of a country in which they operate. Design methodology/approach This paper mainly analyzes social and cultural practices and those informal ways that operate within the exited democratic government setup and creates serious obstacles for women’s effective political representation at the party level. For this purpose, a qualitative research methodology is used to get the full insight of the issue at hand. The authors conducted 25 in-depth interviews with women members of three different political parties. Findings The results revealed that both (social context and political structure) have a significant impact on women’s nature and level of participation in the political processes in Azad Jammu and Kashmir. Originality value Prevailing social and political context of Pakistan does not support a truly democratic and centralized political system. Parties are weak entities with the less democratic organizational structure, which ultimately have a negative impact on women’s political representation.


1973 ◽  
Vol 27 (1) ◽  
pp. 85-98 ◽  
Author(s):  
Thomas J. Volgy

As periodic stock–taking efforts would indicate,1students of international organizations have become increasingly sophisticated in the methods and techniques used for assessing the dynamics of international efforts at cooperation, and the impact of these efforts on the general stream of international politics. Nowhere has this been more true than in attempts by scholars to come to grips with the political processes acted out in the General Assembly of the United Nations. To para–phrase Keohane,2we have come to witness a change of focus from a somewhat static description of structures, rules and regulations, to analyses of patterns of voting behavior (and correlates thereof) to, finally, systematic analyses of patterns of interactions leading to votes and resolutions.


2016 ◽  
Vol 34 (4) ◽  
pp. 559-582 ◽  
Author(s):  
Saikat Banerjee ◽  
Bibek Ray Chaudhuri

Purpose – Political parties are continuously interested to gain knowledge about the factors that influence the voter to select political candidate of his/her choice. The purpose of this paper is to examine cumulative impact of sources of associations on voters’ preference of the political party and to investigate the type of causal relationship that exists among those sources. Design/methodology/approach – The authors have proposed five key sources of associations of the overall political party, namely, campaign effectiveness, image of its leaders, intensity of anti-incumbency effect, meaning and trust attached with the party. Here the authors have considered four important political parties relevant to the voters of West Bengal. Those are Congress, Bharatiya Janata Party, Communist Party of India (Marxist) and All India Trinamool Congress. The authors have used SEM method for estimating the model as the same is widely used for estimating a system of equations with latent variables. Findings – Out of the eight path coefficients six are found to be statistically significant. Political campaign impacts brand trust positively and brand trust in turn impacts party preference positively. Again political campaign’s direct impact on political party preference is found to be positive. However, the impact of political campaign on party preference also runs through brand meaning. Both the path coefficients are significantly negative showing that more the voters develop understanding about political parties through different independent sources lesser are the impact of political campaigns as they highlight positive aspects of the party and the candidate only, ignoring facts. Interestingly leadership is impacting party preference negatively. Thus individual leadership traits have negatively impacted party preference in the sample. Originality/value – In the paper, the authors have identified factors impacting political brand choice in an emerging country like India. This research explores the factors that need to be considered by the political parties to influence preference of voters for political brand. As far as the authors’ knowledge goes no such studies have been carried out in the Indian context and certainly not in the context of a regime change after three decades. Additionally, the theoretical model proposed is firmly grounded in theory and its estimation is based on well-developed scales. The approach is thus unique in this area of enquiry. Finally, application of SEM in political branding context is a significant contribution of this work.


2003 ◽  
Vol 33 (3) ◽  
pp. 419-494 ◽  
Author(s):  
Vicente Navarro ◽  
Carme Borrell ◽  
Joan Benach ◽  
Carles Muntaner ◽  
Agueda Quiroga ◽  
...  

This article analyzes (within the conceptual frame defined in the previous article) the impact of political variables such as time of government by political parties (social democratic, Christian democratic or conservative, liberal, and ex-dictatorial that have governed the OECD countries during the 1950–1998 period) and their electoral support on (1) redistributional policies in the labor market and in the welfare state; (2) the income inequalities measured by Theil and Gini indexes; and (3) health indicators, such as infant mortality and life expectancy. This analysis is carried out statistically by a bivariate and a multivariate analysis (a pooled cross-sectional study). Both analyses show that political variables play an important role in defining how public and social policies determine the levels of inequalities and affect the level of infant mortality. In general, political parties more committed to redistributional policies, such as social democratic parties, are the most successful in reducing inequalities and improving infant mortality. Less evidence exists, however, on effects on life expectancy. The article also quantifies statistically the relationship between the political and the policy variables and between these variables and the dependent variables—that is, the health indicators.


