scholarly journals Explaining the Changes in Brazilian Foreign Policy towards South America under Michel Temer’s Administration (2016-2018): The Return to the Logic of Open Regionalism

2021 ◽  
Vol 43 (3) ◽  
pp. 489-513
Author(s):  
Leandro Wolpert dos Santos ◽  
André Pimentel Ferreira Leão ◽  
Jonathan Raphael Vieira da Rosa
Keyword(s):  
Foreign Policy ◽  
South America ◽  
Political Process ◽  
Analytical Framework ◽  
Three Dimensions ◽  
The Political ◽  
The Public ◽  
Policy Alternatives ◽  
Public Policy Analysis ◽  
Political Dispute

Abstract The administration of President Michel Temer (2016-2018) led to significant changes in Brazilian foreign policy towards South America as opposed to the country’s goals that had remained in place for over a decade. This article addresses the question of how and why these changes unfolded under Temer’s government. Anchored in an analytical framework of Public Policy Analysis, we develop two main arguments. Firstly, we claim that the changes in foreign policy towards South America represented a paradigmatic transition from a post-liberal strategy to the restoration of the logic of open regionalism. Secondly, we argue that this change resulted from the coupling of the three dimensions of the political process: problem recognition, policy alternatives, and politics. The primary cause of such change was the political dispute in the public arena between business groups and party leadership.

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 Minister-Permanent Secretary Relationships: Lessons from Zimbabwe’s Government of national Unity

2014 ◽  
Vol 4 (1) ◽  
pp. 23
Author(s):  
Tawanda Zinyama ◽  
Joseph Tinarwo
Keyword(s):  
Public Administration ◽  
Public Service ◽  
Political Process ◽  
Large Degree ◽  
The State ◽  
Team Work ◽  
The Political ◽  
National Unity ◽  
The Public ◽  
The Government

Public administration is carried out through the public service. Public administration is an instrument of the State which is expected to implement the policy decisions made from the political and legislative processes. The rationale of this article is to assess the working relationships between ministers and permanent secretaries in the Government of National Unity in Zimbabwe. The success of the Minister depends to a large degree on the ability and goodwill of a permanent secretary who often has a very different personal or professional background and whom the minster did not appoint. Here lies the vitality of the permanent secretary institution. If a Minister decides to ignore the advice of the permanent secretary, he/she may risk of making serious errors. The permanent secretary is the key link between the democratic process and the public service. This article observed that the mere fact that the permanent secretary carries out the political, economic and social interests and functions of the state from which he/she derives his/her authority and power; and to which he/she is accountable,  no permanent secretary is apolitical and neutral to the ideological predisposition of the elected Ministers. The interaction between the two is a political process. Contemporary administrator requires complex team-work and the synthesis of diverse contributions and view-points.

Blame Avoidance, Crisis Exploitation, and COVID-19 Governance Response in Israel

2021 ◽  
Vol 36 (3) ◽  
pp. 84-105
Keyword(s):  
Analytical Framework ◽  
The Public ◽  
Policy Alternatives ◽  
Israeli Government ◽  
Blame Avoidance ◽  
Elite Interviews ◽  
Governance Choices ◽  
Governance Arrangements ◽  
Policy Underreaction ◽  
Public Health Outcome

Surprisingly, although the Israeli government adopted unregulated, unorganized, inefficient, uncoordinated, and uninformed governance arrangements during the first wave of COVID-19, the public health outcome was successful, a paradox that this theoretically informed article seeks to explain. Drawing on insights from blame avoidance literature, it develops and applies an analytical framework that focuses on how allegations of policy underreaction in times of crisis pose a threat to elected executives’ reputations and how these politicians can derive opportunities for crisis exploitation from governance choices, especially at politically sensitive junctures. Based on a historical-institutional analysis combined with elite interviews, it finds that the implementation of one of the most aggressive policy alternatives on the policy menu at the beginning of the COVID-19 crisis (i.e., a shutdown of society and the economy), and the subsequent consistent adoption of the aforementioned governance arrangements constituted a politically well-calibrated and effective short-term strategy for Prime Minister Netanyahu.

New Media and Democratic Citizenship

2011 ◽  
pp. 1250-1254 ◽  
Author(s):  
B. W. Hardy ◽  
D. A. Scheufele
Keyword(s):  
New Media ◽  
Media Use ◽  
Political Process ◽  
Three Dimensions ◽  
The Political ◽  
The Internet ◽  
Online Information ◽  
Comprehensive Overview ◽  
Primary Focus ◽  
Definition Of

The issue of the civic potential of the Internet has been at the forefront of much scholarly discussion over the last 10 to 15 years. Before providing a comprehensive overview of the different schools of thought currently dominating this debate, it is necessary to briefly describe how researchers have defined the terms citizenship and new media. Across different literatures, two ways of examining citizenship emerge. The first approach examines citizenship broadly as citizen involvement in the political process. Scheufele and Nisbet (2002), for example, identified three dimensions of citizenship: feelings of efficacy, levels of information, and participation in the political process. The second approach taps citizenship much more narrowly as social capital (i.e., the more emotional and informal ties among citizens in a community) (Shah, Kwak, & Holbert, 2001). Depending on which definition of citizenship they followed, researchers also have been interested in different types of new media use with a primary focus on the Internet. Some have examined the Internet as a medium that functions in a top-down fashion similar to traditional mass media. These scholars mostly are concerned with how online information gathering differs from traditional media use, such as newspaper readership or TV viewing. More recently, scholars have begun to examine different dimensions of Internet use, including chatting online about politics, e-mail exchanges with candidates and other citizens, and online donations to campaigns.

