Geneva Centre for Security Sector Governance (DCAF)
Abstract:
During situations of national emergencies, natural disasters, conflict and war, state institutions have to act quickly and decisively in order to divert dangers. Every state and its society need to have a competent political leadership and government agencies that are able to act efficiently. From a democratic governance point of view, however, it is equally important that the decision-making process and the resulting outcome is both accepted and valued by the people. In other words, it is essential that the processes and outcomes of the state institutions are legitimate within a democracy.
Geneva Centre for Security Sector Governance (DCAF)
Abstract:
Democracy takes many forms. The basic notion that governments derive their legitimacy from the freely expressed votes of their citizens is translated in many different parliamentary practices. Even the conceptual distinction of the three main functions of government – legislative, executive and judicial – as defined in Montesquieu's Trias Politica, seldom resulted in a complete separation of powers. In many countries the members of the executive also sit in parliament. In the US the separation between legislature and executive is the most complete. The President has wide-ranging authority; his ministers are not responsible to Congress. Nevertheless it works, because of a complicated system of checks and balances affecting both legislationand budget appropriations. In France the President of the Republic regards foreign affairs and defence as his special domain in which the cabinet, let alone parliament, has little influence. A common characteristic of Western democracy, however, is its pluralistic character in which the people elect their representatives and have a choice between different political parties. In some cases the decisions reached in parliamentary assemblies are subject to a referendum as a form of direct democracy.
Geneva Centre for Security Sector Governance (DCAF)
Abstract:
Intelligence services are an instrument in the hands of the state institutions, which can be used both for the better and the worse. If the intelligence services are in the hands of responsible democratic leaders, then intelligence contributes to the democracy's ability to function well. This is can be learnt from the history of the 20th Century: intelligence played a crucial role in helping to defeat Hitler, it played a significant role in preventing the Cold War from turning into a nuclear war and intelligence kept the super power arms race from getting totally out of hand2. On the other hand, if intelligence services are in the hands of those who are interested in conflict and coercion, intelligence can be used for the worse. Therefore, it is essential to secure democratic and parliamentary oversight of the intelligence services.
Topic:
Defense Policy, Government, National Security, and Politics
Geneva Centre for Security Sector Governance (DCAF)
Abstract:
The broadening and deepening of the concept of security has focused renewed attention on the appropriate role of the security sector in the political and economic systems of the states. Bloated and poorly regulated militaries are seen as a primary cause of severe distortion in the allocation of national resources between the security and non-security sectors. The negative development impact of a dysfunctional security sector is magnified in countries that have experienced a significant deterioration in their capacity to deliver services and in war-torn societies. In such cases, there is an urgent need to restore physical security, to optimise the use of scarce public resources, and to attract sustained external support for the recovery process.
Geneva Centre for Security Sector Governance (DCAF)
Abstract:
Apart from the principal question of their content, reforms in general pose a twofold preliminary question: is there a sufficient quantum of willingness to proceed with the reforms and how speedily should they be carried out. A public opinion survey carried out by The Center for Policy Studies (Belgrade) in the period from August 25 to 28, 2001 has demonstrated that only 38 percent of interviewed persons consider the reforms should be quick and thorough, even painful for most citizens. At the same time, 47 percent of those interviewed believe that reforms should be conducted gradually, so they are less painful. The first question left 35 percent of persons without a response or undecided, the second left 30 percent.
Geneva Centre for Security Sector Governance (DCAF)
Abstract:
Following the disintegration of the USSR, there was no decrease in the total length of the Russian border in comparison with that of the Soviet Union (more than 60'000 km²). The number of bordering countries rose from fifteen to sixteen. Furthermore, 13'500 km² of new boundaries were created. This figure represented a fifth overall length of the border). Yet, the new boundaries were not formalised in legal terms, they were not appropriately equipped and, in fact, lacked border guard control.
The question of whether the introduction of competition and managed care in the German health care system means a "new paradigm" or simply a "stalemated strategy" was raised in a 1999 issue of Health Affairs by Lawrence Brown and Volker F. Amelung (1999). In that same issue, Uwe E. Reinhard (1999) responded with a question of his own: "Why would Germany wish to emulate the US style of managed care, with its as yet unproven effect on quality and outcomes?" The core of their disagreement seems to center around two issues. First, can competition and managed care flourish in a political culture and healthcare system where central policy-making and enforcement arrangements are embedded? The distinct political economy and history of Germany may create conditions that are not conducive to competition and managed care, unlike the US. The second issue that leads to the different interpretations above is the elusive concept of quality in health care, especially how to measure and achieve it.
Venezuelan Evangelicals' responses to candidates in that country's 1998 presidential election seem to confirm the view that their political culture is inconsistent, contradictory, and paradoxical. Not only were Evangelicals just as likely as the larger population to support nationalist former coup leader Hugo Chávez, they rejected Venezuela's one Evangelical party after it made a clientalist pact with the infamous social democratic party candidate. In this article, concepts from recent cultural theory are used to examine qualitative data from these two voting behaviors. Ways to make sense of the contradictory nature of Evangelical political culture are suggested.
The paper empirically tests the proposition that because of the unequal social distribution of politically relevant resources, some groups of citizens may be less successful in expressing their specifically political preferences in the vote than others. Hence, the electoral arena may give different people different degrees of political influence even when the formal equality of all citizens before the law is rigorously upheld in the electoral process. Survey data on voting behavior in 18 democratic party systems from the Comparative Study of Electoral Systems and Larry Bartels's (1996) simulation procedure—now extended to the analysis of multiparty-systems, turnout effects and non-linear information effects on the vote—are utilized to explore the question. The results show that social differences in both turnout and political knowledge may lead to the hypothesized political inequalities but their size is remarkably modest.
Topic:
Economics, Government, and International Trade and Finance
This paper describes the evolution of candidate selection processes in Latin American political parties up to the year 2000. The topic is part of the field of political party studies in the region. The first section diagnoses the problems affecting the data bases produced by the Latinobarometro and the Parliamentary Elites Survey of the Universidad de Salamanca. The second section describes the process indicated in the title of the present piece.