Kuwait’s parliament could quash economic reforms

2016 ◽  
Keyword(s):  
Credit Rating ◽  
Prime Minister ◽  
The Political ◽  
Legislative Elections ◽  
Political Field ◽  
Content Type ◽  
National Assembly ◽  
International Credit ◽  
The Right ◽  
Spending Cuts

Significance The November 26 legislative elections returned the Islamist opposition to the political field. Opposition and like-minded parliamentarians now occupy almost half of the seats, enabling them to form a strong alliance within the National Assembly. However, the emir has the right to appoint the prime minister and cabinet. Impacts The emir could well replace the prime minister, possibly with the former interior minister, Mohammad al-Khalid Al Sabah. The inability to implement budget spending cuts could negatively affect Kuwait’s international credit rating. More early elections would probably pave the way for the return of a wider range of emboldened opposition activists. The presence of a vocal Sunni Islamist opposition in the National Assembly may exacerbate Sunni-Shia tensions and anti-Iran sentiment.

Ecuador local elections signal Alianza Pais collapse

2019 ◽  
Keyword(s):  
Presidential Election ◽  
Poor Performance ◽  
The Political ◽  
Local Elections ◽  
Legislative Elections ◽  
Political Field ◽  
Content Type ◽  
The Right ◽  
Initial Results ◽  
Real Test

Significance The elections were the first real test of the strength of President Lenin Moreno’s reformed Alianza Pais (AP), which has splintered since former President Rafael Correa left office in 2017. Initial results signal the collapse of the party as a national political force and the fragmentation of the political field. Impacts AP’s poor performance will encourage party legislators to defect as the presidential and legislative elections approach. The legislature will become more fragmented and Moreno will become more reliant on cross-party alliances to pass legislation. The right will be well placed to win the presidential election, though Correa and his supporters will mount a serious challenge.

Governance in Brazil will become more challenging

2015 ◽  
Keyword(s):  
Policy Making ◽  
Foreign Currency ◽  
Credit Rating ◽  
New Right ◽  
The Political ◽  
Content Type ◽  
Credit Rating Agency ◽  
Foreign Currency Debt ◽  
Spending Cuts ◽  
Ability And Willingness

Significance When credit rating agency Standard & Poor's downgraded Brazil's foreign currency debt to 'junk' status on September 9, it cited "political challenges" "weighing on the government's ability and willingness to submit a 2016 budget to Congress" consistent with its objective of rebalancing its books. This exemplifies Brazil's serious governance problems, which affect different areas of policy-making. Impacts Spending cuts will further undermine Rousseff's congressional support. A new right is emerging with a traditional liberal agenda. The political reform under discussion does not address key governance issues.

Malaysia will see more autocratic governance

2018 ◽  
Keyword(s):  
Credit Rating ◽  
Prime Minister ◽  
Content Type ◽  
International Credit ◽  
The Government ◽  
The Cost

Subject Malaysia under Prime Minister Mahathir Mohamad. Significance The new Pakatan Harapan (PH) coalition led by Prime Minister Mahathir Mohamad has sought to reform drastically the country’s politics. Its focus on tackling corruption has included pursuing former Prime Minister Najib Razak over the 1Malaysia Development Berhad (1MDB) scandal; Najib denies all charges against him. Impacts The government will allow global investigations into 1MDB funds to accelerate. A substantially higher debt-to-GDP ratio (80%), as per new calculations, will increase the cost of future borrowing. Economic confidence-building measures will secure Malaysia’s international credit rating. Contractual penalties may force the government to delay rather than cancel infrastructure deals with Singapore and China.

