Electoral Mechanisms Research Articles

Election as a principle of organization and activity of executive authorities in Russia

This article analyzes the problems of implementing such a principle of organization and activity of executive authorities in the Russian Federation as election. This principle of the formation and functioning of government in Russia is shown on the basis of a comprehensive analysis of the electoral mechanism in the country with the development of proposals to improve the electoral process, the electoral rights of citizens, the exclusion of frequent violations of its principles for the real realization of popular sovereignty.

REFORMULASI PENGISIAN JABATAN ANGGOTA DEWAN PERWAKILAN RAKYAT DAERAH MELALUI PEMILIHAN SERENTAK LOKAL

The 2019 concurrent elections became the biggest history of Indonesia's democracy. However, the simultaneous election provisions stipulated in Election Law have complexity, and at the same time have a heavy technical implementation impact for the organizers and voters. On the other hand, the meaning of the Regional House of Representatives (DPRD) as an element of regional government administration through the Regional Government Law opens conceptual space to initiate alternative patterns of filling their positions through regional simultaneous electoral mechanisms. This alternative pattern is intended to reformulate the mechanism for the implementation of general elections for DPRD members, which were previously held simultaneously in national elections, then carried out congruently on the same day as the regional elections. This can be implemented through changes to the Election Law, without having to change the 1945 Constitution. Substantially, the amendment is limited to the time aspect of elections for DPRD members.

Ostracism and Democracy

The 2020 Presidential Election featured an unprecedented attempt to undermine our democratic institutions: allegations of voter fraud and litigation about mail-in ballots culminated in a mob storming of the Capitol as Congress certified President Biden’s victory. Former President Trump now faces social-media bans and potential disqualification from future federal office, but his allies have criticized those efforts as the witch-hunt of a cancel culture that is symptomatic of the unique ills of contemporary liberal politics. This Article defends recent efforts to remove Trump from the public eye, with reference to an ancient Greek electoral mechanism: ostracism. In the world’s first democracy, Athenians assembled once a year to write down on pottery shards, ostraka, names of prominent figures they wished to exile from their political community. I argue that this desire to banish powerful figures from political participation is, in fact, sign of a well-functioning, legitimate democracy.

Problems associated with usage of “gray” electoral techniques and prevention of abuse of subjective electoral rights: thoughts in the lead-up to the State Duma Federal Assembly of the Russian Federation deputies

The object of this research is the legal relations in the area of exercising rights by parties and individuals, while the subject consists in the legal norms establishing the legal position of citizens and parties in the sphere of electoral law, as well as norms regulating the order of organization and electoral process in the Russian Federation. The goal of this article is to use a comprehensive interdisciplinary political-legal approach to determine problems in legal regulation of organization and process of elections in the Russian Federation, determine defective positions and gaps in the legislation, as well as make proposals on improving participation of parties in elections. The authors believe that in modern Russia the time for political transformation has already been lost, and we will see a drastic change of economic and then political elites. The only way to prevent forceful usurpation of power among other manifestations of extremism is to create environment and mechanisms for indiscriminant access to elections for a broad scope of sociopolitical powers through corresponding changes in electoral legislation. The proposed measures on improving legislation on deputy elections to the representative branches of government and local self-governance are aimed at prevention of abuse of subjective electoral rights (electoral mechanisms). Among them are countermeasures for usage of “gray” electoral techniques and creation of new legal regulation of participation in elections of collective political subjects (political actors) as parties, as well as increasing the role of non-parliamentary political parties in electoral process and revision of particular provisions of the right of party preferences.

Politic and Election in Papua Indonesia

The general election in Papua is carried out according to the Law No. 7 of 2017 on general election. The general election in Papua employs cultural and tribal approaches through noken system. Despite its violation to the general election principle, the implementation of noken system in the general election brings justice to indigenous people. This research is intended to study about the electoral mechanism in Papua by highlighting the mechanism of indigenous people of Papua. The research finding shows that the law construction of general election in Papua is in line with the customary law that is accommodated by the community in the positive law in Indonesia.

