Ist der Mitgliederschwund der Parteien wirklich irreversibel? Überlegungen zur Rekrutierungs- und Repräsentationsfähigkeit von Parteien

2020 ◽  
Vol 51 (1) ◽  
pp. 212-231
Author(s):  
Ingrid Reichart-Dreyer

Parties link the society with the state . It is their task to recruit members, integrate and train them for taking over leadership positions at different levels . Since 1990 the parties in (unified) Germany lose members . Does this prevent them from fulfilling their functions for the parliamentary democracy? The analysis detects differences between the Länder: Indeed, the capability of parties to recruit members increases with the number of officeholders in local and regional councils and state parliaments . Big cities and the so-called city-states (Berlin, Hamburg and Bremen) reduce the chances for political participation . Where the organisational structure of public administration was reformed the number of local and regional councillors sank and - with some delay - also the number of party members . Are the remarkable differences in the capability of the parties to recruit members a reflection of their internal organisation? Do the structures that are formally laid down in the party statutes influence how opinions are formed and majorities are found? How does the linkage between officeholders and their party - which is necessary for political leadership - work? Do the parties communicate to the people why it pays to get engaged? The differences found between the parties indicate how the capacity for recruiting members can be improved .

Author(s):  
Eva Sørensen

Representative democracy is in transition in theory as well as in practice, and this transition affects the way we think about political leadership and democratic representation. New theories of democracy challenge traditional understandings of what it entails to represent the people, and a mushrooming of new forms of political participation destabilizes traditional views of the role of citizens in democratic decision-making. Chapter 4 shows how these theoretical and empirical developments, which are partially triggered by inherent tensions in democratic thought, promote a turn towards interactive forms of political leadership. Interactive political leadership can potentially alleviate the tensions in democratic thought and strengthen the input legitimacy of representative democracy in times of declining trust in politicians. A turn to interactive political leadership is no panacea. It triggers new dilemmas and challenges for elected politicians.


2013 ◽  
Vol 13 (2) ◽  
pp. 97-108
Author(s):  
Laura Hobson de Herlihy

Este artículo se centra en la situación actual de las mujeres indígenas y afrodescendientes  y la participación política y su acceso a puestos de liderazgo. La investigación exploró el proceso desde el cual las mujeres miskitu y kriol en Nicaragua han catapultado posiciones de liderazgo en el grupo matrilocal en altos cargos políticos. Los datos recogidos en Bilwi-Puerto Cabezas demuestra que mujeres las miskitu y kriol lideresas en los últimos 30 años han accedido a puestos de liderazgo político a través de su participación con la Iglesia Morava, la revolución sandinista, y después de 1990 las organizaciones de desarrollo. Estas etapas de empoderamiento pueden combinarse para favorecer el liderazgo de mujeres.SummaryThis article focuses on the current situation of indigenous and afrodescendant women, their political participation and access to leadership posts. The research explored the process from which the Miskitu and Creole women in Nicaragua have catapulted leadership positions in the matrilocal group in high political posts. Data collected in Bilwi-Puerto Cabezas shows that Miskitu and Creole women leaders, in the past 30 years have had access to political leadership positions through their involvement with the Moravian Church, the Sandinista revolution, and after 1990 due to the development organizations. These stages of empowerment can be combined to promote women leadership.


2021 ◽  
Vol 7 (2) ◽  
pp. 195-207
Author(s):  
Brown Chomba

Issues to do with gender imbalances and inequality of women in general and single women in particular in the political arena and entrepreneurship are nowadays a burning issue in all the countries worldwide. This is a major aspect of modern democratic governance such that low levels of female participation in politics are a major concern worldwide. The steps were taken by the United Nations Convention on stopping all forms of Discrimination against Women (CEDAW) and other international organizations have laid the concrete basis for the emergence of women’s participation in politics and entrepreneurship. In Lusaka, Zambia, women’s political participation is not proportional to the 50% of the country’s population which women represent, thereby not translating into equal representation in political leadership positions. The study employed questionnaires to collect data. The findings demonstrate that there exists a significant gender gap in the political participation of women in all the wards in the Lusaka district and that factors affecting their effective participation were social, economic, political, cultural, and religious-based. The study, therefore, recommended the change of perception of the people, equal representation in governance, support from everyone, and also stopping of discriminatory practices to ensure the equal and full participation of women.


2019 ◽  
Vol 19 (2) ◽  
pp. 23-38
Author(s):  
Daniel Hummel

A small but growing area of public administration scholarship appreciates the influence of religious values on various aspects of government. This appreciation parallels a growing interest in comparative public administration and indigenized forms of government which recognizes the role of culture in different approaches to government. This article is at the crossroads of these two trends while also considering a very salient region, the Islamic world. The Islamic world is uniquely religious, which makes this discussion even more relevant, as the nations that represent them strive towards legitimacy and stability. The history and core values of Islam need to be considered as they pertain to systems of government that are widely accepted by the people. In essence, this is being done in many countries across the Islamic world, providing fertile grounds for public administration research from a comparative perspective. This paper explores these possibilities for future research on this topic.


