The Imperfect Democratic Transition in Somalia

The purpose of this paper is to examine the factors undermining the democratic transition in Somalia. During the first decade of independence, Somalia attempted to institutionalize a multiparty democracy. However, several factors, such as the lack of a clear political ideology, authoritarianism, and the formation of clan-based political parties, led to the decline of democratic practices, followed by a military coup and a protracted civil war. That had a devastating impact on the short and long-term democratic efforts in the country. Thirty years after the collapse of the central government, the country is embroiled in protracted political instability that continues to undermine efforts to establish formal democratic institutions and mechanisms. Apart from the political cleavage among political actors, this paper examines other factors undermining the successful transition to democracy in Somalia. It identifies factors such as the practice of clannism or a clan-based political system, rampant electoral corruption, and the inconsistent role of the international community in supporting the democratization process in Somalia. The paper argues that continuing the indirect elections has blocked the attaining successful democratic transition and stalled the adoption of procedural democracy. In addition, susceptible public institutions and instability have negatively impacted a prolonged transition in Somalia.

Russian “Party of Power” vs Dominant Party

The article presents a factual analysis of the origin and formation of the “party of power” in Russia. The work demonstrates that at all stages the Russian “party of power” was designed and controlled by the Administration of the President of the Russian Federation. The research carried out by the author shows that Russia’s “party of power” does not meet the criteria that would allow to qualify this political party as dominant, in any of its “incarnations”. This fully applies to the United Russia party that does not exert a significant impact on the appointments to the political and administrative positions and does not have any effect on the decisions that determine the state’s policy. The dominance of the United Russia party in the electoral field is ensured primarily by the electoral corruption, as well as by the fact that its “electoral machine” is represented by the system of public authorities at all levels, from federal to local. In turn, the dominance of this party in the State Duma and the rigid and strictly hierarchical administrative structure that it built in the lower chamber of the Russian Parliament allows the Presidential Administration to control the legislative process and parliamentary activity in general. According to the author’s conclusion, the “party of power” is an externally controlled political organization of a party type that protects the interests of Russia’s ruling nomenklatura and implements its goals in the processes of the formation of public authorities through electoral procedures, as well as in the course of the legislative and parliamentary activity. Not only does such an organization fail to meet the criteria of the dominant party, but it also fails to fully correspond to the concept of a political party per se.

Elections of Deputies of the State Duma of the Second Convocation (1995-1999): the Success of the Anti-reform Opposition, the Failure of the “Party of Power” and the Defeat of the Democrats (to the 30th Anniversary of the Russian Federation)

The article is devoted to the political and historical analysis of the elections of deputies of the State Duma of the second convocation in 1995. The political context of these elections is assessed as a confrontation between the “party in power” and the anti-reform opposition. To counteract the opposition, the “party in power” created its own political structure to participate in the elections — the movement “Our Home-Russia” (NDR), headed by Prime Minister Viktor Chernomyrdin. An analysis of the process of creating the PDR movement, which took place under the auspices of the Presidential Administration, confirms the use of the administrative resource of the presidential and executive powers in this process. The creation of the NDR movement led to the erosion of the reformist-democratic wing. The weakening of this flank was also facilitated by the fact that the political organizations forming it could not unite. Two leading political organizations with a reformist-democratic orientation — Yegor Gaidar’s Democratic Choice of Russia party and Grigory Yavlinsky’s Yabloko public association did not create a common electoral bloc, although there were objective prerequisites for this. A significant aspect of the 1995 election campaign was the fact that Russian industry corporations and financial and industrial groups began to show an active interest in the elections of deputies. They began to incorporate lobbyists of their interests into the parliamentary corps. At the elections of deputies of the State Duma of the second convocation in 1995. success accompanied the anti-reform opposition and, above all, the Communist Party of the Russian Federation, failure befell the “party of power” represented by the NDR movement, and the reformist democrats who failed to unite suffered a crushing defeat. The State Duma of the second convocation had a pronounced anti-reform and oppositional character to the incumbent president and the executive branch, but at the same time it was a fairly independent political institution, which retained certain opportunities for competitive legislative activity and the search for compromises in crisis situations. The 1995 elections cannot be assessed as completely fair and free, and, starting with these elections, the bacillus of electoral corruption was introduced into the organism of Russian politics.

Clash of powers: Did operation car wash trigger a constitutional crisis in Brazil?

