On July 5, 2015, Greek voters were asked to vote on whether the country should accept the terms of austerity offered by the European Union for bailout from the country’s financial crisis. With a turnout rate of 62.5% overall, 61.3% of Greeks voted “no.” While a majority of voters in every district opposed the bailout’s terms, the margin against the proposed austerity measures ranged from 51.2% in Lakonias to 73.8% in Chanion. This paper explores whether political parties influenced Greek voters’ decisions to accept or reject the EU's budgetary reforms. We first review the literature relevant to that question, focusing on whether party platforms are merely “cheap talk” or instead are salient in determining electoral outcomes. We then test our hypotheses empirically at the voting district level. In this model, our key independent variable is party influence, which is measured by party vote shares in the nationwide election held in January of 2015. The dependent variable is the percentage that voted “no” to austerity in July 2015 in each of Greece’s 56 electoral districts. We also control for average age and the unemployment rate across regions, as well as the fraction of first-time voters in each electoral district. After conducting simple regression analysis, we report evidence that a pro-austerity party (New Democracy) was a significant factor impacting the results of the referendum. This research finding bolsters the claim that parties can shape electoral outcomes on questions decided by an institution of direct democracy.

公民投票的正當性奠基於「直接民主」，而直接民主至今仍被多數人認定為最典型的民主制度。中山先生以創制複決權作為補足代議制度缺失的制度，為落實「直接民權」提供堅實的基礎。此外，本論文亦提出「民主行政」、「公民參與」理論，作為公民主動關心公眾事務，解決重大爭議性政策的基石。民主行政理論不僅力主政治系統內的所有公民，盡可能地親自參與各種政治決策，並且深信各個公民透過決策過程中的普遍參與，可以激發其潛能，促進其道德發展，從而造就出典型公民。公民投票制度也提供了經驗性的基礎。從歐美公民投票制度的發展過程來看，瑞士贏得「公民投票制之母國」的稱呼，並發展成為美、法公民投票系統之外的第三大系統。最近以公民投票決定國際條約的例子，為芬蘭與奧地利選民分別於一九九四年十月十七日與五月十三日舉行公民投票，決定加入歐洲聯盟。而我國公民投票法制化呼聲四起，主要植基於國民大會代表人民行使政權所產生的爭議、立法機制及決策機制背離民意之所致。在「國大自廢武功」不可能的情勢下，訴諸「公民投票」以決定「國民大會存廢與否」，似乎是一種可行之道。公民投票的實施，真正意含則是不信任議會民主，而且對政黨政治存有嚴重戒心。其次，行政機關的決策作為不當亦是興起公民投票法制化的原因之一。本論文主要提出「威權行政」及「漸進理性」決策觀的不當，希望邁向民主行政的決策觀，而公民投票的實施正是「民主行政」精神的最佳展現。第四、五兩章介紹我國公民投票制度法制化的過程。透過各種公投法草案的分析，優劣利弊應已明顯浮現。透過上述的理論、經驗與時空環境的分析，提供了第五章逐條討論階段爭議性問題政策辯論之基礎，這些問題包括公民投票法的法源問題、目前有無實施公民投票之條件、公民投票與代議政治、決策制定之關聯性等等。。筆者期盼執政黨不應再被動以對，以黨版「全國性創制複決法草案」和審查會通過的「五合一」版本進行協商，應是最好的解決之道。第六章提出公民投票運作成功應該具有相關條件之配合，如公民教育的重視、溝通管道的建立、社區意識的培養、培養具倫理觀念之公共行政實務者，以及相關「配套」措施的配合。

The article is to emphasize the importance of the fundamental values in the constitution through the case study of the constitutional interpretation No.499 of Grand Justices, Judicial Yuan, which mirrors confrontation and collaboration between the popular sovereignty and the constitutional revision boundary. The paper suggests that the constitutional revision boundary is essential in preserving the democratic constitutional order. Whereas the popular sovereignty is the ultimate and the highest power in the constitutional system, it should nevertheless follow the rule of the fundamental values in the constitution. In turn, the value of the popular sovereignty is to be fulfilled. The article then will demonstrate the power of check and balance implied in the J.Y. Interpretation No.499, in order to establish referendum mechanism of the constitutional revision. While transforming from transitory democracy to democratic consolidation status, Taiwan constantly faces the rising demand for a reform leading toward direct democracy. Under such setting, this paper recommends the system shall adjust the constitutional structure accordingly. However, the constitutional impact raised by the referendum shall also be mitigated by the balancing mechanism of the constitution. Therefore this paper first of all advocates that the petitioners' power of making constitutional revision of the Legislative Yuan should be checked in advance by the judicial review. Upon the completion of the judicial review process, the referendum can then be turned to the hands of citizens. The alleged goal is to avoid the intervention of political manipulation on popular will and to underline the constitutional significance of the popular sovereignty.

