Suchergebnisse

Статья посвящена актуальной в конституционном праве России проблеме непосредственной демократии в системе местного самоуправления. Автор ставит цель определить и дать характеристику субъекта непосредственной демократии в системе местного самоуправления. Поставленная задача выполнена путем анализа соответствующих норм Конституции РФ, федеральных законов и юридической литературы. Выделены аспекты, характеризующие гражданина как субъекта осуществления права на местное самоуправление, рассмотрен вопрос о соотношении понятий "население" и "граждане", об участии беженцев и вынужденных переселенцев в осуществлении местного самоуправления путем прямого волеизъявления. ; The article deals with the problem of direct democracy in the local government system with is a pressing issue of the constitutional in Russia. The author sets himself to define and describe the subject of direct democracy in the local government system. To achieve the goal the author analyses the corresponding constitutional standavels of the Russian Federation, federal laws and literature on points of law. The author singles out the aspects with characterize a citizen as a subject of exercising the right of local government, considers the question of ham the notions "population" and "citizens" corresponds, examines the issue of the participation refuges and forced immigrants in exercising the local government by means of direct will.

Jean-Marie Mayeur, La question laïque (XIXe–XXe siècle) (Paris: Fayard, 1997), 239 pp., 95 FF. IBSN 2–213–60013–9.Etienne Fouilloux, Les chrétiens français entre crise et libération (1937–1947) (Paris: Seuil, 1997), 293 pp, 130 FF. ISBN 2–020–28131–7.Stathis N. Kalyvas, The Rise of Christian Democracy in Europe (Ithaca and London: Cornell University Press, 1996), 300 pp., £15.95. ISBN 0–8014–8320–4.Emiel Lamberts, ed., Christian Democracy in the European Union (1945–1995) (Leuven: Leuven University Press, 1997), 511 pp. ISBN 9–061–86808–4.'Christians and political life' (taking the latter term in its widest sense) is a theme which continues to attract a great deal of interest among contemporary historians, in terms of both detailed research and broader surveys. René Rémond and Aline Coutrot demonstrated the interconnectedness of the two domains of religion and politics when they abandoned the restricted subject of relations between states and the Roman Catholic church and initiated the study of religion as an integral part of history, and the social sciences, as a whole. Approaches since 1966 have been greatly modified, as shown by the treatment of the material in the four works now to be reviewed.

While analysts hail the democratic peace as an empirical vindication of neoidealist precepts of world politics, actually it is inconsistent with them. Neoidealism focuses on the role of international regimes - not shared political regime type - in reducing the probability of interstate conflict. In this article, I suggest a more consistent neoidealist conceptualization of the stability among democratic dyads. Focusing on the postwar era, I maintain that a combination of factors, including bipolarity, nuclear deterrence, alliance membership, and trade links, contributed to the formation of an international security regime among the major power democracies and their minor power democratic allies. Further, I maintain that the presence of this international regime and not simply joint democracy allowed for the postwar stability among democratic dyads. While democracy may have been associated with the creation of a security regime at the behest of the Western democracies led by the USA, the expansion and maintenance of this regime (and its conflict dampening attributes) are rooted, to a greater extent, in the interplay of alliance-aggregation and security externalities of trade. This argument is consistent with neoidealist precepts and by focusing on the role of security regimes it contributes to the neoidealist research program.

Formar el sentido crítico o educar en democracia son expresiones usadas como apriorismos evidentes, como nociones sin problemas ni definición. De ahí la necesidad de evaluarlas, aunque no sea sino para dibujar su perfil y precisar «lo que se quiere hacer con ello». Demasiadas prácticas educativas en medios de comunicación, en Europa y fuera de ella, se convierten enseguida en un fin en sí mismas, sin que se muestren ni comprueben los beneficios reales esperados. Varios ejemplos de investigación ponen en este trabajo de manifiesto algunas formas de concebir la actividad educativa al servicio de la democracia. ; Training the critical sense and educating in a democracy are expressions used as evident apriorisms, as notions without problems or definition. Therefore, there is a need to assess them, although it has to be done in order to draw their profile and specify «what we want to do with it». A lot of educational practices in the media, in Europe and outside it, turn immediately into an end in themselves, without having to show or confirm the real benefits that are expected. Some examples of research highlight in this work some ways of conceiving the educational activity at the service of the democracy.

