Electoral Behavior

El proceso electoral en Paraguay se ha visto condicionado históricamente por el control de la Asociación Nacional Republicana, partido hegemónico durante los años del régimen de Stroessner y los años de la transición democrática. Por este motivo, la alternancia al mando del Poder Ejecutivo ocurrida en el año 2008, como resultado del proceso electoral, marcó un hito en la historia política del país y resaltó la importancia del análisis del comportamiento electoral de los paraguayos, sus tendencias y los elementos coyunturales y estructurales que las condicionan. En el presente trabajo se describen los parámetros de comportamiento electoral en las tres últimas elecciones generales celebradas en el país considerando los índices de volatilidad electoral resultantes de estos comicios y los niveles de participación efectiva registrados, analizándolos a partir del contexto sociopolítico en que se desarrollan.

Since the signing of the Dayton Peace Agreement on December 14th in Paris 1995, the political but also general social scene of Bosnia and Herzegovina has been overwhelmed with the issues of reforms and changes in regard to the Constitutional settlement agreed in Dayton. The Bosnian-Herzegovinian everyday reality that the citizens of Bosnia and Herzegovina face with on a daily basis stands as an unquestionable witness to the necessity of the Constitution changes, which was adopted as an integral part of a Peace Agreement which only or most important goal was to "end the war". After the cessation of armed conflict, the large number of B&H administration, overlapping of competencies, inconsistency of internal structure (one part (entity) functions on the "republican model" while the other on the "federal"), and above all the reality of everyday life, as well as the challenges encountered by the citizens of B&H imposed as a necessity changes of the Constitu...

Parmi les thèmes et engagements jalonnant l’œuvre et le parcours de Denis de Rougemont, le rapport à la démocratie, au fascisme et au national-socialisme dans les années 1930 suscite des jugements contrastées chez les historiens. Les exégèses du Journal d’Allemagne, publié par Rougemont après un séjour à Francfort en 1935-1936, en sont une bonne illustration. Quand les unes soulignent les prises de position condamnant le régime hitlérien, les autres pointent au contraire les efforts de Rougemont pour se mettre dans la peau des Allemands de l’époque, le peu d’attention accordée au destin des Juifs, la fascination mêlée de répulsion pour le chef charismatique. Ces éloges ou ces critiques, abordant la relation au national-socialisme en termes de répulsion-attraction ou de résistance-adaptation, font écho à la polarisation du débat historiographique qui s’est opérée suite aux travaux de Zeev Sternhell au début des années 1980. Sans ignorer les résultats de ces recherches, nous souhaitons ici renouveler l’interprétation des écrits de Rougemont en examinant le problème central que s’est posé l’écrivain face au national-socialisme : l’émergence d’une religion de substitution, dans un contexte de déchristianisation accélérée. Nous évoquerons tout d’abord le milieu intellectuel dans lequel Rougemont évolue au début des années 1930, en soulignant les tensions qui agitent ce milieu et qui sont exacerbées du fait de l’émergence du national-socialisme sur la scène politique allemande. Puis nous testerons la validité du concept de « religion de substitution » en montrant les conséquences, à la fois religieuses et politiques, du déclin du protestantisme en Allemagne. Nous évoquerons enfin l’une des limites de l’interprétation de Rougemont, ainsi que la manière dont son protestantisme conditionne non seulement son diagnostic du national-socialisme mais aussi la réponse qu’il lui oppose.

Initiatives to change or sidestep presidential term limits are often presented as a response to popular demand, yet tend to be deeply polarizing and may even lead to violence. Opinion on the legality of changing term limits tends to be sharply divided not only in the country concerned but also among the international community. In an effort to fine-tune policy debate, this paper looks at the normative framework relating to term limits and their removal. It recommends that, in the absence of clear international norms, the issue be approached as a matter of maintaining confidence in a country’s electoral process and political system. This means focusing on the process by which term limits might be amended or interpreted.

