Haiti is governed by a small economic elite and the majority of its poor and marginalized population has no access to power. This report analyses the historical roots of the deep socio-economic and political cleavage in Haiti and the consequences of repeated cycles of foreign interference, economic liberalization policies, increased food insecurity and natural disasters. The report reveals that the elections in 2010/2011 and 2015/2016 only served to exacerbate this cleavage. The elections in 2016 had a record low participation of 17.3%. Many of Haiti's poor abstained from voting due to lack of confidence in the elections, as well as due to extremely difficult socio-economic conditions post-earthquake in 2010/2011, and post-Hurricane Matthew in 2016. Since the earthquake in 2010, there has been a heavy presence of international actors in Haiti. Whereas several of these actors put pressure on Haiti to hold elections relatively short time after the disaster, most of the foreign actors, and particularly the United States and the EU, showed little concern about fraud and low voter turnout. The elections brought President Michel Martelly to power in 2011 and President Jovenel Moïse to power in 2016, both of them representing the economic elite in Haiti. They invested in agribusiness and special economic zones benefiting the economic elite, but further marginalizing small-scale farmers. These two presidents also succeeded in reestablishing the Haitian Army, an institution with extremely bad reputation in Haiti, due to its past severe human rights violations. ; Haiti: A Political Economy Analysis ; publishedVersion
The phenomenon of pragmatic decisions is widely used by current political leaders to prove their foreign policy actions as the right ones, as illustrated by the discourses of German and Russian officials. But still the 'pragmatic' explanation does not result in the same decisions in these two states. This contradiction suggests that pragmatism is nothing but a rhetorical tool, which might be used differently. This thesis focuses on the rhetorical tools by means of which leaders of Russia and Germany pragmatize their foreign policy choices. Also the thesis is aimed to figure out the differences in the ways of pragmatization applied by Russian and German actors. The Aristotelian doctrine of practical syllogism, which is considered here as mechanism of pragmatization, discloses these rhetoric tools that are called 'pragmatizing markers'. The rhetorical analysis revealed five groups of these markers: profit, right and thought, institutionalism, humanism, and ideal speech situation (ISS). Moreover, it showed that the conditions under which the decision is made (cooperation; different point of view; conflict) may affect the choice of pragmatizing markers. Comparative analysis showed that Russian and German actors have some common spaces as well as difference in applying the pragmatizing markers. Both use all five groups of the markers to some stance. The cases of conflict and different points of view urge the actors to resort to the model of ISS, while the case of cooperation is the most favorable for the marker of profit. In the conditions of conflict, the use of pragmatizing marker of right and thought significantly increases in both countries. As for the differences, Russian political leaders make their rhetoric more variable in cases of cooperation and different point of views and German ones does it in case of conflict. In addition, Russian actors tend to pragmatize with the help of institutional value, while German representatives prefer the value of humanism, which can be traced through the cases of conflict and differing points of view.
The gender gap in voting for far-right parties is significant in many European countries. While most studies focus on how men and women differ in their nationalist and populist attitudes, it is unknown how the socio-economic and political promotion of women is associated with the gender gap in far-right political orientation. The following paper compares the effect of four different spheres of gender equality on this gender gap. By estimating multilevel logit models for more than 25 European countries and testing the mechanism via a socially conservative attitude toward gendered division of work, I find that the visible field of representation in particular - measured by the share of women in parliament and women on boards - is associated with a gender gap in far-right orientation. This paper contributes to the literature in two important ways: first, it combines policy feedback with cultural backlash theory, enlarging the scope of both theories; second, it demonstrates the importance of gender equality policies for the study of the far-right gender gap.
After the horrors of the Second World War, European countries established a new political and legal framework with the aim of protecting individuals against the excesses of the State and preventing such horrors from happening again. This new order was launched by the Council of Europe, founded in 1949 with the aim of promoting human rights and democracy throughout Europe. The Council's first task was to draft the European Convention on Human Rights, adopted on 4 November 1950, inspired by the 1948 Universal Declaration of Human Rights. This undertaking aimed at reinforcing human rights by making them binding in order to avoid the violation of the fundamental rights and freedoms by the States. But a shift occurred in the early 1970s with the legalisation of abortion which was the starting point of an evolution of the conception of the first of the human rights – the right to life –, and of the human person. One by one, this process led to the creation of new rights. The analysis of this evolution through the example of France, "the Country of Human Rights", allows to highlight the mechanisms which, in this country, led to the redefinition of rights and fundamental freedoms under the aegis of the European Court of Human Rights, the reference in the matter in Europe.
