Inter-party Relations Research Articles

Book Review: Britain and Ireland: Defectors and the Liberal Party, 1910–2010: A Study of Inter-Party Relations

Book Review: Britain and Ireland: Defectors and the Liberal Party, 1910–2010: A Study of Inter-Party Relations

Desde una democracia consensual a una compleja y multinivel: la configuración de la competencia y la colaboración en España

España ha utilizado su transición a la democracia consensual y finalmente exitosa en sus esfuerzos de diplomacia pública. Sin embargo, la literatura inicial sobre la democratización se dividió sobre los beneficios de las transiciones consensuadas. En este artículo se reflexiona sobre las hipótesis prominentes en la literatura sobre la democratización de cómo los procesos de transición (modos) afectan a la política democrática posterior, sobre todo centrándose en cómo el modo de transición podría afectar a la competitividad de las relaciones entre partidos en el parlamento. En lugar de ser explicado por el proceso de transición, las relaciones entre partidos en España, en parte, se explica por la adaptación de los partidos al ambiente electoral e institucional, que han evolucionado durante la historia democrática reciente de España.

La Internacional Socialista y la guerra de Malvinas

This article analyzes the way in which the Falkland Islands (Malvinas) War affected the Socialist International’s plan, within the framework of a changing international environment, to consolidate flexible alliances among political parties of distinct geographies and ideologies in order to sustain its expansion outside of Europe. The article characterizes the positions adopted by Latin American and European political parties and members of the Socialist International, exploring their different visions of the conflict and evaluating the impact of those visions on interparty relations and the Socialist International’s regional strategies.

Defectors and the Liberal Party: 1910–2010: A Study of Inter-party Relations

Unpopular as the Liberal Democrats are in the current opinion polls the party has stayed together, albeit in a dwindling form electorally. There have been no MPs or Peers defecting to either Labour or the Conservatives. In the past such poor showing led to wide-scale defections, but when you dig beneath the surface there were also many other reasons for a Liberal MP or peers to defect to another political party beyond dire electoral prospects. It is these other reasons which are the basis of Dr Alun Wyburn-Powell's in depth study on Liberal defectors. In a generally well-structured and laid out text, Dr Wyburn-Powell starts off by providing an overall summary of the book in his chapter entitled ‘Defectors and loyalists’. This is where we get the comprehensive analysis of who those defectors from the Liberal Party were between 1910 and 2010. Within this hundred-year period some 707 Liberal or Liberal Democrat MPs defected. To put this in the context of scale, this figure is several times the number of post-war Liberal MPs. Yet at the time it only made up a small percentage of the overall Liberal Party.

The Yugoslav Communists' Special Relationship with the British Labour Party 1950–1956

This article uses new evidence to investigate Yugoslav foreign policy through the prism of inter-party relations rather than traditional high diplomacy. It shows the Yugoslav Communists hoped comradeship with Britain's Labour Party would influence Western policies to counter the Soviet threat. Initial successes, especially a deterrent statement by the British Cabinet in February 1951, inspired great optimism. The Labour left was also delighted that Communism could be reformed and Cold War tensions lessened. However, ideological differences crystallised over the Djilas affair and Yugoslavia's choice for Non-Alignment. Only mutual opposition to the USSR during the crises of 1956 ensured their continuing friendship.

From the Jaws of Defeat: The Alberta General Election of 2012

The 23 April 2012 was the 28th general election in the Canadian province of Alberta. This election was not merely the closest the reigning Progressive Conservative Association of Alberta came in their 41-year reign to losing; it was one of the most exciting elections in recent Canadian history with an outcome of national significance. This review highlights the unique party system in Alberta, discusses the major issues and trajectory of the campaign, and examines the unexpected results. This election could have altered the dynamics of Canadian federalism and inter-party relations in Alberta. As a result, the outcome was unexpected.

Великобритания и Маастрихтский договор 1992 года

The article describes the ratification of Maastricht treaty on European Union by British parliament. Particular attention is paid to the role of Prime Minister John Major in the framing of a treaty and its acceptance in the context of escalated intraparty and interparty relations.

Маргарет Тэтчер и Джон Мейджор: битва за власть

The article describes the policy of British Prime Minister from the Conservative Party Margaret Thatcher and John Major. Particular attention is paid to differences in strategy of Prime Ministers, and also to the intraparty and interparty relations.

The ANC and power concentration in South Africa: does local democracy allow for power-sharing?