Esta investigación cuestiona el saber convencional de la disciplina acerca de las causas del voto y de la abstención en varios aspectos cruciales. El estudio demuestra que el consenso acerca de la supuesta irrelevancia de las variables del modelo del votante instrumental ha de ser puesto en cuarentena. Este modelo es capaz de explicar mucho más de lo que se suele aceptar, lo que pone en entredicho que el voto sea el talón de Aquiles de los modelos de elección racional en ciencia política. Para llegar a estas conclusiones, el trabajo analiza diferentes fuentes de beneficios instrumentales (información imperfecta, racionalidad limitada, minimización del riesgo) con bases de datos holandesas y españolas especialmente adecuadas para investigar las causas del voto. Los resultados cuestionan asimismo la aceptación acrítica de que los ciudadanos votan guiados exclusivamente por consideraciones morales y por otras razones relacionadas con el valor intrínseco del voto (deseo de apoyar a la democracia, expresividad, beneficios selectivos). La decisión de votar no puede ser explicada apelando solo al homo economicus o al homo sociologicus: ambos homini deben estar presentes para que la mayoría de ciudadanos se decida a votar. Una contribución adicional del estudio es su formulación de modelos pioneros que tratan como endógenas las variables del modelo instrumental y de las explicaciones no instrumentales del voto.

Este artículo reexamina la idea de Lijphart (1997) de que el voto obligatorio sea un instrumento efectivo para reducir la desigualdad del ingreso con un diseño de investigación cuasi experimental basado en la técnica de matching. Los resultados muestran que el voto obligatorio no tiene un impacto significativo sobre las políticas redistributivas. En base a la experiencia de América Latina, donde predomina el voto obligatorio junto a alta desigualdad de ingresos, el artículo sostiene que el problema empírico del argumento lijphartiano se encuentra en el supuesto implícito de la existencia de un vínculo programático entre políticos y electores. Se sugiere como hipótesis alternativa que la combinación de alta participación electoral y alta desigualdad puede deberse a la prevalencia de un vínculo clientelar, frecuente en democracias con instituciones débiles.

In this article, we examine which political issues are considered most important by the Spanish electorate. Although a variety of potentially relevant issues are available, voters are forced to summarise them in just one vote. Thus, they need to prioritise some issues over others. This article analyses which issues end up being the most important for the Spanish electorate when they decide their vote, and why some issues become more influential than others. Our hypothesis is that voters give more weight to issues that polarise the parties. The hypothesis is tested at the individual and at the aggregate level.

The aim of this article is to examine the performance of the Electoral Commission (IEC) of South Africa. The analysis not only confines itself to the 2011 local government elections, but also examines how the IEC, through the use of a Voter Participation Survey (VPS) and an Election Satisfaction Survey (ESS), has been evaluated by the voters over the past local government elections. Results from these surveys show overwhelming endorsement of the Electoral Commission alongside noteworthy generally positive attitudes regarding voting intention. However, despite the positive findings, signs of a growing sense of political disillusionment are evident among South Africans. The article examines some of the reasons for the disillusionment, places it in an international context where political values are changing, and also suggests ways for the IEC to address it going forward.

The goal of this article is to identify the factors that led the voters of Partido Socialista Obrero Español (PSOE) in 2008 to abandon electorally this political party in the 2011 general elections and opt for other alternative. In 2011, PSOE obtained its worst electoral result in history as it lost more than four millions voters with respect to 2008. I argue that the explanation must combine short term (valence issues, party leaders, retrospective evaluation) and long-term factors (party proximity) and that its explanatory power differs depending on the alternative for which the voter opted. Methodologically, I employ multinomial logistic regression as the most appropriate technique for the analysis of individual electoral behaviour with a nominal dependent variable that has more than two categories. I use data from a panel survey study carried out by Centro de Investigaciones Sociológicas between November 2011 and January 2012.

In contemporary American Politics, there have been many studies on voting behavior. They have included topics such as bloc voting, coalition building to form an electoral majority, and 3 rd party voting. This paper addresses the question why some racially diverse regions and states have tended to vote Republican in contemporary Presidential elections, while others have tended to vote Democratic. My hypothesis is that race relations have been a major factor in determining voting behavior since the 1964 Presidential elections. I argue that in regions and states where race-relations are polarized, racial issues are generally more salient than other issues, and these regions as well as states generally vote Republican in Presidential elections. In regions and states where race-relations tend to be more harmonious, racial issues are tend to be less salient, and these states generally vote Democratic in Presidential elections. I measure racial polarization in a variety of ways such as differing voting reactions based on issues with a strong racial component, rates of interracial marriages, electoral reactions to policy, and strength of organized racism. The findings generally confirm my hypothesis, although there a few regions as well as states where the findings are not entirely in line with my hypothesis.

