Suchergebnisse

In the article we analyze the election campaign processes for the European Parliament election in Slovenia in 2004. We emphasize different theoretical explanations of election campaigns, among which we synthesize three important sets of contents, defined as process-organizational, media & system elements of the campaign. In the article we analyze the existence of all mentioned contents, where we predict that we can talk about some sort of connection between the efficiency of the election campaign or the decision about the selection of the campaign elements & final election effects of final party success at the elections. On the basis of the exposed efficiency indicators & implemented analysis in the case of Slovenian election campaign for the European ejection we can not confirm the connectedness between different campaign activities & final election result between the competitive political parties. Tables, Figures, References. Adapted from the source document.

Using the method of assigning attributes, the image of political parties represented in the Croatian parliament was researched. This research was conducted on a sample of Zagreb U students. The image was determined, as was its associations, & positiveness. Using factor analysis four dimensions were found, in which the first & most important is related to the image of democratic activity of the party, while the other three are indicative of political platforms -- social, traditional, & nation-building. The political parties were found to differ significantly according to their position on each dimension. 5 Tables, 3 Figures, 7 References. Adapted from the source document.

Although the European Union is not a representative democracy, at least in some elements its political system is increasingly imitating the national liberal model of governance. So far, in the development of the European political system & in the draft EU Constitution the dual nature of the ED (federal & intergovernmental) seems to have remained in place. This is also shown in the persisting national elements in party-related institutions & processes within the EU political system that puts "its" liberal democratic characteristics in question. Tables, References. Adapted from the source document.

This author deals with the creation & development of political parties & the multiparty system in Croatia. The analysis is based on the two most influential approaches to studying parties in postcommunist countries: (1) the classic Rokkan (& Lipset) cleavage approach; & (2) the institutional analysis. The author concludes that party development in Croatia can be understood only in the context of structural & institutional factors, which is accomplished in the aforementioned approaches. 3 Figures, 31 References. Adapted from the source document.

The author claims that, due to the specific Croatian political situation, it is difficult to define the relationships between Croatian political parties & their West European models. This is equally true for social democratic, liberal, & Christian democratic parties. Throughout Croatian history, Christian democracy was weak because there was no independent Croatian state. The struggle for Croatian sovereignty gave rise to the domination of a broad-based Croatian national movement, embodied in the first half of the 20th century in the Croatian Peasants' Party, & since 1989 in the Croatian Democratic Union (CDU). Though today Croatia is independent, the neither-war-nor-peace predicament stands in the way of Croatian parties (including the CDU) coming out with clean-cut platforms. However, since the Second General CDU Convention, this party has been trying to mold itself as a broad popular party whose platform includes the fundamentals of Catholic social canon: the protection of individual dignity, solidarity, subsidiarity, cooperation, & aspiring toward the common good. Adapted from the source document.

The formulation of the new political parties' programs & statutes in Croatia is considered to be a less important normative aspect of political activity. Yet a comparative analysis of the content of the statutes articulated by the political parties in Croatia at the time when they were formed reveals the prevailing tendencies of political practice in that period as well as the level concomitant of experience in political organizing. Some of the findings point to significant differences among the emerging political parties in matters such as the treatment of members' rights & duties, attitudes toward internal party discipline, the procedure related to affiliation, the authority pertaining to the parties' presidents, the inclusion of youth in making party policy, models of decision making, & attitudes toward earlier parties in Croatian political history. The author stresses that his analysis does not refer to the time of writing but to the situation at the very beginning of the institutionalization of party pluralism. He believes that his results may offer important insights for some future classification of the Croatian party system. Adapted from the source document.

The question of how the identity of a political party can be transformed not only ideologically & politically, but also conceptually, is one that preoccupies Croatian political elites, as well as observers of the postwar political scene in Southeastern Europe, where labels such as Right & Left no longer have the same relevance they once did. The Croatian Democratic Union (HDZ) has undergone a similar transformation since the death of Croatian president Franjo Tudjman, particularly as it has had to come to terms with the diminution of its status as the Croatian party par excellence. A key question for the party membership is whether the organization can overcome its recent past (marked by nationalism & war) & reify itself as a democratic political party along the lines of conservative Christian Democratic parties throughout Europe. 14 References. A. Siegel

A major role of political parties in a multiparty democratic system is to encourage equal opportunities of men & women with the aim of realizing full democracy. Among the parliamentary parties in Croatia, we can distinguish between those who can see no reason whatsoever to pay special attention to this issue, considering it settled, & those who advocate the need for & continuity of promoting women's rights. In an analysis of party attitudes on that issue, the following model was used: a dimension whose extremes are state intervention & self-regulation. It was linked with the dimension of the continuum modernism-traditionalism. Thus we get a four-field chart. The first field includes the traditionalist political parties (HDZ, HSS, & HSP) who view the social position of women as a result of a spontaneous development of the society in general; ie, they accept the rule of self-regulation. In the second, for the time being empty, there would be parties that strive for social regulation in the realization of traditional social values. The next field is complementarily shared by modern political parties inclined to self-regulation (HNS, HSLS, HND, SNS, IDS, DA) & those who advocate state regulation of the mentioned issue (SDP & ASH). The analysis of the attitude toward women in party organization shows the following: (1) low percentage of women among party rank-&-file, regardless of a party's nature; & (2) "the rule" that the higher the level of political decision making, the lower the number of women. 3 Tables, 27 References. Adapted from the source document.

