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932. Report on the Appointment of the Temporary Electoral Authorities of Ecuador
- Publication Date:
- 11-2008
- Content Type:
- Working Paper
- Institution:
- The Carter Center
- Abstract:
- As described in the Transitional Regime of the Constitution approved by referendum on September 28, 2008, the Constituent Assembly held its final session (the 98th) in order to appoint the members of the Legislation and Oversight Commission, as well as the members of the temporary electoral authorities that together form the Electoral Branch: the National Electoral Council (NEC) and the Litigious Electoral Tribunal (LET). For the first time in Ecuador's modern history, the organization and evaluation of its elections have been left to two autonomous agencies: the NEC will be in charge of organizing and executing electoral processes and the LET will have jurisdictional authority on electoral matters. This report provides an account of the process of selecting and naming the temporary representatives of these two agencies. The Carter Center's principal motivation in writing this report is to make a contribution to informing national and international audiences about the process of institutional transformation taking place in Ecuador. Although they are temporary, the new electoral authorities have an important and specific purpose in organizing and judging the fairness of the next general election scheduled for April of 2009.
- Topic:
- Democratization, Politics, and Governance
- Political Geography:
- Latin America
933. Common Norms and Good Practices of Civil-Military Relations in the EU
- Author:
- Anne Aldis and Margriet Drent
- Publication Date:
- 07-2008
- Content Type:
- Working Paper
- Institution:
- Centre for European Security Studies
- Abstract:
- Why are we presenting another book on civil-military relations? Many trees have already been sacrificed in the name of a better understanding of the relationship between those in uniform and those they serve. Unfortunately, it appears that the more that has been written, the more elusive the last, definitive word on the subject becomes. And we must say at the outset that this book does not provide it either. Perhaps that is because the subject is too broad to cover in a single volume.
- Topic:
- Civil Society, Democratization, and War
- Political Geography:
- Europe
934. En quoi les "partis ethniques" sont-ils "ethniques" ? Les trajectoires du MDL en Bulgarie et de l'UDMR en Roumanie
- Author:
- Antonela Capelle-Pogăcean and Nadège Ragaru
- Publication Date:
- 06-2008
- Content Type:
- Working Paper
- Institution:
- Centre d'Etudes et de Recherches Internationales (CERI)
- Abstract:
- A rather marginal theme in Eastern European studies before the end of communism, ethnic politics and minority policies in Central and South-East Europe have given birth to a very rich body of literature in the 1990s. Some analyses have been influenced by the so-called "transitology" paradigm; others have borrowed from ethnic conflict studies. In both cases, though, ethnocultural diversity has mostly been treated in a normative way and portrayed as an obstacle to democratization. As for ethnic parties, they have alternatively been presented as conducive to better political participation and integration for the minorities (in a multiculturalist perspective) or as a threat to state stability and to democracy. Regardless of these cleavages, most research on ethnic identifications and on their mobilization in politics has been grounded upon substantial definitions of ethnic "groups" and has reified differences between "generalist" and "ethnic" parties. The present comparison between the trajectory of the Movement for Rights and Freedoms (MFR, which represents the interests of the Turks and other Muslims in Bulgaria) and that of the Democratic Alliance of Hungarians in Romania (DAHR, representing the Hungarian population) departs from these approaches in two ways. First, it emphasizes the centrality of the sociology of collective action to understanding the politicization of ethnicity, while insisting on the need to trace the particular historical processes through which ethnicity has been constructed and politicized in every single case. Second, attention is brought to the role the social imaginary plays in shaping the strategies of social and political actors. To put it otherwise, we argue that identities are not exogenous to politicization processes; they are redefined, renegotiated and reappropriated as social actors invest the political field. "Ethnic parties" are in urgent need of deexoticization: Like most parties, they cannot elude the traditional dilemmas of political representation, in particular the need to be perceived as both responsive and accountable.
- Topic:
- Civil Society, Democratization, and Demographics
- Political Geography:
- Europe
935. Control y sanción: El financiamiento público a las Agrupaciones Políticas Nacionales en México (2000-2005)
- Author:
- Anselmo Flores Andrade
- Publication Date:
- 12-2008
- Content Type:
- Working Paper
- Institution:
- CONfines de Relaciones Internacionales y Ciencia Política
- Abstract:
- Democracia y transparencia son una demanda cada vez más presente en nuestros sistemas políticos contemporáneos (Peschard, 2005; Rivera, 2005). Si bien el adjetivo democrático ha sido utilizado para legitimar el origen, actuación y acciones tanto de los funcionarios como de los órganos públicos, esto ya no es razón suficiente. Cada vez es más imperativo informar, justificar y transparentar la toma de decisiones; así mismo, las acciones emprendidas (Shedler, 2004); es decir, ejercer la rendición de cuentas. Esta tarea, es cada vez más necesaria en la relación dinero y política, pues dicha relación, en los últimas décadas, ha generando graves casos de corrupción que han influido en el descrédito de la política, en general, y de los partidos políticos, en particular. De hecho, los efectos negativos de esa relación han colocado el tema como uno de los centrales en la agenda política latinoamericana (Carrillo, Lujambio, Navarro y Zovatto, 2003; García, 2000; Griner y Zovatto, 2004). Especialmente, el financiamiento de los partidos políticos ha sido motivo de preocupación por lo que, en la última década, se introdujeron, en la mayoría de los códigos electorales del continente, normas y mecanismos tendientes a controlar e inhibir las acciones prohibidas por la ley (Zovatto, 2003). A pesar de ello, los escándalos políticos por el uso ilícito de dinero y tráfico de influencias en las campañas electorales continuaron.
