3,482 research outputs found
"Voto por voto, casilla por casilla?" : Democratic consolidation, political intermediation, and the Mexican election of 2006
After he had only tightly lost the election in July 2006, AndrĂ©s Manuel LĂłpez Obrador and his CoaliciĂłn claimed fraud and asserted that unfair conditions during the campaign had diminished his chances to win the presidency. The paper investigates this latter allegation centering on a perceived campaign of hate, unequal access to campaign resources and malicious treatment by the mass media. It further analyzes the mass mediaâs performance during the conflictual post electoral period until the final decision of the Federal Electoral Tribunal on September 5th, 2006. While the mediaâs performance during the campaign tells us about their compliance with fair media coverage mechanisms that have been implemented by electoral reforms in the 1990s, the mass media is uncontained by such measures after the election. Thus, their mode of coverage of the postelectoral conflicts allows us to âtestâ the mass mediaâs transformation to a more unbiased, social responsible âfourth estateâ. Finally the paper scrutinizes whether the claims of fraud and the protests by the leftist movement resulted in lower levels of institutional trust and democratic support. The analysis of the media performance is based on data provided by the Federal Electoral Institute (IFE). Its Media Monitor encompassed more than 150 TV stations, 240 radio stations and 200 press publications. However, there is no comparable data available for the postelectoral period. Interviews with Mexican media experts, which the author has conducted during the postelectoral period, serve as empirical basis for the second part. Data on the public opinions and attitudes of Mexican citizens are taken from the 2007 Latinobarometro, the 2006 Encuesta Nacional and several polls conducted by Grupo Reforma. The results do not support LĂłpez Obradors notions. Even though a strong party bias is characteristic of the Mexican media system, all findings hint at a continuity of balanced campaign coverage and fair access to mass media publicity. Coverage during the postelectoral period was more polarized, yet both sides remained at least partially open for oppositional views. The claims of fraud, mass protest mobilization and anti-institutional discourse by Lopez Obradorâs leftist movement seem not to have caused significant loss in institutional trust, support of and satisfaction with democracy, even though these levels remain quite low
Next Step: State Funding for the Parties?
The Political Parties, Elections and Referendums Act 2000 marked the most comprehensive and radical overhaul of British party finance for over 100 years. It instituted reforms in many areas, with the notable exception of the comprehensive extension of state funding for political parties. However, despite the radicalism of the Act, questions have already arisen as to whether further state funding should occur. This article argues that in order to examine the case for more comprehensive state funding, policyâmakers need to look beyond the current calls and make a decision by evaluating several criteria on the basis of empirical evidence rather than assumptions. First, however, it is worth outlining the stage we are at presently by summarising the new Act, looking at its impact to date and examining the claims made in recent episodes which have led to calls for more comprehensive state funding of political parties
On the Manipulability of Proportional Representation
This paper presents a new model of voter behaviour under methods of proportional representation (PR). We abstract away from rounding, and assume that a party securing k percent of the vote wins exactly k percent of the available seats. Under this assumption PR is not manipulable by any voter aiming at maximisation of the number of seats in the parliament of her most preferred party. However in this paper we assume that voters are concerned, first and foremost, with the distribution of power in the post-election parliament. We show that, irrespective of which positional scoring rule is adopted, there will always exist circumstances where a voter would have an incentive to vote insincerely. We demonstrate that a voterâs attitude toward uncertainty can influence her incentives to make an insincere vote. Finally, we show that the introduction of a threshold - a rule that a party must secure at least a certain percentage of the vote in order to reach parliament - creates new opportunities for strategic voting. We use the model to explain voter behaviour at the most recent New Zealand general election
How the Tailor of Marrakesh Suit Has Been Altered: Advantage Ratio as a Tool in Post-Communist Electoral Reforms Research
The text analyzes the character of the second wave of electoral system reform in post-communist countries. It describes the direction of the change in status quo after the first reform, which was usually implemented by participants on the basis of imperfect or incomplete information. We claim that the character of the second reforms favored the bigger and established parties and accentuated the tendencies towards establishing electoral competition between political parties at the expense of other participants (independent candidates). We furthermore use a sample of 40 electoral events in 15 post-communist countries to analyze the potential of the strongest electoral parties and other parliamentary parties to transform votes into seats, and we connect this characteristic with the electoral changes made, arguing that the logic of the electoral rules and the effects arising from the actual shares of the vote won in elections sometimes reinforced one another but at least in some electoral events - also ran in opposite directions
