Suchergebnisse

Wählerentscheidungen sind komplex - gebildet aus kurzfristigen Einflussfaktoren und aus dauerhaften strukturellen Determinanten wie deren längerfristig wirksamen Veränderungen. Der Beitrag informiert zunächst über Ansätze und Methoden und nimmt sodann Aspekte der Veränderung in Fragestellungen und Erklärungsmustern in den Blick, ausgelöst durch den gewandelten gesellschaftlich-politischen Kontext bundesrepublikanischer Wahlen und die offenkundigen Veränderungstendenzen sowohl in den Partizipationsmustern der Wähler als auch auf der Angebotsseite des Wählermarktes - konkret den Bindungsverlusten der Volksparteien und der Pluralisierung des Parteienwettbewerbs (Verlag).

Since the 1980s there have been profound social changes resulting in new forms of governing within the terms of Governance. Taking these changes into consideration new forms of governing within the terms of governance are analyzed. The neo-democratic reform-agenda claims to emphasize both participative governing on the one hand and effective governing on the other. While the first is said to be achieved by strongly engaging members of the civil society, the second supposedly results due to governance-networks and rational negotiations. There is, however, a huge gap between ambitions and reality. Even though the governance-structures have strongly changed governing in representative democracies, the hopes associated with these changes could not be fulfilled. Parliaments are still losing power and influence; the abilities concerning organization and conflict of interests are still asymmetric and all attempts concerning neo-democratic transparency, accountability and participation by the civil society are, at least until now, vastly part of symbolic politics. If those hopes are ever to become reality, minorities as well as interests that are not or only partially disputable have to be empowered. This is only possible by implying a dual strategy combining representative-democratic electoral politics and participation by the civil society on the one hand and direct-democratic civil protest on the other. Adapted from the source document.

On September 28, 2008, the governing Christian Social Union (CSU) for the first time in their history lost its commanding two-thirds majority in the Bavarian state parliament. Its share of the popular vote was reduced to 43.4% (a loss of 17.3 percentage points). The landslide loss had far reaching consequences: It changed the structure of the party system, caused the CSU to replace its leadership, and -- lacking a parliamentary majority in the legislature -- the party was forced to enter into a coalition with the liberal Free Democratic Party and to adept to the logic of coalition government for the first time in forty-six years. Various short term political events and long term structural social changes are analyzed which led to the seminal defeat of the CSU and ended its far ranging hegemony as Bavaria's 'natural' governing party. Adapted from the source document.

In the globalized world of today the liberal-democratic nation state, federal & unitary alike, is faced with several challenges. For one, democratic governance has to cope with accommodating "old" multinational identities & / or "new" multicultural interests & claims. The nation states' embeddedness into systems of multi-level governance yields a reshuffling of policy competences, renders transparency problems & aggravates democratic deficits -- first & foremost in the European Union. The Canadian experience is a valuable starting point in deriving answers to the question what type of federalism is likely to provide viable solutions to democratic governance in the context of the post-national constellation. Figures.

Der Beitrag analysiert Zielsetzungen und Ergebnisse der Föderalismus-Reformkommission anhand der öffentlich, via Internet (unter http://www.bundesrat.de) zugänglichen Dokumente der Kommission sowie der Berichterstattung in der überregionalen Presse. Trotz 13 Monaten intensiver Verhandlungen scheiterte die gemeinsame Föderalismus-Kommission von Bundestag und Bundesrat in ihrem Versuch der Modernisierung der bundesstaatlichen Ordnung. Der vorliegende Beitrag zeigt, dass die angestrebte Grundgesetzmodernisierung weit hinter den von der Politik selbst gesteckten Reformzielen zurückblieb. Ursächlich für das Scheitern der Reformbemühungen sind strukturelle Faktoren der bundesrepublikanischen Politikverflechtung, nicht der Streit um die Kompetenzabgrenzung in der Bildungs- und Hochschulpolitik; allerdings lieferte dieser - und zwar beiden Seiten bzw. verschiedensten Akteuren - einen willkommenen Anlass, den Reformprozess scheitern zu lassen und am Status quo festzuhalten. Einen Erfolg versprechenden Ausweg aus den Reformblockaden verspricht nicht die Wiederaufnahme und Modifizierung der erarbeiteten Vorschläge, sondern allein die Rückbesinnung auf die Reformziele und die Verfolgung innovativer Reformwege. (ICA2)