In 1996, a new left of centre party emerged in Japan called the Democratic Party of Japan (DPJ) and effectively replaced the Japan Socialist Party (JSP) as the main opposition party. This thesis asks what conditions caused this realignment and how the DPJ differs from the JSP. An increasing distrust and disinterest of politics and politicians has meant that the non-aligned voter in Japan forms the largest group of the electorate. Every party has lost support, but the left faced the worst drop of support. With the end of the Cold War, and the intensifying call for Japan to reassess its role on the World stage, the traditional ideology of the Japanese left, which has become synonymous with peace and preservation of the Peace Constitution, has lost its stabilising effect on the party and on its supporters. The labour unions, which were once the key mobilisational force for the left-wing parties at election time, began to question their relationship with the JSP and found new links to government. Simultaneously, they were also losing members so mobilisation of voters for the left also declined. Finally, a new electoral system did not reward the opposition as much as the LDP. Overall, the mobilisation of the electorate has become increasingly difficult for the Japanese left as a result of these factors. The DPJ has had to find ways of dealing with them and also has had to create its own identity. The way in which the party has dealt with this is by 'widening out' its types of candidate and using new methods to attract support. Furthermore, the DPJ has become more aware of its party coherence and has ensured that party unity is maintained even when ideological disputes occur.

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This essay examines the indirect effects of the local strength of the Swedish Democrats on refugee acceptance in the Swedish municipalities. With statistical methods this essay has aimed to investigate if such effects exist and by using statistical data from three periods of time - 2002, 2006 and 2010 – the investigation has been able to measure effects over time. Based on former research and reasonable expectations the hypothesis for the essay claims that the Swedish Democrats has got an indirect effect upon the refugee acceptance. With the statistical analyses made, the essay is able to conclude that the strength of the Swedish Democrats in municipality elections as well as the change of this strength between the elections does have a negative effect upon refugee acceptance in the Swedish municipalities. With this conclusion, the idea of the Swedish Democrats as an isolated and insignificant party is questioned.

<p>This research study seeks to investigate how institutional arrangements impact on intra-party democracy in Malawi. Intra-party democracy is essential as it promotes party unity through reduced fragmentation and factionalism, encourages a culture of democratic debate and deliberation of critical issues within the party and therefore collective ownership of decisions. Further, it creates legitimate internal conflict management systems and finally, reduces opportunistic and arbitrary use of delegated authority. These are fundamental tenets of any functioning democratic entity. These elements of intra-party democracy are attainable if they are formerly stipulated and governed by the party&rsquo / s constitutional rules. Where such rules either do not exist or are not effectively enforced, major operational problems arise. These may include: non-inclusive candidate selection procedures, centralised coalition negotiation processes, unprocedural conflict management mechanisms and unconstitutional or illegitimate party conventions. Consequently, the resulting outcomes include party instability and factionalism stimulated by resignations and expulsions, declining electoral support and weak coalitions. These factors undermine the party&rsquo / s contribution to democracy. The next section gives the context and historical evolution of parties in Malawi.</p>

xi, 711 leaves ; 30 cm / Title page, contents and abstract only. The complete thesis in print form is available from the University Library. / Thesis (Ph.D.)--University of Adelaide, Dept. of History, 1980

The Italian political crisis of 1992-94, often referred to as Tangentopoli, emerged after the revelation of endemic corruption throughout the political system. First and foremost the crisis saw the collapse of the main political parties, the Christian Democracy and the Socialist Party. In a different manner and only one year prior to this crisis, the former Communist Party, also underwent major changes and evolved into a social democratic party, the Democratic Party of the Left. Though this crisis was sparked by a corruption revelation, it became a catalyst for a change in the deformities of a political system, of the partitocracy, which was itself the product of Cold War conditions faced by Italy in the post-war period. The focus of this study has been to re-evaluate the causes of this crisis with particular attention to the role of the Cold War as the over-arching influence which directly and indirectly influenced many of the internal dynamics of the Italian political process. The hypothesis of this research was that the end of the Cold War in 1991 as a factor which provoked this political crisis, was far more important as a cause than has hitherto been acknowledged. The study examines the other indicated possible causes including the impact of the corruption revelations, the role of the magistrates in uncovering corruption, the economic crisis, the role of the new protest movement of the Lega Nord and finally the especially brutal equilibrium with Italian political forces re-established by the Mafia after 1992.

Zugl.: Frankfurt (Main), Univ., Diss., 2005

Thesis (Ph.D.)--McMaster University, 2001. / Includes bibliographical references. Also available via World Wide Web.

Zugl.: Hannover, Universiẗat, Diss., 2007.