Regional Party Research Articles

Interpreting the Northern Ireland protocol: the politics of distrust

ABSTRACT This article explores some of the impacts of Brexit on governance in Northern Ireland. A devolved region administered by a fragile and often fractious consociational system, Brexit, and, in particular, the fundamental legislative mechanism through which Brexit is implemented, the December 2020 Northern Ireland Protocol, have worked to increase division across several levels - the inter-governmental, that of regional party politics, and that of grassroots, inter and intra-communal relations. To complicate matters further, that distrust has also markedly manifested itself in the growth of non-aligned political dynamics. Drawing on the work of Pierre Rosanvallon, I suggest that these developments can be conceptualized with reference to ideas about counter-politics and distrust.

Pencegahan Pelanggaran Tindak Pidana Pemilu melalui Pendaftaran dan Verifikasi Partai Politik Berdasarkan Undang-Undang Pemilu

After 24 years of reform, the people passionately anticipate direct general elections as a process of power transition and evaluation of the performance of political parties over the previous five years. Similarly, the registration and verification phases of political parties participating in the 2024 Election, which began on Friday, July 29, 2022, and ended on Tuesday, December 13, 2022, have concluded for the 2024 Election. The requirement for verification of political parties is an effort to improve the institutions of political parties to make them more professional in their management, as well as to verify the readiness and fulfillment of the requirements of political parties, both new and those that have participated in previous elections. In addition, if the registration and verification of political parties process proceeds smoothly, the subsequent stages will also go smoothly. One is to minimize or prevent violations of election criminal acts that can diminish the wisdom and efficiency of the 2024 Election process and stages. This study uses normative and empirical research methods and qualitative analysis to examine the relationship between the registration and verification of political parties and efforts to prevent election crime violations. This study demonstrates that verifying political party candidates can assist electors in selecting credible and competent public officials. However, verification provisions and procedures can increase the chance of election crimes and electoral misconduct. Therefore, the election commission (KPU) and Bawaslu must be resolute and unaffected by any interference that could harm the integrity of elections and democracy. The community is also responsible for supervising and providing aspirations so that election regulations do not diminish enthusiasm for conducting elections with integrity.

Populism and Political Parties in Asia: A Comparison of Aam Admi Party (AAP) in India and the Liberal Democratic Party (LDP) in Japan

Populism is one of the most popular techniques used by Asian political parties. Political parties use this tactic through socio-political movements not only for the larger good of society but also for their own narrow goals. This article investigates two separate political parties from India and Japan. Populist policies have both beneficial and harmful effects on politics. The given promises often failed to address the grievances of the voters. A significant civil society movement propelled the Aam Admi Party (AAP) to political status. It began as a non-political entity and evolved into a political one. Following the formation of AAP, the issue of civil society as a non-political entity arose. The AAP is a regional party that holds power in two Indian states, focusing its populist policies on local issues. As a national party, the Liberal Democratic Party of Japan (LDP) is comparatively old and addresses pertinent national issues, like national security. The quality of politics and socio-economic dynamics of the two countries are different. This paper argues that populism as a tool cannot always be beneficial for the political culture of a country. The wide gap between the promises and implementation often creates discontent among the voters. This paper will attempt the delineate the different scenarios of the populist policies of the AAP of India and the LDP of Japan using the content analysis method.

The Changing Trends of Coalition Politics of Kerala from its Origin to 2016 in India

The Constitution of India provide for a federal system of government though the term ‘federalism’ which is nowhere been used in the constitution. But the article 1 of the constitution describes that India, that is Bharat, shall be a Union of States. K.C. where describes Indian federalism as “Quasi-federal”. Granville Austin called it ‘co-operative federalism.’ And Ivor Jennings describes it as ‘federation with strong centralizing tendency’. This nature of Indian federalism has leads India towards coalition. The coalition politics at the central level has been relatively a recent phenomenon but at the state level it has been in operation right after the first general election (1952). The growth of regional parties and dominant leadership at state level has federalized the polity and the state government has stretched their arms. The first coalition at state level formed in Kerala in 1954. The coalition politics is a time-tested thing in contemporary democracy. The concept of coalition politics occurred when the states used to ally with each other in order to defect of a common enemy. In 1954 the Congress created a coalition government in Kerala. Since this time Kerala has been living with coalition rule after regular intervals. The politics in Kerala is dominated by two coalition fronts: the communist party of India (Marxist)- led left Democratic front (LDF) and the Indian National Congress – led United Democratic Front (UDF) since late 1970s. Kerala was the first Indian state where the communists were chosen to power. Since the early 1980s these two coalitions have alternate in government. They are unable to gain re- election for a second term. These two-alliance coalition have occurred periodically and ruled continued to 2016 election. In May 2016, the LDF win election and now in power. This LDF coalition occurred with CPI (M)-58, CPI-19, TDS-3, NCP-2, KCB-1, CPM(L)-1, CS-1 and Independents-5.

