Suchergebnisse

Democracy in America is often guided by the visible forces of the moment. Dangers are too often seen in the context of political interest--when fire is seen, the hoses of democratic action come wheeling out. But there is no excitement in smoke alone. The near constitutional crisis of the 1968 Presidential elections, (when the strong third party candidacy of George Wallace threatened to throw the election into the House of Representatives), caused a lot of smoke and a spark of flame. The alarm was sounded and the volunteer firemen from the halls of Congress and Capitol Hill responded. The standers-by, the self-made experts, the institutional geniuses, and the media-reporters-turned-commentators all clamored together in offerings of support and advice. Though the fire is cold embers now--the smoke still trails upward because the dry tinder remains tinder still. The Founding Fathers were tempered by Locke's justification of revolution, by Cook's beliefs in constitutionalism, and Montesquieu's theory of separation of governmental powers when they wrote the Constitution. But in no particular did they take greater pride than in the device they invented for the election of a President. They views it as a means of peaceful, continual revolution and the essence and crowning glory of the system, done by peaceful assemblies, free discussion, and the ballot. But the system, later to become known as the Electoral College, had flaws, and was, as Thomas Jefferson has said, "the most dangerous blot on our Constitution." Today it is called an oxcart method of selecting Space Age Presidents and suffers attacks from many quarters. But as the apparent fires abated, so too did the volunteer firemen. The vices and virtues of the system can now be studied, analyzed, and debated by cooler heads, and perhaps reason, not do-something-now-expediency will prevail. At a later date, when the complexities and variables have been studied and weighed and the reports are all in, maybe, just maybe, our volunteer firemen will rush into action as once before, this time armed with an effective, but safe tool to extract the tinder forever and replace it with non-flammables. But there is only smoke now--faintly visible and growing dimmer. It remains to be seen whether the firemen will rush into action before fire rises from the smoke once more.

The reason for bringing up this particular topic possibly stems from the continuous contradictions the professional comes across day after day in the Spanish mass communications media during the pre-election phase which the country is going through at the time of this writing. In effect, the press is more and more explicit in its definitions and does not seem to be very willing to remain exquisitely impartial. Television pretends to be operating in accordance witha new phase but the truth of the matter is that it continues to cater to the same people and groups it always has. Our politicians are all trying to outdo each other in order to appear on television, and when they finally do achieve their aim . they take advantage of the situation to address themselves to their friends using the language and style of a long outdated speech. It is indeed strange that at a time when everybody is interested in the electoral system to be adopted and when the Government and the Opposition are in the process of negotiating the bases of an electoral law, nobody -at least not at this very moment, although it is to be hoped that things will have changed for the better by the time these lines are published- raises the question of setting up new and special control s with regard to electoral propaganda, apart from the demand for the mere access to Spanish television. And precisely in a moment of transition when a new and democratic system is in the process of being established, itis even more necessary ~indispensabl~ to have a clear sét of regulations which would serve to offset the lack of democratic experience and practice. It is clear that in order to come face-to-face with principies of control the first thing to be done is to find out the nature of electoral propaganda and that of propaganda in general, in harmony with the mean s and techniques in use today, Perhaps this particular aspect is discussed too much at length in this work, but the author believes that it is not possible to ignore such techniques as political marketing which is overlooked by all regulations. Once this obstacle has been overcome, the resulting concept can be analyzed in the light of the human and fundamental right to information, and conclusions can be formulated in the form of presuppositions, limitations and requirements. These are -according to the author- the principie gUidelines which must preside over any type of regulation in this field. The fact is that these conclusions were common to generic political propaganda and to that which is properly electoral. Before applying them specifically to the case of electoral propaganda, the author carries out a brief study of Compared Law. After classifying several possible feasible models in accordance with political, juridical and informative conditions, he studies sorne of the most significant cases of the types mentioned. The systems analyzed are those found in England, the United States, France, Italy, Japan and Portugal. The study of the two latter systems are the most extensive due to the fact that we are dealing in these cases with attempts at complete regulation through which the legislators have pretended to create adequate channels in order to make electoral propaganda serve the democracy being restored. In effect, the Japanese law dates from 1950, the various Portuguese laws from 1974, 1975 and 1976; these dates coincide with the implementation of democracy in both systems. For this reason precisely, these countries are especially interesting with regard to the subject matter being analyzed. From the comparison between the general principies derived from the right to information and the reality offered by Compared Law, there arise a series of guidelines for control which are discussed in the last part of the present work. Other solutions can naturally exist, but the author hopes that the ones put forth in this paper can be at least helpful indicators in the setting up of a possible juridical regime with regard to electoral propaganda.

