Regulating political advertising in the EU and USA: a human rights perspective

Underlying the American model of political campaign communication are the US Constitutional guarantees of free speech, which secure the rights of citizens to support political candidates of their choosing and express that support in various forms, from bumper stickers to television advertising. Courts have at times struck down measures regulating political advertising, including limits on the amounts of such advertising and the amounts of funds which candidates, parties and individuals may spend on election‐related speeches and advertising as infringements of these rights. With few exceptions, in the USA, government may not limit the number of spots a candidate airs in an election. In Europe, international norms concerning free expression and fair elections appear in a number of legal instruments, including, most recently, the UK's Human Rights Act 1998 and the EU's Charter of Fundamental Rights. This paper compares the role and development of American First Amendment doctrines in limiting restrictions on political advertising in the USA with the development of comparable norms of free expression under the European Convention on Human Rights, European Union treaties and legislation and national laws of the member states and accession countries. In particular, this paper addresses the validity and enforceability of European legal limits on number, timing, placement, quantity and content of political advertisements under applicable human rights rules and similar regulations. The paper concludes that (1) a combination of European legal instruments, including the European Convention on Human Rights, the European Community Treaty, the European Community's ‘Television Without Frontiers’ Directives and the Council of Europe's Convention on Transfrontier Television offer protections of a kind and type which broadly track the protections of the USA's First Amendment; that (2) it seems that governmental justifications for restricting these freedoms are more readily accepted in Europe than they might be in courts in the USA; and that (3) certain restrictions on political advertising identified in previous studies as existing throughout Europe will face increased judicial scrutiny and some of them are probably illegal under European Human Rights principles. Copyright © 2004 Henry Stewart Publications     

Legitimation of the Lao People’s Revolutionary Party: Socialism,Chintanakan Mai (New Thinking) and Reform

ABSTRACT

To date, scholars of authoritarianism have paid much attention to the use of democratic institutions in dictatorships to mitigate threats from both internal and external ruling elites, to co-opt and divide opposition and to solve commitment problems among the ruling elite. However, there have been no in-depth studies of legitimacy in an authoritarian regime. In communist states, opposition and dissent are addressed not through co-optation but exclusion. By contrast, communist parties attach great value for their survival to obtaining legitimacy from the masses. This article argues that the Lao People’s Revolutionary Party (LPRP) has endeavoured to acquire legitimacy since the foundation of the regime through a dialogical configuration of economic reform and socialist ideology. Economic reform and ideological legitimisation always go together, interacting with each other: economic reform requires ideological modification, and ideology defines the framework of reform. In Laos, this paradoxical configuration is necessary for the LPRP to maintain legitimacy while concurrently pursuing an ideal of socialism and reality of economic reform. In making this argument, this article reassesses the nature and significance of chintanakan mai (new thinking), which was not a formal reform policy, as often assumed, but a temporary slogan for promoting economic reforms.     

Gender Equality (And its Absence) in Singapore’s 2015 General Elections

Abstract

With the dust settled after Singapore’s 2015 parliamentary elections, the only aspect pundits and Singaporean politics watchers could agree on was that the People’s Action Party’s comeback from its performance at the 2011 elections, although not of Lazarus proportions, was most certainly unexpected. While the result of the 2015 elections has gone through several post-election analytical mills, what has been oddly absent in such analyses is a discussion of gender in Singaporean politics. This article considers the relationship between gender and Singaporean politics through the experience of the 2015 election and its results. It shows that while Singapore has moved some way towards assuaging the demands of liberal feminists for greater representation in the political sphere, much more has to be done in order for gender equality to be achieved. The article argues for the Group Representation Constituency method of electing parliamentarians to be adapted to ensure a greater number of female parliamentarians while a quota system may be required for cabinet to be truly representative of the female demographic of Singapore.     

