Dominant Party Research Articles

Frankreichs Parteiensystem im Umbruch

Until 2017 “two blocks” dominated the French political party system . Alternative governments of the left and of the bourgeois-conservative camp have alternated since the 1960s . Due to the drastic losses of the traditional parties as Les Républicains as well as the Socialists and the electoral successes of the liberal-conservative Macron supporters, the supporters of the radical right-wing Le Pen’s movement and the left-wing socialist party under Jean-Luc Mélenchon there has been a new development towards an asymmetry . Since the most recent parliamentary elections in 2022, one can speak of a tripolar system: Alongside Macrons La République en Marche (now Renaissance), the right-wing Rassemblement National under Marine Le Pen and the left-wing group La France Insoumise under Jean Luc Mélenchon . The once dominant parties of the Fifth Republic still exist, but are only a shadow of themselves .

Presidential race - 2024: a portrait in a family interior

On April 25, 2023, Democratic incumbent President Joe Biden identified the central issue of the 2024 presidential election: the video shown launched the presidential campaign. The “striking” moment in it is the similarity with the previous one, four years ago. Central to them are scenes of violence and far-right extremism, both focusing on an issue that will determine the future of the United States. With all the doubts and critical attitude towards the figure of J. Biden as a possible head of the administration of the second term, experts rightly argue that the four years of his first administration “were not the New Deal or the Great Society,” although the most ardent supporters tend to say just that. At the same time, his achievements are also widely recognized: the infrastructure program that his predecessors could not implement, assistance in the fight against the pandemic, large-scale investments in curbing climate change, and an economy that is growing despite the manifestations of the crisis. It seems that there is much reason in the arguments of those American experts who believe that Americans in 2020 were looking for a remedy for extremism and division. Things haven't gotten much better since then, even without D. Trump in the White House. Differences have allowed the dominant party to “rule the country with little regard for the interests of those loyal to the minority party, and often also little accountability. The result was "two Americas with competing agendas and values". The current race is still about the "character of the country", which is reflected in the diverse palette of colors and shades of the proposed recipes for maintaining the viability and effectiveness of American democracy, among which the institution of the family and politics in relation to it, occupying a system-forming place in the structure of the political system, find themselves in center of events and debates in the new electoral cycle.

What would a pluralist institutional approach to constitutional interpretation look like? Some methodological implications

Abstract This article makes the case for adopting a genuinely pluralist perspective when studying constitutional interpretation and sets out the principal forms such inquiries can take. While it has now been accepted that the court-centricity that characterized much of the earlier work on constitutional interpretation must be recalibrated, the approach taken in much constitutional scholarship remains underinclusive, as the role of executives, agencies, ad hoc commissions, and social actors in constructing the meaning of the constitutional text is often downplayed, or altogether overlooked. We argue that a pluralist perspective is necessary to fully appreciate the practice of constitutionalism in each jurisdiction and enable more informed analyses of the relationship between constitutions and law-making. Through a series of case studies, we further demonstrate that, while nonjudicial interpretation is an important practice in all countries, such a perspective could be particularly apposite in dominant-party states, as well as those favoring political constitutionalism, where courts are unlikely to position themselves as the principal, let alone exclusive, authority on what the constitution means. This article also explores the methodological implications in designing pluralistic constitutional interpretation studies, focusing on the questions that await investigation, the core variables at play, and the particular hazards in collating and assessing the materials that must be reckoned with.

A refined complexity analysis of fair districting over graphs

We study the NP-hard Fair Connected Districting problem recently proposed by Stoica et al. [AAMAS 2020]: Partition a vertex-colored graph into k connected components (subsequently referred to as districts) so that in every district the most frequent color occurs at most a given number of times more often than the second most frequent color. Fair Connected Districting is motivated by various real-world scenarios where agents of different types, which are one-to-one represented by nodes in a network, have to be partitioned into disjoint districts. Herein, one strives for “fair districts” without any type being in a dominating majority in any of the districts. This is to e.g. prevent segregation or political domination of some political party. We conduct a fine-grained analysis of the (parameterized) computational complexity of Fair Connected Districting. In particular, we prove that it is polynomial-time solvable on paths, cycles, stars, and caterpillars, but already becomes NP-hard on trees. Motivated by the latter negative result, we perform a parameterized complexity analysis with respect to various graph parameters including treewidth, and problem-specific parameters, including, the numbers of colors and districts. We obtain a rich and diverse, close to complete picture of the corresponding parameterized complexity landscape (that is, a classification along the complexity classes FPT, XP, W[1]-hard, and para-NP-hard).

