Majority Government Research Articles

Sustainable Projects by Local Governments in Turkey for Street Animals: An Evaluation and Forward- Looking Recommendations

In Turkey, local governments provide services for the protection of stray animals through many different practices. The research analyses the sustainable practices and projects of local governments, which are legally considered to be the main responsible authorities, for stray animals and develops concrete policy recommendations for the future. In this context, the activities of the three largest local governments in Turkey, namely Istanbul, Ankara and Izmir, where a large part of Turkey's population lives, were analysed in detail. By applying to three major local governments from official sources, their activities for the protection of stray animals have been reached. In light of these data, very different practices and projects were encountered. Although the names of the practices and projects are different, it has been seen that the view of the problem of stray animals is the same. The research proposes an alternative application to the struggle of animals for life on the streets and the practices that support this struggle. This solution proposal is both more humane than existing projects and saves animals from the dangers on the streets. In addition, the suggestions are more sustainable than the existing projects.

Young Generation's Contribution in Building a Halal Industry Ecosystem in Indonesia

The younger generation in Indonesia plays a pivotal role in building the ecosystem of the halal industry, with a focus on technological innovation, entrepreneurship, Sharia financial education, and business ethics. This research, using a qualitative method, aims to discuss the development of the halal industry in Indonesia and the strategic role of the younger generation. The research findings indicate Indonesia's significant potential in the halal industry based on the majority Muslim population, natural resources, and government support. The younger generation's role in innovation and social responsibility is key to the growth of the halal industry, positioning Indonesia as a global leader in halal product consumption

지방자치단체의 청년 문화예술 정책 개선 방안

In this study, we revealed the current state of youth culture from the perspective of generation theory and sought ways to improve it by analyzing ordinances supporting youth culture and arts that are currently being actively enacted or revised. The current youth policy, which is centered around job policies, is silent on not only the issue of economic poverty but also the issue of cultural poverty among young people. In addition, as recent social issues such as hatred and generational conflict have expanded, community life is facing a crisis, and the young generation is at the center of this. As a result of taking interest in these social issues and examining the youth culture and arts support ordinances that are being actively enacted or revised recently, focusing on major local governments, we discovered that the following policy changes are necessary. First, support for youth culture and arts should focus on improving the problems of the young generation rather than focusing on community development. Second, the ordinance supporting youth culture and arts must be supplemented with provisions for improving the quality of life of young people and promoting creative activities. Third, the type of youth culture and arts activities must be changed to focus on policy participation. Therefore, this study basically emphasized that youth policy requires a change in thinking to a policy in which youth become the ‘subject’.

The influence of local government transparency on the implementation of the sustainable development goals in municipalities

PurposeNowadays, there is a strong public interest in promoting transparency to be informed about the actions of the public sector. At the same time, there has been a significant change in society’s perceptions and concerns about sustainable development, with a marked increase in attention to this area. In this context, our main objective is to investigate the impact of transparency practices in local government on the implementation of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) in Spanish municipalities.Design/methodology/approachWe will analyse a sample of 84 municipalities, using the Dynamic Transparency Index published by Dyntra to measure transparency. For the level of implementation of the SDGs, we will use an index specifically created using data from the report “The SDGs in 100 Spanish Cities”, published by the Spanish Network for Sustainable Development in 2020.FindingsMunicipalities with a larger dependent population tend to achieve higher SDG levels. Municipalities with lower financial surpluses and more self-generated resources show better SDG implementation. Progressive political parties lean more towards sustainability, and coalition governments show higher SDG implementation than majority governments. Gender appears to play a minor role in SDG implementation, but male leadership is associated with higher levels. Factors such as population density and government transfers do not have a significant impact on SDG implementation levels.Originality/valueThis study seeks to address the lack of empirical research on the potential impact of transparency on the achievement of the SDGs, while also taking into account other socio-economic, financial and political aspects of the municipality. In doing so, it also contributes to the limited empirical literature on the determinants of the level of SDG implementation in local governments.

Distribution of Seats in the New 2021 Czech Government Coalition in Terms of Coalition Theories and Power Indices of Political Parties

This study is theoretically anchored in the office-seeking approach and coalition theory of political science. It is based on the most widespread theories of portfolio distribution in executive and legislative bodies (proportionality, power index, voting weights), and it tests these theories using data related to coalition negotiations in the Czech Republic for the new 2021 government coalition, a case of a surplus majority government. The study investigates the distribution of ministerial positions in the government, the office of President (Speaker) of the Chamber of Deputies, and the chairs of permanent parliamentary committees. The analysis also explores the types of electoral coalitions formed; the SPOLU coalition was a superadditive coalition, while the PirSTAN coalition was only an additive coalition. Grounded in the theory of electoral games, the Shapley-Shubik and Banzhaf power indices and the theory of coalition formation are applied in order to analyse the possible minimal winning coalitions that could be formed following the 2021 elections to the Chamber of Deputies.

