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632. No real winner? Britain's closest election in a generation and the implications for Europe
- Author:
- Toby Archer
- Publication Date:
- 05-2010
- Content Type:
- Policy Brief
- Institution:
- Finnish Institute of International Affairs
- Abstract:
- The British general election of 2010 has, despite all expectations, become a genuinely exciting and possibly ground-breaking event. If, as more and more opinion polls indicate, the outcome on May 7 is a hung parliament, with no one party having an overall majority, the result will reverberate through the British political system and onwards through European politics more generally. Until very recently, Britain's European partners were, like the British punditocracy, expecting a Conservative win and a new round of British Euroscepticism as a result. Now, the sudden rise of the Liberal Democrats, by far the most pro-EU of the three big British parties, is calling all that into question. This briefing looks at why a hung parliament is now possible and after considering the manifesto policies on European and foreign affairs of the three main parties, considers what it might mean for Britain's relations with the EU and wider world.
- Topic:
- Democratization and Politics
- Political Geography:
- Britain and Europe
633. Covering Corruption: The Difficulties of Trying to Make a Difference
- Author:
- Rosemary Armao
- Publication Date:
- 07-2010
- Content Type:
- Working Paper
- Institution:
- National Endowment for Democracy
- Abstract:
- It is often taken for granted that a free press shining a light on wrongdoing is the way to ntrol corruption. The World Bank, with an eye to the economic potential of honest government, promotes this, as do United Nations agencies and the U.S. and European governments, which spend millions of dollars to develop media with corruption-fighting power. And brave journalists have endured threats and attacks and have even died reporting about corruption. In June and July of 2010 alone, three Philippino and a Greek journalist-working in different media and on different topics, but all exposing corruption-were gunned down. Covering corruption is more dangerous than covering war.
- Topic:
- Corruption, Democratization, Development, Mass Media, and Foreign Aid
- Political Geography:
- United States and Europe
634. The Arab State: Assisting or Obstructing Development?
- Author:
- Paul Salem
- Publication Date:
- 07-2010
- Content Type:
- Working Paper
- Institution:
- Carnegie Endowment for International Peace
- Abstract:
- Good governance is key to improving peoples' lives; but the Arab world falls short on many governance indicators. Most Arab states remain highly authoritarian, although there is a growing dynamism in civil society and among opposition parties, both secular and Islamist. Problems in governance have impeded development in the Arab world and limited the achievement of the Millennium Development Goals.
- Topic:
- Civil Society, Democratization, and Governance
- Political Geography:
- Middle East and Arab Countries
635. Strategic Competition With Iran: The Military Dimension
- Author:
- Anthony H. Cordesman, Vivek Kocharlakota, and Adam Seitz
- Publication Date:
- 08-2010
- Content Type:
- Working Paper
- Institution:
- Center for Strategic and International Studies
- Abstract:
- US competition with Iran has become the equivalent of a game of three-dimensional chess, in which other states are outside players that can constantly intervene, and one where each side can modify at least some of the rules with each move. It is a game that has been going on for some three decades. It is clearly unlikely to be ended by better dialog and mutual understanding, and that Iran's version of “democracy” is unlikely to change the way it is played in the foreseeable future. This does not make dialogue and negotiation pointless. Dialogue and negotiation do reduce the risk of escalation and misunderstanding. They offer a peaceful means of placing limits on Iran's behavior, of helping to convince Iran's regime that such limits are really in its interest, and establishing “rules of the game” which limit the risks involved to both sides.
- Topic:
- Conflict Resolution, Democratization, Nuclear Weapons, and International Affairs
- Political Geography:
- United States and Iran
636. A Breakthrough in Justice? Accountability for Post-Election Violence in Kenya
- Author:
- Chandra Lekha Sriram and Stephen Brown
- Publication Date:
- 08-2010
- Content Type:
- Policy Brief
- Institution:
- Centre on Human Rights in Conflict
- Abstract:
- The International Criminal Court (ICC) provides the most promising, and potentially only, venue for accountability for those most responsible for serious post-election violence in Kenya.
