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112. Manifestations of corruption in local government elections in Albania. Implications for the process of its accession to the European Union
- Author:
- Renata Podgórzańska
- Publication Date:
- 12-2024
- Content Type:
- Journal Article
- Journal:
- Nowa Polityka Wschodnia
- Institution:
- Faculty of Political Science and International Studies, Nicolaus Copernicus University in Toruń
- Abstract:
- One of the key values on which the European Union is based is the rule of law that also includes efficient mechanisms for counteracting and combating corruption. What is more, it is a key condition for countries aspiring to membership in the European Union. An example here comes from Albania’s accession aspirations. Their progress is determined by the dynamic changes in the transformation processes of this country, including progress in counteracting and eliminating corruption in the political and economic space. Explanation of the specific characteristics of Albanian reality and the exegesis of the impact of corruption on the process of the country’s closer EU cooperation are the aims of the research taken up here. Special focus will be given to electoral corruption in local government elections that took place on 14 May 2023. At the same time, these elections are only a background to a broader discussion on the essence of corruption in the Albanian reality as a factor that determines its accession process.
- Topic:
- Corruption, Elections, European Union, Rule of Law, and Local Government
- Political Geography:
- Europe and Albania
113. A Narrow Frente Amplio Victory in Uruguay
- Author:
- Debbie Sharnak
- Publication Date:
- 11-2024
- Content Type:
- Commentary and Analysis
- Institution:
- The North American Congress on Latin America (NACLA)
- Abstract:
- A former teacher and provincial mayor won a close runoff vote in Uruguay, signaling a return to the social welfare politics of the center-left Frente Amplio coalition.
- Topic:
- Elections, Domestic Politics, Social Welfare, and Frente Amplio
- Political Geography:
- South America and Uruguay
114. Five key takeaways from the 2024 elections in Mexico
- Author:
- Armed Conflict Location & Event Data Project (ACLED)
- Publication Date:
- 07-2024
- Content Type:
- Commentary and Analysis
- Institution:
- Armed Conflict Location & Event Data Project (ACLED)
- Abstract:
- On 2 June, Claudia Sheinbaum, running for the ruling National Regeneration Movement (MORENA) party, won the presidential election with almost 60% of votes, becoming the first female president in the country’s history. Alongside the presidential election, voters in Mexico concurrently participated in legislative, state, and municipal elections. The election was marred by assassinations and targeted attacks on candidates and other political figures. ACLED records over 330 incidents of violence targeting political figures during the election campaign, between the start of the federal campaign on 1 March and the voting day on 2 June. At least 95 incidents led to one or more reported deaths. The level of violence during this election campaign marks a record high that eclipses the violence recorded in the 2018 general and 2021 federal elections, which had 254 and 257 events, respectively. The heightened levels of violence during the 2024 campaign period also affected candidates who were not directly targeted in violent incidents. At least 553 candidates requested state protection after receiving threats,1 while others decided to withdraw from the race as a result of threats.2 Notwithstanding, none of the main presidential candidates have made substantial proposals to address this issue.
- Topic:
- Political Violence, Elections, Domestic Politics, Assassination, and Organized Crime
- Political Geography:
- Latin America and Mexico
115. Judicial selection and production efficiency: The role of campaign finance
- Author:
- Mayur Choudhary
- Publication Date:
- 06-2024
- Content Type:
- Working Paper
- Institution:
- Nottingham Interdisciplinary Centre for Economic and Political Research (NICEP)
- Abstract:
- This paper studies the effect of campaign finance on judicial selection and production efficiency. Using the Supreme Court’s surprise verdict in the Citizens United v. FEC case in 2010, which generates exogenous variation in campaign finance laws, I document that the removal of such bans led to a 33% ($ 200,000) increase in the average electoral expenditure of judicial candidates and increased competition in State Supreme Court judge elections. The judicial bench also becomes populated with more business-friendly judges. State courts decide the majority of labor, contract, and administrative law disputes, and the State Supreme Court has the power to set legal precedents. Therefore, shifts in the judicial bench of the State Supreme Court affect the legal environment and the contracting choices of firms and labor. I document that labor productivity measured as value added per worker increased by 8% in treated states with judicial elections. For sectors more reliant on contract enforcement, labor productivity is higher in states with judicial elections. Overall, removing constraints on electoral finance improves competition in judicial elections, the judicial bench becomes more business-friendly, and improves production efficiency due to the alleviation of contract-enforcement frictions.
