Jeremy Bentham,John Stuart Mill and the Secret Ballot: Insights from Nineteenth Century Democratic Theory

As part of a series of demands for political reform in Britain in the late eighteenth and early nineteenth century, Jeremy Bentham famously made a case for use of the secret ballot in elections. The advocacy of Bentham and his disciples on this issue fed into broader and at times robust public debate, particularly in the 1830s. On the opposite side of this debate was another leading political theorist, John Stuart Mill, who opposed secret ballot reform. This paper re‐examines the contours of this debate, making the case that it has important implications for contemporary political theory and debates about democracy. Firstly, and in terms of making sense of the debate itself, it points to the need to make a distinction between the “voter intimidation” argument and the Benthamite preference aggregation argument. Secondly, it suggests that distinguishing between vote‐buying and voter's dependence provides support for defenders of the secret ballot. Thirdly, it demonstrates the potential application of the idea of voting held in “trust” to the so‐called boundary problem in democratic theory. Finally, it points to the potentially wide but overlooked application of the Chartist idea of open voting (allowing the oppressed to identify their allies) in contemporary political theory.     

Treaties and Intergovernmental Relations in Australia: Political Implications of the Toonen Case

This article explores the political implications of the Toonen case for studies of Australian federalism. The case involved a finding by the United Nations Human Rights Committee that Tasmania's anti-gay laws breached Australia's human rights obligations, and the subsequent passing of the Human Rights (Sexual Conduct) Act 1994 (Cth) designed to override sections of Tasmania's criminal law.
The Commonwealth's use of the external affairs power to ratify international treaties is outlined, and some questions regarding Commonwealth and state responsibilities and areas of concern flowing from treaty ratification are examined. The Privacy Act is discussed, and the character of intergovernmental relations and cooperation in this instance analysed.
The case raises the question of whether the Commonwealth's capacity to use and expand its powers is subject to effective checks and balances, or is limiting or eroding the powers of the states to the extent that the division and sharing of powers no longer represents that of a federal system. The article concludes that Australian federalism is dynamic and flexible, and reaffirms that a differentiation between the process and outcome of intergovernmental relations will enhance our understanding of its machinations.     

Im Auftrag des Staates. Die geheime Gesellschaft der Folterer

Torture is an extreme act of collective violence that is secretly executed in the name of a state. In order to explain the reasons why people torture others, individualist approaches concentrate on individuals?? motives or interests. Contrary to that, the article argues that torture should be understood as a social relation. Thus, it takes the social relations of the group of torturers as a starting point. Firstly, following Georg Simmel??s analysis of the secret society the paper argues that the group of torturers can adequately be conceptualized as a secret society; secondly, against this background the article reconstructs the conditions which structure torturers?? agency; finally, this article offers an outline of the processes and dynamics that allows for explaining the phenomenon of torture. The thesis of the article argues that a relational sociology helps better explain and understand the social phenomenon of torture.     

The Growth of Civil Society in Timor-Leste: Three Moments of Activism

During the dramatic upheavals and conflicts that have accompanied political independence in Timor-Leste, Timorese activists have made an important, sometimes overlooked, contribution. This paper highlights the significant roles they played at three major turning points over the past 15 years – the Santa Cruz massacre in 1991, the UN-sponsored independence ballot in 1999 and the political-military crisis in 2006. Each one of these events was a starting point for a new phase in Timorese development history and a new phase in the growth of Timorese civil society. The personal reflections of Timorese activists provide poignant insight into their changing focus of activism as Timor-Leste became independent. Their “active citizenship” provided a mechanism to both contribute to and contest the mainstream nation-building processes which were, in some cases, perceived to be overly influenced by Western standards and often failed to acknowledge or respect Timorese culture and traditions.     