scholarly journals A política externa brasileira, as coalizões de poder e a Unasul: ascensão e desconstrução da América do Sul como bloco geopolítico | Brazilian foreign policy, the coalitions of power and UNASUR: rise and deconstruction of South America as a geopolitical blocA política externa brasileira, as coalizões de poder e a Unasul: ascensão e desconstrução da América do Sul como bloco geopolítico | Brazilian foreign policy, the coalitions of power and UNASUR: rise and deconstruction of South America as a geopolitical bloc

2017 ◽  
Vol 8 (2) ◽  
Author(s):  
Tiago Nery
Keyword(s):  
Foreign Policy ◽  
South America ◽  
International System ◽  
The Political ◽  
South American ◽  
Business Elites ◽  
Political Dimension ◽  
Working Classes ◽  
Conservative Coalition ◽  
Industrial Bourgeoisie

O ciclo de governos progressistas no Brasil, que começou com a eleição de Lula em 2002 e terminou com a derrubada de Dilma Rousseff em 2016, foi responsável por uma política externa autônoma que procurou reposicionar o país e a América do Sul no sistema internacional. Os governos do Partido dos Trabalhadores (PT) lideraram uma coalizão produtivista heterogênea formada por frações da burguesia industrial e setores das classes trabalhadoras. Lula teve um papel importante na criação da Unasul, que constitui a dimensão política do regionalismo sul-americano. A ruptura da ordem democrática levou ao poder uma coalizão conservadora que reunificou as elites empresariais e alterou a orientação da política externa. A coalizão liderada pelo MDB-PSDB tem adotado uma política externa que subordinou o Brasil à potência hegemônica e vem contribuindo para a paralisia e a desconstrução da Unasul enquanto bloco geopolítico.ABSTRACTThe cycle of progressive governments in Brazil, which begun with Lula’s election in 2002 and ended with the overthrow of Dilma Rousseff in 2016, was responsible for an autonomous foreign policy that sought to reposition the country and South America in the international system. The Workers Party’s (PT) governments led a heterogeneous productivist coalition made up of fractions of the industrial bourgeoisie and sectors of the working classes. Lula played an important role in the creation of Unasur, which is the political dimension of South American regionalism. The rupture of the democratic order brought to power a conservative coalition that reunified the business elites and changed the orientation of foreign policy. The coalition led by MDB-PSDB has adopted a foreign policy that subordinated Brazil to the hegemonic power and has contributed to the paralysis and the deconstruction of Unasur as a geopolitical bloc.Palavras-chave: Política externa brasileira; coalizões políticas; UnasulKeywords: Brazilian foreign policy; political coalitions; UnasurRecebido em 6 de Julho de 2018 | Received on July 6, 2018Aceito em 6 de Setembro de 2018 | Accepted on September 6, 2018 

scholarly journals Citizens local political participation in the Czech Republic: rural-urban comparison

2008 ◽  
Vol 53 (No. 1) ◽  
pp. 21-29
Author(s):  
J. Cmejrek
Keyword(s):  
Czech Republic ◽  
Political Participation ◽  
Public Administration ◽  
Voter Turnout ◽  
Local Level ◽  
Political Process ◽  
The Political ◽  
Local Administration ◽  
The Czech Republic ◽  
The Public

The Velvet Revolution in November 1989 in the former Czechoslovakia opened the way to the renewal of the democratic political system. One of the most visible aspects of the Czech political development consisted in the renewal of the essential functions of elections and political parties. On the local level, however, the political process - as well as in other post-communist countries - continued to be for a long time influenced by the remains of the former centralized system wherein the local administration used to be subjected to the central state power. Municipal elections took hold in these countries, however, the local government remained in the embryonic state and a certain absence of real political and economic decision-making mechanism on the local level continued to show. The public administration in the Czech Republic had to deal with the changes in the administrative division of the state, the split of the Czechoslovak federation as well as the fragmentation of municipalities whose number increased by 50 percent. Decision making mechanisms on the local and regional level were suffering from the incomplete territorial hierarchy of public administration and from the unclear division of power between the state administration and local administration bodies. Only at the end of the 1990s, the public administration in the Czech Republic started to get a more integrated and specific shape. Citizens participation in the political process represents one of the key issues of representative democracy. The contemporary democracy has to face the decrease in voter turnout and the low interest of citizens to assume responsibility within the political process. The spread of democratising process following the fall of the iron curtain should not overshadow the risk of internal weakness of democracy. The solution should be looked for in more responsible citizenship and citizens’ political participation. The degree of political participation is considered (together with political pluralism) to be the key element of representative democracy in general terms, as well as of democratic process on the local and regional level. The objective of this paper is to describe the specifics of citizens local political participation in the Czech Republic and to show the differences between rural and urban areas. The paper concentrates on voting and voter turnout but deals also with other forms of citizens political participation.

Decision Rules and Policy Outcomes

1971 ◽  
Vol 1 (1) ◽  
pp. 71-90 ◽  
Author(s):  
Douglas Rae ◽  
Michael Taylor
Keyword(s):  
Theoretical Model ◽  
Political Science ◽  
Political Process ◽  
Decision Rules ◽  
Policy Outcomes ◽  
The Political ◽  
Complex Relationship ◽  
Legislative Voting ◽  
The Public

Contemporary political science is rightly concerned with the complex relationship between the political process and the public policies in which it results. In understanding this relationship, it may be useful to distinguish two complementary aspects of the political process: (1) those which are relevant because they account for the policy preferences of elite-members and, (2) those elements, like voting and bargaining, which are of interest because they determine policy outcomes from given configurations of elite preferences. This paper offers a theoretical model for an important component of this second aspect: it is explicitly addressed to legislative voting processes and the underlying strategies of legislators as these contribute to the determination of policy outcomes. And, for the present, we take preference-formation as given.

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