One-party System Research Articles

Le pluralisme politique de l’Ouest canadien

Regionalism has played a tremendous part in defining Canadian identity in a federation still divided along regional lines. Since the 1870s, Western Canada has often felt left aside from the politically powerful provinces of Ontario and Quebec: this federal lack of interest goes hand in hand with unfair representative power both in the Senate and in the House of Commons.As a result, this politically and economically divergent region has created several political parties. For example, the CCF originated in Western Canada in the 1930s with strong socialist leanings. During the Great Depression, William Aberhart founded the Social Credit which had a long-term influence in Alberta. As for the Reform Party, whose only leader was Preston Manning, it remained a federal party whose original aim was to promote Western issues in Ottawa. Finally, separatist parties came into being with the involvement of Douglas Christie at the head of the Western Block Party.Undoubtedly, Westerners have shown how dynamic involved they could be to see their diversity represented provincially and federally. And yet, political heterogeneity is not always reflected: indeed, it seems that Western Canada is heading from a two-party system to a one-party system where political organizations have different labels or names rather than deep ideological divergences

Law pertaining to political parties and political pluralism — freedom of the foundation and functioning of political parties in post-communist Hungary

This paper studies the law pertaining to political parties in Hungary, from the viewpoint of establishing and maintaining of political pluralism. In the period of 1989–1990, the transition from the one-party system to the democratic and pluralistic state of law could be followed up relative to the development of the law pertaining to the political parties, which is based on the rules that foreclose the contingent development of unconstitutional political system.The paper reviews the concept of the political party according to the constitutional law, the normative framework of functioning and the regulations of the internal organization of political parties. The provisions of primary importance concern: a) equality of political parties, b) forbidden purposes and instruments, c) rules of incompatibility, d) state subvention. Rules concerning the internal organization require the openness and the prevailing of democratic will-making also inside the political parties, so contribute to the maintaining the democratic competition of political parties.The author emphasizes the factors that determine multiparty-system, and argues that electoral thresholds and the effective method of state-financing of political parties contest the principle of equality and harm the fair-competition. Thresholds and subvention are both based on the effectiveness of political parties-though being capable to prevent the party system and the parliament from fragmentation, nonetheless, they prefer extensively, if not unconstitutionally, the political parties in the Parliament, so they can be seen as being designed to protect the current political elite.

The dynamics of political competition and the future of democratization process in Cameroon: challenges and opportunities

The paper looks at the process of democratization in Cameroon and its failure to respond to the basic tenets of democracy that meets the aspirations of the people. It argues that though there have been some quasi moves following the collapse of the Soviet Union in trying to open the political space, this has been done to meet donors wish and not in the genuine interest of the people. Hence both internal forces have stifled the democratic process with the compliancy of the international community. It goes further to question whether there is hope for Cameroon and the rest of the continent to claim the 21st century. The focus is on examining the return of Cameroon to the democratic fold of nations following the collapse of the dominant one-party system. To what extent has the process of the newfound political pluralism been of potential reward to improving the quality of livelihood of the people and empowering them in the political process? In short, the paper looks at the process of political evolution and the reformation of the country's institution to make democracy more participative and responsive to the needs of the people in respect of a number of inter-related issues that can improve the quality of the living standards of the vast majority of the population. It adopts a comparative analytical approach and argues that women need better representation in the decision-making machinery and political hierarchy of the government and party. The conclusion is that sustainable political development should build on the principles of inclusion. Keywords: Democratisation, participation, exclusion, inclusion, ethnic hegemony, political divide, marginalisation, dictatorship, liberalism, poverty, ruling class, competition, exploitation. Rigging

Budgeting under central economic planning in china, 1949-1978

This paper examines public budgeting in the first 30 years of China under central economic planning and one-party system. The research question is whether budgeting operates as it does under market economy in a democratic system. Analysis of historical documents finds that as a subordinate to central economic planning, budgeting was not able to play its functions. Though China was successful in employing all fiscal and monetary means to channel resources into targeted policy areas, budgeting was not effectively used as an administrative instrument. In the 30 years examined, the country seemed to be searching in vain for a workable budgeting system so as to avoid repeated financial frustrations.