Singapore Beyond Ethnicity: Rethinking the Group Representative Constituency Scheme

Abstract

The resounding victory of the People’s Action Party (PAP) in the 2015 Singapore general elections surprised many observers. Several observers had considered the previous election, held in 2011, to be the new normal in Singapore politics, with the Workers’ Party being the first opposition party to win a Group Representative Constituency (GRC). Instead of its popular vote sliding from 60% in 2011, the PAP secured almost a 10% increase in its fortunes. Analysts have spoken about PAP’s hard work and the opposition’s failures when commenting on the ruling party’s success; this article, however, points out how Singapore’s electoral system, especially the GRC, continues to favour the ruling party and why it should be rethought. Introduced in 1988, the scheme ensures minority candidates (non-Chinese) are voted into parliament. Candidates contesting in a GRC form a team of Members of Parliament (MPs) with at least one minority candidate in each team. This article argues that the 2015 election results proves that Singaporeans no longer vote along ethnic lines, and non-Chinese MPs have comfortably led the GRCs and won in Single Member Constituencies. To be sure, the GRC scheme does new PAP candidates a disfavour: it weakens their legitimacy with voters, since they remain under the shadows of senior PAP candidates and cannot win elections on their own accord.     

Radicalization of Russians in Ukraine: from ‘accidental’ diaspora to rebel movement

Abstract

The article examines different types of macropolitical identities in Ukraine and their interaction in establishing political order in the country. The authors argue that political institutional design was unfavourable to the Russian diaspora in eastern and southern regions. It hindered stable development of post-Soviet identity between Russians in the country. But during the Euromaidan protests, the Russians reacted to unpleasant political situation by exploring who they were and what social and political goals they had. Having been incipient for decades, the identity of the diaspora evolved in a soaring way within three or four months. The violent actions of the newly established government in Kiev radicalized the Russian diaspora. Diasporants started establishing alternative authorities in regions where government had no monopoly on the use of force. The involvement of Russia and international volunteers complexifies the situation in Donbass and the identity formation process in unrecognized republics also known as DNR and LNR.     

Digital evidence and the crime scene

Many criminal investigations maintain an element of digital evidence, where it is the role of the first responder in many cases to both identify its presence at any crime scene, and assess its worth. Whilst in some instances the existence and role of a digital device at-scene may be obvious, in others, the first responder will be required to evaluate whether any ‘digital opportunities’ exist which could support their inquiry, and if so, where these are. This work discusses the potential presence of digital evidence at crime scenes, approaches to identifying it and the contexts in which it may exist, focusing on the investigative opportunities that devices may offer. The concept of digital devices acting as ‘digital witnesses’ is proposed, followed by an examination of potential ‘digital crime scene’ scenarios and strategies for processing them.     

The European Court of Justice – The Need for Change in a Changing World

The article, from a speech delivered at the 11th Liverpool Law ReviewAnnual Lecture at The Law School, Liverpool John Moore's University, November 2001, before invited guests and students, considers the role and position of the European Courts in achieving the objectives of the treaties and institutions of the European Union. It examines the current position of the Court of Justice of the European Communities and the Court of First Instance of the European Communities and the implications of the structural changes introduced by the Amsterdam Treaty. The article reflects upon how the future accession to the Union of new Member States may affect that situation. It also considers how changes proposed in the Treaty of Nice, when ratified, will enable the European Courts to meet future demands placed upon them. This revised version was published online in August 2006 with corrections to the Cover Date.     

“现实的人”与“惟一者”：马克思与施蒂纳的主体论之别

马克思与施蒂纳的争论关涉到如何理解形而上学、本质主义在马克思哲学中的地位问题。马克思受施蒂纳影响而提出的“现实的人”,与施蒂纳主张的“惟一者”虽然都具有主体自持性的特点,但在是否追求本质（精神）世界,是否承担对虚无的充实,是否追求永恒、普遍、整体,“现实”或“感性”中是否还拥有超出离散性原子事实的整体性维度及与此相关的超验性维度,对人、现实、历史的理解还是否需要保持辩证法的框架等方面,存在根本性的差异：马克思的回答是肯定的,施蒂纳是否定的。马克思的“现实的人”仍然具有以“现实”、“感性”为根基的“本质性”、“普遍性”、“神圣性”和某种意义上的“抽象性”。所谓马克思反现代性、反本质主义和反传统形而上学,也只能在这样有限的限度内理解,否则就等于把马克思施蒂纳化了。     

邓小平社会发展动力观论析

邓小平关于社会主义社会发展动力的思想,是邓小平理论的重要组成部分。邓小平在扬弃前人思想的基础上,提出了社会主义改革是社会主义发展的根本动力;人民群众需求是社会主义发展的物质动力和精神动力;现代科学技术是社会主义发展的“第一生产力”。邓小平社会发展动力观对于我国社会主义现代化建设具有重要理论和现实意义。