This thesis is an evaluation of the campaign to pass a Judicial Amendment to the Indiana Constitution. The study first explores constitutional revision throughout the United States and then focuses on Indiana. The study traces the origins of the Amendment as well as its content. Next the organization of the Judicial Amendment campaign is traced, as well as the role of various participating groups in advocacy and education. In addition the thesis statistically explores the success or failure of many campaign activities, including the effect of interest groups and urbanization on voting patterns.

No description available.

No description available.

Chapter 1. Introduction- analysis of the conscription referendum of 1916..... Chapter 2. Compulsory Military Training in peace-time. Chapter 3. Towards compulsion in war-time. Chapter 4. The campaign in Victoria. Chapter 5. The vote in Victoria. Chapter 6. Conclusions.

Thèse--Genève. / At head of title: Droit public général. "Ouvrages cités": p. [155]-156.

This thesis consists of a semiotic and socio-­‐political exploration of Québécois bande dessinée (BDQ) and Quebec Nationalism since 1970. It uses BDQ as a lens through which to analyse key moments in the history of Quebec’s Nationalist Movement. This thesis is based on a close textual reading of more than eighty editorial cartoons as well as textual analysis of thirteen longer form comics and bandes dessinées. It consists of detailed engagement with published and primary materials on BDQ and comic scholarship as well as documentary sources. It is concerned with the potentials of form and also the Québécois quest for voice and identity as it is manifested via text and image. This thesis argues that from their earliest origins the comics or bandes dessinées produced in Quebec have been closely linked to the political development of the province. As writers and creators sought to create a new voice for Quebec via bandes dessinées, following the so-­‐called ‘Springtime of Québécois Bande Dessinée’ in the 1970s, they looked to the contemporary political situation in the province for inspiration. Creators like Guilemay, Dave Rosen and Michel Rabagliati created versions of the key political figures from Quebec for their bandes dessinées while the major Francophone and Anglophone cartoonists of the province, Serge Chapleau and Aislin, provided their own versions of these figures. This thesis is anchored around the 1980 and 1995 referendums on Québécois sovereignty, two pivotal moments for Quebec political history that proved to be the source of much inspiration for contemporary creators of BDQ. Part One of this thesis situates the referendums historically within the context of Quebec’s political history. The thesis argues for the consideration of these referendums as crucial moments in this history and introduces the key political figures representing each side of each referendum debate. In Part Two the thesis is focused on the1980 referendum and addresses depictions of Pierre Elliott Trudeau and Rene Lévesque in Francophone and Anglophone editorial cartoons and bandes dessinées. In Part Three the thesis is focused on the 1995 referendum and text/image depictions of Jacques Parizeau, Lucien Bouchard, Mario Dumont, and Daniel Johnson. In Part Four the thesis draws together common themes, ideas and stylistic features from the images previously discussed and argues that these text and image representations of the leaders demonstrate distinct differences between the response to the1980 and 1995 referendums. It addresses the implications of the way in which BDQ produced for different markets, such as editorial cartoons, satirical magazines or autobiographical BD, approach political depictions in a different way. The thesis also argues that these differences reflect a shift in BDQ itself, a shift away from the political. The bandes dessinées of Quebec have not heretofore been subject to the same level of academic discourse as many other examples of Francophone BD. There exist a few histories in French of BDQ but because they are predominantly historical accounts they are what Thierry Groensteen terms “an egalitarian chronicle” where no comment is made on the relative quality of the works being discussed. This thesis seeks to widen discussion of this often-neglected incarnation of the BD form.

The popularity of sport, in particular football has transformed it into a strong means that is widely utilized by politics nowadays. Hence, the influence of football club's identities and values on the political vote of their supporters should never be neglected. The aim of the current paper is to study the influence of four major clubs in self-determination processes in Scotland and Catalonia in the times of the referenda for independence in 2014 and 2017. The study takes a qualitative approach to the matter and analyzes the way clubs' identities and values affect the political vote of their supporters. The paper takes an unobserved field of research, by merging the factors of football clubs' support and fan culture with its possible significance on the political arena, as well as on the fate of submerged nations' independence movements. Powered by TCPDF (www.tcpdf.org)