Political Coalitions Research Articles

The State of Political Ethnic Mobilisation among Kenyan Communities in Postcolonial Era, 1963 to 2007 A Case Study of Bukusu People

There is a growing body of scholarly work on political behaviour in Africa that accords much credence to the salience of ethnicity as a rallying point during electoral processes. Yet at the country level, we still understand very little about the interactions between ethnicity and voting behaviour and what demographic groups are more likely or less likely to be susceptible to the effects of ethnic cues, if at all, when voting or expressing support in other ways for political parties. Such features are dominant in Kenyan politics and are characterized majorly through ethnic-based politics where the formation of political parties and coalitions are motivated ethnically. Taking Bukusu as a case example, it is clearly seen how political game and electoral mobilisation is largely contested ethnic terrain. This explains why the majority of the leaders in Bungoma are Bukusu who have had a defining moment and significant effect on political leadership and electoral politics since independence. This paper focused on the state of political ethnic mobilisation among Kenyan communities in postcolonial era, 1963 to 2007with reference to Bukusu people of Bungoma District. The study examines ethnic politics as an instrument for political mileage among the Bukusu people. It is noted herein that since the migration and eventual inception of imperialism, the Bukusu people just like other communities in the country resisted colonisation which eventually cemented them together up to date. Karly Popper’s instrumentalism theory and AchilleMbembe’s postcolonial theory were the two theories used in the study. This study relied heavily on archival materials, oral interviews, and a review of linked secondary literature. Convergence and divergence were produced after thoroughly reviewing, analysing, and compiling all the data. Ex-post facto as a research design was used with purposive and snowball as sampling techniques. Elderly men and women were target population and the sampling size was guided by historical principle of not less than twenty eight participants. It is argued that this data will be useful to policymakers in formulating and comprehending the factors that affect political patterns and behaviour both at the national and local levels. The study should be of importance to historian scholars and more specifically on those who have an interest in state of political ethnic mobilisation among Kenyan Communities.

Externalization of Indian federalism: Understanding the role of West Bengal and Tripura on India’s policy toward Bangladesh

ABSTRACT In a federal political system like India, the role of the federal units bordering the neighboring countries becomes crucial in foreign policy-making toward neighboring countries. It is expected that when similar political parties or coalition partners remain in power in both the center and the states, federal politics does not hinder policy-making toward neighboring countries. Moreover, foreign policy being a central subject, federal units any way reflect passive tendencies, especially in the case of governments with the same party affiliations. Both these simplifications are contested in this paper by citing instances of the role of West Bengal and Tripura, India’s two federal units bordering the neighboring country of Bangladesh, at different historical junctures, in which similar political parties in the center and the state resulted in more friction than when different political parties were in office in matters of India’s foreign policy-making toward Bangladesh. The paper argues that instead of federalization of foreign policy, where federal units have an influential role, this particular experience suggests an externalization of federalism, where an external variable (Bangladesh) influences internal federal dynamics to the extent that domestic electoral politics force the political parties of the two federal units to give importance to the neighboring country in taking positions on foreign policy-making. The immediate context of fifty years of the India-Bangladesh relationship and question about over-centralization during the latest phase of the National Democratic Alliance (NDA) regime in India push the authors to take up Bangladesh as a case to contest the given of Indian federalism in foreign policy making.

Razvoj ekoloških partija i zelenih političkih pokreta u Republici Srbiji

The following work aims to provide an analytical overview of the development of environmental political parties in Serbia. By relying on the methods of process tracing, as well as on Lipset and Rokkan's and other relevant theories of sociopolitical cleavages, the work examines how political events that occurred in Serbia over the last three decades led to the formation of eco-activist movements and parties, especially within the last several years. More specifically, the fulfillment of the primary aim requires - but is not limited to - an analysis of how green parties and environmental movements formed, shaped, and changed their strategies over time, especially when it comes to their activity planning, decision-making, support-mobilizing, and networking (including participation in broader political coalitions). The study not only includes genuine eco-activist organizations but also focuses on how (and why) decoy and phantom green parties developed and evolved in relation to the activities of their authentic counterparts. The paper concludes that environmental issues became increasingly more important in Serbia during the previous decade, with a more prominent arrival of foreign industry and foreign investors, which consequentially caused a noticeable deterioration of the environment (quality of air in particular). This opened a window of opportunity for opposing movements and parties to attract widespread support - and develop their strategies - based on and in relation to this previously less important topic.

