‘Right-Left-Right’ and Caste Politics: The Scheduled Castes in West Bengal Assembly Elections (from 1920 to 2016)

2018 ◽  
Vol 10 (2) ◽  
pp. 216-231
Author(s):  
Rup Kumar Barman
Keyword(s):  
Political Parties ◽  
West Bengal ◽  
Electoral Politics ◽  
Political Issue ◽  
Parliamentary Elections ◽  
Scheduled Castes ◽  
Substantial Concentration ◽  
Caste Politics ◽  
Transitional Phase ◽  
Determinant Factor

Since the beginning of the provincial election in the early twentieth century, ‘caste’ has been a ‘political issue’ in India. It transformed into a matter of serious political contradiction when the ‘reservation’ was introduced in India. After the independence of India, in all provincial and parliamentary elections starting from to 1952 till date, organized political parties have further contributed to the ‘process of politicization of caste’. Truly speaking, caste is now a ‘determinant factor’ for formation of the union government. This trend has been equally detected in certain provinces of India especially where the Scheduled Castes (SCs) have substantial concentration. West Bengal, with 21,463,270 SC population (i.e., 23.5% of the state’s population), has been experiencing caste politics since 1952. However, the SCs of this state have been used in electoral politics merely as ‘voters’. They were controlled by the ‘Rights’, till 1962. The period from 1962 to 1976 was a transitional phase from the ‘Rights’ to ‘Lefts’. The ‘Lefts’ established their control over the SCs in 1977. However, re-emergence of the ‘Rights’ (particularly of the All India Trinamool Congress [AITMC]) in 2011 has transformed the SCs as the ‘puppet dancers’ under the direction of the ‘Rights’.

Dilemmas of Inclusion

2017 ◽  
Author(s):  
Rafaela M. Dancygier
Keyword(s):  
Political Parties ◽  
Domestic Politics ◽  
Electoral Politics ◽  
Party Systems ◽  
Political Incorporation ◽  
Party Positions ◽  
Trade Offs ◽  
And Gender ◽  
Muslim Communities ◽  
Equality And Diversity

As Europe's Muslim communities continue to grow, so does their impact on electoral politics and the potential for inclusion dilemmas. In vote-rich enclaves, Muslim views on religion, tradition, and gender roles can deviate sharply from those of the majority electorate, generating severe trade-offs for parties seeking to broaden their coalitions. This book explains when and why European political parties include Muslim candidates and voters, revealing that the ways in which parties recruit this new electorate can have lasting consequences. The book sheds new light on when minority recruitment will match up with existing party positions and uphold electoral alignments and when it will undermine party brands and shake up party systems. It demonstrates that when parties are seduced by the quick delivery of ethno-religious bloc votes, they undercut their ideological coherence, fail to establish programmatic linkages with Muslim voters, and miss their opportunity to build cross-ethnic, class-based coalitions. The book highlights how the politics of minority inclusion can become a testing ground for parties, showing just how far their commitments to equality and diversity will take them when push comes to electoral shove. Providing a unified theoretical framework for understanding the causes and consequences of minority political incorporation, and especially as these pertain to European Muslim populations, the book advances our knowledge about how ethnic and religious diversity reshapes domestic politics in today's democracies.

scholarly journals Voting Behavior in Parliamentary Elections in Slovakia

2016 ◽  
Vol 16 (4) ◽  
pp. 392-408
Author(s):  
Miroslav Řádek
Keyword(s):  
Political Parties ◽  
University Students ◽  
Political Science ◽  
Political Party ◽  
Voting Behavior ◽  
Exit Poll ◽  
Parliamentary Elections ◽  
The Future ◽  
General Elections ◽  
Final Question

Abstract Department of Political Science at Alexander Dubcek University in Trencin prepared its own exit poll during election day on March 5, 2016. The survey asked seven questions that were aimed at determining the preferences of the respondents concerning not only the current but also past general elections. Interviewers surveyed the choice of political party or movement in parliamentary elections in 2016 as well as preferences in past elections. Followed by questions concerning motivation to vote - when did the respondents decide to go to vote and what or who inspired this decision. The survey also tried to found out how many preferential votes did the voters give to the candidates of political parties and movements. Final question asked about expectations for the future of individual respondents. This article is the information output of the survey. The interviewers were 124 university students and its return was 1,612 sheets. The aim of this paper is to communicate the findings of this unique survey, which is unprecedented in the Slovak political science.