Moderate Czech Euroscepticism will cause no EU rupture

2017 ◽  
Keyword(s):  
Direct Democracy ◽  
Political Agenda ◽  
The Political ◽  
Legislative Elections ◽  
Wide Margin ◽  
Content Type ◽  
Eu Membership ◽  
The Right ◽  
Political Right ◽  
Visegrad Group

Subject Czech Euroscepticism. Significance The right-liberal ANO 2011 party led by Andrej Babis won legislative elections last month. Its wide margin of victory owed something to its Eurosceptic discourse. Czech Euroscepticism is the product of populist mobilisation on the political right and the centre’s failure to make a positive case for EU membership. With the hard Eurosceptic Freedom and Direct Democracy (SPD) party joining the Europhobic Communist Party of Bohemia and Moravia (KSCM) in parliament, leaving the EU is guaranteed a prominent place on the political agenda. Impacts Moderate Czech (and Austrian) enthusiasm for deeper integration will mean that inner and outer ‘circles’ of EU membership will solidify. A deepening split within the Visegrad Group will make opposition to EU reform difficult to sustain for Poland and Hungary. The president has added his weight to a referendum on ‘Czexit’.

Anti‐Political Politics: the Barre Phenomenon

1987 ◽  
Vol 22 (2) ◽  
pp. 145-162
Author(s):  
Franco Rizzuto
Keyword(s):  
Prime Minister ◽  
Political Agenda ◽  
Crucial Importance ◽  
Legislative Elections ◽  
Fifth Republic ◽  
National Assembly ◽  
Parliamentary Elections ◽  
The Republic ◽  
The Right ◽  
Political Scene

ONE OF THE MOST REMARKABLE DEVELOPMENTS ON THE French political scene since the Left's historic victories in the presidential and parliamentary elections of 1981 has been the spectacular emergence of former Prime Minister Raymond Barre as both a powerful contender for the ‘leadership’ of the Right and for the French presidency. His emergence raises a number of interrelated issues which are likely to have a profound impact in France over the next few years.First, it has brought to the fore questions about the nature and perhaps even the very future of the Fifth Republic. The insistent refusal by Barre and his supporters to countenance cohabitation has elevated to the top of the political agenda the perennial issue of constitutional interpretation. What happens when the President of the Republic and the majority in the National Assembly are of opposed political persuasions? This has ceased to be a question of interest only to constitutional scholars but has become a reality after the March 1986 legislative elections resulted in a narrow victory for the RPR-UDF alliance. How Barre and his supporters behave in such a delicate situation is of crucial importance.

Venezuela economic angst boosts political turbulence

2015 ◽  
Keyword(s):  
Attorney General ◽  
The United States ◽  
Oil Price ◽  
The Political ◽  
Policy Reforms ◽  
Legislative Elections ◽  
Content Type ◽  
National Assembly ◽  
The Government ◽  
The Impact

Significance Over the holiday period, the government seized the political initiative ahead of a difficult year that will end with legislative elections. Maduro reshuffled his foreign policy team and announced a six-month economic recovery plan, before heading to China to secure a reported 20 billion dollars of new financing. In the National Assembly, the ruling United Socialist Party of Venezuela (PSUV) broke with its own constitution to renew judicial, electoral and citizen powers (ombudsman, attorney general and comptroller general) amid claims of opposition filibustering. Impacts Tentative economic policy reforms will not keep pace with the impact of oil price falls. A divided opposition will be focused on the pending anniversary of last year's violent protests. Following sanctions in December, the United States will increase pressure over the trial of opposition leader Leopoldo Lopez.

Romania

2019 ◽  
pp. 388-434
Author(s):  
Laurențiu Ștefan
Keyword(s):  
Decision Making ◽  
Party System ◽  
Prime Minister ◽  
Political Regime ◽  
The Political ◽  
Right Wing ◽  
Left Wing ◽  
Coalition Governments ◽  
Political Spectrum ◽  
The Right

