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The article discusses a study on the possibility of combining the advantages of the proportional and pluralitarian electoral systems and defines the two main electoral systems namely proportional and pluralitarian and explains the main advantages of both systems. It suggests that the mixed-member proportional (MMP) electoral system that combines the improved German electoral system with the former Israeli electoral system offers direct accountability and diverse partisan preferences.

Drawing on little-used archival materials held in Seville's Archive of the Indies and ecclesiastical records from the Cathedral of Havana, this article argues that free African and African-descended women participated in Spain's colonization of the Caribbean to a degree that has not been fully recognized. Regularly described as vecinas (heads of household) and as spouses to Iberian men in key port cities, free women of color played active roles in the formation and maintenance of Spanish Caribbean society during the late sixteenth and early seventeenth centuries, not as peripheral or marginalized figures, but as non-elite insiders who pursued their own best interests and those of their families and associates. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This is a presentation prepared for the Conference on "Challenges to Churches and Society in the Post-communist Context", organized by the Evangelical Theological Faculty in Osijek, Croatia, October 28-31, 2009. After the communist regime collapsed in 1989-1991, the countries of South, Central and East Europe emerged as nation states with majority peoples and religions. These states have yet to develop into true democracies with pluralistic civil societies. According to sociological research, majority religions in these societies claim the right to an almost exclusive presence among their respective peoples and they discriminate against minority religions or new religious movements. Despite existing tensions, however , religions can contribute toward building shared values and social cohesion. In illustrating his view, the author relies on the 1992 Catechism of the Catholic Church and the 2004 Compendium of the Social Doctrine of the Church. In the second part of the article he brings out the guidelines of the UN and the EU on the protection of national and religious minorities. In conclusion, he suggests that teachers of religion, priests and imams in the countries or regions of a respective majority should educate their own believers so that they actively support minorities. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]