The significance of positive political theory is recognized in the text, placing special emphasis on the theories of public choice & voting. The main reasons for the study of political, particularly electoral, processes from the viewpoint of positive theory are enumerated. The author further questions certain fundamental postulates of normative theories of democracy & their lack of viability. He goes on to analyze the phenomenon of the so-called electoral or voting paradoxes & their possible influence on electoral results &, ultimately, on democratic norms themselves. The existence of voting paradoxes & their theoretical rationale is considered unequivocal & is mathematically proved. The author also reviews the most significant works on voting paradoxes & the theory of public choice. 3 Figures, 31 References. Adapted from the source document.
The collapse of the traditional social ties, the advance of the mass media & the advent of political marketing have altered the structure & the direction of electoral campaigns. Present-day media-mediated electoral campaigns are hotly debated. On one side are those who claim that campaigns simplify political reality, manipulate voters, encourage voting apathy & in the long run contribute to democratic deficit. On the other side are those who claim that campaigns had to adapt to the new communication environment, that only the attractive, media-honed campaigns can attract voters' attention & that the majority of campaigns on the whole are a positive influence on electoral participation & voters' familiarity with political processes. This paper is an attempt to present the arguments of both sides & to answer how & to what extent electoral campaigns affect the democratic process. References. Adapted from the source document.
Having in mind the long evolution of constitutions & constitutional politics & the universal appeal of the process of the interplay between virtue & demagogy that occurs during presidential elections, the author touches on several topics. The first are the standard "dogmatic" comparative provisions regarding the election of the head of state which the author looks into through the constitutional-legal prism of the so called selection effect. As the institution of the president of the republic exists in many constitutions & is thus among the most significant institutionalized aspects of political & social life of every country, the author focuses on the extent in which that institution in the electoral context contributes to the affirmation of republicanism, democracy & public sphere. The author concludes that the election of presidents & the effects of electoral selection, among other things, affect the process of political integration that ought -- to not only in Croatia but everywhere & due to a plethora of reasons -- promote the universally accepted ontological principles of contemporary constitutional-democratic state. Appendixes, References. Adapted from the source document.
According to the regularly conducted polls by "Globus," political rating of HDZ significantly increased after the military actions "Flash" & "Storm" while those of liberals & other parties decreased. On the basis of certain assumptions, the author concludes that this does not indicate a radical change in political attitudes & orientations of the electoral body; the changes have been caused by political conjuncture. The research has shown that political attitudes are halfway between traditionalism & modernism & that the prospects for the development of democracy in Croatia once peace has been established are notable. Adapted from the source document.
One of the focuses of the study of parties at the end of the 20th century has been the organizational structure & the relations within political parties, including the nominating procedures for the selection of candidates for general elections. The manner in which parties fulfill their recruiting function &, eventually, the quality of the political & the governing elite in a "party" state directly depends on these procedures. Typologically there are differences between the nominating procedures in the US (regulated by federal laws) & those in European political parties (regulated by party documents). The author describes major forms of American pre-elections & European procedures for candidates' selection. She analyzes the nominating procedures in the Croatian legislation & the statutes of Croatian parliamentary parties. Her conclusion is that the laws on parties & the selection of candidates are entirely left to the parties whose statutes without exception envisage very centralized, exclusive & nondemocratic procedures of candidates' selection. 1 Table, 25 References. Adapted from the source document.
The author elaborates on two central assumptions. The first (based on comparative survey results from ten postcommunist countries) is that there is a marked positive correlation between the residue of "communist legacy" in people's & the electoral success of leftist parties. Since that legacy in Croatia (& the Czech Republic) has been weakest, this is going to be an aggravating circumstance for SDP in their struggle for power. The second assumption is that the politics of leftist parties that could come to power is to shuttle between two extremes: the restoration of real-socialism in a modified form & the social-democratic model of Sweden or at least Germany. According to the author, the key agents of such politics are "neotraditionalism" & "political capitalism", both from the former system. Adapted from the source document.
