Mobilizing Maryland: a look into the voting tendencies of students at the University of Maryland

Gemstone Team VOTE-CP (Voice of the Electorate - Collegiate Participation)

Prioritization of knowledge needs for sustainable aquaculture: a national and global perspective

Aquaculture is currently the fastest expanding global animal food production sector and is a key future contributor to food security. An increase in food security will be dependent upon the development and improvement of sustainable practices. A prioritization exercise was undertaken, focusing on the future knowledge needs to underpin UK sustainable aquaculture (both domestic and imported products) using a ‘task force’ group of 36 ‘practitioners’ and 12 ‘research scientists’ who have an active interest in sustainable aquaculture. A long list of 264 knowledge needs related to sustainable aquaculture was developed in conjunction with the task force. The long list was further refined through a three stage process of voting and scoring, including discussions of each knowledge need. The top 25 knowledge needs are presented, as scored separately by ‘practitioners’ or ‘research scientists’. There was similar agreement in priorities identified by these two groups. The priority knowledge needs will provide guidance to structure ongoing work to make science accessible to practitioners and help to prioritize future science policy needs and funding. The process of knowledge exchange, and the mechanisms by which this can be achieved, effectively emerged as the top priority for sustainable aquaculture. Viable alternatives to wild fish-based aquaculture feeds, resource constraints that will potentially limit expansion of aquaculture, sustainable offshore aquaculture and the treatment of sea lice also emerged as strong priorities. Although the exercise was focused on UK needs for sustainable aquaculture, many of the emergent issues are considered to have global application.

'The Aftermath of the Annan Plan Referendums' Cross-Voting Moderation for Cyprus

This article examines recent developments in the Cyprus negotiations and suggests a number of changes to the proposed electoral system. Specifically, cross-voting and other electoral methods that encourage coalition-building across ethnic communities might add significantly to the functionality of the Annan Plan. Combined with other innovative mechanisms already in the plan, cross-voting could force political parties to seriously take into account the interests and concerns of the two Cypriot communities, an element that is currently missing from both the Turkish Cypriot (TC) and Greek Cypriot (GC) political systems. Special conditions on the island, as well as the way most political parties operated in the critical pre-April 2004 referendum period, suggest the need for this amendment. Although this study respects the consociational logic of the Annan Plan, it supplements consociationalism with elements that foster integration and inter-dependence between the two communities and their voters. The article also reviews the postreferendum developments in Cyprus which might have worrisome future implications, not only for its two communities, but also for EU enlargement in general. Cyprus both holds one of the keys to Turkey's entrance into the EU and is a litmus test for the Euro-Atlantic nexus and its capacity to pacify and integrate ethnically divided societies in Europe and elsewhere.

Holding parties responsible at election time: Multi-level, multi-party government and electoral accountability

This paper highlights the crucial role played by party-specific responsibility attributions in performance-based voting. Three models of electoral accountability, which make distinct assumptions regarding citizens' ability to attribute responsibility to distinct governing parties, are tested in the challenging Northern Ireland context - an exemplar case of multi-level multi-party government in which expectations of performance based voting are low. The paper demonstrates the operation of party-attribution based electoral accountability, using data from the 2011 Northern Ireland Assembly Election Study. However, the findings are asymmetric: accountability operates in the Protestant/unionist bloc but not in the Catholic/nationalist bloc. This asymmetry may be explained by the absence of clear ethno-national ideological distinctions between the unionist parties (hence providing political space for performance based accountability to operate) but the continued relevance in the nationalist bloc of ethno-national difference (which limits the scope for performance politics). The implications of the findings for our understanding of the role of party-specific responsibility attribution in performance based models of voting, and for our evaluation of the quality of democracy in post-conflict consociational polities, are discussed. 

