Proefschrift--Leiden. / "Alphabetische lijst van afkortingen der bronnen": p.[274] 278.

Thesis (M.A. in National Security Affairs)--Naval Postgraduate School, March 2004. / Thesis advisor(s): Jeff Knopf. Includes bibliographical references (p. 83-87). Also available online.

The goal of this report is to examine how the relative balance of power between competing elites affects institutional choice in new democracies and the consequences this may have on democratic stability. I first develop a theoretical framework around the hypothesis that if the newly established democratic institutions to some degree safeguard the interests of the outgoing elites, they are less likely to defy them and find unconstitutional means through which to protect said interests. Given that elites ousted from power in a democratic transition are rarely rendered powerless by the process, this report works under the assumption that democratic reform is to some degree implemented by the outgoing ruling elite groups that at the same time stand to lose from it. If we assume these elite groups behave rationally, they will act strategically to protect their interests and thus will prefer institutions that are compatible with the upholding of such interests even when their political opponents are in power. iii The ability to affect institutional choice is of course limited by the relative power the ruling elites hold at the time of institutional choice. Even so, competing elites may make concessions in order for the outgoing elites not to go back on democratic reform in case the balance of power shifts back in their favor, allowing them to protect their advances in the struggle for power. Thus for democratic reform to be sustainable in the long-term, it must be through institutions that reduce the perceived risks they pose to elites interests. Under this theoretical framework, I study the case of the constitutional choice process that led to the current Chilean electoral system. After the 1988 plebiscite, the military regime was surprised by the fact that over 55% of the electorate voted for elections to be held. This meant that in order for them to secure the market-oriented reforms they had implemented under Pinochet, the 1980 constitution would have to be amended. But given the relative balance of power between them and their opponents, both sides would have to make concessions. This would lead to an electoral system that remains unchanged to this day. / text

This thesis explores the circumstances under which party discipline damages parliamentary democracy in the Canadian House of Commons. It uses omnibus budget implementation legislation as a case study of an instance when party discipline damages parliamentary democracy. While party discipline is central to parliamentary democracy, it can also undermine it if imposed too strictly. This thesis establishes a model of parliamentary democracy in which the House of Commons is meant to scrutinize, deliberate on, and occasionally amend legislation. It then identifies omnibus budgets as a trend in Canada through the following data on budget bills: number of pages, number of amendments, and length of debate. Finally, this thesis describes three key ways that omnibus budget legislation damaged the model of parliamentary democracy outlined at the beginning. The passage of omnibus budget legislation is a perfect illustration of the “parliamentary decline” thesis and provides a useful departure for future efforts at the reform of parliament to enhance the role of backbench members.

The present dissertation reconstructs the notion of legitimacy in Ecuador between 1996 and 2007 in order to re-think our measurements and understanding of Latin American democracies. Empirically, the analysis is centered on the country`s puzzling tendency to survive institutional volatility, bad economic performance and social unrest, while the theoretical section underlines the importance of the vertical and horizontal participatory components of legitimacy. After exploring different plausible explanations of Ecuador`s puzzling mixture of political turmoil and regime endurance, this dissertation concludes that legitimacy helped democracy to endure in Ecuador. The main conclusion is that the horizontal components of political participation and the enactment of democratic values by social movements as well as new political parties played a key role in the survival of democracy. The dissertation contributes to the democratization literature by encompassing the normative elements of democracy, while at the same time contributes to democratic theory by pushing further the boundaries of a notion and a case that requires further attention.

The dissertation seeks to contribute to our understanding of the role played by parties in the consolidation of democracy in the context of military tutelage and anti-system challenges. It finds that the conceptualization of parties under internal and external pressures in competitive party systems can be a useful framework to understand the constraints faced by parties in new democracies contemplating legal and constitutional reforms as a way to deepen democracy. The dual party framework focuses on the significance of the institutional (identity and party unity) and rational concerns of parties (electoral success) during democratization, at the same time that it integrates the role of the military in mediating the interplay between the internal and external challenges for parties. On the basis of the insights derived from the political party literature and democratization studies, the thesis identifies the formation of political identity as the major internal challenge for parties as they attempt to institutionalize themselves in the context of revitalized electoral competition. A politically autonomous military constitutes the principle external challenge for parties particularly in the presence of "anti-system" actors. The study then traces the formation and development of political identities by the three major Turkish parties that held power between 1983 and 1995. In particular, it analyzes how these pressures unfolded for party leaders as they confronted a controversial dilemma of reconciling democratization with the maintenance of stability due to the ethnic separatist threat, and to a lesser extent, religious fundamentalism. The study demonstrates that while the Turkish party leaders used democratization agendas as an image building' strategy in the formation of their parties' political identities, their capacity to formulate and implement clear, coherent and consistent democratization reform strategies was hampered by the problems they faced in meeting o

This thesis argues that blogging can open up a space for free speech and, at times, facilitate wider debate in the relatively authoritarian society of Malaysia. At the same time, blogging is heavily shaped by the prevailing elite groups and political culture in Malaysian politics. The thesis finds that blogging is able to facilitate the forming of a network of alternative or dissenting views but it can also be dominated by existing elite groups in society. The majority of bloggers are highly educated professionals and many of them are media and political elites. The use of blogging by some civil society and partisan bloggers, particularly pro-UMNO bloggers, to remove political rivals by staging a form of “psychological warfare” points to a dominance of factional politics within UMNO in the Malaysian blogosphere during the 2008 general election. Thus, blogging does provide a space for certain liberal democratic practices but it also reflects existing elite groups and political culture in the country. This thesis also argues that blogging does bring about new ways of campaigning in electoral politics. The use of blogging as part of campaigning among opposition politicians is, however, influenced by the wider institutional and societal structures in society. The findings reveal that blogging can provide a space for mobilising political action. It also allows opposition politicians to disseminate information on campaign activities and promote electoral candidates but blogging loses its appeal among politician-bloggers during the campaigning period. Blogging, thus, does not have a simple across-the-board function of promoting liberal democratic practices and transforming new ways of campaigning in electoral politics. This thesis concludes that an examination of blogging has to be situated within its particular social and political environment in order to obtain a more comprehensive understanding of its influence on democracy and political life.

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The Justice and Development Party (Adalet ve Kalkınma Partisi, AKP) promised a new and democratic Turkey in the 2002 general elections, and it succeeded in winning the elections of 2002, 2007, and 2011. Everyone lauded the democratization process in Turkey under the AKP, calling it the “Turkish model.” Yet, with the prolonging rule of the AKP, cracks in the Turkish democracy gradually appeared, ranging from politicized trials to media repression. The situation in Turkey continued to worsen at an increasing pace under Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, leading to the major Gezi Park protests last summer. The erosion of the AKP’s commitment to Turkish democracy is evident, as is Turkey’s democratic backsliding. The purpose of this paper is to provide a comprehensive landscape of domestic events in Turkey that demonstrate democratic backsliding by identifying major issue areas where this trend is most prominent. These key issues where democratic backsliding becomes most apparent in Turkey are divided into five categories: media freedoms, the judiciary, corruption and graft, the nature of the opposition, and civil liberties. These five categories will be examined through narratives, which provide crucial insight into the strategies used by the AKP to undermine the consolidation of liberal democracy in Turkey. The findings from the critical case study of Turkey can be instrumental in preventing the trend of democratic backsliding in other developing countries.