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Populism can be defined and is generally viewed as a regime where the people rule. What distinguishes populism from democracy is a matter of degree: under populism, the people rule [...]

ABSTRACT Debates on the system of government have been on the political agenda in Turkey since the 1960s, gaining momentum in recent years. Disengagement from the parliamentary system began with [...]

ABSTRACT Debate over the government system has occupied Turkey's political and constitutional agenda for many years. Yet the discussions that have taken place have not, until very recently, progressed beyond [...]

ABSTRACT Even though they are not the sole forms of organization in a democratic system, political parties constitute the most effective bodies of people's will. A large volume of empirical [...]

ABSTRACT Countries often debate the issue of constitutional reform. Typically, such debates focus on whether a country should have a presidential, semi-presidential, or parliamentary system of government. The advantages and [...]

This article analyzes the reasons ethnic violence erupted in Northern Ireland at the end of the 1960s. Based on semi-structured interviews with civil society workers, local deputies and residents in Northern Ireland that took place during August-September 2014, it argues that in the Northern Ireland case, the cleavage structure and political competition which overlapped with bipolar ethnic divide rendered political parties incapable to appeal to ethnic diversity within Northern Irish society. This article shows that the unionist-nationalist cleavage structure and political competition based on plurality rule brought about ethnic polarization and intensified interethnic tensions by producing governments supported exclusively by Protestants and hindering the incorporation of Catholics into the political system. It also demonstrates that peace negotiations in Northern Ireland were a process of institutional innovation in order to incorporate both communities into the political system. Keywords: Ethnic Conflict, Ethnic Polarization, Cleavage Structure, Peace Negotiations, Northern Ireland Bu calisma 1960'larin sonunda Kuzey Irlanda'da etnik siddetin neden ortaya ciktigini incelemektedir. 2014 Agustos-Eylul aylarinda Kuzey Irlanda'da sivil toplum calisanlari, yerel milletvekilleri ve Kuzey Irlanda sakinleriyle gerceklestirilen ucu acik gorusmelere dayanarak, bu calisma iki kutuplu etnik bolunmeyle ortusen siyasi yapi ve politik rekabet nedeniyle, Kuzey Irlanda'da siyasi partilerin etnik cesitlilige hitap edemedigini one surmektedir. Bu calisma Kuzey Irlanda'da birlik yanlilari ve milliyetciler arasindaki siyasi rekabetin ve cogunluk sistemine dayali secim sisteminin sadece Protestanlar tarafindan desteklenen birlik yanlisi hukumetler yaratarak ve Katolikleri siyasi sisteme dahil etmeyi zorlastirarak etnik polarizasyona yol actigini ve etnik gruplar arasindaki tansiyonu yukselttigini gostermektedir. Bu calisma ayrica Kuzey Irlanda baris muzakerelerinin iki toplulugu da siyasete dahil etmeyi amaclayan bir kurumsal yenilenme sureci oldugunu aciklamaktadir. Anahtar Kelimeler: Etnik Catisma, Etnik Polarizasyon, Siyasi Yapi, Baris Muzakereleri, Kuzey Irlanda, Introduction The rise of paramilitaries at the end of the 1960s and the ensuing thirty years of ethnic violence, widely known as 'Troubles', claimed over 3,700 lives between 1969 and [...]

The December 17thprocess was started allegedly by a political move by the Gulen movement, which, until recently, had been seen as a religious organization. As the government and the parliament-- institutions of democratic representation--countered this move through the use of their constitutional powers, the debate has turned into a totalistic and ontological struggle. However, very few people argue that the problems are actually not independent of the constitutional system of the Turkish Republic, but rather unavoidable consequences of the existing system. If we consider the political steps and strategies pursued by the Gulen movement, we see that we are faced with the most familiar game in Turkish political history, namely the shaping of politics through the use of state institutions., A contemporary observer of the French Revolution in 1789, Selim III, attempted to modernize the Ottoman army and administration by initiating the Nizam-i Cedid (the New Order) program in the [...]

