Explaining the 2000 Lithuanian Parliamentary Elections: An Application of Contextual and New Institutional Approaches

Slavic Review ◽  
2003 ◽  
Vol 62 (3) ◽  
pp. 548-569 ◽  
Author(s):  
Terry D. Clark ◽  
Nerijus Prekevičius

Lithuania’s 2000 parliamentary elections were the first in the post-Soviet era to fail to produce a majority government. Further, neither the Homeland Union nor the Democratic Labor Party entered into the ruling coalition. In this article, Terry D. Clark and Nerijus Prekevičius explore two different ways of explaining why this occurred. To answer the broader question, the first approach focuses on the particular events that occurred in the run-up to the elections. To consider why particular parties fared better or worse than expected, the second approach evaluates a set of rational choice approaches, including spatial analysis. Neither approach is preferable to the other; instead, they are complementary, each helping to resolve certain questions that are appropriate to the particular approach. To conclude, they consider the implications of their findings for the consolidation of Lithuania’s party system.

1977 ◽  
Vol 8 (1) ◽  
pp. 103-116 ◽  
Author(s):  
Hassan Mohammadi-Nejad

In Western democracies elections are viewed as a means by which the public controls the policies of the government and decides who the policy-makers should be. Democratic theory makes two basic assumptions about elections: one is that the electorate is generally informed to the extent that it can make a meaningful and rational choice among various policy alternatives; the other, that the electorate expresses its policy preferences through recognizable partisan groupings in a two- or multiparty system.


Author(s):  
Dunja Apostolov-Dimitrijevic

This paper explains political democratization in Post-Milosevic Serbia, utilizing two different accounts of the democratization process: one rooted in the rational choice framework and the other in structuralism. While rational choice explains the decisive role of political leadership in overcoming path dependence, the structuralist explanations show the transnational linkages that encourage democratization in the face of domestic setbacks. This particular debate between the two types of explanations represents the larger debate concerning the role of internal factors and external linkages in propelling democratization in transitional societies. The paper concludes by integrating the two sets of explanations offered by each theoretical perspective, in order to develop a coherent understanding of Serbia's democratization.   Full text available at: https://doi.org/10.22215/rera.v9i1.240


Author(s):  
Ralph Wedgwood

It is explained how the conception of rationality proposed earlier in this book can set the agenda for the study of rational belief and rational choice. Part of the task will be to investigate the kind of ‘rational probability’ that was introduced in Chapter 9; the other part will be to study the conditions under which each kind of mental state counts as ‘correct’. There are reasons for thinking that the relevant notion of correctness must be such that in the case of belief, a correct belief is a belief in a true proposition, and in the case of choice, it is ‘akratic’ to choose something if one is fully confident that it is not correct to choose it. It is explained what light this approach could shed on the traditional issues about rational belief and rational choice.


2013 ◽  
Vol 471 ◽  
pp. 59-63
Author(s):  
Mohd Noor Arib Rejab ◽  
Roslan Abd Rahman ◽  
Raja Ishak Raja Hamzah ◽  
Jawaid Iqbal Inayat Hussain ◽  
Nazirah Ahmad ◽  
...  

This paper presents an evaluation on elastomeric mount used to isolate vibration from powertrain to chassis or structure vehicle. The assessments started with measurement of noise inside compartment, and exhaust noise. This is followed by the measurement of vibration on both sides of elastomeric mounts. The noise in the compartment and exhaust noise is measured according to BS 6086: 1981 and BS ISO 5130: 2007. The noise in the compartment and vibration is tested in three conditions. Firstly, engine is run-up with load (driving at second gear); secondly, without load; and thirdly, without load but hanging. A microphone is fixed at the ear of the mannequin. The fast response and A weighting sound level meter were used for measurement noise in the compartment and exhaust noise. The vibration is measured in terms of acceleration on both sides of each elastomeric powertrain mounts. Two accelerometer transducers are fixed on both sides of powertrain elastomeric mounts. One side was identified as a source of vibration and the other as receiver of vibrations. The results showed that the pattern of overall vibration level on source and receiver increased from 1050 RPM (idling) to 4000 RPM on all test conditions. Vibration transmitted to chassis or receiver structure was analyzed using transmissibility concept. By evaluating test condition of engine run-up without load, informed that the front and rear mounts showed a high level transmissibility contributing to structure-borne noise.


1987 ◽  
Vol 22 (4) ◽  
pp. 444-451 ◽  
Author(s):  
Marcelo Rebelo de Sousa

THE PORTUGUESE PARLIAMENTARY ELECTIONS OF 19 JULY 1987 initiated a profound change in the Portuguese party system and in the system of government. From 1974 onwards, Portugal had moved peacefully towards a democratic political system, enshrined in the 1976 Constitution. This evolution lasted about eight years and culminated in the revision of the Constitution in 1982. From 1982 onwards the present political regime has been a democratic one, coexisting with a capitalist economic regime attenuated by state monopoly in key sectors and by public companies which were nationalized between 1974 and 1976. It is also since 1982 that the system of government has been semi-presidential. There is pure representativeness as referendums do not exist at national level and have never been regulated at local level. But the government is semi-presidential in the sense that, owing to French influence, it attempts to balance Parliament with the election of the President of the Republic by direct and universal suffrage.


