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Abolishing All Mechanisms for Fixing Elections: The Citizens Initiative of Change the Electoral System of Croatia

Author(s): Robert Podolnjak / Language(s): English / Issue: 04+05/2015

In October 2014 a citizens’ initiative called ‘In the Name of the Family’ collected more than 380,000 signatures demanding a constitutional referendum on comprehensive electoral reform in Croatia. The Initiative aimed to introduce preferential voting for MPs; new criteria for the establishment of electoral constituencies; a lower electoral threshold from five to three per cent; abandon pre-electoral coalitions and joint lists of several parties; and postal and electronic voting. The constitutional referendum demanded by the initiative was not held due to the organizers collecting an insufficient number of signatures for the referendum petition to be valid, and only a limited reform of the electoral system was enacted with the introduction of preferential voting for MPs. What had started as a bottom-up citizens’ initiative (or ‘mass imposition’in Renwick’s terminology) finally ended as an ‘elite majority imposition’of an electoral reform.

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Absolutorium a odpowiedzialność konstytucyjna. Komplementarność czy rozdzielność?

Author(s): Monika Kowalska / Language(s): Polish / Issue: 26/2018

The answer for the question: is the vote of approval as the legal way of the count up the government as the budget executioner is enough to not be constitutional responsible by its particular members? The research problem and methods: The conclusions was made on the basis of science, the analysis of law and the parliamentary practice. The analysis was made using the system method, purposive method and the historical – law method. The process of argumentation: The Author tried to make the connections between the vote of approval with the constitutional law enforcement of every single member of the government on the State Tribunal. Before that, She described the idea of the vote of approval, its procedure, law changes from 1990s and its effects. Research results: The weakness of those institution is connected with the political procedure of the control of the budget or the lack of the connection between the law maker and the fact of refusal of the vote of approval the direct law effects. That is why, the Polish system is complementary not severability in the case of the vote of approval institution and the constitutional responsibility. Conclusions, innovations, and recommendations: Despite of the lack of the solutions according to the law dependences between the vote of approval and the constitutional responsibility, we can safely assume, that those vote of approval should not close the door to law enforcement of the constitutional responsibility by the members of the government, who realize the budget of the state.

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Accuracy Data of the Presidential Voting Outcomes to an Inferential Bias of the New Romanian Electoral Code and Electronic Vote (2014)

Author(s): Mihaela Bărbieru / Language(s): English / Issue: 45/2015

The purpose of this study is to analyze the presidential elections in Romania, in November 2014, elections which have highlighted a number of problems of the Romanian society. For solving these problems there is an urgent need for the participation of all decision makers, local politicians and Romanian civil society. Election Code or electronic voting are just two of the debates, in the opinion of the author and specialists in the field, requiring special attention from both decision makers and the public. Perhaps the most important conclusion that emerges from our analysis is that no matter how secure victory seems for a party or a political organization, the electorate is the one who has the last word and can make a safe situation to become unsafe. Thus, although it was a difficult year for the local political class, 2014 gave Romania the first liberal president in its history of 140 years, in a complicated and agitated political context, practically exhausted by the struggle between a president-player and a dominant social-democrat party.

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Adalet ve Kalkınma Partisi: Kürt Sorununun Yeniden Tanımlanması ve Türkiye’nin Değişen Ortadoğu Politikası (2002-2011)

Author(s): Gül Arıkan Akdağ / Language(s): Turkish / Issue: 1/2017

The transformation of Turkish Foreign Policy under AKP rule and its possible causes are frequently debated issues in the literature. The general literature has tried to define the parameters of this change through different levels of analysis. This study evaluates foreign policy outputs as an extension of domestic politics and has the purpose to investigate how the definition of the Kurdish problem and the means formulated to solve it, affect the AKP’s Middle Eastern Policy. First, it defines the main differences of the AKP and the previous actors in the way they have analyzed the problem and formulated the means to solve it. Then, the transformation from a security to liberal foreign policy perception under the AKP rule is tracked by not only focusing on the change of the actors where relations have been developed but also on the change of the content of these relations. The study will mainly focus on the changing relations developed with countries such as Iraq, Syria, Iran and Israel that are strongly related with the Kurdish issue.

