Suchergebnisse

Focusing on Bulgaria, and covering the 1990–2009 period, this article analyses what factors predict if print media will report election promises made by political parties. The study utilizes two original datasets. One consists of 3083 pledges made by 15 parties ahead of seven elections. The second dataset includes news stories published by six newspapers during each election campaign. The analysis reveals that pledges made by the main political opponents during each election are more likely to be published than those by smaller parties. Pledges related to economic policy are also more likely to be discussed in the news than other types of pledges, although the opposite is true regarding promises related specifically to the country's economic transition. Finally, in their reporting of pledges, print media do not reflect the salient ideological priorities of political parties.

Growing up in Bulgaria during the "transition" years, as a then fifteen-year old, I spent the summer of 1990 queuing up at the neighborhood newsstand waiting for the daily delivery of freshly printed newspapers. Shortages of goods, including food and gasoline, caused long lines in front of many stores, but the crowd waiting at the kiosk was eager to read about the latest political developments, and especially popular were the newspapers published by the newly established opposition parties. While there was no scarcity of political news via television and radio, there was always something special about the print media, much of which, including entertainment weeklies, were such a novelty. Twenty or so years later, I spent another summer among newspapers, in the archives of the National Library in Sofia, poring through the pages and—with no digitization of archives—collecting photographs of news articles published before each of the national legislative elections since 1990. Much has changed in the media environment since then, yet the study of media in post-communist societies and especially its relations to voters, parties, and politics in general is still in its infancy.

AbstractThis research focuses on the inquiries into alleged maladministration by EU institutions completed by the Office of the European Ombudsman (EO) during the period 1996–2012, seeking to highlight the ways in which the Ombudsman advances democracy in the European Union (EU). The article analyses the content of an original dataset consisting of 515 critical remarks and 113 follow‐up inquiries issued by the EO. The study shows that concerns about transparency and accountability dominate citizens' complaints to the Ombudsman. Further, the analysis concludes that, when EU institutions were subject to critical remarks, in the majority of instances they adopted the EO's recommendation to increase the transparency and/or accountability of their practices. The EO's impact is observable both during the inquiry process and after it issues critical remarks. The article links these conclusions to a broader discussion of the democratic dilemmas in the EU.

Gardant à l'esprit la classification existante des régimes de protection sociale, ce document passe en revue les différentes typologies afin d'examiner les cinq politiques sociales - les prestations de vieillesse, de maladie et de maternité, d'accident du travail, de chômage, et les allocations familiales - réparties dans 30 pays européens. Ces programmes sont comparés de deux points de vue : (1) les sources de financement, à savoir, le gouvernement central, les employeurs, les personnes assurées, ou bien une combinaison des trois, et (2) les restrictions d'admissibilité, à savoir, l'emploi, les critères de revenus, et/ou la couverture universelle. Ces deux dimensions comprennent la solidarité et les aspects de l'inclusion des programmes sociaux, qui sont essentielles en les replaçant dans le contexte du modèle social européen. En outre, par le développement de cette nouvelle base de données des politiques sociales à travers l'Europe, le document met en évidence la diversité continue des dispositifs institutionnels à travers plusieurs types de modèles d'État providence en Europe, ainsi que l'absence de modèle postcommuniste commun.<