On reception of the American two-party system experience in modern Russia: pros and cons

10.12737/1934 ◽  
2013 ◽  
Vol 1 (2) ◽  
pp. 113-117
Author(s):  
Лариса Байбакова ◽  
Larisa Baybakova

Lately there has been a lot of talk in Russian political circles about the desirability of transition from a multiparty to twoparty system. It is believed that today its American model is one of the most effective mechanisms of representative form of government. Several attempts to create a two-party system have been undertaken in Russia for the last decade and a half, but it was not possible to implement this idea. After the elections in September 2013 a number of politicians have proposed to create a two-party system of government, considering that current ruling party «Yedinaya Rossiya (United Russia)» requires an adequate party rival. In prospects one cannot exclude the creation in Russia of a two-party system, but in present conditions it is difficult to assess the degree of its effectiveness. On the one hand, its functioning is conducive to a Federal form of government and majority system of election of senior officials, and on the other, there are centrifugal trends in the dynamics of political processes, strengthened after the laws adopted over the last decade on the liberalization of procedure of registration of political parties. In this regard a number of sociopolitical movements demand to make amendments in the electoral legislation, aimed at the consolidation of political forces or parties with similar policy.

2019 ◽  
Vol 34 (1) ◽  
pp. 96-123 ◽  
Author(s):  
Wojciech Rafałowski

In recent years, a significant amount of research has been devoted to theorising and explaining parties’ vote-seeking behaviours with regard to emphasising certain policy domains and ignoring others. These strategies are largely determined by the parties’ issue ownership and the context of the competition. In this article, I explore the interaction between these two groups of factors, that is, how a given party type and its role within the party system moderate the political actor’s responsiveness to various unfolding events. The study uses a collection of Facebook posts published by the official profiles of some of the Polish political parties. I demonstrate that the competitors develop distinct strategies of issue emphasis in accordance with the incentives coming from the events that occur on the one hand and their strengths and weaknesses related to certain issue domains on the other.


2020 ◽  
Vol 102 ◽  
pp. 464-470
Author(s):  
Kirill A. Solovyov

The article is devoted to the general patterns of political parties formation in Russia at the beginning of the 20th century. They were preceded by proto-party organizations that were far from being ideologically monolithic. Under the conditions of rapid differentiation of political forces, the existing alliances were often accidental and situational. They hung on to the legacy of the pre-revolutionary era, when the public was just “learning” to talk about politics, and the boundaries between different ideological structures were quite rather relative.


2020 ◽  
Vol 16 (3) ◽  
pp. 593-621
Author(s):  
Alenka Krašovec ◽  
Nemanja Batrićević

AbstractIn this article we identify the factors that contribute to the formation and especially the durability/stability of governments in both Slovenia and Montenegro after they formally introduced multiparty systems and following their democratic transition, with a focus on the effect of cleavages and party system characteristics generally. Although these two polities share several important similarities (small size, common institutional setting during Yugoslav era, aspirations for membership in international organisations etc.), the nature of governments’ durability/stability in the democratic era entails distinct differences. While Montenegro stands out in post-socialist Europe as the only case where the ruling party has not been overthrown, Slovenia has been led by many governments composed of different political parties. While it seems that in neither country are the ideological characteristics of the governments able to explain their duration/stability to any important extent, it is obvious that the cleavage structure in the two countries has varied, as has the importance of particular cleavages.


2021 ◽  
Vol 65 (2) ◽  
pp. 29-36
Author(s):  
F. Basov

This article is devoted to the changes of the party system of Germany. In recent years, the transformation of the party system has caused several political crises. Party spectrum is pluralized and polarized in Germany. Regional differences also increase. In this situation, the German parties are in search of new dynamics. The consequence of this is that all the main parties are now factional. The system that existed in Germany for more than half a century, with the dominance of two political forces (CDU/CSU and SPD), gradually evolved into the “one and a half” party system (only CDU/CSU dominates). The question is whether evolution will continue towards simple multi-party system, or the “one and a half” party system will remain. With a significant degree of certainty, one can say that a return to a “two and a half” party system is impossible. Changes in the party-political system lead to an increase in the diversity of the composition of the coalitions ruling in Germany. German political parties should learn how to create coalitions of three political forces, also at the federal level. The main trend of the coming years for CDU, CSU and SPD will be an attempt to return to their traditional platforms. However, a full return is impossible. More frequent red-red-green coalitions can be expected, including the federal level. But, nevertheless, serious changes in the German party system did not lead to its chronic incapacity – the system adapted to them.


Author(s):  
Francis L.F. Lee ◽  
Joseph M. Chan

Chapter 8 discusses the impact of digital media on collective memory. The chapter examines both the positive and negative impact of digital and social media. On the one hand, the analysis notes how digital media provided the channels for memory mobilization and the archives for memory transmission. On the other hand, the analysis examines the problematics of memory balkanization. It explicates how political forces have shaped the development of digital and social media in Hong Kong and how competing representations of the Tiananmen Incident and commemoration activities are articulated and reinforced within distinctive memory silos.