This article considers the theory of presidential representation by examining its development from 1800 to 1864. In particular, it returns to the critics of Thomas Jefferson, Andrew Jackson, and Abraham Lincoln and presents new evidence that the concept of presidential representation not only remained contested throughout this period but also grew more entangled with rival claims of representation and alternative arguments for executive power. By exploring the early development of the theory of presidential representation, the article contributes to the ongoing scholarly task of classifying arguments about the foundations of executive power and attempts to link literatures regarding the constitutional and political sources of presidential power., Executive power has the advantage of concentration in a single head in whose choice the whole Nation has a part, making him the focus of public hopes and expectations. --Justice [...]

Mali's coup d'etat in March 2012 and the subsequent occupation of northern Mali by Islamist and separatist rebels took many observers by surprise. How could an erstwhile model of peaceful democratic transition collapse so swiftly? Why did so few ordinary Malians stand up in defence of their 20-year-old democracy? Combining accounts from Malian and foreign journalists with observations made in Bamako leading up to and during the dramatic events of early 2012, this article assesses the failures of Mali's pre-coup political system. A combination of the tenuous rule of law, weak state institutions, and perceptions of systemic corruption deeply eroded Malians' faith in their democracy. The junta that ousted Mali's elected president in March 2012, despite its international isolation, skillfully manipulated public frustrations with the government as well as local symbols and discourses pertaining to heroic leaders to gain support and legitimacy at home. The crisis in Mali was preceded by certain warning signs, some of which might be applied to gauge the health of democratic transitions elsewhere in Africa., 1. Introduction: A surprise collapse Mali is a nation with a proud history, of legendary empires and kings dating back over centuries, of vast quantities of gold and of fabled [...]

This article takes stock of the current debate on regime complexes. The specific relevance of such complexes for global governance is best grasped if these complexes are understood as systems [...]

ABSTRACT The Freie Wahler (free voters, FW) offer the rare chance to analyze parties in the making. Their long-time anchoring in local elections, centrist, middleclass political orientation, and bifurcated organizational [...]

This article attributes the conception of 'freedom-without-power' which dominates contemporary Western political philosophy to a reification of social agency that mystifies contexts of human capacities and achievements. It suggests that Plato's analogy between the structure of the soul and the polis shows how freedom is a consequence, rather than a condition, of political relations, mediated by inter-subjective contestation. From this basis, the article draws on the work of Raymond Geuss to argue against pre-political ethical frameworks in political philosophy, in favour of a more contextually sensitive, self-critical approach to ethics. Such reciprocal ethical-political integration addresses problems of ideological complicity that may arise if freedom is discretely abstracted from history and power in political philosophy. Finally, the article roughly reconstructs a critical account of African identity from writings of Steven Biko to illuminate symptoms of 'meritocratic apartheid' in South Africa today which Thad Metz's influential pre-political conception of ubuntu obscures, by abstracting the figure of African personhood from politically significant historical conditions. Keywords: freedom, Geuss, meritocracy, power, ubuntu, White society is quite agreed that blacks have to come up ... A lot of them don't see that this entails them coming down. And this is the problem. We [...]

The story of the Federal Election of 1928 has been told many times in a general way. But to ascertain what it meant as an expression of national opinions and [...]

The United States' preeminent position as the leading democracy in the world is threatened today by a breakdown in our politics that can be traced back to the 2000 election [...]

It is shown how meritocracy in an organization ironically has a bias that favors men over equally performing women in what is called the 'paradox of meritocracy.' This shows the unrecognized risks behind meritocracy in the work place. The possible mechanisms for this paradox are discussed.

ABSTRACT The recent Bundestag election in Germany warrants consideration for a number of reasons, not the least of which is that the results are indicative of several trends developing since [...]

In book VII of the Politics, Aristotle requires that the best regime be eusunoptos, 'easily taken in at a glance.' Throughout the history of political thought, the attendant ideal of the polis as a compact and surveyable society was particularly influential. However, closer scrutiny of the way in which Aristotle uses eusunoptos suggests that it designates a problem rather than a solution, to wit, the problems of defining political unity and of attuning the individual and the common good. Exploring the different contexts in which eusunoptos occurs in Aristotle's works, this paper argues that it has political, rhetorical, and poetical meanings that cannot be entirely distinguished from each other. As such, the notion is shown to be germane to the general design of book VII, which constructs the best regime in order to bring to light the limits of politics. doi: 10.1017/S003467051000029X

History seems to demonstrate that a society of perfect freedom, immune from the habit of collective choice, perdures only for small and very poor societies of simple design in relative [...]

