Search

Begin New Search Topic Democratization

731. Dissatisfaction with Democracy: Evidence from the Latinobarómetro 2005

Author:
Brian J. L. Berry and Osvaldo S. Tello Rodriguez
Publication Date:
06-2010
Content Type:
Journal Article
Institution:
German Institute of Global and Area Studies
Abstract:
Data for 17 Latin American countries collected by Latinobarómetro 2005 reveal that dissatisfaction with democracy is a sign of progress. Political stability and increased governmental effectiveness enable the better-educated leftish young to express their feelings without fear of repression and violence, which is particularly notable in countries least connected into the global economy, where inequality remains high. Dissatisfaction is thus an indicator of political modernization running ahead of progress in the economic sphere.
Topic:
Democratization
Political Geography:
Latin America

732. Iraqi Candidate Disqualification Update

Author:
Marisa Cochrane Sullivan and James Danly
Publication Date:
04-2010
Content Type:
Working Paper
Institution:
Institute for the Study of War
Abstract:
Seven of the eight names of the Accountability and Justice Commission's additional candidates for disqualification, based upon the de-Baathification law, were released today by Haider al-Mullah, spokesman for the Iraqi List. These individuals join Ibrahim al-Mutlak, who was among the 52 candidates named prior to the election, but whose disqualification at the time was denied by IHEC for having been named too late in the election process.On April 26, 2010, the three-judge election panel nullified their candidacies in response to an appeal submitted by the State of Law List, led by Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki.
Topic:
Democratization, Armed Struggle, Sectarianism, and Sectarian violence
Political Geography:
Iraq and Middle East

733. Iraqi Elections Update

Author:
James Danly
Publication Date:
02-2010
Content Type:
Working Paper
Institution:
Institute for the Study of War
Abstract:
This backgrounder is an update to the ISW publication dated January 14, 2010 and entitled "Sunni Politicians Barred from Candidacy." The political landscape in Iraq has changed dramatically. Multiple government entities and politicians have weighed-in on the issue of the candidate ban, various politicians have claimed un due foreign involvement by different governments and, as the elections draw near, Iraq's already tense politics have become even more divisive. The candidates' ban has sparked widespread claims of legal and constitutional illegitimacy, threats of election boycotts and a nationwide rise in vehement anti-Ba'athism. This political environment threatens the legitimacy of Iraq's second national elections since the fall of the Ba'athist regime in 2003. The following paper briefly details and analyzes the events that have unfolded since the publication of the original.
Topic:
Democratization, Armed Struggle, Sectarianism, and Sectarian violence
Political Geography:
Iraq and Middle East

734. Headscarf Ban and Discrimination

Author:
Dilek Cindoğlu
Publication Date:
11-2010
Content Type:
Working Paper
Institution:
Turkish Economic and Social Studies Foundation (TESEV)
Abstract:
The headscarf ban applied in institutions of higher education, in the public sector, and as this research has shown, in the private sector, reveals the perspectives of the state and its institutions and as well of the society on human, women’s and citizens’ rights. The restrictions and barriers to entry of women to study and work in institutions of higher education and public sector institutions, in place since the 1960s, rest on a mentality that views women’s choices to wear headscarves as an attack on the secular regime, instead of treating their choices as a manifestation of their freedom of religion and belief. Consequently, the practices that were initially violating freedom of belief gradually deteriorated to cause further violations of rights to education, to employment, to equal access to public life and of basic rights and liberties such as the right to equality. The headscarf ban in institutions of higher education has for many years been and remains to be a widely debated and contested issue. Though there is a wealth of analysis, dialogue, debate and research on the subject, it is largely restricted to whether the headscarf ban in universities is justified or not. The impact that the ban has had on headscarved women’s lives have, on the other hand, been absent in the debates and analyses on the headscarf ban. A question that has not been featured in research and public debates so far is despite the public sector ban on the headscarf what are the experiences of those headscarved women at work who were able to graduate from university, but did not abandon their choice to wear headscarf to practice their faith and without? In other words, what is the impact of the headscarf ban in the public sector on the professional lives of higher educated headscarved women? Does this ban, which applies to public sector institutions, also hinder or restrict professional headscarved women as they apply for or work in private sector jobs? What obstacles are there for professional headscarved women to entering job markets in Turkey and to advancing their careers? This report is a product of TESEV Democratization Program’s quest to answer these questions. It examines one of the greatest roadblocks on Turkey’s path to democratization, the headscarf ban, and the implications of the ban on public and private sector employment to document the myriad forms of discrimination and rights violations that headscarved women face immediately after they decide to become working professionals. Though some forms of workplace discrimination 6 that headscarved women face also affect non-headscarved professional women with similar socio-economic backgrounds, the headscarf is the primary source of the majority of discrimination faced by professional headscarved women. Again, this report shows that the ban on the public sector spilled over to the private sector. Cases of discrimination and rights violations that are believed to have diminished and to even have been reversed in favor of headscarved women during the two terms of the AK Party administration continue to be recorded, especially and more vehemently in the private sector.
Topic:
Democratization, Gender Issues, Religion, Women, Inequality, and Discrimination
Political Geography:
Turkey and Middle East

735. Regionalization of the Turkish FOreign Policy

Author:
Özdem Sanberk
Publication Date:
01-2010
Content Type:
Special Report
Institution:
BILGESAM (Wise Men Center for Strategic Studies)
Abstract:
If Turkey focuses on full accession to the European Union, it would progress in political, social and economic areas, which would certainly bring about encompassing peace, stability, prosperity and democratic advances throughout the Middle East.
Topic:
Foreign Policy, Democratization, European Union, Political stability, and Peace
Political Geography:
Europe, Turkey, and Middle East

