21 research outputs found
The Indian National Congress Party after the dynasty
Rajiv Gandhi's violent death in May 1991 signalled the end of
an entire era for the Congress Party: the long-lasting rule of the
dynasty was over. Subsequent developments in the party have raised
the question of change versus continuity. Has the end of the
dynasty led to the birth of a new Congress, or will the dynastic
party structures and organizational features continue into the
post-Gandhi period? The argument that I will be advancing
throughout the thesis is that structural continuity has
characterized the organizational order of the party in its postdynastic
period. The most obvious indicators of this continuity are
that the party continues to be a deinstitutionalized, loosely
structured coglomerate of political bosses with varying bases of
support; the party remains paralyzed by factionalism at all levels,
yet it escapes splits and schisms; and the Congress Prime Minister
continues to be at the apex of the decision-making pyramid.
The important question for political scientists to answer is
why continuity has taken precedence over drastic change. I shall
maintain that structural continuity in the party's organizational
order has come about primarily as a result of environmental
pressures exerted by the turbulence in the party system that was
undergoing a fundamental transformation. The Indian party system
changed from a predominant into a more competitive one in the late 1980s and early 1990s as the election results for 1989-91 period
suggest. Under this environmental condition, it has been the
requirement of organizational survival amidst external change that
both necessitated and facilitated the continuation of the old order
in the party.Arts, Faculty ofPolitical Science, Department ofGraduat
Chapitre 5. La participation aux premiĂšres Ă©lections parlementaires europĂ©ennes dans les pays dâEurope de lâEst
En juin 2004, les citoyens dâune Union europĂ©enne rĂ©cemment Ă©largie se sont prĂ©sentĂ©s aux urnes afin dâĂ©lire leurs reprĂ©sentants au Parlement europĂ©en (PE). Ces Ă©lections furent dâune importance symbolique particuliĂšre pour les huit dĂ©mocraties issues du bloc communiste, car elles prĂ©sentaient une excellente occasion pour ces nouveaux entrants de dĂ©montrer leur engagement dans le processus dâintĂ©gration au sein de la communautĂ© politique et dĂ©mocratique europĂ©enne. ParallĂšlement, ces Ă©lection..
Keeping Parties Together? The Evolution of Israelâs Anti-Defection Law
In 1991, the Knesset passed a package of legislation with the aim of preventing the rampant party switching and defections by elected representatives. At the time of its adoption, the so-called anti-defection law was supported by an all-party consensus. Although the legislation has remained in effect, its apparent continuity conceals the way in which it has become transformed from what was at first an âefficientâ institution to a âredistributiveâ one (Tsebelis 1990). In this paper, I review the development of the Israeli anti-defection law and argue that whereas at the initial moment of its adoption the anti-defection law was considered to benefit all parties in the system, over time it has become an instrument in the hands of the governing coalition to manipulate divisions and engineer further defections among the opposition in order to shore up its often fragile legislative base
Party politics in a non-western democracy : a test of competing theories of party system change, government formation and government stability in India
The dissertation will address the ongoing debate in Comparative Politics about the
virtues and pathologies of rational choice theory by testing competing hypotheses and
predictions to account for three aspects of party politics in India: the transformation of the
Indian political party system from a predominant to an even multiparty system; the
politics of government formation; and the politics of government stability.
Overall, the dissertation will pursue two arguments. First, rational choice models
and predictions can account for the empirical cases more consistently than hypotheses
and predictions derived from other paradigms. Second, by using India as the case on
which to test competing theories, it will be shown that non-Western political phenomena
are not sui generis and they may be accounted for in terms of comparative theory the
same way as Western phenomena have been.Arts, Faculty ofPolitical Science, Department ofGraduat
A Unified Theory of Party Competition: A Cross-National Analysis Integrating Spatial and Behavioral Factors
Concurrent Elections and Voter Turnout: The Effect of the De-linking of State Elections on Electoral Participation in India's Parliamentary Polls, 1971-2004
L'Europe qui se fait
EntitĂ© Ă la fois rĂ©alisĂ©e et en devenir, lâEurope nâest pas issue dâun processus unique et linĂ©aire, mais la rĂ©sultante dâĂ©volutions simultanĂ©es dont les enjeux, changeants, ne sont pas concordants a priori. Selon que lâon Ă©voque lâefficacitĂ© Ă©conomique ou le progrĂšs social, la politique internationale ou la dĂ©fense, la participation dĂ©mocratique, lâunion sociale ou lâexpression des identitĂ©s, le parcours complexe de la construction europĂ©enne sâĂ©claire diffĂ©remment. La mise en commun de ces points de vue divers, voire divergeants, est une façon efficace pour lâobservateur de se rapprocher de la rĂ©alitĂ©. Et dans sa complexitĂ© mĂȘme, lâUnion europĂ©enne est une rĂ©alitĂ© Ă©conomique, sociale, politique et culturelle du premier intĂ©rĂȘt, non seulement en soi, mais parce quâelle condense une sĂ©rie de phĂ©nomĂšnes, de choix et de dĂ©fis qui sâimposent Ă©galement Ă lâensemble des pays dĂ©veloppĂ©s. Solidement rĂ©fĂ©rencĂ©, le prĂ©sent ouvrage est un point dâĂ©tape multidisciplinaire sur la construction europĂ©enne. Il rassemble les contributions de chercheurs canadiens et europĂ©ens qui soulignent Ă leur maniĂšre le 50e anniversaire du TraitĂ© de Rome. Le lecteur, spĂ©cialiste ou non, trouvera ici un outil unique pour cerner les nouveaux contours dâun continent en mutation.Les journĂ©es d'Ă©tudes, tenues Ă la Maison des sciences de l'homme les 16 et 17 octobre 2000, dont cet ouvrage est issu, associaient chercheurs, conservateurs de musĂ©es, responsables associatifs, institutionnels de diffĂ©rents ministĂšres (Culture, Anciens Combattants) et avaient pour but d'engager une rĂ©flexion sur la prĂ©sentation de l'Ă©vĂ©nement qu'a Ă©tĂ© la Seconde Guerre mondiale dans les musĂ©es et lors d'expositions, sur les stratĂ©gies mĂ©morielles Ă l'Ćuvre et sur les politiques des institutions. Une premiĂšre approche comparative avec les pratiques mises en Ćuvre dans d'autres pays d'Europe a Ă©tĂ© esquissĂ©e : avec la Pologne, l'Allemagne, le Royaume-Uni et l'Italie. Elles ne manqueront pas d'entraĂźner de nouvelles questions et de futures rencontres. Ces journĂ©es d'Ă©tudes ont reçu le soutien du ministĂšre des Affaires Ă©trangĂšres, du secrĂ©tariat d'Ătat aux Anciens Combattants, du conseil rĂ©gional d'Ăle-de-France, du LAIOS (UPR-CNRS), de l'universitĂ© de Paris 8