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.

Divergent Paths of Inequality in Turkey and Spain

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ekrem Karakoç
Keyword(s):  
Political Parties ◽  
Household Income ◽  
Party System ◽  
Social Programs ◽  
Social Policies ◽  
Unemployment Benefits ◽  
Social Security Systems ◽  
Security Systems ◽  
Electoral Campaigns ◽  
Key Sectors

Using most similar design and process-tracing methodology, this chapter investigates the divergent outcomes in income inequality in Turkey and Spain. Even though social-security systems in both countries have been hierarchical, benefiting civil servants, the security apparatus, and workers in key sectors and others in formal sectors at the expense of the rest, they have adopted different social policies over time. This chapter discusses how Turkish governments, with a focus on 1983 to the present time, have designed contributory and noncontributory pensions, healthcare, and other social programs that have affected household income differently. In democratic Spain, however, pension-related policies and unemployment benefits have been dominant forms of social policy, but the Spanish party system has not created major incentives for political parties to utilize these policies in electoral campaigns until recently. This chapter ends with a discussion of how social policies in Turkey and Spain have affected inequality since the two nations transitioned to democracy.

scholarly journals Democracy in Pakistan: Value Change and Challenges of Institution Building

1998 ◽  
Vol 37 (4II) ◽  
pp. 281-298 ◽  
Author(s):  
Saeed Shafqat
Keyword(s):  
Political Parties ◽  
Party System ◽  
Authoritarian Regimes ◽  
Institution Building ◽  
Value Change ◽  
Constitutional History ◽  
Interest Representation ◽  
History Of ◽  
The Military ◽  
Weak Party

Democracy as a system of governance and interest representation demands respect for dissent and opposition. It recognises the principle of majority rule and guarantees protection of minorities. Democracy also builds faith in electoral contestation to gain public office and gives legitimacy to political parties as primary instruments for acquisition and transfer of power from one set of individuals to another. Unfortunately, despite the significance of the above elements, no serious studies have been undertaken on Pakistan’s experimentation with democracy. Given a history of weak party system and prolonged military rule, most of the studies focus on the military, political parties, constitutional history, or in a descriptive way, attribute the failure of democracy to the inadequacies of the politicians [Ahmed (1987); Rizvi (1987); Callard (1957) and Afzal (1976)]. It is only recently that some theoretically meaningful and rigorous empirical writings have appeared on elections, procedures and practices of electoral contestation and on problems of transition from authoritarian regimes towards democracy [Waseem (1989); Wilder (1995); Talyor (1992); Rais (1997) and Shafqat (1997)].

Legislative Parties in Volatile, Nonprogrammatic Party Systems: The Peruvian Case in Comparative Perspective

2011 ◽  
Vol 53 (3) ◽  
pp. 57-81 ◽  
Author(s):  
Eduardo Alemán ◽  
Aldo F. Ponce ◽  
Iñaki Sagarzazu
Keyword(s):  
Political Parties ◽  
Voting Behavior ◽  
Party System ◽  
Party Systems ◽  
The United States ◽  
Legislative Voting ◽  
The Government ◽  
The Empirical Analysis ◽  
Weak Party ◽  
Legislative Parties

AbstractThis article extends the analysis of political parties in electorally volatile and organizationally weak party systems by evaluating two implications centered on legislative voting behavior. First, it examines whether disunity prevails where weakness of programmatic and electoral commonalities abound. Second, it analyzes whether inchoate party systems weaken the ability of government parties to control the congressional agenda. The empirical analysis centers on Peru, a classic example of a weakly institutionalized party system, and how its legislative parties compare to those of Argentina, Brazil, Chile, and the United States. The results lend support to the view that lower unity characterizes weakly institutionalized settings. The agenda-setting power of government parties, however, appears to be influenced more by the majority status of the government than by the level of party system institutionalization.

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.

Parties and Party Systems

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Sunghack Lim
Keyword(s):  
Civil Rights ◽  
Political Parties ◽  
South Korea ◽  
Party System ◽  
Party Systems ◽  
Political Freedom ◽  
Electoral Volatility ◽  
South Korean ◽  
The Stability ◽  
Weak Party

Since the late 1980s, South Korea has established democratic rules and institutions to protect the political freedom and civil rights of its citizens. In this process, political parties played a pivotal role in building democratic institutions and became a necessary actor for democratic governance. The characteristics of South Korean political parties and party system such as non-ideological regional factionalism, personality-based party organization, growing electoral volatility due to party changes, and a cartelized two-party system have contributed to weak party system institutionalization (PSI). Despite weak PSI, South Korea successfully underwent three peaceful power transfers, thus exceeding Huntington’s two turnover test of democratic consolidation. The stability of interparty competition has been maintained despite moderate electoral volatility. While regionalism is still the most important factor in voter decisions, the ideological linkage between parties and voters has been tightening. The South Korean parties and party system have a long way to go before achieving the levels of PSI seen in the West, but they have followed in these countries’ footstep to some extent. More sophisticated measures and concepts should be developed to analyse political parties and party systems in new democracies.