Brazil descended into a major political crisis after the 2013 mass demonstrations against electoral corruption and failure to fulfil constitutional obligations related to social and economic rights. This turmoil destabilized the political establishment and severely impacted the behaviour of legal institutions. The use of political mandates and institutional prerogatives, contrary to established social norms and traditional interpretations of the law, became unexceptional. In this article, Operation Car Wash, the impeachment of President Dilma Rousseff, and the process to save the mandate of her successor, President Michel Temer, are analysed as successive examples of ‘constitutional hardball’ that dominated Brazilian political and institutional life, leading the country to a period of ‘constitutional malaise’ or ‘constitutional regression.’ The main objective of the article is to understand the impact of this cycle of institutional retaliations, rooted in the clash between the political and legal establishments (represented by Operation Car Wash), on the stability of Brazilian constitutional democracy.

Electoral corruption unfolded by Operation Car Wash and political rights in Brazil

PurposeThis article aims to advance the literature on the effects of corruption and its relationship to human rights violations. The article also presents an overview of existing legislative measures as well as those expected to be implemented at the national level to tackle corruption and its impacts on fundamental rights.Design/methodology/ approachThe study draws on the literature that addresses the relation between corruption and human rights, and analyses a single well-known case in Brazil (Operation Car Wash) in order to discuss both the violation of citizens’ political rights and of those being investigated.FindingsThe article suggests that the Brazilian State has failed to guarantee fundamental rights as well as to effectively control electoral corruption. By exploring the complex structure of illegal campaign financing in Brazil, the article exposes how Operation Car Wash evidenced the violation of both of the right to participate public affairs and to vote in authentic elections in Brazil.Originality/valueConsidering that the literature shows it is difficult to link the breaches of human rights with incidences of corruption, this article debates the macro context in which the Car Wash case is inserted and demonstrates the evidence that link the corrupt acts involved in this operation to the violation of specific fundamental human rights: the political rights.

Typy uprzywilejowane przestępstwa korupcji wyborczej

Mitigated forms of election corruption crimes The article examines the problem of the type of mitigated crime of electoral corruption. The author discusses examples of behaviour enabling criminal qualification under Art. 250a § 3 of the Penal Code, as well as situations that do not allow the application of this regulation. He also considers the legitimacy of isolating a minor accident in the normative structure of the election corruption crime, as well as the proposed legislative changes in this regard. Artykuł jest poświęcony problematyce typu uprzywilejowanego przestępstwa korupcji wyborczej. Autor omawia przykłady zachowań umożliwiających prawnokarną kwalifikację na podstawie art. 250a § 3 kk, a także sytuacje niepozwalające na zastosowanie tej regulacji. Przeprowadza również rozważania dotyczące zasadności wyodrębnienia wypadku mniejszej wagi w normatywnej konstrukcji przestępstwa korupcji wyborczej, jak też postulowanych w tym zakresie zmian legislacyjnych.

Elections and Democracy in the Caribbean

The works included in this compendium summary address themes relevant to the elections and democracy in the Caribbean region. The states that fall within the relevant “region” include the formerly English, French, and Dutch colonies in the Caribbean Sea and the South and Central American mainland, as well as the remaining English, French, Dutch, Danish, and Spanish colonies in the Caribbean. The aim of this bibliography is to provide readers and researchers with a broad overview of the kinds of theoretical, thematic, and empirical emphases that have framed the questions around which the electoral and democratic landscape of the Caribbean has been studied. For purposes of clarification, the collection does not address Caribbean democracy as a stand-alone isolated issue, but instead provides a survey of works on elections in the Caribbean through the lens of their interrelation with Caribbean democratic history, practice, culture, and constitutional development and institutional framework. (A survey of Caribbean democracy will require isolated treatment). Relatedly, while the article addresses the experience of the wider Caribbean, much of the emphasis on the intellectual output is on the works relevant to the English-speaking Caribbean. Where the experiences of the non-English countries have given rise to critical intellectual interventions, these are included to bring balance to the Caribbean story and to highlight commonalities and divergences, useful for researchers interested in comparative analyses. Following this introduction, the article is divided into eleven thematic sections, examining (1) seminal texts and works on Caribbean democracy and Caribbean elections, or works providing general data and analysis of large blocs of countries or works presenting pathbreaking theoretical treatment of critical issues in Caribbean democracy; (2) texts addressing the issue of the administration and governance of elections, inclusive of concerns with money and electoral financing; (3) texts concerned with constitutional development; (4) texts on electoral reform; (5) works addressing dysfunctionalities such as electoral corruption and electoral violence; (6) women and political participation; (7) public opinion and voting behavior; (8) works concerned with providing analyses of the results and outcomes of Caribbean elections in a largely statistical or data-capturing sense; and (9) works that have sought to offer analyses of Caribbean elections in relation to the broader political-economy of the region. Given the reality of ethnic division and the absence of racial and cultural uniformity in several countries of the Caribbean, one of the sections is devoted to (10) surveying some of the key works that have addressed the challenges of ethnicity, ethnic mobilization, and ethnic voting, and their implications for democratic development. The final section presents (11) the main works that have sought to address the very important question of election monitoring in the Caribbean.