How can we explain that a part of the Catalan population gives support to secession while others reject it? Is it only a matter of identity, or do instrumental calculations related to the economic consequences of a hypothetical secession play an important role as well? In this paper we try to answer these questions analyzing the Political Opinion Barometer (July 2011) of the Centre d'Estudis d'Opinió. The results show how, beyond identity, economic factors, among others, have a important role in explaining support for secession, especially among those in favor of secession who have a weak preference for it.

This paper asks whether international economic integration negatively affects electoral turnout. The theoretical model builds on the premise that economic integration constrains the ability of national governments to shape outcomes. Citizens are conscious of such constraints and take them into account when considering the costs and benefits of casting a vote in national elections. The result is a lower inclination to vote under conditions of high economic integration. Consequently, aggregate turnout is lower the more internationally integrated a national economy is. Analysis of aggregate data for parliamentary elections in 23 OECD democracies over the period 1965–2006 robustly supports this hypothesis. The empirical estimates suggest economic globalization as a central cause of the general decline in turnout within established democracies.

A look at how the British UK system is rigged towards unfair voting patterns because of a historic electoral system that no longer reflects the needs of the public. The paper assesses the UK's need for electoral reform with the comparison of other European models and party theory.

[Co-authored with Radosław Markowski]
During the long nineteenth century, Poland was divided among the Russian, Habsburg, and Prussian empires. The partition produced regional diversity in political culture and in institutional and economic development. We examine how the cultural legacies of the empires have influenced the propensity of Poles to cast a ballot in parliamentary elections since 1989. Polish National Election Study individual-level data are used to assess whether higher levels of electoral turnout in Galicia are indeed a legacy of the Habsburg rule. Our results confirm that, even after controlling for socio-demographic factors, there is a positive, substantive and significant effect on turnout of living in the ex-Habsburg part of Poland. This effect can be explained by the frequency of religious service attendance and by ideology. Inhabitants of Galicia not only attend religious services more frequently and are more conservative than their counterparts in the rest of Poland, but also the more frequently they attend church and the closer to the radical right they place themselves, the more mobilized they are to vote. The impact of the legacies of the empires on political behavior in Poland seems persistent.

El documento presenta un balance ejecutivo de la actividad legislativa desarrollada por las y los legisladores del Congreso de la Unión (Cámara de Diputados y Senado de la República) en materia de aprobación de decretos publicados en el Diario Oficial de la Federación, del 1 de septiembre de 2021 al 17 de junio de 2022.

The Tweed Ring spawned a vibrant financial sector that was integral to its brief success but has never been previously examined. William “Boss” Tweed and his allies employed banks controlled or comanaged by Tammany politicians to embezzle funds, build political alliances, and invest in a wide array of business ventures. The capital of these savings and commercial banks—city money, deposits from Catholic charities, and the savings of immigrant laborers—was accumulated through political channels. During their operation between 1867 and 1871, politician-bankers engaged in a mix of patronage deals and profit-driven financial speculation. In effect, Tammany banks were ground zero for the Ring's conversion of political hegemony into a windfall of economic capital that fueled party activities and buoyed personal fortunes. Importantly, the anti-Ring mobilization by upper-class reformers was more than a revolt of wealthy taxpayers concerned with abstract goals of good government or rescuing city credit; it was also a reaction by old-line bankers in direct competition with Tammany upstarts. A dramatic bank run catalyzed by reformers in November 1871 drove them into bankruptcy, bringing this novel experiment in political capitalism to an end.

The aim of this study is to find the political determinants of voting behaviour in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, Pakistan. It is a quantitative study aimed at knowing the political factors of voting behaviour in the earlier three general elections i.e., 2002, 2008 and 2013. Its major purpose is to see the changing trend of the voters in the mentioned elections. It has investigated 292 respondents who had cast vote in any of the target elections. The researchers asked questions through Likert scale questionnaire under purposive sampling technique. The study found a significant association of political factors such as candidate's affiliation, political party affiliation, party leadership affiliation and party ideology with the voting behaviour. The results of the data show changing scenario as the importance of numerous factors is replaced by others. The study recommends that local political leadership as well as Election Commission of Pakistan should come forward to actively launch an awareness movement. It should focus on the importance of vote towards increasing the ratio of participation in voting process, especially women's voting.

