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This thesis examines the group of political advisors within the government offices of a right-wing and left-wing government, showing differences between the two in terms of recruitment. The political advisors, among many roles both inside and outside the government offices, fall under the category of policy professionals. The policy professionals are defined as a social group employed without being elected, but perhaps capable of affecting policies. With collected resumes of policy professionals inside the government offices, the backgrounds of the policy professionals are examined showing differences in the qualities valued most in recruitment between the two governments selected for the thesis. The political profiles ‘media-talent’ and ‘party democrat’ show what type of government metamorphosis is present on the basis of Bernard Manin’s theory of the representative democratic form of government. The results showed a majority of policy professionals belong to the party democratic profile representing Bernard Manin’s second metamorphosis. The growing group of media-talent profiles within both governments however show, that the metamorphosis might be in a state of change, moving towards the public democracy.

Venezuela experienced one of the most dramatic political transformations of the twentieth century. After initially developing a system of representative democracy hailed among the most resilient in the Western Hemisphere in the 1950s, the country endured wave after wave of economic turmoil until, in 1998, Hugo Chávez was elected to the office of the Venezuelan presidency, fundamentally altering the governmental structure of the country and contributing to the desperate economic conditions Venezuela finds itself in today. This thesis attempts to explain the societal factors that led to Chávez’s election through an examination of Venezuelan economic policy in the final decades of the twentieth century. By charting the attempts made by specific Venezuelan political actors to address the unique conditions and dilemmas generated by the country’s largely oil-based economy during this period, it is argued that the economic policies enacted by Venezuela’s representative democracy systematically failed to address the needs and concerns of the country’s poor and working classes. As a result, political disillusionment among these social groups became increasingly more pervasive, finally reaching its full expression in the election of Chávez as an outsider candidate pledging to overhaul the Venezuelan political system in favor of poor and working class social sectors. Moreover, this text attempts to situate Chávez’s election as the result of a broader trend of inadequate economic policy beyond the commonly examined neoliberal reforms of the 1990s and ultimately serves to caution against an economic worldview that overlooks potential repercussions for society’s most vulnerable sectors.

Abstract Recently, The ¡uDigital Revolution¡vchanges the store of the knowledge. The traditional conveyance of knowledge, book, have been gradually replaced by store equipments that have immense storage. Then, the internet totally changes information of the exchange. For the reason, the new storage technology and the specialization of the internet make the application and management of information a new landmark. The provision and exchange of public information are the essential activities in a democratic regime. But local study mostly focus on the administration, little study on legislative Yuan. Hence, this paper is intended to investigate representative behavior of Taiwan¡¦s legislators. Legislators are the representative of constituency. They are not only responsible for constituency, but need to monitor administration, law-making. Exchange of information is of utmost significance. The appearance of internet has positive affect on representative behavior of legislators, this paper discuss all of topics. Finally, after the seventh phrase of constitutional reform, the number of seats that legislators have reduce to half in th legislature. In addition, the legislators suffer the pressure of a single-constituency, two ballot system. I believe that legislators¡¦ paying more attention to the access the internet helps improve the quality of the activating in constituencies. I expect that the results of this study may increase the legislature revolution.

Direct democracy in the 21st century: challenges and pitfalls Abstract The thesis deals with the position of direct democracy in the 21st century, what are its advantages and disadvantages and problem areas. Before that, it briefly presents why such strong voices calling for direct democracy have been heard in recent years. The first part of the thesis describes the emergence of representative democracy and how this process was influenced by opinions on direct democracy. Furthermore, the reasons for the existence of representative democracy are outlined and the theory behind it is briefly introduced. In its second part, the thesis discusses, in greater detail, the present of representative democracy, what are its advantages and disadvantages and what problems it faces, which quite possibly threaten its very existence. In this part the thesis is based, among other things, on sociological findings, especially in Czech society. These problems largely explain frequent considerations about the implementation of direct democracy. The third part turns its attention to direct democracy exclusively and describes its history, more precisely, important passages from it. It also describes the theoretical foundations of direct democracy, in which the defense of direct democracy by its promoters is hidden to some extent....

Representative democracy at the European level This thesis deals with representative democracy, as one of the fundamental principles underpinning the organisation of states or, as the case may be, interstate-type entities. At the European level, this principle is embodied by the European Parliament and the national parliaments of the Member States whose functions and competences complement each other. In the context of the role of the European Parliament the fundamental question concerns direct elections as an instrument of political legitimacy. This thesis offers a comparison of the findings of the Czech and the German Constitutional Courts, which took different views on the case of the electoral treshold in elections to the European Parliament. Arguments of these courts enable the reader to see European Union, position of the European Parliament in its institutional structure and its democratic legitimacy in wider context.

Esta tese examina a representação política em arenas extraparlamentares, que são fóruns de deliberação com impacto importante sobre as políticas públicas nas democracias contemporâneas. Para tanto, são analisadas as concepções dos representantes que atuam em nome da sociedade civil nos Conselhos Gestores de Políticas Públicas. Com base em diferentes perspectivas teóricas a respeito da representação, foram pesquisadas as seguintes dimensões empíricas: as regras de composição dos Conselhos, o processo de autorização dos conselheiros, a forma como os representantes tomam decisões e prestam contas das suas ações, o controle sobre suas atividades e a visão dos conselheiros a respeito da legitimidade das suas práticas de representação. O estudo constatou que a composição dos Conselhos, o processo de escolha dos conselheiros, a prestação de contas e o controle sobre as ações dos representantes são restritos aos ativistas de organizações civis que acompanham os Conselhos. Apesar dessa restrição, os representantes consideram que defendem interesses gerais e causas universais. Também foi averiguado que quando os conselheiros são ligados a organizações compromissadas com os espaços de discussão em contextos de alta mobilização popular, eles são mais próximos dos usuários dos serviços públicos e dos militantes da área. / This thesis examines the political representation in extra-parliamental arenas, which are deliberation fora with major impact over public policies in contemporary democracies. To achieve this, we analyze the conceptions of the representatives who act on behalf of the civil society in the Sectoral Policy Councils. Based upon the different theoretical perspectives of representation, the following empirical dimensions were researched: the rules of the Councils composition, the councilors authorization process, the way representatives make decisions and the way they are accountable for their actions, the control over their activities and the councilors visions with respect to the legitimacy of their representation practices. The study verified that the composition of the Councils, the process of choosing the councilors, they way representatives make decisions and the way they are accountable for their actions are restricted to activists from civil organizations that follow the Councils. Despite this restriction, the representatives consider they defend general interests and universal causes. It was also verified that when councilors are connected with organizations committed to discussion spaces in contexts of high popular mobilization, they are closer to public services beneficiaries and activists in the area.