ВЛИЯНИЕ ОБЩЕСТВЕННОГО КОНТРОЛЯ НА ЭЛЕКТОРАЛЬНЫЕ РЕЗУЛЬТАТЫ ИНКУМБЕНТА: СЛУЧАЙ ГУБЕРНАТОРСКИХ ВЫБОРОВ В САНКТ-ПЕТЕРБУРГЕ

The article includes a literature review on election observation in contemporary Russia and empirical research of the election observation influence on the results of the gubernatorial election in St. Petersburg. In the literature review section, the two approaches towards election observation are distinguished: election observation as a tool of control and participation, and election observation as imitation and legitimation. In the empirical section, due to the lack of systematic data, election observation is operationalized as the share of election committee members nominated by different political forces. The empirical section concludes with the thesis about the limited effect of the electoral monitoring on the incumbent’s results (the results of the acting governor were to a higher extent influenced by the turnout level, the share of voters, who cast their ballots at home, and those who voted against all of the candidates). The results of the analysis support the argument about the existence of two models of election observation: participatory and imitation-legitimizing. In the concluding section the possible directions for further research are suggested: studying of the electoral fraud mechanisms at the level of individual election committees, legitimation of frauded results, and ways in which independent election committee members and election observers combat and prevent electoral fraud.

Electoral and non-electoral mechanisms of professionals' recruitment for Russian local self-governance (on the example of the Tyumen Oblast regions)

Electoral and non-electoral mechanisms of professionals' recruitment for Russian local self-governance (on the example of the Tyumen Oblast regions)

Openness of voting as an alternative to secret ballot in matters of improving the electoral mechanism: towards the formulation of the problem

Openness of voting as an alternative to secret ballot in matters of improving the electoral mechanism: towards the formulation of the problem

Problems of the formation of public authorities of the constituent entities of the Russian Federation: regional aspect

The article examines the current problems of improving the legal norms governing elections of the highest officials of Russian Federal entities, considers the problematic issues of the implementation of electoral mechanisms in the context of the subjects of the nomination of candidates, the features of the legal regulation of the institution of self-nomination in the elections of the highest official of Russian Federal entities. The authors analyze the legal norms that regulate the procedure for collecting signatures in support of candidates nominated by various subjects, consider the organizational and legal norms that regulate the procedure for recalling the highest official of the Russian Federation, and suggest ways to improve the regulatory and legal regulation of the election of the highest official of the Russian Federal entity.

KEDUDUKAN SERTA FUNGSI DPR DALAM SISTEM KETATANEGARAAN NEGARA REPUBLIK INDONESIA

The Indonesian state has institutions as a reflection of democracy. Which puts people as the holders of sovereignty. The institution is the house of representatives which is incorporated in the legislative power. In determining the membership of the house of representatives, it remains through the electoral mechanism using the electoral system or the election. This research uses normative juridical research by studying the source of primary law and the source of legal sequences that are either legislation or research results to be carried out an institutional theory approach. The institution has the duty and function in the part of the indonesian state administration system to represent the aspirations or interests of the people. In addition to the duties and function of these institutions have rights that are not owned by other institutions.

Representation of indigenous peoples in times of progressive governments: lessons learned from Bolivia

ABSTRACT Indigenous peoples in Latin America are historically underrepresented in elected bodies. In 2009, Bolivia introduced a new mechanism for direct representation to counteract this systematic representation gap, securing 7 of 130 seats (5.4%) in the national parliament for indigenous peoples of the lowlands. The reform was part of a series of implementation conflicts related to a new vision of plurinational state-building, included in the new 2009 Constitution. Although most indigenous organizations were seeking a ‘power-sharing’ agreement with direct representation for all indigenous nations, the new government, led by President Evo Morales, successfully intervened in favor of a minority protection scheme. Furthermore, for the direct representatives, the room to maneuver left was severely limited, leaving little space to act on behalf of their minority constituencies. Curiously, this reduced version of direct representation is nonetheless the most advanced in Latin America. The Bolivian case provides important lessons on the ‘de-monopolization’ of political parties as a key factor in the effective representation of indigenous peoples in parliament, as well as on the importance of a goal-oriented design for electoral mechanisms focusing on substantive representation.