Looking for a “Genuine Science of Politics.” William H. Riker and the Game Theoretical Turn in Political Science

This article aims to show how the formal revolution in economics has influenced the developments of rational choice and game theory in political science. Our focus will be on American political scientist William H. Riker (1920-1993). We want to show how Riker used game theory and adapted it to fulfil his disciplinary agenda, contrasting the main trends in postwar American political science. Our thesis is that, in doing so, Riker stressed some aspects of the theory that differed quite sharply from postwar mathematical economics to which game theory belonged. Sections 1 and 2 describe Riker’s education and intellectual life until the late 1950s, showing how he became acquainted with game theory and how American political science as a discipline was changing in that crucial decade. Section 3 presents Riker’s main arguments in The Theory of Political Coalitions, focusing on his working through game theory to produce a suitable model of political coalition-building. Section 4 discusses some methodological aspects of Riker’s commitment to game theory and economic analysis. In particular, we aim to outline and discuss an apparent “dilemma” in his theoretical production, namely his resting on an outdated idea of economics, despite his use of game-theoretic analysis.

Die Europawahl 2024 – systemische Besonderheiten, Erwartungen und die extremistische Herausforderung

The division of powers in the federally structured European Union, the lack of fixed political coalitions, the absence of effective control of voting behaviour in the European Parliament by parliamentary group leaderships and the structure of European political parties as alliances of national parties make European elections systemically specific. In the 2024 European elections, the lead candidate system for the President of the European Commission is back. This may contribute to increased voter participation and be successful if the informal preconditions for the candidates are met during nomination. During the phase leading up to the election of the President of the Commission, the Parliament achieves maximum leverage. Political forces that endanger the existing conditions of the system itself, should be categorized as extreme and be opposed by the political mainstream.

Parliamentary Democracy: Mechanisms, Challenges, and the Quest for Effective Governance

Parliamentary democracy is a governance system where the executive branch derives legitimacy from and is accountable to the legislative branch. This system is characterized by the presence of a parliament that represents the will of the people and holds significant decision-making power. In this system, the Mechanisms include the election process, separation of powers, cabinet system, and parliamentary representation. In the Parliamentary form of government, Challenges encompass political instability, coalition politics, party polarization, and the risk of executive dominance and corruption. The quest for effective governance involves inclusive decision-making, strengthening institutions, electoral reforms, transparency, accountability, civic education, and adaptability to change. Navigating these dynamics is crucial for sustaining a parliamentary democracy that is responsive, accountable, and capable of meeting the diverse needs of its citizenry.

한국 녹색당의 성장 조건에 관한 연구

The purpose of this study is to examine the emergence and development of green parties around the world to identify general conditions for their growth and to see if the findings can be applied to the Korean Green Party. In doing so, it explores the requirements of a political party based on the experience of the Korean Green Party.
 The empirical analysis shows that in terms of political opportunity structure, green parties around the world grow into parties that influence the political system when elections are highly proportional and the proportional representation rate is above 40%. However, in the case of the Korean Green Party, the limitations of the quasi-connected proportional representation system with a ‘cap’ clause and the emergence of satellite parties in the 2020 general election resulted in lower electoral proportionality than before, and the proportional representation rate was only 15.67%, which did not have favorable conditions for growth.
 Next, in terms of party leadership, global green parties have observed that green parties grow when they maintain intra-party unity and pursue coalition politics in elections. However, the Korean Green Party failed to create a growth engine during the 2020 general election, as it failed to maintain intra-party unity and pursue coalition politics.
 Based on this analysis, in order for the Korean Green Party to grow in the future, the party leadership should focus its efforts on introducing a more proportional electoral system and expanding the number of seats for proportional representation, while maintaining intra-party unity and pursuing coalition politics.