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AfD – the alternative for whom?

Author(s): Artur Ciechanowicz / Language(s): English / Publication Year: 2017

When in 2013 a group of professors of economics founded Alternative for Germany (Alternative für Deutschland – AfD) it seemed that the name of the new grouping was exaggerated. Taking into account its slogans and its leaders, the AfD could at that time be an alternative for disenchanted voters of the CDU/CSU and the FDP alone. The party’s ‘founding fathers’, among whom there was a large group of former CDU members, did not conceal the fact that their ambitions were not particularly far-reaching. Their basic goal was to influence the CDU so that it would return to its former conservative values.

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Affective Source Cues: Negativity and Policy Attitudes

Author(s): Lenka Hrbková / Language(s): English / Issue: 2/2017

The article explores source cue effects on policy attitudes in the context of the multiparty system of the Czech Republic. This context requires a more complex experimental design compared to the common source cue research of a two-party setup in the US research tradition. The cues in this research are conceptualized as either positive or negative feelings towards political actors, which is a more general and applicable concept compared to party identification, and enables us to measure the effects of negative attachments towards both political parties and party leaders. Negativity is a well-known psychological factor influencing a wide range of processes, from impression formation to memory retrieval, and thus it is also highly desirable to test its role in the formation of political attitudes. A simple laboratory experiment reveals that negative feelings influence policy attitudes more than positive feelings. Despite the widely-discussed role of individual politicians in citizens’ perception of politics, leaders do not work as stronger affective cues compared to parties. However, when the experimental design includes subjects’ prior attitudes towards an issue, the effects of affective cues diminish. Affective source cues matter mostly in case of novel issues without strong priors. The conclusions have implications for source cue experimental research because the effects are a matter of design.

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Afirmativna akcija – kvote za pripadnike manje zastupljenog pola u izbornom pravu Srbije

Author(s): Miroslav Đorđević / Language(s): Serbian / Issue: 34/2018

Serbian Law on the election of MPs was amended in 2011 with the introduction of gender quotas that serve to ensure that at least one third of MPs are women. However, the necessity of such affirmative measures can be disputed. The number of female MPs, as well as women holding other positions of power, has been rapidly growing over the past couple of decades without any special treatment and that tendency seems to persist. The present percentage of women in parliament reached 36, 8%, which is fairly high compared to the most other countries. It is also higher than the quota requirements. Also, statistics show that there is no gender discrimination concerning access to high education and that women surpass men when highly qualified occupations are in question. However, there are still aspects of the right to work in which discrimination is possibly taking place and that is something what should be the focus of future fight for gender equality. Electoral gender quota system is not only practically redundant, but its constitutionality is also in question. The author analyses the gender quota system from the theoretical perspective, confronting it with the idea of the parliament as the representative of the political will of the people. Although Serbian Constitution allows measures of affirmative action to be introduced, it also sets the requirements for such action. In this paper the fulfillment of those requirements is analyzed, leading to conclusion that the constitutionality and the reason itself of such quota system in today’s Serbia is doubtful. The goals of removing gender discrimination in this area are met not due to affirmative measures, but the will and success of women themselves. Author also briefly shows the historical development of today’s gender relations, concerning voting rights, gives comparative context and tries to point out the directions where the fight against gender discrimination should be taken next.