The studies of the third wave of democratization have shown the necessity for a more precise differentiation of forms of democracy, since the definition of democracy exclusively on the basis of pluralist elections has proved lacking. The author also thinks that the instruments of quantitative evaluation of democracies (e.g. the very popular Freedom House index) are not sufficient, primarily because the quantification is not theoretically sound enough & includes a huge dose of arbitrariness. Contrary to this, the author spells Out his concept of embedded & defective democracy. Starting from the terminological suggestion by Philippe Schmitter & the systemic-theoretical description of Niklas Luhmann's intrasystemic communication, the functionally embedded democracy can be defined as a relationship of interdependence & mutual support of five partial regimes of democracy: electoral regime, political freedoms, civil rights, horizontal accountability & the real governing power. Apart from these five partial regimes, whose stable interrelationship is a prerequisite for the internal embeddedness of democracy, there are some external democracy-fostering conditions: the high level of socio-economic development, the integration into the democratically-oriented international economic & political alliances & the vital civil society. The author puts particular emphasis on the importance of the latter since it is not a part of the democratic political system but a way of organizing a non-state sphere of individual & group activity for the protection of individual rights, safeguarding the rule of law, the political socialization & the institutionalization of the public as the medium of democratic self-reflexion. & finally, the main types of defective democracy are outlined -- the exclusive, the domain, the nonliberal & the delegative -- as well as the key reasons underlying these deficits. 3 Tables, 1 Figure, 60 References. 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.
Each election year in Croatia is an occasion for comparing the social guidelines & the practice. To what extent is the policy of gender equality applied to the participation of women in political decision-making at the parliamentary level in Croatia? Modest results are not an exception: almost in all countries there is the gap between the two. Nevertheless, the extent of the participation in older democratic countries is on the average somewhat higher, which can be attributed to the influence of the egalitarian concept of gender roles & the proportional electoral system. In younger democratic countries, including Croatia, the average is somewhat lower due to the significance of socio-economic factors. In some countries a higher level of participation can for the time being be achieved only via the mechanisms of affirmative action i.e. quotas. Therefore, for Croatia it is essential to achieve the "critical mass" of women in its parliament, which can be brought about by introducing quotas at the party level, by democratic selective procedures of nominating candidates, & by putting up candidates of both genders on the party lists, which means that the highest percentages of women in the parliament can be expected from modern parties promoting the deliberate regulation of the above processes. References. Adapted from the source document.
The existence of ethnic minorities gives headaches to most newly independent states, though they are much more homogeneous than their predecessors. Also, the fate of the minorities in the countries that have been trying to build themselves as nationally homogeneous is uncertain, although all the newly created states -- due to the triumph of the democratic models of government -- are forced to pledge allegiance to democracy. Due to the global dominance of democratic values, the authoritarian governments of the newly created states are forced to reach an accommodation with their minorities. The priority is to make the recognition of the minorities' rights one of the key measures of democracy. There are many ethnic conflicts in Europe but only those in the former Yugoslavia (including Kosovo) have spiraled into all-out war. Unlike the other incomplete democracies in postcommunist societies, the degrees of violence in the relationship majority-minority within nondemocratic states like Serbia (or SRY) or Tudman's Croatia, combined with the secessionist/separatist conflict, rapidly increases. In fact, the institutional protection of civil liberties & the respect for human rights are nonexistent; this prevents ethnic minorities from turning their demands into democratic electoral clout. Such governments are not able to govern democratically & to keep in check their ethnic opposition with democratic means. Also, a broad popular support for the peaceful resolution of conflicts via democratic institutions is lacking. 1 Appendix. Adapted from the source document.
The existence of ethnic minorities gives headaches to most newly independent states, though they are much more homogeneous than their predecessors. Also, the fate of the minorities in the countries that have been trying to build themselves as nationally homogeneous is uncertain, although all the newly created states -- due to the triumph of the democratic models of government -- are forced to pledge allegiance to democracy. Due to the global dominance of democratic values, the authoritarian governments of the newly created states are forced to reach an accommodation with their minorities. The priority is to make the recognition of the minorities' rights one of the key measures of democracy. There are many ethnic conflicts in Europe but only those in the former Yugoslavia (including Kosovo) have spiraled into all-out war. Unlike the other incomplete democracies in postcommunist societies, the degrees of violence in the relationship majority-minority within nondemocratic states like Serbia (or SRY) or Tudman's Croatia, combined with the secessionist/separatist conflict, rapidly increases. In fact, the institutional protection of civil liberties & the respect for human rights are nonexistent; this prevents ethnic minorities from turning their demands into democratic electoral clout. Such governments are not able to govern democratically & to keep in check their ethnic opposition with democratic means. Also, a broad popular support for the peaceful resolution of conflicts via democratic institutions is lacking. 1 Appendix. Adapted from the source document.
