...crisis of democracy. This briefing examines whether this perception is justified or not. Our findings - which are based on a four year research project funded by the ESRC - address four key issues: the legitimacy of governments, patterns of participation in politics, the impact of constitutional reform, and the explanation for any crisis. Legitimacy There has been a decline in levels of trust in government and confidence in the political system. Thirty years ago, four in ten people in Britain trusted government to put the needs of the nation above those of their political party; today, just one in five do so. But much of this decline set in during the early 1990s, although trust and confidence have fallen further since 1997. Participation Turnout at all elections has declined since 1997, most noticeably at the 2001 general election, when the participation rate was the lowest since 1918. At the same time, levels of non-electoral participation have increased somewhat. Meanwhile, it is not the case that people engage outside the ballot box as an alternative to voting; rather, most people use non-electoral activities as a complement to participating at elections. One reason why non-electoral participation has not declined is because people generally feel as engaged with the...
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...Commons b) With reference to the source, and your own knowledge, explain how the House of Commons can control the power of government c) To what extent is the House of Commons effective in carrying out its various functions? May 2011 a) With reference to the source, describe three proposals that seek to strengthen parliamentary representation by increasing popular participation b) With reference to the source, and your own knowledge, explain how three of these proposals seek to make government more accountable to Parliament c) To what extent will the coalition government’s proposals bring about an effective reform of Parliament? Jan 2012 a) With reference to the source, why are legislative committees needed? b) With reference to the source, and your own knowledge, explain the ways in which backbench MPs can call government to account c) To what extent has the formation of a coalition altered the relationship between Parliament and government? Jan 2013 a) With reference to the source, outline two criticisms of David Cameron’s appointments to the House of Lords b) With reference to the source and your own knowledge, explain three considerations that are taken into account when appointing Life Peers c) Assess the arguments in favour of a largely...
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...Labour and Constitutional Reform ✓ Labour’s Reforms ✓ The Changing Constitution ✓ Party Views and Manifestoes ✓ Assessment and Evaluation ✓ Evidence 1. Labour’s Reforms o The constitutional reforms initiated by the Labour Government elected in 1997 together promise to transform the institutional structure of the United Kingdom. ▪ The Scottish Parliament and the Welsh Assembly are the most tangible signs of this transformation but other constitutional reforms are either in being or well under way …… ▪ including the Human Rights Act of 1998 (incorporating the European Convention on Human Rights), ▪ a directly-elected mayor and assembly for London, ▪ a reformed House of Lords ▪ and Freedom of Information legislation. ▪ Although reform of the electoral system for Westminster now seems a somewhat distant prospect, the 1999 elections to the Welsh Assembly, to the Scottish Parliament and to the European Parliament were all conducted using electoral systems very different from the traditional first-past-the-post method. ▪ Referendums have been widely used, and more promised o Lecture by the Lord Chancellor, Lord Irvine of Lairg, to the Constitution Unit, Westminster. 8 December 1998 o No other Government this century has embarked upon so significant or wide-ranging a programme of constitutional reform as the New Labour Government...
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...QUESTION ONE PRIME MINISTERIAL POWER “For too long the big political decisions in this country have been made in the wrong place. They are not made around the Cabinet table where they should be, but they are taken on the sofa in Tony Blair’s office. No notes are kept and no one takes the blame when things go wrong. That arrogant style of government must come to an end. I will restore the proper process of government. I want to be Prime Minister of this country not a President (Source: David Cameron, The Times, 5th October 2006) “The Cabinet is the committee at the centre of the British political system. Every Thursday during Parliament, Secretaries of State from all departments as well as other ministers meet in the Cabinet Room in Downing Street to discuss the big issues of the day. The Prime Minister chairs the meeting, selects its members and also recommends their appointment as ministers to the monarch. The present Cabinet has 23 members (21 MPs and two peers). The secretary of the Cabinet is responsible for preparing records of its discussions and decisions”. (Source: From a modern textbook) (a) What criticism is David Cameron making of Tony Blair’s style of decision making in source 1? [5] (b) Explain the main functions of the cabinet [10] (c) To what extent have UK Prime Ministers become “presidential”? [25] Or 2 QUESTION TWO THE JUDICIARY A powerful coalition of judges, senior lawyers and politicians has warned that the Government is undermining...