Res Publica ◽  
2004 ◽  
Vol 46 (2-3) ◽  
pp. 357-376
Author(s):  
William Fraeys

In Belgium the European elections and those for the regional councils were held on the same day. The elections of June 13th 2004 deserve a threefold analysis. First a comparison can be made with the results obtained five years ago for the same assemblies. lt shows that in Flanders the socialist party has progressed but that this advance was mainly due to the constitution of a cartel with one faction - Spirit - of the defunct Volksunie. The christian democrats made headway, their progress being enhanced by the contribution of N-VA, the other faction stemming from the Volksunie. The liberals declined fairly markedly as did the green party but to a lesser extent than in the elections for the federal parliament. The June 2004 elections saw above all progress for the extreme right Vlaams Blok, which has become the second biggest party of Flanders with 24 pct of the vote. In the Walloon provinces the socialists progress most thereby increasing the gap separating them from the liberals. The christian democrats advance somewhat while the green party Ecolo declines substantially.  The parties of the far right gain support and reach 8.73 pct of the vote. In Brussels the socialist advance is very marked allowing this party to conquer first place to the detriment of the liberals who are in decline. The progress made by frenchspeaking christian democrats is significant.A second approach for the analysis consists in comparing the results of the regional elections with those of the European ones. The differences are slight and rnainly due to the popularity of the candidates. In Belgium there was no "eurosceptic" or "sovereignty" list.  The third angle consists in comparing the 2004 results with the ones of the parliamentary elections of 2003. One then observes in Flanders a decline of the socialists, a significant fall in support for the liberals and a progression of the christian democrats. But the main development remains the progression of the Vlaams Blok which gains more than 6 pct compared to its good result of 2003.  In the Walloon provinces, the socialists remain at their 2003 level but increase their positive gap with regard to the liberals who are in decline. The christian democrats advance by some 2 pct whereas Ecolo recovers a small part of its 2003 loss. The parties of the far right gain some 1.5 pct. In Brussels, the most noteworthy developrnent is the progress of the frenchspeaking socialists who take over the first place from the liberals.In genera!lthese elections are characterised by a reinforcement of the far right to the detriment of the centre parties and by a status quo of the aggregate consisting of socialists and greens, but to the benefit of the former.


2018 ◽  
Vol 59 (1) ◽  
pp. 26-35
Author(s):  
Lee J. Curley ◽  
Rory MacLean ◽  
Jennifer Murray ◽  
Phyllis Laybourn ◽  
David Brown

The Scottish legal system is a unique jurisdiction, as jurors are able to give not proven verdicts in addition to the well-known Anglo-American verdicts (guilty and not guilty). The not proven verdict has never been legally defined, meaning that currently legal practitioners can only estimate why a not proven verdict has been given. The main aim of this study was to investigate if jurors violate the regularity principle, which is commonly incorporated in many rational choice models, by testing if the introduction of the not proven verdict has an impact on the outcomes given by jurors. In addition, this study aimed to test if the introduction of the not proven verdict has an impact upon how the not guilty verdict is perceived by jurors. In this study, 128 participants listened to two vignettes centred on homicide trials. Jurors could give one of two verdicts in one of the vignettes and one of three verdicts in the other vignette. The vignettes were counterbalanced in regard to how many verdicts could be given at the end of them. It was found that jurors in a three-verdict system were less likely to give a not guilty verdict in comparison to jurors in a two-verdict system, showing that jurors violate the regularity principle and that the not proven verdict may change how the not guilty verdict is perceived. The findings of this research have implications in relation to juror communication, article 6 of the European Convention of Human Rights and juror rationality.


2008 ◽  
Vol 24 (3) ◽  
pp. 419-429 ◽  
Author(s):  
Anthony Landreth ◽  
John Bickle

We briefly describe ways in which neuroeconomics has made contributions to its contributing disciplines, especially neuroscience, and a specific way in which it could make future contributions to both. The contributions of a scientific research programme can be categorized in terms of (1) description and classification of phenomena, (2) the discovery of causal relationships among those phenomena, and (3) the development of tools to facilitate (1) and (2). We consider ways in which neuroeconomics has advanced neuroscience and economics along each line. Then, focusing on electrophysiological methods, we consider a puzzle within neuroeconomics whose solution we believe could facilitate contributions to both neuroscience and economics, in line with category (2). This puzzle concerns how the brain assigns reward values to otherwise incomparable stimuli. According to the common currency hypothesis, dopamine release is a component of a neural mechanism that solves comparability problems. We review two versions of the common currency hypothesis, one proposed by Read Montague and colleagues, the other by William Newsome and colleagues, and fit these hypotheses into considerations of rational choice.


2018 ◽  
Vol 4 (2) ◽  
pp. 141-161
Author(s):  
Rekha Diwakar

India uses the single member plurality system (SMPS) to elect members of the lower house of its national (federal) parliament and the state assemblies. The electoral system has remained stable despite its inherent disproportionality, India’s highly heterogeneous population and, more recently, a fragmented party system. Using a comprehensive data set covering all national and some state assembly elections during the period 1952–2017, this article evaluates how SMPS has performed in India in comparison to its expected benefits, and whether there is a case for reform of the electoral system. The article finds that SMPS neither provides effective representation nor is likely to lead to stable single party governments in India – a situation that could be termed ‘the worst of both worlds’. It also highlights that a combination of rational-choice behaviour on the part of key actors as well as historical and institutional reasons has ensured the continuation of SMPS in India. The article concludes that it is time for India to seriously consider reforming its electoral system.


1999 ◽  
Vol 15 (2) ◽  
pp. 149-185 ◽  
Author(s):  
Melvin J. Hinich ◽  
Valeri Khmelko ◽  
Peter C. Ordeshook

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