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Worldwide, representative democracies have been experiencing declining levels of voter turnout, lower membership levels in political parties, and apathy towards their respective political systems and their ability to influence the political process. E-democracy, and specifically E-petitioning, have been touted as a possible solution to this problem by scholars of electoral systems. In 1999, the Scottish Parliament reconvened for the first time in nearly three hundred years, and quickly set out to change the way politics were handled in Scotland by launching the world's first online E-petition system. Analyzing the Scottish Parliament's E-petition system, and assessing the extent to which it fulfilled the aspiration and goals of its designers serves as a litmus test to see whether it is an effective medium to increase public political participation, and whether it could be replicated in other democratic countries. Data was collected from the Scottish Parliament's E-petitioning website, which hosts all the E-petitions and details of who signed them, each E-petition's path through the Parliament, who sponsored the petition, and other important information. Since success of an E-petition is highly subjective due to the original petitioner's own desired goals, three case studies of E-petitions and a data analysis were utilized to evaluate the system. Results suggest that the Scottish Parliament's E-petition system has engaged Scots in the political process, given them a medium to participate in meaningful policy formulation, and produced tangible changes in policy through E-petitions.

The Victorian general election of 1859 occurred during a time of social transition and electoral reformation, which extended the vote to previously unrepresented adult males. Gold discoveries, including those on the Ovens, triggered the miners’ insistent demands for access to land and participation in the political process. The thesis identifies issues, which emerged during the election campaign on the Ovens goldfields, surrounding Beechworth. The struggle centred on the two Legislative Assembly seats for the Ovens and the one Legislative Council seat for the Murray District. Though the declared election issue was land reform, it concealed a range of underlying tensions, which divided the electorate along lines of nationality and religion. Complicating these tensions within the European community was the Chinese presence throughout the Ovens. The thesis suggests the historical memory of the French Revolution, the European Revolutions of 1848 and the Catholic versus Protestant revivals divided the Ovens goldfield community. The competing groups formed alliances; a Beechworth-centred grouping of traders, merchants and the Constitution’s editor, ensured the existing conservative agenda triumphed over those perceived radicals who sought reform. In the process the land hungry miners did not gain any political representation in the Legislative Assembly, while a prominent Catholic squatter who advocated limited land reform was defeated for the Legislative Council seat. Two daily Beechworth papers, Ovens and Murray Advertiser and its fierce competitor, the Constitution and Ovens Mining Intelligencer are the major primary sources for the thesis.

Mokslinis darbas parengtas aktualia tema , kurios svarbumą lemia tai, jog panašių tyrimų nėra daug. Šiame darbe analizuojami ir lyginami dvejų ir vienerių rūmų parlamentai. Koncentruojamasi ne tiek į atskirų šalių parlamentus, kiek, pasitelkiant lyginamąją analizę, siekiama išsiaiškinti dvejų ir vienerių rūmų parlamentų skirtumą. Siekiant šio mokslinio darbo tikslo ir įgyvendinant uždavinius pasitelkiami sisteminės analizės, lyginamasis teisės, apibendrinimo, dokumentų analizės, istorinis lyginamasis, įstatymų leidėjo ketinimų, loginis, lingvistinis ir kiti metodai. Be parlamento institucijos šiuolaikinė demokratija ir jos įgyvendinimas taptų sunkiai įsivaizduojamas. Parlamentas – tai valstybės valdžios institucija, geriausiai išreiškianti aukščiausiojo valstybės suvereno – Tautos – valią. Parlamentas yra įstatymų leidybos institucija, tačiau kiekviena šalis pati nusprendžia kokį modelį – vienerių ar dvejų rūmų – pasirinkti. Darbo pradžioje analizuojama parlamentarizmo istorija. Toliau trumpai apžvelgiama valdžių padalijimo teorijos genezė ir parlamento, kaip įstatymų leidybos institucijos reikšmė šioje teorijoje ir skirtingose jos atšakose. Taip pat aiškinamasi, kokios priežastys lemia valstybių apsisprendimą pasirinkti vieną ar kitą parlamento modelį. Antrojoje dalyje analizuojami konkrečių valstybių (Lietuvos ir Švedijos), pasirinkusių vienerių rūmų parlamentą, pavyzdžiai – aiškinamasi, kaip formuojamas parlamentas, kokia jo vidinė struktūra, kaip vyksta įstatymų leidybos... [toliau žr. visą tekstą] / The object of this research is topical and important, because there are not a lot of similar researches. This study works on bicameral and unicameral parliaments – they are analysed and compared. The very concentration of the work is not to scrutinize the parliaments of different countries, but, to find differences in the way of comparison and analyse between unicameralism and bicameralism. For the purpose to reach the goal and to implement tasks of this research, we use methods of systematic analyse, comparison of law, concluding, analyse of documents, historical comparison, intentions of the legislator, logical, linguistic, etc. We can hardly imagine democracy and its implementation without the institution of parliament nowadays. Parliament is institution of public authority. And the parliament expresses the will of the sovereign of the state – the People – in the most proper way. The parliament has the power of legislation, but each country decides which model suits better – unicameralism or bicameralism. Firstly is analysed the history of parliamentarism. Later is presentation of short view of genesis of the theory of separation of powers and what place parliament takes in it. Also is looking for and analysing the reasons, why countries choose one or other model of parliament. In the second part of this research we have chosen for analyse examples of different countries (Lithuania and Sweden), which have unicameral parliament. Is scrutinized the model of composition... [to full text]