- Topic:
- Labor Issues, Elections, Supreme Court, Judiciary, and Campaign Finance
- Political Geography:
- United States of America and North America
116. South African Elections 2024: The Results and Implications for the Region and Beyond
- Author:
- Pranish Desai, Daniel de Kadt, Rorisang Lekalake, Lwanda Maqwelane, and Evan Lieberman
- Publication Date:
- 06-2024
- Content Type:
- Video
- Institution:
- MIT Center for International Studies
- Abstract:
- SPEAKERS Pranish Desai is a senior data analyst at Good Governance Africa, a research and advocacy organization headquartered in Johannesburg, South Africa. His work at GGA focuses on the issues of subnational governance in Southern Africa, political accountability, coalition politics in South Africa and encouraging data-driven policymaking within the region. Pranish is an incoming doctoral student at MIT. Daniel de Kadt works as an assistant professor at the London School of Economics, where he is an affiliate of the Data Science Institute and a senior visiting fellow in government. Prior to this he worked at the University of California, Merced, after completing his PhD at MIT. He has written extensively on the electoral politics of South Africa. Rorisang Lekalake is a senior analyst/methodologist for Afrobarometer, charged with contributing to the organization’s analytical outputs, strengthening existing methodologies, and contributing to building the capacity of network staff and partners in quantitative research methods and analysis. She is a 2023 PhD recipient from MIT. Lwanda Maqwelane, a PhD candidate at Rhodes University, is an early career research activist with a focus on policy development, just energy transitions and climate change education. She currently serves as a researcher at the Center for Researching Education and Labour at the University of the Witwatersrand, South Africa. MODERATOR Evan Lieberman is the Total Professor of Political Science and Contemporary Africa and the director of the MIT Center for International Studies. He also directs the Global Diversity Lab (GDL) and MIT’s global experiential learning program, MISTI. His most recent book is Until We Have Won Our Liberty: South Africa after Apartheid (Princeton University Press, 2022).
- Topic:
- Elections, Domestic Politics, and Regional Politics
- Political Geography:
- Africa and South Africa
117. Mistaken Identities Make for Bad Trade Policy
- Author:
- Maurice Obstfeld
- Publication Date:
- 10-2024
- Content Type:
- Policy Brief
- Institution:
- Peterson Institute for International Economics (PIIE)
- Abstract:
- Election season debates over trade policy have brought renewed attention to the United States' longstanding deficit in foreign trade. Critics from both the right and left sides of the political spectrum, including Donald Trump and his allies, hold the trade deficit responsible for a range of alleged ills, among them, slower US economic growth, fewer jobs, the decline in manufacturing, and a transfer of American wealth to foreign owners. Trump supporters' ideas to reduce US trade deficits, such as far-reaching taxes on international transactions or forced dollar devaluation, rest on particular theories of why the deficits have arisen and persisted. These theories often have little basis other than macroeconomic accounting identities—relationships that are always true, by definition, and that therefore are consistent with a range of economic outcomes. Two key macroeconomic identities, the national income and product identity and the balance-of-payments identity, have been widely abused as justifications for radical policies to balance US trade. The identities describe relationships that necessarily hold among macro variables, but without the further input of behavioral reasoning, they cannot yield valid predictions or constructive policy conclusions. Identity-based reasoning is especially dangerous because it disguises the collateral damage that superficial fixes may inflict. It is much better to identify and directly correct the distortions that cause excessive trade deficits to emerge and persist.