ANDREI SILVIU AND NICOLAE RAJKOVIČ, DEFENDERS OF THE CITY OF ORADIA, KILLED BY HUNGARIAN HORTYSTS ON 9 OCTOBER 1944

The battles for the liberation of Oradia and Bihor from the Hortyst-German occupation involved a number Romanian Army divisions (the 3rd Mountain Brigade and Tudor Vladimirescu Brigade), as well as divisions of the Red Army and were particularly ferocious and long-lasting (5 September - 12 October 1944). Several offensives and counter-offensives of the Hungarian-German and Romanian-Soviet military divisions took place with the purpose of preserving/liberating the city of Oradea, the administrative centre of Bihor County, a critical land and air communications hub for the entire western region (roads, railways, airport). In the battles for Oradea, the region experienced several days of power vacuum, with the fascist troops retreating from the city in order to prepare for a counter-offensive, while the Romanian-Soviet troops were regrouping outside the city for a decisive offensive (25 September - 28 September). At the same time, three citizens of the city, i.e. Andrei Silviu – a Romanian ethnic, a former civil servant with the City Hall and reserve officer of the Romanian Army, who had a local Israeli wife, Nicolae Rajkovič - a Romanian citizen of Serbian origin who was a local barber, and Papp Tibor – a civil servant with the City Hall, a Romanian citizen of Hungarian origin, established a “civil guard” comprising 45 citizens of Oradea with different nationalities, who were armed with rifles from a City Hall warehouse. The role of the guard was to maintain peace in the city and to defend the life and property of the citizens, primarily the workshops and shops in the city against the lumpenproletariat who were prone to looting. The return of fascist occupiers in the city leads to the arrest of the three guard organisers. They are brought in front of a military court and sentenced to death for organising “partisan troops behind the front”. Andrei and Rajkovič are shot in the Oradia Fortress three days before (9 October) the liberation of the city (12 October), while Papp is saved by his family and sentenced to 15 years in prison, due to the fact that he was a Hungarian ethnic. Although historians and patriotic local councillors proposed (in 2007, 2013, 2015, and 2020) that the two murdered locals should be honoured as heroes of the city, the political parties or coalitions that held the majority in the Oradea City Council (the Democratic Party (PD) + the Democratic Union of Hungarians in Romania (UDMR), the National Liberal Party (PNL) + the Democratic Union of Hungarians in Romania (UDMR)) kept rejecting the initiative. This year, several cultural and patriotic organisations will bring up the proposal once again, since the idea behind it still makes a valid point.

Süreklilik ve Değişim Arasında Post-Otoriter Şili Parti Sistemi

This article aims to examine to what extent the post-authoritarian Chilean party system changed in comparison to the period prior to the 1973 coup. Based on an analysis of the period from 1990 until 2010 against the background of the pre-1973 period and the military dictatorship (1973-1990), the main argument of this article is that the post-authoritarian Chilean party system oscillated between continuity and change. Whilst continuity found its roots in the pre-authoritarian period and Chile’s long-running democratic tradition, change was particularly enforced by the anti-democratic practices of the military government. As such, this study has pinpointed three interrelated tensions between continuity and change that characterised the post-authoritarian party system: the centrality of parties vs. the growing public disillusionment with politics; the pro-/anti-authoritarian cleavage vs. the consensus-based relations between parties; and the tripartite party system vs. the bipolar coalition politics. This tension profoundly influenced all the political parties and inter-party coalitions that functioned during this period, not least the ruling Concertación bloc.

Alter-nation? Factions, Coalitions and Environmental Governance in the Context of Contested Post-apartheid Local State Democratisation

