Suchergebnisse

The fulfillment of electoral mandates is a fundamental link between voters and their representatives. The absence of this link in newly democratizing countries may be a sign of poorly functioning democracies. This paper investigates this relationship in ten new democracies in Eastern Europe. I argue that governments are fulfilling their campaign promises, but they are doing so in a manner different from what has been found in established democracies. When testing my theory across economic reform, I find that the policies governments implement correspond with the dominant division between political parties. Unlike some previous research that finds new democracies do not follow through on their campaign promises, I conclude that governments are fulfilling their mandates.El cumplimiento de los mandatos electorales es un vínculo fundamental entre los votantes y sus representantes. La ausencia de dicho vínculo en los países con nuevas democracias podría ser una señal del pobre funcionamiento de la misma. Este artículo investiga dicha relación en diez nuevas democracias de Europa del Este. Sostengo que los gobiernos están cumpliendo sus promesas de campaña, pero lo están haciendo de diferente manera a lo que puede ser observado en democracias establecidas. Cuando confronto mi teoría ante el periodo de reforma económica, encuentro que las políticas que el gobierno implementa corresponden a las divisiones dominantes entre los partidos políticos. A diferencia de trabajos de investigación previos que encuentran que las nuevas democracias no llevan a cabo las promesas de campaña, concluyo que los gobiernos están concretándolas durante sus mandatos.

Research shows that social welfare expenditures in post-Communist Europe continued to increase during the dual transition. This article analyses the economic and political factors that influence these changes in budgets for total welfare spending, and more specifically, pension assistance. I find that the economic hardship and budgetary shortfalls of the transition play the most prominent roles in the adjustments to total spending levels. And while these factors also heavily influence the modifications to pension funding, the strength of the right parties in parliament has an independent impact in increasing pension changes. I argue that this relationship reflects a short-term association between the right's liberal economic plans, their policy structural adjustments and rising tension budgets. (British Journal of Political Science / FUB)