This thesis attempts to discuss a unique political phenomenon in North America - successful Canadian socialism. The first part discusses a workable definition of ideology and a theoretical approach to the explanation of legitimate ideological diversity. The second part of the paper explains the socio-economic and political milieu of Western Canadian society in the early twentieth century and the evolution of a consequent Anglophone socialist movement in response to this environment. The third part discusses concurrent Francophone political phenomena. Ideology is defined as an amalgamation of commonly agreed upon principles designed to promote a particular communal or national interest. Gad Horowitz' application of Louis Hartz' theory of ideological diversity in 'new' societies founded through European colonization is subsequently discussed. This theory posits socialism to be the dialectical outcome of a conflict between British toryism and nineteenth-century liberalism. Due to the background of Canadian immigration, Canada maintained a unique tory strain which shared the common element of collectivism with socialist ideology. This theorizes the acceptance of socialist thought in the midst of North American liberalism. Having discussed the theoretical aspects of ideological diversity, this thesis describes the principal socialist movement in early twentieth-century Canada which espoused the principles of the "social gospel". The paper traces the electoral success of the movement turned political party, the Cooperative Commonwealth Federation, between the general election years of 1935 and 1962. While the party was never successful in forming the national government, many of its social welfare policies were adopted by the liberal centre out of political necessity. In the last chapter, a brief overview of the historical cultural, economic and political factors contributing to modern Quebec nationalist sentiment is presented along with an outline of the most significant nationalist movements in the province's twentieth-century political history. A comparison is drawn between the evolution of socialist ideology in Anglophone Canada and nationalist socialist ideology in Francophone Canada. In summation, Hartz' theory of ideological diversity does not argue the dialectical inevitability of socialism. It does, however, theorize the existence of this ideology in regards to the degree to which it is accepted. In this respect, the electoral success of socialist political parties is less important than the success of collectivist social movements. The principles of these movements have indeed had a significant impact on Canadian public policy making.

There are varied institutional forms (formal and informal) in which electoral (political) subjects take part in elections. Elections for assemblies show that the actions of such subjects are differently motivated, and also that their approach during conflict or cooperation in the realization of their wishes is different. Thus conflict situations, »election scandals«, occur sporadically. Such conflicts are an expression and a result of contradictory desires and actions of the participants. The significance and effect of an electoral conflict is conditioned and determined by the (political) significance of the elections themselves, not only in the sense that they are formally one of the basic constitutive elements of the political system, but first and foremost because they are the form in which citizens are active in politics. Following the procedure in election the author has tried to reveal the basic actors in electoral conflicts, the content of their conflict and the form it takes. In the author's opinion it is wrong to pass an a priori judgement of the character and value of electoral »cases« (negative judgements have usually been passed), the foundation of the conflict and the character and orientation of the persons involved, who do not seek for affirmation of their political value in the strength of arguments and objective achievement. We can understand and solve the ambivalent character of such conflicts, and the political behavior of their participants, only after studying the case. There will be a smaller number of »cases« and electoral conflicts, and they will be less complicated, the more consistently we free ourselves from varied formal-legal and political restraints, and the more society takes on the characteristics of self-managing and democratic socialism. Conflicts of this type are not the result of democracy. They are the result of its insufficient development or presence, thus making it subject to misunderstanding, searching and abuse.

