Archive 1/2000

Abstract

Author analysis the process of the last Russian parliamentary elections (December 1999). In the first part of this study he describes the electoral system of the Lower House of the Parliament of the Russian Federation — the State Duma and its influence to form of the Russian party system and the strategies of single party subjects before the elections. In the second part the article offers the description of the results of the parliamentary elections in the 1999 including the number of the mandates and the electoral participation of voters, further the election analysis and its comparison with the results in the 1993 and the 1995, Then the article shows the enumeration of possible typical features of the Russian party spectrum: the real position of political parties in the semipresidential system in Russia, the special role of the „government party“ in Russian political system and the low weight of the political ideologies used as the clasification criterions in Russian politics. In the end of the text the author brief describes the relation between party subjects and forthcoming presidential elections in March 2000.

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Parliamentary elections, Russia, state duma, government party

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In the field of electoral systems Britain has long held out as a bastion of stability, as the country seen at least likely to undergo fundamental electoral reform. But it would be entirely wrong to paint a picture of Britain as a country which has never considered electoral reform. A review of the historical debate reveals a series of failed initiatives to reform electoral system, suggesting that the matter has never been entirely put to rest. The current situation dating from the election of the new Labour government in 1997, pro¬vides that the electoral reform issue is again on the top of political agenda. The Independent Commission on the Voting System (the Jenkins Commission) produced the report in October 1998. Its central recommendation is that the best alternative for Britain to first-past-the post system is a two-vote mixed system which can be described as either „limited AMS“ or „AV Top-up“ or „AV Plus“. Prospects for a reform are uncertain since different viewpoints are held within the ruling Labour Party and since public opinion remains ambivalent.

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Electoral reform, United Kingdom, av plus, Jenkins commission

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This article provides an explanation for the success of the political negotiations in Northern Ireland in 1997-1998, that led eventually to the signing of the Good Friday Agreement (GFA) on 10 April 1998. The paper explains why the negotiations achieved a ‚political settlement‘ in 1998, when this was not possible in previous years. The combination of circumstances and actors was crucial to the success of the negotiations. These include the impact of third parties (particularly the role of the United States administration) the internationalisation of the conflict, and the economic diplomacy that were a feature of the peace process. The GFA was the result of the creation of a ,ripe moment‘ in the conflict, a theory formulated by William Zartman, together with the coming together of political actors within and outside Northern Ireland who were determined to exploit these new circumstances. In addition to explaining why the GFA was achieved, the article analyses its significance for the political future of Northern Ireland. It points out that the GFA represents a paradigm-shift in the political conflict that reflects the underlying dynamics within society. The GFA is therefore to be understood as a consequence of the two main communities, unionists and nationalists, reassessing their political objectives and coming to a more begining view of the ,other‘ community. The paper concludes by making an assessment of the current state of the GFA and the medium term prospects for its survival and for political progress in Northern Ireland as being dependent on the will of the paramilitaries to give up illegal arms.

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Northern Ireland, ripe moment, good Friday agreement, GFA

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Stability of party system is one of the key factors of successful transformation in post-Commu¬nist countries. The legal and institutional framework of party system, providing the competitive and pluralist character of the political life, is extremely important for further democratic devel¬opment. In Slovakia, the issue of legal regulation of party system became politically relevant during the Vladimír Meciar‘s government. In May 1998, few months before elections the authoritarian ruling coalition of the Movement for a Democratic Slovakia, Association of Workers of Slovakia and the Slovak National Party approved an amendment to the election law. The amendment dramatically changed electoral rules for coalitions. In order to diminish the destructive effect of the anti-coalition amendment two pre-electoral opposition coalitions - Slovak Demo¬cratic Coalition and Hungarian Coalition - had to change their organizational status and two new parties appeared. After elections 1998, the proposal to change the legal regulation of party system by amending the law on political parties was suggested by some politicians. In fact it was the indirect consequence of the previous nonconsensual change of electoral rules. The question of the financing of political parties became in Slovakia the topic of public debate in 1999 due to evidently obsolete legal provisions that cannot provide the proper conditions for transparency in political life. New regulation of the party financing, properly combining different sources (public and private) would contribute to the maintenance of ing the free and fair political competition and to the improvement of the professional level of party apparatus.

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Slovakia, party system, legal regulation, Vladimír Mečiar

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In the present discussion-article author argues with the conception presented in Pavel Barša's study which considers the disintegration of former Yugoslavia and compares the processes of disintegration of three communist federations (Yugoslavia, Czechoslovakia and Soviet Union). Author focuses on the inspirative moments of Barša's article but tries at the same time to point out the problematic conclusions. The main objection against Barša's point of view is that most of the postyugoslavian nations are existing as the nations since the 19th century and they are not only some kind of creations of political elites at the end of 1980s. Their historical and temporal existence is simply the matter of fact.

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Disintegration of Yugoslavia, theory of nationalism, Pavel Barša

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B. Luverà (1999): I confmi delľodio, Roma: Editori Riuniti, 190 pages.

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M. Komac (1999): Protection of Ethnic Communities in the Republic of Slovenia, Ljubljana: Inštitut za narodnostna vprašanja - Institute for Ethnic Studies, 83 pages.

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J. Čechurová (1999): Česká politická pravice. Mezi převratem a krizí, Praha: Nakladatelství Lidové noviny, 124 pages.

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Z. Bauman (1999): Globalizace - důsledky pro člověka, Praha: Mladá fronta, 157 pages.

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P. Pečínka (1999): Pod rudou vlajkou proti KSČ - osudy radikální levice v Československu, Brno: Doplněk, 134 pages.

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