Religion and the European Parliament

2021 ◽  
pp. 322-337
Author(s):  
François Foret
Keyword(s):  
Public Policy ◽  
Human Rights ◽  
Identity Politics ◽  
Policy Making ◽  
European Parliament ◽  
Party Politics ◽  
Political Elites ◽  
Christian Democracy ◽  
European Elections ◽  
Political Forces

This chapter discusses the salience, relevance, and effects of religion at the European Parliament (EP) across a range of issues. These are: the allocation of power (religion and European elections); the profile of political elites (members of the EP and religion); the structuring of political forces (religion and party politics, using the example of Christian democracy); and religion and public policy (with cases studies of identity politics and counter-radicalization). The chapter concludes that, when dealing with religion, the EP mirrors what happens in European societies more generally in terms of the secularization and culturalization of faith. The EP also duplicates a frequently found feature of EU policy making: that is, to hollow out the normative and controversial content from religion and to address the topic through the repertoire of human rights, while respecting the national diversity of Member States.

scholarly journals The social origins and political uses of popular narratives on Serbian disunity

2005 ◽  
pp. 65-104 ◽  
Author(s):  
Slobodan Naumovic
Keyword(s):  
Identity Politics ◽  
Party System ◽  
Conflicts Of Interest ◽  
Political Process ◽  
Party Politics ◽  
Social Contexts ◽  
The Political ◽  
Political Elites ◽  
The Social ◽  
Identity Based

The text offers an examination of socio-political bases, modes of functioning, and of the consequences of political instrumentalisation of popular narratives on Serbian disunity. The first section of the paper deals with what is being expressed and what is being done socially when narratives on Serbian disunity are invoked in everyday discourses. The next section investigates what political actor sty, by publicly replicating them, or by basing their speeches on key words of those narratives. The narratives on Serbian disunity are then related to their historical and social contexts, and to various forms of identity politics with which they share common traits. The nineteenth century wars over political and cultural identity, intensified by the struggle between contesting claims to political authority, further channeled by the development of party politics in Serbia and radicalized by conflicts of interest and ideology together provided the initial reasons for the apparition of modern discourses on Serbian disunity and disaccord. Next, addressed are the uninnally solidifying or misinterpreting really existing social problems (in the case of some popular narratives on disunity), or because of intentionally exploiting popular perceptions of such problems (in the case of most political meta-narratives), the constructive potential related to existing social conflicts and splits can be completely wasted. What results is a deep feeling of frustration, and the diminishing of popular trust in the political elites and the political process in general. The contemporary hyperproduction of narratives on disunity and disaccord in Serbia seems to be directly related to the incapacity of the party system, and of the political system in general, to responsibly address, and eventually resolve historical and contemporary clashes of interest and identity-splits. If this vicious circle in which the consequences of social realities are turned into their causes is to be prevented, conflicts of interest must be discursively disassociated from ideological conflicts, as well as from identity-based conflicts, and all of them have to be disentangled from popular narratives on splits and disunity. Most important of all, the practice of political instrumentalisation of popular narratives on disunity and disaccord has to be gradually abandoned.

scholarly journals Interaction of Party Structures of The EU and the Russian Federation in a Discourse of the Russian Left Forces on the Example of “A Just Russia” Party

2019 ◽  
Vol 9 (4) ◽  
pp. 83-87
Author(s):  
S. P. Mitrakhovich
Keyword(s):  
European Union ◽  
Identity Politics ◽  
Russian Federation ◽  
European Parliament ◽  
The European Union ◽  
Political Processes ◽  
Political Forces ◽  
Party Elites ◽  
The Russian Federation ◽  
The Eu

The article using “A Just Russia” case deals with the party strategies of the Russian left political forces for the creation of the relations with party structures of the European Union. Similar party strategy is at the same time a part of domestic policy and development of the Russian political processes, and at the same time, they are a part of the relationship with the European Union which is built up by Russia. Consequently, that is de facto a part of foreign policy activity. The novelty of the research consists in a combination of the research approaches used in a “partology” while considering a party to be a rational actor acting in conditions of a country political environment and the research approaches accepted in modern European studies. Parties act as internal political players, but at the same time and as contractors of foreign elite, in this case — party elite of the European Union, members of party groups of European Parliament, party Internationals, “the European parties” (earlier known under the term of “party at the European level”). From the Russian parliamentary political forces of several last electoral cycles “A Just Russia”, using a discourse of modern socialism, could establish more actively than others cooperation with European left, including influencing adoption of significant decisions in the EU, for example, on reform of the EU Gas Directive and the Third Energy Package of the EU. The party, through the prism of socialist ideology, is trying to bring together certain positions of the party elites of the Russian Federation and the EU, bringing differences on social avant-garde and identity politics out of the brackets. Therefore, it focuses recently on the problems of sanctions issues, considering its communication with the Party of European socialists and socialist groups in the European Parliament as another potentially popular diplomatic track for the country.

