Suchergebnisse

Less than two weeks before the elections, the Secretary-General welcomes the progress achieved in the electoral process in Cambodia. He notes with satisfaction the freedom of movement and access accorded to international observers, as well as the guarantee of the security of all observers, both foreign and domestic, given by the Royal Government of Cambodia. At the same time, he remains concerned by discrepancies in access enjoyed by opposition parties to the media and by persistent reports of intimidation and impunity.

International Relations literature often refers to states' motivations as revisionist or status-quo oriented. Such attributions are especially prevalent in discourse on the power-transition theory, suggesting that the danger of war rises when a revisionist China catches up to a status-quo US. Such attributions, however, are rarely supported by systematic evidence providing a direct comparison of Chinese and US conduct. We undertake an analysis of how these countries have behaved differently over time according to their policy pronouncements, their participation in international institutions and agreements, and their voting in the United Nations. Our analysis challenges the conventional wisdom that a rising power tends to be revisionist whereas an incumbent hegemon is invariably committed to the defense of the international order.

More than three decades ago Bulgaria embarked on the path of democratic transformation. During this period, the internal political life of the country went through several stages of development. In the 1990s, it was characterized by the competition of two opposing political camps. The 2000s were marked by the rise of populist parties, the emergence of which twice (in 2001 and 2009) led to a sharp change in the balance of power among parliamentary factions. Much of the 2010s passed under the sign of dominance in the political arena of one hegemonic party (GERB), which was almost continuously in power with the help of «floating majority» tactics. In the 2020s the beginning of a new stage is observed, accompanied by internal political instability and a series of parliamentary elections. This article analyzes the general patterns of development of political processes in Bulgaria, which were observed throughout all of the above stages.

AbstractA large body of literature in political science documents differences between elected men and women in their substantive policy preferences, representation styles, and effectiveness as legislators. We know far less about whether female and male representatives respond differently to being held politically accountable for their decisions. Although it is a difficult concept to evaluate empirically with incumbents, this absence of research is nevertheless surprising considering the central role of accountability in legislative behavior and the nonelite evidence that women and men respond differently to attributions of accountability. I provide evidence for the existence of such an accountability gender gap in an experiment with 377 incumbent legislators in three countries, in which they were asked to choose between economic policy plans alternately presented as the status quo, with varying levels of implied task accountability. Elected women and men reacted significantly differently when the political accountability levels of the task increased: female politicians exhibited a stronger preference for policies presented as the status quo, whereas male politicians were more likely to abandon the status quo and favor change. This pattern is unique to politicians and is not observed in nonelites. I discuss processes that motivate this divergence and the implications for research on gender and political representation.