Budgeting under central economic planning in China, 1949-1978

This paper examines public budgeting in the first 30 years of China under central economic planning and one-party system. The research question is whether budgeting operates as it does under market economy in a democratic system. Analysis of historical documents finds that as a subordinate to central economic planning, budgeting was not able to play its functions. Though China was successful in employing all fiscal and monetary means to channel resources into targeted policy areas, budgeting was not effectively used as an administrative instrument. In the 30 years examined, the country seemed to be searching in vain for a workable budgeting system so as to avoid repeated financial frustrations.

Undermining the Rule of Law: Democratization and the Dark Side of Police Reform in Mexico

AbstractThis article asks whether democratization, under certain historical conditions, may relate to the deteriorating rule of law. Focusing on Mexico City, where police corruption is significant, this study argues that the institutionalized legacies of police power inherited from Mexico's one-party system have severely constrained its newly democratic state's efforts to reform the police. Mexico's democratic transition has created an environment of partisan competition that, combined with decentralization of the state and fragmentation of its coercive and administrative apparatus, exacerbates intrastate and bureaucratic conflicts. These factors prevent the government from reforming the police sufficiently to guarantee public security and earn citizen trust, even as the same factors reduce capacity, legitimacy, and citizen confidence in both the police and the democratically elected state. This article suggests that when democracy serves to undermine rather than strengthen the rule of law, more democracy can actually diminish democracy and its quality.

China's Leadership Gap

AFTER 28 YEARS of reform, China faces challenges of an unprece dented scale, complexity, and importance. China has already liberalized its markets, opened up to foreign trade and investment, and become a global economic powerhouse. Now its leaders and people must deal with popular dissatisfaction with local government, environmental degradation, scarce natural resources, an underdeveloped financial system, an inadequate health-care system, a restless rural population, urbanization on a massive scale, and increasing social inequality. Most of these problems, of course, have existed throughout the period of reform. What is different now is that the pace of change is accelerating while the ability of the state to manage that change is not keeping pace. Solving any one of these problems by itself would be a formidable task. But Beijing must deal with all of them at once. Because China's government is a one-party system with minimal popular participation, success depends on the energy and ideas of its leaders. Yet the Chinese government today finds it harder than ever to attract, develop, and retain talent. Graduates from the country's top universities, who once would have filled government posts, are instead choosing to take jobs in the private sector. Ironically, by creating new opportunities for talented people, China's three decades of reform have made undertaking new reforms more difficult. Moreover, the structure of the country's

Mexico’s Uneasy Choice: The 2006 Presidential Election

Mexico's democracy has freed itself from its authoritarian past, yet it is faltering in its quest to become a modern nation. The country shed one-party system that Peruvian novelist Mario Vargas Llosa once described as the perfect dictatorship, only to witness its new multiparty system descend into political paralysis. It escaped cycle of economic crisis that bankrupted previous generations, only to watch as financial stability was steadily eroded by shifts in global economy that have drained jobs and investment. Improved living standards and longer life expectancy have changed its demographic profile, but Mexico may never grow wealthy enough to pay for its citizens who reach old age. Despite shared underpinnings of free trade and democratic values, Mexico has not forged relationship with United States that both countries claim to desire. While Mexicans still identify with Porfirio Diaz's remark of more than a

The formation of small-scale forestry in countries with economies in transition: Observations from Lithuania

Lithuania has been undergoing a transition from one political culture (based on a centrally planned economy and a one-party system) to a radically different political culture (market economy and a democratic political system). After the declaration of independence in Lithuania, some new phenomena emerged in forestry: the privatisation of forest industry, the formation of a free timber market; increasing timber export levels; and new modes of ownership (private forests) and enterprise (private business logging companies). Private forest owners control approximately 680,000 ha of forest, 33% of the total forest area, projected to increase to 40–45% in the future. Small-scale private forestry is developing in Lithuania but there is a lack of information about the objectives and problems of private forest owners. This paper presents the main results of a survey carried out in 2004 by the Lithuanian Forest Research Institute. The most important forest ownership objectives are firewood production for home consumption, income generation from wood and non-wood product sales, and protection of nature and biodiversity. The main problems for private forest owners are that the forest properties are too small to achieve efficiency, owners lack money for silviculture activities and there is a heavy bureaucratic system for forest-related activity documentation. A cluster analysis of respondents’ ratings of importance for various forest management objectives reveals four groups of private forest owners. These groups are named according to their dominant management objective, as multi-objective owners, businessmen, consumers and ecologists.