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.

Does regulation matter? Trajectories of party organizational change in Western Europe (1970-2010)

ABSTRACT The aim of this article is to verify whether a relationship exists between partly laws and party organizational change. While the prevailing contextualist perspective enhances the weight of social, economic and technological factors in shaping party change, we maintain that the intensity of party regulation plays a major role in this respect. Based on some basic assumption of Organizational Institutionalism, the article adopts the rationale of the Political Parties Database (PPDB): we thus conduct an in-depth empirical analysis of three core party organisational dimensions (Resources, Representative Strategies, Structures), over a total of nineteen parties in four Western European democracies (Germany, the Netherlands, Sweden and the UK), from 1970s to 2010s. Our empirical findings show that, while a growing number of party laws have been introduced in the countries under consideration, their impact on party organizational convergence is far from univocal: we thus provide different possible explanations of these results.

党内法规及其在中华人民共和国权力系统中的实施

In the overall system of socialism with Chinese characteristics, there is a peculiarity in the application of intra-party regulations, that is, they contain both political and legal components. The political component stimulates the legal one. Therefore, the so-called coercive power of party regulation should be considered not only from a legal, but also from a political aspect. The prescriptive requirements contain the absolute necessity of emphasizing the positive effects of the actual implementation of the CPC’s internal party regulations, which are constrained by the historical background and are aimed at strengthening the party’s overall leadership over important social and state activities. The form of coercive force stated in the Party’s normative documents and embodied in political practice does not have a legislative form. The realization of coercive force is also different from the enforcement of the law required by law enforcement practice. The process of implementation (execution) of the internal party regulations requires special attention, since the analysis of all the components of this process allows us to determine the relationship between them and determine their influence on the degree of effectiveness of the adopted decisions. Therefore, the object of study is the process of implementing the normative bills within the party, and the internal logic of their operation is explained in detail. The article presents an integrative structure for the party regulations implementation as a model, the implementation of which is of great importance for significantly improving the effectiveness of the implementation and management of intra-party normative bills and improving the effectiveness of intra-party regulations. The objective of this study is to analyze the institutional texts of internal party regulations to determine the essence of the concept of executive authority in the context of party and government development. This will complement the various connotations of the responsibility of the executive branch as a whole, as well as strengthen its organizational, political, ideological and social reflections.

Сепаратизм в современной Европе: пространственные эффекты политических изменений

According to Ryan Griffiths, we’re in the “Age of Secession”. The characteristics of spatial effects typical of European separatism are consistently examined in this paper. The effects of diffusion, proximity, fragmentation, and scale are given special consideration. The space is not homogeneous; separatism erupts with the most vulnerable territories, takes different forms, and has different pace. Since the diffusion effect undoubtedly contributes to the fragmentation of the political space, it takes on distinct forms depending on the historical period. It would be incorrect to claim that separatist movements arise in response to geographic distance only. Social proximity determines spatial influence. Instead, the degree to which separatist actors interact with one another is determined by their territorial proximity. With scale of political activity changing, the correspondent extent, to which political actors influence them, varies as well. As a result, regionalist parties that are not well-known at the federal level play a significant role in local politics. Due to the fragmentation effect, the number of these parties is increasing at the regional level, yet not nationwide. Given the scale effect, regional actors in the EU can interact with supranational structures themselves and gain more power without having to go through national ones. There are more parties with a territorial profile as a result of spatial effects in politics. Political leaders and parties at the national level are compelled to consider their stances, incorporate the regional agenda into their plans, and frequently pursue partnerships with them.