2019 ◽  
pp. 169
Author(s):  
Nadiia Maksimentseva

Laws and regulations backing and governing public administration in subsoil use and protection in Ukraine is gradually gaining priority and importance given incoming energy security and resource self-sufficiency risks alerts for the State as one of the warrants for political and economic independence and guarantees for the people of Ukraine to enjoy and plenipotentiary implement its propitiatory rights set forth in the Constitution of Ukraine with regard to natural resources and benefits that constitute the genuine wealth of the nation. The article is written with the application of inductive reasoning and performance of various research methods, such as case studies, phenomenological study with some focus on nature and source of laws and administrative functions, grounded theory study; also a deep comparative analysis of domestic and overseas legal patterns is carried out. The article is devoted to the research of problems with regard to public administration in the field of subsoil use and protection in Ukraine. The author emphasizes that determination of public administration in the field of subsoil use and protection is a form of public managerial activities of public administration authorities (state authorities, local self-government bodies, self-governing public organizations with the respective competence). It is suggested that these activities are aimed at implementation of the policies in the field of geological exploration of mineral resources, mineral extraction, construction of underground and terrestrial facilities not related to the extraction of minerals, subsoil and environmental protection and they are based on the principles of interaction between subject and object of public administration, discretion, mutual responsibility, self-governance and decentralization when public services are provided. Also, the article presents many judicial practice of the European Court of Human Rights and Citizen, the Supreme Court in the field of public administration in the field of subsoil use and protection. In concluding notes amendments to Subsoil Code of Ukraine, methodology for calculating the initial selling price for the sale of special permit, selection procedures for open special permit tender bid winners and responsibility for subsoil use abandonment costs are suggested by the author.


Author(s):  
Chris Wickham

Amid the disintegration of the Kingdom of Italy in the eleventh and twelfth centuries, a new form of collective government—the commune—arose in the cities of northern and central Italy. This book takes a bold new look at how these autonomous city-states came about, and fundamentally alters our understanding of one of the most important political and cultural innovations of the medieval world. The book provides richly textured portraits of three cities—Milan, Pisa, and Rome—and sets them against a vibrant backcloth of other towns. It argues that, in all but a few cases, the élite of these cities and towns developed one of the first nonmonarchical forms of government in medieval Europe, unaware that they were creating something altogether new. The book makes clear that the Italian city commune was by no means a democracy in the modern sense, but that it was so novel that outsiders did not know what to make of it. It describes how, as the old order unraveled, the communes emerged, governed by consular elites “chosen by the people,” and subject to neither emperor nor king. They regularly fought each other, yet they grew organized and confident enough to ally together to defeat Frederick Barbarossa, the German emperor, at the Battle of Legnano in 1176. This book reveals how the development of the autonomous city-state took place, which would in the end make possible the robust civic culture of the Renaissance.


Public Voices ◽  
2017 ◽  
Vol 3 (2) ◽  
pp. 35
Author(s):  
R. Philip Brown

The modem American ethos is a brand of Lockean individualism gone wrong that now embraces rapacious self-interest as its prime meridian. A new ethicalmodel is necessary to combat this radical, soulless, and excessively particularistic form of individualism. The author proposes a journeyman philosophy of organization and governance for citizen and administrative practitioner alike based upon concepts from quantum theory. This normative model of administration, called authentic individualism, has certain ramifications for a more reflexive, creative and unorthodox approach to public administration. All institutions and organizations are systems guided by general organizing principles that should discard the humans as a resource model, make employee well-being an organizational purpose, encourage humans toward a sense of moral meaning in life and work, recognize legitimate leadership as emerging from the people who make up the organization, and fulfill obligations to the community that supports them and makes them successful.


Author(s):  
Benjamin A. Schupmann

Chapter 1 analyzes Schmitt’s assessment of democratic movements in Weimar and the gravity of their effects on the state and constitution. It emphasizes that the focus of Schmitt’s criticism of Weimar was mass democracy rather than liberalism. Schmitt warned that the combination of mass democracy, the interpenetration of state and society, and the emergence of total movements opposed to liberal democracy, namely the Nazis and the Communists, were destabilizing the Weimar state and constitution. Weimar, Schmitt argued, had been designed according to nineteenth century principles of legitimacy and understandings of the people. Under the pressure of mass democracy, the state was buckling and cannibalizing itself and its constitution. Despite this, Schmitt argued, Weimar jurists’ theoretical commitments left them largely unable to recognize the scope of what was occurring. Schmitt’s criticism of Weimar democracy was intended to raise awareness of how parliamentary democracy could be turned against the state and constitution.


2019 ◽  
Vol 43 (3) ◽  
pp. 581-597 ◽  
Author(s):  
James A. Jaffe

With relatively few exceptions, personal petitions from individuals have received much less attention from historians than those from groups in the public political sphere. In one sense, personal petitions adopted many of the same rhetorical strategies as those delivered by a group. However, they also offer unique insights into the quotidian relationship between the people and their rulers. This article examines surviving personal petitions to various administrators at different levels of government in western India during the decades surrounding the East India Company’s conquests. The analysis of these petitions helps to refine our understanding of the place of the new judicial system in the social world of early-nineteenth-century India, especially by illuminating the discourse of justice that petitioners brought to the presentation of their cases to their new governors. The conclusion of this article seeks to place the rhetoric of personal petitioning within the larger context of mass political petitioning in India during the early nineteenth century.


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