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

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.

2016 ◽  
Vol 16 (4) ◽  
pp. 392-408
Author(s):  
Miroslav Řádek

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.


Author(s):  
Marek Tyrała

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.


Author(s):  
Petro Vorona ◽  
S. A. Solovey

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.


2015 ◽  
Vol 7 (2) ◽  
pp. 17
Author(s):  
Ahmad El-Sharif

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.


2020 ◽  
Vol 1 (1) ◽  
pp. 164-169
Author(s):  
I Gede Wijaya Kusuma ◽  
Ida Ayu Putu Widiati ◽  
Luh Putu Suryani

One of the functions of political parties in legislation is as a means of political education and socialization. Political parties are obliged to disseminate their political discourse to the public. However, in its implementation in the field, there are still political parties that have not maximized their function in providing political education to the public. This study discusses (1) What is the function of political parties in providing public political education and its influence on public participation in general elections? (2) What are the implications of political parties that do not implement public political education? This research was conducted by using normative legal research methods, primary and secondary sources of legal materials, methods of collecting legal materials using statute records and others, and analyzing legal materials using descriptive analysis methods. The results of this study indicate that according to Law No.2 of 2011, one of the functions of political parties is to provide political education as a means of education for the wider community to become Indonesian citizens who are aware of their rights and obligations in public. The importance of political education carried out by political parties to the maximum and in its actual essence will be able to have a very good impact on society, which means that people are able to become people who are aware of their obligations in giving choices to political parties or candidates who are true and sincere in terms of welfare. people. The implication of political parties that do not carry out public political education is to cause a decrease in public participation in general elections and this will also lead to apparently unhealthy political conditions and allow high abstention due to low levels of public participation.


2020 ◽  
pp. 579-597
Author(s):  
Ivana Gligorijevic

In this paper, we analyze the reactions collected in a word association test. A total of 654 respondents participated. The test included twelve stimuli related to Oriental peoples, languages and countries. The test was done through an online survey. The respondents cited words or word groups that first came to their minds while reading the given stimuli. We aimed to answer the question: what our knowledge of Oriental peoples is based on and what stereotypesand prejudices we hold about them. The attention is paid to two of the stimuli from the test - Persians and Persian. We look at the frequency and the variety of respondents? reactions. Furthermore, we analyze groups of reactions that belong to the same thematic field. Our results were compared with other ethnonymsfrom the same association test, which had previously been analyzed in other research papers. The most frequent reaction was carpet/carpets, due to the common collocation Persian carpet. Frequent reactions to Iran/Iranians, history and historical figures were also found. The most significant thematic fields are the following: war, history, intellectual and cultural heritage, religion, politics and numerous positive and neutral judgments and attitudes. Therefore, it seems that our stereotypes, judgments, and attitudes about Persians are based on secondary sources, rather than primary. As a result, they lack affective meanings and negative connotations. According to respondents? reactions, Persians are seen as ancient warriors, founders of an old culture and civilization, a nation with a rich cultural and intellectual heritage, descendants of significant historical figures and holders of many qualities, such as wit, wisdom, dignity, nobility, and other.


Balcanica ◽  
2006 ◽  
pp. 143-169 ◽  
Author(s):  
Dusan Batakovic

Given that the issue of the functioning of parliamentary democracy in Serbia 1903-1914 has not been thoroughly explored, an attempt is made to define the capacities of Serbia?s parliamentary system confronted with military interferences in political processes. The paper looks at the conflict between the democratic forces, led by the Prime Minister Nikola Pasic and his Radicals, and a group of conspirators within the army, which in 1911 formed a clandestine society "Unification or Death" (Black Hand), led by D. Dimitrijevic Apis. Political influence of the army significantly increased with the dynastic change effected in 1903. In a predominantly rural society (almost 90 percent of the population) the army took up the function of the middle class and its mission to expedite the process of national liberation. Due to unconstitutional and non-parliamentary actions of military circles the period may be described as one of fragile but functional democracy. Seeking to suppress the army's praetorian aspirations, Pasic and the Radicals took various measures to force it into its constitutional role. Sharpened during the First World War, the conflict led in 1917 to a show trial known as the Salonica Trial. The leaders of the Black Hand were sentenced to death and executed. Similar trials stood by military conspiracies in other European countries during the Great War show that democracy is always threatened in times of extreme crisis such as war. In that sense, Pasic may have deemed the extreme measures against the Black Hand necessary for the preservation of the democratic system established in 1903.


2019 ◽  
Vol 12 (2) ◽  
pp. 169-186 ◽  
Author(s):  
Dalma Kékesdi-Boldog ◽  
Tamás Tóth ◽  
Tamás Bokor ◽  
Zoltán Veczán

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.


2017 ◽  
Vol 4 (1) ◽  
pp. 26-50 ◽  
Author(s):  
Asel Doolotkeldieva ◽  
Alexander Wolters

The parliamentary elections in Kyrgyzstan in October 2015 garnered widespread approval from commentators for the level of fairness and freedom maintained throughout the campaign. However, the results of the vote do not provide a clear indication of the current state of affairs of parliamentarism in the republic. Focusing on the commercialization of party lists, we argue that neither identity politics nor the logic of neopatrimonialism adequately explain the dynamics of political competition in Kyrgyzstan. Instead, we see perpetual uncertainty emerging from contradicting yet increasing attempts to harness the capital of privatized party lists and to impose discipline. Eventually, and beyond short-term threats of an emerging super-presidentialism, Kyrgyzstan risks suffering from hollow parliamentarism, with political parties persistently failing to supply legislative initiatives with substantial agendas and adequate professionals. The weakly institutionalized political parties and their short-sighted electoral strategies undermine both the parliamentary system and its political pluralism.


Sign in / Sign up

Export Citation Format

Share Document