The article is devoted to outlining the socio-political conditionality of the Czech political parties and party system structuring in the period after the «Velvet Revolution» till today. The author singled out key socio-political dichotomies that are inherent or have been previously inherent for the Czech society, including the dichotomy of «communism – anti-communism» («old» regime – «new» regime), «Czechoslovakia – the Czech Republic», «city – village», «church – state», «center – periphery», «titular nation – minority», «left – right». The researcher proved that the key dichotomy of the Czech party politics is materialist one, which revolves around the socio-political cleavage «left – right». Instead, post-materialistic nature of socio-political cleavages in the Czech Republic is refuted. Keywords: party, party system, socio-political cleavage, dichotomy, «left», «right», the Czech Republic. ; Окреслено соціо-політичну зумовленість політичної структуризації партій і партійної системи Чехії в період після «Оксамитової революції» і до сьогодні. Виокремлено ключові соціо-політичні дихотомії, які властиві чи раніше були властиві для чеського суспільства, зокрема дихотомії «комунізм – антикомунізм» («старий» режим – «новий» режим), «Чехословаччина – Чехія», «місто – село», «церква – держава», «центр – периферія», «титульна нація – меншина», «ліві – праві». Обґрунтовано, що ключовою дихотомією чеської партійної політики є матеріалістична, яка обертається довкола соціо-політичного поділу «ліві – праві». Натомість, спростовано впливовість постматеріалістичних соціо-політичних поділів у Чехії. Ключові слова: партія, партійна система, соціо-політичний поділ, дихотомія, «ліві», «праві», Чехія.
This thesis sheds light on the relationship between subjective wellbeing and political behaviour and attitudes in contemporary European democracies. The profound societal changes of the last half a decade and the unanswered questions about why some citizens engage more politically while others do not, and how persons develop into politically efficacious citizens, as well as why a part of the electorate is attracted to right-wing populist parties and ideas, have paved the way for considering citizen's subjective wellbeing as a powerful, yet so far overlooked, predictor of political attitudes and behaviour. Through four empirical studies, this research links several dimensions of subjective wellbeing, including its evaluative, emotional, eudemonic and social components, to a sense of political efficacy (Study 1), to political participation (Studies 2 and 3) and to a right-wing populist vote choice (Study 4). The empirical studies reveal how subjective wellbeing is a significant driver of citizen's political orientations, their participation patterns, as well as their electoral choices, thereby being highly relevant at all stages of the development of the political citizen. The implications of this relationship are profound, both from a scholarly and a policy-making perspective, in order to better understand persisting political inequality in contemporary democracies, to identify the origins of democratic support or instability, as well as to shed light on the development of illiberal political ideas and threats to liberal democracy. In this way, subjective wellbeing emerges as a crucial research agenda for the future of political science. Cette recherche porte sur le rôle du bien-être subjectif en tant que déterminant du comportement et des attitudes politiques dans l'Europe contemporaine. Les changements profonds de la société durant les dernières décennies et les questions qui demeurent dans les études du comportement politique ouvrent la voie à considérer le bien-être comme un facteur important, pourtant ...
EU Social and Labour Rights have developed incrementally, originally through a set of legislative initiatives creating selective employment rights, followed by a non-binding Charter of Social Rights. Only in 2009, social and labour rights became legally binding through the Charter of Fundamental Rights for the European Union (CFREU). By contrast, the EU Internal Market - an area without frontiers where goods, persons, services and capital can circulate freely – has been enshrined in legally enforceable Treaty provisions from 1958. These comprise the economic freedoms guaranteeing said free circulation and a system ensuring that competition is not distorted within the Internal Market (Protocol 27 to the Treaty of Lisbon). Tensions between Internal Market law and social and labour rights have been observed in analyses of EU case law and legislation. This report, provided by Policy Department A to the Committee on Employment and Social Affairs, explores responses by socio-economic and political actors at national and EU levels to such tensions. On the basis of the current Treaties and the CFREU, the constitutionally conditioned Internal Market emerges as a way to overcome the perception that social and labour rights limit Internal Market law. On this basis, alternative responses to perceived tensions are proposed, focused on posting of workers, furthering fair employment conditions through public procurement and enabling effective collective bargaining and industrial action in the Internal Market.