Realita Sosial di Sekitar Wacana Kasus Kekerasan Seksual Akun @Tt_Guillaume

The problem of sexual violence has become a sensitive issue that has attracted the attention of various groups of people. In addition, this action classifies as a criminal act that causes physical and psychological harm. Sexual violence happens not only to women's groups but also to subordinated minority groups in society, such as the LGBTQ+ group. In early 2021, to be precise, in France, a student and student activist experienced sexual aggression by a politician from one of the dominant political parties there. He tried to seek justice by making testimony through his Twitter account. Unexpectedly, his testimony uttered various reactions related to the social reality of society. This article aims to explore and analyze the social context and speech response patterns that represent that context. Multiple stories of netizens' responses to testimonies of sexual violence uploaded by the @TT_Guillaume account that occurred in 2018 became the object of the study of this article. In writing the article, the method used is reading all the responses in the reply section, recording all the answers found. Moreover, the next step is classifying dan analyzing the data found, which is associated with Norman Fairclough's critical discourse analysis theory. The research discovers that the social context of Guillaume's utterances was related to sexual violence in institutions in France and influenced the presence of other testimonies. In addition, patterns that represent these social conditions were also found

The patterns of political career movements in the Russian Federation: the case of regional governors, 1991–2021

ABSTRACT This article examines the patterns of political career movements in the Russian Federation using the sample of all 393 governors from 1991 until 2021. The results show that during the period of regionalization (1991–1999), the dominant pattern of career movements was an alternative one, with politicians rarely moving across levels. The only exception to this rule were ethnic republics, which attracted politicians with political experience at various levels (i.e. with an integrated pattern of career movements). The period of re-centralization (since 2000) has changed the patterns of careers. Contrary to the expectations of the literature on political careers, an integrated pattern of career movements prevails rather than a unidirectional one (i.e. when politicians move from the regional to the national level). I posit two important factors for this development: the creation of a dominant party, United Russia, and the establishment of mechanisms for enforcing governors' accountability to the president.

Predatory Co-optation and Party System Reversal: A Behavioural Perspective on Zambian Political Parties

Based on a Zambian case study of the Movement for Multiparty Democracy (MMD), this paper applies the behavioural theory of party competition to explain how, through vote-seeking and office-seeking strategies, political parties may employ rapacious predatory co-optation of members from competing political parties as a mobilisation strategy. The paper concludes that in the absence of a dominant political party, parties and political elites may resort to predation to bolster their electoral fortunes. While predatory co-optation may strengthen some parties, it also weakens others and undermines or reverses party system institutionalisation and vertical accountability.

Towards a Geocultural Vision of Postcolonialism: A Critical Analysis of Mahmood Mamdani's Neither Settler nor Native: the Making and Unmaking of Permanent Minorities

Towards a Geocultural Vision of Postcolonialism: A Critical Analysis of Mahmood Mamdani's Neither Settler nor Native: the Making and Unmaking of Permanent Minorities