The BJP's Drive for Hegemony

ABSTRACT: In 2014, the Hindu-nationalist Bharatiya Janata Party captured national power in the world's largest democracy. Under its controversial new leader, Narendra Modi, the BJP established India's first single-party majority government since 1984 and became the only party besides the Indian National Congress to accomplish this feat since the country won independence, in 1947. In the 2019 general election, despite a disappointing economic record, growing communal strife, and disruptive policy decisions, the BJP increased its vote share and seats in Parliament. The victory emboldened the party to further its longstanding agenda to transform India's secular constitutional democracy into a de facto Hindu nation. Modi remained popular throughout India's terrible pandemic. Now, with a return of high economic growth and the unity of opposition parties in question, most observers expect him to win the 2024 general election, which concludes in June.

An Analysis of Article 356 in Coalition Era of Indian Politics

Article 356 of the Indian Constitution has often been subjected to the partisan use by the successive Central governments since 1950. However, the shift from a single-party majority government to a multi-party coalition governments in national politics since early 1990s has largely influenced the scope and intent of invoking this Article. The coalition government’s survival with the backing of regional parties has indeed been a major factor in diminishing the incentives for the arbitrary and frequent invocation of Article 356. In this backdrop, the present article explains how the political change brought about by the coalition governments since 1990s has created the conditions for restraining Central transgressions on state governance, and also discusses the prospects of rationally employing this Article in the changing political conditions of the country. The argument of this paper is that—although the rise of the Bharatiya Janata Party to national political dominance since the 2014 general elections has raised apprehension about the move towards centralised federalism, it is not likely to upset the current pattern of restrained use of this Article.

Early warning models for systemic banking crises: Can political indicators improve prediction?

This study provides a novel attempt to assess whether an early warning system (EWS) for systemic banking crises can produce better predictions when political indicators are used alongside traditional macro-financial indicators. Based on a dataset covering 32 advanced economies for the period 1975–2017, we show that the inclusion of political indicators significantly improves the predictive performance of the model. Our results suggest several channels, related to the role of constitutions and policy predictability, through which the political environment could affect the stability of a banking system. In particular, we find that majority governments, left-wing governments, and a longer time in office of the executive party are negatively correlated with systemic risk. This is robust to a large number of different specifications. Furthermore, we find that long-established institutional systems and plurality electoral systems (compared to proportional representation systems) are associated with a lower likelihood of crises. At the same time, crises are more likely when the incumbent government represents a nationalist platform.

The Rise of Developmental Statism in India: Focusing on the Resurgence of State-owned Enterprises in the Modi Government's Infrastructure Development Strategy

This paper explores how the Narendra Modi administration has used state-owned enterprises (SOEs) to achieve its infrastructure development goals. After implementing global neoliberal policies in 1991, India had reduced the state's role and promoted private sector activities. However, these reforms failed to attract private sector investment, which led to a decline in growth. This decline in economic growth and slow progress in infrastructure became major political issues after the 2008 Global Financial Crisis. India witnessed a significant political shift in 2014 with the election of BJP-led Narendra Modi government, marking the first single-party majority government in three decades. The Modi administration identified infrastructure development as a critical factor in reviving India's growth story. It embraced what I term 'Developmental Statism' by extensively utilizing SOEs as 'developmental means' to implement crucial infrastructure developmental projects. India’s this developmental strategy led to the creation of new SOEs and an expansion of the existing ones. The paper also highlights that the resurgence of SOEs in the Indian economy doesn't oppose the market economy. Instead, it facilitates the market economy by promoting public-private partnerships.

How do right‐wing populist majoritarian governments redistribute? Evidence from Poland, 2005–2019

AbstractThere is scarce evidence regarding redistribution policies implemented by right‐wing populist parties forming majority governments. We contribute to this literature by measuring the effects of sweeping reforms of the tax and benefit system carried out by the populist party PiS governing Poland since 2015. The reforms included a generous, unconditional, and universal child benefit. Using micro‐simulation‐based decompositions of relative poverty, we separate poverty changes due to the populists' policies (policy effects) from observed poverty changes. We found that populists' reforms from 2015 to 2019 had large poverty‐reducing effects: total poverty was brought down by more than 2 percentage points, while child poverty by about 6.5 points. However, the policy effects account ‘only’ for about half of overall poverty declines over this period. On the other hand, they are much bigger than those obtained previously by a coalition of mainstream parties (2007–2011) or a coalition of populist ones (2005–2007). Since 2015, the populists' reforms targeted social groups that were neglected or inadequately addressed by anti‐poverty policies by past governments. Our results suggest that, at least in conservative and ethnically homogeneous societies, right‐wing populist majoritarian governments are capable of carrying out large‐scale redistribution projects that lead to sizeable poverty reductions and include non‐chauvinist, universal cash transfers.

