Local elections in May 2015 represented a major shift in the political history of Barcelona (Spain). The Barcelona en Comú candidacy, born in January 2015 under the impetus of a set of progressive ...social and political organizations, became the first municipal political force in the city. This article analyzes the cycle of creation, electoral victory, and government action of Barcelona en Comú during the current legislature (2015-2019). In so doing, the article focuses its attention on the emancipatory urban political practices emerged in recent years in response to the fractures and contradictions generated by neoliberal austerity. In dialogue with the literature on social movements and urban neoliberalism, the article focuses its attention on the challenges and opportunities that the local institutionalization of these forms of counterpolitics entails.
Often dismissed as window dressing, nominally democratic institutions, such as legislatures and political parties, play an important role in non-democratic regimes. In a comprehensive cross-national ...study of all non-democratic states from 1946 to 2002 that examines the political uses of these institutions by dictators, Jennifer Gandhi finds that legislative and partisan institutions are an important component in the operation and survival of authoritarian regimes. She examines how and why these institutions are useful to dictatorships in maintaining power. In their efforts to neutralize threats to their power and to solicit cooperation from society, autocratic leaders use these institutions to organize concessions to potential opposition. The use of legislatures and parties to co-opt opposition results in significant institutional effects on policies and outcomes under dictatorship.
The majority of the world's countries have implemented policies designed to advance the political representation of women and/or minority groups. Yet we do not yet understand how these disparate ...policies affect the election of minority women. In this article, I draw on theories of intersectionality to conduct the first worldwide analysis of the effects of gender and minority quotas on minority women's representation in national legislatures. Using hierarchical linear modeling, I analyze how quotas influence the election of women from more than 300 racial, ethnic, and religious groups across 81 countries. I find that policies designed to promote the political representation of women and minority groups interact to produce diverse but predictable outcomes for minority women. Although quotas are ostensibly designed to promote diversity and inclusiveness, the quota policies in effect today rarely challenge majority men's dominance of national legislatures.
Group coordinators are part of a highly influential circle of members of the European Parliament (MEPs). However, there is only scant knowledge about the powers and purpose of this position. This ...article draws upon theories of legislative organization and committee assignments to assess the question: What individual qualities determine the selection of group coordinators? Using a novel dataset of all MEPs elected to the 8th session of the European Parliament (EP), we consider various aspects of MEP professional background, experience in the chamber and interest group ties as potential predictors of this selection. Our findings indicate the particularly strong effect of incumbency in the committee system, as well as professional background for selection. Ultimately, the results bear relevance to the legislative organization of the EP as a legislature with both strong committees and strong parties.
There is scant systematic empirical evidence on what explains variation in academic freedom. Making use of a new indicator and panel data covering 64 countries 1960–2017, we investigate how
de facto
...academic freedom is affected by, in particular, political institutions. We find that moving to electoral democracy is positive, as is moving to electoral autocracy from other autocratic systems, suggesting the importance of elections. Communism has a strongly detrimental effect. Legislatures that are bicameral are associated with more academic freedom, while legislatures that become more diverse and more ideologically to the right also seem to stimulate this type of freedom. Presidentialism and coups do not appear to matter much, while more proportional electoral systems strengthen academic freedom. More judicial accountability stimulates academic freedom, and richer countries experience more of it. The results suggest that the political sphere exerts a clear but complex influence on the degree to which scholarly activities are free.
This paper presents a political economy theory of fiscal policy. Policy choices are made by a legislature that can raise revenues via an income tax and by borrowing. Revenues can be used to finance a ...public good, whose value is stochastic, and pork-barrel spending. Policymaking cycles between a "business-as-usual" regime in which legislators bargain over pork, and a "responsible policymaking" regime in which policies maximize the collective good. Transititons between regimes are brought about by shocks in the value of the public good. Equilibrium tax rates are too high, public good provision is too low, and debt levels are too high.
Objective
Although a relation between smallness and democracy has often been examined, it cannot be said that an academic conclusion has been established. Focusing on Pacific island countries, this ...article has examined how democracy of microstates works and clarified a smallness‐democracy relation in the political process.