Wpływ populizmu na demokrację liberalną: na przykładzie prawicy (PiS i Kukiz’15) w wyborach parlamentarnych w Polsce w 2015 roku

1970 ◽  
Vol 20 (274) ◽  
pp. 3-14
Author(s):  
Marek Tyrała
Keyword(s):  
Political Parties ◽  
Liberal Democracy ◽  
Significant Contribution ◽  
Negative Impact ◽  
Research Problem ◽  
Philosophical Perspective ◽  
Parliamentary Elections ◽  
Main Research ◽  
Research Hypothesis ◽  
Interdisciplinary Character

The main research hypothesis put in the article is: Populist parties have a negative impact on the functioning of liberal democracy in Poland. The article attempts to characterize and define the main criterion distinguishing populist parties and anti-system movements against the background of standard political parties. The article also attempts to characterize the process of functioning of liberal democracy in Poland. The text has an interdisciplinary character, the research problem has been analyzed from a political, sociological and philosophical perspective. While verifying the hypothesis put in the work, it was noticed that there is a high probability that the election success of populist parties and movements had a negative impact on the process of functioning of liberal democracy in Poland after the parliamentary elections. An attempt to verify the research hypothesis can make a significant contribution to further studying the functioning of the party and anti-system movements in the process of electoral rivalry in Poland.

Regional features of local elections in 2020: Poltava region

2021 ◽  
Vol 13 (1) ◽  
pp. 5-12
Author(s):  
Petro Vorona ◽  
S. A. Solovey
Keyword(s):  
Political Parties ◽  
Local Governments ◽  
Political Elite ◽  
Opinion Leaders ◽  
Local Elections ◽  
Parliamentary Elections ◽  
Party Building ◽  
Regional Features ◽  
Electoral Law

The article considers the issue of holding local elections on the example of one of the regions of Ukraine - Poltava region. The research hypothesis is based on the study of the dynamics of party representation in local governments of Poltava region as a central, iconic region to study the evolution of electoral sympathies and features of party building from the standpoint of public administration science. The author conducted a comparative analysis of the electoral preferences of Poltava residents in the local elections in terms of political parties and their dynamics in accordance with the 2015 elections. The development of democratic processes is directly dependent on the mechanisms and procedures for both local and parliamentary elections - the extent to which electoral law allows the majority of voters to understand the wide variety of political parties and candidates, allows opinion leaders to participate in elections. It is pointed out that there is a certain regrouping («political mimicry») of some political parties in the country, as a reestablishment of the «old political elite» and a campaign for local elections in a new composition and with a new name. The article focuses on strengthening the role of regionally influenced political parties in local elections. They allowed the local political elite to be more independent of all-Ukrainian parliamentary parties. Attention is drawn to local political party projects led by charismatic or financially influential politicians. It is noted that the local elections in 2020 continued the positive dynamics of change - from the previous convocation, only a quarter of people entered the Poltava Regional Council, and its membership was renewed by almost 70%. The dominance of the post-Soviet communist and Komsomol elites in the region, which were characterized by exceptional unity, is disappearing, although they retain some of their political electoral influence in the region. It is pointed out the need to further improve the provisions of the Electoral Code where it is necessary to lay down the principle of fairness in the distribution of seats on the main electoral list in accordance with the electoral rating of candidates.

scholarly journals New Forms of Political Activism in Indonesia

Asian Survey ◽  
2018 ◽  
Vol 58 (3) ◽  
pp. 557-581 ◽  
Author(s):  
Dirk Tomsa ◽  
Charlotte Setijadi
Keyword(s):  
Political Parties ◽  
Electoral Politics ◽  
Political Activism ◽  
The Future

This article argues that new personality-centric movements have redefined the nexus between activism and electoral politics in Indonesia. It illustrates how these movements have challenged the role of political parties and consultants in electoral campaigning, and how their growing prominence may affect the future trajectory of Indonesian politics.

The Exceptionality of Jordan and its Democracy in King Hussein’s Last Speech From the Throne

2015 ◽  
Vol 7 (2) ◽  
pp. 17
Author(s):  
Ahmad El-Sharif
Keyword(s):  
Political Parties ◽  
Political Institutions ◽  
Analytical Framework ◽  
The State ◽  
Political Life ◽  
The Political ◽  
Sociocultural Context ◽  
Parliamentary Elections ◽  
Critical Metaphor Analysis ◽  
Political Structures

The Late King Hussein’s last Speech from the Throne in 1997 was given amidst public outcry over the outcomes of the parliamentary elections which resulted the triumph tribal figures with regional affiliations after the boycott of most political parties. This brought to public debate the questions of maintain the long-established balance between the several socio-political structures in the political life in Jordan. While the speech can be perceived as a reflection of King Hussein’s vision about ‘Jordanian democracy’, it can also be interpreted as an elaborate scheme to construct the conventional understanding of the exceptionality of Jordan and its socio-political institutions; including democracy. This article discusses the representation of ‘Jordanian democracy’, the state, and the socio-political structures in Jordan as reflected in the Late King’s last speech from the throne (1997). The analytical framework follows a critical metaphor analysis perspective in which all instances of metaphors used to epitomise these issues are primarily acknowledged from there sociocultural context. Herein, the article focuses on revealing the aspect of metaphorical language by which the Late King Hussein legitimizes and, hence, constructs, the prevailing ideology pf the ‘exceptionality’ of Jordan.

scholarly journals Evaluation Remarks about Slovenian Parliamentary Democracy at Its Twenty-Fifth Anniversary