Minor parties and employment relations at the 2023 election

After three years of the first single-party majority government of the Mixed Member Proportional (MMP) era, the 2023 general election in Aotearoa New Zealand will result in a return to the historical norm: a government containing a major party with one or more minor political parties in a formal coalition, or a minority government relying on minor parties for support. Thus, the employment relations policies, the priorities and the power of these minor parties becomes important for assessing the likely trajectory of employment relations policy (ER) in the coming three years. Indeed, recent polling suggests that minor parties will have an unusually large degree of influence. At the time of writing, opinion polls suggest that the combined support for the minor parties is at levels not seen since 2002, with support for the two major parties correspondingly low. This article analyses the positions of the various minor parties likely to be in parliament after the election and speculates on how these parties might seek to influence the employment relations agenda of the next government.

Research on the Strategy for Building an Emergency Rescue Intelligent Platform Facing Supply and Demand

In the event of sudden major disasters, national and local governments often face situations such as material shortages and improper allocation. By building an emergency rescue intelligent platform oriented towards supply and demand, it integrates public welfare activities, open content, and precise information, and widely collects and timely discloses real-time information of the affected areas nationwide, in order to facilitate government assistance and platform users to make point-to-point public welfare donations. The establishment of such emergency rescue intelligent platforms is of great significance for maintaining social harmony, and the launch of the platform can assist the government in solving the problem of information asymmetry during disaster relief; Utilizing the convenience of information disclosure on online platforms to seek benefits for society; Help affected areas better cushion the impact of disasters; Make the affected people feel humanistic care, help them regain their confidence in life, and promote the trend of doing public welfare and offering love.

The Integration of OpenCV and Unity for the Development of Interactive Educational Game

In recent years, online and interactive educational games have become increasingly popular as a tool to improve and accelerate the learning experience for students. Computer vision libraries in python such as OpenCV provide a wide range of tools for image processing, object detection, and face recognition that can be used to create interactive and engaging games. This paper explores the use of OpenCV in Unity 3D for the development of interactive online educational games. Specifically, we discuss how OpenCV can be used to create interactive games that respond to user actions in real-time, such as tracking the movement of a user’s hand or face to control in-game actions. It focuses on an unconventional approach to interactive game development using OpenCV combined with a computer network based protocol namely User Datagram Protocol (UDP) as communication channel to transfer real-time data to Unity Game Engine from Python Server. Though being the conventional approach for object and face tracking based games Augmented Reality (AR) requires specialized hardware and high camera quality for accurate tracking of object position and orientation. Given the lack of technical infrastructure and computational resources in majority government schools under the Indian academic education system this approach is not feasible for large scale implementation. This research paper aims to contribute to the development of innovative and effective approaches for interactive and online educational games suitable for large scale implementation in the form of a Vlab (Virtual Lab).

Portugal: Political Developments and Data in 2022

AbstractIn this article, the main events of political life in Portugal are discussed. It includes a report on general elections in 2022, the formation of a new Socialist absolute majority government led by Prime Minister Antonio Costa, and major parliamentary decisions and debates. The year 2022 started with early general elections, strengthening the ruling Socialist Party, which won a majority of seats in the national Parliament. However, it took some time for the new government to learn to govern in the new context.

“Often People Don't Understand the Complex World”: How Local Governments Respond to Political Contestation About the Smart City

Governments introducing smart city technologies increasingly encounter political contestation. The deliberative perspective aims to overcome contestation by seeking consensus through deliberation. The agonistic perspective critiques this deliberative perspective, arguing that emphasizing consensus-building in response to contestation can lead to a ‘post-political’ debate excluding certain citizens and opinions. This article presents an empirical assessment of this critique by analyzing governments responses to contestation about the smart city and its potentially depoliticizing implications. Therefore, 17 vignette interviews were conducted with civil servants working at major local governments in the Netherlands. The results reveal three depoliticizing responses in the smart city debate: (1) local governments aim to include everyone, but only if citizens act and behave in a way that they perceive as rational and reasonable; (2) local governments welcome a variety of viewpoints, but only if these views do not contradict what they see as the natural order and common sense; and (3) local governments allow for contestation, but only if it is perceived as being provided at the right time and in the right context. Two tentative explanations for depoliticizing responses are presented: a silent ideology within the government and a lack of practical methods to organize agonistic channels for engagement.