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Agencija za borbu protiv korupcije: položaj, problemi i prepreke u procesu kontrole finansiranja političkih stranaka tokom izborne kampanje

Author(s): Milenko Elez / Language(s): Serbian / Issue: 20/2018

This text, in a wider methodological sense, aims to show how control of financing of political entities during the election campaigns is carried out, but also, on the other hand, to point out to all obstacles, problems and the legal position of the anti-Corruption agency, as the supervisor that performs this kind of control.The text is divided into two parts. in the first part of the text, we focus our attention on all current problems that directly and indirectly complicate the full control of the financing of political entities, such as the political influence and the way of election of members of the administrator which performs control, but also the legal framework within which the control process is carried out. in this part of the text, the author also presents important recommendations on how to make the control more efficient and how the institutional capacity of the anti-Corruption agency can be increased.The second part of the article deals with the analysis of concrete examples in practice, irregularities that can be perceived on the basis of these examples, which relate to the financing of political entities. The basic measuring instrument and indicator through which we determine the adequacy of control and any irregularities that can be observed is an analysis of the reports submitted by the political entities to the anti-Corruption agency.

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Agenda intermedialna a agenda „rzeczywista”. Nieadekwatność hierarchii newsów w mediach informacyjnych do wskaźników świata rzeczywistego podczas samorządowej kampanii wyborczej w 2014 roku

Author(s): Ewa Nowak-Teter / Language(s): Polish / Issue: 1/2017

Intermedia agenda-setting is a stream of research within the agenda-setting studies which is quite new and relatively hard to find. This phenomenon is described as the transfer of salience of issues between two different media agendas (e.g. between press and TV news media agendas). The goal of the study is, firstly, to examine the press and the TV news media agendas (when the local election campaign is taking place), and their consistency, based on the agenda-setting theory and methodology. Secondly, the aim of the study is to confront the hierarchy of news in the intermedia agenda and the hierarchy of real world factors (which create the ‘real’ agenda, especially statistical data concerning the current public and economic importance of issues reported in the news media). The comparative analysis applied in the study is designed to determine the (in)adequacy of the salience of news (media issues), when compared to the importance of real world factors (reflecting the same problems as media issues). Consequently, the result of the research is an attempt to answer the question about the degree to which real world factors are reflected in the news media in Poland.

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AK PARTİ DÖNEMİ SÜNNİ VE ALEVİ ZAZALARIN SEÇMEN DAVRANIŞLARI

Author(s): Murat Kaçer,Yılmaz BİNGÖL / Language(s): Turkish / Issue: 15/2018

This study aims to examine the political behavior of Zazas living in Turkey in the frame of their sectarian differences during the AK Party era. The voting behavior of Sunni and Alevi Zazas in general and local elections (municipal presidency, provincial council membership, municipal council membership), referendums and presidential election results between 2002 and 2017 were examined during this period. Considering the purpose and scope of the work, Tunceli was chosen as the representative of Turkey's Alevi Zazas and Bingol as Turkey's Sunni Zazas. This study is concluded as follows: In all general and local elections, Sunni Zazas voted for the AK Party; Alevi Zazas voted for the leftist parties and ethnic Kurdish parties. In the referendums,  while Sunnis Zazas voted "yes" in favor of the AK Party and therefore the government; Alevi Zazas voted "no". In the presidential elections, Sunni Zazas voted for Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, who is also a candidate for the AK Party and also its former chairman, while Alevi Zazas voted for Selahattin Demirtas, the candidate of the ethnic Kurdish movement, for the most part.

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Ak Partinin Yerel Düzeyde Siyaseti: Ayrimcilik Algisinin Etnik Mobilizasyona Etkisi

Author(s): Gül Arıkan Akdağ / Language(s): Turkish / Issue: 2/2012

This paper will be an attempt to explain changes in ethnic votes by focusing at local political activities of political parties and relating them to theories of ethnic solidarity. It will try to demonstrate how perceived discrimination and intergroup polarization affect the ability of the AKP to form permanent channels of communication among citizens of Kurdish origin, making their incorporation in the political network of the party more difficult. Within this respect, the study will mainly analyze whether AKP’s local organization characteristics and activities changes across districts that are different in terms of the discrimination the Kurdish citizens faces. To test the hypothesis, field research has been effectuated in major neighborhoods of Beyoğlu and Sancaktepe which diverges in terms of perceived discrimination indicators among residents of Kurdish origin.