Gender equality and the electoral system in the regional council of Sardinia

This article provides an account of the process followed by the legislative assembly of the autonomous region of Sardinia, the regional council, to change its electoral law. More specifically, this article will focus on equal access to the elective office at the regional council that the electoral law should have guaranteed. The introduction of measures of gender equality is part of the broader process of change in the electoral law of Sardinia. It is also part of the wider review process of Sardinian autonomy that finds its roots in the amendment of title V of the Italian Constitution of 2001. Following these reforms, constitutional law 3/2013 states that ‘In order to achieve the balance between men and women in representation’, the new electoral law should ‘promote a new equal opportunity in the access to the office of regional councillor’ (article 16). The introduction of double preference for male and female candidates would have guaranteed equality, instead of reserving a share of seats to the underrepresented sex. It would have involved a new approach to the problem of underrepresentation of women. At the 20 June 2013 meeting, however, double preference was rejected in a secret ballot. Yet only four years later, on 21 November 2017, the electoral law was changed to guarantee equal access for women.     

When There's No Easy Way Out: Electoral Law Reform and Ballot Position Effects in the 2011 Hamburg State Elections

The new electoral law in the state of Hamburg, which was first used in the 2011 elections for the state parliament, abolished the optional overall list vote in the electoral districts and thus forced voters to cast preference votes for individual candidates. Supporters of the new electoral law assume that voters will inform themselves better about the candidates. This assumption contrasts with the voters' tendency to choose their favourite option based on the little information which is provided on the ballot paper. We show that the new electoral law has missed its target and that voters rely heavily on the ballot paper cues, resulting in the replication of the behaviour pattern they were used to under the optional list vote and earlier under the closed list. Most importantly the ballot position has the largest effect on being elected to the parliament.     

Seyyid Said bin Sultan BuSaid of Oman and Zanzibar: Women in the Life of this Arab Patriarch

Seyyid Said bin Sultan BuSaid, ruler of Oman (1806–1856) and of Oman and Zanzibar (1836–1856) owed his Omani throne to his fraternal aunt. He married her daughter, his cousin, and cast a wide net for nocturnal partners—slaves from mainly the Black Sea and Abyssinia. He married two Persian royals, and courted the Queen of Madagascar. This paper covers the major events in Said's life from the death of his father, Sultan, in 1904 when his aunt stepped in to aid him (and a brother with whom he became co-ruler for a few years), until Said's death at sea in 1856. Suffering losses of territory his predecessors had gained in the Persian Gulf, Said created a domestic empire in Zanzibar.     

Maximising Direct Democracy – by Popular Assemblies or by Ballot Votes?

Abstract: According to a widespread but empirically hitherto untested perception, assembly democracy is the ideal‐typical form for direct democracy. This paper examines whether this perception coincides with empirical evidence by systematically comparing the actual extent of citizens’ direct‐democratic involvement in assembly democracies and in ballot‐box democracies. A longitudinal and cross‐sectional analysis of new data on the Swiss cantons reveals strikingly clear patterns: cantons with popular assemblies provide citizens with more and more easily accessible direct‐democratic rights, and they hold popular votes more frequently. On the other hand, cantons with ballot‐box voting are more successful in involving the citizens in direct‐democratic decision‐making with respect to turnout rates.     

Candidate ballot information and election outcomes: the Czech case

This study measures the importance of candidate characteristics listed on ballots for a candidate's position on a slate, for preferential votes received by a candidate, and, ultimately, for getting elected. We focus on the effects of gender, various types of academic titles, and also several novel properties of candidates' names. Using data on over 200,000 candidates competing in recent Czech municipal board and regional legislature elections, and conditioning on slate fixed effects, we find that ballot cues play a stronger role in small municipalities than in large cities and regions, despite the general agreement on higher candidate salience in small municipalities. We also quantify the electoral advantage of a slate being randomly listed first on a ballot.     