The results of the parliamentary elections of 2019 in the Republic of Moldova and the features of the structure of the state power vertical are analyzed. Using mathematical methods, the results of the parliamentary elections were also analyzed, the main determinants of the prevailing political processes, the key regions of the main political forces were determined, the general political landscape of the republic was clarified and investigated, its main laws were determined. The problematic issues of the political life and structure of the Republic of Moldova were examined. The features of the electoral legislation of the country are established. The properties of the main political parties of the republic are analyzed. Some features of the course of the national election process are highlighted. The features of the main political parties, their electoral field, ideological orientation, the history of formation and inter-party relations are considered. The factors of influence on the will of Moldovan voters are investigated. In addition, an effective number of parties has been established in the Moldovan parliament. The configurations of potential coalitions in the Parliament of the Republic of Moldova are analyzed. The ethnic component in the political life of the country is clarified. The role of the regional factor in the electoral process is emphasized. The spatial and electoral similarity of parties in the 2019 parliamentary elections was determined. The features of the functioning of the political system of the country are highlighted. Particular attention is paid to the stability and capacity of possible coalitions and the success of potential coalition negotiations in general. The degree of regional homogeneity of the parties is clarified. The role of religion in the electoral process during the parliamentary elections of 2019 is determined. The results of mathematical calculations are analyzed and the results of the analysis are summed up.


Communicology ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 9 (2) ◽  
pp. 67-77
Author(s):  
V. V. Stetsenko

The article represents the topical trends in contemporary Russian political discourse. The author proceeds from the thesis about the strengthening of the importance of the cultural component of state policy in relation to the education of young people, the reproduction of the political elite, as well as the building of communicative influences between the elite and the people. The article provides an overview of the legal framework of sources within the framework of the research area under consideration. In particular, the article analyzes changes in the field of constitutional legislation, as well as new law-making initiatives in the context of the discussion and adoption of the Laws on Culture and Youth Policy. Significant research platforms are highlighted that accentuate the problems of cultural policy, in the aspects of forming the foundations of the traditional cultural and civilizational identity of youth, as well as the reproduction and improvement of the quality of human capital in the field of training management personnel. Within the framework of the article, the phenomenon of cultural enlightenment is positioned as a promising direction of cultural policy, which is very relevant from the point of view of solving the problems being analyzed. The concept of «cultural imperative» is put forward, designed to become one of the «catalysts» of the process of value-semantic formation of the political elite. The methodological basis of the study was interpretive and empirical methods of studying the impact of state cultural policy, including cultural enlightenment, on the political outlook and socialization of young people, as well as the study of youth as a subject of political relations, its place and role in the political processes of the Russian state, development strategies civic and patriotic activity of young people in a modern society subject to globalization and informatization. In our research, we turned to an interdisciplinary method, in particular, we use the research techniques of sociology in the framework of monitoring on key research issues. As the results of the research, the author proposes projects of optional courses and retraining courses aimed at enriching the system of training the future political elite with value-semantic content through the tools of cultural enlightenment.


2008 ◽  
Vol 47 (2) ◽  
pp. 129-151 ◽  
Author(s):  
Zahid Hasnan

This paper examines the impact of the political party structure on the incentives for politicians to focus on patronage versus service delivery improvements in Pakistan. By analysing inter-provincial variations in the quality of service delivery in Pakistan, the paper argues that the more fragmented, factionalised, and polarised the party systems, the greater are the incentives for patronage, weakening service delivery improvements. Fragmentation and factionalism both exacerbate the information problems that voters have in assigning credit (blame) for service delivery improvements (deterioration), thereby creating the incentives for politicians to focus on targeted benefits. Polarisation, particularly ethnic polarisation, reduces the ability of groups to agree on the provision of public goods, again causing politicians to favour the delivery of targeted benefits.


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