This essay is an attempt to explore structural, value, ideological, & performance premises of partyism. It has been modeled after the methods & findings of eminent researchers (eg, Inglehari, Klingemann, Knutesen, & others), who have devoted a major portion of their research to the relations among the mentioned concepts. The empirical research was conducted on a sample of Croatian students in 1998/99. By using complex analysis models of the mentioned variables we have shown that the ideological (left-right) orientation is more important for the electoral choice of Croatian students than the value orientations (religious/secular, left/right materialism, & materialism/postmaterialism). The author then shows why (in line with the results of European studies) the party orientation is more important than the values. What is most important here, however, is the finding that the two variables (the assessment of the democratic performance of the system & the ideological left/right orientation) are relatively the most significant variables for explaining the party identity & electoral choice of Croatian students. It has been shown that the leftist & the opposition parties in Croatia can count on the more left-oriented students & those who are dissatisfied with the functioning of democracy in Croatia, plus those more secularly & post-materialistically oriented. The used analytical methods can contribute to a more detailed elaboration of the theory of partyism (party identities & electoral choices) & to the model of political polarization in society. And this is surely one of the central tasks of modern political science. 8 Tables, 1 Graph. Adapted from the source document.
This article analyses the representation and main characteristics of comparative politics articles published in the journal Politicka misao. Starting from the assumption that the political and academic fields are engaged in a process of 'reciprocal legitimation', we divided the period of analysis into two phases and research subsamples. The first encompasses articles published in the period 1964-1989, while the second covers articles published in the period 1990-2013. Content analysis reveals that during the first phase comparative politics articles were weakly represented in the journal. The few articles that belong to the field were mostly written from a Marxist perspective, and occasionally from the perspective of old normative institutionalism. Overall they were methodologically unreflective, descriptive and configurative. The most frequent topics were self-managing democracy, communist and revolutionary parties, anti-imperial movements and conflicts in Third World countries. The time period after 1990 is characterised by a strengthening of the field of comparative politics. First of all, there is a notable increase in the number of articles dedicated to elections, electoral systems, political parties and party systems, legislatures and governments, constitutionalism and the judiciary, political culture, nationalism, as well as European institutions and processes. Secondly, theoretical approaches are more diversified, ranging from new institutionalism, behavioralism and pluralism to rational choice theory and cultural theory. Though case studies and focused studies with a small-N are the most frequent empirical strategies, overall methodology remains the weakest element of domestic academic production in comparative politics, while explicitly methodological discussions remain extremely rare. Adapted from the source document.
The article looks into the changes in the parties & the social structure of the first House of the Croatian parliament (the Sabor) in the transitional period. A total of 26 political parties have had seats in the parliament -- 16 of them securing their place through prior support of the electoral body, & 10 solely through individual lists. The author shows that this party fragmentation has occurred due to the process of parliamentary parties' factioning & the transfer of delegates from parliamentary to nonparliamentary parties. The degree of party fragmentation in the Sabor is considered moderate & not disruptive for the functioning of the parliament. This is due to the continued mandated dominance of the majority party & to the fact that the party fragmentation has primarily involved the opposition parties. An analysis of the social-demographic characteristics of the representatives shows that the Sabor is dominated by male, college-educated, 48-year-old Croats with a bit more than four years of parliamentary experience. The educational structure of the Sabor does not differ much from other European parliaments, but the number of senior representatives is somewhat higher than in other European countries, while the share of women is lamentable under all democratic standards. It has been suggested that the most effective strategy that the Croatian parliamentary political parties could employ regarding gender & age representation are internally determined quotas for women & young people on their candidates' lists for elections. This would indirectly influence the social structure & the level of democracy of the Croatian parliament. 7 Tables, 1 Appendix, 38 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.
