Chapter Two. The Political Parties and Balance of Power in Hungary

1954 ◽  
pp. 25-42
2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
C R G Murray ◽  
Megan A Armstrong

Abstract It has become axiomatic that backbench Members of Parliament (MPs) at Westminster have limited the capacity for independent action under the burdens of constituency business and whipped votes. Even the limited avenues available for such MPs to shine, such as select committees, are often illusory because parliamentarians have little time to prepare the materials or brief themselves on any but the highest profile witnesses. The political parties have benefitted from this state of affairs; docile MPs make for reliable votes. The rise of the European Research Group (ERG) as a parliamentary force disrupts this narrative. Galvanised by single-issue opposition to the UK’s involvement in ‘Europe’, encompassing both the European Union (EU) and the European Convention on Human Rights (ECHR), the Group successfully exploited the balance of power in the Commons during the 2017–2019 Parliamentary Session. This article analyses the methods by which the Group’s members magnified their influence over Brexit debates.


2020 ◽  
Vol 47 (3) ◽  
pp. 285-305
Author(s):  
David Alenga

Abstract From the fissures of Brexit and the recent results of pan-national European Union (EU) elections, insurgent political parties are becoming a force to be reckoned with. For all their disparate centers of gravity, nearly all of them converge on the question of Euroscepticism and the liberal international order. The primary consternation, it is routinely said, is not so much their dogged populism, but that most of them are unwittingly setting themselves up to do Moscow’s bidding in Europe. Drawing on Cold War historiography, this article sets out to critique how this thesis evolved along a consistent prism of ideological meta-narratives. Its key focus is highlighting how missing links in some of the seminal moments in the history of Soviet-Western relations continue to filter into explaining contemporary political developments in the EU. This article thus makes two basic conclusions. First, that there is something to be said of the insurgent political movements as committed players in the competition for the balance of power in the political berth of Europe. And in that regard, their rhetorical association with Moscow’s positions is a pragmatic step in the grand strategy of national and pan-European politics. Second, Moscow, contrary to being the adversarial vector of liberal Europe, has historically identified its best interest with cooperating, if not outrightly, aligning with the Western-led postwar international liberal order.


Author(s):  
Joan Ridao Martín

In recent times, the disaffection with the political system has grown exponentially mainly due to unrest sparked by both the management of economic and institutional crisis as the reiteration of different episodes of public corruption. No doubt this has intensified the crisis of representation, as old as the representation itself, and exacerbated the critical role they play in today’s political parties. Not surprisingly, these dysfunctions observed bring not only because of varying expertise at managing the public interest but also more structural reasons such as the fact that the weak institutionalization of democratic participation mechanisms has led to the State parties exhibits an extremely opaque and operating oligarchic, in turn, is the source of all kinds of excesses, including corruption or «colonization» of most institutions. In short, the so pervasive power of the parties has undermined the rule of law and substantially limited the effective exercise of democracy to leave little room for citizens to decide on the progress of society. This situation calls for a greater balance of power between it and the political parties.En los últimos tiempos, la desafección hacia el sistema político ha crecido exponencialmente debido sobre todo al malestar suscitado tanto por la gestión de la crisis económica e institucional como por la reiteración de distintos episodios de corrupción pública. Sin duda, ello ha intensificado la crisis de la representación, tan antigua como la representación misma, y exacerbado la crítica al rol que ejercen hoy en día los partidos políticos. No en vano, estas disfunciones observadas traen causa no sólo de la mayor o menor pericia a la hora de gestionar los intereses públicos sino también de razones más estructurales como el hecho de que la débil institucionalización de mecanismos de participación democrática ha dado pie a que el Estado de partidos exhiba un funcionamiento extremadamente opaco y de signo oligárquico que, a su vez, es fuente de todo tipo de excesos, entre ellos la corrupción o la «colonización» de la mayoría de instituciones. En suma, el poder tan generalizado de los partidos ha mermado el Estado de Derecho y limitado sustancialmente el ejercicio real de la democracia al dejar escaso margen para que los ciudadanos decidan sobre la marcha de la sociedad. Y esta situación reclama un mayor equilibrio de poder entre ésta y los partidos políticos


