North Caucasus: the Russian Gordian knot. The key problems and conflicts in the region and the effect thereof on the future of Russia; Putin after re-election: The Kremlin's policy in Vladimir Putin's second term. OSW Study 16/2004

North Caucasus: North Caucasus is the most instable part of the Russian Federation: since the early 90's, there has been going on the military conflict in Chechnya, which is gradually spilling over into the other republics of the region, terrorism seems to have occupied its regular position in the political life of Caucasus, organized crime is flourishing, the tension persists there and military incidents and attacks are breaking out every now and again. During the recent year, the destabilization of the region, which affects many fields of Russian political and social life, has grown to an alarming size. Putin after re-election: Vladimir Putin's first term as President was a period of submitting political, regional and economic lobbies to the Kremlin. The actions Putin has taken since being re-elected are aimed at consolidating the Kremlin's control over the political, economic and social spheres. Further liquidation of political and informational pluralism, an increase of the ruling group's control over state and private property, and an intensification of state propaganda aimed at generating social support for the Kremlin's initiatives have all proceeded apace. These processes reinforce authoritarian tendencies and strengthen the emerging monocentric political system, with the President's strong domination over political, economic and social life.

Public feeling in Ukraine ahead of the parliamentary election. OSW Commentary No. 89, 2012-07-12

After two and a half years under President Viktor Yanukovych and the Party of Regions, the overwhelming majority of Ukrainians are dissatisfied with the state the country’s economy is currently in and the direction it has been developing in. There has also been a significant drop in stability and social security with the general public increasingly feeling that the government has little interest in their problems. Only 16% of Ukrainians believe that the current government has performed better than their predecessors, although overall confidence in both the ruling party and the opposition remains low. Nonetheless, falling support for the president and the Cabinet does not seem to have translated into greater popularity for the country’s opposition parties; these currently enjoy the confidence of only a quarter of the electorate. The clear lack of credibility for politicians on either side of the political spectrum, coupled with an almost universal preoccupation with the bare necessities of life, has shifted the political processes in Ukraine further down the agenda for the majority of Ukrainians. Ukraine’s poor economic performance, which over the last two years has been addressed through a series of highly unpopular economic reforms, has resulted in a growing mood of discontent and increased civil activity, with the Ukrainian people reporting a greater willingness than ever to join protests on social issues. Most of them, however, have shown much less interest in political rallies. This is likely to stem from low levels of trust in the opposition and the general belief that opposition politicians are not a viable alternative to the current government. One may therefore assume that there will be little public scrutiny of the parliamentary election scheduled for 28 October, and that the likelihood of mass demonstrations during it is low. However, in the event of large-scale vote rigging and a dismissive response from the government, spontaneous unsanctioned rallies cannot be ruled out. What is more likely, however, is a series of protests after the elections, when the already difficult economic situation is further exacerbated by a predicted rise in the price of gas for Ukrainian households and a possible move to devalue the Ukrainian hryvnia.

Can Spain break the curse of the periphery? The upcoming Spanish election and what it means for Europe. CEPS Essay No. 24, May 2016

In this CEPS Essay, Miroslav Beblavý takes stock of the changing situation in Spanish politics one month before the early elections, which are expected to take place on June 26th in the hope that a new government can finally be formed. He finds that in both in politics and in economics, Spain resides at an immensely important inflection point situated between the European periphery and its core.

Involvement and detachment in David Cameron and Ed Miliband’s political discourse. An analysis of deictic shields on the pronoun ‘I’ in UK 2015 General Election news interviews

The goal of my study is to investigate the relationship between selected deictic shields on the pronoun ‘I’ and the involvement/detachment dichotomy in a sample of television news interviews. I focus on the use of personal pronouns in political discourse. Drawing upon Caffi’s (2007) classification of mitigating devices into bushes, hedges and shields, I focus on deictic shields on the pronoun ‘I’: I examine the way a selection of ‘I’-related deictic shields is employed in a collection of news interviews broadcast during the electoral campaign prior to the UK 2015 General Election. My purpose is to uncover the frequencies of each of the linguistic items selected and the pragmatic functions of those linguistic items in the involvement/detachment dichotomy. The research is structured as follows. Chapter 1 provides an account of previous studies on the three main areas of research: speech event analysis, institutional interaction and the news interview, and the UK 2015 General Election television programmes. Chapter 2 is centred on the involvement/detachment dichotomy: I provide an overview of nonlinguistic and linguistic features of involvement and detachment at all levels of sentence structure. Chapter 3 contains a detailed account of the data collection and data analysis process. Chapter 4 provides an accurate description of results in three steps: quantitative analysis, qualitative analysis and discussion of the pragmatic functions of the selected linguistic features of involvement and detachment. Chapter 5 includes a brief summary of the investigation, reviews the main findings, and indicates limitations of the study and possible inputs for further research. The results of the analysis confirm that, while some of the linguistic items examined point toward involvement, others have a detaching effect. I therefore conclude that deictic shields on the pronoun ‘I’ permit the realisation of the involvement/detachment dichotomy in the speech genre of the news interview.

The law relating to corrupt and illegal practices at Parliamentary, municipal and other elections, and the practice on election petitions, with an appendix of statutes, rules and forms.

Mode of access: Internet.

Plan of a direct election law for determining true primary and final elections [...].

Mode of access: Internet.

Problems of state life. A sermon delivered before His Excellency John D. Long, His Honor Byron Weston, the honorable Council, and the legislature of Massachusetts, at the annual election, King's chapel, Boston, Wednesday, January 3, 1883.

Printed by order of the Massachusetts General Court.

Strategies for expanding the Special Supplemental Food Program for Women, Infants, and Children (WIC) participation [microform] : a survey of WIC directors : report of the Select Committee on Hunger, U.S. House of Representatives.

"October 1988."

A dictionary of the law of elections, with the practice from the issuing of the writ to the final decision of the honourable House : comprising all the cases decided, with correct references to the statutes and authorities : extracted from the journals of the House of Commons, the law reports, and the numerous treatises on election laws : with an appendix containing the names of all the boroughs, - when they first returned members - their returning officers - the various rights of voting therein, &c. : the whole alphabetically arranged & carefully digested /

Mode of access: Internet.

The Parliamentary election manual: a practical handbook on the law and conduct of parliamentary elections in Great Britain and Ireland ...

Mode of access: Internet.

Observations on the reports laid before the Right Hon. and Hon. the Directors General of Inland Navigation in Ireland, for the improvement of Dublin Harbor... : Assisted by ten engravings with the general outlines of a plan for the improvement of the harbour of Dublin, and that at Irelands̕ eye.

Mode of access: Internet.

"Ohio and Pennsylvania Rail-Road," (to connect Pittsburg with the great west.) : report to the president and directors of the Ohio and Pennsylvania Rail-Road Company /

Mode of access: Internet.