This is a study about the extreme right and populist meps in the European Parliament, and the purpose of this study is to explain how the ways they organise themselves in a political group within the European Parliament can influence EU:s democratic system in a negative direction.     The essay explores the rise of the right-winged parties in the European Parliament. Populism as a phenomenon is the ideology upon which the extreme right parties have based their politics and is something that could change shape dependent on the situation.     The essay thus investigates whether there is a connection between the phenomena and the low voter turnout in the European Parliamentary elections. The two research questions are 1. Can the low-level participation be a root cause of the extreme right and populist parties gaining power in the European Parliament? and 2. Is the impact a threat to democracy?      The European Parliament is one of the most important institutions in the European Union and is the only institution whose leaders are elected in public elections, therefore the low level of participation is an important issue to study.      The result of the study is that the extreme right parties pose a threat to EU:s democracy when they get to much power and the opportunity to change the political agenda.

Dénommé par ses soins comme étant un « organe régulateur de l’activité des pouvoirs publics », le Conseil constitutionnel a été instauré par la Constitution du 4 octobre 1958 pour contrôler les activités du Parlement. En mettant un terme à la souveraineté parlementaire, le constituant a autorisé le Conseil constitutionnel à s’immiscer dans les règles de fonctionnement des chambres, limitant ainsi leur autonomie. Sans contrôler l’intégralité des activités des assemblées parlementaires, le Conseil constitutionnel est parvenu à imposer au Parlement un formalisme à la fois contraignant et efficace, qui se mesure aux nombreuses lois censurées pour méconnaissance des règles relatives à la procédure législative. L’intrusion du juge dans l’intimité des chambres a permis de réguler des aspects importants de la vie politique, le point d’achèvement étant constitué par la consécration des exigences de clarté et de sincérité des débats parlementaires, et ce, bien que le rôle du juge reste strictement délimité. Au surplus, ce contrôle paraît renforcé, en étant dorénavant voué à porter de nouveaux impératifs, à commencer par l’efficacité des procédures parlementaires / The constitutional council, established by the constitution of October 4th, 1958, defines itself as a “regulating organ of the activity of public authorities”. In that definition, the constitutional council clearly sets that it controls Parliament actions. Eventhough the constitutional judge as the power to exert a limited control over Parliament actions, the constitutional council found a way to encompass those actions into a disciplinary framework. The Constitutional council imposes a binding and effective formalism on Parliament proceedings. This formalism is a mean to regulate Parliament debates through a set of constitutional rules such as the clarity and sincerity in the debate. The constitutional control over Parliament tends to reinforce since it aims at promoting new objectives such as the efficiency of Parliamentary procedures

One fundamental condition for a democracy to work is the possibility for voters to hold their legislators to account. Because voter turnout in European Parliament (EP) elections is so low, however, the task of holding MEPs accountable is passed on to the national parties. These become ‘transmission belts’ between voters and legislators: they instruct the MEPs how to vote and present them threats and rewards to ensure they vote as promised. To study how well this works, this thesis aims at exploring what influences how an MEP votes in situations where the national party and the European Party Group (EPG) hold conflicting policy positions. A new analytical framework is built to generate and preliminarily test hypotheses concerning what influences how an MEP votes. The analytical framework is largely inspired by Strøm (1990), who assumes that legislators are driven by their wishes of getting policy through, reaching high office and being re-elected. Normally, these goals can be reached with the help of the legislator’s party, which is why legislators have an incentive to keep their party happy and vote according to its policy position. In the EP, however, things are complicated by the fact that certain goals can only be reached with the help of legislators’ EPGs. Hypotheses concerning what may drive MEPs to vote either with her national party or with her EPG are tested in the thesis with the help of unique interview data, collected from five Swedish MEPs from parties in government. The thesis’ results show that policy-related incentives are most important to MEPs, and that these incentives are mainly controlled by EPGs. Office- and re-election-related incentives are only ascribed limited importance. There are contextual factors that affect these results: if an issue is perceived as important to Sweden or to the national party or if it receives high media attention, MEPs ascribe less importance to EPG-controlled incentives, although this does not mean that national party-controlled incentives increase in importance. In conclusion, MEPs do not seem to feel pressured by their national parties when deciding how to vote. This leads me to the conclusion that the role of national parties as ‘transmission belts’ between voters and MEPs is defective

