Tag Archives: elections

Congolese Elections: Democratisation is a process, not an event.

Lord McConnell 30/01/2012 – 2:14 pm

  On December 17 2010, a young Tunisian man set himself on fire.  This desperate act helped to spark a political revolution in the Arab world.  Images of people revolting against notoriously oppressive regimes captivated onlookers worldwide.  More than a year later, the world is indeed a different place – long-term dictators have been unseated, governments shuffled or disbanded altogeth […]

Written at 2:14 pm on 30/01/2012, by Lord McConnell

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DRC Elections 2012: Observing a Rush to the Polls

Lord McConnell 23/01/2012 – 11:22 am

November 28, 2011 was historic in the DRC; the first ever democratic national election organized by the Congolese themselves. Indeed it was only the second time since independence in 1960 that a multi-party electoral vote would be set to determine the presidential seat.  However, this relatively undeveloped voting system left the electoral process wide open to systemic and local corruption that c […]

Written at 11:22 am on 23/01/2012, by Lord McConnell

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The confusion of elections

Lord Knight 20/03/2011 – 2:29 pm

This Tuesday from 10am to 8pm there will be the welcome opportunity to elect a member of the House of the Lords.  Naturally it is completely bizarre that only candidates who would have been eligible to be hereditary peers may stand, but that was the nature of the compromise needed to remove hereditaries from the Lords. For those following the referendum campaign it is amusing to note that we will […]

Written at 2:29 pm on 20/03/2011, by Lord Knight


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The Big Society

Lord Soley 14/02/2011 – 1:27 pm

Clearly there is a problem for David Cameron on the cuts in relation to the big society but a more complex problem is 'what does it actually mean'? If it is more than contracting out some local authority or government services to voluntary organisations, co-ops etc via a new bank then we need to know the detail. If it is contracting out then the funding becomes crucial and so you come back to the […]

Written at 1:27 pm on 14/02/2011, by Lord Soley


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Should voting be compulsory?

Lord Norton 29/06/2008 – 4:41 pm

Compulsory voting is advocated by some politicians as a means of addressing the problem of political disengagement.   Young people tend to have a low turnout rate but this has worsened in recent decades.  Many people retain an interest in politics but express that interest through pressure group activity rather than through traditional means of joining and voting for political parties.  Requ […]

Written at 4:41 pm on 29/06/2008, by Lord Norton


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