Analysis is made of the transformation of white southerners from opponents to supporters of federal protection of minority voters rights. Three hypotheses are suggested to correspond with different periods in the development of the Voting Rights Act of 1975: (1) During the years 1957 to 1960, members of the white majority united together against the legislation (the 'Solid South'); (2) later, between 1965 & 1970, when the numbers of black voters grew, white majority members' voting varied depending on the proximity of large numbers of blacks (the 'Black Belt'); (3) in 1975, voting by white southern congresspersons varied according to the net effect of positive & negative inducements (the 'Keech Curvilinear Hypothesis'). Data to test the hypotheses were gathered from roll-call votes in the House of Representatives, to test voting behavior, & from the United States Census, to determine the proportion of blacks & black voters in each district, during the five sessions in which voting-rights legislation came before Congress: 1957, 1960, 1965, 1970, & 1975. During the two earliest sessions, southerners were overwhelmingly against the legislation, with only 13.3% voting in favor of the law in 1957 & only 8.7% in favor in 1960. This is consistent with the extremely low degree of political involvement by blacks during that time. The following two sessions in 1960 & 1965 showed a slight increase in the number of favorable votes for the legislation (31.4% & 28.3%). This corresponds with an increase in black voter registration, which increased from 28% in 1960 to 38% in 1965, to 54% in 1970. Finally in 1975, 62.5% of the white legislators from the south voted in favor of federal guarantees of minority voting rights. Consistent with W. R. Keech's theory (The Impact of Negro Voting, Chicago: Rand McNally, 1968), favorable votes for the legislation increased, 'from the districts with fewest blacks to a peak of 88.9% in the districts between 20% & 29% black, & then declined as blacks became relatively more numerous....' The major change in the voting pattern in 1975 was influenced by the political activism of southern blacks as well as the recognition by southern politicians of the need for being accountable to both races in order to win elections. 1 Table, 3 Figures. Modified HA.
The records of NARAL Pro-Choice Georgia (originally known as the Georgia Abortion Rights Action League), 1964, 1980-2006, document the direction and administration of the organization, its involvement in the political process in the state, the projects and programs it undertook to further its mission, and materials it gathered regarding reproductive health and rights, activism in Georgia, and political issues. The records include correspondence, printed material, minutes, legal documents, photographs, artifacts, and audiovisual recordings. The NARAL Pro-Choice Georgia records are organized in 15 series, each of which is described individually. ; NARAL Pro-Choice Georgia described itself as ""the political arm of the pro-choice movement."" The non-profit organization engaged state and national politics in order ""to guarantee every woman the right to make personal decisions regarding the full range of reproductive choices, including preventing unintended pregnancy, bearing healthy children, and choosing legal abortion."" Incorporated in 1980 as the Georgia Abortion Rights Action League (GARAL), it was the Georgia affiliate of the National Abortion Rights Action League (NARAL), which had been established in 1969 as The National Association for the Repeal of Abortion Laws. For much of GARAL's existence, the president of NARAL was Kate Michelman, who served 1985-2004. NARAL's state affiliates build local grassroots organizations, develop and support pro-choice policy and leadership in the states, and insure that pro-choice strategies are coordinated. GARAL created a separate non-profit entity, the Georgia Abortion Rights Action League Education Foundation (with Internal Revenue Service status as a 501(c)(3) organization), to pursue strictly educational, not policy-based, goals. In 2003, when the national organization shortened its official name to NARAL Pro-Choice America, GARAL took the name NARAL Pro-Choice Georgia and the foundation was renamed the NARAL Pro-Choice Georgia Educational Foundation. NARAL Pro-Choice Georgia dissolved in 2007.; Governed by an elected board, NARAL Pro-Choice Georgia employed an executive director and other staff members, though it relied upon volunteers. The Development Committee oversaw soliciting financial support. The broad mission of the organization, ensuring reproductive choices for Georgia women, was to be achieved through both direct lobbying of the legislature and through affecting the electoral process. Specific goals of NARAL Pro-Choice Georgia included effective sex education, accessible birth control, pre- and post-natal care, and coverage of reproductive health issues in health care reform. It also worked toward providing public funding for abortions for those women who needed it, safe access to abortion providers, and continuing