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Submitted by Liliane Ferreira (ljuvencia30@gmail.com) on 2018-04-10T11:36:10Z No. of bitstreams: 2 Dissertação - Mariah Freitas Monteiro - 2018.pdf: 7186973 bytes, checksum: f6f611ce1eb9212f94f486d9e562c8cc (MD5) license_rdf: 0 bytes, checksum: d41d8cd98f00b204e9800998ecf8427e (MD5) / Approved for entry into archive by Luciana Ferreira (lucgeral@gmail.com) on 2018-04-11T11:24:49Z (GMT) No. of bitstreams: 2 Dissertação - Mariah Freitas Monteiro - 2018.pdf: 7186973 bytes, checksum: f6f611ce1eb9212f94f486d9e562c8cc (MD5) license_rdf: 0 bytes, checksum: d41d8cd98f00b204e9800998ecf8427e (MD5) / Made available in DSpace on 2018-04-11T11:24:49Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 2 Dissertação - Mariah Freitas Monteiro - 2018.pdf: 7186973 bytes, checksum: f6f611ce1eb9212f94f486d9e562c8cc (MD5) license_rdf: 0 bytes, checksum: d41d8cd98f00b204e9800998ecf8427e (MD5) Previous issue date: 2018-03-08 / Coordenação de Aperfeiçoamento de Pessoal de Nível Superior - CAPES / This work took as object of research the Latin American and Caribbean Parliament, known as Parlatino, has been operating for over half a century. This institution was created in 1964 and leads on key political and legislative exchanges for the involved countries. It has been in operation during Latin America significant historical moments such as the period of military dictatorships and re-democratizations. Notwithstanding its importance and historical value, there is a scarcity of scholarly works on the Parlatino, especially in the field of historiography. The aim of this study was to address this gap in knowledge and to shed some light in this remarkable institution. The focus of this research was to present the itinerary of this political body, from its conception to a current period; the year 2017. In describing the trajectory of this institution, this work reflects on its inefficiency as a supranational entity of regional integration. Priority was given to the analysis and exploration of the socio-political and conceptual history of Latin America and the Caribbean. Data for this work was gathered from official documents of this institution, newspaper reports on episodes of its trajectory and bibliographies. The specific bibliography used included academic works from the areas of Political Science and International Relations, while the complementary bibliography was composed by works of the area of History of America and various statistical data about Latin America and Caribe. This dissertation was made from the cross-linking of these sources and from the bibliographical material collected.This dissertation is the critical and descriptive analysis of these obtained materials and the chronicle of Parlatino. The narrative illustrates the links between operation of this intuition and strategic historical moments of Latin America and the Caribbean. Additionally, it provides a testimony of the advances but also the crucial limitations of this institution. / Este trabalho tomou como objeto de pesquisa o Parlamento Latino-Americano e Caribenho, mais conhecido como Parlatino, que opera há mais de meio século. Essa instituição foi criada em 1964 e empreende importantes intercâmbios políticos e legislativos para seus países membros. Sua atuação perpassou momentos históricos significativos para América Latina, como o período de ditaduras militares e redemocratizações. Não obstante sua longa trajetória e valor histórico, há uma escassez de trabalhos acadêmicos sobre o Parlatino, especialmente no campo da historiografia. O objetivo deste estudo foi abordar essa lacuna, estabelecendo enfoque nessa notável instituição. O foco desta pesquisa foi apresentar o itinerário deste corpo político, desde sua concepção até um período atual; no ano 2017. Ao descrever a trajetória dessa instituição, este trabalho reflete sua ineficiência como uma entidade supranacional de integração regional. Também foram priorizados exames e reflexões sobre o histórico sociopolítico e até conceitual das regiões América Latina e Caribe. As fontes utilizadas na pesquisa foram coletadas a partir de documentos oficiais desta instituição, reportagens de jornais sobre episódios de sua trajetória. A bibliografia especifica utilizada incluiu trabalhos acadêmicos das áreas de Ciência Política e Relações Internacionais, ao passo que a bibliografia complementar foi composta por obras da área de História da América e dados estatísticos diversos sobre a América Latina e Caribe. Esta dissertação consiste numa análise crítica e descritiva do Parlatino, que partiu do entrecruzamento dessas fontes e do material bibliográfico levantado. A narrativa ilustra os nexos entre o funcionamento desta intuição e momentos históricos estratégicos da América Latina e Caribe. Além disso, fornece uma análise dos avanços, mas também as limitações cruciais desta instituição.