Navigating Fiscal Constraints

2018 ◽  
pp. 119-152
Author(s):  
Michael A. Collins
Keyword(s):  
Tamil Nadu ◽  
Party System ◽  
Campaign Spending ◽  
The Political ◽  
Electoral Participation ◽  
Political Arena ◽  
Lower Caste ◽  
Fiscal Constraints ◽  
Democratic Practice ◽  
Caste Groups

In recent decades, India has witnessed an upsurge in electoral participation among lower-caste voters. This broadening social profile of democratic practice occurred alongside a pluralization of the party system marked by the entry of new contenders advocating on behalf of lower caste groups. Coincident with this transformation of the political arena, the country recorded an alarming growth in gross electoral expenditure. Today, reliable estimates peg India as the world’s second most expensive democracy in terms of aggregate campaign spending. This chapter examines how the most prominent Dalit (ex-Untouchable) party in Tamil Nadu—Viduthalai Chiruthaigal Katchi (VCK) or Liberation Panthers Party—navigates the challenges associated with election finance, investigating how VCK candidates mobilize resources to sustain competitive campaigns. Fiscal constraints incentivize smaller parties to join coalitions spearheaded by their more established counterparts, yet these electoral arrangements do not strictly entail a quid pro quo exchange of vote-banks for financial and canvassing support, but entail complex negotiations that structure the terms of electoral participation.

scholarly journals The Evolution of New Party Systems: Voter Learning and Electoral Systems

2021 ◽  
pp. 147892992110143
Author(s):  
Nasos Roussias
Keyword(s):  
Party System ◽  
Electoral Systems ◽  
Social Groups ◽  
Party Systems ◽  
Institutional Setting ◽  
The Political ◽  
New Democracies ◽  
Political Arena ◽  
System Evolution ◽  
Over Time

How do new party systems evolve over time? This article argues that party system evolution requires the solution of coordination problems that voters face in early elections; this happens through a learning mechanism. Elections reveal information to voters, who update their beliefs about party viability and the distribution of voters’ preferences and adjust their behaviour. The institutional setting, however, strongly conditions the pace of learning. Restrictive electoral systems (single-member district) accelerate learning through the harsh penalties they impose on miscoordination, while permissive ones (proportional representation) prolong it. Testing the argument on a district-level dataset in new democracies provides ample support; voters learn to cast fewer wasted votes over time and this happens faster in single-member district systems. The findings point to a trade-off between consolidation and representation; while party system evolution is facilitated by restrictive electoral systems, the presence of distinct social groups in the political arena is better served by permissive ones.

scholarly journals Features of Political Pluralism in Ukraine: Formation of a New Party System Model

2019 ◽  
Vol 2019 (3) ◽  
pp. 289-299
Author(s):  
Alexander Kerimov ◽  
Tatyana Verbitskaya
Keyword(s):  
Party System ◽  
Local Level ◽  
Level Structure ◽  
State Level ◽  
Electoral System ◽  
Functional Method ◽  
The Political ◽  
Political Arena ◽  
Political Pluralism ◽  
Political Processes

The paper features the specifics of Ukrainian party system that formed after the collapse of the USSR. The research objective was to determine the vector of its development. The party system is considered as a political institute with the potential to stabilize the political system in the context of the evolution of Ukrainian statehood. The authors determined factors that influenced the formation of the Ukrainian party system: the transformation of the electoral system, the tightening of legislation on parties, and the change in the balance of power in the political arena. The research helped to identify the following signs of the Ukrainian party system: relative autonomy, closed character, stability, three-level structure (the state level, the regional level, and the local level). The comparative-historical method was used to highlight the stages of the evolution of the Ukrainian party system and its specifics. The functional method was used to determine the role of the party system in political processes. According to N. Luman’s structural-functional method, the main features of the Ukrainian party system can be described as a set of elements with the ability to maintain stability in the context of events that are taking place in the Ukraine political arena. The case-study method was used to study the features of the party system that formed in the context of the evolution of Ukrainian statehood, including such events as political crises and color revolution. The authors came to the conclusion that the Ukrainian party system has fully developed, but there are no prerequisites for its development within the framework of democratic pluralism. The study determined the prospects for democratic transit of the Ukrainian party system and its formation on the basis of political pluralism.

scholarly journals Labor Group and its Place in the Political System of Russia (1906 – 1917)

2021 ◽  
pp. 075-090
Author(s):  
O. L. Protasova ◽  
E. V. Bikbaeva
Keyword(s):  
General Position ◽  
Political System ◽  
Party System ◽  
Political Life ◽  
Socialist Party ◽  
The Political ◽  
Political Arena ◽  
Democratic Culture ◽  
Agrarian Question

The main elements of the ideological platform and the main stages of activity are shown, as well as the political fate of the Labor Group (1906 – 1917). The analysis of the general position of the Labor group in the party system of the country is given. The main political allies, which the Trudoviks gave preference to at different periods of the existence of their organization, were identified. It is noted that, although the Trudoviks, within the framework of parliamentary activities, collaborated with both liberals and socialists, while keeping their own line outside of ideologies, ultimately their accession in 1917 to the People's Socialist Party, which is closest to the Trudoviks in terms of views on ways of solving the agrarian question seems to be quite natural. It is concluded that the emergence of the Labor Group – originally a truly peasant organization – on the political arena of Russia in 1906-1907 reflected noticeable modernization changes in the socio-political life of the country, marked the beginning of the development of a democratic culture in it.