Concentration of power in the hands of the executive is one of the key challenges to democratic consolidation in Africa. Since the early 1990s, the African National Congress (ANC) has won each national election with up to two-thirds of the votes in South Africa. At the same time, the governing ANC has introduced a process of democratic decentralization. This contribution focuses on the question: to what extent does this process allow for increased power-sharing in South Africa? By analysing the results of two local elections this contribution shows that in seven out of nine provinces the opposition parties are ineffective in challenging the hegemony of the ANC. The analysis then goes on to examine three institutional mechanisms which are likely to have an effect on inter-party relations in-between elections, i.e. floor crossing, ward committees and the electoral system. This in-depth examination shows how these three institutional mechanisms, while not directly restricting opposition parties' opportunity to compete, favour the governing party. Yet, as opposition parties are free to govern small pockets of power, the leadership of the ANC restricts itself and abides by the existing democratic rules. At the same time it needs to be kept in mind that it is the ANC who makes those rules and like any other party in power, they want to retain it.

The Politics of EU Accession: Ideology, Party Strategy and the European Question in Hungary – By A. Batory

The Politics of EU Accession: Ideology, Party Strategy and the European Question in Hungary , by Batory, A. ( Manchester and New York : Manchester University Press , 2008 , ISBN 9780719075285 ); 176 pp. , £56.99 hb . With the five-year anniversary of the EU's 2004 eastern enlargement approaching, there is renewed interest in the new Member States, with a number of books due for publication over the coming year. As such, Agnes Batory's book is a timely publication which, now that the ‘dust’ of the ‘big bang’ enlargement has settled, leads the way in demystifying the politics of EU accession in the new Member States. Batory provides us with a competent analysis of the attitudes Hungarian political parties have held on the notion of Europe and the EU from the early transition period through to the successful referendum on Hungary's accession to the EU in 2003. A number of questions are dealt with in this analysis, including what is perhaps the most interesting aspect of the book – how Europe and EU accession influenced inter-party relations and coalition building. The book is divided into eight chapters with a separate introduction and conclusion. There is a logical division between the chapters, with chapter 1 providing a clear outline of the conceptual framework Batory employs. Chapters 2 and 3 provide some of the historical background on the development of the political party system in Hungary and of the various political parties in terms of their formation and ideological development. Chapters 4 and 5 deal primarily with public attitudes towards Europe and its influence upon the relationship between the political parties and their electoral base. Chapters 6 and 7 look at the issue in terms of how it has impacted on government in Hungary, focusing on the contest between parties in government and those in opposition and the relationship between parties in government coalition. Finally, chapter 8 looks back at the referendum on EU accession with a detailed examination of the campaigns, and the main arguments for and against accession, as well as the final outcome of the referendum in light of the low turnout (45.62 per cent). This book is a welcome addition and will be useful to a variety of groups, including those with an interest in EU enlargement, political parties or Hungarian studies. While Batory is quite clear from the beginning that the book is a study of only the accession period, the reader cannot help but feel a little short-changed that, in fact, the book only provides the first half of the story, particularly in light of what has happened since 2004. As Batory proves, EU accession was an undoubted ideological driving force for Hungary's political parties, but how has this changed post-2004? Does it have the same influence on party development, or are other issues, such as nationalism, becoming even more prevalent? Putting a positive spin on this sense of disappointment, Batory has set a standard and her book provides a clear background and framework for the development of a wider research agenda.

The Impact of Floor Crossing on Electoral Politics and Representative Democracy in Lesotho

There is a firm consensus among both academics and policy analysts that political parties are the linchpin of representative democracy. However, parties require, among other things, internal cohesion, democratic and visionary leadership, intra-party democracy and constructive management of internal conflict as well as mutually beneficial inter-party relations if they are to add value to representative democracy. Without the above qualities political parties on their own, and through the legislature, may not play their role effectively. While floor crossing or political migration, in and of itself, is not necessarily undesirable in a democracy, if not well managed it accentuates the proliferation of parties, a trend that may have adverse effects on already fragmented party systems and fledgling representative democracies such as that prevailing in Lesotho. In the discussion that follows we examine the impact on Lesotho's representative parliamentary democracy of faction fighting and party schisms, which, in turn, lead to floor crossing.