Этнические партии в политических системах мультиэтничных государств

The article provides a comparative study of the place and role of “ethnic parties” in the modern world, in which ethnicity is extremely politicized, which often contributes to the emergence of interethnic conflicts and destabilization of the political systems of multiethnic states. The author analyzed six really practical ways of including ethnic parties in the political process: (1) ethnic parties representing minorities living compactly in a region advocate changing the status quo – an institutional transformation of center–regions interactions associated with an increase in the status and subjectivity of such a region/minority; (2) a regional ethnic minority, through an ethnic party, fights for the preservation of the status quo if there is a threat to the already existing status of the group or it has been lost for some reason; (3) the use of ethnic parties as a factor of influence from the outside, which is fraught with increased tension in the relations of two or more neighboring states; (4) situations when activities of ethnic parties contribute to the split, degradation and even destruction of political systems; (5) a situation when an ethnic/regional party seeks greater territorial autonomy or even the (re-)creation of “its own national state”; (6) activities of ethnic parties in the conditions of so-called “ethnic democracies”. Further, the institutional conditions for ensuring the political representation of ethnic minorities, while maintaining the stability of the political system, are investigated. As a result, the author comes to the conclusion: despite the fact that the ethnization of the political process potentially divides and even opposes people of different ethnicities and thereby can strengthen the split in society, the inclusion of ethnic parties in the developing of a national political course allows reducing interethnic tensions, and ethnic minority groups receive a channel for broadcasting their own needs and attitudes both to the state power and to non-ethnic citizens of the country. Therefore, the ban on the creation of ethnic and regional parties cannot be considered as a universal anti-crisis remedy and even more so as a panacea for all political ills.

China’s Geostrategic Interest in the Indian Ocean Region

The goal of this research is to look at China's expanding geopolitical interests in the Indian Ocean Region (IOR), as well as the strategic implications of its involvement. As it climbs to importance on the global scene, China has escalated its role in the Indian Ocean Region (IOR) via economic investments, maritime infrastructure projects, and naval activities. The research explores China's interest in the IOR, diving into the country's economic imperatives, energy security concerns, and the geopolitical significance of securing maritime routes. The report also assesses the impact of China's actions on the dynamics of the surrounding region, focusing on China's relationships with neighboring states and key players in the IOR. By evaluating China's evolving tactics and the responses of regional parties, this research aims to provide insights into the wider geopolitical context and potential issues coming from China's increasing influence in the Indian Ocean. These insights will be gained by examining China's shifting tactics as well as the reactions of regional players.

Intertwined Memories of Kryvyi Rih: The Ato, the Second World War, and the Cossacks

In the last decade, the politics of memory in Ukraine, implemented after the Revolution of Dignity and the beginning of the Russian-Ukrainian war in Donbas in 2014, has been the subject of intense scholarly attention. However, researchers mainly focused either on the national level of collective memory or on the cases of the few largest cities. Much less attention has been paid to processes at the local level, in the towns of Southern Ukraine. Kryvyi Rih is a large industrial city in Southern Ukraine. It is usually characterized by general sociological features of the region: Russian-speaking and Soviet nostalgia. In the context of the local history and political situation, the author shows how the presentation of three layers of memory about the past of the region entangled in the city`s space. Established on the former Zaporizhzhia Cossacks lands, the city manifests its Cossack identity. Simultaneously, the most popular politicians in Kryvyi Rih are still those associated with the former Party of Regions, which was presented by former President Viktor Yanukovych, who was removed from power during the Revolution of Dignity in 2014. The basis of their memory politics was to protect the (post)Soviet version of the history of the Second World War as the “Great Victory”. But since the summer of 2014, its commemoration has intersected with the commemoration of city residents who died during the Anti-Terrorist Operation in Donbas. The paper addresses the evolution of commemorative practices and the overlapping of commemoration of the ATO, the Second World War, and the Cossacks. It also raises the question of what place the memory of the ATO and the Second World War will take in the conditions of the ongoing war.

Time for Regional Parties to Shine or for National Parties to Lock Horns Again? The True Nature of Czech Regional Elections

Establishing representative bodies for the regions was an opportunity for politics to be decentralised. Using a three-dimensional index of congruence of the vote, this text explores the extent to which this opportunity has been taken up in Czech regional elections. Analysing all such ballots since 2000, it compares electoral competition at the national and regional levels; the success of regional parties is also analysed. The results show that Czech regional polls are strongly national in flavour, and their results are similar to those of national elections (only the second-order-election effect is visible); the success of regional parties is very limited, while national parties clearly dominate.

