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Full-Text Articles in Social and Behavioral Sciences

Legislative Professionalization: Travelling Theories To Brazilian Local-Level Legislatures (Statistical Appendix), Patrick Silva Dec 2015

Legislative Professionalization: Travelling Theories To Brazilian Local-Level Legislatures (Statistical Appendix), Patrick Silva

Patrick Silva

No abstract provided.


Legislative Professionalization: Travelling Theories To Brazilian Local-Level Legislatures, Patrick Silva Dec 2015

Legislative Professionalization: Travelling Theories To Brazilian Local-Level Legislatures, Patrick Silva

Patrick Silva

For more than two decades, scholars have studied the effects of legislative professionalization. Nevertheless, the theorization and hypothesis tests on this matter have been almost exclusively based on the American case. The test of these propositions in different contexts can enrich their explanation power. In this paper, I analyze one of the proposed effects of legislative professionalization – specifically on legislative production – using the case of Brazilian local-level legislatures. The findings show that Brazilian local-level legislatures display low levels of professionalization; the results also point out that professionalization has a positive effect on the number of bills presented by …


La Oposición Política: Notas Para Una Discusión Teórica, Fernando Barrientos Del Monte Dec 2015

La Oposición Política: Notas Para Una Discusión Teórica, Fernando Barrientos Del Monte

Fernando Barrientos Del Monte

La oposición es un rol que en las democracias desempeñan, por lo general, los partidos políticos. Su importancia radica en que son el factor de control de los gobiernos en turno y la alternativa a la formación de nuevos gobiernos. Pero la oposición adquiere connotaciones más amplias en función de la posición que determinados grupos políticos asuman frente al sistema político. En este texto se esboza un modelo analítico para distinguir los tipos de oposición en los sistemas políticos con especial atención en las democracias occidentales.


App Newsletter 7, Riccardo Pelizzo Oct 2015

App Newsletter 7, Riccardo Pelizzo

riccardo pelizzo

The seventh issue of the APP newsletter, with contributions by Michele Croce, founder and President of Verona Pulita, and Abel Kinyondo, Senior Researcher at REPOA.


The Political Consequences Of Party System Change, Riccardo Pelizzo, Zim Nwokora Aug 2015

The Political Consequences Of Party System Change, Riccardo Pelizzo, Zim Nwokora

riccardo pelizzo

This article engages one of the important gaps in the literature on party system effects: the consequences of party system change. We discuss how existing empirical approaches to party system change do not actually capture the changeability of patterns of party competition, which is the most direct understanding of the term “party system.” We propose a measure that does exactly this: the index of fluidity. Applying this measure to countries in South East Asia, we show that party system change is associated with harmful effects, including lower foreign direct investment and deterioration of the rule of law


The Costs Of Party System Change: The Case Of Tanzania, Riccardo Pelizzo, Abel Kinyondo, Zim Nwokora Aug 2015

The Costs Of Party System Change: The Case Of Tanzania, Riccardo Pelizzo, Abel Kinyondo, Zim Nwokora

riccardo pelizzo

Pelizzo, Kinyondo and Nwokora argue that party system changes and increases in party system changeability have generally been associated with a worsening democratic quality.


App Newsletter 5, Riccardo Pelizzo Jul 2015

App Newsletter 5, Riccardo Pelizzo

riccardo pelizzo

Fifth issue of APP Newsletter


En El Juego De La Designación De Ministros, El Presidente Siempre Gana, Javier Martín Reyes Apr 2015

En El Juego De La Designación De Ministros, El Presidente Siempre Gana, Javier Martín Reyes

Javier Martín Reyes

In the Supreme Court Appointment Game, the President Always Wins


Roli I Parlamentit Në Procesin E Anëtarësimit Në Be, Kuvendi I Kosovës, Safet Beqiri Apr 2015

Roli I Parlamentit Në Procesin E Anëtarësimit Në Be, Kuvendi I Kosovës, Safet Beqiri