A 'democratic' deficit' in global politics is now widely recognized, yet there is still little agreement as to how this problem can feasibly be remedied. Established theoretical proposals for the [...]

The September 2005 general election forced Germany's two largest political parties, CDU/CSU and SPD, to form the second grand coalition government in the country's post-war history. The election result was widely regarded as an expression of the view amongst the electorate that neither of the two main political camps could offer adequate solutions to the urgent political, social and economic challenges which the larger Germany has been facing since reunification in 1990. This article argues that the failure of the grand coalition to implement substantial changes of the policy and institutional status quo reveals the intrinsic structural weaknesses of Germany's 'semisovereign' political system, which favors continuity over change. The democratic process in the unified Germany continues to operate on the basis of the 'semisovereign' polity of the West German Federal Republic, which is characterized by a culture of consensual decision-making and a complex policy-making process which provides a high level of institutionalized veto points on multiple levels. The ability of minimum winning federal government coalitions to implement a decisive policy-agenda and to achieve rapid policy change in response to a new complexity of internal and external challenges is therefore severely restricted by an institutional culture in which regional interests and short-term electoral prospects dominate. This institutional misfit has lead to the establishment of an informal grand coalition state, where policy gridlock can usually only be avoided if the two larger parties achieve consensus halfway between their own policy positions. The limited level of fundamental policy change under the 2005-09 formal grand coalition and the resulting electoral dissatisfaction with its problem-solving capacity has increased the support for the smaller parties at the 2009 federal election. The resulting further fragmentation of the party system, which could in the future restrict coalition options to the alternative between a grand coalition and the formation of smaller coalitions of three or more parties, makes it even more unlikely that decisive policy change and institutional reform can be achieved in the current setting of the German consensus democracy., 1 Introduction: The unified Germany--a prisoner of the consensus democracy This article examines the weaknesses of Germany's domestic polity on the basis of the domestic political developments following the 2005 [...]

The rise of New Public Management is often seen as undermining traditional systems of parliamentary financial oversight. One of the most prevalent of such systems is the public accounts committee, found in most Westminster parliamentary systems. We examine the experience of such a committee, the Public Accounts and Estimates Committee in the State of Victoria, Australia, at a time when a reforming state government implemented wide-ranging reforms based on the principles of new public management. We argue that the strength of the committee can be understood by using a historical institutionalism perspective. El ascenso de lo que ha venido a llamarse la Nueva Gerencia Publica es a menudo visto como algo que subvierte el control financiero en sistemas parlamentarios tradicionales. Uno de los mAs frecuentes en dichos sistemas es el Comite de Cuentas Publicas, encontrado en la mayoria de los sistemas parlamentarios Westminster. Estudiamos la experiencia de tal tipo de comite, el Comite de Cuentas Publicas y Presupuesto del estado de Victoria, Australia, a tiempo que un gobierno reformista en turno implemento diversas medidas basadas en los principios de la nueva gerencia publica. Argumentamos que la fuerza de tal tipo de comites puede ser comprendida desde una perspectiva historica institucionalista., Public Accounts Committees (PACs) are the oldest parliamentary committees in Westminster systems, dating back to the mid-nineteenth century, and have had varied success as accountability mechanisms. Traditionally, they have been [...]

ABSTRACT After the first Bundestag elections in 1949, the Free Democratic Party (FDP) established itself as kingmaker either of the Christian Democrats or the Social Democrats. The entrance of the [...]

'Liquid modernity' is a concept that Zygmunt Bauman suggested to describe a certain condition in advanced modern societies where changeability, unpredictability, and unreliability have become core features determining individual life [...]

We present an experimental approach to study the micro-dynamics of coalition formation in an unrestricted bargaining environment. Specifically, we investigate a fundamental feature of sequential coalition bargaining models: expectations about future bargaining behavior will influence current bargaining outcomes. To do so, we test the hypothesis that coalition bargaining may lead to inefficient outcomes as agents are unable to effectively commit to preliminary agreements during the bargaining process. We conjecture that communication plays an important role in establishing such commitments. We then experimentally manipulate the communication channels and show that restrictions undermine trust and lead to decreased efficiency. Keywords: coalitions; dynamics; coalition formation; experiments

Versions of federalization that invariably come to force whenever an empire considers modernization of its systems is discussed and the responsible government system, with its inherent elements of federalism, will make it possible to reconcile imperial practice with the principles of freedom is highlighted.