:The Politics of Turkish Democracy: İsmet İnönü and the Formation of the Multi‐Party System, 1938–1950.(SUNY Series in the Social and Economic History of the Middle East.)

John M. VanderLippe's study is as timely as it is contributory to scholarly research on the vital period of Turkey's history and politics that it covers. The formation of multiparty systems has been nearly absent from among majoritarian Muslim countries in the post-World War II era. The author demonstrates that Turkey's multiparty system had its origins in the confluence of global, geopolitical, and regional developments that influenced its domestic politics. Turkey had established a staunch authoritarian system under the rule of Mustafa Kemal Atatürk (1923–1938). When Atatürk, known as the Eternal Leader, died in 1938, he was replaced by his former foreign minister and long-time associate, İsmet İnönü, who, by adopting the title National Leader, indicated that he would and wanted to continue the Eternal Leader's authoritarian one-party (Republican Peoples' Party, or RPP) system. İnönü's accession to power coincided with the outbreak of World War II. Turkey's prior experiences with European countries, resulting in the dismantling of the Ottoman Empire and the bitter struggle of Turkish nationalists to establish a republic in 1923, impelled İnönü to pursue a policy of neutrality, which he thought required the continuance of one-party rule. Post-World War II developments compelled İnönü to change his policies, if not his mind. For one thing, Turkey became a member of the United Nations, aligned with the United States, and was a recipient of Truman Doctrine aid. VanderLippe shows the close relationship between Turkey's domestic and foreign policies when he points out that on the same day (July 12, 1947) that Turkey and the United States signed a treaty of assistance, İnönü also made a statement, known as the July 12th Declaration, in which he promised continued support for the multiparty experiment (p. 150). It was important, for the principal leaders of the Demokrat Partisi (DP), the main challenger to the RPP, that Turkey's public-sector economy be reduced in favor of an enlarged private sector. By 1950, their argument resonated with a large portion of Turkey's public who also wanted more freedom of expression, religious freedom, less taxes, more schools, better roads, and electricity. This combination of interests brought the DP to power in 1950.

Democratization, Divided Government and the 2001 Taiwanese Legislative Yuan Elections

The 2001 Legislative Yuan elections in Taiwan were the first to be held following the change in control of the presidency that occurred after the 2000 elections. The transition from a one-party dominant system to one where the opposition had control of the government provides a good opportunity to examine the prevalence of democratic attitudes in Taiwan. Democracy can be frustrating when control over public policy is divided between two opposing groups. Under these circumstances, it could be reasonable for voters to desire a return to authoritarianism government. In a survey conducted following the 2001 Legislative Yuan elections, Taiwanese citizens were asked a series of questions about democratic norms. In this article, I analyze these attitudes as a means of exploring how Taiwan’s voters feel about democracy as Taiwan moves away from a one-party dominant system and faces potential difficulties operating within a multi-party semi-presidential system.