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...Indian Financial Sector Reforms: A Corporate Perspective Jayanth R. Varma Reproduced with the permission of Vikalpa, the journal of the Indian Institute of Management, Ahmedabad, in which the paper was first published (January-March 1998, 23(1), 27-38). Ó Vikalpa (http://www.iimahd.ernet.in/vikalpa). All rights reserved Until the early nineties, corporate financial management in India was a relatively drab and placid activity. There were not many important financial decisions to be made for the simple reason that firms were given very little freedom in the choice of key financial policies. The government regulated the price at which firms could issue equity, the rate of interest which they could offer on their bonds, and the debt equity ratio that was permissible in different industries. Moreover, most of the debt and a significant part of the equity was provided by public sector institutions. Working capital management was even more constrained with detailed regulations on how much inventory the firms could carry or how much credit they could give to their customers. Working capital was financed almost entirely by banks at interest rates laid down by the central bank. The idea that the interest rate should be related to the creditworthiness of the borrower was still heretical. Even the quantum of working capital finance was related more to the credit need of the borrower than to creditworthiness on the principle that bank credit should be used only for productive...
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...Edexcel AS Politics Edexcel AS Politics ExamBuster 2009 Introduction to Unit 1- People and Politics Understanding the Examination and Exam Technique Choosing your questions In this unit you are presented with four questions. They are of equal value and each question covers one of the four sections of the specification. These are: Democracy and political participation Party policies and ideas Elections Pressure groups There is no significance to the order in which questions appear. Each question is divided into three sections (a), (b) and (c). When choosing which questions to do, the following principles are recommended: It is almost certain that you will be better off choosing your strongest question to do first. You should choose questions on the basis of how well you can answer the section (c) part. The (c) part carries 25 of the 40 marks available for the whole answer. Do not choose a question simply because you can do part (a) especially well. The (a) question is only worth 5 marks. It would be illogical to choose your strongest (a) part if you cannot do well on section (c). If you cannot decide between several (c) parts, i.e. you can do more than one equally well, make your choice on the basis of part (b) which carries 10 marks. But remember, it is the (c) parts that will determine most what your overall mark will be. So, when you first look at the exam paper, look at the (c) sections first. Assessment Objectives Each question is divided into three sections,...
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...additional works at: http://lawdigitalcommons.bc.edu/iclr Part of the Constitutional Law Commons, and the Foreign Law Commons Recommended Citation Milan Dalal, India's New Constitutionalism: Two Cases That Have Reshaped Indian Law, 31 B.C. Int'l & Comp. L. Rev. 257 (2008), http://lawdigitalcommons.bc.edu/iclr/vol31/iss2/4 This Notes is brought to you for free and open access by the Law Journals at Digital Commons @ Boston College Law School. It has been accepted for inclusion in Boston College International and Comparative Law Review by an authorized administrator of Digital Commons @ Boston College Law School. For more information, please contact nick.szydlowski@bc.edu. INDIA’S NEW CONSTITUTIONALISM: TWO CASES THAT HAVE RESHAPED INDIAN LAW Milan Dalal* Abstract: As a nation of over one billion people and the world’s largest democracy, India is sometimes confronted with situations in which its democratic institutions clash. Under the Indian Constitution, legislation concerning land reform is placed in a special category designed to immunize it from judicial scrutiny. This scheme, known as the Ninth Schedule, has been abused by legislators seeking electoral benefit. Simultaneously, the country has been rocked by a series of public corruption scandals. As Parliament has sought to clean up its image by expelling disgraced members, its actions have been challenged as unconstitutional, leading to a constitutional showdown between the legislative and judicial branches. This Note...