Made available in DSpace on 2017-07-21T20:31:39Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 1 Izolde Hilbemberg de Oliveira.pdf: 748643 bytes, checksum: 7a25a15850a7635372d50e5e73d2664f (MD5) Previous issue date: 2008-06-30 / This research aims at analyzing the trajectory, structure and functioning of the Municipal Council of Education of Ponta Grossa City – Paraná State – Brazil, as well as investigating the extent to which this Council has been a tool for democratization in educational decision-making. The theoretical framework is based on authors who discuss the concepts of democracy and representative democracy, as well as the concepts of State and civil society (Bobbio, Held, Chauí, Carnoy and Gramsci, among others). The fieldwork comprises the following strategies of data collection: documentary analysis (laws, internal rules of the Council, meeting reports, official documents approved by the Council); non-participatory observations of the Council’s meetings; an interview with the town councilor who proposed the creation of the Municipal Council of Education; and interviews with 16 other councilors. The main findings are as follows: (a) although the Council investigated can be considered as an important means for the participation of civil society in education management, this Council has been legitimizing education policies formulated by the Municipal Secretariat of Education, rather than acting as a source of new proposals and their implementation; and (b) the contributions of the Municipal Council of Education of Ponta Grossa to the democratization of educational decision-making have, so far, been weak – and less than might have been expected. These conclusions must be understood in context, involving a range of factors (mediations), such as: the period of the Council’s existence; the conservative features of local society; the few opportunities for effective democratic and participatory experiments; the power relations inside the Municipal Secretariat of Education; the lack of councilor training; and the features of the process of democratic construction in Brazilian society. / Este estudo tem por objetivo analisar os principais aspectos da criação, da estrutura, do funcionamento e das contribuições do Conselho Municipal de Educação de Ponta Grossa - PR, bem como investigar em que medida esse Conselho tem sido um instrumento de democratização das decisões educacionais. O referencial teórico é constituído por autores que fundamentam os conceitos de democracia, democracia representativa e as concepções de Estado e sociedade civil (Bobbio, Held, Chauí, Carnoy, Gramsci entre outros). A metodologia adotada foi a investigação qualitativa, constituída por um estudo de caso. A pesquisa de campo envolveu as seguintes estratégias de coleta de dados: análise documental (leis de criação e regimento interno do CME, decretos, atas, deliberações), observação não-participante de reuniões do CME, entrevista com o vereador que propôs a lei do Conselho e com 16 conselheiros. As principais conclusões são as seguintes: a) embora o CME investigado constitua-se em um importante espaço de participação da sociedade civil na gestão educacional do município, o mesmo tem assumido um papel mais legitimador das políticas educacionais emanadas da Secretaria Municipal de Educação do que propriamente propositivo e mobilizador; b) as contribuições do CME para a democratização efetiva das decisões educacionais, bem como para a democratização da educação, até o presente, foram frágeis e muito aquém do que poderia ser esperado. Buscou-se compreender tais conclusões a partir de um sistema de mediações (locais e outras mais amplas) o qual tem determinado/configurado a atuação do CME: o tempo de existência do CME, o conservadorismo político que caracteriza a sociedade ponta-grossense, a falta de oportunidades de vivência democrática e participativa, as relações de poder e autoridade no âmbito da Secretaria Municipal de Educação, a ausência de mecanismos de formação de conselheiros e as características do processo de construção democrática na sociedade brasileira.

<p>Provincial governors constituted an important part of the decentralization package unveiled in Zimbabwe in 1984 and 1985. The President appoints provincial governors among other duties, to coordinate development planning and implementation at the provincial level. This paper seeks to examine the appointment and role of a provincial governor and in that way establish the extent to which such appointment and role hinder or enhance representative and participatory democracy, accountability, devolution and empowerment, as ideals of decentralization. This contribution examines provincial governance in Zimbabwe as part of the local government system.</p>

<p>It has become popular for political scientists to discuss the transformation from government to governance and the networks’ greater influence on public policymaking. However, this debate lacks methodological, empirical and theoretical research about the relationship between governance networks and representative democracy. The main objective of this essay is to understand the relationship between governance networks and representative democracy through a case study of the governance network Leader Linné. The theoretical framework includes four analysis models about the relationship between governance networks and representative democracy that are analysed by five factors connected to representative democracy. Each model has a specific approach to the public policymaking in networks e. g. were the power lies, how the general interest is understood and the role of politicians. The essay is designed as a case study combined with interviews of participants from the network’s national, regional and local level. The result of the essay is that the relationship between the governance network and representative democracy is complemental, meaning that representative democracy makes the central decisions in society where secondary decisions are made through a combination of representative- and participate democracy introduced by Leader. In Leader Linné the general interest is formed at EU level and politicians have a managerial role.</p>