- Topic:
- Elections, Macroeconomics, Trade Policy, Donald Trump, and Trade Deficit
- Political Geography:
- North America and United States of America
118. The Future of Elections in Ukraine
- Author:
- Razumkov Centre
- Publication Date:
- 06-2024
- Content Type:
- Journal Article
- Journal:
- National Security and Defence
- Institution:
- Razumkov Centre
- Abstract:
- The project «The Future of Elections in Ukraine: The Factor of War» was carried out by the Razumkov Centre with the support of the Konrad Adenauer Stiftung in Ukraine in May- September 2024, during the third year of Ukraine’s full-scale war against the russian aggressor. The project included an analytical report, a nationwide sociological and expert survey, an offline roundtable involving experts in the fields of law and political science, and original articles by renowned experts in electoral law. This publication contains an abridged version of the analytical report and the main findings of the expert and sociological surveys in descriptive form. All project materials (in Ukrainian) are available in a special issue of the National Security and Defence journal (№1-2, 2024). '
- Topic:
- National Security, Law, Elections, Domestic Politics, Political Science, and Russia-Ukraine War
- Political Geography:
- Russia, Ukraine, and Eastern Europe
119. Unloved but indispensable: Political parties in Europe
- Author:
- Paul McCarthy, Thibault Muzergues, and Patrick Quirk
- Publication Date:
- 08-2024
- Content Type:
- Policy Brief
- Institution:
- Atlantic Council
- Abstract:
- The rise of political parties in their modern form in Europe has historically been associated with the coming of age of mass politics, and the subsequent need for representation of sectional interests (in other words, the interests of specific social classes). Following the end of World War II in Western Europe, and the end of the Cold War in Central and Eastern Europe, political parties became a central component of European democracies. Scholars often describe the 1960s and 1970s as the golden age of (Western) European democratic parties. However, the honeymoon did not last beyond this period. A long decline has made political parties much less relevant to modern politics, as they were often replaced by personalized politics and the politicization of one-issue social movements throughout the 1990s and 2000s. Political parties today are generally unpopular and distrusted by the wider public. Yet what is remarkable is that despite their decline and a crisis that many had described as terminal, European parties have remained at the center of the game in most countries’ political systems. Perhaps even more importantly, they have proved indispensable for the functioning of democracy in Europe: in the Netherlands, despite an extremely atomized party system and a global rejection of parties, no agreement on a coalition government can be passed without negotiations among them. In Italy, the Five Star Movement soon understood that it needed to convert into a much more classical political party to implement its political program: it built more traditional structures and adopted a clear positioning on the very left-right divide that it had claimed to supersede a few years before. The experience of the past decade has shown that despite their unpopularity, political parties remain indispensable for the functioning of democracies in Europe—when they are present, plural, and organized, democracy is doing well. When they are not, or when the party system is unbalanced, democracies suffer and even backslide. To prove this assertion, this paper will look at four telling examples in recent European history, taking from the experiences of Romania, Spain, France, and Hungary.
- Topic:
- Politics, Reform, Elections, Political Parties, and Democratic Transitions
- Political Geography:
- Europe
120. The shift from party to personality politics is harming Latin American democracies
- Author:
- Christine Zaino and Sofia Herrera
- Publication Date:
- 11-2024
- Content Type:
- Policy Brief
- Institution:
- Atlantic Council
- Abstract:
- Across Latin America and the Caribbean, personality-driven political movements and political outsiders are increasingly prevalent, often at the expense of party-based politics. A theme of recent elections in the region has been a widespread embrace of political figures and movements vowing to upend the status quo. From Ecuador to Argentina to Guatemala, political outsiders have unseated the establishment. Meanwhile, recently formed, ideologically vague political movements in Mexico and El Salvador overtook the traditional parties that they broke away from to win landslide elections. With few exceptions, the region has failed to develop competitive, institutionalized, and programmatic parties. This breakdown in party systems and proliferation of personality-driven movements has not delivered better results. Improving institutionalized competition among programmatic, ideologically distinct, and identifiable parties would bolster Latin American democracy, delivering citizens freedom and prosperity. Within the past decade, several countries with once seemingly institutionalized party systems, such as El Salvador and Mexico, collapsed as parties lost their grip on power to personality-driven figures and movements. Others, like Ecuador and Guatemala, have systems that appear to provide a wide variety of options to citizens through a great proliferation of parties. These systems are unpredictable to citizens, and parties are unable to develop the structure, ideology, and institutionality necessary to deliver solutions to citizen’s needs. This piece examines how political parties across four Latin American countries in two types of systems have failed to serve as effective vehicles for delivering democracy, and what must change for parties in the region to succeed. We examine the breakdown of the formerly institutionalized party systems in Mexico and El Salvador, and the persistently weak parties in Guatemala and Ecuador. Each country’s experience illustrates how a lack of programmatic parties has contributed to poor governance, which fails to adequately deliver essential services to citizens, potentially undermining democracy and the freedom it should deliver. For each case, we reference data from the Atlantic Council Freedom and Prosperity Indexes and other sources to illustrate the critical role of parties in advancing democracy.
- Topic:
- Politics, Reform, Elections, and Democratic Transitions
- Political Geography:
- Latin America and Mexico