2020 ◽  
Vol 40 (2) ◽  
Author(s):  
Haruo Nakagawa

Akin to the previous, 2014 event, with no data on voter ethnicity, no exit polls, and few post-election analyses, the 2018 Fiji election results remain something of a mystery despite the fact that there had been a significant swing in voting in favour of Opposition political parties. There have been several studies about the election results, but most of them have been done without much quantitative analyses. This study examines voting patterns of Fiji’s 2018 election by provinces, and rural-urban localities, as well as by candidates, and also compares the 2018 and 2014 elections by spending a substantial time classifying officially released data by polling stations and individual candidates. Some of the data are then further aggregated according to the political parties to which those candidates belonged. The current electoral system in Fiji is a version of a proportional system, but its use is rare and this study will provide an interesting case study of the Open List Proportional System. At the end of the analyses, this study considers possible reasons for the swing in favour of the Opposition.


wisdom ◽  
2020 ◽  
Vol 15 (2) ◽  
pp. 107-113
Author(s):  
Gegham HOVHANNISYAN

The article covers the manifestations and peculiarities of the ideology of socialism in the social-political life of Armenia at the end of the 19th century and the beginning of the 20th century. General characteristics, aims and directions of activity of the political organizations functioning in the Armenian reality within the given time-period, whose program documents feature the ideology of socialism to one degree or another, are given (Hunchakian Party, Dashnaktsutyun, Armenian Social-democrats, Specifics, Socialists-revolutionaries). The specific peculiarities of the national-political life of Armenia in the given time-period and their impact on the ideology of political forces are introduced.


Author(s):  
أ.د.عبد الجبار احمد عبد الله

In order to codify the political and partisan activity in Iraq, after a difficult labor, the Political Parties Law No. (36) for the year 2015 started and this is positive because it is not normal for the political parties and forces in Iraq to continue without a legal framework. Article (24) / paragraph (5) of the law requires that the party and its members commit themselves to the following: (To preserve the neutrality of the public office and public institutions and not to exploit it for the gains of a party or political organization). This is considered because it is illegal to exploit State institutions for partisan purposes . It is a moral duty before the politician not to exploit the political parties or some of its members or those who try to speak on their behalf directly or indirectly to achieve partisan gains. Or personality against other personalities and parties at the expense of the university entity.


2019 ◽  
Vol 3 (1) ◽  
pp. 82
Author(s):  
Mhd Alfahjri Sukri

This research was conducted to see how Mohammad Natsir thought about the relationship between Islam and Pancasila. This study also explains the causes of Natsir's change of mind which initially supported Pancasila as part of Islam and later turned into an opponent of Pancasila in Konstituante on 11 November to 6 December 1957. The methodology used was a qualitative method by describing the results of the analysis carried out. The research data is obtained through a review of documents and scientific literature. The results of the study show that Mohammad Natsir's change of mind regarding the relationship between Islam and Pancasila was influenced by Mohammad Natsir's political socialization which began from Natsir's view of Islam influenced by the childhood environment (conditional and socio-cultural) in Minangkabau; direct influence from national figures such as Ahmad Hassan, H. Agus Salim, Sheikh Ahmad Syurkati and H. O Tjokroaminoto; the indirect influence of international figures throughout reading book such as Hassan Al-Banna, Amir Syakib Arselan, Rashid Ridha and Muhammad Abduh; the influence of Natsir's organization and political parties, namely Jong Islamieten Bond (JIB), Islamic Unity (Persis), and Masyumi political parties; and the influence of the political conditions at that time which made Natsir's views change, which initially accepted Pancasila and then became an opponent of the Pancasila. This research shown there are two patterns of Natsir's relationship with Pancasila, namely (1) Natsir accepted Pancasila and, (2) Natsir opposed Pancasila.


Author(s):  
Harry Nedelcu

The mid and late 2000s witnessed a proliferation of political parties in European party systems. Marxist, Libertarian, Pirate, and Animal parties, as well as radical-right and populist parties, have become part of an increasingly heterogeneous political spectrum generally dominated by the mainstream centre-left and centre-right. The question this article explores is what led to the surge of these parties during the first decade of the 21st century. While it is tempting to look at structural arguments or the recent late-2000s financial crisis to explain this proliferation, the emergence of these parties predates the debt-crisis and can not be described by structural shifts alone . This paper argues that the proliferation of new radical parties came about not only as a result of changes in the political space, but rather due to the very perceived presence and even strengthening of what Katz and Mair (1995) famously dubbed the "cartelization" of mainstream political parties.   Full text available at: https://doi.org/10.22215/rera.v7i1.210


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