It is now generally recognized that special interest group influence on economic decision making is not in theory a phenomenon restricted to democratic capitalism. Governments which have attained power by non-democratic means must eventually seek legitimacy, either by populist appeals to the masses or by cultivating the support of important sectors (e.g. Lovell (1975)). They may therefore be no less immune to interest group lobbying than governments which face electoral scrutiny. Likewise, it has been argued that the incentive for interest groups to exert political pressure is in fact greater under socialism than under capitalism (e.g. Becker (1983)). The purpose of this paper is to present evidence on the role of special interest groups in economic policy making in the Republic of Korea (South Korea), a country which differs from a western capitalist democracy in at least one important respect.

Der Verfasser untersucht die Gültigkeit ausgewählter Interpretationen zur Erklärung der Bundestagswahlergebnisse des Jahres 1953. Er konfrontiert die einzelnen Interpretationen mit Datenmaterial aus Meinungsumfragen des amerikanischen Hohen Kommissars für Deutschland zu Aspekten der bundesdeutschen Nachkriegspolitik. Der Autor kommt zu den Ergebnissen, daß der Wahlausgang und die Akzeptanz der bundesdeutschen Bevölkerung gegenüber demokratischen Institutionen und dem demokratischen System nach Auswertung des Datenmaterials nicht überrascht. Während die Identifikation mit den politischen Parteien eine untergeordnete Rolle gespielt habe, seien die von Adenauer vertretenen Standpunkte sowie dessen Persönlichkeit ausschlaggebend für den Wahlausgang gewesen. Haben sich Religionszugehörigkeit und soziale Herkunft als bedeutende Determinanten des Wahlverhaltens erwiesen, so läßt nach Ansicht des Autors eine fehlende theoretische Fundierung hingegen Rückschlüsse über ihren Stellenwert verglichen mit anderen Determinanten nicht zu. ; The 1953 Bundestag election is frequently interpreted as a critical milestone in postwar West Germany's political history. Some saw its outcome, which gave Chancellor Adenauer's CDU/CSU 45.2% for the vote (31.0% in 1949) and his coalition 63.8% (and a constitution-changing 68.4% of Bundestag seats), as a major surprise, as proof that west Germans had firmly accepted democacy, or as simply another election, to be explained by the appeal of political issues, party identification, the candidates personalities, special political circumstances (e.g. U.S. intervention), or the sociological characteristics of the voters themselves. The paper looks into the validity of a particular set of public opinion surveys on the 1953 Bundestag election, commissioned by the Evaluation Staff of the Office of Public Affairs, U.S. High Commission for Germany (HICOG). The data from the 1953 election study show that neither the electoral outcome nor the degree of West Germans' acceptance of democratic institutions and practices should have come as a surprise. Specific issues seemed to play little role, but differences in general mood, related to several such issues, were important. Party identification as such was important for only a few. Voters subsequently saw Adenauer's personality and the general mood he represented as the most important element in the outcome; the special circumstances mentioned by several writers were insignificant in the voters' consciousness. The data suggest that social class and religion were important variables determining voters' predispositions, but the lack of theoretic orientation in the study makes impossible any definite conclusion about their weight vis-a-vis other variables such as issues.

This thesis is an attempt to study the career of labor M.L.A. Frederick J. Dixon, one of Manitoba's most successful politicians, in the context of the three great upheavals of his time: the Manitoba reform movement (1903-1916), the Great War (1914-1918), and the industrial crisis of 1918-1920. Dixon based all his actions one belief in inalienable human rights, individual and civil, and the view is taken here that Dixon was articulating the components of an early consensus which undergirded Manitoba life at a time of apparent class-conflict. Part One deals with the Manitoba reform movement, and suggests that the legislative session of 1916, one of the most remarkable in the province's young history, was emblematic of a consensual moral urge on the part of most people to restore lost rights to the social environment. Part Two deals with the Great War and conscription, and concludes that opinion for and against both was rooted in a desire to protect the rights and liberties of British subjects. Part Three discusses the industrial crisis of 1918-1920, and concludes that the Winnipeg General Strike was not a class-struggle in the Marxist sense, but was instead a crisis of rights, with workers defending their individual right to bargain collectively, and the rest of society defending its civil right to be governed by democracy. Individual and civil rights, the twin components of consensus, were in crisis in 1919. They were reconciled by Fred Dixon in his celebrated Address to the Jury, as well as in his massive electoral victory in the provincial election of 1920.