Suchergebnisse

Summary Combined electoral systems were in expansion at the end of the 20th century and thus some authors considered them to be the electoral model for the future. Accordingly, there has been an increasing number of academic attempts to define and conceptualise these complex electoral systems. So far, two major interpretative streams emerged: structural (or mechanical) which is linked with Canadian scholars of election studies A. Blais and L. Massicotte, and the outcome-approach, largely developed by American scholars M.S. Shugart and P.M. Wattenberg. However, there is still much to add to these two interpretations. The author argues that a combined electoral system is specific for its combining of two elements: 1) the elections are based on two different levels of voting and of distribution of seats (name-based and list-based) and 2) they develop a specific model of voting -- with two votes per each voter (one for an individual candidate and the other for a list). When combined, these two elements create institutional setting for electoral competition, and thus the candidates and the parties are requested to develop more complex electoral strategies than in other types of electoral systems. Adapted from the source document.

Croatia represents in many respects a unique case in the world in the way it standardized the right to vote, the electoral model, and the pattern of political representation of the diaspora in the national parliament. Besides standard theoretical arguments that explain the right of diaspora members to vote in parliamentary and presidential elections in the country, the authorities made use of a number of contextually specific political, economic, military, and moral reasons for that. It was shown that principled reasons which were used to justify legalizing diaspora voting rights and institutionalization of special electoral models as well as the patterns of political representation in the Croatian parliament were subordinated to the interests to symbolically integrate the Croats from Bosnia and Herzegovina in the political system of Croatia, who would then, as a sort of generic voters, secure safe votes and bonus seats for the Croatian Democratic Union.

"Three events dominated Croatia's foreign policy in 2007 and 2008: the accession to NATO, the election into the UN Security Council, and the negotiations an EU accession. Regional policy has been dominated by Croatia's recognition of Kosovo's independence and political disputes with Slovenia concerning the Adriatic Sea border. The most important national event was the parliamentary election of 2007. Macroeconomic stability has been maintained by the monetary policy of the Croatian National Bank (HNB). Domestic policy has been dominated by anti-corruption campaigns in government institutions, the universities, the national healthcare system, local governments and other institutions. Organized crime groups have become more active. The government has responded by enacting 'anti-mafia' laws and measures, as well as by establishing new law-enforcement agencies to enable the institutions of the state to deal more efficiently with violence and crime." (author's abstract)

The first part of the article is a review of contemporary comparative politics research in Qennany. The conclusion of the first part is that serious attempts to-overcome the structural weaknesses of this political science sub discipline are made only from the 1990's on. The biggest credit for it goes to the research on political & social transformation that has also contributed substantially to the development of regional comparative studies. In the second part, the author shows both the structural weaknesses & the new positive developments by reviewing five recently published comparative studies. The most important among the weaknesses is the "lockedness" into the traditional framework of studying systems of government, as well as a lack of methodological consciousness, theoretical eclecticism, strong descriptive normativism & a bias in the selection of study cases. References. Adapted from the source document.