scholarly journals Elite associations and the politics of belonging in Cameroon

Africa ◽  
1998 ◽  
Vol 68 (3) ◽  
pp. 320-337 ◽  
Author(s):  
Francis Nyamnjoh ◽  
Michael Rowlands

The development of elite associations has been a consequence of the growth of multi-partyism and the weakening of authoritarian state control in Cameroon in the 1990s. The attachment of electoral votes and rights of citizenship to belonging to ethnicised regions has encouraged the formal distinction between ‘natives’ and ‘strangers’ in the creation of a politics of belonging. The article argues that this development has also led to the replacement of political parties at the local level by ethnicised elite associations as prime movers in regional and national politics.

2021 ◽  
Vol 30 (2) ◽  
pp. 149-179
Author(s):  
Andrey Vershinin

The article examines the issue of exercising the freedom of association in political parties in Russia in a comparative analysis with the leading democratic countries of the world. Modern democracies cannot be imagined without political parties, which are the representors of the interests of their voters in legislative bodies and local government bodies. The development of civil society and the entire political system in the country depends on how the freedom of association in political parties and the access of parties to participate in elections is realized. The development of legislation on political parties in the Russian Federation proceeded unevenly. In the first years after the adoption of the Constitution the legislative body did not introduce strict requirements for parties. The adoption of a special federal law on political parties in 2001 became a turning point in the development of the party system. The author identifies two large blocks of restrictions on the creation of parties. The first is legislative restrictions, the second is the restrictions that arise from the unfair activities of legislative and law enforcement agencies. In this work, legislative restrictions are compared with restrictions in other democracies, as well as based on legal positions developed by the European Court of Human Rights. The author comes to the opinion that some restrictions on the creation of parties are not necessary now, in the meantime they significantly narrow the possibilities of party creation and political competition. First, we are talking about a ban on the creation of regional parties. The Constitutional Court in its legal positions indicated that this restriction is temporary and will be lifted over time. Within the framework of this work, the author will give suggestions on changing the approach to the creation of political parties in Russia, which should affect the emergence of new strong parties at different levels of public authority. The author believes that a system of “controlled multiparty system” has developed in Russia, which is implemented both in changing the legislation on political parties based on the interests of the “party in power” and the practice of the registration body, which prevents the formation of new parties claiming to redistribute the existing distribution of forces. Based on the analysis of the legislation on political parties, law enforcement practice, decisions of the Constitutional Court of the Russian Federation, the ECHR and the legislation of foreign countries, the author proposes approaches to reforming the existing party system, which include small cosmetic changes and large-scale changes in approaches to the creation of parties.


2016 ◽  
Vol 10 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Aurora Ndreu

One of the main requirements of the European Union for countries that want to integrate this supra-national body, is the creation of large administrative units, in order to absorb easily and efficiently the funds obtained from pre-accession scheme. Through this reform it is meant to be achieved a good management of allocated funds regarding the socio-economic development of the countries.Given that the old territorial-administrative system that existed until 2014 when was adopted the new reform, had created imbalance between the development of regions and local units, unnecessary high costs merely used for operative expenses and staff salaries, not functioning properly of the local units and above all lack of public services delivery to citizens. As a result it was necessary to undertake a new reform where would be offered a new model of efficient organization.The goal of reform should be the creation of local communities with a strong autonomy, capable of having the necessary capabilities and tools to encourage local development in all its aspects. In connection with the need for undertaking such a reform and its impact on the economy was agreed between political parties and throughout civil society. Problems and disputes between the parties began regarding the modus operandi of the drafting and implementation of the reform. In this paper I will show how the new territorial-administrative reform was drafted and adapted. The problems behind the theoretical drafting and putting it in practice. The impact in the development of the economy.


Balcanica ◽  
2019 ◽  
pp. 225-244
Author(s):  
Boris Milosavljevic

The Kingdom of Serbs, Croats and Slovenes was internationally recognized during the Paris Peace Conference in 1919-20. Even though there was neither a provisional nor a permanent constitution of the newly-formed state, factually there was a state as well as a system of governance, represented by supreme bodies, the King and the Parliament. Many draft constitutions were prepared by different political parties and notable individuals. We shall focus on the official Draft Constitution prepared during the premiership of Stojan Protic. He appointed the Drafting Committee as a governmental (multi-ethnic) advisory team of prominent legal experts from different parts of the new state consisting of Professors Slobodan Jovanovic (President), Kosta Kumanudi and Lazar Markovic (Serbia), Professor Ladislav Polic (Croatia) and Dr Bogumil Vosnjak (Slovenia). After two months of work, the Committee submitted its draft to the Prime Minister. The leading Serbian legal scholar and president of the committee, Slobodan Jovanovic (1869-1958), was well-acquainted with the details of Austro-Hungarian and German legal traditions. Since he was an active participant and witness of the events that led to the creation of the new state, while also being an objective and critical historian, it is important to shed light on his firsthand account of the emergence of the state of Serbs, Croats and Slovenes.