Taking Turns at the Ballot Box: Selective Participation as a New Perspective on Low Turnout

Participation research on voting usually considers only one vote or election, and therefore separates citizens into the categories of participants and absentees. Consequently, low turnout often is discussed to mean that citizens are either not interested in or fed up with the political system. This paper argues that this cross‐sectional perspective severely underestimates political participation particularly in democracies in which citizens regularly are asked to vote using direct democratic ballot measures. Taking into account not just one but 15 ballot decisions simultaneously, this paper demonstrates that a majority of citizens participates only selectively, and therefore voluntarily chooses to abstain. Using official turnout data, which enables the tracking of individuals’ participative behaviour over time in a Swiss commune, this paper demonstrates that selective participation is indeed a relevant empirical phenomenon and presents first conclusions about who participates selectively and when these individuals are mobilized.     

Authoritarian Regimes and Their Permitted Oppositions: Election Day Outcomes in Cuba

Electoral opposition to long‐established authoritarian regimes may be loyal or rejectionist. Loyal oppositionists vote to send a selective signal to rulers; rejectionist oppositionists vote blank or void the ballot in full disapproval. In Cuba, the number of candidates equals the number of seats, yet voters may vote blank, void, or selectively (choosing some but not all candidates on the ballot), although the Communist Party has campaigned for all candidates. This article uses a unique dataset for Cuba's 2013 National Assembly elections to study aggregate opposition outcomes. It shows the emergence of a loyal opposition, which sometimes votes for and sometimes against Communist Party candidates. The rejectionist opposition, stable over time, never votes for Communist Party candidates; it is found where the Communist Party behaves monopolistically. This combined opposition has better national‐level political information; it comes from more educated or larger urban areas or areas closer to Havana.     

Development and Consequences of Referendum Campaigns in Switzerland, 1981-1999

Since the early 1990s, new forms of referendum campaigns have emerged in the Swiss political arena. In this paper, we examine how referendum campaigns have transformed in Switzerland, focusing on a number of features: their intensity, duration and inclusiveness (i.e., the variety of actors involved). These features are assumed to change in the long run in response to societal changes and in the short run as a function of variations in elite support. We further argue that public knowledge of ballot issues depends on the characteristics of campaigns. To formally test our hypotheses, we draw on advertisement campaigns in six major Swiss newspapers in the four weeks preceding each ballot from 1981 to 1999 and develop a structural equation model. We indeed find that the duration of referendum campaigns has increased over time, while their inclusiveness has decreased. Most importantly, we find that pub­lic knowledge is strongly related to the characteristics of campaigns.     

越南《大越史记全书》版本源流述略

《大越史记全书》古代曾于黎朝和阮朝两次刊刻,至今有"正和本"(1697)、"内阁本"(1856)、"国子监本"(1856)、"引田本"(1885)、"校合本"(1984)、"影印本"(1998)6个版本。黎、阮两朝刊刻的《大越史记全书》越南国内现存15部;法国藏有数部,其中巴黎亚洲协会图书馆藏1部,系"内阁本",即"影印本"之底本;日本亦藏有数部。日人引田利章校订句读并首次活字印刷;陈荆和编校的"校合本"目前内容最为完整;"影印本"保留较多原貌。     

The EU and Asia Within an Evolving Global Order: What is Europe? Where is Asia?

The papers in this special edition are a very small selection from those presented at the EU-NESCA (Network of European Studies Centres in Asia) conference on "the EU and East Asia within an Evolving Global Order: Ideas, Actors and Processes" in November 2008 in Brussels. The conference was the culmination of three years of research activity involving workshops and conferences bringing together scholars from both regions primarily to discuss relations between Europe and Asia, perceptions of Europe in Asia, and the relationship between the European regional project and emerging regional forms in Asia. But although this was the last of the three major conferences organised by the consortium, it in many ways represented a starting point rather than the end; an opportunity to reflect on the conclusions of the first phase of collaboration and point towards new and continuing research agendas for the future.     