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Ako komunikuje pravica: komunikačné aktivity vybraných (krajne) pravicových politických strán v Českej republike a na Slovensku pred parlamentnými voľbami v rokoch 2016 a 2017

Author(s): Ondřej Filipec,Michal Garaj,Jaroslav Mihálik / Language(s): Slovak / Issue: 3/2018

Modern political parties more often use online communication and web-based tools of political marketing. Such activities are most visible in case of target marketing campaigns on web sites and social networks.This paper explored the communication tools and activities of selected right-wing political parties in the Czech Republic and Slovakia in the digital space. The aim was to compare two Czech (Labor Party of Social Justice - DSSS and Direct Democracy Party - SPD) and two Slovak parties (People´s Party - Our Slovakia - LSNS and Slovak National Party - SNS). The choice of right-wing subjects has been put in place to guarantee the political diversity and variability within the right-wing parties, especially with regard to their democratic or antisystem orientation. The authors focused on the content analysis of program documents, web sites and communication through the Facebook social network, with data collection tracking two months before the parliamentary elections in 2016 in Slovakia and in 2017 in the Czech Republic. The results show that radical right wing political parties dominate the online communication compared to the traditional political campaigning.

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Ako skúmať voľby v priestore mesta: prípad snemovných volieb 2017 v Prahe

Author(s): Daniel Kerekes / Language(s): Slovak / Issue: 2/2018

The study uses the 2017 parliamentary elections results to analyses spatial patterns of votes in the city of Prague. A unique approach combining contextual and compositional data is introduced. Census data and data indicating the quality of life are reassigned to a shared entity – an address point, and analysed via automatic linear modelling. The model explained 69 % of spatial variance of votes share for the conservative TOP 09 party and the winning ANO 2011 movement, but only 19 % for the Pirate Party and the Mayors and Independence movement. Future research might focus on finding variables which would explain spatial variance of these parties’ vote shares. Abother possibility is the development of a methodology for studying votes spatiality within urban areas, in order to develop a robust theory.

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Ako volili národnosti a konfesie v parlamentných voľbách roku 1929 na Slovensku. Možnosti nových metód ekologickej inferencie

Author(s): Miloslav Bahna,Vladimír Krivý / Language(s): Slovak / Issue: 1/2016

Our study provides a comprehensive answer to the question of how the main nationalities and denominations in Slovakia voted in the third parliamentary elections in the Czechoslovak Republic. Using municipality level aggregate data, we apply two modern methods of ecological inference to provide an answer. Their reliability is tested using known nationality and denomination distributions from the 1930 Census that followed 13 months after the elections. Our results are based on the method proposed by Greiner and Quinn and evaluated in a confrontation with previous works on the electoral support for parties in the Czechoslovak Republic as well as analyses of politically, nationally and religiously homogeneous environments where ecological fallacy can be avoided. Our findings support the assertions about the importance of national and religious division lines in party support in late 1920s Slovakia.

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AKTIVNOST HRVATSKIH STRANAKA U BOSNI I HERCEGOVINI U IZBORIMA 1923. GODINE

Author(s): Tomislav Išek / Language(s): Bosnian / Issue: 3/1967

The article treats the relations of the Croats in Bosnia and Herzegovina towards the Croat Peasant Party (HTS) and the Croat People's Party (HPS), the activity of the mentioned Parties’ Leaders, and the role of the Croatian Republican Peasant Party (HRSS) in the March elections of 1923. The Croats in Bosnia and Herzegovina, without regard to the continuous party-ascent of the HRSS, were in the state of seething. The Croat Peasant Party, inside the Croat Bloc (HB), by adopting the attitude of the HRSS, inofficially became its branch. It was the reason why the majority of the Croats in Bosnia and Herzegovina took side to the Croat Peasant Party, in fact to the Croat Republican Peasant Party. While the HTS was trying to realize its plans dwelling upon the Bosno-Herzegovinian basis, the HRSS aspired after the affirmation on a broader ground, general-Croatian, and the HPS directed itself to its aim based mainly on the Croatian basis, but exclusively on its own. In the year 1923 which represented a new epoch in the Croatian problem, ail of them pointed out Croatian national feeling in the first place. The Croat Peasant Party and the Croat People's Party could not come to mutual understanding. The HPS distanced itself from the HTS and the HRSS, while the leadership of the HTS dissented.