Builder and Destroyer: Thoughts on Gorbachev's Soviet Revolutions, 1985-1991

The lapse of twenty years generally suffices to justify reexamination of statesmen's legacies-hence, Mikhail Gorbachev is due those that are now emerging, including contributions in this issue. More specifically, it is roughly fourteen years since Soviet collapse, and extraordinary events and developments of 1985-91 are receding. Among them, one of most extraordinary was way Gorbachev exercised leadership. In Soviet system, degree of insulation of top leadership from outside pressures was extraordinary, and that of top leader, General secretary, even more pronounced. The Gorbachev drama, with its mix of successes and ultimate failure, involves a leader who went beyond that insulation, and chose to act in ways, and in pursuit of objectives, that radically distinguished him from his predecessor and most of his colleagues.The many accounts that trace his thoughts and political moves, and unfolding developments of 1985-91 indicate that Gorbachev, over time, became more convinced that Soviet economic and political structures required radical surgery. Initially, he wanted to reform a Soviet socialism that he saw, in some sense, as an historic made in some manner by the Soviet people. He would use formulations like this, somewhat confusingly, late into a political game that had seen him continually redefining what socialism actually meant-rhetoric would lag behind reality.His general mindset, initially, was not one much attuned to coercive (the October coup, civil war) elements of that choice. Lenin remained iconic ' founder, and performance of system and people in World War II was confirmation of historical correctness of choice under sternest of tests. Again, there is continuing thread of discrepancy between language Gorbachev used, including its ideological tint, and content and tendency of his actions. To a degree, this was tactical-he could not show his hand to party. But it also highlights deficiency of political vocabulary available to him in mid-1980s, which made it difficult for him to express how far he was willing to go, or perhaps even to understand it, before fact, himself.At first, he was not that dissimilar from Dubcek of 1968, who had worked on smaller canvas of Czechoslovakia. On domestic scene, Gorbachev reduced censorship, reformed one-party system's operations to broaden scope of political discussion and bargaining, opened elements of system to new talent and, a bit later, introduced some market elements into socialist economy. All of this may not look like much now. But for a Soviet leader, it was extraordinary. No predecessor had gone this far. None of his Politburo colleagues gave any indication that they might have done same.Leaders before Gorbachev kept a firm grip at home. Khrushchev was no liberator, although he introduced a post-Stalin era that saw no return to Stalinist terror. But those leaders sat atop not only USSR, but external empire of Soviet bloc as well. They did tolerate some variations within bloc. Since 1956, Poland had effectively mixed a Economic Policy (NEP)-like modification of Soviet economics model with a consciously resistant society and omnipresence of Catholic Church. Long before Solidarity years of 1980-81, Poland was a deviant case, endured by Soviet leaders after Khrushchev because they, like he, found prospect of dealing with Poland too daunting. In Hungary, a quiet moderation of harshest methods had gotten underway earlier in 1960s, and since 1968, it had operated with most effective in-system reform-the New Economic Mechanism- of any satellite country. Mostly, Kremlin had left Hungarians alone, just as they themselves downplayed broader consequences at home, and implications abroad, of economic liberalization.But in end, if Kremlin deemed it necessary to intervene forcefully, prior examples (Hungary 1956 and Czechoslovakia 1968) indicated that they would, and that West would live with it. …

Statistiques et territoire en Chine

Statistical data represents one of the major sources of geographical discussion. China has a long tradition in this domain, but the statistics published are often unsatisfactory, in quantity as much as in quality. Firstly, this study snows that the Chinese territory has always been shrouded in secrecy in terms of statistics.The study then identifies the diverse factors related to the imprecision of statistics in China : the gigantic size of the territory and of the population, the transition process, the one-party system, and the geopolitical stakes. The third part details the statistical uncertainties concerning economic and social geography, demogeographics, and the geography of health.

Catching the State Off Guard

This article seeks to understand which model of electoral management body (EMB) best regulates campaign finance excesses in a hard case for EMB independence, Mexico’s one-party state during democratization (1977–2003). One would expect that the ombudsman model, where the electoral court is more autonomous from the party-state than EMB models in which the executive supervises elections directly or indirectly, would be the strongest regulatory body. However, I report that, contrarily, the indirect executive supervision EMB has rendered much more autonomous, anti-government decisions. The conclusion I draw is that the contexts in which formal institutions operate may be as important as the institutions themselves. Depoliticized electoral justice, even in the hard case of electoral courts in a fraud-marred one-party system, was largely attained, but under the ‘ombudsman’ institutional model which preceded the electoral courts’ formal incorporation into the judicial branch in the mid-1990s. It took informal political conditions – alternation in power and acceptance of this 2000 electoral watershed by the former ruling party – and a related change in the relationship with their nominators, to resume and accelerate the insulation of electoral case law from the magistrates’ nominator, the president. The achievement of true electoral court autonomy in Mexico is best evidenced through its monitoring of party finance.

The Impact of Electoral Rules on Factional Competition in the Democratic South, 1919–48

This article investigates the influence of electoral rules on the factional systems that emerge in the primaries of a one-party political system. It shows that at the state level, especially in gubernatorial primaries, Key (1949) is correct that Southern states did not typically follow the Duvergerian logic that for single-member districts there should be two competitors in plurality-rule primaries and three or fewer competitors in majority-rule with runoff primaries. However, it is found that Southern counties and parishes did satisfy the expectations of institutionalists. The latter finding is novel and important because it would seem to imply some form of political communication or organization that structured elections at the local level.