Delegation,Accountability and Legislator Moonlighting: Agency Problems in Germany

Members of parliament in many countries are legally permitted to execute (un)paid jobs in addition to their political mandate. It is often argued that such ‘moonlighting’ activities are unproblematic for the chain of democratic delegation and accountability as long as outside interests/earnings are disclosed to citizen-principals; the latter may then sanction (perceived) misconduct through the ballot box. Using principal–agent theory as an analytical framework and the German national parliament as a case study, this paper discusses why the accountability mechanisms of moonlighting disclosure and electoral control are often impaired in practice. We also illustrate that these concerns generalise beyond the German setting.     

How Exclusive is Assembly Democracy? Citizens' Assembly and Ballot Participation Compared

This paper analyses the difference between two specific forms of citizens’ involvements, namely whether a vote is cast by ballot or in a citizens’ assembly in which people gather in town halls to decide legislative questions in a deliberative manner. We show both theoretically and empirically how citizens’ assemblies and decisions at the ballot box substantially differ not only in terms of their underlying model of democracy, but also in their structural conditions and, thus, with respect to the social inequality of participation. We test our hypotheses in a Bayesian multilevel framework using real participation data collected from 15 political decisions made in a Swiss commune. Our results show that citizens’ assemblies are not only characterised by lower participation rates, but also by a particular composition of the electorate. While citizens’ assemblies are more equal regarding income groups, ballots favour a more equitable participation in terms of gender and age.     

The Fairness of Media Coverage in Question: An Analysis of Referendum Campaigns on Welfare State Issues in Switzerland

Abstract: The mass media are assigned an important role in political campaigns on popular votes. This article asks how the press communicates political issues to citizens during referendum campaigns, and whether some minimal criteria for successful public deliberation are met. The press coverage of all 24 ballot votes on welfare state issues from 1995 to 2004 in Switzerland is examined, distinguishing seven criteria to judge how news coverage compares to idealized notions of the media’s role in the democratic process: coverage intensity, time for public deliberation, balance in media coverage, source independence and inclusiveness, substantive coverage, and spatial homogeneity. The results of our quantitative analysis suggest that the press does fulfil these normative requirements to a reasonable extent and that fears about biased or deceitful media treatment of ballot issues are not well‐founded. However, some potential for optimizing the coverage of referendum campaigns by the Swiss press does exist.     

The Ottoman empire in the mid‐nineteenth century: a review

Roderick H. Davison, Reform in the Ottoman Empire, 1856–1876, xiv + 479 pp., bibliography, index; Princeton University Press, London: Oxford University Press, £5 5s.     

This land is my land: the Ethio-Sudan boundary and the need to rectify arbitrary colonial boundaries

Ethiopia and Sudan share a common boundary of over 1600 km which was drawn through a series of treaties between Ethiopia and the colonial powers of Britain and Italy. To date, this boundary has not been clearly demarcated. In 2007, the Ethiopian People's Revolutionary Democratic Front, the current ruling government, entered into a secret agreement with the Sudan to make adjustments on the border. This paper identifies the major factors that have frustrated efforts to address the Ethio-Sudan boundary problem and also proposes solutions on how Ethiopia and Sudan could resolve their differences. The analysis reveals that political, social and cultural factors; the decision to adopt the western concept of the boundary; and the failure to recognise the historic and cultural constructs have contributed to the frustration of negotiations on the border. The paper proposes that Ethiopia and Sudan embrace the African Union Border Program, which encourages mutual cooperation, regional integration and the building of communities with strong economic and cultural ties.     

The establishment of South Korean-Chinese diplomatic relations: A South Korean perspective

This article examines the process leading to establishment of the diplomatic relationship between South Korea and China in 1992. For that purpose, the article reviews first the Northern Policy of the Sixth Republic of Korea, whose major aim was to improve South Korea’s relations with the then socialist and communist countries, including the Soviet Union. Next the focus moves to the secret negotiations between South Korea and China. One of the major arguments of the article is that the expansion of commercial and trade relations between South Korea and China plus the end of the cold war contributed to the establishment of diplomatic relationships between the two neighbors.