Constitutional-formative status of political parties & political pluralism has a major impact on shaping political will in democracies. Croatia, as a country caught in the process of a (democratic & liberal) transition to democracy, must carefully contemplate how to constitutionally institutionalize, ie, legally secure recognition for political parties as the key actors in shaping peoples' political will, but at the same time by laws to legally & precisely restrain the scope & methods of their activity. In line with this, the author analyzes & evaluates the experience of the Italian First Republic & the French Fifth Republic. The constitutional standardization of political parties in those regimes took place in, for us, comparable social & political circumstances of the so-called extreme & polarized pluralism, which, according to Sartori, inevitably leads to a deeply seated crisis or even a civil war. While the Italian Constitution of 1947 recognizes that centrifugal type of political pluralism, the French Constitution of the Fifth Republic of 1958 envisages the function of its political parties in the same manner to overcome the polarized pluralism of the Fourth Republic. The Italian Constitution defines political parties as instruments above the state, providing guidance ("they determine the national politics"), while the French Constitution reduces their function to the electoral process & stipulates that they have to respect national sovereignty; ie, they have to be a "democratic" influence in the state, ancillary political participants in the democratic political process. The constitutional changes that established the Croatian Third Republic meant that the French institutional arrangement (semipresidential plurality system) was renounced as a way of overcoming polarizing party dynamics. If the French Fifth Republic was a response to the impasse of the Fourth Republic's "regime of parties," why was Croatia's Second Republic (1990-2000) forsworn & the Third republic instituted, modeled after the unequivocally failed regime of the French Fourth Republic? 61 References. Adapted from the source document.

The drama of Yugoslav socialism had begun long before its final collapse, only a few years after its coming to power. It had been announced by social events which the ruling politics neither expected nor could explain; events which at first were manifested in various forms of self-willed conduct of those employed in economy, and later in increasingly pervasive and complex disturbances in the system of material reproduction and other spheres of social life. Those events faced the ruling politics with the enigma of society that posed a serious challenge to the existing model of etatist economy and monopoly power of the Party. In this article, the author focuses precisely on the above-mentioned problem, i.e. on the relation of the ruling politics of socialism towards the social world of life (society): what did it do in order to regain mastery over the social events which gradually eluded its control, and what is the significance of the methods and procedure which it applied to that effect? All that the ruling politics of Yugoslav socialism was faced with and all it resorted to is observed by the author merely as a special case of socialism in general. Adapted from the source document.

The authors analyze the evolution & the strength of the political parties as actors in the processes of democratic transition & consolidation in Hungary. Their starting point is that the political parties in transitional countries are faced with the same rivals in the political arena as the parties in the West: powerful interest groups, the increasing market competition, the supranational media, & the state administration. The authors conclude that the parties in Hungary, though not as stable & as developed, are nevertheless dominant in shaping & controlling the political processes in that country. The reason for that primarily lies in the fact that the party system systematically generates very competitive elections, clear alternations of the parties in power, & a strong link between the electoral outcomes & the government composition. Being in the position to shape the contemporary political & social transformation of their countries, these political parties find themselves in an excellent position to sui generis set up party systems in their societies. 4 Tables, 51 References. Adapted from the source document.

Henjak looks into the phenomenon of party competition by referring to the works of the proponents of the theory of rational choice, which does not presuppose close links between political entrepreneurs & social groups. Henjak tries to prove that party competition has its temporal dimension within which parties have different goals that depend on their competitive situation. Henjak goes on to prove that various models of the analysis of party competition are to a large extent linked with the original assumptions that determine their explanatory power. In conclusion, Henjak outlines the factors determining the choice of the goals & the strategies of party competition, especially the factor of party organization. 14 References. Adapted from the source document.

The author analyzes the position of journalists at the time of elections. It turns out that they are subject to pressures by politicians, who try to use the media for their promotion. Electoral reporting is extremely & precisely regulated; it would be hard to find some other field of journalism with such clearly elaborated recommendations & rules. Nevertheless, journalists are exposed to various methods of manipulation & pressures. Legal provisions are necessary, but it is also vital to understand the laws of the journalistic profession & the media. Also important is advertising or hidden advertising. The author concludes that reporting about elections could be professionalized primarily by decreasing the influence of political parties on the media, strengthening the institutions of civil society, & permanently educating journalists. 15 References. Adapted from the source document.