Female Representation in Colombia

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Mónica Pachón ◽  
Santiago E. Lacouture
Keyword(s):  
Twentieth Century ◽  
Political Context ◽  
The Political ◽  
Political Rights ◽  
Female Representation ◽  
Political Arena ◽  
Substantive Representation ◽  
Representation Of Women ◽  
Electoral Democracy ◽  
Almost All

Mónica Pachón and Santiago E. Lacouture examine the case of Colombia and show that women’s representation has been low and remains low in most arenas of representation and across national and subnational levels of government. The authors identify institutions and the highly personalized Colombian political context as the primary reasons for this. Despite the fact that Colombia was an electoral democracy through almost all of the twentieth century, it was one of the last countries in the region to grant women political rights. Still, even given women’s small numbers, they do bring women’s issues to the political arena. Pachón and Lacoutre show that women are more likely to sponsor bills on women-focused topics, which may ultimately lead to greater substantive representation of women in Colombia.

Conclusions

2017 ◽  
Author(s):  
Piero Ignazi
Keyword(s):  
Public Opinion ◽  
Present Condition ◽  
The Political ◽  
Democratic Institutions ◽  
Political Systems ◽  
Political Arena ◽  
Dead End ◽  
Democratic System

The Conclusion addresses the parties’ present condition in the European political systems. Indeed, at the dawn of the new century parties have become Leviathan with clay feet: powerful in the political arena thanks to control of state resources, but very weak in terms of legitimacy in the eyes of public opinion. Only by abandoning the citadelle in which they are entrenched, recasting societal linkages, relinquishing all their privileges, and dismissing their self-referential attitude might they recover the confidence of the electorate. Maintaining a state-centred status will only lead to a dead end, and this will also harm the democratic system itself. The collapse of parties’ legitimacy inevitably affects democratic institutions: the mounting populist and plebiscitary wave suggests how pervasive is the crisis and how dramatic the challenge.

Back to the Westminster model? The Brexit process and the UK political system

2021 ◽  
pp. 019251212096737
Author(s):  
Gianfranco Baldini ◽  
Edoardo Bressanelli ◽  
Emanuele Massetti
Keyword(s):  
Political System ◽  
Party System ◽  
Political Process ◽  
Three Dimensions ◽  
Executive Power ◽  
The Political ◽  
Westminster Model ◽  
The Uk ◽  
Quantitative Indicators ◽  
The Impact

This article investigates the impact of Brexit on the British political system. By critically engaging with the conceptualisation of the Westminster model proposed by Arend Lijphart, it analyses the strains of Brexit on three dimensions developed from from Lijphart’s framework: elections and the party system, executive– legislative dynamics and the relationship between central and devolved administrations. Supplementing quantitative indicators with an in-depth qualitative analysis, the article shows that the process of Brexit has ultimately reaffirmed, with some important caveats, key features of the Westminster model: the resilience of the two-party system, executive dominance over Parliament and the unitary character of the political system. Inheriting a context marked by the progressive weakening of key majoritarian features of the political system, the Brexit process has brought back some of the traditional executive power-hoarding dynamics. Yet, this prevailing trend has created strains and resistances that keep the political process open to different developments.

scholarly journals Bruno Leoni’s Concept of Law and Representation in The Cyber Age: A Cybernetic Model

2020 ◽  
Vol 3 (1) ◽  
pp. 56-65
Author(s):  
Mario De Benedetti
Keyword(s):  
Political Theory ◽  
Social Order ◽  
Information Society ◽  
The Political ◽  
Digital Information ◽  
Political Arena ◽  
Cybernetic Model ◽  
Norbert Wiener ◽  
Law And Politics ◽  
Concept Of Law

AbstractThe purpose of this article is to contextualize Bruno Leoni’s political theory within the Digital Information Society, a new dimension of public participation in the political arena and a sign of the democratic transition through new forms of involvement by public opinion. In particular, the evolution of the Information Society will be briefly examined starting from the studies of Fritz Machlup, considered its progenitor, to pass to the examination of the Leonian concept of law and politics in the technological society, with reference to Norbert Wiener and Karl Deutsch’s cybernetic theory. This paper will attempt to describe the evolutive process of political participation in democratic society by reinterpreting the thought of Bruno Leoni concerning Democracy, the State and the homo telematicus in the digital social order.

Perceived Motives in the Political Arena

2014 ◽  
Vol 43 (3) ◽  
pp. 363-393 ◽  
Author(s):  
David Doherty
Keyword(s):  
The Political ◽  
Political Arena
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