736. Europeanisation and the reform of the State: The influence of the European Union in the reform of the Czech public administration (1993-2004)

Author:
Magdaléna Hadjiisky
Publication Date:
01-2009
Content Type:
Working Paper
Institution:
Centre for European Political Sociology
Abstract:
The question of the status of public administrations–outwardly a technical one–appears as an important political issue in the post-communist context. The form and place of the State is one of the main issues (political and scientific) raised by post-Sovietism in East European societies. The administration of the former regimes, along with the Communist Party, has embodied the Soviet type of centralized state control. It constitutes a particularly relevant context to evaluate the evolution of the form and action of the State in these new democracies. The administrations in socialist countries were based on the explicit rejection of the separation of powers. Administrative staff organization was based on partisan selection and on the management of civil servants, as well as on the denial of a statutory identity specific to the civil service. The debate on the status of civil servants and services provided by the State has allowed for the redevelopment of a fundamental aspect from the former system: partisan intervention in the selection and management of personnel, and consequently, a degree of political autonomy for the administrative staff. More generally, the treatment of civil servants is important evidence of the conception of the State that prevails at any given moment in history.
Topic:
Cold War, Communism, and Democratization
Political Geography:
Europe

737. Sociology of a new field of knowledge: gender studies in postcommunist Eastern Europe

Author:
Ioana Cîrstocea
Publication Date:
02-2009
Content Type:
Working Paper
Institution:
Centre for European Political Sociology
Abstract:
A new research field named “gender studies” or “feminist studies” has emerged during the 1990s in East-European and post-Soviet countries. The scientific productions in that field often function as experts' studies and aim at contributing to improve women's condition. Established by agents who simultaneously act in several social spaces (scientific, associative or political), feminist studies are at the crossroads of academic and activist, national and international dynamics. Therefore, we consider them as a new discipline at the core of the social and political programmes of recomposition after the collapse of communist regimes, and as an indicator for the rebuilding of social sciences, the emergence of new academic topics, the international circulation and importation of scientific concerns, the reconstruction of intellectual elites in the Countries of Central and Eastern Europe (CCEE). The paper offers some guidelines for a sociology of this new field of knowledge production.
Topic:
Cold War, Communism, Democratization, Gender Issues, and Political Theory
Political Geography:
Europe

738. Building Blocks for Citizenship and a Peaceful Transition in Sudan

Author:
Kelly Campbell, Linda Bishai, and Jacki Wilson
Publication Date:
03-2009
Content Type:
Policy Brief
Institution:
United States Institute of Peace
Abstract:
Sudan's upcoming elections in 2009 raise hopes and concerns for the country's future. According to the Comprehensive Peace Agreement (CPA), signed in 2005 between the ruling National Congress Party (NCP) and the Sudan People's Liberation Movement (SPLM), Sudan is scheduled to hold national and state level elections in 2009. (Elections are to take place for president of the Government of National Unity, president of the Government of Southern Sudan, members of the National Assembly and the South Sudan Legislative Assembly, and governors and state legislatures in all of Sudan's 25 states) However, delays in each phase of electoral preparation—including the passage of the electoral law, the appointment of the nine National Election Commission members responsible for overseeing elections, and the census—have raised doubts about whether the elections will be held within the timeframe outlined in the CPA.
Topic:
Political Violence, Civil Society, Democratization, Government, Peace Studies, and War
Political Geography:
Africa, Sudan, and South Sudan

739. Indonesia: Deep Distrust in Aceh as Elections Approach

Publication Date:
03-2009
Content Type:
Policy Brief
Institution:
International Crisis Group
Abstract:
Tensions in Aceh are high as elections approach, although they have receded somewhat from a peak in mid-February. The murders of three former combatants of the Free Aceh Movement (Gerakan Aceh Merdeka, GAM), other shootings and numerous grenade attacks over the last two months – all with unidentified perpetrators – have set the province on edge, and there remains a risk of sporadic, low-level violence before and after general elections on 9 April. Disputes over the results, with 44 parties competing for seats in district, provincial and national legislatures using a new and complicated system of voting, are also likely. There is little danger in the short term of violence escalating out of control, let alone a return to armed conflict, but the underlying causes of the tensions are not just election-related and need to be addressed if peace is to be preserved in the long term.
Topic:
Conflict Resolution, Security, Political Violence, and Democratization
Political Geography:
Indonesia, Asia, Australia/Pacific, and Southeast Asia

740. Democracy in Slow Motion

Author:
Bryan N. Groves
Publication Date:
02-2009
Content Type:
Working Paper
Institution:
Department of Social Sciences at West Point, United States Military Academy
Abstract:
Bosnia-Herzegovina's democratization is in slow motion. On the outside it appears that the framework for democracy is in place. A closer look reveals that it lacks the civil society to under gird its political institutions. As Piotr Sztompka points out, "building a house is not the same as establishing a home. The former is only the shell, the empty framework ... it is a concern for architects. The latter is the living arena of social actions and interactions ... it is the concern for sociology. The more or less explicit recognition of that distinction between the institutional and the cultural-civilizational spheres is also indicated by other terms, i.e. public sphere versus civil society" (Sztompka, 1996 in Chandler, 2000). Bosnia-Herzegovina-from here forward Bosnia-lacks the inner workings that distinguish a home from a house.
Topic:
Democratization, Development, Regional Cooperation, Treaties and Agreements, and International Affairs
Political Geography:
Bosnia and Balkans