Many African states have become electoral democracies, but others are still run by electoral authoritarian regimes, and/or exhibit procedural but not more substantive emancipatory extensions of rights and functions. In such contexts, alternation of power, or electoral turnover, has been recognised as a key signifier of successful democratisation. South Africa’s post-apartheid democratic transition was widely lauded as a textbook case, yet declining support for the political incumbent, factionalism, the phenomena of “state-capture” and the decline of state-owned entities has raised questions about the promises and challenges of post-African National Congress (ANC) hegemony. Limited research in South Africa (SA) focuses on the influence of political contest — including alternation, coalition formation and factionalism on municipal Environmental Governance (EG). Accordingly, we provide an analysis of political contest in both single and coalition councils between 2016 and 2021 in the of the Endumeni Local (ELM) and uMzinyathi District (UDM) municipalities in KwaZulu-Natal (KZN), SA, focusing on environmental governance implications. The study was theoretically framed by a broad Political Ecology Approach (PEA). A mixed-method research approach consisting of qualitative and quantitative data collection techniques was utilised. The findings revealed contested politics and instability in both single and coalition councils, regardless of who governs. and this predominantly constrained, but in few instances enabled EG. This complicates narratives of alternation and coalition politics and points to the broader and ongoing need for council policy reform, local council stability, municipal competence and accountability.

Challenges of Ethnic Party Adaptation in Power-Sharing Systems: Evidence from Malaysia

In authoritarian systems, ethnic power-sharing arrangements include important ethnic groups in government and decision-making while putting restraints on political competition. However, under conditions of democratization, we might expect power-sharing arrangements to fragment as political parties seize opportunities to expand their base and appeal across ethnic lines. This article draws from the case of Malaysia, where multiethnic coalitions built around ethnic parties ruled for 61 years but where increasing electoral competitiveness has destabilized coalition politics. I focus on the Democratic Action Party (DAP), one of the country's most successful parties, which has sought to build a more multiethnic support base. I show that its attempts have been stymied by enduring norms of ethnically informed coalition building and efforts to protect existing ethnic bases by both rivals and allies. The findings shed light on the barriers to ethnic party adaptation and on why power-sharing practices remain so enduring, even in more fluid and democratic political environments.

Role of Identity Politics in Ensuring Social Justice in India

Identity Politics has become a prominent subject in the Indian Politics in past few years. Rise of lower castes, gender, religious identities, linguistic groups and ethnic conflicts have contributed to the significance of identity politics in India. The tendency for individuals who share a specific racial, religious, ethnic, social, or cultural identity to create exclusive political coalitions in order to further their own interests independent of those of a broader political group is known as identity politics. The goal of identity politics is to help marginalized communities regain more political freedom and self-determination by helping them recognize what makes them unique. The charms of caste, ethnicity, religion, language, and gender propel identity politics. Identity politics has in fact transcended all bounds of the political imaginary, challenging all ingrained preconceptions as well as the significance of race, caste, class, and sexual preferences. Social justice is the fair treatment and equitable status of all individuals and social groups within a state or society. This paper aims to bring about a general understanding of the concept of identity politics and the key identities which are playing a crucial role in Indian politics. Further this paper will also analyze the relation between identity politics and social justice and how identity politics is playing a role in curbing social injustice prevailing within the Indian society. Identity Politics has become a prominent subject in the Indian Politics in past few years. Rise of lower castes, gender, religious identities, linguistic groups and ethnic conflicts have contributed to the significance of identity politics in India. The tendency for individuals who share a specific racial, religious, ethnic, social, or cultural identity to create exclusive political coalitions in order to further their own interests independent of those of a broader political group is known as identity politics. The goal of identity politics is to help marginalized communities regain more political freedom and self-determination by helping them recognize what makes them unique. The charms of caste, ethnicity, religion, language, and gender propel identity politics. Identity politics has in fact transcended all bounds of the political imaginary, challenging all ingrained preconceptions as well as the significance of race, caste, class, and sexual preferences. Social justice is the fair treatment and equitable status of all individuals and social groups within a state or society. This paper aims to bring about a general understanding of the concept of identity politics and the key identities which are playing a crucial role in Indian politics. Further this paper will also analyze the relation between identity politics and social justice and how identity politics is playing a role in curbing social injustice prevailing within the Indian society.

