Suchergebnisse

Popular, competitive elections are a component of the democratic process, but they alone do not constitute a democracy. The first somewhat competitive election in the Soviet Union in 1989 marked the beginning of a trend toward political liberalization & democracy. Since then the Russians have voted for their chosen candidates many times, although only a small percentage of the adult population participates. The elections, on all levels, have been held as prescribed by law, though the first founding election for a new political system under a new constitution did not take place until December 1993. The campaigns & outcomes of the Gorbachev, Yeltsin, & (the first) Putin elections, & the corresponding parliamentary elections, are described. Under Putin, the elections still perform a quasi-democratic function, but they are now controlled by state institutions that have the ability to falsify the outcomes in favor of Putin-supported incumbents. J. Stanton

"The main purpose of this introductory chapter is to give an initial systematic overview of the information that is treated in the individual country studies. The authors do not attempt to anticipate the exhaustive comparative analysis now made possible by the free availability of relevant historical data on elections and electoral systems in Europe. In contrast to many publications on European elections and parties, where the East and the West are treated separately, and small and so-called micro states are often ignored, Elections in Europe comprise all European countries, from Albania to Vatican City, irrespective of their individual size, in alphabetical order. They do not deny that a grouping of 45 European states would have made sense. Among comparative scholars, a subregional approach is widespread. For example, Southern European countries are regularly treated as a distinct group-or area with common features; the same goes for the Central and Eastern European countries. Especially for comparative research, political scientists would certainly find some more criteria to systematize the large set of countries: regime type (authoritarian, democratic), state structure (centralist, federalist), form of government (parliamentarism, presidentialism), type of democracy (majoritarian, consensus), level of development (agrarian, industrialist), etc. For systematic reasons, the authors preferred an alphabetical order." (excerpt)