The Market Mechanism and Issues of China's Clean Energy Consumption Policies

Under the dual-carbon goals, since the 18th National Congress of the Communist Party of China, various regions and relevant departments have, based on the new development stage and the implementation of the new development concept, formulated a series of policies and measures related to energy, green, and low-carbon development. These policies include carbon trading, mechanisms to ensure the absorption of renewable energy, and mechanisms for trading green electricity. The focus has been on establishing a clean and low-carbon new power system. Against this backdrop, this article, starting from the national context, meticulously reviews the policy development process and current status of carbon trading, the absorption of renewable energy (green certificates), and green power trading. It also analyzes and introduces the operational mechanisms of clean energy absorption policies from the perspectives of market entities, transaction methods, and supporting measures. The study identifies issues in the development of carbon trading, green certificate trading, and green power trading, as well as the challenges arising from the integration of different clean energy policies. Based on these findings, specific development recommendations are proposed to clarify the operational mechanisms of typical clean energy absorption policies. This is aimed at assisting various entities involved in energy consumption to better fulfill their carbon reduction tasks.

Implementation of Party-Ideological Campaign against the «Sycophancy towards the West» in Tomsk Higher Education Institutions (1947-1948)

The article describes the process of implementing a campaign against «sycophancy towards the West» in higher education institutions of the largest university and scientific center of Siberia — Tomsk. The role of central and regional party bodies in the organization of the campaign, the mechanism of its implementation, and the consequences for the higher school of the region are shown.
 The campaign was generated by the desire of the Stalinist regime to protect the Soviet intelligentsia from the influence of liberal ideas in the face of increasing confrontation with the West in connection with the beginning of the Cold War. It included ideological measures aimed at strengthening the propaganda of «Soviet patriotism» and criticism of professors and researchers accused of "blind worship" of the culture and scientific authorities of the bourgeois West. "Moral repression" was combined with the dismissal of some professors, at the same time, due to the lack of scientific personnel, highly qualified scientists from the European part of the country who arrived in Tomsk as a result of persecution were hired at local universities.
 This campaign aimed at isolating domestic science and education and more intensive use of the mobilization resources of the socialist system, on the one hand, contributed to the intensification of scientific research in areas that were considered critical for military-technological confrontation with the West and demonstrating the superiority of socialism, and on the other hand, contributed to the deepening of the backlog of most scientific areas forced to develop in isolation from the achievements of world science.

Problems of Restructuring the Work Style and Strengthening Discipline of the Party-Administrative Elite of the Altai Territory in the Early 1960s

The presented publication is aimed at researching within the elite processes taking place within the framework of the socio-professional group of the party-administrative administrative apparatus of the Altai Territory in the beginning of the 1960s. Archival sources are analyzed. First of all, the documentation stored in the State Archive of the Altai Territory. In particular, the protocols and transcripts of regional party conferences. The study is based on the methodology of the “new social history”, since it is precisely such tools that allow us to consider the party and administrative elite of the Altai Territory as a special social group.
 The authors note that the 1960s became the time to search for ways to transform the professional activities of the state-economic apparatus of power, both at the level of the highest Soviet administrative elite, and in its regional variations.
 It has been established that the main vector of transformations in the professional activities of the party-administrative elite of the Altai Territory in the 1960s the fight against violations of party-state discipline. Such problems as excessive bureaucracy, isolation and abstraction from the real state of affairs, irresponsibility and negligence of the regional administrative apparatus were highlighted.

The Urban Voter: Emerging Trend and Changing Pattern

The recent phenomenon of growing urbanization in India has shifted the focus from rural vote to urban vote in electoral politics. The discussion on urban politics and urban vote revolves largely around two issues—first the issue of turnout and second, a somewhat different political choice among the urban voters compared to the rural voters. The two issues have been highlighted by the fact that urban constituencies have registered lower turnout compared to the turnout in rural constituencies. Among the former, the constituencies of big metropolitan cities register much lower turnout compared to the constituencies of small and medium towns. Results of various elections in the past indicate that the backbone of electoral support of the BJP during the late 1990s is its strong support among the urban voters. The BJP’s strong support base among the urban voters enabled it to emerge as the single largest party in the Lok Sabha during the 1998 and 1999 Lok Sabha elections enabling it to form a coalition government along with other regional parties. This article tries to seek answers to the question, why do we see this distinct difference in voting patterns among rural and urban voters, especially till 2009 Lok Sabha elections, though it has changed somewhat during the 2014 and 2019 Lok Sabha elections? Is it because the rural India and Urban India represent two different kinds of voters, or is it because the issues and concerns of rural and urban voters are vastly different from each other which make them vote differently?