Bushuev A.S. Razvitie politicheskogo soznaniya molodezhi Respubliki Tatarstan v 1985-2004 godakh: istoriko-sotsiologicheskii aspekt. [Development of the Political consciousness of youth of the Republic of Tatarstan in 1985-2004: historical and sociological aspect] Kazan': Institut istorii AN RT, 2009. 204 s.

Монография посвящена актуальной проблеме отечественной социальной истории – развитию молодежного политического сознания в условиях модернизации. В книге представлено одно из первых исследований, где предпринята попытка рассмотреть широкий комплекс проблем, связанных с процессами формирования и трансформации политического сознания молодежи Республики Татарстан в переломный период истории нашей страны с 1985 до 2004 гг. В центре внимания автора оказались такие важные вопросы как государственная политика и изменения политического сознания молодежи в период Перестройки, эволюция политического сознания молодежи в период кризиса коммунистической идеологии и распада государства, и развитие политического сознания молодежи Татарстана в 90-е гг. XX столетия и на современном этапе. Книга адресована широкому кругу читателей – историкам, социологам, политологам, аспирантам и студентам гуманитарных специальностей и всем профессионально занимающимся общественной работой с молодежью, всем интересующимся политикой и историей социальных процессов.

Political consciousness of youth during collapse of the Soviet Union and formation of new Russian statehood is a challenging issue for domestic historiography. Nowadays the given problematics is rendered great importance and is being developed both in various institutes of Russian Academy of Sciences and in Russian universities. Today’s generation of young people witnessed radical large-scale changes: disintegration of superpower, formation of new states within its former territory, reformation of economy and political system, affirmation of national sovereignty and attempts to build civil society. Each young person experiences individual changes in altering conditions and gets over his or her individual way of coming-of-age, simultaneously with fundamental transformations experienced by the country. The development of political consciousness of youth and its structure is a perfect reflection of recent social changes, as the youngest and the most mobile members of society easily get involved in the process of internalization of the existing political and legal norms. At the same time they turn out to be pioneers in the a new-formed society. This is definitely the case with young citizens of a multinational subject of the Russian Federation – the Republic of Tatarstan. The book represents the results of one of the first research projects attempting at consideration of a wide complex of problems related to processes of formation and transformation of political consciousness of youth in the Republic of Tatarstan in one the most difficult and dynamic periods of contemporary history of Russia, encompassing changes in all spheres of social reality within the period from the beginning of Perestroika to the end of the first V.V. Putin’s presidential term. The author focuses on such important issues, as the state youth policy and evolution of political consciousness of youth, ways of its expression, political identification and activity of youth.
The research is based on a wide range of both published and archived sources. Investigation went on “while the trail was still hot”, thus many documents were not available from the state archives. Therefore, it was decided to use material skept at current departmental archives, as well as the results of a number of socio-logical research projects, including projects accomplished personally by the author. The book consists of two chapters. The first chapter characterizes social-economic and political development of the region in the era of Perestroika and crisis of official ideology which had gradually accumulated by the end of the 1980s. It also determines motivation and historical preconditions of changes occurring in political consciousness of youth of the republic, political commitments and activity rate of its young citizens. Second chapter considers youth policy of modern Tatarstan and its influence on the development of the general structure of life of young people, current basic trends of development of political consciousness of youth, including changes in political identification and behavior viewed as real manifestations of political consciousness. The development of political consciousness of Tatarstan youth in 1985–2004 has been essentially influenced by many controversial factors, including negative ones. Long-term unstable economic and political developments in the country, low standard of living of population, collapse of ideals and moral-ethical standards have negatively affected the process of political socialization of youth, prevented strengthening in its consciousness of values and attitudes which would be conductive to the growth of political activity. Stabilization of social-economic and political situation in the second half of the 1990s gave rise to the general tendency of growth of interest of Tatarstan youth to social-political issues. However, this nominal growth of interest to politics badly matches real behavior of youth, as basically young people remain passive and somewhat superficial. During the given period the value (axiological) component of political conscious-ness of youth experienced radical transformation. Although youth has rejected socialist values straight away and suddenly, the process of strengthening of new, democratic values went on very slowly. On the whole, consciousness of youth of modern Tatarstan has accommodated democratic political values and norms, where-as democracy itself and civil freedoms are nowadays the most supported form of social development. However, certain values (for example, multiparty system value) are still weak enough, and this mirrors current situation with social-political development. Apart from that, there are some positive tendencies, such as strengthening in youth consciousness of commitment and love to Fatherland.
Compared to the beginning of 1990s, the level of political requirements of youth has grown up. Since recently, it is increasing through the expansion of political participation of youth in various forms of political activity (youth associations, elections to representative bodies of state power, etc). Although on the whole such participation is yet far from being large-scale, as young people make poor use of available legal means to exert pressure on the authorities, this can be still considered to be a positive tendency. Main conclusions presented in the book are based on long-term research work. Hopefully, the given monograph will answer many of your questions about peculiarities of political consciousness and behavior of Tatarstan youth. The book is addressed to the wide audience – historians, sociologists, political scientists, postgraduates and students majoring in humanities, as well as to all those who are professionally engaged in public work with youth, and all who are interested in politics and history of social processes.