Methods
This article focuses on the political institutions.such as the executive system, the legislature's system, the election system, and the political party system—, and examines how these institutions mutually influence one another.
Results
In the Pacific island countries, some important factors, including smallness and traditional human relationships, play a vital role in the political process, which makes their politics democratic and stable.
Conclusions
“Micro‐Cooperative Democracy” is presented as a new type of democracy that corresponds to neither the Majoritarian nor Consensus models.
Several countries have voted reforms in order to reduce the number of national representatives and many others have debated about that possibility. There is, however, no commonly accepted rule for ...assessing the optimal number of seats in parliament. This article offers a review of the state-of-the-art, presenting the main contributions in political economy and related fields about the question of legislature sizes, their determinants and their impact. Based on a cross-sectional comparison of 139 countries, the review is accompanied with a set of figures and tables that illustrates a set of stylized facts.
•Review and discussion about the determinants and impacts of legislature sizes.•Cross-sectional comparison of parliament size in 139 countries.•Population is a strong determinant of legislature sizes.•Legislature size and public spending levels are positively correlated.•Legislature size and the quality of democracies are poorly correlated.
Why do politicians rebel and vote against the party line when high stakes bills come to the floor of the legislature? To address that question, we leverage the three so-called Meaningful Votes that ...took place in the British House of Commons between January and March 2019 on the Withdrawal Agreement that the Conservative government had reached with the European Union. The bill was defeated decisively three times following a major revolt amongst Conservative backbench Members of Parliament (MPs). We find that three factors influenced their rebellion calculus: the MP’s own ideological views, constituency preferences and career concerns. Somewhat paradoxically, the rebellion within the Conservative Party came from MPs who had supported Leave in the 2016 Brexit referendum and from MPs elected in Leave-leaning constituencies.
Policy Points
The increasing political polarization of states reached new heights during the COVID‐19 pandemic, when response plans differed sharply across party lines.
This study found that states ...with Republican governors and larger Republican majorities in legislatures experienced higher death rates during the COVID‐19 pandemic—and in preceding years—but these associations often lost statistical significance after adjusting for the average income and health status of state populations and for the policy orientations of the states.
Future research may help clarify whether the higher death rates in these states result from policy choices or have other explanations, such as the tendency of voters with lower incomes or poorer health to elect Republican candidates.
Context
Increasing polarization of states reached a high point during the COVID‐19 pandemic, when the party affiliation of elected officials often predicted their policy response. The health consequences of these divisions are unclear. Prior studies compared mortality rates based on presidential voting patterns, but few considered the partisan orientation of state officials. This study examined whether the partisan orientation of governors or legislatures was associated with mortality outcomes during the COVID‐19 pandemic.
Methods
Data on deaths and the partisan orientation of governors and legislators were obtained from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and the National Conference of State Legislatures, respectively. Linear regression was used to measure the association between Republican representation (percentage of seats held) in legislatures and (1) age‐adjusted, all‐cause mortality rates (AAMRs) in 2015–2021 and (2) excess death rates during three phases of the COVID‐19 pandemic, controlling for median household income, the prevalence of four risk factors (obesity, chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, heart attack, stroke), and state policy orientation. Associations between excess death rates and the governor's party were also examined.
Findings
States with Republican governors or greater Republican representation in legislatures experienced higher AAMRs during 2015–2021, lower excess death rates during Phase 1 of the COVID‐19 pandemic (weeks ending March 28, 2020, through June 13, 2020), and higher excess death rates in Phases 2 and 3 (weeks ending June 20, 2020, through April 30, 2022; p < 0.05). Most associations lost statistical significance after adjustment for control variables.
Conclusions
Mortality was higher in states with Republican governors and greater Republican legislative representation before and during much of the pandemic. Observed associations could be explained by the adverse effects of policy choices, reverse causality (e.g., popularity of Republican candidates in states with lower socioeconomic and health status), or unmeasured factors that predominate in states with Republican leaders.
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