Suchergebnisse

Classical action research within single organizations has become a well established and differentiated approach since its inception more than six decades ago. More recently, many have built on the foundational principles of action research to develop and implement larger-scale, multi-organization, action research approaches. Multi-organization action research has largely taken the form of coalition-based processes, where diverse stake-holders have come together to explore issues of mutual concern through a centralized action research process. Less frequently, multi-organization initiatives have implemented distinct action research processes, in a coordinated manner, within each of several involved organizations. This article refers to the later variety as multi-site action research (MSAR). Building on previous work, a conceptual framework for MSAR is developed.

This special issue of American Behavioral Scientist, "Activism After 9/11," addresses a void in the social movement research literature and illuminates the practical implications of political shocks, or dramatic changes to international and/or national systems that fundamentally alter the processes, relationships, and expectations that drive political interactions, on social movements and democratic processes. The nine original research articles in this volume examine how political shocks shape state response and, in turn, how these responses—represented in both policy and rhetoric—affect movement trajectories, opportunities for democratic expansion, democratic participation and protest, and coalition building. The work in this issue highlights the need for social scientists and citizens alike to understand how political shocks like 9/11 affect consensus, dissent, state transparency, and democratic processes more generally.

This paper seeks to investigate the behavior presented by the chamber of deputies, with regards to the bills which were presented by the executive power during the 2002–2006 legislative term. The author demonstrates that one of the most relevant reasons that the government of Ricardo Lagos was able to successfully pass the bills it favored, was the high unity of the governmental party and the heterogeneous action of the opposition bloc. Thus, through the use of Roll Call Vote analysis, this article assigns each of the parties and coalitions a percentage point relative to its degree of approval to the Executive's initiatives. This method indicates that the "Renovacion Nacional" was a pivotal party, which fluctuated between supporting the ruling party and maintaining its stance as an opposition party.

Aiming to identify the trends of county and regional governance transformation after the Parliamentaryelections of 2008, the article analyses the guidelines of the following documents: the election programmesof different political parties, the agreement of the ruling coalition, and the Government Programme. Thediscussion regarding the future of the counties is finalized in the Government Programme, which statesthat counties have to be dissolved. It is stated that the Government speaks up for the assignment of thecounty functions to municipalities; it is planned to give self-government rights to regions; institutions ofthe regions should be formed on the principle of delegation. A two tier territorial self-government systemshould be formed in Lithuania. The article shows that a detailed plan of implementation of the county andregional governance reform does not yet exist.

Colombia and Peru made significant progress in reducing the institutional prerogatives of their respective militaries in the 1990s and 2000s while reforming their economies in a neoliberal direction. They accomplished this despite internal armed threats to state authority and stability. The end of the Cold War, U.S. promotion of "market democracies," and the international centrality of free markets and formal democratic governance coincided with the rise to power in Peru and Colombia of "neoliberal policy coalitions." The internal insurgency mitigated the emergence of antiglobalization or antidemocratic reform factions in the military and civil society. The armed forces unified behind their counterinsurgency mission, and opposition in civil society was weakened, creating greater space for neoliberal elites to reform their economies and reduce military prerogatives. Adapted from the source document.

This article argues that cooperation to tackle the consequences of large asylum migration inflows is possible only among fairly symmetrical countries. Highly asymmetric countries have no incentives to join and remain in a stable coalition. The distinction between cost and spillover asymmetries shows that financial transfers may release constraints on participation, and thus make asylum cooperation feasible, only if they are focused on tackling this asymmetry. This result becomes relevant when applied to the context of the enlarged European Union. I argue that there is the potential for a future cooperative burden-sharing regime for asylum, particularly if unanimity is replaced by the double majority principle in European Council votes, as suggested in the EU reform treaty.

The formation of new party systems involves processes that significantly distinguish them from the transformation of established ones. In new party systems historical legacies matter, timing and sequencing of events have important consequences, and politicians do not just limit themselves to winning votes but employ a wide range of co-ordination strategies (i.e. electoral coalitions, party switching, manipulation of electoral vote-counting procedures) to make votes count more effectively. The literature has identified many of these causal factors individually without, however, thinking systematically about their interactions. This article borrows from recent work on path dependency to analyse such interactions in greater depth and pays closer attention to the distinct temporal dynamics shaping the formation of new party systems.

Автором дана характеристика численности, социального состава, организационной структуры поволжских организаций партии меньшевиков. Сделан вывод о том, что меньшевизм представлял собой типичный блок пролетарских и мелкобуржуазных элементов, отражавший всю сложность социальной структуры России того времени. Вплоть до свержения самодержавия меньшевики, несомненно, оставались революционно-демократической партией марксистского толка, стремившейся к реализации социально справедливой модели общественного устройства. ; The author characterizes membership numbers, social and organizational structures of the Menshevik branches in the Volga region. The author comes to the conclusion that Menshevism represented a typical coalition of the proletariat and petite bourgeoisie elements, thus reflecting the complexity of Russian social structure of that time. No doubt until the overthrow of the Romanov dynasty the Mensheviks remained revolutionary democratic Marxist faction and strove to establish socially fair society.

In this paper, governments maximize their political support, obtained by creating wealth and also by creating rent. Starting from a support maximum, economic reforms are feasible only when combined with political reforms that make the economic changes support-increasing. A competitive economy with low rent seeking and low protectionism maximizes support only when inclusiveness, as defined here, is high. When support is maximized, political stability depends on the sensitivity of support to changes in rent and wealth, and the quest for support causes inclusiveness to change. Depending on comparative political advantage, it can become either the road to serfdom or the road to an inclusive society. The approach here contrasts with selectorate theory in which political advantage depends on the size of a 'winning coalition.'