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Electoral Process (electoral + process)

Distribution by Scientific Domains
Humanities and Social Sciences75%

Selected Abstracts

Constitutional responses to extremist political associations ,ETA, Batasuna and democratic norms

LEGAL STUDIES, Issue 1 2008
Ian Cram
Systems of representative democracy require that the electorate be given at regular intervals the opportunity to replace the party in government with a rival political association. In this context, the right of individuals to freedom of association permits the formation of competitor parties and prevents forms of state intervention that might otherwise privilege existing office holders and their political programmes. It follows then that restrictions on the right to political association are deserving of particularly close scrutiny. At the same time, liberal democratic constitutions usually insist that participants in electoral process manifest a level of commitment to core liberal democratic norms (such as the rule of law, toleration, the equal worth of each individual and the peaceful resolution of grievances). In the case of intolerant, extremist parties that would reject some/most of these norms, the state may invoke a range of defensive measures up to and including proscription in order to safeguard democracy. This paper takes as its focus the constitutional issues raised by the banning in Spain of Batasuna , the political wing of ETA. A legal challenge to the ban is currently before the European Court of Human Rights. Making reference to work of John Rawls, this paper considers whether the ban on Batasuna is justifiable in terms of liberal political theory, before analysing the extent to which proscription conforms to international human rights law and European Court of Human Rights jurisprudence. [source]

The Americans With Disabilities Act as Engine of Social Change: Models of Disability and the Potential of a Civil Rights Approach

POLICY STUDIES JOURNAL, Issue 4 2001
Andrew I. Batavia
The Americans With Disabilities Act, based on the civil rights/minority group and independent living models of disability, may enhance access to health care, personal assistance, employment, the electoral process, and smoke-free environments for people with disabilities. However, this essential law cannot resolve these key issues. Supplemental theoretical and policy approaches will be necessary to promote fundamental change. [source]

Treating Voters as an Afterthought?

THE POLITICAL QUARTERLY, Issue 1 2009
The Legacies of a Decade of Electoral Modernisation in the United Kingdom
Over the past decade, the UK's New Labour government has been at the forefront of efforts internationally to modernise electoral procedures, promising to deliver ,an e-enabled, multi-channel general election by 2006'. This paper considers the origins and the impacts of reforms to UK electoral procedures with a particular focus on the adoption of postal voting on demand and pilots of electronic voting and counting since 2000. The paper concludes that the principal legacy of the modernisation agenda to date is likely to have been a negative impact on public confidence in the electoral process. [source]

Foregrounding technology over politics?

AREA, Issue 1 2010
Media framings of federal elections in Malaysia
Mainstream and alternative media play an important role in circulating powerful narratives within and often beyond a country's borders. This article specifically examines how Malaysia's media have framed the relationship between information and communication technologies (ICTs) and the country's electoral process. To this end, the authors conducted a content analysis of selected domestic mainstream and alternative media sources for two weeks before and two weeks after Malaysia's last three federal elections , 1999, 2004 and 2008 , to gauge how coverage has changed over time with shifts in the local political landscape and growing ICT access and usage. [source]