- Topic:
- Democratization, Government, and Political Economy
- Political Geography:
- Latin America
936. El relato canónico de las desapariciones en Argentina: El informe "Nunca Más"
- Author:
- Emilio Crenzel
- Publication Date:
- 10-2008
- Content Type:
- Working Paper
- Institution:
- CONfines de Relaciones Internacionales y Ciencia Política
- Abstract:
- Este trabajo tiene por objeto analizar el contenido del informe Nunca Más, elaborado por la Comisión Nacional sobre la Desaparición de Personas (CONADEP); ésta es una organización creada en Argentina por el Presidente Raúl Alfonsín, en 1983, para investigar el destino de los miles de desaparecidos a causa de la represión estatal durante la última dictadura militar (1976-1983).
- Topic:
- Political Violence, Democratization, Human Rights, and Torture
- Political Geography:
- Argentina and Latin America
937. Una alternativa de participación política. Las Redes Ciudadanas del PRD en Nuevo León
- Author:
- Angélica Hernández Ramírez
- Publication Date:
- 09-2008
- Content Type:
- Working Paper
- Institution:
- CONfines de Relaciones Internacionales y Ciencia Política
- Abstract:
- La política ha cobrado un significado negativo ante los ojos de buena parte de la ciudadanía, quien, lejos de desear participar en ella, permanece lo más alejada posible. Ante esta situación, los partidos políticos y algunos sectores de la sociedad han comenzado a buscar medios alternativos de participación política. Uno de ellos está formado por las redes ciudadanas que podrían facilitar una participación directa mayor que la de los propios partidos, y que podrían constituir, en ocasiones, grandes masas de individuos dispuestos a integrarse en el sistema político.
- Topic:
- Civil Society, Democratization, Government, and Politics
- Political Geography:
- Latin America
938. Enhancing Democracy Assistance
- Author:
- Lincoln A. Mitchell and David L. Phillips
- Publication Date:
- 01-2008
- Content Type:
- Policy Brief
- Institution:
- Atlantic Council
- Abstract:
- The Research Project on Enhancing Democracy Assistance is undertaken by the National Committee on American Foreign Policy, the Arnold A. Saltzman Institute of War and Peace Studies of the School of International and Public Affairs at Columbia University, and the Atlantic Council of the United States. This report recognizes that democracy assistance is essential to the promotion of US foreign policy and global interests, and offers political and technical recommendations in order to enhance democracy assistance.
- Topic:
- Foreign Policy, Democratization, Development, Globalization, and International Affairs
- Political Geography:
- United States
939. Von der gesteuerten Demokratie zum selbststeuernden Kapitalismus
- Author:
- Wolfgang Streeck
- Publication Date:
- 07-2008
- Content Type:
- Working Paper
- Institution:
- Max Planck Institute for the Study of Societies
- Abstract:
- The paper is an expanded and revised version of a lecture given at the 2008 Annual Colloquium of the Max Planck Institute for the Study of Societies (MPIfG). Its subject is the relationship between social theories and political-economic change. The paper's central claim is that theories of society can by nature be fully understood only if related to and interpreted in the horizon of action of a virtual user located in the social world that is being explained. This is illustrated with reference to the development of political macrosociology since the Second World War. Next, five tendencies in today's social sciences are briefly discussed, all of which seem to indicate growing uncertainty about the practical usefulness of basic research in social science, in light of the demise of the democratic nation-state: the transition from Steuerungstheorie to research on “governance”; the departure from participatory models of democracy; the rise of economics to academic and political hegemony; a functionalist, efficiency-theoretical turn in theories of social policy; and growing doubts about the usefulness of a scientistic model of theory. In the final section it is suggested that the social sciences might find new theoretical orientation and practical self-confidence by defending in public discourse its fundamental insights on the limits of a market-driven organization of social life.
- Topic:
- Democratization, International Political Economy, Political Economy, and Political Theory
940. Women in the European Parliament: effects of the voting system, strategies and political resources. The case of the French delegation.
- Author:
- Willy Beauvallet and Sébastien Michon
- Publication Date:
- 10-2008
- Content Type:
- Working Paper
- Institution:
- Centre for European Political Sociology
- Abstract:
- This article aims to provide elements to explain the feminisation of French MEPs. While the voting system should be taken into account, its effects can only be understood in relation with two elements: on the one hand, the position of the European Parliament in the French political field; on the other, the specific configuration of social and political struggles of the public space in 1990s France. Within this framework, gender constitutes a political resource that is more valuable in the European Parliament than in the national parliament; as a result, women who are less politically professionalised are promoted. They turn towards forms of parliamentary “goodwill” and strategies of over-involvement in European political roles. The relative specificity of the postures they adopt within the institution does not have to do with a hypothetical “feminine nature”, but with a set of sociopolitical processes.
- Topic:
- Democratization, Gender Issues, Political Economy, and Political Theory
- Political Geography:
- Europe and France