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...dynamic at the level of public and international law that the customary division by which lawyers, and common lawyers especially, assume law to be the text and politics to be the context carries a critical risk. This paper identifies that risk in terms of law, literature, and logic, as well as in terms of history, politics, and dialectics. To focus solely on law as a specialism without any more syncretic and synergic account of the other contributing disciplines, is to make the textual tail of the law wag the contextual dogsbody of the other disciplines, and this perhaps only by false assumption or begging the question. Lawyers obviously, but in literature also with such writers as Edward Gibbon, George Eliot, Harper Lee and John Galsworthy, we too are apt to assume, perhaps by way of excusing ourselves or in self-justification for inaction, that the text of legal command is always for us, no less than ultimately for...
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...Introduction In recent years, to talk about changes and transformation in Turkish foreign policy have become common place1. Since the end of Cold war, many books and articles have been published claiming that Turkey’s external relations have undergone a profound change2. Most commentators when analysing Turkish foreign policy in the 1990s perceived a significant qualitative transformation in comparison with the foreign policy conducted during the Cold War, which is often described as passive and reactive. An assertive and multi-directional foreign policy was developed, and Turkey became much more active in its neighbourhood, establishing ties with the Caucasus and the Turkic Republics, participating in peacekeeping missions in the Balkans, promoting economic relations with Black Sea countries, increasing economic and political ties with the Middle East. However, a darker side of this activism in foreign policy was observed in the 1990s, when Ankara’s ready resort to the threat or the use of military force was particularly visible. Regular military incursions in Northern Iraq to crush PKK forces, threats against Syria, with troops amassed at the border in 1998, hard rhetoric during the Russian S-300 missiles crisis planned to be deployed in Cyprus in the same year are a few examples (Park 2005). In 1995, the Turkish Parliament announced that if Greece expanded its territorial waters from six to twelve miles, Turkey would go to war and war almost happened over ...
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...Winner-takes-all: Win the most votes and you take all the states delegates Advantages: * Increased level of participation from ordinary votes (30% in 2008) * Increased interest from people * Increased choice of candidates (14 in 2008) * Removing power from party bosses Disadvantages: * Turnout is usually low * Voters are usually unrepresentative of normal voters (tend to be wealthier, old and better educated) * Process is far too long and expensive (Obama in 2008 announced his running 332 before the first primary * Fails to test presidential qualities Increased importance of primaries: * Really the only route to become a parties President Caucuses: * A meeting for the selection of a candidate * Usually held in states that are geographically large but thinly populated (Iowa, North Dakota, Nevada) * Turnout is usually pretty low, and usual favour ideological candidates National party conventions: Formal functions: * Choose presidential candidate. (Need majority of delegates) * This function has been lost to primaries * Now just merely confirm the candidate * Choose VP, usually a balanced ticket so VP brings what President can’t (McCain + Palin 2008, Old & young, male & female) Informal functions: * Enthuse the party (they organise the campaign and enthuse voters * Promote...
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...ER E N U OP A E CON OMY E o o cP p r 3 1 Mac 2 0 c n mi a es 1 | rh 0 8 E o o c o en n ena e l gde r ae cn mig vra c i n na e uo ra r Ii B g a eg n E R P A C MMISO U OEN O S IN EMU@10 Research In May 2008, it will be ten years since the final decision to move to the third and final stage of Economic and Monetary Union (EMU), and the decision on which countries would be the first to introduce the euro. To mark this anniversary, the Commission is undertaking a strategic review of EMU. This paper constitutes part of the research that was either conducted or financed by the Commission as source material for the review. Economic Papers are written by the Staff of the Directorate-General for Economic and Financial Affairs, or by experts working in association with them. The Papers are intended to increase awareness of the technical work being done by staff and to seek comments and suggestions for further analysis. The views expressed are the author’s alone and do not necessarily correspond to those of the European Commission. Comments and enquiries should be addressed to: European Commission Directorate-General for Economic and Financial Affairs Publications B-1049 Brussels Belgium E-mail: Ecfin-Info@ec.europa.eu This paper exists in English only and can be downloaded from the website http://ec.europa.eu/economy_finance/publications A great deal of additional information is available on the Internet. It can be accessed through the Europa server (http://europa.eu) ...