Res Publica: Citizenship and Political Representation in Portugal, 1820-1926

The term res publica (literally “thing of the people”) was coined by the Romans to translate the Greek word politeia, which, as we know, referred to a political community organised in accordance with certain principles, amongst which the notion of the “good life” (as against exclusively private interests) was paramount. This ideal also came to be known as political virtue. To achieve it, it was necessary to combine the best of each “constitutional” type and avoid their worst aspects (tyranny, oligarchy and ochlocracy). Hence, the term acquired from the Greeks a sense of being a “mixed” and “balanced” system. Anyone that was entitled to citizenship could participate in the governance of the “public thing”. This implied the institutionalization of open debate and confrontation between interested parties as a way of achieving the consensus necessary to ensure that man the political animal, who fought with words and reason, prevailed over his “natural” counterpart. These premises lie at the heart of the project which is now being presented under the title of Res Publica: Citizenship and Political Representation in Portugal, 1820-1926. The fact that it is integrated into the centenary commemorations of the establishment of the Republic in Portugal is significant, as it was the idea of revolution – with its promise of rupture and change – that inspired it. However, it has also sought to explore events that could be considered the precursor of democratization in the history of Portugal, namely the vintista, setembrista and patuleia revolutions. It is true that the republican regime was opposed to the monarchic. However, although the thesis that monarchy would inevitably lead to tyranny had held sway for centuries, it had also been long believed that the monarchic system could be as “politically virtuous” as a republic (in the strict sense of the word) provided that power was not concentrated in the hands of a single individual. Moreover, various historical experiments had shown that republics could also degenerate into Caesarism and different kinds of despotism. Thus, when absolutism began to be overturned in continental Europe in the name of the natural rights of man and the new social pact theories, initiating the difficult process of (written) constitutionalization, the monarchic principle began to be qualified as a “monarchy hedged by republican institutions”, a situation in which not even the king was exempt from isonomy. This context justifies the time frame chosen here, as it captures the various changes and continuities that run through it. Having rejected the imperative mandate and the reinstatement of the model of corporative representation (which did not mean that, in new contexts, this might not be revived, or that the second chamber established by the Constitutional Charter of 1826 might not be given another lease of life), a new power base was convened: national sovereignty, a precept that would be shared by the monarchic constitutions of 1822 and 1838, and by the republican one of 1911. This followed the French example (manifested in the monarchic constitution of 1791 and in the Spanish constitution of 1812), as not even republicans entertained a tradition of republicanism based upon popular sovereignty. This enables us to better understand the rejection of direct democracy and universal suffrage, and also the long incapacitation (concerning voting and standing for office) of the vast body of “passive” citizens, justified by “enlightened”, property- and gender-based criteria. Although the republicans had promised in the propaganda phase to alter this situation, they ultimately failed to do so. Indeed, throughout the whole period under analysis, the realisation of the potential of national sovereignty was mediated above all by the individual citizen through his choice of representatives. However, this representation was indirect and took place at national level, in the hope that action would be motivated not by particular local interests but by the common good, as dictated by reason. This was considered the only way for the law to be virtuous, a requirement that was also manifested in the separation and balance of powers. As sovereignty was postulated as single and indivisible, so would be the nation that gave it soul and the State that embodied it. Although these characteristics were common to foreign paradigms of reference, in Portugal, the constitutionalization process also sought to nationalise the idea of Empire. Indeed, this had been the overriding purpose of the 1822 Constitution, and it persisted, even after the loss of Brazil, until decolonization. Then, the dream of a single nation stretching from the Minho to Timor finally came to an end.