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Aktuelni prijedlog izmjena Izbornog zakona Bosne i Hercegovine

Author(s): FCJP Fondacija Centar za javno pravo / Language(s): Bosnian,Croatian,Serbian / Issue: 12/2013

Da li je potreban uvod o temi kakav je izborni zakon? Odgovor se sam nameće jer je važnost izbornog zakona, odnosno, izbornog sistema nemoguće zaobići, ne samo u Bosni i Hercegovini nego ni u jednoj drugoj državi.

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Aktuelni prijedlog izmjena Izbornog zakona Bosne i Hercegovine

Author(s): Author Not Specified / Language(s): Bosnian / Publication Year: 2013

Prije donošenja konačnog suda o predloženim izmjenama, ne smije se previdjeti na nekoliko dodatnih činjenica koje dovode u pitanje održavanje ili legitimitet izbora 2014. Dakle, relevantna je na prvom mjestu gore navedena Odluka Ustavnog suda Bosne i Hercegovine koja nedvosmisleno dovodi u pitanje održavanje izbora. Zatim je nezaobilazna Odluka Evropskog suda za ljudska prava (Sejdić/Finci), koji je 22. decembra 2009. presudio da određene odredbe Ustava Bosne i Hercegovine i Izbornog zakona Bosne i Hercegovine krše Evropsku konvenciju o ljudskim pravima. Krši se član 14 (zabrana diskriminacije), član 3 Protokola 1 (pravo na slobodne izbore), te član 1 Protokola 12 (opšta zabrana diskriminacije). Komesar Evropske unije za proširenje Štefan Füle je izjavio tokom posjete Sarajevu, 11. aprila 2013. da Evropska unija i Vijeće Evrope neće priznati izbore 2014. ako se ne izvrši navedena presuda Evropskog suda za ljudska prava. Konačno, situacija u Gradu Mostaru je na isti način bitna. Ustavni Sud Bosne i Hercegovine je ukinuo nekoliko članova Izbornoga zakona Bosne i Hercegovine i Statuta grada Mostara o održavanju izbora u gradu, jer Parlamentarna skupština Bosne i Hercegovine nije u zakonski postavljenom roku izmijenila neustavne odredbe zakona vezano za način biranja vijećnika u Gradu Mostaru. Sjetimo se i situacije sa lokalnim izborima u Srebrenici prošle godine. Kao što se vidi, mnogobrojni su problemi sa Izbornim zakonom Bosne i Hercegovine. Predlagači, ali mora se priznati, i ostale parlamentarne stranke, umjesto da se bave ključnim pitanjima za izbore u Bosni i Hercegovini, izvršenjem gore navedenih odluka poboljšanjem Izbornog zakona, tehnike izbora, itd. očito pokušavaju staviti izborni proces pod potpunu kontrolu političkih stranaka, mada je i trenutna situacija takva da političke stranke manje-više vode ovaj proces. Poslije Ustava, kao najvažnijeg pravno-političkog akta, Izborni zakon je svakako najvažniji zakon kada je u pitanju društvo u cijelini. Zato izmjene Izbornog zakona zahtjevaju intenzivne konsultacije sa svim učesnicima u procesu. Mnogo je pitanja koja su aktuelna, sem gore navedenih sudskih odluka: treba razgovarati o preporukama koje je Centralna izborna komisija dala o ozborima 2010, izbornim jedinicama, listama, izgledu glasačkih listića, registraciji birača, kampanjama i njihovom finansiranju, promatranju izbora, žalbama i tužbama, međunarodnim standardima, procedurama brojanja glasova i utvrđivanja rezultata, ulozi stranaka i nevladinih organizacija itd. Sve su to pitanja koja zaslužuju pažnju. Bilo bi dobro osigurati i učešće stručnjaka iz Venecijanske komisije i ODIHR-a na takvim raspravama; i što je najbitnije u razgovorima se ne smije zaobilaziti Parlament Bosne i Hercegovine. Jer postoji tendencija da se Parlament Bosne i Hercegovine marginalizira u ovom procesu. U proteklim godinama, proces donošenja odluka se odvijao, umjesto na parlamentarnim debatama i javnim raspravama, iza zatvorenih vrata, bez onih koji su uključeni u upravljanje izborima, stručnjaka ili javnosti. Ovo podriva autoritet Parlamenta Bosne i Hercegovine i kompromituje kvalitet i transparentnost zakonodavnog procesa. Posebno je bitno održati javne rasprave o mogućim izmjenama, uz široke konsultacije javnosti. Tako se i o ovom prijedlogu treba voditi široka rasprava. U popratnom pismu, čitavog seta zakonskih izmjena, sem Izbornog zakona, predlagači navode i da predložene izmjene doprinose jačanju institucionalne efikasnosti. Međutim, ne može se zaključiti da predložene izmjene vode jačanju institucionalne efikasnosti. Ove izmjene isključivo pogoduju političkim strankama i jačanju nihovog uticaja na izborni proces. U svakom slučaju, ako predlagači ostanu kod svojih prijedloga, bilo bi poželjno da se o ovim, kao i o eventualnim drugim prijedlozima izmjena Izbornog zakona održe široke rasprave, jer je to jedini ispravan način da se regulira ovako važna oblast.

