This article studies the various mechanisms by which democracy affects transnational terrorism. New theoretical mechanisms are identified that either complement or encompass existing arguments. ...Different effects of democracy on transnational terrorism are assessed for a sample of about 119 countries from 1975 to 1997. Results show that democratic participation reduces transnational terrorist incidents in a country, while government constraints increase the number of those incidents, subsuming the effect of press freedom. The proportional representation system experiences fewer transnational terrorist incidents than either the majoritarian or the mixed system.
Resumo O presente artigo situa a Operação Lava Jato como manifestação de accountability judicial e investiga as razões de seus possíveis efeitos sobre as eleições parlamentares de 2018. A pesquisa ...explora a possibilidade de a Lava Jato ter sido uma manifestação de “judicialização da política” e de “ativismo judicial” com potencial para intervir nas escolhas do eleitorado, por isso é preciso encaminhar uma discussão sobre possíveis abordagens que permitam compreender a dimensão política do sistema judicial e, mais especificamente, da Operação Lava Jato. A metodologia deste artigo revisa a bibliografia sobre accountability para compreender a natureza política da Lava Jato na dinâmica do combate à corrupção. A Lava Jato deve ser bem compreendida como um instrumento da accountability horizontal que pode ter repercutido no processo eleitoral, numa dinâmica de “hibridização institucional” da accountability judicial e da eleitoral, o que demanda discutir se esse processo efetivamente ocorreu (e, se ocorreu: em que extensão). Este artigo propõe uma agenda de pesquisa que, ao admitir que o desempenho eleitoral dos candidatos a um cargo público é afetado por uma série de condições correlacionadas, assuma a dificuldade imposta à accountability vertical pelas eleições proporcionais.
A vast literature shows that voting for the winning party in elections boosts satisfaction with democracy. But in many list PR systems, voters do not only vote for a party, they can also vote for ...candidates within parties. Yet, we know very little about how such votes affect voters' satisfaction with democracy. In this paper, we analyse pre- and post-election panel survey data from Belgium, in which we asked respondents to report their vote choice for parties and for candidates. The main finding is that casting a preference vote for a winning candidate makes little difference, as party-list voters are those with the largest increase in satisfaction with democracy. Such a finding is very important as reforms that increase voters' opportunities to vote for candidates within list have multiplied recently, and many of these reforms have been justified as being in line with voters’ demand for more candidate-centred electoral systems.
This article assesses the claim that proportional representation (PR) fosters a closer correspondence between the views of citizens and the positions of the government. The study uses the Comparative ...Study of Electoral Systems data set and compares respondents’ self-placements on a Left-Right scale with placements of cabinet parties’ locations in 31 election studies. The authors argue that PR has two contradictory consequences. On one hand, PR leads to more parties and more choice for voters; but these parties are less centrist, and this increases the overall distance between voters and parties. On the other hand, PR increases the likelihood of coalition governments; this pulls the government toward the center of the policy spectrum and reduces the distance between the government and voters. These two contradictory effects of PR wash out, and the net overall impact of PR on congruence is nil. The data support the authors’ interpretation.
Abstract Elections are devices, through which the abstract concept of representation gains its specified institutional form, therefore they are highly relevant for populists. The paper examines the ...illiberal-populist project of redesigning the legal framework of elections in Hungary after 2010, focusing on the role of the Hungarian Constitutional Court (HCC) in reviewing electoral law as well as interacting with the ordinary courts through electoral adjudication. It is argued that although a distinct ‘populist imagination’ (Müller) of elections is discernible, there is no special populist electoral politics, rather the ‘inherent authoritarianism of democracy’ (Pildes) is exacerbated. In Hungary the electoral legislation was shrewdly tailored to the governmental parties’ needs, and electoral politics is constantly subjected to instrumental changes. It is argued that although apex courts could be key players in checking electoral manipulation, the HCC did not protect effectively the integrity of electoral law, and at a later stage it even intervened in an arbitrary and arguably politically biased manner. The paper argues that the Hungarian example underscores the need for enhanced court activism in terms of electoral law, especially when populists already came to power.
This article explores how members of parliament (MPs) from minority backgrounds in Serbia and Kosovo use institutional incentives to perform as elected minority representatives. In contrast to the ...previous research that has viewed political agents as simply being acted upon or reactive, this article develops a less deterministic view of the effects of electoral incentives on political agents. It argues for a more dynamic analysis that focuses on the ways in which political actors mobilise institutions for strategic purposes.
This article tests the effects of a new electoral system in Hungary that was introduced by the governing FIDESZ party in 2011. We are especially concerned with the shape of single‐member district ...(SMD) level electoral competition following a significant transformation that tends to be viewed as serving FIDESZ's goal of preserving its constitutional majority. The results show not only transformation of Hungarian electoral politics between 2010 and 2018 elections but also the fact that the return of bipolarization is far from reality in Hungarian electoral politics. On one hand, the reform resulted in an increased number of districts with clear dominance of the two strongest parties nationally, but on the other hand, this trend was connected to asymmetrical bipartism, with clear advantage of the FIDESZ. Furthermore, there was a persistently high number of SMDs where the competition took place between the FIDESZ and one of the third‐place parties.