The Legal Politics of Recall Right of Political Parties Relevance with the System of Popular Sovereignty In Dynamics of the Constitution of Indonesia

The existence of regulation of recall rights of political parties as regulated in Law No. 17 of 2014 and Law No. 2 of 2008 bring a great influence on the position of legislative members. Based on these rules, legislators may be dismissed from their positions if proposed by Political Party. This certainly brings a polemic for the people as the sovereign owner, who have chosen their representatives through the electoral process, but when chosen representatives of the people can be dismissed from his position by a political parties through the mechanism of the right of recall. This research was done by doctrinal method approach as well as the use of the statute, historical, and conceptual approach. This results showed that the legal politics of recall right of political parties is actually only used as an instrument of the political parties in controlling its members in parliament in order to always adhere to the party's policy direction. This makes the recall right political party is legal products that characterized conservative or orthodox. The existence of a political party's recall rights order gives a great authority to the political parties to negate the result of the people's choice as the holder of sovereignty for the sake of the political party. The function of political parties as a means of political recruitment in the process of filling political office in this case as members of the legislature, should have been completed after the people chose their representatives through electoral mechanisms. Therefore, it is necessary for the reconstruction of the ideal and relevant recall rights arrangement to the people's sovereignty.

Polarisation, accountability, and interstate conflict

Voters constrain democratic leaders’ foreign policy decisions. Yet, studies show that elite polarisation restricts the choices available to voters, limiting their ability to punish or reward incumbent governments. Building on a comparative elections and accountability perspective, we hypothesise that the governing context moderates the effectiveness of domestic punishment and reward. The rise of elite polarisation in many democracies undermines voters’ ability to sanction leaders through elections. Linking data on international crises to domestic polarisation, we find that leaders are more likely to be involved in the initiation of inter-state disputes, resulting disputes will be more likely to result in prolonged conflict, and ultimately that foreign policy outcomes exhibit greater variance. Results from our analysis and extensive robustness checks demonstrate evidence that increased dispersion of preferences among key actors can lead to extreme and negative foreign policy outcomes as electoral mechanisms fail to reign in and hold governing parties to account.

ПРОЦЕСС УСВОЕНИЯ ПОЛИТИЧЕСКИХ ЦЕННОСТЕЙ И ДИНАМИКА РАЗВИТИЯ ИНСТИТУТА ГРАЖДАНСКОГО УЧАСТИЯ В МОЛОДЕЖНОЙ СРЕДЕ

This article reflects the results of a study of the value orientations of modern student youth and the features of its civic participation. The political socialization of modern youth is becoming an important factor in the manifestation of its civic political activity. Political literacy of youth is achieved not only due to its inclusion in the educational process and the study of relevant disciplines (political science, sociology, geopolitics, etc.), but also thanks to modern communication technologies. However, even the formation of the so-called “media literacy” always entails active political participation; absenteeism has been and remains the predominant feature of the political behavior of the majority of the young generation. The spirit of rebellion traditionally attributed to youth is not always manifested even in the form of a protest vote, which is facilitated by the lack of confidence in the effectiveness of the electoral political mechanism as a response to a request for justice. The survey allowed us to draw conclusions about the basic political values of youth (freedom, legitimacy, a request for social justice), and revealed the attitude of young people to various forms of civic participation, as well as their willingness to be active in the political sphere.

Del Tratado de Libre Comercio de América del Norte al Acuerdo México-Estados Unidos-Canadá. ¿Nuevo capítulo de la integración México-Estados Unidos?

Los acuerdos comerciales, los de integración económica especialmente, tienen orígenes y fines políticos; por ello, este trabajo presenta los cambios introducidos por Donald Trump, actual presidente de los Estados Unidos, en las relaciones económicas y en la política internacional al remplazar la “hegemonía por consenso”, del internacionalismo liberal de la posguerra, por el realismo. Esta mutación está presente en el Brexit, la renegociación del Tratado de Libre Comercio de América del Norte (TLCAN) y otros acontecimientos mundiales. Asimismo, este estudio revisa las amenazas y las acciones del gobierno estadunidense respecto de México, las cuales usa Trump como artificio electoral, y las contrasta con opiniones de la sociedad mexicana, más favorables a modificar el modelo económico. Presenta, finalmente, los cambios más relevantes al TLCAN contenidos en el Tratado México-Estados Unidos-Canadá(TMEC), y sugiere cómo se favorecen los intereses de México y los Estados Unidos.