The Erotic Fictions of Finance Capitalism in The Bonfire of the Vanities and American Psycho

US economic policy in the late twentieth century privileged the financial sector by advancing generous tax breaks for wealthy Americans and traders and prioritizing union-busting and cuts to social programs, producing a violence of deprivation against the poor and marginalized others. Simultaneously, the Reagan administration sought to shore up its political coalition in the post-Watergate era by appealing to a newly engaged Christian right with conservative social policies including pushback against the sexual revolution and the formation of the Meese Commission to study restrictions on pornography. These significant changes in culture found their way into a wealth of media including journalism, films, and novels that processed the seemingly contradictory moral claims underlying these policies: greed is good; sex is bad. This article draws on financial and literary theory to examine how two iconic novels from the era, Tom Wolfe’s The Bonfire of the Vanities (1987) and Bret Easton Ellis’s American Psycho (1991), exploit representations of sexualized violence to ramify and then explore the latent links among sex, violence, and finance. Each novel satirizes Wall Street’s violent indifference by embodying it in a figure of elite, white masculinity whose privilege is expressed through sex. The novels’ critiques, however, turn out to be self-contradictory, as their disavowal of the fictionality of finance is bound up with a concomitant investment in regressive sexual politics. In so doing, the novels demonstrate that culture-industry efforts to push back against economic deregulation may be allied with the cultural systems that support that deregulation or enable it.

The coalitional politics of the European Union Regulation on deforestation-free products

This paper analyses the belief- and interest-driven coalitional politics of the new European Union Regulation on deforestation-free products (EUDR) by applying the Advocacy Coalition Framework and Baptist & Bootlegger Theory. Our results first show how two PRO-Regulation Coalitions advocated for new European Union (EU) trade rules: key members of a Sustainable Development Coalition and an Environmental Coalition include key sustainability- and environmentally-oriented EU institutions, import-dependent EU Member States, non-governmental organisations, civil society groups, and some food and forest certifiers. Second, a PRO-EUDR Business Coalition – mainly composed of multinational business actors such as consumer goods companies and retailers, import-dependent European companies, some EU domestic producers from the agricultural sector, and their respective associations – joined the PRO-Coalitions in a strategic cross-coalitional PRO-Regulation Alliance to pursue business-oriented pro-regulatory interests. Third, the building of this Alliance facilitated political momentum for the EUDR's agenda-setting, drafting and adoption despite opposition from a weaker CONTRA-Regulation Coalition of status-quo-oriented policy advocates among some EU institutions, forest-rich EU Member States, agricultural certifiers, tropical producer country governmental authorities, as well as European and non-EU companies and their associations from the forest, agricultural and food sectors. Fourth, the EUDR's final legislative text is a compromise solution, institutionalising different core beliefs and interests of pro- and contra-regulatory state and non-state actors. Pro-change actors were more powerful in institutionalising their beliefs and interests.

Hindutva, OBCs, and Koli Selfhood in Western and Central India

ABSTRACT This paper describes how cultivator caste Kolis, who are the largest electoral bloc in Gujarat, India’s flagship state of Hindu chauvinism, navigate, circumvent, and are constituted by the intensification of Hindu chauvinism in the state’s borderland districts dominated by subordinated social groups. Once the centerpiece of a secular political coalition in Gujarat, the personhood of Kolis at the intersection of the Aravali hills and Malwa plateau, a window onto rural central- and western India, has been constructed in complex ways since 2014. Mass-mediated media narratives potentiate Brahminical hegemony, the temple-industrial complex produces affective potentialities with caste Hinduism, and the politics of cow protection promotes new relationalities with bovines. However, this identity formation is fraught with slippages and reveals the always open possibilities of oppositional subjectivities.

A political economy of youth policy in Mexico

ABSTRACT This article discusses the recent adoption of a large-scale youth programme in Mexico. Political economy approaches offer a critical account of the institutional arrangements that have resulted in the emergence of specific educational, labour and, more recently, youth policies in the Latin American region. Studies of youth policies are still developing and are a multidisciplinary field. This article draws on various theoretical traditions from various fields, constituting a novel approach to studying these policies. This article combines empirical evidence drawn from interviews with policy stakeholders with the analysis of key policy documents. It employs a Cultural Political Economy (CPE) approach to explain the Mexican government’s adoption of the youth programme Jóvenes Construyendo el Futuro’ (JCF) in 2018, which provides paid on-the-job training to 2.3 million young people aged 18–29. The JCF’s adoption resulted from the rising to power of a left-wing political coalition presenting an anti-neoliberal alternative based on explicit notions of social justice and inclusion with a national development plan reminiscent of an inward-oriented development paradigm aimed at strengthening the internal market, reminiscent of recent ‘neo-developmentalist’ projects in the region. JCF represents a notorious case study of the political economy of youth policy in Mexico.