In 1949, to strengthen the democratic foundation of the young Federal Republic of Germany, the U.S. High Commission for Germany began a large scale reorientation program which aimed to alter the political climate of West Germany. Directly responsible for the implementation of projects were Kreis Resident Officers, who, often with missionary zeal, endeavored to prepare the ground for a living democracy. They organized non-partisan citizens' associations, encouraged public meetings, supported the interests of women and young people, concerned themselves with political education, opened public reading rooms and sponsored exchange programs as well as German-American clubs. Nothing clear-cut came of these efforts at democratization. On the one hand, one meets up with many unfinished projects and much busyness. Many Resident Officers quickly became unpopular by their pompous behaviour, while others resigned themselves in the face of the opposition of conservative forces. After the Resident Officers stopped their work in 1952, it wasn't long before the organizations and networks, they had so laboriously built up, fell apart. On the other hand, the Resident Officers made no small contribution toward putting into practice the rules of democracy and in promoting understanding between Germans and Americans. (Vierteljahrshefte für Zeitgeschichte / FUB)

The development of democratization in South Korea is directly bound with the constitutional problem status and way of its solution. The development of constitutional process in this country is divided into three stages. On the beginning stage Korean society has been open to access for democratic values and constitutional norms for the first time. The process of building of the institutional base for democracy had been interrupted by 1961 military coup and aftercoming 26-years of authoritarian rules. Reverse back to the democratic norms and further democratization is observed from the second half of 80s. ; The development of democratization in South Korea is directly bound with the constitutional problem status and way of its solution. The development of constitutional process in this country is divided into three stages. On the beginning stage Korean society has been open to access for democratic values and constitutional norms for the first time. The process of building of the institutional base for democracy had been interrupted by 1961 military coup and aftercoming 26-years of authoritarian rules. Reverse back to the democratic norms and further democratization is observed from the second half of 80s.

This article attempts to explain the rural–urban voting patterns
in the
1992 Ghanaian presidential election. In this election, rural voters voted

overwhelmingly for the incumbent and urban voters did the opposite.
It is argued that Ghana's Structural Adjustment Programme (1983–92)

was distributionally favourable to rural households and unfavourable
to urban households. A link is therefore drawn between the
distributional impacts of the Structural Adjustment Programme and
the voting patterns of rural and urban households.The relationship between the state of the economy and the fortunes
of political parties at the polls is one which has generated a lot of
debate. This debate has largely taken place within the confines of
Western democracies, not least because of the absence of Western-style

democracy in many developing countries. We are, however, seeing a
movement towards 'democracy' in many developing countries,
with
pressures for economic liberalisation going hand in glove with those for

political liberalisation. The increasing democratisation by many
African countries undertaking Structural Adjustment Programmes
provides us with an opportunity to investigate the relationships
between the welfare implications of these programmes and the voting
behaviour of the electorate. Is voting behaviour in Africa any different

from that in Western democracies?

This article uses the Spanish-American War, one of the only possible cases of war between democracies, to demonstrate the power of a constructivist approach for explaining the liberal peace. A `structural idealist' argument suggests that the liberal peace must be conceived of as an `intersubjective consensus' of the leaders and citizens of liberal states. A Gramscian perspective interprets the liberal pacific union as an effort by the United States to exercise its global leadership through an ideological hegemony rather than through coercion. US perceptions that Spain was not a liberal democracy in 1898 and US efforts to legitimate its expansionism as necessary for the spread of democracy to the island of Cuba explain how two states that appeared to share liberal characteristics could nevertheless find themselves at war. In the aftermath of the war, the contrasting experiences of the USA in the Philippines and Cuba demonstrated the utility of pursuing a liberal policy for legitimating an expansionist policy at home and abroad. US efforts to impose colonial rule in the Philippines generated opposition in the United States and an insurgent movement in the Philippines. US efforts to craft a protectorate relationship with a Cuban government chosen in US-sponsored elections, however, met with widespread support in the USA and was accepted by Cuban nationalists.