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...China The first one is the economy. China's economy has been typically the best-performing economy or among the best-performing economies in the world since 1979 when reforms began, averaging about 7 percent growth. One note of concern, though, is that those conditions that allowed that 7 percent growth are not likely to be prevalent in the years to come, because for over 30 years, China has relied extensively on lower wage rates and export-driven growth. But wage rates have been bid up, as happens; the Chinese are victims of their own success, you could say. And secondly, the rest of the countries in the world are not going through high rates of growth, and they’re not going to be importing the way they had been historically. So, that formula isn’t going to be as successful going forward as it has been. China needs to shift away from an export-driven economy to more of a consumption model. It needs to be mindful about funding its state-owned enterprises, about subsidizing state-owned companies. It needs to lessen its reliance on low-end manufacturing and move up the value chain. By the way, these aren’t my observations; these are observations by Chinese leadership. If you follow any Chinese leader’s speech on China’s economic transformation, these are the points he’ll make. We would call that market rationalism or just normal evolution as a country rises to middle-income status. But there are also some countervailing impulses. There’s a strong streak of economic nationalism;...
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...statement of this business is to bring the best possible level of English language education to South Korea. This analysis will bring about the relevance of different country variables to this new business opportunity. The country variables consist of cultural environment, political and legal environment, economic environment, ethical environment, trade, investment, and foreign policy profile. Cultural Environment The cultural environment is one of the first things to consider when opening up a business in another country. Daniels mentions, “Most cultural variables are universal. Every society, for example, has its own daily routines and rules, codes or social relations, language, and the show of emotions—even concepts of luck” (Daniel, 2011). Therefore, some sort of study of the culture should be done. The Journal of Management & Marketing Research states, “Since the entry mode is crucial for the success of a new business in the overseas market, various studies should be made on the relationship between cultural distance and entry mode in the foreign market” (Cheong, 2011). Hence, we shall take a look at the cultural environment of South Korea. The primary language in Korea is Korean or Hangul. Jae Song from the University of Otago writes, “The correlation between Koreans and the Korean language is almost perfect:...
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...legitimacy to decree and enforce legal uniformity? There are many more agendas at play here than simply the central issue of legal authority, focused on the power of the law, or simply “religion” v. “law”, or “culture” v. “law”, as we are often still led to believe. I present here the recent developments in India’s law relating to the much-debated Uniform Civil Code agenda to illustrate that Indian law today increasingly turns its back on supposedly European or “Western” models, and has been developing its own country-specific and situation-sensitive methods of handling complex sociolegal issues. This may contain some important lessons for European lawyers, specifically in terms of managing cultural diversity through plurality-conscious legal intervention, rather than the traditional insistence on state-centric legal uniformity. The key lesson from this evidence is that personal status laws may well endure and survive the much-desired uniformity of legal reforms all over Asia and Africa, and probably elsewhere, too. The future of the world lies evidently not in simplistic ∗ MA, PhD, Professor of...
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...Journal of Economic Perspectives—Volume 16, Number 3—Summer 2002—Pages 67– 88 Economic Reforms in India Since 1991: Has Gradualism Worked? Montek S. Ahluwalia I ndia was a latecomer to economic reforms, embarking on the process in earnest only in 1991, in the wake of an exceptionally severe balance of payments crisis. The need for a policy shift had become evident much earlier, as many countries in east Asia achieved high growth and poverty reduction through policies that emphasized greater export orientation and encouragement of the private sector. India took some steps in this direction in the 1980s, but it was not until 1991 that the government signaled a systemic shift to a more open economy with greater reliance upon market forces, a larger role for the private sector including foreign investment, and a restructuring of the role of government. India’s economic performance in the postreform period has many positive features. The average growth rate in the ten-year period from 1992–1993 to 2001–2002 was around 6.0 percent, as shown in Table 1, which puts India among the fastest growing developing countries in the 1990s. This growth record is only slightly better than the annual average of 5.7 percent in the 1980s, but it can be argued that the 1980s growth was unsustainable, fuelled by a buildup of external debt that culminated in the crisis of 1991. In sharp contrast, growth in the 1990s was accompanied by remarkable external stability despite the east Asian crisis...
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