Political and security alliances between GCC and Pakistan: a case study of Saudi Arabia, Oman and Qatar

A country's geostrategic position is critical to its economic growth and development, particularly in terms of its international border interactions. Pakistan is located on the gulf's doorstep. The countries of the Persian Gulf are usually recognized as the global economic epicenter due to oil and natural gas resources. The study's overarching purpose was to better comprehend Pakistan's diplomatic ties with Qatar, Saudi Arabia, and Oman. The study focused on their political, religious, cultural, and economic collaboration. The paper sought to focus on and deepen understanding of how mutual collaboration and a security alliance might generate mutual benefits. How successful has the political coalition of these states in the face of religious divisions, economic challenges, and external threats from India, Afghanistan, and Iran? This study used qualitative research methods such as analysis, description, and argumentation. This study relied on primary and secondary sources and a qualitative approach was used. Books, magazines, earlier studies and findings, articles, and case studies were the most often employed tools by researchers. The research shows that the Gulf States and Pakistan have been allies for decades, working together to secure their territory from global threats and assisting each other in economic and political advancement.

Revising National Myths Through Queer Kinship in Percival Everett’s Wounded

This article reads Percival Everett’s 2009 novel Wounded as a narrative of new regionalism that engages with coalitional politics and reimagines important figures in the Western genre, such as masculinity, the family, and the frontier. By engaging with the remediation of Matthew Shepard’s murder, Everett refutes the power of metronormative narratives and showcases the ways in which crossing social boundaries can create inclusive community in places considered hostile to queer individuals. While many binaries are displaced in the novel, ultimately those of backward/progressive and us/them are reasserted, which displays the frontier’s powerful conceptual hold on the Western genre. The novel, however, does imagine a new role regionalism can play in imagining an American identity—a role that eschews more traditional, individualistic depictions of cowboy masculinity and instead emphasizes collectivity and responsibility toward others that accepts difference in favor of a broader ethic of care.

Witch Hunts? Electoral Cycles and Corruption Lawsuits in Argentina

Abstract Courts prosecuting corruption serve a critical horizontal accountability function, but they can also play a role in moments of vertical accountability when voters can sanction corrupt candidates. This article documents the strategic use of corruption lawsuits, demonstrating the presence of an electoral cycle in filing new corruption accusations against politicians. Using an original dataset of daily corruption complaints filed in federal courts against members of Argentina's main political coalitions between 2013 and 2021, we document increased corruption accusations against and by politicians in the periods immediately preceding an election. A second dataset of daily media coverage of corruption accusations in two leading newspapers suggests that corruption is more salient before elections, offering politicians a temporal focal point to prepare and launch especially impactful lawsuits. Our findings shed new light on using courts for accountability and debates about the so-called ‘lawfare’ in Latin America.

Power resources, institutional legacy and labour standards transformation: Lessons from two developing countries

This article assesses the political dynamics behind labour standards reform attempts and their divergent outcomes in Lebanon and Tunisia during the neoliberal era according to a success/failure and flexibility/security configuration. It emphasises the interconnection of three power resources. Institutional legacies mattered for organised labour’s influence on these reforms. Having already had access to formal channels of decision-making since the 1970s, Tunisian labour effectively used these channels during the 1990s reforms. Such channels were not historically well-developed for Lebanese labour and were critical in the reform failure. Furthermore, thanks to its ideational power (i.e. legitimacy), Tunisian organised labour was part of the political coalition of reform. Consequently, Tunisian labour was successful in gaining some job security privileges in exchange for flexibility. Conversely, Lebanese organised labour lacked such legitimacy, which contributed to their exclusion from the political coalition. Instead, employers used their informal channels (e.g. networks) with the political coalition’s elites to halt job security reform.