FOR SOME YEARS NOW, WESTERN ACADEMICS AND POLICY-MAKERS HAVE embraced the cause of democratic reform in Central and Eastern Europe. To take but one well-known example, President Clinton in the 1994 State of the Union Address cited the absence of war among democracies as a reason for promotion of democracy around the world. Assistance to former Warsaw Pact and newly independent states has been made conditional to varying degrees on the acceptance of democratic change. The Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe, the European Union, the United States Agency for International Development and associated non-governmental organizations have unleashed armies of promoters of democracy throughout the region to: observe elections; monitor human rights; draft new constitutions and laws defending civil and political rights; train judges and police personnel; and organize and assist political parties, media and non-governmental pressure groups. In short, they have sought to transplant the fabric of civil society and democratic institutions. These armies have landed on terrain often quite foreign to them and have often displayed little sensitivity to the social, economic and political context in which they are operating. This may have contributed to results other than those intended.

Auf der Grundlage eines normativen Begriffs von Demokratie werden sechs Kriterien demokratischer Performanz in liberalen Demokratien abgeleitet. Die Spezifikation dieser Kriterien findet im Rahmen eines empirisches Forschungsprogramms statt, in dem unterschiedliche demokratische Performanzen existierender Demokratien durch unterschiedliche Strukturmerkmale erklärt werden sollen. Demgemäß sollten die Kriterien so spezifiziert sein, daß sie zumindest grundsätzlich gemessen werden können. Der Kerngedanke, auf dem die unterschiedenen Kriterien beruhen, ist der einer größtmöglichen Steuerung der Regierenden durch die Regierten bzw. einer größtmöglichen Responsivität der Regierenden auf die Regierten. Dieser ergibt sich vor allem aus der Verbindung des normativen Demokratiebegriffs mit dem faktischen Sachverhalt eines ausdifferenzierten und eigenständigen Regierungssystems. Letzteres ist ein funktionales Erfordernis unter Bedingungen eines Flächenstaates und hoher gesellschaftlicher Komplexität. ; Six criteria of democratic performance in liberal democracies are derived on the basis of a normative concept of democracy. These criteria are specified in the context of an empirical research programme aiming to explain the differential democratic performance of existing democracies in terms of differing structural characteristics. The criteria should accordingly be so defined that they can at least in principle be measured. The core idea underlying the criteria is maximum control of the rulers by the ruled or maximum responsiveness of the rulers to the ruled. This is shown primarily by the relationship between the normative concept of democracy and the actual state of a differentiated and independent governmental system. The latter is a functional requirement under the conditions of an extended territorial state and great societal complexity.

AbstractThis article attempts to assess (a) the extent to which anti‐party sentiment has been a factor in Italy's current political changes, with particular reference to the party system; (b) whether such changes can in turn be considered to be a preliminary step towards the rejection of the party‐based model of democracy. Elite and mass indicators, whose values rose sharply at the end of the 1980s and culminated in the early 1990s, reveal that anti‐party sentiment was indeed a factor in Italy's recent party system changes. The ability of anti‐party and anti‐system lists to attract many dissatisfied electors resulted in the major 1992–1994 party system realignment. Mass anti‐party sentiment, however, appears to have ebbed after the 1993 referendums on party financing and on the electoral law, which were arguably the highest manifestations of popular rejection of the old party‐system. It would seem that with realignment popular anti‐party sentiment has reached its goals. Perhaps as a consequence, at least some of the successful anti‐party parties are already becoming more party‐like. In the transition between Italy's first and second Republics, the party‐based model of democracy has not yet been replaced.