Zusammenfassung
Der Aufsatz untersucht die Auswirkungen eines neuen Wahlsystems in Ungarn, das 2011 von der regierenden FIDESZ‐Partei eingeführt wurde. Wir befassen uns insbesondere mit der Form des Wahlwettbewerbs auf Ebene der Einpersonenwahlkreise nach einer umfassenden Veränderung, die generell als im Interesse des Ziels von FIDESZ, eine Verfassungsmehrheit zu bewahren, angesehen wird. Die Ergebnisse zeigen nicht nur den Wandel der ungarischen Wahlpolitik zwischen den Wahlen in 2010 und 2018, sondern auch, dass die ungarische Wahlpolitik nicht zu einer Bipolarisation zurückgekehrt ist. Einerseits führte die Reform zu einer höheren Anzahl von Wahlkreisen mit klarer Dominanz der zwei stärksten Parteien auf der Nationalebene (besonders 2018), anderseits war diese Entwicklung mit einem asymmetrischen Zweiparteienpolitik verbunden, die FIDESZ klar bevorteilt. Darüber hinaus gab es eine immer hohe (wenn auch abnehmende) Nummer von Einpersonenwahlkreisen, bei denen Wettbewerb zwischen FIDESZ und einer Drittpartei stattfand.
Résumé
Cet article analyse les effets d'un nouveau système électoral en Hongrie introduit en 2011 par FIDESZ, le parti au pouvoir. Nous sommes particulièrement préoccupés par la forme de la compétition électorale au niveau du district uninominal (SMD en anglais) suite à une transformation importante qui tend à être considérée comme servant l'objectif de la FIDESZ de préserver sa majorité constitutionnelle. Les résultats montrent non seulement la transformation de la politique électorale hongroise entre les élections de 2010 et 2018, mais aussi que le retour de la bipolarisation est loin d'être une réalité dans la politique électorale hongroise. D'une part, la réforme a mené à une augmentation du nombre de districts avec une dominance claire des deux partis les plus forts au niveau national (surtout en 2018), mais d'autre part, cette tendance était liée à un bipartisme asymétrique, avec un avantage clair de la FIDESZ. En outre, il y avait un nombre constamment élevé (bien qu'en diminution) de SMD où la concurrence a eu lieu entre la FIDESZ et l'une des tierces parties.
Abstract
The article investigates whether or not the amount of work legislators carry out in parliament affects their chances of re-selection in a mixed-member electoral system. A unique dataset ...collecting Hungarian Members of Parliaments’ (MPs) publicly available electoral, socio-demographic and parliamentary activity data between 1998 and 2010 is analysed. The study concludes that activity in parliament positively influences re-selection chances when selectors decide on party list nominations. Additionally, MPs whose parties do not count on as future Single Member District (SMD) candidates benefit from parliamentary work to a greater extent than prospective SMD candidates. At the same time, extra work in parliament does not bring MPs closer to SMD nominations. Results confirm that selectors evaluate MPs along how well they carry out the tasks dedicated to their groups.
A basic level of trust in the political system is considered to be the cornerstone of modern-day democracy. Consequently, scholars and politicians have been concerned with low or declining levels of ...trust in political institutions. This article focuses on trust in parliament. Many theories have been offered to explain cross-national differences or longitudinal changes in trust, but they have not been subject to systematic empirical tests. This article aims to fill that theoretical and empirical gap. I conceptualize trust in parliament as citizens’ rather rational evaluations of the state—citizen relationship along four dimensions: competence, intrinsic care, accountability, and reliability. Next, I relate state characteristics to each of these four aspects, and hypothesize how they might affect political trust. These hypotheses are tested simultaneously by multi-level analysis on stapled data from the European Social Survey 2002—06. The tests show that three factors explain very well the cross-national differences in trust: corruption, the electoral system, and former regime type. Somewhat surprisingly, economic performance is not related to trust in parliament. Although the analyses do not explain changes in trust across time very well, they at least dismiss some of the existing explanations.
Points for practitioners
This article describes to what extent levels of trust in parliament differ across countries and change across time, and tests several explanations for comparatively low or longitudinally declining levels of trust. It offers practitioners a theoretical approach to make sense of trust issues by distinguishing four trust aspects. Moreover, it shows that objective state characteristics are crucial in explaining cross-national differences. Widespread perceptions of corruption are most harmful to trust in parliament, while democratic rule and a proportional electoral system are beneficial. Equally important, actual economic performance is unrelated to trust. Institutional designs that emphasize care and integrity appear to be more beneficial than ones that emphasize competence and performance.
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