Parliamentary motions under a semi-authoritarian regime: evidence from Malaysia

ABSTRACT The proliferation of regime types in the post-Cold War era suggests that the foundation of authoritarianism is highly embedded within the power structure of the ruling elites. In the context of Malaysian politics, the dominant parties constitute the exclusive power bank that projects its desired mechanism of control over the institutions within the political structure. Theoretically, the existence of a parliament signifies the presence of institutionalized democratic procedures, albeit to a varying degree, in a political system. In reality, however, parliaments under semi-authoritarian regimes simply serve the interests of the power holders. Dominant parties strategically exercise their authority to maintain control over the authoritarian regime under the guise of parliamentary democracy. Drawing from Marina Ottaway’s framework on semi-authoritarianism, this article offers two major arguments. First, the parliamentary motion is an integral feature that contours Malaysia’s semi-authoritarian regime, which palpably had led to weak institutionalization. Secondly, strategic semi-authoritarian responses to key issues raised by the opposition have proved to be a success in restricting and subverting opposition-led mobilizations and their extra-parliamentary behaviour, thus further consolidating the semi-authoritarian structure.

Electoral Reforms in Russia’s Regions: An Equilibrium between Disproportionality and Legitimacy

Abstract This study examines the dynamics of electoral reforms in the constituent entities of the Russian Federation and their influence on the disproportionality of parliamentary representation since the electoral system experienced major changes in 2003. We suggest that some characteristics of the electoral system may be highly instrumental in ensuring and maintaining United Russia’s influence in legislative bodies. This makes it possible to classify them as forms of institutional manipulation typical of electoral authoritarianism. Based on the statistical description and regression analysis, the study demonstrates the impact of some elements of electoral reforms on disproportionality during the periods at issue. At the same time, we can identify the methods of cementing the dominant party’s hold on power that the authorities find the most effective. In this regard, we make the conclusion that certain elements of the electoral system function as a balanced mechanism, which is evidenced by how they have been used during the different periods. Additionally, the study analyses the impact of disproportionality on electoral behavior, with the hypothesis about its negative influence on the electoral turnout being supported. Yet we regard the lower turnout as a consequence of the voting behavior of both the opposition’s supporters and loyalists. Finally, the electoral reforms in Russia seem to have put limits on disproportionality of parliamentary representation due to the issue of legitimacy.

PRAKTIK DOMINASI TOKOH ANTAGONIS MELALUI KEKERASAN SIMBOLIK DALAM FILM BETTER DAYS《少年的你》

When language is used in communication events, there also as an ideological distiction and a desire to dominate each other among its users. Because language is never separated from ideological motives, including domination motives. Domination occurs due to the existence of a strong group as the dominating party and a weak group as the dominated party with language as an instrument to achieve it. Symbolic violence marked by language forms that represent language crimes is a realization of the practice of domination. Through symbolic violence, the dominant party imposes its ideological influence on the dominant group. The practice of domination through symbolic violence can be found in the dialogue text of the antagonist in the film Better Days《少年的你》by Derek Tsang which is used as a data source. The patterned language forms used by the antagonist to attack the main character are used as data. After the data is identified and classified, it is analyzed through a qualitative approach using the concept of Bourdieu's theory of symbolic violence. The results of the analysis are presented through a descriptive method to obtain a detailed and concrete picture of the practice of domination of antagonist characters through symbolic violence. The results of the analysis show that symbolic violence, which represents the practice of domination, is realized through forms of language that have functioned as the language of punishment, the language of intimidation, the language of prohibition, the language of accusation, the language of insults, and language of command. Cultural capital (attitudes and lifestyles) is the most dominant capital that represents the attitudes and behavior of antagonists to produce and reproduce texts to legitimize their domination. Based on the frequency of occurrence, forbidden language is the most productive form of language, and accusation language is the language form with the least frequency of occurrence.

