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782. Côte d'Ivoire : les impératifs de sortie de crise

Publication Date:
07-2009
Content Type:
Policy Brief
Institution:
International Crisis Group
Abstract:
Le 4 mars 2007, les deux principaux protagonistes de la crise ivoirienne signaient l'accord politique de Ouagadougou (APO). Ce compromis a, dans un pre-mier temps, apporté un environnement de paix en Côte d'Ivoire. La ligne de démarcation entre les deux pro-tagonistes a été démantelée. Un nouveau gouvernement a été formé et les bases ont été jetées pour apporter une réponse aux deux questions-clés du conflit : l'identité et la citoyenneté ivoiriennes et la légitimité du pouvoir. Mais, plus de deux ans après son adoption, l'APO va mal. Une sortie de crise sera possible uniquement si les engagements pris dans la capitale burkinabé sont enfin suivis d'effets. Sortir la Côte d'Ivoire de sa décen-nie de crise ne nécessitera pas seulement l'organisation d'élections crédibles mais impliquera également des progrès significatifs dans le processus de désarmement ainsi qu'une véritable réunification de l'administration. Ceci demandera la remobilisation de la facilitation burkinabé et une pression accrue des partenaires inter-nationaux sur les acteurs du conflit.
Topic:
Conflict Resolution, Political Violence, Democratization, Peace Studies, and Post Colonialism
Political Geography:
Africa

783. Flags and hymns are not for Finns: An evaluation of the European elections in Finland before the fact

Author:
Aaretti Siitonen
Publication Date:
05-2009
Content Type:
Policy Brief
Institution:
Finnish Institute of International Affairs (FIIA)
Abstract:
Finland is to elect 13 representatives to the seventh European Parliament on 7 June 2009. In the last European elections in 2004, EU-wide voter turnout remained at 46%, the figure in Finland reaching only 41.1%. This was, however, a considerable improvement on the 1999 elections, where Finnish turnout was a meagre 31.4%.
Topic:
Democratization and Politics
Political Geography:
Europe and Finland

784. Parties in Russia: From a pseudo-system towards fragmentation

Author:
Sirke Mäkinen
Publication Date:
06-2009
Content Type:
Policy Brief
Institution:
Finnish Institute of International Affairs (FIIA)
Abstract:
Stability has not been characteristic of the Russian party system: political parties have appeared and disappeared between the federal elections, both politicians and the electorate have changed their affiliation, and legislation regarding political parties and elections has been amended. During the 2000s, the party system has also undergone significant changes. Both the changed political culture and the creation of Putin's power vertical have required – and enabled – a stronger control of the party system by the executive power. We can even argue that the most important actor in the party system is the executive power and, in particular, the presidential administration. The parliamentary tool in the hands of the executive power is the United Russia Party, which received the majority of the seats in the State Duma in the last two elections in 2003 and 2007, and thus ensured a smooth process for adopting the bills prepared by the president, the presidential administration or the government. Economic growth and the popularity of Mr Putin have secured the survival of the current party system as part of the power vertical but now, with the consequences of the economic crisis and with a president more liberal in his rhetoric than his predecessor, there are expectations, and even some signs, of the liberalization of the party system.
Topic:
Democratization, Politics, and Governance
Political Geography:
Russia

785. De la White House a la Black House : elección presidencial de los Estados Unidos en el 2008. ¿Movilidad social ascendente?

Author:
Juan Paul Farías Peña
Publication Date:
01-2009
Content Type:
Working Paper
Institution:
CONfines de Relaciones Internacionales y Ciencia Política
Abstract:
El estudio de los procesos electorales nos ofrece una excelente oportunidad para reflexionar sobre los efectos políticos de la movilidad social. Se considera que ésta y la estabilidad política comparten una relación directamente proporcional: a mayor movilidad social, mayor estabilidad política; y, por consiguiente, una menor movilidad social genera el efecto contrario (Zapata, 2005: 43).
Topic:
Democratization and Ethnic Conflict
Political Geography:
United States

786. A Virtuous Circle for All? Media Exposure and Political Trust in Europe

Author:
Oscar G. Luengo and y Marcus Maurer
Publication Date:
04-2009
Content Type:
Working Paper
Institution:
CONfines de Relaciones Internacionales y Ciencia Política
Abstract:
The electoral results of last European elections in 2004, have produced a preoccupation and have raised a debate, not only in the political sphere but also in the academic realm, around a topic that has been enormously influential in the development of political science; the disengaged attitudes that citizens have been increasingly showing towards the political process. Grouping the 25 countries of the European Union in one category, less than half (45 percent) of the Europeans having the right to vote took part in the election. Electoral turnout ranged from about 90 percent in Belgium and Luxembourg (where voting is legally mandatory), to about 20 percent in Slovakia and Poland. These low turnout levels have revealed a trend of what has been labelled as political disaffection. Additionally, they show the same pattern which has been discovered several times in the past (e.g. Klingemann, 1999): when it comes to political disaffection, Europe is divided in three parts. In Western and Northern Europe, citizens are rather engaged, but not to the same extent as 20 years ago. In Southern Europe, citizens are traditionally rather dissafected, and in the new democracies in Eastern Europe only a minority is engaged in political life.
Topic:
Democratization and Mass Media
Political Geography:
Europe