Presidents, assemblies, and accountability

Much research has explored the relationship between economics and elections, and scholars have begun to explore how institutions mediate that link. However, the relationship between presidential institutions and electoral accountability remains largely unexplored in comparative politics. Because voters in presidential systems can cast votes for executive and legislative elections separately, we have good reasons to suspect that the institutions of presidentialism might generate different forms or degrees of accountability than parliamentarism. Powell and Whitten (1993) suggest that the partisan or institutional “clarity of responsibility” might mediate the relationship between economics and elections: when responsibility for outcomes is clear, the relationship should be strong, and vice-versa. I develop this notion for use in presidential systems, and explore executive and legislative elections in 24 countries. The results indicate that economics always influences the incumbent vote in executive elections, regardless of the partisan or institutional clarity of responsibility. Economics also affects vote swings in legislative elections, but the institutional clarity of responsibility does mediate this relationship: legislative accountability for national economic outcomes is lowest when clarity of responsibility is highest, a situation that arises when the president is relatively more powerful and the bases for electing legislators and the president differ. By providing an empirical basis for a discussion of accountability under presidentialism, these findings contribute to important debates in comparative politics.

Deputados estaduais e democracia: Valores políticos das elites parlamentares paulista e paranaense

After 20 years of reestablished democracy in Brazil, what do the state legislators think about the regime? The goal of the article is to show the views of state legislators of the Legislative Assemblies of the States of São Paulo and Paraná on democracy. For the views we use a structured and self-administered questionnaire. The results show that for the state legislators: i) democracy is stable, ii) it is superior to any other kind of regime, iii) it's support comes from some public policy and the use of voting and iv) parties and elections are important for democracy.

Wahlbeteiligung bei Europawahlen : eine empirische Studie zu Deutschland und Polen

In der Arbeit wird die Wahlbeteiligung bei Europawahlen analysiert. Es geht um die Beantwortung der Frage, ob die individuelle Wahlteilnahme in alten und neuen EU-Mitgliedsstaaten bzw. alten und jungen Demokratien auf die gleichen Erklärungsgrößen zurückgeht oder ob möglicherweise Unterschiede zwischen beiden Ländergruppen bestehen. rnAls Bezugspunkt dient die Europawahl, die im Juni 2009 stattfand: Bei dieser Wahl fällt nicht nur die generell niedrige Beteiligung auf, sondern auch erhebliche Niveauunterschiede zwischen den einzelnen Mitgliedsstaaten. Um diesen Befund erklären zu können, wird zunächst ein theoretisches Erklärungsmodell entwickelt, das sich auf die folgenden fünf Dimensionen bezieht: politisches System der EU, europäische politische Gemeinschaft, Wählermobilisierung während des Europawahlkampfes, Gewohnheitswahl und Einschätzung der staatlichen sowie der eigenen wirtschaftlichen Lage. Als Erklärungsgröße werden in den fünf Bereichen jeweils unterschiedlich stark ausgeprägte Defizite in den beiden Ländergruppen angenommen. rnExemplarisch werden Deutschland und Polen untersucht. Die empirischen Analysen basieren auf dem umfangreichen Datensatz der European Election Study 2009 (ESS), hier werden die Daten der Voter Study verwendet. Nicht alle Hypothesen lassen sich im Rahmen der Arbeit bestätigten, nur ein Teil der unabhängigen Variablen hat auch im multivariaten Modell noch einen Einfluss auf die Europawahlbeteiligung. rnFür Deutschland zeigen die Ergebnisse, dass Wahlnorm und Wählermobilisierung einen größeren Effekt auf die Stimmabgabe ausüben als die Nutzenseite (Effektivität) der Wahlen. Im zweiten Modell, das für die polnischen Befragten berechnet wurde, erweisen sich nur zwei der unabhängigen Variablen als signifikant, d.h. nur die Einschätzung der Effektivität der Wahl und die internalisierte Wahlnorm haben einen Einfluss auf die Wahlteilnahme. Von der Effektivitätseinstufung geht eine größere Erklärungskraft aus als von der Wahlnorm; in diesem Modell überwiegt folglich die Nutzenseite der Europawahl. Es kann gezeigt werden, dass die unterschiedlichen Beteiligungsraten in den beiden Staaten durch unterschiedlich stark ausgeprägte Defizite in den Bereichen des politischen Systems und der Wahlnorm zustande kommen. Die Defizite sind in Polen stärker ausgeprägt und können so die niedrigere Wahlbeteiligung erklären. Darüber hinaus kann resümiert werden, dass die Nutzenseite der Europawahl in Polen einen stärkeren Einfluss auf die Beteiligung ausübt als in Deutschland.