To amend or not to amend: under what circumstances do Spanish legislators propose amendments to executive bills?

Based on a new comprehensive dataset containing information on 93,722 amendments, this article explores the circumstances under which Spanish legislators propose amendments to executive bills. Our results show that legislators respond to variations in both governmental factors and bargaining dynamics. In single-party minority governments, ad hoc legislature agreements translate into more amendments. However, legislators do not introduce significantly fewer amendments under absolute majority governments, when the chances of their proposals being accepted fall. After controlling for many confounders, the results show that amending activity reacts to attention allocation dynamics – mediatised bills receive more amendments – but not to variations in contextual factors – the number of amendments does not significantly increase when the economic situation deteriorates. Finally, bills associated with a greater number of committee appearances from interest groups, experts and public officials are more often the target of amendments, signalling that an informational logic is also at play.

Parliamentary Committees and Ex-post Oversight: Institutional Options and Design

Abstract Parliamentary oversight of executive power is a parliamentary system concern, considering weaker ex-post institutional oversight mechanisms and actor incentive challenges. Yet, institutional options are precondition for making parliamentary ex-post oversight work and this article investigates which type of options in fact exists within the vital committee system and how they are designed. The expectation is that ex-post oversight options depend on distributional power structures, being stronger for systems with traditions for minority compared to majority governments. For the design, the expectation is an institutional ‘efficient’ outcome in terms of ex-post oversight options being placed in a controlled central oversight committee, and that this applies regardless of government traditions. Empirically, focus is on the five most similar Nordic state parliamentary cases that vary in committee settings and in government traditions. For the investigation focus is on specific ex-post oversight options, the design of these options and overall de-facto use. The findings show a clear difference between the Scandinavian minority cases and the Icelandic and Finnish majority cases. For the design, most cases have ex-post oversight options designed for specific oversight committees, but where the Danish Folketing deviates by providing several options in different committees.

Institutional incentives and contentious politics in post-Neoliberal era in Latin America (1985–2010)

The article focuses on the supply-side of protest activity in Latin America in the post-neoliberal era. It argues that parties’ cohesive voting in Congress under different power constellations and parties’ linkage strategy to voters create institutional conditions of power collusion, inter-branch stalemate, or party erosion that delineates political terrain for social mobilization. First, the firm control of a single party or coalition over the executive and legislature with cohesive voting of party members in line with party leadership denotes power collusion and incites underrepresented actors to protest. Second, the dislocation in the executive-legislative relations (either with party members voting against the president’s proposals in a majority government or with cohesive opposition bloc(s) acting against the president’s will in a minority government) leads to policy immobilism and pushes legislative parties to ignite popular discontent. Third, more programmatic party linkages increase the degree of party institutionalization and predictability about policy commitment and mitigate struggles in extra-electoral arenas. The theoretical argument is tested with a battery of statistical tests that lends credence to the institutional explanations of mass mobilization and corroborated with empirical cases that show the plausibility of the statistical findings in particular contexts.

Public ownership and local bank lending at the time of the Covid-19 pandemic: Evidence from Indonesia

This paper empirically analyzes whether the Covid-19 pandemic has brought about a significant impact on the lending of local banks and whether such impact has been different for public as compared to private local banks. Using panel data from 1344 Bank Perkreditan Rakyat (BPRs) –banks licensed to provide services within only a province's area– in Indonesia, this paper confirms the negative impact that the Covid-19 pandemic has had on local bank lending. This paper also confirms that the impact of the Covid-19 pandemic on lending has been smaller for local banks owned by majority government shareholders than for local banks owned by private shareholders, providing support to the “social” view of government intervention in the banking sector.

Iceland: Political Developments and Data in 2022

AbstractIn 2022, Icelandic politics returned to normal. In the two previous years, Covid‐19 had dominated the political agenda—ideology and politics as normal were largely absent. In the 2021 parliamentary elections, the three‐way coalition of the Left Greens, Independence Party, and Progressive Party (PP) kept its majority in Althingi—the first majority government to do so since the bank crash of 2008. This victory was clearly the result of a successful fight against the epidemic, and the government parties decided to continue their coalition cooperation. In 2022, support for the government and for the government parties went down, just as had been the case for all governments since the financial crisis of 2008. One of the opposition parties, the Social Democratic Alliance, made huge gains in the opinion polls—under a new leadership. Increasing ideological tensions could be observed within the government coalition, which includes both the parliamentary party furthest to the left and furthest to the right.