Aggregation and Representation in the European Parliament Party Groups
While members of the European Parliament are elected in national constituencies, their votes are determined by the aggregation of MEPs in multinational party groups. The uncoordinated aggregation of national party programmes in multinational EP party groups challenges theories of representation based on national parties and parliaments. This article provides a theoretical means of understanding representation by linking the aggregation of dozens of national party programmes in different EP party groups to the aggregation of groups to produce the parliamentary majority needed to enact policies. Drawing on an original data source of national party programmes, the EU Profiler, the article shows that the EP majorities created by aggregating MEP votes in party groups are best explained by cartel theories. These give priority to strengthening the EPâs collective capacity to enact policies rather than voting in accord with the programmes they were nationally elected to represent
Representational consequences of special mechanisms for ethnic minority inclusion: evidence from Romania
Der vorliegende Beitrag untersucht, wie verschiedene institutionelle Mechanismen fĂŒr die legislative ReprĂ€sentation die ethnische und soziale Zusammensetzung der gesetzgebenden Versammlung beeinflussen. Das Papier liefert zuerst ein Gesamtbild der ethnischen ReprĂ€sentativitĂ€t des rumĂ€nischen Parlaments. Dabei beschĂ€ftigt es sich mit der ProportionalitĂ€t der ethnischen ReprĂ€sentation und diskutiert kurz, wie die rumĂ€nischen Daten einige der liberal-demokratischen theoretischen Bedenken hinsichtlich der Gerechtigkeit von Mandatsreservierungen fĂŒr Minderheiten illustrieren. Es wendet sich dann der Diskussion darĂŒber zu, wie Daten ĂŒber das ethnische Profil der parlamentarischen Vertreter das Herangehen der Mainstream-Parteien an die Rekrutierung von Minderheiten und, allgemeiner, den Wettbewerb um die UnterstĂŒtzung von Minderheiten erhellen. Der letzte Abschnitt untersucht, wie inklusiv die Abgeordnetengruppen, die durch verschiedene institutionelle KanĂ€le gewĂ€hlt wurden, in Bezug auf Geschlecht, beruflichen Hintergrund und andere soziale Merkmale sind. Das Papier fasst am Ende zusammen, was die rumĂ€nische Daten ĂŒber ethnische und soziale ReprĂ€sentation aussagen ĂŒber die Auswirkungen alternativer Wahlmechanismen auf die soziale Inklusion und welche weiteren Beweise erforderlich sind, um Hypothesen zu bestĂ€tigen oder zu widerlegen, die durch das Studium der rumĂ€nischen Erfahrung entstanden sind. (ICD
Fair apportionment in the view of the Venice Commissionâs recommendation
Abstract The Venice Commission in its Code of Good Practice in Electoral Matters specifies that (single-seat) constituencies should be drawn so that the size difference of a constituencyâs size from the average should not exceed a fixed limit while its borders must not cross the borders of administrative regions, such as states or counties. Assuming that constituencies are of equal size within each of the administrative regions, the problem is equivalent to the apportionment problem, that is, the proportional allocation of voting districts among the administrative regions. We show that the principle of maximum admissible departure is incompatible with common apportionment properties, such as monotonicity and Hare-quota. When multiple apportionments satisfy the smallest maximum admissible departure property we find a unique apportionment by the repeated application of the property. The allotment such that the differences from the average district size are lexicographically minimized can be found using an efficient algorithm. This apportionment rule is a well-defined allocation mechanism compatible with and derived from the recommendation of the Venice Commission. Finally, we compare this apportionment rule with mainstream mechanisms using data from Hungary, Germany and the United States
The stagnating enlargement processes of the EU: assessing the factor contributing to slowing down of the Western Balkans enlargement through the deepening and widening framework
This paper explores the processes of EU enlargement and the external and internal factors which have contributed to the EU expansion haltering. This analysis is informed by the deepening and widening approach to EU enlargement, as well as other integration theories. To evaluate enlargement influences, the current Western Balkan candidate countries progress will be assessed, to assess the EU conditionality appropriateness. The analysis will then discuss the internal causes of enlargement fatigue and absorption capacity to explore factors contributing to increasing enlargement resistance of the EU. This will also be linked to political and identity factors, which contribute to growing Euroscepticism and populism in Europe. This will provide an overview of factors which have impacted the potential for further EU deepening and widening processes
Equal voting power under scrutiny: Czech Constitutional Court on the 5% threshold in the 2014 European Parliament Elections.
This article analyzes the Czech Constitutional Court's decision concerning the legal threshold in European Parliament elections. It puts the decicion in the broader framework of European multi-level governance
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