In Romania, a highly segmented and extremely volatile party system has contributed to a predominance of coalition governments. Alternation in power by coalitions led by either left-wing or right-wing parties used to be a major feature of Romanian governments. Thus, until a short-lived grand coalition in 2009, ideologically homogeneous coalitions were the general practice. Since then, parties from the right and left of the political spectrum have learned to work together in government. Given the semi-presidential nature of the political regime and the exclusive power to nominate the prime minister, the Romanian president plays an important role in coalition formation. The president also plays a pivotal role by shadowing the prime minister and therefore influencing the governance of coalitions. She has the power to veto ministerial appointments and therefore she can also shape the cabinet line-up. Pre-election coalitions are a common feature, more than two-thirds of Romanian coalition governments have been predicated on such agreements. Coalition agreements dealt with both policy issues and coalition decision-making bodies and the governance mechanisms that have been in most cases enforced and complied with—until the break-up of the coalition and the downfall of the respective government. One very common decision-making body is the Coalition Committee, which has been backed on the operational level by an inner cabinet made up of the prime minister and the deputy prime ministers, which usually are the heads of the junior coalition parties.

Sirisena win spells change and challenge for Sri Lanka

2015 ◽  
Keyword(s):  
Prime Minister ◽  
Policy Reform ◽  
The Political ◽  
Potential Game ◽  
Content Type ◽  
Turn On ◽  
Growth Prospects ◽  
Election Results ◽  
Game Changer

Significance Sirisena's victory is a potential game-changer: instead of entrenching the autocratic tendencies of his predecessor Mahinda Rajapaksa's administration, the election results hold out the promise of democratic consolidation under a new government with a robust mandate for constitutional and policy reform. However, the diversity of the coalition backing Sirisena and the sharing of power with newly appointed Prime Minister Ranil Wickremasinghe augur a period of volatility. Impacts If Tamil parties emerge as 'kingmakers' in April, governance of war-torn Northern and Western provinces is likely to be overhauled. Delhi, Washington and Brussels will welcome the political transition. Long-term growth prospects will turn on the precise rebalancing of budgetary allocations.

Turkish society will become more Islamic under AKP

2016 ◽  
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
Middle Class ◽  
Prime Minister ◽  
Middle Eastern ◽  
The United States ◽  
Content Type ◽  
National Assembly ◽  
Business Partners ◽  
Turkish Constitution ◽  
Turkish Society

Subject The future of secularism in of Turkey. Significance The speaker of the Grand National Assembly, Ismail Kahraman, provoked uproar on April 25 when he called for secularism to be dropped from the proposed (but as yet unpublished) new constitution. There were instant protests and demonstrations by middle-class opponents and, perhaps more surprisingly, President Recep Tayyip Erdogan and Prime Minister Ahmet Davutoglu. Both rejected the idea that secularism -- which has featured in the Turkish constitution since 1928 -- should be discarded. Impacts Society's pro-Western orientation is being slowly eroded, and latent hostility to the United States and United Kingdom is growing. Turkey's main secular universities -- Bosphorus (Bogazici) and Middle East Technical -- are under increasing pressure to change. Government preference for Middle Eastern, especially Saudi and Qatari, business partners and investors will continue.

Thai charter vote foreshadows post-transition politics

2016 ◽  
Keyword(s):  
Democratic Party ◽  
Political System ◽  
Prime Minister ◽  
Status Quo ◽  
The Political ◽  
Content Type ◽  
Parliamentary Elections ◽  
Authoritarian State ◽  
The Status ◽  
The Military

Subject Outlook for the post-transition political system. Significance The August 7 constitutional referendum will be conducted under tightened controls on political organisation, making a 'yes' vote more likely. Although the Democratic Party criticises the draft for its attempt to return Thailand to a semi-authoritarian state, efforts by deposed former Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra's 'red-shirt' supporters to organise protests offer the only real opposition to the junta's plan. This struggle foreshadows the political system that is likely to emerge after the next parliamentary elections. Impacts Regulatory risk to investors post-transition would be limited: the military, the Democrats and the PTP are pro-business. China will not alter the status quo in its Thai relations, but will need to invest in building ties with the next monarch. Washington will tolerate most eventualities, except a violent crackdown against the military's opponents.

Sign in / Sign up

Export Citation Format

Share Document