PRAKTIK DOMINASI TOKOH ANTAGONIS MELALUI KEKERASAN SIMBOLIK DALAM FILM BETTER DAYS《少年的你》

When language is used in communication events, there also as an ideological distiction and a desire to dominate each other among its users. Because language is never separated from ideological motives, including domination motives. Domination occurs due to the existence of a strong group as the dominating party and a weak group as the dominated party with language as an instrument to achieve it. Symbolic violence marked by language forms that represent language crimes is a realization of the practice of domination. Through symbolic violence, the dominant party imposes its ideological influence on the dominant group. The practice of domination through symbolic violence can be found in the dialogue text of the antagonist in the film Better Days《少年的你》by Derek Tsang which is used as a data source. The patterned language forms used by the antagonist to attack the main character are used as data. After the data is identified and classified, it is analyzed through a qualitative approach using the concept of Bourdieu's theory of symbolic violence. The results of the analysis are presented through a descriptive method to obtain a detailed and concrete picture of the practice of domination of antagonist characters through symbolic violence. The results of the analysis show that symbolic violence, which represents the practice of domination, is realized through forms of language that have functioned as the language of punishment, the language of intimidation, the language of prohibition, the language of accusation, the language of insults, and language of command. Cultural capital (attitudes and lifestyles) is the most dominant capital that represents the attitudes and behavior of antagonists to produce and reproduce texts to legitimize their domination. Based on the frequency of occurrence, forbidden language is the most productive form of language, and accusation language is the language form with the least frequency of occurrence.

Assessing centralization: on Turkey’s rising personalist regime

ABSTRACT Research on non-democratic regimes has accelerated in the post-Cold War world, but inordinate attention paid to procedural definitions of regime type and democratization has reduced the study of utilitarian components in assessing cases of political transition. We utilize two frameworks oft-cited within the comparative authoritarianism literature to evaluate our claim that Turkey has moved from a dominant-party system to one resembling a personalist regime while arguing that elite defection and institutional degradation may catalyse political centralization. In doing so, we refocus evaluative attention on the substantive content of the regime rather than mere modes of perpetuation while reasserting the value of the literature’s diagnostic frameworks to empirically place Turkey’s subtype of authoritarianism.

Research on the Coordination of Quality Behavior of Supply 3 Chain of E-Commerce Platform under C2B Model of High-Grade E-Commerce Based on Differential Game

With the increasing demands of consumers for product grade, the C2B model of high-grade e-commerce emerges as required. In order to solve the problem of coordination and cooperation between e-commerce platforms and manufacturers, and to further develop the C2B model of high-grade e-commerce, this paper studies the coordination of supply chain interests by establishing a differential game model considering product grade factors. By comparing the equilibrium solutions of differential games under different decision-making situations, a cooperative coordination mechanism is proposed. Next, the equilibrium solution is further analyzed by means of numerical simulation. Finally, the influence of several important parameters on the equilibrium solution is discussed through sensitivity analysis. It is found that (1) the supply chain parties have optimal quality behavior in the centralized decision-making situation, and the overall benefit is the greatest. (2) Compared with the Nash non-cooperative game, the optimal quality behavior of the dominant party remains unchanged, and the optimal quality behavior of the following party is enhanced after both parties move from the Stackelberg master-slave game, and the optimal profits of both parties, as well as the overall increase. (3) The cooperative coordination model can coordinate the quality behavior of both sides of the supply chain when the benefit distribution coefficient is within a specific range.

Aspects of Populism and Nostalgia in the akp’s Turkey

Abstract As a consequence of a long series of domestic and international political, economic and social developments that resulted in the rise of political Islam in Turkey, the Justice and Development Party (akp) came to power in 2002. Since then, it has been the dominant party in the country, developing a political narrative and a public discourse that have many attributes of modern populism. In line with its strategy to consolidate its power, the akp espouses a populist public discourse that is distinctive and multifaceted. One of its most important manifestations is the mobilization of the population through neo-Ottoman nostalgia, in a context of politicization of emotion to connect with the broader masses.

Iconography of persuasion

South Africa’s 2019 elections, like others before, will be remembered for the historical significancearound the ANC ruling party’s sharp decline in polls, the surging and re-emergence of theideologically extreme parties, the Economic Freedom Fighters (EFF) and the Freedom Front Plus(VF+). This election, for the first time since the rebranding of the main opposition, the DemocraticAlliance, saw that party losing its momentum, culminating in the eventual resignation of the party’sfirst black leader, Mmusi Maimane. This study examines how the three dominant parties in SouthAfrica contest with each other in the race to attract potential voters through poster advertising andcampaigns. Going into the 2019 election, the three dominant political parties were – the AfricanNational Congress (ANC), the Democratic Alliance (DA) and the Economic Freedom Fighters (EFF).Specifically, the paper examines messages on the posters, the parties’ manifestos and speechesat different rallies before the elections. Drawing on our analysis, we make a claim in this paperthat the 2019 election in South Africa for the ANC, DA and EFF was largely about “unresolvedquestions”.