scholarly journals El régimen constitucional de los partidos políticos en el derecho de la Unión Europea: un equilibrio sui generis

2016 ◽  
pp. 187
Author(s):  
Ángel Rodríguez
Keyword(s):  
Political Parties ◽  
European Parliament ◽  
Party Politics ◽  
Legal Order ◽  
Legislative Process ◽  
National Party ◽  
Member States ◽  
European Elections ◽  
Leading Role ◽  
The Eu

El equilibrio en la regulación de los partidos políticos en las democracias contemporáneas se alcanza cuando la atribución a estos de funciones políticas relevantes se compensa con mecanismos de control. La aplicación de este principio a la regulación de los partidos políticos en el derecho de la UE pone de manifiesto una situación de equilibrio sui generis: las funciones de los partidos políticos europeos en las elecciones europeas o en el proceso legislativo del Parlamento Europeo está fuertemente limitada por el protagonismo de los Estados miembros y la política de partidos nacionales; por otro lado, los mecanismos de control establecidos sobre los partidos políticos europeos, incluidos los de democracia militante, deben coexistir con las normas nacionales al respecto, generando los problemas típicos de los escenarios multinivel.Balance in political parties regulation is met in contemporary democracies when the attribution of relevant political functions to political parties is counterweighed with mechanisms of control. The application of this principle to the regulation of political parties under the EU legal order reveals a sui generis balance: the functions of European political parties in European elections or in the legislative process within the European Parliament is significantly limited by the leading role played by member States and national party politics; besides, the mechanisms of control on European political parties, including those of militant democracy, must coexist with national laws governing the same subject, creating the typical problems of multilevel scenarios.

A database about the Members of European Parliament: Contributions and limitations of automated data collection in the study of European political elites

2021 ◽  
Vol 152 (1) ◽  
pp. 125-141
Author(s):  
Sébastien Michon ◽  
Eric Wiest
Keyword(s):  
Data Collection ◽  
Open Data ◽  
European Parliament ◽  
Political Elites ◽  
Automated Data Collection ◽  
European Elections ◽  
Long Period ◽  
The Past ◽  
Political Group ◽  
Members Of European Parliament

Over the past 25 years, a field of research concerning the careers of Members of the European Parliament (MEPs) has developed. Drawing on a massive amount of accessible open data, we have assembled an updated database including all MEPs from 1979 to September 2019. In this note, we describe the data collection processes and the construction of the database. Then, we propose an application concerning the turnover at the EP following the 2019 European elections. The longitudinal perspective provided by the database allows us to describe this turnover, which is important, but varies greatly according to nationality and political group, and does not fundamentally alter the division of parliamentary power. Finally, we identify some limitations: the lack of data in MEP profiles and difficulties both in the comparison between people from 27 countries and the comparison over a long period (1979–2019). As a result, the article shows that automated data collection can be very useful. However, in the case of individuals, as MEPs, it should be seen as a complementary source to other sources.

Transitional Justice and Protracted Accountability in Re-democratised Uruguay, 1985–2011

2011 ◽  
Vol 43 (4) ◽  
pp. 693-724 ◽  
Author(s):  
LUIS RONIGER
Keyword(s):  
Human Rights ◽  
Transitional Justice ◽  
Truth Commission ◽  
Human Rights Violations ◽  
Political Elites ◽  
Truth Telling ◽  
Political Forces ◽  
Electoral Democracy ◽  
Normative Expectations ◽  
The Government

AbstractThis article analyses the protracted process by which democratised Uruguay has come to terms with its legacy of human rights violations. Central to this process has been the nature of Uruguayan transitional policies and their more recent partial unravelling. Due to the negotiated transition to electoral democracy, civilian political elites approached the transitional dilemma of balancing normative expectations and political contingency by promulgating legal immunity, for years avoiding initiatives to pursue trials or launch an official truth commission, unlike neighbouring Argentina. A constellation of national and transnational factors (including recurrent initiatives by social and political forces) eventually opened up new institutional ground for belated truth-telling and accountability for some historical wrongs – and yet, attempts to challenge the blanket legal impunity failed twice through popular consultation and in a recent parliamentary vote. Each time, the government officially projected a narrative that sacralised national consensus and reconciliation, now enshrined in two sovereign popular votes, and the adoption of a forward-looking democratic perspective.