Le vote, sous le règne du suffrage universel, est le principal mode de légitimation des régimes de démocratie représentative. Cette pratique générale – s’exprimer à échéance régulière pourl ’élection de ses représentants – recouvre un grand nombre de diversités. Diversité dans la nature des régimes : régimes parlementaire, semi-présidentiel ou présidentiel. Diversité dans les espaces-temps qui séparent les scrutins. Diversité surtout dans les modalités de l’élection.Le mode de scrutin est une des contraintes juridico-politiques qui entourent l’expression du suffrage. Depuis plusieurs années, la nature et les modalités des systèmes électoraux sont au centre de débats politiques et scientifiques. Certains Etats ont changé leur législation électorale récemment (Italie, Japon, Nouvelle-Zélande). En Belgique, la problématique d’un éventuel passage au scrutin majoritaire a été évoquée à plusieurs reprises. L’ouvrage fait le point sur l’état des principaux modes de scrutin à l’ceuvre en Europe. Une question centrale traverse le livre: dans quelle mesure le mode de scrutin « fait-il » l’élection ? Cette problématique est au cceur des différentes contributions à travers l’évocation de situations en Europe occidentale et centrale ou dans une dimension internationale – les élections pour le Parlement européen.Dans la deuxième partie du livre, la controverse est centrée sur la Belgique, à travers des interrogations clés : quelles raisons ont justifié le passage d’un mode de scrutin majoritaire au scrutin proportionnel en 1899 ? Quelles sont les modalités juridiques d’un éventuel changement de mode de scrutin ? Quels pourraient, enfin, être les effets d’un passage du mode de scrutin proportionnel à un scrutin majoritaire ?

Durante las últimas cuatro décadas el campo del comportamiento electoral se ha visto beneficiado por renovados desarrollos teóricos que fueron acompañados por una tupida investigación empírica: 1) la hipótesis del voto económico, surgida a partir de la teoría de la elección racional; 2) el desalineamiento partido-clase, que cuestionó el “congelamiento” de los clivajes sociales; y 3) los desarrollos referidos a la mediatización de la política, que desplazaron la atención desde las predisposiciones de largo plazo hacia los candidatos, las campañas electorales y los issues. El artículo presenta las principales líneas argumentales de estos enfoques y reflexiona acerca de sus implicaciones concretas para el análisis de la conducta electoral.

Wahlen sind ein Brennglas für die kritische Aufgabe der Medien als Vermittler in der Demokratie. Wahlkämpfe sind eine Serie von Medienereignissen. Medien vermitteln, um was und wen es geht. Also wollen Wahlkampfmanager sie lenken und verführen, bedrängen und beeinflussen. Unabhängiger Journalismus dagegen will sich nicht von Wahlkämpfern managen lassen. Redaktionen gehen mit eigenen Strategien ins Wahljahr – erst recht in Zeiten von «Fake news» und Populisten, die vom Feindbild Medien leben. Der Band enthält Beiträge der Journalisten Cordula Tutt, Jörg Quoos, Andreas Schneider und Matthew Karnitschnig, der Wahlkampfmanager Robert Heinrich und Mario Voigt sowie der Politikwissenschaftler Oskar Niedermayer und Marco Althaus.

