{"title":"Defense against small parties: electoral reforms and their impact on Tunisia's electoral system since the Arab Spring.","authors":"Hager Ali","doi":"10.1007/s12286-023-00561-z","DOIUrl":"10.1007/s12286-023-00561-z","url":null,"abstract":"<p><p>Tunisia's political system suffers from recurrent problems with governability and proportionality. A volatile party landscape, frequent cabinet reshuffles, and political gridlocks repeatedly jeopardized stability and democratic progress since the Arab Spring. Major and minor electoral reforms were undertaken in 2014, 2017, 2019, and 2022, but they were unable to diffuse either of these issues. This analysis is therefore driven by two central questions: How have Tunisia's electoral laws changed since the Arab Spring? And why have these reforms failed to improve both governability and proportionality? It will be argued that because Tunisia's party landscape is fractured and volatile only on the secularist side of the spectrum, coalitions with and against Ennahda are costly to all parties involved, worsening the overall quality of political representation. By analyzing the trajectory of major and minor electoral reforms longitudinally, this paper finds that Tunisia's electoral reforms incrementally restricted the electoral system by limiting parties' and candidates' capacity to compete in elections. Through modifying legislation on campaign finance and subsidies, gender parity, and candidacy requirements, and finally abolishing Tunisia's closed list PR-system in 2022, reforms benefit established older parties and wealthier candidates while fortifying the electoral system against newer and less wealthy contenders. Tunisia's electoral reforms are inadequate in addressing governability and proportionality because restricting electoral competition alone cannot improve the quality of representation through political parties.</p>","PeriodicalId":44200,"journal":{"name":"Zeitschrift fur Vergleichende Politikwissenschaft","volume":"16 1","pages":"483-503"},"PeriodicalIF":1.4,"publicationDate":"2022-01-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC9993365/pdf/","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"43412451","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"OA","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
S. Fink, Christiane Hubo, Annette Elisabeth Töller
{"title":"Parteiendifferenz in der Umweltpolitik: Einleitung zum Themenheft","authors":"S. Fink, Christiane Hubo, Annette Elisabeth Töller","doi":"10.1007/s12286-021-00509-1","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1007/s12286-021-00509-1","url":null,"abstract":"","PeriodicalId":44200,"journal":{"name":"Zeitschrift fur Vergleichende Politikwissenschaft","volume":"15 1","pages":"437 - 446"},"PeriodicalIF":1.5,"publicationDate":"2022-01-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"42750100","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Populist radical right parties and discursive opportunities during Covid-19. Blame attribution in times of crisis.","authors":"Jakob Schwörer, Belén Fernández-García","doi":"10.1007/s12286-022-00540-w","DOIUrl":"10.1007/s12286-022-00540-w","url":null,"abstract":"<p><p>This study examines how populist radical right parties (PRRP) adapt to the discursive opportunities delivered by the Covid-19 pandemic. Conducting manual content analyses of discourses on Twitter in six Western European countries between February and October 2020 we show that PRRP frame the pandemic as a domestic political crisis attacking primarily national political elites. While PRRP occasionally link their initial support for measures against the pandemic to blame attribution towards immigrants accusing them of spreading the virus, nativist messages almost disappear when PRRP became less supportive of restrictions. Instead, in countries less affected by the pandemic (Austria, Germany) as well as in Spain, PRRP compensate the lack of nativist messages by using anti-elitist demonizing discourses against the national government accusing it of abolishing democracy and undermining freedom. The study shows how PRRP electorally \"survive\" periods with scarce nativist discursive opportunities by emphasizing on anti-elitist discourses.</p><p><strong>Supplementary information: </strong>The online version of this article (10.1007/s12286-022-00540-w) contains supplementary material, which is available to authorized users.</p>","PeriodicalId":44200,"journal":{"name":"Zeitschrift fur Vergleichende Politikwissenschaft","volume":"16 1","pages":"545-570"},"PeriodicalIF":1.4,"publicationDate":"2022-01-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC9684866/pdf/","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"47549413","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"OA","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Irene Weipert-Fenner (2020): The Autocratic Parliament. Power and Legitimacy in Egypt, 1866–2011.","authors":"Sarah Wessel","doi":"10.1007/s12286-021-00512-6","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1007/s12286-021-00512-6","url":null,"abstract":"","PeriodicalId":44200,"journal":{"name":"Zeitschrift fur Vergleichende Politikwissenschaft","volume":"15 1","pages":"675 - 679"},"PeriodicalIF":1.5,"publicationDate":"2022-01-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"48779015","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Söders Ökofeuerwerk und die Grünfärbung der CSU: Diskursnetzwerke im bayrischen Themenwettbewerb","authors":"Gina-Julia Westenberger, V. Schneider","doi":"10.1007/s12286-021-00513-5","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1007/s12286-021-00513-5","url":null,"abstract":"","PeriodicalId":44200,"journal":{"name":"Zeitschrift fur Vergleichende Politikwissenschaft","volume":"15 1","pages":"641 - 665"},"PeriodicalIF":1.5,"publicationDate":"2022-01-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"52781812","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Kneuer, Marianne, und Thomas Demmelhuber, Hrsg. 2021. Authoritarian gravity centers: a cross-regional study of authoritarian promotion and diffusion. Conceptualising comparative politics Volume 11. New York: Routledge, Taylor & Francis Group.","authors":"T. Richter","doi":"10.1007/s12286-021-00511-7","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1007/s12286-021-00511-7","url":null,"abstract":"","PeriodicalId":44200,"journal":{"name":"Zeitschrift fur Vergleichende Politikwissenschaft","volume":"15 1","pages":"671-674"},"PeriodicalIF":1.5,"publicationDate":"2022-01-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"41663316","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Politik auf der Straße? Zum Forschungsstand zu sozialen Bewegungen, Protest und Zivilgesellschaft.","authors":"Manès Weisskircher","doi":"10.1007/s12286-022-00542-8","DOIUrl":"10.1007/s12286-022-00542-8","url":null,"abstract":"","PeriodicalId":44200,"journal":{"name":"Zeitschrift fur Vergleichende Politikwissenschaft","volume":"16 1","pages":"581-598"},"PeriodicalIF":1.4,"publicationDate":"2022-01-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC9709743/pdf/","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"48287027","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"OA","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}