availability of abortion services in Georgia.; NARAL Pro-Choice Georgia's advocacy efforts included direct and grassroots lobbying, grassroots and internet organizing, coalition work, and media relations. NARAL Pro-Choice Georgia educated citizens about the political process, trained activists, created newsletters and other publications, organized political events, and served as ""a pro-choice voice in the media"" through press releases and interviews.; During the legislative session, NARAL Pro-Choice Georgia employed a full-time contract lobbyist who was at the Georgia Capitol every day tracking bills, creating strategy and writing weekly reports. It also sponsored an electoral program to evaluate, endorse, and help elect pro-choice candidates. The organization created its own political action committee, GARAL-PAC, a statewide, non-partisan organization dedicated to electing pro-choice candidates to the Georgia General Assembly.; NARAL Pro-Choice Georgia's staff and volunteers undertook numerous projects and programs, many of which were intended to encourage and train new activists and leaders in the reproductive rights movement. Examples include TORCH (a teen leadership program), the Women of Color Leadership Program, the Campus Organizing Program, and a Volunteer and Intern Program. In other instances, NARAL Pro-Choice Georgia undertook projects to research the availability of reproductive services and counseling in Georgia.; Executive Directors of GARAL and NARAL Pro-Choice Georgia included Janelle Yamarick (1990-1996), Beth Cope (1997-2003), Becky Rafter (2003-2006), and Dionne Vann (2006-2007). Other staff members over the years included Program Coordinator Roxanne Formey (1999-2001); Errin Vulay and Jennifer J. Sorrells, who served as Director of Organizing (2000-2001 and 2001-2002, respectively); and Ebony Barley, who coordinated several programs as Director of Communications and Community Relations.
The purpose of this study is to identify the similarities and differences between the political philosophy ofPlato and political philosophy of Aristotle. Such comparative study is very important for politicalthought in general. The main significance of this paper is the precise meaning of the political philosophyof Plato and political philosophy of Aristotle, as well as the meaning of differences and similarities.Often, Plato's political ideas appear as Aristotle political ideas, and Aristotle's political ideas appear asPlato's political ideas. The main method of study in this paper is the comparison method. The ancientpolitical debate between Plato and Aristotle is important to modern political philosophy as it is the basisof modern political theories. The data for paper are taken from the books of these two authors. Thepolitical philosophy of Plato and Aristotle, although they have similarities in some points, but differ inmany other issues, such as: different categories of political analysis, different methodologies of policystudy, and different reasons for state creation, different opinions why democracy is a bad form ofgovernment and why aristocracy is the right form.
AbstractThe recent wave of popular uprisings in the Middle East and Northern Africa has sparked a renewed attention to democratization across the world. One of many intriguing questions in this context is whether this trend will be spread globally and will flash another wave of democratization among some regions and countries where democratic euphoria has faded away. Another intriguing question is whether this new wave, in the Middle East or elsewhere, will take a constitutional path or will evolve through undemocratic and unconstitutional channels. In this light, it looks perfectly timely to discuss the lessons from and the modern prospects of building constitutional democracies in post-Soviet countries.This article offers perspectives on challenges facing post-Soviet higher courts in the effort to promote constitutional democracy in their countries. While it argues that there are many such challenges and that their roots are mostly deep in the political culture, selected and discussed are some specific instances which starkly expose the patterns of constitutional perversion and the most relevant limitations facing post-Soviet courts in our days. The solutions to these are seen in the incremental process of institutional learning hence the article suggests some designer strategies which may help moving along this process.The first section outlines what appears to be a peculiar vision of constitutionalism as embedded in respective societies and assesses this entrenched concept against accepted accounts of Western constitutionalism. The second section discusses some specific challenges to development of constitutionalism in post-Soviet countries, concentrating on inherited mindset and legal culture, as well as corrupt political technologies and flaws in the design of constitutional courts. The third section discusses two illustrative cases before higher tribunals to demonstrate what courts face in the courtroom when confronting the described challenges.