Opposition Politics and the Challenges of Fragmentation in Botswana

It has become an article of faith that in modern political life political parties are the legitimate and logical instruments through which the diverse interests of groups within any societal polity should be mobilised to negotiate peaceful coexistence and democratic governance. The failure of these instruments to perform this role in that manner in societies outside the Anglo-Saxon cultures in which they were born is too often glossed over as a reflection of certain persisting innate inabilities on the part of the non-Anglo-Saxon people on which they were imposed. However, it is the contention of this paper that it is not always very helpful to study political institutions born in one culture and grafted onto another by simple reference to their characteristics in the culture of their birth. Rather, it is more useful to acknowledge the historical specificity of their transfer and examine how this has inter-phased with the new cultural milieu to redefine their characteristics and define future directions for change. This paper is a study of Botswana's political parties and their relations. Specifically it seeks to examine inter-party relations to assess prospects for opposition party cooperation for effective competition for the governing mandate.

The ‘Revolution’ of 27 May 1960 in Turkey: British Policy towards Turkey

The ‘Revolution’ of 27 May 1960 in Turkey: British Policy towards Turkey

The Political Consequences of Local Electoral Systems: Democratic Change and the Politics of Differential Citizenship in South Africa

Political transitions contain volatile moments when long established political landscapes change markedly. Old political sensibilities are challenged. New political forces are constituted. Popular social groups claim new rights. Even where transitions are peacefully negotiated, new institutional arrangements are fragile, and the opportunities for securing democracy are uncertain. The destabilizing effects of transitional moments thus pose challenging questions about what kind of democracy can be consolidated. They impel us to go beyond the question of the emergence of democracies to the kind of democracies that are emerging and to develop analytical frames for evaluating the extension of democratic rights after transitions. Highlighting this challenge, Guillermo O'Donnell has noted that recent transitions have produced polities that must be called polyarchies but that display apparently systematic variations in the social reach of democratic rights. O'Donnell color-codes emerging democracies in to blue where the state enjoys a high social presence and public authority through effective bureaucracy and the rule of law, green where the state's territorial penetration is high but its fiunctional penetration is not, and where the state's presence is virtually nil on both indices. In brown areas, O'Donnell argues, the state's components of democratic legality, and hence, of publicness and citizenship, fade away at the frontiers of various regions and class, gender and ethnic relations; the polity is characterized by low-intensity citizenship.1 This image of posttransition polities signals the differential spread of democratic rights; much might be learned from an analysis of democratization that maps changes in the configuration of blue, green, and brown areas. If definition and institutionalization of areas during a transition can be explained, democratization processes can be better understood, and the prospects of consolidation can be better gauged. In modemrn democracies the electoral system provides the definitive institutional mechanism of political competition and participation. Electoral systems are pivotal in structuring the actions and interests of politicians in both intraand interparty relations. In addition, as Scott Mainwaring has noted, the political origins of electoral systems show how politicians design electoral institutions to promote their own political advantages.2 The relationship between electoral design and the expansion

1960 REVOLUTION IN TURKEY AND THE BRITISH POLICY TOWARDS TURKEY

There vvas a military coup in Turkey on May 27, 1960. This paper examines the main causes of the coup and the effect of Anglo-Turkish Relations. The subject is analysed vvithin seven headings: 1 The Political Parties and The Army; 2 Inter-party relations; 3 The incidents that led to the coup; 4 The coup and its aftermath; 5 Britain's relations vvith Turkey before the military coup; 6 The British attitude tovvards the coup: 7 The British attitude tovvards the trial and the execution of the members of the fallen regime.

Foreign Relations of the Lao People's Democratic Republic: The Ideological Imperative

IT MIGHT HAVE BEEN EXPECTED that in the post-Mao era socialist states would have deemphasized ideological differences in the interests of internationalism. Yet meaningful differences in the basic line of revolutionary transformation, particularly in the Lao People's Democratic Republic (LPDR), the Socialist Republic of Vietnam (SRV), and Democratic Kampuchea have brought into sharp focus the contradictions obtaining between the strict adherence of socialist nations to proletarian internationalism and the conflicting demands of narrow bourgeois nationalism. While media attention has been focussed upon the leading protagonists and victims of the conflict between erstwhile revolutionary allies, less interest has been shown in Laos, an example that allows certain interpretations to be examined in a way that provides valuable insights into the wider dynamics of regional politics. The case of Laos, moreover, serves to illustrate the attempt of one Southeast Asian state and sovereign member of the nonaligned movement to reconcile the conflicting poles of its national security priorities on the one hand, and the dictates of alliances and more powerful socialist nations on the other. Emphasis given here to the ideological imperatives governing the interstate and interparty relations of socialist states is not to depreciate the widely observed relevance of historical, cultural, ethnic, and geostrategic considerations, which are in thie final analysis largely inseparable, but to seek a coherent set of answers to otherwise inexplicable political behavior that analysis of party publications, documents, monitored radio broadcast transcripts, etc., makes possible.