This article attempts to assess (a) the extent to which anti-party sentiment has been a factor in Italy's current political changes, with particular reference to the party system; (b) whether such changes can in turn be considered to be a preliminary step towards the rejection of the party-based model of democracy. Elite and mass indicators, whose values rose sharply at the end of the 1980s and culminated in the early 1990s, reveal that anti-party sentiment was indeed a factor in Italy's recent party system changes. The ability of anti-party and anti-system lists to attract many dissatisfied electors resulted in the major 1992-1994 party system realignment. Mass anti-party sentiment, however, appears to have ebbed after the 1993 referendums on party financing and on the electoral law, which were arguably the highest manifestations of popular rejection of the old party-system. It would seem that with realignment popular anti-party sentiment has reached its goals. Perhaps as a consequence, at least some of the successful anti-party parties are already becoming more party-like. In the transition between Italy's first and second Republics, the party-based model of democracy has not yet been replaced. (European Journal of Political Research / FUB)

Abstract. The aim of this study is to assess the relative strength of the reciprocal causal relationships between the political agenda (the party agenda), the mass media agenda and the public agenda. Although the research literature is rather confusing and inconclusive, three causal patterns have often been suggested. The economic theory of representative democracy ('public choice' theory) assumes bottom‐up agenda‐setting. The political agenda is assumed to respond to the public agenda. However, theories on political communication suggest top‐down agenda‐setting. The political agenda would set the media agenda, which in turn would set the public agenda. The central tenet of mediacracy theory is the proposition that the media agenda sets both the public agenda and the political agenda. This article uses data on economic issues in the Netherlands in the period 1980–1986 and linear structural equations models to test these three causal patterns. The results warrant both bottom‐up and top‐down agenda‐setting, but the mediacracy model is rejected. The conclusion should be that the economic theory of democracy, which prevails in the political science journals, has to incorporate findings from political communication research.

The determination of the Estonian people and the support of Russian democratic forces made Estonia's statehood possible again. But the crisis in society has not yet been overcome. Estonia's further development can go on undisturbed only when there is stability in national relations, taking into consideration the interests and rights of all the groups of society, and people's safety and domestic tranquility is secured. Today, Estonia's prime goal is to become integrated once again into Europe. Experience has already shown that it is possible to join Europe's current movement towards unity only with a modern, civilized, democratic and stable society. This is how EDLP sees the future Estonia, and it is why EDLP is against all political steps that might endanger democracy, political and economic rights and freedoms, restrict a person's or society's free development, or endanger the stability and domestic peace. EDLP is categorically against all kind of extremism in the political sphere and is intolerant of discrimination aimed against political views. Without opposition there is no democracy. The majority may be right, but the minority has the right to its views, the right to express and protect those views freely—this is the firm conviction of the EDLP.

Within democratic societies, a deep division exists over the nature of community and the grounds for political life. Should the political order be neutral between competing conceptions of the good life or should it be based on some such conception? This book addresses one crucial set of problems raised by this division: What bases should officials and citizens employ in reaching political decisions and justifying their positions? Should they feel free to rely on whatever grounds seem otherwise persuasive to them, like religious convictions, or should they restrict themselves to "public reasons," reasons that are shared within the society or arise from the premises of liberal democracy? Kent Greenawalt argues that fundamental premises of liberal democracy alone do not provides answers to these questions, that much depends on historical and cultural contexts. After examining past and current practices and attitudes in the United States, he offers concrete suggestions for appropriate principles relevant to American society today. This incisive and timely analysis by one of our leading legal philosophers should attract a wide and diverse readership of scholars, practitioners, and concerned citizens. ; https://scholarship.law.columbia.edu/books/1225/thumbnail.jpg