This book provides an introduction to how the Länder (the sixteen states of Germany) function, not only within the country itself, but also within the wider context of Europe's political affairs. It looks at the Länder in the constitutional order of the country, as well as their political and administrative systems, and also discusses their organisation and administration, together with their financial administration. Finally, the book looks at the role of political parties and elections in the Länder, and considers the importance of their parliaments.
, that take most time. JF: How has SOS positioned itself politically in relation to European governments and institutions that have sought to prevent people crossing the Mediterranean to Europe? CAS: What I thought was interesting about SOS when I joined was how it provided an opportunity for people, particularly young people, to engage politically on issues of migration but outside of political parties. We have had a lot of people aged 20–35, who have been willing to get involved because they don’t identify with political parties on this topic
Introduction In May 2013 the United Nations Higher Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) offices in Beirut registered the highest number of refugees per capita worldwide, where nearly one million Syrians fled across the border to escape the civil war that started in 2011. This war exacerbated pre-existing tensions and widened the rift between Lebanon’s political parties that were split between pro and anti-Syrian regime. However, both blocs came to an
This book looks at the theoretical issue of how a democracy can defend itself from those wishing to subvert or destroy it without being required to take measures that would impinge upon the basic principles of the democratic idea. It links social and institutional perspectives to the study, and includes a case study of the Israeli response to Jewish extremism and violence, which tests the theoretical framework outlined in the first chapter. There is an extensive diachronic scrutiny of the state's response to extremist political parties, violent organizations and the infrastructure of extremism and intolerance within Israeli society. The book emphasises the dynamics of the response and the factors that encourage or discourage the shift from less democratic and more democratic models of response.
The role of national machineries, as a way to promote the status of women, acquired international relevance during the World Conference on the International Women's Year, in Mexico City in 1975. This book reflects Division for the Advancement of Women's (DAW) long-standing interest in the area of national machineries, bringing together the experiences, research and insights of experts. The first part of the book sets out the major issues facing national machineries at the conceptual level. It reflects upon five aspects of democratization: devolution or decentralization; the role of political parties; monitoring and auditing systems; and the importance of increasing the presence of women within institutions of the state and government. The second part is a comparative analysis and sets out the major issues facing national machineries at the political level. A combination of factors, including civil society, state bodies and political actors, need to come together for national machineries to function effectively in the interest of gender equality. Next comes the 'lessons learned' by national machineries in mainstreaming gender. National machineries should have an achievable agenda, an important part of which must be 'a re-definition of gender issues. The third part contains case studies that build upon the specific experiences of national machineries in different countries. The successful experience of Nordic countries in gender mainstreaming is also discussed.
chap1 28/5/02 13.30 Page 1 1 The extreme right party family Studies of political parties have been based on a multiplicity of both scholarly and political theories, and have focused on a variety of internal and external aspects. As is common within the scientific community, complaints have been voiced about the lack of knowledge in particular areas of the field, such as party (as) organisations (Mair 1994), party ideology (Von Beyme 1985), and minor or small parties (Fischer 1980; Müller-Rommel 1991). However, even though a lot of work certainly remains to
Parliament MSP Member of the Scottish Parliament PR Proportional Representation STV Single Transferable Vote USA United States of America USSR Union of Soviet Socialist Republics Political parties ADR/CADJ Action Committee for Democracy and Justice (Luxembourg)/Aktiounskomitee fir Demokratie a Gerechtegkeet; Comité d’Action pour la Démocratie et la Justice AGALEV
the VB and the CP’86 is based on nationalist arguments of external exclusiveness. In addition, most (extreme right) political parties follow more or less the same structure in their election programmes. Hence, ideologically different parties address often similar issues. A good example is the environment, an issue which has been absent from few election programmes since the rise of Green parties in the 1980s. Another example is socio-economic policy, which features prominently in many programmes and which might explain why some authors choose to emphasise this
FAD6 10/17/2002 5:45 PM Page 92 6 Federalism and political asymmetry: regional elections and political parties Elections As we noted in chapter 1, ‘Competitive elections are one of the cornerstones of democracy. Without freely established political parties battling in honestly conducted elections, democracy by most definitions does not exist’.1 Since the adoption of the Russian Constitution in December 1993 Russian citizens have been given the opportunity to engage in numerous rounds of national and local level election campaigns. There have now been three
significant proportion of its members and supporters who did not like the change in government. This means, of course, that it must pay attention to its voters, who are typically politically flexible higher-status white-collar, civil servants, urban, upperincome, well-educated, non-Catholic, and non-union. 18 chap 8 27/5/03 270 11:57 am Page 270 The Länder and German federalism The Greens, who in 1993 combined with the East German Bündnis 90 (Alliance 90), are a classic postmaterialist “new politics” party which emerged in the late 1970s and early 1980s.19 It