2002 ◽  
Vol 20 (4) ◽  
pp. 27-47
Author(s):  
Daniel Hough

In the years since unification, Germany’s political parties have faceda number of formidable challenges. They range from incorporatingthe citizens of the German Democratic Republic (GDR) into the FederalRepublic’s political processes, reassessing Germany’s role in thewider world, overcoming gridlock on many pressing policy questionsat home (perhaps best understood as the overcoming of the Reformstau),to finding a way out of Germany’s much maligned economicmalaise.1 Such challenges have had a not inconsiderable effect on theGerman party system, the end product of which has been that thissystem, once a bastion of cast-iron stability, has become characterizedby diversity and genuine electoral competition in a way that it hasnot been since the late 1950s. Therefore, the electoral position of themuch-vaunted Volksparteien, if perhaps not their control of the politicalprocess, has slipped considerably.


2019 ◽  
Vol 33 (3) ◽  
pp. 705-732 ◽  
Author(s):  
Pepijn van Eeden

This article assesses the referendums in Hungary in 2004, 2008, and 2016 diachronically. The review is framed by two competing liberal parliamentary approaches to direct democracy: A useful democratic corrective to the distortions of particracy, or a risky option leading to tyranny of the majority? Rather than choosing sides, this article shows how the conundrum conceals another, more interesting question: Which are the constraints under which the liberal parliamentary viewpoint shifts from the one to the other? Theorizing on post-democracy and populism provides a provisional answer: A consensualized, “post-political” parliament is key, as this, in combination with widening social-economic disparities, incentivizes illiberal populist parties to harness referendums, which prompts liberal parliamentarianists to change their minds. The referendums in 2004, 2008, and 2016 in Hungary substantiate this suspicion. Taken together, they offer a step-by-step blueprint for how, in a thoroughly postpolitical situation, a referendum evolves into a perfect catalyst for populists on their road to power, enabling them with (a) agenda-setting; (b) an explosive emphasis on popular legitimacy; (c) arousing voluntarism, while luring opponents into campaigning for boycott and political apathy; (d) combining social equalitarianism with identarian protectionism, and most importantly; (e) bypassing parliament itself. This article is part of the special cluster titled Political Parties and Direct Democracy in Eastern Europe, guest-edited by Sergiu Gherghina.


1985 ◽  
Vol 15 (1) ◽  
pp. 97-115 ◽  
Author(s):  
Philip Williams

Realignment theory is a recent but flourishing sub-branch of the study of American political parties. Over the last thirty years, the original suggestions of its inventor, V. O. Key, have been elaborated and refined in several directions and through several phases, gradually being modified to take variations in historical circumstances more carefully into account. Problems of the same kind often occur, and are likely to prove even less manageable, when efforts are made to apply the theory to another political system and culture as authors from both countries (and from neither) have in recent years tried, more or less explicitly, to use it to explain developments in the British party system. Some techniques travel quite well, and some useful insights can be obtained by looking afresh at familiar patterns in the light of similar experiences elsewhere. But the differences between the two nations and states preclude any rigorous attempt to apply a theory derived from the history of one country with a view to explaining the experiences of the other.


2006 ◽  
Vol 88 (2) ◽  
pp. 214-217 ◽  
Author(s):  
Noor NP Buchholz ◽  
Andrew Hitchings ◽  
Stephanos Albanis

To date, open stone surgery is now performed in a very limited number of selected cases. A review of our own cases revealed that open surgery constituted 1% of all procedures. These procedures were mostly ablative, or operations to deal with complications of failed minimally invasive therapies. Given two continuing trends towards sub-specialisation in urology on the one hand, and minimally invasive therapy on the other, the question arises whether and how sub-specialised stone surgeons should and can learn open stone surgery. Is it merely a lost art not to be bothered with, or is it something worthwhile preserving? This article discusses the pros and cons of the argument and suggests centralisation of complex stone cases as a possible way out of the dilemma.


2009 ◽  
Vol 27 (2) ◽  
pp. 92-107 ◽  
Author(s):  
Frank Decker ◽  
Lazaros Miliopoulos

Right-wing extremist and populist parties operate in a rather difficult social and political environment in Germany, rendering notable electoral success fairly improbable, especially when compared to other European countries. The main reason for this is the continuing legacy of the Nazi past. Nevertheless the neo-Nazi National Democratic Party of Germany (NPD) managed to gain substantial votes in recent Land elections and became the leading force in the right-wing extremist political camp. Its success is attributable to rightwing extremist attitudes in some parts of the electorate in connection with a widespread feeling of political discontent. Nevertheless, it is questionable whether the NPD will be able to transform these attitudes into a viable ideological basis for two main reasons. On the one hand, maintaining a neo-Nazi ideology makes the NPD unattractive to many potential voters. On the other hand, given its internal power struggles and severe financial problems, the party may be unable to meet its challenges in organizational terms.


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