“Demokrasi” kavramının zaman içinde en fazla bütünleştiği ve çağrıştırdığı kavram
“seçim”dir. Elbette, dünyanın çoğu ülkesinde seçimler yapılmaktadır. Son on yıl zarfında
iktidarı değiştirmek veya test etmek amacıyla seçimlere gitmemiş olan ülkelerin sayısı on
dörttür. Bununla birlikte, yapılan her seçimin teknik olarak demokrasinin genel geçer
standartlarına uygun, serbest ve âdil seçimler olduklarını söylemek pek kolay değildir (Bishop
ve Hoeffler, 2014: 3).
Siyasal partilerin halkla ilişkiler politikaları bağlamında yürüttükleri siyasal iletişim
faaliyetlerinin en önemli parametrelerinin başında din olgusunun geldiği bilinmektedir. Zira
dinin bizzat kendi özgül ağırlığıyla kitlelerin siyasal tercihlerini biçimlendirme ve
yönlendirme gücüne sahip olduğu bilinmektedir (Basten ve Betz, 2011: 26).
Bu konu üzerinde yapılmış olan bütün araştırmalar, politikacıların dinî kutlama, etkinlik
ve ayinlere katıldıkları seçim dönemlerinde önceki seçim dönemlerine göre daha fazla
seçmenin oyunu aldıklarını göstermektedir. Medya içerikleri incelendiğinde, politikacıların
seçmen kitleden daha fazla destek alabilmek için dinî değerleri bir araç olarak kullandıklarını
gösteren haber ve analiz yazılarıyla sıkça karşılaşmak mümkündür. Dinî mekânlara yapılan
ziyaret ve etkinliklere katılımlarlar her zaman siyasal propandaya malzeme yapılıyor olmaları
bağlamında ele alınmasalar da, büyük bir bölümünün söz konusu politikacılarla ilgili olarak
olumsuz ve eleştirel bir tonda servis edildiği muhakkaktır. Politikacılar bütün bunları yalnızca
halkla ilişkiler ya da sosyal sorumluluk faaliyetleri bağlamında tasarlayıp yürütüyor ve
“dindar” veya “dine saygılı” imajlarını iktidar koltuklarına tahvil etmek gibi niyetler taşımıyor
olabilirler; ancak kitle iletişim araçlarında yapılacak basit bir taramada, politikacıların kutsal
olanla yaptıkları temasların, tıpkı viral reklamlarda olduğu gibi hem doğal hem de son derece
etkileyici birer siyasal propaganda unsuru olarak seçim dönemine hatırı sayılır bir iktidar
avantajı getirdiğine ilişkin çok sayıda negatif haber içeriğine rastlanabilmektedir (Iancu, 2009:
164). Bu çalışma, dinî inançların seçmen davranışında ne ölçüde etkili olduğunu açığa
çıkarmak amacıyla yapılmıştır.
Çalışmamın başlangıcından itibaren, engin akademik birikimi, bitmeyen enerjisi ve
hayranlık duyduğum eşsiz alçakgönüllüğü ile her adımda bana rehberlik ederek her türlü
desteği sağlamış olan Profesör Dr. Ahmet Kalender hocama minnettar olduğumu öncelikle
belirtmek isterim.
Aynı şekilde, çalışmamın başarıyla sonuçlanması için değerli görüşlerinden her fırsatta
yararlanmama izin verme lütfunda bulunmuş olan Doçent Dr. Kadir Canöz ve Doçent Dr.
Şükrü Balcı hocalarıma yürekten teşekkürlerimi bildiririm.
Bu vesileyle, anket çalışmama katılan herkese değerli katkılarından dolayı içtenlikle
şükranlarımı sunarım.

This is the pre-print working paper version, see the full printed version: http://muse.jhu.edu/journals/journal_of_democracy/v025/25.3.onuch.html

The protests that began in Ukraine’s capital of Kyiv on 21 Novem- ber 2013 and became known as the EuroMaidan took even seasoned observers of East European politics by surprise. By December, around 800,000 “ordinary” Ukrainians were demonstrating in Kyiv and other cities across the country. The rapid rise of mass protests, especially at a time when the world’s established democracies are struggling with growing political apathy and declining voter turnout, appears as what Timur Kuran has called one of those moments “when out of never you have a revolution.”1 These episodes may help the cause of democ- racy, but they can also destabilize countries by polarizing citizens and boosting extremists. In order to gauge what a protest outbreak will mean for a country’s democratic prospects, it is crucial to understand who the bulk of the protesters are and what goals they hope to achieve. Here follows original survey data that may help to shed light on Euro- Maidan protest participation and its implications for democratic hopes in Ukraine.

