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Office Holders (office + holder)

Distribution by Scientific Domains

Humanities and Social Sciences	60%

Selected Abstracts

Machine Politics and Democracy: The Deinstitutionalization of the Argentine Party System1

GOVERNMENT AND OPPOSITION, Issue 4 2008
Gerardo Scherlis
This article contends that intra-party dynamics based on particularistic exchanges constitute a double-edged sword for a political system. On the one hand, they provide party leaders with strategic flexibility, which can be essential for their party stability and for the governability of the political system. On the other hand, in permitting office holders to switch policies whenever they consider fit, these dynamics render governments unpredictable and unaccountable in partisan terms, thus debasing the quality of democratic representation. The hypothesis is illustrated by recent Argentine political development. [source]

Political Representation in Leader Democracy1

GOVERNMENT AND OPPOSITION, Issue 3 2005
András Körösényi
The essay focuses on the neglected problem of democratic politics, i.e. on the role of leadership. Although in democracies public office holders are controlled to a certain extent, leaders still have wide room for political manoeuvre and decide without any ,instruction' of the citizens. Re-working Weber's and Schumpeter's theory, the author aims to build the model of leader democracy. He highlights the major traits of it in a comparison with the deliberative and the aggregative,utilitarian concepts of democratic theory. The theory of leader democracy is applied to the problem of representation, which, in contrast to mechanical mirroring, gains a new, dynamic and qualitative meaning. [source]

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]

Trusting souls: A segmentation of the voting public

PSYCHOLOGY & MARKETING, Issue 12 2002
Leon G. Schiffman
When a 30-year decline in the American voters' trust of political office holders and the election process is contrasted to their enduring trust of the democratic form of government, there is strong confirmation of the need to take a multidimensional approach in measuring political trust. To this end, a segmentation scheme based on two well-established political trust measures (i.e., incumbent-based trust and regime-based trust) is proposed. In particular how two specific trust segments differ in terms of the time they spend on various political and election-related activities is examined. Among other things, the findings reveal that the dual-trusting segment (i.e., those who were both regime and incumbent trusting) were substantially more likely than the regime-only trusting segment (i.e., those who were regime trusting and incumbent untrusting) to watch television debates or speeches and have informal discussions with friends and co-workers on topics related to the election. There were no meaningful differences between the two segments when it came to giving or raising funds, or campaigning for a candidate or political party. However, when it came to voting-related decision making, the results suggest that dual-trusting individuals were significantly more likely to spend more than a little time considering how they were going to vote for President, U.S. Senate, and on particular political issues. The article ends with suggestions for future research, as well as some thoughts on how politicians and their advisers might more fully embrace the relational marketing paradigm, especially as it pertains to the connection between elected officials and the voting public. © 2002 John Wiley & Sons, Inc. [source]

Clothing and a Florentine style, 1550,1620

RENAISSANCE STUDIES, Issue 1 2009
Elizabeth Currie
This article addresses the links between Renaissance clothing and identity, focusing on the reigns of the first Medici grand dukes, a period when the political and social make-up of the Florentine elite underwent profound changes. Drawing on a wide range of sources, from sumptuary legislation, court correspondence and family account books to tailors' patterns, it examines different ways of thinking about and analysing dress styles. Taking the under-explored subject of male dress, it concentrates on two specific clothing types: the traditional full-length cloak, known as the lucco, worn by government office holders, and the liveries of the Medici courtiers. It concludes with the role played by local textile production, a vital aspect of Florentine culture as well as its economy. Although the Medici family's efforts to shape the dress of its subjects were partially successful, certain fundamental elements of the city's sartorial ethos resisted change. [source]