2016 ◽  
Vol 56 (3) ◽  
pp. 42-58
Author(s):  
Simona Kustec Lipicer
Keyword(s):  
Political Parties ◽  
Parliamentary Democracy ◽  
Research Papers ◽  
Parliamentary Elections ◽  
Democratic Development ◽  
Secondary Sources ◽  
New Period ◽  
Clear Distance ◽  
Democratic System ◽  
Democratic Transformation

In order to evaluate the existing practices of the Slovenian parliamentary democracy, the author conducted a chronological overview of the shifts in prevailing democratic patterns, starting with the first parliamentary elections after the country gained independence onwards. Parliamentary and governmental political party behaviour was central to the analysis and, thus, was analysed using both statistical data and secondary sources, which primarily consisted of academic and research papers and media records. The analysis revealed that Slovenian parliamentary democracy in the initial (first) decade was according to the electoral data predictable and by programme orientation oriented towards democratic development. However, over the past three election cycles (second decade), the situation began to change quickly, indicating a predominance of internal party interests and conflicts that affect the country’s entire democratic arena. One of the main findings of the article suggests that political parties in Slovenia remain a fundamentally important pillar of parliamentary democracy, but their roles and activities within the parliamentary, governmental and other arenas increasingly warn of their central mission and democratic system functions. It can be detected that the potentials for electoral uncertainties increase with the intensities of internal and inter-parties’ conflicts which all give distinctly negative connotation to the country’s parliamentary democracy. To reverse the curve of parliamentary democracy in a country upwards again a new period of democratic transformation should be activated, built on the principles of a new model of democratic and party governance, as well as also global sustainability policies. A clear distance from narrow internal political parties’ interests, conflicts and in this regard negative competition needs to be considered as well.

scholarly journals “Protect our homeland!” Populist communication in the 2018 Hungarian election campaign on Facebook

2019 ◽  
Vol 12 (2) ◽  
pp. 169-186 ◽  
Author(s):  
Dalma Kékesdi-Boldog ◽  
Tamás Tóth ◽  
Tamás Bokor ◽  
Zoltán Veczán
Keyword(s):  
Political Parties ◽  
Mixed Method ◽  
Election Campaign ◽  
Parliamentary Elections ◽  
Method Analysis ◽  
Communicational Perspective ◽  
Opposition Parties

The research presented in this paper is based on analysis of the Facebook posts of five major Hungarian political parties over the course of the official campaign season leading up to the 2018 parliamentary elections. We conducted a mixed-method analysis on 795 Facebook posts. First, the main topics of the parties were collected. Second, the posts of the parties were analyzed from a populist communicational perspective. Third, we tried to find some correlations between the basic topics and the populist communicational categories. Finally, we outline possible differences and similarities between parties’ communication. Our analysis shows that opposition parties did not have a common communicational strategy on Facebook while ruling parties emphasized both inner and exterior threats that could destabilize Hungary.

scholarly journals Screening for hemoglobinopathies in a socially disadvantaged population from a rural district of West Bengal, India

2020 ◽  
Vol 8 (12) ◽  
pp. 4430
Author(s):  
Prakas Kumar Mandal ◽  
Tuphan Kanti Dolai ◽  
Soma Mandal ◽  
Tamanash Mondal ◽  
Suman Kumar Maji
Keyword(s):  
West Bengal ◽  
Sickle Cell Trait ◽  
Venous Blood ◽  
Rural District ◽  
Compound Heterozygous ◽  
Reference Laboratory ◽  
General Category ◽  
Beta Thalassaemia ◽  
Thalassaemia Trait ◽  
Scheduled Castes

Background: Detection of traits/carriers plays an important role in preventing the birth of a thalassemic child. West Bengal, one of the eastern states in India is the home to a bulk of socially challenged population including scheduled castes and scheduled tribes among others. The present study aimed to detect the prevalence of different hemoglobinopathies in a socially challenged district of West Bengal.Methods: In this retrospective cross sectional study thalassemia detection camps were organized at the community level over a period of four years. Venous blood samples were subjected to complete hemogram and high performance liquid chromatography (HPLC). In few difficult cases samples were sent to the reference laboratory for molecular characterization. The prevalence of heterozygous, homozygous or compound heterozygous states of different thalassemias and hemoglobinopathies across various respondent groups (e.g. children, premarital, postmarital and antenatal) and existing caste categories (scheduled tribes, scheduled caste and general) were analyzed.Results: We analyzed a total of 114,606 HPLC reports; 18681 (16.30%), 15438 (13.47%) and 80487 (70.23%) cases belonged to scheduled tribes, scheduled castes and general category respectively. Out of 114,606 cases, 11,001 (9.6%) had revealed abnormal hemoglobins; beta thalassaemia trait was the most common (6.63%; n=7602) across all subgroup analysis. Among others, HbE trait, sickle cell trait and HbD trait were detected in 1788 (1.56%), 1362 (1.18%) and 126 (0.11%) cases respectively.Conclusions: Beta thalassaemia trait and HbE trait are the common haemoglobin variants in this rural district of West Bengal. The prevalence of sickle gene revealed in the present study is much less than previous studies in the locality.

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