2016 ◽  
Vol 2 (02) ◽  
Author(s):  
Amirul Mustofa

Political reform has occurred in Indonesia, namely when the regime transition of power from the old order to new order, and when the transition toward the new order has yet to reform the order form is of very local government councils. Local government councils according to the opinion of the writer has never showed good political performance, they simply just as political actors who seek personal gain or rent seeking, either the status quo as well as rent-seeking hunters.In connection with these conditions the local government councils is a form of democracy at local government level is very importance role in accommodating the aspirations of the community and promote development at the local level. Referring to this idea the authors approach the study of reform as the basic options that can be found those items essential for local government reform towards a quality council. Variables of important reforms that opinion writer are:  minimize the number of political parties; amendment to the constitution need to be rethinking;political education to be a prerequisite determination of local government councils; and scope of work development of local government council.Key words: local government councils, policy reform, political parties


2019 ◽  
Vol 6 (3) ◽  
pp. 98
Author(s):  
Allan Hassaniyan

This paper sheds light on the significance of the 1979 Iranian Revolution for the Iranian Kurdish movement, arguing that the Revolution provided Iranian Kurds with multifaceted opportunities as well as challenges. In the ensuing years, the Kurdish movement entered into a new phase of its rise. With the emergence of numerous civil society organizations and political parties, the Kurdish movement experienced a hitherto unprecedented growth and diversification of actors and organisations. Kurdish civil society flourished drastically, and a significant part of the Kurdish movement’s challenge to the newly-established government in Tehran was channelled through collective non-violent resistance. The creation of city councils (şoray şar) across Kurdistan constituted the first important challenge to the authority of the Provisional Revolutionary Government, whilst the mobilisation of collective non-violent resistance introduced new forms of resistance to the post-Revolutionary authoritarian state’s policies in Kurdistan.


Tourism ◽  
2020 ◽  
Vol 68 (4) ◽  
pp. 466-481
Author(s):  
Dario Bertocchi ◽  
Nicola Camatti ◽  
Jan Van der Borg

Following the precedent set by the Tourism Observatory (TO) run by the European Commission-DG GROW a few years ago, several initiatives have taken place to design and manage tourism observatories at both the transnational and local level. However, these initiatives do not yet seem able to provide adequate operational responses to the challenges that the Commission launched with the original TO. While the opportunities offered by the Web 2.0 still do not seem to have been sufficiently taken advantage of, such initiatives also have not yet developed suitable methodologies to operationally include the tourism industry in the studies and monitoring performed by the TOs. This work presents the lesion learnt from the ShapeTourism prototype including two different tools: an observatory with official and unofficial indicators, and a simulation tool to predict different scenarios and different sustainability levels, designed specifically to overcome the aforementioned limits. The prototype was tested in 2017 on the entire eligible area of ​​the 2014-2020 MED Programme covering 52 regions. The potentialities of this tool are shown through the creation on indicators, benchmarking and applications.


2017 ◽  
Vol 52 (4) ◽  
pp. 815-830 ◽  
Author(s):  
Giancarlo Giudici ◽  
Massimiliano Guerini ◽  
Cristina Rossi-Lamastra

2021 ◽  
pp. 197-210
Author(s):  
Vadim V. Trukhachev ◽  

The authorities of the Prague 6 district took down the monument to Marshal Konev, who liberated the Czech capital in May 1945. Russia could not prevent this, because the monument was not subject to an intergovernmental agreement. The laws of the Czech Republic allow municipal authorities to decide the fate of monuments standing on their territory. The actions of Czech politicians on a regional level appeared to demonstrate profound ingratitude in the eyes of many people - some condemned the politicians in the sharpest possible terms, but others supported and praised the decision. Representatives of the majority of political parties represented in the Czech Parliament, as well as the country's President Miloš Zeman, spoke on the topic. The “bronze Marshal” became a victim of Czech internal political disputes over relations with Russia. There is no state-level “war” against monuments to Red Army soldiers in the Czech Republic. However, decisions to remove them have been taken several times at local level.


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