scholarly journals Argentina’s Politicized Bureaucracy: A Historical Analysis of Two Political Regimes

2018 ◽  
Vol 14 (2) ◽  
pp. 1-22 ◽  
Author(s):  
María Verónica Elías

This article employs the concept of “bureaucratic authoritarianism” (O’Donnell, 1978, 1988) to evaluate whether the character of Argentine bureaucracy has changed in the shift from dictatorial to democratic rule. A brief discussion about the political and administrative history of that country follows the characterization of bureaucratic authoritarianism in light of accountability and clientelism (Fox, 2000; Smulovitz & Peruzzotti, 2000, 2003). This article explores the possibility of bureaucratic legitimacy in Argentina through the enforcement of the rule of law, the system of checks and balances, and the fair treatment of citizens.

Author(s):  
Łukasz ZAMĘCKI ◽  
Viktor GLIED

This paper examines developments in Poland following the 2015 elections and in Hungary since 2010, which included the gradual destruction of democratic institutions, challenges to the rule of law, as well as to the system of checks and balances. The authors consider the Ziblatt–Levitsky model (2018) as a meaningful framework for the analysis of the way in which the power structure was reshaped and have based their research on the classification set out in this model. Our objective is to present the political changes that took place in the two Central-Eastern-European countries during the last decade that resulted in the process under Article 7 being used for the first time in the history of the EU. The paper conclusion is that the path of de-democratization of Hungary and Poland is seen from the perspective of the EU and Council of Europe, as similar one. In actions taken toward both countries, the EU concerns mostly the principle of the rule of law.


2009 ◽  
Vol 68 (1) ◽  
pp. 55-100 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jonathan K. Ocko ◽  
David Gilmartin

This paper uses the concept of the “rule of law” to compare Qing China and British India. Rather than using the rule of law instrumentally, the paper embeds it in the histories of state power and sovereignty in China and India. Three themes, all framed by the rule of law and the rule of man as oppositional yet paradoxically intertwined notions, organize the paper's comparisons: the role of a discourse of law in simultaneously legitimizing and constraining the political authority of the state; the role of law and legal procedures in shaping and defining society; and the role of law in defining an economic and social order based on contract, property, and rights. A fourth section considers the implications of these findings for the historical trajectories of China and India in the twentieth century. Taking law as an instrument of power and an imagined realm that nonetheless also transcended power and operated outside its ambit, the paper seeks to broaden the history of the “rule of law” beyond Euro-America.


Author(s):  
Thomashausen André

This chapter recounts the history of constitutional developments in Angola leading up to the 2010 constitution. It introduces the new Angolan Constitutional Court and discusses the first and thus far only substantive decision of this Court—the Parliamentary Oversight Judgment of 9 October 2013—a serious constitutional conflict between parliament and the president. The Court held that the 2010 constitution had reduced the powers of parliament as compared to the previous text and that parliament lacked the power to question the executive or to summon ministers to hearings before it. Since these are presidential powers, the Court held, parliament may not arrogate them, though it may request the president to supply information or order his ministers before it. Although the conservative leaning of the Court in this dispute disappointed the opposition and many commentators, the judgment strengthened the rule of law and of the constitutional state.


2021 ◽  
Vol 105 (5) ◽  
pp. 150-160
Author(s):  
Viktor Mironenko ◽  

The article describes the transformation of the political regime of the Third Ukrainian Republic. The author holds that this big European country deserves attention not only as part of its recent history and that of Europe, but also as a manifestation of some European and global political processes. Using the methods of historical analysis and periodization, an attempt is made to place the last 30 years of the Ukrainian Republic in the general context of the recent history of Ukraine, to identify the reasons for the incomplete «Ukrainian project», the difficulties of its external perception and international positioning. The scientific novelty of the proposed analysis is that the political regimes that have existed in the Ukrainian Republic since its proclamation are considered as interrelated in the process of its evolution, and the latest of them ‒ in the light of the hypothesis of two transformations ‒ as its last phase. The main conclusion is that Ukraine’s difficult path of political self-identification is not complete and it faces necessity to find a new internal and external political paradigm and another reboot of the political regime.


2011 ◽  
Vol 54 (2) ◽  
pp. 203-238 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ulrika Mårtensson

AbstractThe article argues that al-abarī’s History of the Prophets and the Kings provides a free rider-analysis of the decline of Abbasid state power. Al-abarī’s historical analysis considers state policy on land tax, and religion as a legal norm related to the social contract between the head of state and the landlords. It is concluded that al-abarī saw the misāa tax system and ‘rule of law’ as the principal conditions for imperial rule, and that al-abarī’s History already provides an answer to modern historians’ questions as to why the Abbasid state crumbled, and what role religion played in the political economy.