The discourse on democracy and governance in the Anglophone Caribbean is discussed against the backdrop of the region's post-colonial experience. The study shows a distinction between three different forms of democracy, which are facade democracy, electoral democracy and full democracy.

Australia persists to be the only country among Westminster democracies to have not adopted a national Bill of Rights is examined. The Australian political system's vertical and horizontal institutional fragmentation is responsible for posing as a barrier to reform.

Previous research claims that the number of parties affects the representation of social cleavages in voting behavior, election turnout, patterns of political conflict, and other party system effects. This article argues that research typically counts the quantity of parties and that often the more important property is the quality of party competition--the polarization of political parties within a party system. The author first discusses why polarization is important to study. Second, the author provides a new measurement of party system polarization based on voter perceptions of party positions in the Comparative Study of Electoral Systems, which includes more than 50 separate elections from established and developing democracies. Third, the author compares party polarization and party fractionalization as influences on cleavage-based and ideological voting and as predictors of turnout levels. The finding is that party polarization is empirically more important in explaining these outcomes. Keywords: party polarization; party fractionalization; turnout; voting

IF NOW, IN THE LIGHT OF MONTESQUIEU'S INSIGHTS, WE RECONSIDER THE TRADITION not from its end but from its beginning and ask ourselves what role the experience of rule played, [...]

SINCE PLATO, ALL TRADITIONAL DEFINITIONS OF THE NATURE OF THE various types of government have rested on two conceptual pillars: law and power. The differences between the various forms of [...]

Abraham Lincoln's method of political analysis is reminiscent of Niccolo Machiavelli's. Both Lincoln and Machiavelli continually assessed political context with a goal in mind: to logically order their principles to best achieve them in practice. Lincoln's own words suggest that he faced five distinct political contexts during his lifetime. Each of these contexts led him to reconsider which of his commitments--to universal rights, the law, Union, and popular government to privilege and which to temporarily subordinate. The result was a highly successful combination of pragmatism and idealism that I label 'principled pragmatism' and fold in to Richard Neustadt's and Fred Greenstein's ideas about presidential success., 'If we could first know where we are, and whither we are tending, we would then better judge what to do, and how to do it.' --Opening lines of Abraham [...]

Scholars interested in executive agencies devote a considerable amount of time to studying various proposals said to make government more effective. Some authors have studied the processes that generate the seemingly continuous stream of reform proposal. This article looks at the stream of proposals coming from one component of the administrative reform system, the president. Statistical tests compare whether the president's level of reform activity is more a product of managerial or political factors. The findings suggest that presidential administrative reform legislation is largely a product of political opportunities., The Bush administration's recent creation of a Department of Homeland Security has brought attention to executive reform. While massive reforms such as the formation of the Department of Homeland Security [...]

The front line for international interventions that exercise any degree of political authority in transition has proved to be at the level of local administration. Here, the Western-style paradigm of [...]

In the Progressive Era, the Supreme Court forced social justice activists to appreciate the effect political structure had on policy by repeatedly striking down federal social and economic reform legislation [...]

India's federalism during the last 50 years had two phases: three decades of centralized federalism followed by cooperative and competitive federalism. Unitary features of India's Constitution and planned development led to strong central dominance in the first phase, with the states in a subordinate position. The momentum of impressive initial growth did not last. The late 1970s saw a weakened Congress party, the emergence of coalition politics, and a shift in the Center states power balance. Growth followed liberalization and moves toward decentralization, but this was accompanied by an accentuation of regional disparities and fiscal imbalances. A major factor in the negative results has been weaknesses in the intergovernmental transfer system. Desirable reforms, which maintain moves toward decentralization and greater states' autonomy, are explored here., Federalism offers a way for diverse communities to come together and derive the strength of unity while retaining their identity. It helps to secure efficiency in the organization and working [...]

Almost a decade ago as ideological polarization and paralysis in the face of national problems seemed to be the permanent state of American politics, a movement to renew the promise [...]