scholarly journals The Dynamics of Electoral Activity and Problems of Consolidation of “New Democracies” In Post-Communist European Countries

2019 ◽  
Vol 9 (5) ◽  
pp. 6-14
Author(s):  
S. L. Chepel
Keyword(s):  
Comparative Analysis ◽  
Political Parties ◽  
Eastern Europe ◽  
Voter Turnout ◽  
Central And Eastern Europe ◽  
Institutional Factors ◽  
New Democracies ◽  
Primary Reason ◽  
Communist Countries ◽  
Important Indication

The article deals with the dynamics of electoral activity of citizens which comes out as an important indication of the on-going process of consolidation of democracy in the post-communist countries of Central and Eastern Europe in the period from 2001 to 2018 . The comparative analysis helps to show the differences in voter’s behaviour in post-communist and post-authoritarian countries as well as to point out the peculiar impact of social, sociocultural and institutional factors on voter turnout in “new democracies” . The author stresses that sociocultural factor considered as a correlation of survival values and values of self-expression in mass conscience exerts the primary influence on the level of participation of citizens in elections . The author emphasised that the prevalence of survival values in the culture of post-communist societies is the primary reason for utilitarian relation of people to democracy . It, in its turn, contributes to decreasing participation in elections in the conditions of mass disappointment in the results of market economy reforms and low-level electoral activity later on . More to that, weak institutionalisation of political parties in post-communist countries in Central and Eastern Europe proved to be unable to hinder effectively growing absenteeism of voters .

The Roma in Post-Communist Bulgaria: Growing Social Marginalization and State Policies

2020 ◽  
Vol 2 (1) ◽  
pp. 1-24
Author(s):  
Yorgos Christidis
Keyword(s):  
Political Parties ◽  
Social Exclusion ◽  
Hate Crime ◽  
Hate Speech ◽  
Poor Performance ◽  
State Policies ◽  
Social Marginalization ◽  
Popular Support ◽  
Economic Problems ◽  
The Poor

This article analyzes the growing impoverishment and marginalization of the Roma in Bulgarian society and the evolution of Bulgaria’s post-1989 policies towards the Roma. It examines the results of the policies so far and the reasons behind the “poor performance” of the policies implemented. It is believed that Post-communist Bulgaria has successfully re-integrated the ethnic Turkish minority given both the assimilation campaign carried out against it in the 1980s and the tragic events that took place in ex-Yugoslavia in the 1990s. This Bulgaria’s successful “ethnic model”, however, has failed to include the Roma. The “Roma issue” has emerged as one of the most serious and intractable ones facing Bulgaria since 1990. A growing part of its population has been living in circumstances of poverty and marginalization that seem only to deteriorate as years go by. State policies that have been introduced since 1999 have failed at large to produce tangible results and to reverse the socio-economic marginalization of the Roma: discrimination, poverty, and social exclusion continue to be the norm. NGOs point out to the fact that many of the measures that have been announced have not been properly implemented, and that legislation existing to tackle discrimination, hate crime, and hate speech is not implemented. Bulgaria’s political parties are averse in dealing with the Roma issue. Policies addressing the socio-economic problems of the Roma, including hate speech and crime, do not enjoy popular support and are seen as politically damaging.

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.

TRENDS AND PROSPECTS FOR THE EVOLUTION OF THE INSTITUTION OF POLITICAL PARTIES IN MODERN RUSSIA

2020 ◽  
Vol 15 (5) ◽  
pp. 87-95
Author(s):  
D.L. TSYBAKOV ◽  
Keyword(s):  
Political Parties ◽  
Russian Federation ◽  
Political Institutions ◽  
Party System ◽  
Sources Of Information ◽  
Party Elites ◽  
The Russian Federation ◽  
State Bureaucracy ◽  
Soviet Russia ◽  
Post Industrial

The purpose of the article is to assess the nature of the evolution of the institution of political parties in post – Soviet Russia. The article substantiates that political parties continue to be one of the leading political institutions in the modern Russian Federation. The premature to recognize the functional incapacity of party institutions in the post-industrial/information society is noted. It is argued that political parties continue to be a link between society and state power, and retain the potential for targeted and regular influence on strategic directions of social development. The research methodology is based on the principles of consistency, which allowed us to analyze various sources of information and empirical data on trends and prospects for the evolution of the party system in the Russian Federation. As a result, the authors come to the conclusion that in Russian conditions the convergence of party elites with state bureaucracy is increasing, and there is a distance between political parties and civil society.

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