Suchergebnisse

This paper investigates the meaning attached to elections among ex‐combatants in Liberia, in particular in relation to the historic elections of 2005. These elections were generally considered successful, and should therefore be instrumental in the consolidation of democracy; this paper investigates the extent of such consolidation that can be seen in their wake. In particular, the meaning attached to elections are described in terms of voting behavior and motivation, as well as the extent of application of the equality principle, and finally in relation to the perceived legitimacy of the elections, based on focus group discussions carried out in the spring of 2008 in Liberia. This paper also tries to gauge the advantages and disadvantages of using focus groups as a data collection method. In particular, the creation of trust in a well designed focus group, which given the field of research – post-conflict context – may be especially important. The conclusions presented in this paper are still preliminary, as not all groups have been scrutinized, but point to problems vis‐à‐vis the legitimacy of the elections which may have long term implications for the consolidation of democracy in Liberia. However, other areas, in particular attitudes towards vote buying, show more positive results. The data collection for this paper was funded through grants from NAI, SAREC and Rektors resebidrag från Wallenbergs Stiftelse. .

The challenges of democratic change in Mexico / Russell Crandall -- From electoral authoritarianism to democratic consolidation / Andreas Schedler -- Mexico's changing social and political landscape / Federico Reyes-Heroles -- Mexico's domestic economy : policy options and choices / Russell Crandall -- The Fox administration and the politics of economic transition/ Manuel Pastor and Carol Wise -- Mexico's economic transformation under NAFTA / Gary Gereffi and Martha A. Martínez -- Mexico and the Western Hemisphere / Riordan Roett -- Mexico's economic ties with Europe : business as usual / Javier Santiso -- Making Mexico's democracy work effectively / Guadalupe Paz

Examining Board: Professor Fabrizio Bernardi, EUI Professor Mark N. Franklin, Massachusetts Institute of Technology/EUI (Supervisor) Professor José Ramón Montero, Universidad Autónoma de Madrid (External Supervisor) Professor Matthew S. Shugart, University of California, Davis. ; Defence date: 7 June 2013 ; As the "Short Twentieth Century" came to an end, more and more democracies seriously considered the possibility –often for the first time in their history- of changing their national electoral system. Since then, the total number of electoral reforms enacted in countries that select their rulers through free and fair elections has sharply increased: in the last two decades over 33% of the world's democratic states modified the formula employed for choosing the members of their national legislatures, and a similar percentage adjusted other elements of the rules of the game such as the district magnitude, the legal threshold, the assembly size or the ballot structure. Unfortunately, the academic examination of the causes and consequences of these episodes of institutional change has lagged well behind these empirical developments with single case studies and small n studies still the norm. In light of this gap, research on the determinants and the outcomes of electoral reform processes is increasingly needed. The aim of this study is to transcend the analysis of a small number of cases, and instead to comparatively examine the universe of electoral system changes that have occurred in 60 contemporary democracies between 1945 and 2010. The thesis has three main findings. First, the levels of party system fragmentation and citizens' satisfaction with democracy have strong potential to explain electoral system changes in contemporary democracies. Contrary to what is usually implied by the literature on electoral reform, parties are seen to have strong tendencies to pass restrictive rather than permissive electoral system changes in circumstances where the electoral system might be considered to be already overly-permissive resulting in excessive numbers of parties. Moreover, electoral reforms in the intraparty dimension usually take place when large numbers of voters are currently dissatisfied with the way democracy works in their country. The second main finding is that electoral reforms can reshape the morphology of established party systems through two distinct mechanisms of electoral engineering. The first mechanism takes place at the interparty level, with permissive reforms reducing the difference between the percentage of votes received and the percentage of seats obtained by a party, and restrictive reforms enlarging this gap. The second mechanism operates at the intraparty level, where candidate-centred reforms decrease the level of party system nationalization while partycentred reforms leave party system nationalization unchanged. Finally, the third main finding of the thesis is that parties' positions regarding the possible modification of the rules of the game have an electoral effect. Parties that advocate a permissive reform in countries with low party system fragmentation are more likely to electorally benefit. By contrast, support for such reforms when the number of parties is large is more likely to result in electoral loses.

Facultad de Derecho y Ciencias Sociales. Maestría en Derecho ; Control of the constitutionality of laws occupies a preponderant place in every democratic state, because the essence of democracy no longer resides only in the majority, but also in the commitment of minorities to contribute to constitutional justice. Thus, constitutional control is a mechanism to ensure compliance with constitutional rules by invalidating lower-level norms that have not been decreed in accordance with the Constitution, either in substance or in form. In accordance with our Mexican legal system, the unconstitutionality action is the only means of constitutional control of electoral laws with general effects, whose knowledge and resolution corresponds to the Supreme Court of Justice of the Nation; This being a fundamental aspect, that of the court that knows and resolves the actions of unconstitutionality in electoral matters, which is put on the table of debate in the work that is presented. ; El control de la constitucionalidad de leyes ocupa un lugar preponderante en todo Estado democrático, porque la esencia de la democracia ya no reside únicamente en las mayorías, sino también en el compromiso de las minorías para contribuir a la justicia constitucional. Así, el control constitucional es un mecanismo para asegurar el cumplimiento de las normas constitucionales al invalidar las normas de categoría inferior que no hayan sido decretadas de conformidad con la Constitución, ya sea en el fondo o en la forma. En conformidad con nuestro sistema jurídico mexicano, la acción de inconstitucionalidad es el único medio de control constitucional de leyes electorales con efectos generales, cuyo conocimiento y resolución corresponde a la Suprema Corte de Justicia de la Nación; siendo éste aspecto fundamental, el del órgano jurisdiccional que conoce y resuelve las acciones de inconstitucionalidad en materia electoral, el que se pone en la mesa de debate en la obra que se presenta.

The Mexican Chamber of Deputies is composed of 500 representatives: 300 of them elected by relative majority and another 200 ones elected through proportional representation in five electoral clusters (constituencies) with 40 representatives each. In this mixed-member electoral system, the seats distribution of proportional representation is not independent of the election by relative majority, as it attempts to correct representation imbalances produced in single-member districts. This two-fold structure has been maintained in the successive electoral reforms carried out along the last three decades (eight from 1986 to 2014). In all of them, the election process of 200 seats becomes complex: Formulas in the Law are difficult to understand and to be interpreted. This paper analyzes the Mexican electoral system after the electoral reform of 2014, which was applied for the first time in 2015. The research focuses on contradictions and issues of applicability, in particular situations where seats allocation is affected by ambiguity in the law and where asymmetrical treatment of political parties arises. Due to these facts, a proposal of electoral reform will be presented. It is intended to be simpler, clearer, and more enduring than the current system. Furthermore, this model is more suitable for producing electoral outcomes free of contradictions and paradoxes. This approach would allow a fair treatment of political parties and as a result an improved opportunity to exercise democracy.

Until 19th century, the Ottoman Empire was governed by absolute monarchy but after many developments in Europe, democracy emerged in political life of humanity once more after centuries and Ottoman Empire was also affected by these developments. On the way to democracy, the first stop was the constitution in 1876. But after a short while, it was abolished and the country turned to monarchy once more for the next 33 years. Then the new constitution was put into power and the foundation of Turkish Republic changed many things in political life. After the new constitution, Turkey went through one-party government for 27 years. Then, democratic trends in Turkey and the whole world got stronger and a new era started in Turkey with Democratic Party. Then different coup d