Women and the Italian general election of 2018: selection, constraints and resources in the definition of candidate profiles

ABSTRACT Based on public databases hosted by the Ministry of the Interior and drawing on data collected by the OpenPolis Foundation on parliamentarians, the study analyses the socio-demographic and political profiles of female candidates for the Senate and the Chamber of Deputies in the single- and multi-member constituencies after adoption of the ‘Rosato Law’ and the introduction of ‘gender quotas’. The new rules enhance the presence of women in politics, but candidate selection and candidates’ positions in constituencies also depend on the regulatory frameworks of individual political parties and on informal rules and practices in the secret garden of politics. For this reason, the research takes into account the parties’ internal rules (as revealed by statutes, regulations and other documents) but also the concrete processes to which the selected women were subject. These refer to their social and political profiles, including their political allegiances and previous political careers in local government and Parliament; their statuses as newcomers or incumbents; the types of constituency for which they are chosen. For outgoing MPs only, the study also takes into account other indicators such as level of productivity, ‘changing political colours’ and rebel votes. The study throws light, on the one hand, on the way in which electoral mechanisms explain the under representation of women in Parliament, on the other hand, on the determinants of women’s political careers in individual parties.

When You Win, Nothing Hurts: The Durability of Electoral Salience on Individuals’ Satisfaction with Democracy

There is a substantial literature on the impact of having voting for an electorally victorious party on individual voters’ satisfaction with democracy. Yet, there have been few evaluations as to temporally salient are elections to the satisfaction levels for those who voted for a “winning” party and those who voted for a “losing” party. Using rounds 1–8 of the European Social Surveys, I find evidence from 92 elections in 27 European countries that both the levels of and the difference between satisfaction levels of “winners” and “losers” do not attenuate quickly but rather last almost 5 years. That is, it appears that “winners” are more satisfied with democracy and stay that way. While this confirms earlier, smaller studies, the absence of a causal connection between the time from election and satisfaction levels poses a significant challenge to the current literature about the electoral mechanism of this relationship.

Representation as Responsiveness in China

Studies of political representation have focused on responsiveness driven by electoral mechanisms in liberal-democratic regimes. In a single-party system like China’s, how does the government respond to citizens’ service requests? Whose and what interests are being represented in governmental responsiveness, and to what extent? This article explores these questions through the lens of “representation as responsiveness” by analyzing an exclusive data set from the city public service hotline in Shanghai. Data analyses show that Chinese municipalities have good responsiveness to citizens’ practical concerns, and the quality of responsive representation has been improving in recent years. However, some groups of residents tend to be underserved for multiple reasons. This article argues that a responsive model of authoritarian representation will become a significant source of resilience for the party regime.

The Hard Truths of Brexit

The outgoing U.K. Parliament tried to block a "hard" interpretation of the Brexit referendum outcome, and only authorized an early election when that seemed in place. But under the Westminster system a Parliament cannot bind its successor, and in December 2019 a purged hardline Conservative party won a decisive majority. There are wider lessons for contemporary democracies. Representative governments can add referendums to their existing electoral mechanisms, but that requires great care and foresight. National sovereignty can be a powerful mobilizer of opinion, but can jeopardize territorial unity. Although disengaging from external entanglements can seem liberating, it can also prove polarizing. Losers in a democratic contest must accept the verdict of the polls, but such defeats can still be bitterly resented and can cause lasting damage to political harmony.

General Election System In Papua Indonesia

Elections in Papua are held based on Law Number 7 of 2017 concerning Elections.In the Papuan elections as an approach to cultural values and ethnicity through noken. The basis of modern law, and and local wisdom. This model of indigenous peoples even though it contradicts the principle of election turns out to be a democratic process and provides a sense of justice for local indigenous peoples. This study will examine the electoral mechanism in Papua by prioritizing the mechanism of indigenous Papuans. The results showed the construction of electoral law in Papua, in accordance with customary law accommodated by the community in positive law in Indonesia.