In this article, I wrote about how electoral reforms became tools towards participatory democracy in india. How electoral reforms developed trust and thought for election system. And, how Indian voters believe that their vote can makes a difference.

Esta investigación se inscribe en el marco de los proyectos «Reformas electorales y competencia política en el tránsito del liberalismo a la democracia. España, 1918España, -1936» (Ref. HAR2015-68013-R MINECO-FEDER) y «La violencia política de 1936 y el 18 de julio como punto de ruptura. Un análisis micro» (Ref. HAR2015-65115-P MINECO-FEDER).

Empirically grounded in the 2017 Jakarta Gubernatorial Election (Pilkada DKI) case, this article discusses the relationship of social media and electoral politics in Indonesia. There is no doubt that sectarianism and racism played significant roles in the election and social media, which were heavily utilized during the campaign, contributed to the increasing polarization among Indonesians. However, it is misleading to frame the contestation among ordinary citizens on social media in an oppositional binary, such as democratic versus undemocratic forces, pluralism versus sectarianism, or rational versus racist voters. Marked by the utilization of volunteers, buzzers, and micro-celebrities, the Pilkada DKI exemplifies the practice of post-truth politics in marketing the brand. While encouraging freedom of expression, social media also emboldens freedom to hate, where individuals exercise their right to voice their opinions while actively silencing others. Unraveling the complexity of the relationship between social media and electoral politics, I suggest that the mutual shaping between users and algorithms results in the formation of “algorithmic enclaves” that, in turn, produce multiple forms of tribal nationalism. Within these multiple online enclaves, social media users claim and legitimize their own versions of nationalism by excluding equality and justice for others.

Η παρούσα μελέτη παρέχει μια αναλυτική παρουσίαση της εκλογικής γεωγραφίας του Πειραιά και της εξέλιξής της. Επιχειρεί δε να καταδείξει την αντοχή κάποιων βασικών χαρακτηριστικών στην εκλογική γεωγραφία της ευρύτερης περιοχής του Πειραιά και κυρίως των εσωτερικών διαφοροποιήσεών της. Πολλές από αυτές έχουν τις ρίζες τους σε διαιρετικές τομές (ιδεολογικές, πολιτισμικές, κοινωνικές) που χρονολογούνται τουλάχιστον έναν αιώνα πριν, αλλά φαίνεται πως εξακολουθούν να επηρεάζουν την εκλογική συμπεριφορά των σημερινών κατοίκων, με εντυπωσιακή σταθερότητα μέσα στο χρόνο.

National elections have remained, surprisingly, largely absent in most nation- building debates where focus has tended towards either the instrumentalism of political elites and/or much wider structural explanations (Gellner 1983, Hobsbawm and Ranger 1983, Anderson 1991). Whether fair and free or unfree, national elites depend upon elections for their legitimation, both domestic and international. In many parts of the post-Soviet space elections are rigged, with turnout and the distribution of votes decided in advance of election day. (Wilson 2005). Nevertheless, while elections in the post-Soviet space may not serve their typical function of translating policy preferences into political representation, it has been argued that electoral processes can play a central role in nation-state building processes as part of efforts to legitimise authoritarian regimes (Ó Beacháin and Kevlihan 2015). In an attempt to build on previous observations regarding the relationship between elections and nation-building efforts in the post-Soviet space, this chapter examines the role elections have played in nation-state formation efforts in the unrecognised state of Abkhazia.

La importancia del candidato ha venido aumentando en medida que decae la del partido. Este proceso se conoce como personalización de la política. Está enmarcado en dos aspectos fundamentales, el agotamiento de las estructuras colectivas, ideológicas, de partidos tradicionales y la importancia central de los medios de comunicación. A partir de aquí analizamos el caso de Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez y como su personalización ha ido más allá. Finalmente concluimos que el desarrollo de estos procesos pudiera reactivar el ciclo hacia el fortalecimiento de los partidos, como por ejemplo el trabajo de Justice Democrats para reformar el Partido Demócrata.