The dynamics of federal (in)stability and negotiated cooperation under single-party dominance: insights from Modi’s India

ABSTRACT Many studies have demonstrated a trend towards greater centralization of the federal system in India since 2014. However, the causal mechanisms that underpin this centralization remain underexplored. This article systematically explores the processes involved in tipping the delicate federal balance in favour of greater central control, and in doing so pays particular attention to the role of the party system therein. Our analytical narrative is structured around the assertion that ‘negotiated cooperation’ is contingent upon: (a) the interaction between constitutional structure and federal politics; (b) the capacity and willingness of subnational incumbents to safeguard their policy space and (c) the nature of party organization and the ideological disposition of the polity-wide parties towards territorial power-sharing. Drawing from India’s experience since 1952, we demonstrate that a dominant party system does not necessarily entail encroachment on subnational authority. At the most, it is a necessary but insufficient condition for federal imbalance. However, the problem of federal encroachment arises only when the dominant party is internally centralized and personalized, advocates unitarism and operates in a context of weak constitutional, political, procedural and judicial safeguards for self-and shared-rule. India under the leadership of Indira Gandhi, but more recently of Narendra Modi, comes close to meeting these conditions.

Overcoming incumbency advantage: the importance of social media on- and offline in Zambia’s 2021 elections

ABSTRACT President Edgar Lungu and the Patriotic Front used a range of incumbency advantages to tilt the playing field in their favour in the run-up to Zambia’s 2021 elections and, as a result, were more visible offline than the opposition United Party for National Development (UPND) and its flagbearer, Hakainde Hichilema. In this paper, we draw on an original survey of party officials and activists and semi-structured interviews to consider the role of social media in the UPND’s victory. We show how the two dominant political parties invested heavily in social media, but how the UPND’s online messaging proved more persuasive and spread offline, and how social media facilitated the UPND’s political mobilisation and vote protection efforts in the face of a highly uneven playing field. Social media thus played an important role in unseating the incumbent, but not because the election was won online, or because social media provided a uniquely “social” form of communication. Instead, social media helped to facilitate the flow of information across a heavily controlled media ecosystem in which face-to-face communication remained key. In making this argument, we highlight the significant impact of social media on users and non-users alike, even in a context of relatively low internet penetration.

Varieties of Electoral Dominance

Dominant political parties rule for prolonged periods of time by winning successive multiparty elections. However, the term "dominant party" encompasses an extremely diverse set of parties, ranging from ones winning unremarkable vote shares in established democracies to those garnering massive popular majorities in free but unfair elections. To grapple with such heterogeneity, this article proposes a three-part typology based on the foundations of a party's electoral dominance—whether extremely high votes shares, steadfast support from legislative allies, or a favorable translation of votes into seats or office. These three types are internally homogenous but distinct from one another in ways predicted by the typology. The puzzles posed by each dominant-party type and the kinds of answers required to address those puzzles differ markedly.

Two Decades of Democracy in Nigeria: Between Consolidation and Regression

The year 1999 marked a watershed moment in the political history of Nigeria with the transition from military to civilian rule and the beginning of the Fourth Republic. Two decades later, the country has not only witnessed the longest period of civilian democratic rule but has also achieved a milestone with the alternation of power between the two dominant political parties. The augury, however, points to a democracy oscillating between consolidation and regression. This paper therefore interrogates two decades of democratisation in Nigeria in the context of the two main parties, the conduct of elections, and the level of representation of marginalised groups, particularly women. The paper contends that while it may be uncharitable to discount the incremental gains since the return to civil rule, the country is far from attaining the status of a consolidated democracy.