- Topic:
- Conflict Prevention, Democratization, and International Law
- Political Geography:
- Kenya and Africa
637. Evaluating the Evaluators: Media Freedom Indexes and What They Measure
- Author:
- John Burgess
- Publication Date:
- 08-2010
- Content Type:
- Working Paper
- Institution:
- National Endowment for Democracy
- Abstract:
- All over the world, studies that rank countries by media freedom figure prominently in civil liberties debates, aid programming, foreign policy decisions, and academic research. The three most widely cited indexes—compiled by Freedom House, the International Research Exchanges Board (IREX), and Reporters Without Borders (RSF in its French initials)—often become media events in their own right on release day, written about by local newspapers and Web sites and analyzed on television and radio. In view of the breadth and depth of their impact, academics have been studying the quality of the social science that underlies these and other studies. Some academics claim deficiencies in such issues as methodology, cultural neutrality, and focus on “old media.” Yet many go on to conclude that whatever the shortcomings, the studies produce basically consistent findings over time and are credible, useful tools for tracking the evolution of media freedom in the countries of the world. They serve to highlight the crucial role of a free press in democracy and good governance.
- Topic:
- Civil Society, Democratization, International Affairs, and Mass Media
- Political Geography:
- France
638. Election-Related Disputes and Political Violence: Strengthening the Role of the African Union in Preventing, Managing, and Resolving Conflict
- Publication Date:
- 07-2010
- Content Type:
- Working Paper
- Institution:
- International Peace Institute
- Abstract:
- Elections are the hallmark of representative democracy, allowing the people's regular input in choices about leaders and policy. Yet they are also competitive processes, unleashing conflict and tensions that, if not constructively managed, could potentially destabilize the fabric of states and societies. Since the new wave of democratization in Africa in the early 1990s, elections have become a core ingredient of popular participation in the governance process. At the same time, elections have spawned conflicts and violence and scrambled ethnic and regional alliances that sometimes threaten the social order, economic development, and efforts to strengthen regional integration. With the steady decline of some of the historic causes of African conflicts, elections have emerged as one of the major recent sources of conflict across Africa. The challenges occasioned by election-related conflicts and political violence underscore the importance of building institutions that balance competition with order, participation with stability, and contestation with consensus.
- Topic:
- Political Violence, Democratization, Peace Studies, and Regional Cooperation
- Political Geography:
- Africa
639. The Historical Turn in Democratization Studies: A New Research Agenda for Europe and Beyond
- Author:
- Giovanni Capoccia and Daniel Ziblatt
- Publication Date:
- 01-2010
- Content Type:
- Working Paper
- Institution:
- Minda de Gunzburg Center for European Studies, Harvard University
- Abstract:
- The paper lays the theoretical and methodological foundations of a new historically-minded approach to the comparative study of democratization, centered on the analysis of the creation, development and interaction of democratic institutions. Historically, democracy did not emerge as a singular coherent whole but rather as a set of different institutions, which resulted from conflicts across multiple lines of social and political cleavage that took place at different moments in time. The theoretical advantage of this approach is illustrated by highlighting the range of new variables that come into focus in explaining democracy's emergence. Rather than class being the single variable that explains how and why democracy came about, we can see how religious conflict, ethnic cleavages, and the diffusion of ideas played a much greater role in Europe's democratization than has typically been appreciated. Above all, we argue that political parties were decisive players in how and why democracy emerged in Europe and should be at the center of future analyses.
- Topic:
- Democratization, Political Economy, and History
- Political Geography:
- Europe
640. Portuguese Exceptionalism and the Return to Europe: the 25 April 1974 Coup and Democratization, 1974-2010
- Author:
- Paul Christopher Manuel
- Publication Date:
- 01-2010
- Content Type:
- Working Paper
- Institution:
- Minda de Gunzburg Center for European Studies, Harvard University
- Abstract:
- The notion of Portuguese exceptionalism resonated with the European political and economic elite for some two hundred years: there was a widespread belief that Portuguese society and government existed outside of European understandings of society, politics and authority relations. In the thirty-five years since the 25 April 1974 Carnation Revolution, the Portuguese political system has developed new mechanisms for debate, elections and policy adoption. Portugal is currently completely integrated into Europe as a member of the European Union, with a democratic government and a developing economy. Portugal's return to the overall pattern of European democratic institutions in the years following the 25 April 1974 revolution can be understood as a much needed corrective of both Portuguese authoritarianism and its associated notions of lusotropicalism: that is, democracy and Europe have replaced corporatism and the Portuguese overseas empire as two of the key defining elements of contemporary Portuguese identity. It was certainly a long historical struggle from monarchy to democracy: the contemporary Portuguese political system is currently dynamic, democratic, durable and European.
- Topic:
- Democratization, Economics, Politics, and Regional Cooperation
- Political Geography:
- Europe