The Changing Vision of the African Working Class – a Component of Soviet Strategy in Black Africa?

The Soviet Union is not able to replace western economic investments even in those African countries which become its affies. Therefore its influence is limited to the political sphere, mainly to inter-party relations. By playing a crucial rôle in Southern Africa and Ethiopia, the Soviet Union has accomplished an important step in its global strategy.

The Soviet attitude to the Christian‐Marxist dialogue

The nature and perspectives of the dialogue between Christians and Marxists have developed considerably since the time of the first meetings of the Paulusgesellschaft in the mid-60s. The cynics remarked then that at these meetings the Marxists were all from Western Europe, the Christians from the East. It is indeed true that as far as the authorities in Eastern Europe and the Soviet Union were concerned, the dialogue was permitted to exist but not officially encouraged. However, since tl~en important changes have occurred in the tactics of the Party and recently a relatively consistent Party line has been visible. The pages of this journal have provided considerable evidence of the complexity of Soviet religious policy. An underlying ideological hostility to religion has not prevented the Soviet authorities from using religion for its own purposes, and forming alliances-in theory temporary, but in practice often of an enduring nature-with believers and with churches. One of the most recent developments in this field has been the renewal of the Party's interest in Christianity outside the Soviet Union as a possible source of support for the international communist movement and ultimately for the propagation of Marxism-Leninism. This should not surprise us because Lenin himself was in favour of admitting believers, and even priests, to the Bolshevik party if they were suitable candidates in other respects. What follows is a brief attempt to portray the general features of this policy of co-operation with believers abroad. The most important official pronouncement on the dialogue was made at the International Communist Conference held in Moscow in 1969. It is perhaps ironic that this meeting, the chief task of which was to help nonnalize inter-party relations after the Czech crisis, should take a major step towards promoting dialogue with Christians. The Party announced: ~'In various countries co-operation and . joint action between communists and the broad democratic masses of Catholics and believers of other religions is developing. It has acquired great urgency. The dialogue between them on such problems as war and peace, capitalism and socialism, neo-colonialism and the developing countries, joint action against imperialism and for democracy and socialism, is very pressing. Communists are of the opinion that on this path-the path of broad contacts and joint activities-the mass of believers is becoming an active force in

Some Aspects of China's Asian Policy in the Cultural Revolution and Its Aftermath

T IS AN UNDERLYING PREMISE of this article that, despite changes in portions of Peking's foreign affairs leadership in the course of the Great Proletarian Cultural Revolution (GCR), there has been considerable continuity in the leadership's perceptions of regional power-configurations and trends in events with the pre-GCR period.* At the same time, however, the GCR's ideological stresses adversely affected Peking's regional foreign affairs tactics between i966 and i969, causing both a general scaling down of external activities and a rather severe-though probably temporary-confusion in both inter-party and inter-state relations with several Asian countries. This confusion created a bellicose regional image of China which does not, in fact, coincide with either the regime's intentions or its capabilities.1 It is the purpose of this article to provide evidence of this ambivalence in Peking's Asian international behavior and assess its impact on some aspects of Sino-Soviet and Asian regional affairs through I970. Whereas prior to the GCR, Peking included among its friends all who were willing to struggle actively against the West regardless of class origin, the Maoists in the course of the GCR insisted that priority be given to partyled, peasant-based liberation movements, despite their effect on interstate relations.2 Policies toward Burma and to a smaller extent Cambodia in i968-i969 come readily to mind. Revolutionaries were urged to establish agrarian bases and foment rural uprisings without waiting for or relying on the perfidious national bourgeoisie. Success would crown the efforts only of those communists who were completely self-reliant and willing to engage in a long, arduous, and lonely struggle-excluding dependence on Soviet aid and with only minimal Chinese support.

Maoism and Inter-Party Relations: Peking's Alienation of the Japan Communist Party

The revolutionary Japanese artists have several times revised parts of the historical play Prairie Fire which they have been staging during their tour of China. It depicts the Japanese peasants' uprising in 1848, and they have made changes in it, in accordance with Mao Tse-tung's thought, to bring out even more clearly the armed struggle waged by the peasants. They have added a magnificent new scene at the end of the play. Amidst the singing of “The East is Red” and “The Internationale”, a great image of Chairman Mao appears on the backdrop, and the Japanese people, holding red-covered Quotations from Chairman Mao Tse-tung and also spears and rifles, all turn to Chairman Mao.