A emergência de partidos políticos a nível europeu: uma utopia possível

ResPublica : Revista Lusófona de Ciência Política, Segurança e Relações Internacionaisde integração europeia. Os neofuncionalistas previram o seu advento, considerando que estas formações significariam a expansão natural dos grupos políticos do Parlamento Europeu. Houve, de facto, um impulso inicial significativo na instituição, os índices de coesão alcançados pelos grupos parlamentares têm sido notáveis e têm aumentado na proporção direta do aumento de poderes do Parlamento Europeu. No entanto, não existem sinais de que estas formações políticas se tenham constituído como partidos a nível europeu. Partidos políticos europeus poderão, contudo, ter outras origens. Já existe legislação nesse sentido e são conhecidas experiências inovadoras. No entanto, a União Europeia encontra-se numa encruzilhada política. A resposta que conseguir dar terá repercussões a nível global. A emergência de partidos políticos a nível europeu estará eventualmente relacionada com a mesma. Poderá ser causa ou consequência, mas fará parte e contribuirá para um espaço político diferente.The emergence of political parties at European level has been one of the targets of the European project. The neofunctionalists presaged it and considered that this would be an inherent development of the political groups at the European Parliament. There was in fact an initial significant impetus. The cohesion rates attained by these political formations in the European Parliament have been remarkable and they have been increasing as the institution gained legislative powers. However there has been no signs that European Political parties at European level may emerge from the European Parliament. They might however stem from other foundations. European legislation has been put in place and some interesting experiences have already taken place. But the European Union is at a political crossroad. The answer provided will have global repercussions. The emergence of European Political Parties will eventually be related to this. It might be cause or consequence, but it will definitely contribute for a different European environment

The Impact of the European Parliament in the Portuguese MEPs

Res-Publica : Revista Lusófona de Ciência Política e Relações InternacionaisOs estudiosos da União Europeia argumentam que o processo de integração é incentivado pelas elites que, nas diferentes instituições europeias, vão orientando a sua lealdade em direcção a Bruxelas. Contudo, não existem muitos estudos que corroborem este argumento. Neste artigo, proponho-me contribuir para o debate teórico. Analisando o comportamento dos deputados Portugueses quando votam nas sessões parlamentares do Parlamento Europeu, em Estrasburgo, vou mostrar como eles têm vindo a mudar o seu posicionamento político ao longo dos tempos. Enquanto em 1986, votavam maioritariamente com a direita quando discordavam do seu grupo parlamentar, em 1994/95 já existe um equilíbrio entre direita e esquerda.Many theorists have suggested that the European Union will be an elite led process with gradual change of loyalties at the institutional level. However, there are not many empirical evidences proving the argument. In this essay, I propose to contribute for the theoretical debate. Following the analysis of the voting dissent behaviour of the Portuguese Members of the European Parliament, I shall argue that they have been changing attitudes since they first joined the European Parliament. Whereas in 1986, they voted with the right when they disagreed with their Euro-groups, in 1994/95 a balance between right and left had already been achieved

Cyclic graphs

AbstractA subclass of the class of circulant graphs is considered. It is shown that in this subclass, isomorphism is equivalent to Ádám-isomorphism. Various results are obtained for the chromatic number, line-transitivity and the diameter

The Right to Justice: Providing Legal Aid Services in Zimbabwe. A qualitative analysis of the legal frameworks that treat the provision of legal aid services & the realities of their implementation

This aim of this research was to investigate possible reasons for the large gap between legal frameworks and policies in comparison to the practical implementation of Legal Aid Services in Zimbabwe. The responsibility of the state to provide legal aid, protection and civil legal aid necessary to ensure this provision for those who cannot afford such is affirmed by international legal instruments, which confirm the state’s obligation to ensure this. Our study focused on women as they belong to the great majority of those who seek legal aid. Furthermore, they are disproportionately exposed to poverty as well as Human Rights Violation and Violence in Zimbabwe. Through our textual analysis on the implementation of these policies, it is clear that this is a matter of financial resources, capacity, priority as well as poorly defined policies. The government has failed to provide legal aid and has transferred its responsibility. Instead, private organisations have taken over the ‘burden’ of providing legal aid. However, this is not without challenges. Without a holistic understanding of the society, culture and norms, this issue will remain poorly prioritised, underfunded, and neglected whereby the victims will remain without justice. As one of our respondents stated that, “We need to tackle causes and not the symptoms, this is an endless work and a tragedy for those we cannot help.

Movimentos autárquicos não-partidários: os casos de Portalegre e do Redondo

ResPublica : Revista Lusófona de Ciência Política, Segurança e Relações InternacionaisO presente trabalho procura enquadrar o fenómeno dos grupos de cidadãos, en-quanto movimentos sociais da actualidade no campo da representação sociopo-lítica. Após esse enquadramento este paper apresenta dois desses movimentos que foram bem-sucedidos em anteriores actos eleitorais: o movimento MICRE, do município do Redondo, e o movimento CLIP, no município de Portalegre. Analisamos a sua origem, a sua estruturação e o seu modus operandi. A análise do contexto em que ambos emergem (ambos com ligações anteriores a partidos políticos) justificam a nossa opção pelo tratamento destes grupos de cidadãos como movimentos autárquicos não-partidários.This paper establishes the citizen group as a phenomenon as a field of social-political representation within the framework of present-day social movements. Then, it examines two successful movements in previous elections: The MICRE, movement in Redondo municipality, and the CLI,P movement in Portalegre municipality. Their origins, organization and modus operadi are analysed. The fact that both emerge from former connections to political parties accounts for our analysis of those movements as non-partisan municipal citizen groups

Linking saturation, stability and sustainability in food webs with observed equilibrium structure

Stability of a dynamic equilibrium in a predator-prey system depends both on the type of functional response and on the point of equilibrium on the response curve. Saturation effects from Holling type II responses are known to destabilise prey populations, while a type III (sigmoid) response curve has been shown to provide stability at lower levels of saturation. These effects have also been shown in multi-trophic model systems. However, stability analyses of observed equilibria in real complex ecosystems have as yet not assumed non-linear functional responses. Here, we evaluate the implications of saturation in observed balanced material-flow structures, for system stability and sustainability. We first make the effects of the non-linear functional responses on the interaction strengths in a food web transparent by expressing the elements of Jacobian ‘community’ matrices for type II and III systems as simple functions of their linear (type I) counterparts. We then determine the stability of the systems and distinguish two critical saturation levels: (1) a level where the system is just as stable as a type I system and (2) a level above which the system cannot be stable unless it is subsidised, separating a stable materially sustainable regime from an unsustainable one. We explain the stabilising and destabilising effects in terms of the feedbacks in the systems. The results shed light on the robustness of observed patterns of interaction strengths in complex food webs and suggest the implausibility of saturation playing a significant role in the equilibrium dynamics of sustainable ecosystems