Pravoohranitel'nye organy Oshskoj oblasti Kirgizskoj SSR v period Velikoj Otechestvennoj vojny

During the Great Patriotic War, the law enforcement agencies of Soviet Kyrgyzstan performed a number of tasks related to maintaining public order in the country and the security of all citizens; special attention was paid to suppressing crimes to protect socialist legality and control the civilian population. Law enforcement agencies patrolled the streets of cities to carry out passport registration among visitors, fought against child homelessness and neglect. The article uses for the first time unpublished archival documents of party organs; minutes of the meeting of the bureau of the Osh regional party committee and reports of the heads of state and party authorities.

В.Т. Суслин: последний первый секретарь ростовского обкома КПСС

The article presents the first scientific biographical essay about the last first secretary of the Rostov regional Committee of the CPSU Vitaly Timofeyevich Suslin (1937). His work history began at a metallurgical plant in Taganrog, and the heyday of his party career fell on the late Brezhnev period and the Perestroika period of the Soviet era. For ten years (late 1970s – late 1980s) V.T. Suslin was one of the leaders of the Rostov regional Committee of the CPSU. And after working in the Central Committee of the CPSU (1988–1990) on an alterna-tive basis, he was elected first secretary of the Rostov regional party committee during the rapid collapse of its authority (1990–1991) and the reduction of power resources. The “tug-of-war” with the new regional Council of People’s Deputies headed by L.A. Ivanchenko, a fellow party member and recent competitor of the hero of the article for the position of the regional party leader, became a characteristic of the time. After the ban of the CPSU and the collapse of the USSR, V.T. Suslin took an active part in the restoration of the party structures of the Communist Party, but did not aspire to become a public political figure. V.T. Suslin died in Taganrog at the age of 60 (1997).

Pacification through decentralization: An explanatory analysis of ethno‐territorial cabinet conflict in Belgium (1979–2006)

AbstractThe impact of decentralization on ethno‐territorial conflict is widely debated, but empirical analyses of ethno‐territorial party politics are scarce. This paper uses novel data on conflicts in power‐sharing cabinets to explore the relation between decentralization and ethno‐territorial conflicts in the case of Belgium (1979–2006). These data are analysed with the help of poisson and logistic regressions, which confirm the negative association between decentralization and conflict. In addition to institutions, the analyses also examine the relevance of issue saliency, regionalist parties' strength, regionalist cabinet participation, and the proximity of elections. The results contradict the paradox of federalism and add to contemporary debates on ethno‐territorial politics, conflict management, and power‐sharing.

Dynamics of Personalization of Political Parties in the Recruitment of Prospective Candidates for Mayor of Solo 2020 (Case Study of the Indonesian Democratic Party of Struggle (PDI-P))

This study aims to explain the dynamics that occur in the recruitment process for candidates for Mayor of Solo in the 2020 simultaneous local elections. These dynamics are influenced by personalized action within the party characterized by the dominance of the general chairperson and the weakness of the party organization. The method used in this research is descriptive qualitative using primary and secondary data including interviews, documentation, and literature study. The results obtained from this study indicate that there are problems in the recruitment function for candidates for Mayor of Solo, including intervention from the Party Chairperson as a result of his strong domination in political parties so that the party structure at the local level, namely the PDI-P DPC Surakarta City cannot implementing a bottom-up scheme by nominating candidates based on the election results. The weakness of party institutions can also be seen in party regulations regarding the recruitment of regional heads which are not implemented properly, not reflected in the principles of democracy within the party, the lack of independence of the party structure at the local level, to the pragmatism of the party by nominating a solo mayoral candidate based on the candidate's social background. is the son of the son of President Joko Widodo who is currently in office.