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Albanian Assembly (Parliament) between Tradition and Development. A Historical-Legal Approach

Author(s): Engjell Likmeta / Language(s): English / Issue: 2/2017

In the context of the testimony of ancient legislature traditions, particular attention should be paid to the legislative branch and the development of parliamentarism as an invaluable asset of the Albanian people. This paper’s goal is to consider the law-making institutions from the historical-juridical perspective as a special form of social and political organization. These institutes are shaped in a manner that is conducive to the development and consolidation of the Albanian state. From time to time they have remained solid in relation to the international jurisprudence, thus enabling the development of an original parliamentary tradition whose roots are deeply rooted in Albanian customary law.In this paper, the stages through which the Albanian parliamentarism has passed constitute an important part. The Albanian historiography considers the Vlora Assembly of 1912 as the embryonic stage of the contemporary Albanian parliamentary system. The author believes that the Congress of Lushnja, the legislative power in the Albanian Kingdom’s Constitution and the contemporary period of political pluralism are of the same importance.In particular, this paper writing will duly consider with the deserved attention the modern Albanian electoral legislation and its specifics.

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Alegerea Adunării Constituante din 1914. Poziționări privind reforma electorală și reforma agrară

Author(s): Vladimir-Adrian Costea / Language(s): Romanian / Issue: 196/2018

In this article we explain the main stakes of the electoral campaign held on the elections of 18, 20, 22 May 1914 [Chamber of Deputies] and 24, 26, 28 May 1914 [Senate], identifying the main themes present during the electoral debate. The electoral campaign in May 1914 generated significant consequences for the adoption of the two reforms, after the Legislative Assembly elected in February 1914 was dissolved after the draft Constitutional Review was finalized. The electoral campaign of May 1914 for the election of the Constituent Assembly was marked by the cleavage regarding the adoption or rejection of the agrarian reform and the electoral reform.

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Alegerea Parlamentului Frontului Renaşterii Naţionale în Iunie 1939

Author(s): Mihaela Buzatu (Hriban) / Language(s): Romanian / Issue: 30+31/2011

The difficult time that the entire Europe was going through in the spring of 1939, situation that predicted the beginning of a new world war, determined King Carol II to take the necessary steps for the election of a new parliament. To secure election victory the sovereign asked the government to issue a new electoral law and, for the same reason, the elections were held under strict surveillance. Although the only ones aloud to run for parliament were members of the F.R.N., the election of the new Parliament of the National Renaissance Front was seen by the King Carol II as a big success for the royal party.

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