Safet Beqiri

Abstrakti Ky artikull paraqet një kornizë përmbledhëse analitike e legjislativit si një degë e rëndësishme e pushtetit në procesin e anëtarësimit të shtetit në Bashkimin Evropian, me theks të veçantë rastin e Kuvendit të Kosovë. Ky punim analizon rolin e parlamentit në marrjen e vendimeve dhe politikave në kuadër të procesit të integrimit në Bashkimin Evropian, i cili padyshim se paraqet peshën e tij si institucion i rëndësishëm për faktin se vendit i jep formë dhe drejtim të duhur si në anëtarësimin në institucione dhe organizata ndërkombëtare ndër-shtetërore dhe mbi-nacionale. Po ashtu dhe për faktin se parlamenti është e pushtetit …


App Newsletter 2, Riccardo Pelizzo Apr 2015

App Newsletter 2, Riccardo Pelizzo

riccardo pelizzo

This is the second issue of the newsletter of African Politics and Policy. In this issue our collaborators discuss the uneasy relationship between democracy and development, Tourism in Tanzania, elections in Togo, and Chinese Investments in Africa.


Newsletter, Riccardo Pelizzo Mar 2015

Newsletter, Riccardo Pelizzo

riccardo pelizzo

first issue of the African Politics and Policy Newsletter


The Arab Fall: War Of All Against All, Muqtedar Khan Feb 2015

The Arab Fall: War Of All Against All, Muqtedar Khan

Muqtedar Khan

This article explore the geopolitics of the Arab World with the rise of Daesh - ISIS.


A Functionalist Theory Of Oversight, Riccardo Pelizzo, Abel Kinyondo, Aminu Umar Jan 2015

A Functionalist Theory Of Oversight, Riccardo Pelizzo, Abel Kinyondo, Aminu Umar

riccardo pelizzo

The literature on oversight provides various approaches that have been used to measure oversight effectiveness. They include inferring oversight from the quality of governance, equating it with the presence of oversight activities as well as equating it with oversight capacity. However all these approaches are problematic as they wrongly consider oversight to be unidimensional. As a result they tend to produce measures that are too general and vague to provide a meaningful assessment of oversight effectiveness. It is in this context that this paper identifies the structural elements of oversight and goes on to contend that since oversight is a …


Constructing A Shared Identity In Deeply Divided Societies, John M. Nagle Jan 2015

Constructing A Shared Identity In Deeply Divided Societies, John M. Nagle

John M Nagle

In order to bolster sustainable peacebuilding in violently divided societies, a normative suggestion is that efforts should be made to construct a shared public identity that overarches ethnic divisions. A number of different centripetal/transformationist processes are identified as engendering a shared identity in comparison to consociational arrangements, which are accused of institutionalizing ethnic differences and perpetuating conflict. These transformationist approaches essentially rest on the premise that since ethnicity is constructed it can be reconstructed into new shared forms. Looking at Northern Ireland, we argue there are limits to the extent that ethnicity can be reconstructed into shared identities. By analysing …


Corruption, Responsiveness, And Political Reform In Brazil (1994-2014), Mauricio Izumi, Patrick Silva Jan 2015

Corruption, Responsiveness, And Political Reform In Brazil (1994-2014), Mauricio Izumi, Patrick Silva

Patrick Silva

Corruption is a frequent problem associated with developing countries. Brazil is not an exception; on the contrary, recent periods have been marked by major scandals. For the first time, president partisans were formally prosecuted and arrested because of corruption related crimes. The media played a central role in this process. In this paper, we examine the media role over legislative behavior of Brazilian senators during the period of the largest trial for corruption related crimes. We analyze the frequency of topics related to corruption on the media and how it affects speeches on the floor about corruption and political reform. …


Legislative Professionalization In Brazil: Causes And Effects Of Municipal Chambers Professionalization, Patrick Silva Jan 2015

Legislative Professionalization In Brazil: Causes And Effects Of Municipal Chambers Professionalization, Patrick Silva

Patrick Silva

Although professionalization is one of the key-elements for the development of legislative work and career, it has been explored almost exclusively in the U.S. environment. In this paper, I analyze legislative professionalization in Brazil. My first goal is to examine the level of professionalization in the Brazilian municipal legislative chambers and to explore some hypotheses as to what produces such results. Afterwards, I turn my focus to the effects of professionalization. Does professionalization have an effect on the number of bills introduced by legislators; Is the percentage of laws originating in the Legislative Branch affected by professionalization? In order to …