The Structure of Party Competition in the South: The Case of Florida

Although Florida has evolved from a one-party system into an intensely competitive two-party system, many studies of the state’s partisan and electoral politics continue to stress the importance of candidate-centered voting and weak party attachments, characteristics of a dealigned party system. This paper argues that such conclusions, based primarily on studies that employ individual-level data, are misleading. The paper examines the structure of the party vote across different political offices utilizing aggregate-level election returns at the county level through principal components factor analysis. Findings indicate that the New Deal vote alignment was disrupted at the presidential level in the 1960s, and a new stable alignment emerged in 1972. Consistent with the notion of a “top-down” or “creeping” realignment, the Post-New Deal alignment penetrated elections for U.S. Senate and governor from 1986 onwards, but came to structure cabinet office elections more gradually, with a culmination of this realignment in the 1990s. Overall, the paper argues that studies relying exclusively on individual-level data to examine Florida’s partisan and electoral politics have overlooked a great deal of structure and stability underlying the vote in this politically important state.

Democracy Endangered: Thailand's Thaksin Flirts with Dictatorship

Ultimately, if reformist elements … do not restrain [Prime Minister Thaksin], Thailand could develop into a larger version of Singapore: a state with a veneer of democratic politics covering a one-party system.

Global Transformation and Local Counter Movements: The Prospects for Democracy Under Neoliberalism

This article compares Mexico and India’s experiences with neoliberalism to propose that the collapse of the developmentalist state generates countermovements. In both nations, neoliberalism is associated with the decline of the one-party dominant system, and a restructuring of civil society. Variations emerge in the timing of democratization in these countries. In India, democratization preceded neoliberal reforms, whereas in Mexico democratization followed neoliberal reforms, but in both cases democratization mitigates the effects of neoliberalism on civil society. Conclusions drawn from the comparative analysis of Mexico and India concur with Karl Polanyi’s proposition that there is a double movement of marketization and protectionist countermovements. The case studies suggest a pattern to these countermovements. Actors are confronted abruptly with threats to their well-being; not only economic threats but also environmental, political, and symbolic threats. The threatened value in each case is a former entitlement, typically a form of protection ensured by the state. Thus, even in the presence of countermovements, neoliberalism mediates a divergence of state and civil society relationships creating uncertain futures for democratic possibilities.

South Carolina: Party Development in the Palmetto State

Paralleling developments in other southern states over the past three to four decades, South Carolina’s political system has undergone dramatic change. One of the more significant components of this change has been the partisan realignment from a one-party system dominated by the Democrats to a competitive two-party system in which Republicans have come to hold the upper hand. This increased electoral competitiveness has been accompanied by an increased organizational effort by both parties in the state. An examination of local party activists in 2001 points to a continuation of this pattern over the past ten years. In comparison with data from the 1991 Southern Grassroots Party Activists Survey, the 2001 data show the following: (1) the Republican Party has sustained its electoral and organizational gains of recent years; (2) the parties continue to attract activists who differ across party lines on a number of important demographic and socioeconomic variables; (3) there has been a continued sorting of political orientations and cues marked by sharply different inter-party ideological and issue positions; (4) the Democratic Party has become more ideologically homogeneous and more in line with the national party than previously; and (5) since 1991 perceptions of factionalism have declined in both parties, but still remain higher among Democrats than among Republicans.

The Private and Government Sides of Tanzanian Journalists

This article presents the evolution of Tanzania’s media with particular focus on the period of indigenous government control before the recent shift from such control to private ownership. While the history of the media is interesting in and of itself, it is presented to establish the journalistic ideology into which Tanzanian media practitioners were socialized as the result of the country’s adoption, upon receiving independence, of a one-party political system and a socialist economic system. This media history serves as a backdrop for the empirical portion of this paper. Using type of ownership (government, party, and private) as a classifying variable, the empirical study then captures Tanzanian journalists’ opinion profile with regard to private and government media traits. The journalistic ideology of the controlled period, wherein media played a role in national development, is apparent particularly in journalists’ attribution of traits to government and private media: The former will unify and develop the country; the latter will develop an informed citizenry but also be sensationalistic and unethical. Not surprisingly, in some instances, the assignment of traits to government and private media was related to ownership of place of employment of the respondents.