2016 ◽  
Vol 66 (2) ◽  
pp. 181-212 ◽  
Author(s):  
Marek Dabrowski

At the onset of the mass protests in 2010–2011, many politicians and experts suggested that Arab countries could learn from the experiences of the post-communist transition of the early 1990s. However, the geopolitical, historical, and socio-economic context of the Arab transition was different in many respects from that of the former Soviet bloc countries 20 years earlier. These differences became even more obvious five years later, in early 2016, when most Arab transition attempts ended either in a new wave of authoritarianism, or protracted bloody conflicts. Nonetheless, there are some common lessons to be learnt from the history of both transitions. They concern interrelations between the political and economic transition, the role of institutional checks and balances and the rule of law, the speed of reforms, the dangers of ethnic and sectarian conflicts, and the role of external support.


2016 ◽  
Vol 41 (02) ◽  
pp. 465-470 ◽  
Author(s):  
Sally Engle Merry

Does the rule of law guarantee peace and democracy, as so many people in the development and governance field believe? What are the historical and sociocultural conditions that shape the way rule of law mechanisms work in practice? Mark Massoud's monograph tracing the changing dimensions of the rule of law in Sudan from its colonial period to the present offers an important perspective on these questions, casting doubt on the simple argument that the rule of law produces democracy and peace. Instead, he shows how colonial and authoritarian rulers used the rule of law to consolidate power and legitimate their rule. In Law's Fragile State: Colonial, Authoritarian, and Humanitarian Legacies in Sudan, Massoud develops the concept of legal politics, arguing that the way the rule of law works varies with the political system in which it is embedded. He concludes that the forms of legal politics that reinforce the power and authority of legal institutions are more likely to sustain an authoritarian state than to bring democratic rule. His analysis is a valuable caution to those who promote the rule of law as the salvation for all. Taking a sociolegal perspective, he shows how it works in practice.


1998 ◽  
Vol 10 (4) ◽  
pp. 445-460
Author(s):  
W. J. Rorabaugh

The founding fathers laid down a number of principles for successful governance in the new republic. Among these, in the formal sense, were written constitutions, the division of power among three branches of government, checks and balances to prevent abuse of power, the rule of law, and equality before the law. Most of these ideas were English in origin and had been practiced, in varying degrees, in the colonies. The failure of the colonial polity, the founders believed, had occurred because at times British power in North America had been exercised in opposition to notions of sound governance. In addition, the founders heeded public opinion and accepted, somewhat reluctantly, broad participation by white males in the political process. Having experienced British tyranny, they embraced free speech and a free press. While these various principles, the founders agreed, were ingredients that could produce a republic, such a republic would be viable only if the people and their political leaders possessed virtue.


2016 ◽  
Vol 11 (4) ◽  
pp. 307
Author(s):  
Diana Maksimiuk

The Year 1956 in Poland – Lawyers’ Discussions aboutbJustice, Public Prosecutors’ Offices and Criminal LawSummary The year 1956 was frequently described as a “breakthrough” in the postwar history of Poland and constituted the end of the Stalin’s epoch. The change of the political conditions which took place during that time, as well as accompanying freedom of speech, created unlimited opportunity to criticise that period. In deliberation of the state of Poland the debate about the issue of the justice has been also led. The law society which participated actively in those events was aimed mainly at restoring the rule of law and reconstructing the justice’s authority. Definitely, the most important matter under discussion was to deal with the past. Criticism and even self-critical opinions occured together with proposals concerning the future situation. Among so many solutions which have been presented by lawyers, the most noticeable was the tendency to bring the status of prewar law back. Although this returing was not achieved, in consequence of that debate the transformation which symbolised new age was introduced.


Author(s):  
Jens Meierhenrich

What for many years was seen as an oxymoron—the notion of an authoritarian rule of law—no longer is. Instead, the phenomenon has become a cutting edge concern in law-and-society research. In this concluding chapter, I situate Fraenkel’s theory of dictatorship in this emerging research program. In the first section, I turn the notion of an authoritarian rule of law into a social science concept. In the second section, I relate this concept to that of the dual state and both to the political science literature on so-called hybrid regimes. Drawing on this synthesis, the third section makes the concept of the dual state usable for comparative-historical analysis. Through a series of empirical vignettes, I demonstrate the contemporary relevance of Fraenkel’s institutional analysis of the Nazi state. I show why it is essential reading for anyone trying to understand the legal origins of dictatorship, then and now.


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