787. The Effects of Electoral Institutions in Rwanda: Why Proportional Representation Supports the Authoritarian Regime

Author:
Alexander Stroh
Publication Date:
07-2009
Content Type:
Working Paper
Institution:
German Institute of Global and Area Studies
Abstract:
While much has been written about the special design of Rwanda's judiciary in order to handle the aftermath of the genocide in 1994, other institutional actions resulting from the 2003 constitution have rarely been addressed in research. However, the second (partial) parliamentary elections in September 2008 revealed some of the implications which the carefully designed electoral system has for Rwanda's political development. As a starting point, the paper emphasises the need to link the debates on institutional design in divided societies with elections in authoritarian regimes. Under different regime types, “institutional engineers” may pursue different goals. The paper concludes that in the case of Rwanda proportional representation (PR) has been implemented to support undemocratic goals. PR limits the local accountability of politicians in a political environment in which the government is not controlled by a democratic opposition. Thus, Rwanda's current PR system facilitates the maintenance of authoritarian power in the country, whereas small constituencies would establish closer links between the local populations and their representatives.
Topic:
Democratization, Politics, and Governance
Political Geography:
Africa

788. Democratic Talk and the Democratic Walk: Superficial Versus Sincere Support for Illiterate Voting Rights in Lebanon

Author:
Daniel Corstange
Publication Date:
05-2009
Content Type:
Working Paper
Institution:
Kellogg Institute for International Studies
Abstract:
Who supports illiterate voting rights? In the diverse societies of the developing world, suffrage restrictions on illiterate people can have both class and ethnic ramifications because illiteracy correlates with poverty and often with ethnic group membership. I demonstrate how examining the overlap of ethnic population distributions helps to identify individuals for whom satisfying material interests comes at the expense of identity interests and vice-versa. The salience of ethnicity in public discourse requires people to articulate identity demands that may be inconsistent with their material interests, opening up the possibility that what they say and what they think will diverge systematically. Empirically, I use an augmented list experiment in Lebanon to distinguish between superficial and sincere support for illiterate voting rights. I show that a direct question yields a sectarian answer in which Shiites are more supportive of those rights than are Sunnis or Christians, whereas an unobtrusive question produces an answer about material deprivation in which poor people are more supportive of illiterate voting than rich people.
Topic:
Democratization, Development, and Social Stratification
Political Geography:
Middle East, Arabia, and Lebanon

789. La Revocatoria de Mandato: Lecciones a Partir de la Experiencia Venezolana

Author:
Miriam Kornblith
Publication Date:
06-2009
Content Type:
Working Paper
Institution:
Kellogg Institute for International Studies
Abstract:
This paper examines four related aspects of the recall of elected officials as defined and used in Venezuela: 1) The context in which the recall emerged; 2) the activation of the presidential recall throughout 2003 and 2004, which concluded with the recall referendum of August 15, 2004; 3) the legal and substantive aspects of the recall; 4) the assessment of the use of the recall. The purpose of the paper is to evaluate the advantages and disadvantages of this instrument of direct democracy from the Venezuelan experience.
Topic:
Democratization, Governance, and Law Enforcement
Political Geography:
Latin America and Venezuela

790. The High and the Low in Politics: A Two-Dimensional Political Space for Comparative Analysis and Electoral Studies

Author:
Pierre Ostiguy
Publication Date:
07-2009
Content Type:
Working Paper
Institution:
Kellogg Institute for International Studies
Abstract:
This paper introduces an indispensable dimension for the spatial and comparative analysis of party systems, cleavages, and the conduct of political campaigns. It presents the concepts of “high” and “low” in politics and the high-low dimension, which concerns ways of appealing (and thus relating) to people in sociologically differentiated ways. Politicians on the high are “well behaved,” more restrained, and proper, both in manners and institutional procedures. Politicians on the low sublimate less and are more down-to-earth, coarser, earthier, and personalistic, both in manners and institutionally. The high-low dimension is fully neutral, or orthogonal, with regard to the left-right axis, in contrast to Kitschelt's authoritarian/libertarian divide or Inglehart's materialist/post-materialist political cleavage. The paper also provides a solid conceptual discussion of the classic and almost universal polarity between left and right, which (like the high-low axis) is in fact comprised of two subdimensions.
Topic:
Democratization, Political Theory, and Governance
Political Geography:
Latin America