Overthrowing Secrecy: The Spitzenkandidaten experiment and a new chance for a European party system. CEPS Commentary, 4 August 2014

The Spitzenkandidaten experiment has been at the centre of a heated debate for several months now, prompting much speculation as to the changes it will bring to the balance of power between the EU institutions. But the real coup d’état has been directed against the old process of appointing the European Commission President behind closed doors. Although the new procedure entails “a number of political, institutional and ‘thus’ constitutional ambiguities”, according to the authors of this commentary, it has rendered that process more transparent, if not more democratic – and will almost certainly endure to the next European elections in 2019 and beyond. As a result, they conclude that the new procedure is likely to trigger important changes in Europe’s political parties and elections.

Mixed-Member Electoral Systems in Constitutional Context : Taiwan, Japan, and Beyond /

After the electoral reform in 1994, Japan saw a gradual evolution from a multi-party system toward a two-party system over the course of five House of Representatives election cycles. In contrast, after Taiwan’s constitutional amendment in 2005, a two-party system emerged in the first post-reform legislative election in 2008. Critically, however, Taiwan’s president is directly elected while Japan’s prime minister is indirectly elected. The contributors conclude that the higher the payoffs of holding the executive office and the greater degree of cross-district coordination required to win it, the stronger the incentives for elites to form and stay in the major parties. In such a context, a country will move rapidly toward a two-party system. In Part II, the contributors apply this theoretical logic to other countries with mixed-member systems to demonstrate its generality. They find the effect of executive competition on legislative electoral rules in countries as disparate as Thailand, the Philippines, New Zealand, Bolivia, and Russia. The findings presented in this book have important implications for political reform. Often, reformers are motivated by high hopes of solving some political problems and enhancing the quality of democracy. But, as this group of scholars demonstrates, electoral reform alone is not a panacea. Whether and to what extent it achieves the advocated goals depends not only on the specification of new electoral rules per se but also on the political context—and especially the constitutional framework—within which such rules are embedded.

Optical scan manual of instructions for Illinois election judges.

" ... may be duplicated or sections may be rewritten to conform to local specifications. Any modified manual must be consistent with the Illinois Election Code and submitted to the State Board of Elections for approval prior to distribution."

Optical scan manual of instructions for Illinois election judges.

"...may be duplicated or sections may be rewritten to conform to local specifications. Any modified manual must be consistent with the Illinois Election Code and submitted to the State Board of Elections for approval prior to distribution."

Optical scan manual of instructions for Illinois election judges.

The instructions in this manual describe the statutory responsibilities of election judges and their duties on Election Day. ... Included in this manual are step-by-step instructions which describe in detail the procedures to be followed before the polls open, during voting hours, and after the polls close. This manual also includes information on voter coding, who can vote, pollwatchers rights and limitations, challenging a person's right to vote, voter assistance and instruction, processing absentee ballots, and remaking damaged and overvoted ballot cards. In addition, this manual reflects the many changes brought about by the Help America Vote Act of 2002 and Senate Bill 428, PA 0574.

Optical scan manual of instructions for Illinois election judges.

Election judges serve a vital role in protecting the rights of voters. They are responsible for ensuring that the electoral process is administered fairly and in accordance with federal and state election laws. This manual of instructions has been prepared by the State Board of Elections to assist the election judges with the administration of their duties in accordance with Illinois statutes. The instructions in this manual describe the statutory responsibilities of election judges and their duties on Election Day. ... Included in this manual are step-by-step instructions which describe in detail the procedures to be followed before the polls open, during voting hours, and after the polls close....In addition, this manual reflects the many changes brought about by the Help America Vote Act of 2002 and Senate Bill 428, PA 0574. These changes include provisional voting, eligbility requirements for serving as a pollwatcher, campaign free zones and other processes encountered on Election Day.