scholarly journals The National Assembly in the Newly Democratized Korean Polity

2000 ◽  
Vol 15 (1) ◽  
pp. 25-42
Keyword(s):  
Public Policy ◽  
Early Phase ◽  
Policy Making ◽  
Party Politics ◽  
National Assembly ◽  
Policy Making Process ◽  
Political Voice ◽  
Organizational Features

This essay discusses the Korean National Assembly's change of influence upon public policy since the Democratic Era. In the early phase of the current Era, the first half of the Thirteenth Assembly showed strong signs of policy activism. Later on, however, the legislature slipped back into a modest policy role. As with the Authoritarian Era, the Executive monopolizes the policy making process. Except for changes in constitutional provisions, party politics and legislative organizational features continue to prevent the Assembly from having a strong political voice.

Ambivalence, Accommodation, Antipathy, and Anxiety

2020 ◽  
pp. 54-87
Author(s):  
Thio Li-ann
Keyword(s):  
Public Policy ◽  
Human Rights ◽  
Free Speech ◽  
Policy Making ◽  
Religious Freedom ◽  
Culture Wars ◽  
Public Morality ◽  
Transitional State ◽  
The Government

Religion and religiosity have flourished as Singapore has modernized and industrialized, bucking the secularization thesis originating from the particular context of the post-sacred West. While the government is committed to an anti-theocratic rather than anti-theistic model of secularism, which is pragmatic, not doctrinaire, there are hints of a growing form of militant secularism from sectors of society, which is inimical to democracy and human rights such as religious freedom and free speech. The government has had to devise rules of engagement to deal with the role of religious views in public policy making, particularly given the increasingly confrontational stance adopted by those with religiously and secularly influenced views in the ‘culture wars’ over matters implicating public morality. Formerly authoritarian, the government and style of governance based on the Westminster parliamentary system is in a transitional state, with increasing democratization in the promotion of a more participatory and consensualist political culture.

scholarly journals Political Preferences of the Ukrainian National Minority in Poland in the Elections to the European Parliament

2021 ◽  
Vol 7 (2) ◽  
pp. 8-15
Author(s):  
Maryan Lopata ◽  
Keyword(s):  
European Parliament ◽  
National Minority ◽  
Voting Behaviour ◽  
Far Right ◽  
Interesting Phenomenon ◽  
European Elections ◽  
Sense Of Security ◽  
Political Forces ◽  
Election Results ◽  
Law And Justice

The paper describes, interprets, and characterizes the results of elections to the European Parliament in Poland based on the voting behaviour of the Ukrainian national minority. In the article, four European elections 2004, 2009, 2014, and 2019 were considered. The research hypothesizes is that the Ukrainian national minority could have a distinct voting behaviour from their region of permanent living and voted obviously for the representatives of liberal and leftist political forces rather than for far-right and right, or even far-left candidates on the elections to the European Parliament. In the years 2004-2019, an interesting phenomenon could be observed in the elections to the European Parliament in the area of communes inhabited by the Ukrainian population. In the «Ukrainian» municipalities located in the northern part of Poland, where the electorate was rather liberal (Civic Platform) or possibly anti-system (Self-Defence) the election results did not differ from the rest of the regions. This phenomenon was inherent in both the West Pomeranian and Warmia-Masurian voivodships. On the other hand, in the Komańcza commune, which is located in the Subcarpathian voivodship, in which the conservative electorate has been the strongest, the results of the voting in the “Ukrainian” commune were significantly different from other communes of the region. In other words, the results of the elections in Komańcza were much more similar to the results obtained in northern and western Poland than to the results in the South-Eastern Poland. The article concludes that, in general, those municipalities, where the citizens of Ukrainian descent consist at least 10% of the overall population, vote for more liberal parties to the European Parliament. Instead, the support of rightwing political parties like Law and Justice, Kukiz’15, Korvin Confederation as a right-wing parties is much lower. Even during elections to the European Parliament in 2019, Law and Justice, victorious in the rest of the country, evidently had lower support in “Ukrainian” municipalities. The Civic Platform is perceived as a much more moderate party, guaranteeing, in their opinion, representatives of the Ukrainian minority a greater sense of security and comfort of living in the Polish state.

scholarly journals Analyzing and Visualizing Government-Citizen Interactions on Twitter to Support Public Policy-making

2020 ◽  
Vol 1 (2) ◽  
pp. 1-20 ◽  
Author(s):  
Rocío B. Hubert ◽  
Elsa Estevez ◽  
Ana Maguitman ◽  
Tomasz Janowski
Keyword(s):  
Public Policy ◽  
Policy Making ◽  
Public Policy Making ◽  
Citizen Interactions
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