The year 2019 marks the seventh anniversary of Shinzo Abe's return to office,alongside the administration's obsession with Constitutional amendment.During the 25th House of Councillors selection in July,Prime ...The year 2019 marks the seventh anniversary of Shinzo Abe's return to office,alongside the administration's obsession with Constitutional amendment.During the 25th House of Councillors selection in July,Prime Minister Abe changed the rules applied for the four national elections in 2012,wrote the Self-Defense Forces into the Constitution and the Liberal Democratic Party(LDP)convention,and deliberately made the amendment a focal point of controversy in his election campaign.However,when the results of the election came out,the pro-amendment forces,with the LDP at their core,didn't reach the two-thirds majority threshold required for Constitutional revision.Going forwards,the Abe-led Liberal Democratic Party will strive to consolidate Constitutional amendment forces in the National Diet,hoping to cross the majority threshold,and at the same time to coerce opposition parties to comply with passing LDP draft revisions to the Constitution in the National Diet as soon as possible,in order to submit these to national referendum.In the meantime,preparatory works for this referendum are being carried out through the use of political resources to mobilize public support.Whether Abe can reach the political objective of Constitutional amendment during his current term of office and how the Constitutional issue in Japan will play out is sure to attract global attention.展开更多
Since the demise of colonialism as well as the cold war, Africa has battled to put democratic governments in place. The legacies of these two political and historical landscapes have had a hand in shaping and disfigur...Since the demise of colonialism as well as the cold war, Africa has battled to put democratic governments in place. The legacies of these two political and historical landscapes have had a hand in shaping and disfiguring the nascent governments that would be born in Africa with vanguard parties not tolerating opposition. In a bid to stay in leading positions, as founding fathers of revolution, incumbent governments have used different tools, some very unorthodox, from brute force, genocides, governments of national unity and violent elections to stay in power and destroy opposition. This paper seeks to trace how Zimbabwe has fared in establishing a democratic government from Lancaster to the 2013 March referendum. Zimbabwe, following a Lancaster House Agreement C1979）, like Kenya （1960）, held elections in 1980, making R. G. Mugabe the first black Prime Minister and C. Banana the President. Some scholars have argued that the 1980 elections have been the only free and fair elections in Zimbabwe＇s history of elections. To measure the level of democracy in Zimbabwe, the paper shall highlight the euphoria at 1980, read through gukurahundi of 1983, the unity accord of 1987, select parliamentary and presidential elections, the fast track land reform of 2002, the 2009 Government of National Unity as well as the 2013 constitution amendment. The study shall largely make use of desktop and interviews of ordinary Zimbabweans, politicians, and students in universities with regards to matters of governance. The paper concludes that post communist governments have struggled to establish democracy.展开更多
基金This paper presents the initial findings of a major research project entitled"Research on Postwar Japanese Politics,Diplomacy and Future Trends/5 funded by the Ministry of Education(Project Number:14JZD033).
文摘The year 2019 marks the seventh anniversary of Shinzo Abe's return to office,alongside the administration's obsession with Constitutional amendment.During the 25th House of Councillors selection in July,Prime Minister Abe changed the rules applied for the four national elections in 2012,wrote the Self-Defense Forces into the Constitution and the Liberal Democratic Party(LDP)convention,and deliberately made the amendment a focal point of controversy in his election campaign.However,when the results of the election came out,the pro-amendment forces,with the LDP at their core,didn't reach the two-thirds majority threshold required for Constitutional revision.Going forwards,the Abe-led Liberal Democratic Party will strive to consolidate Constitutional amendment forces in the National Diet,hoping to cross the majority threshold,and at the same time to coerce opposition parties to comply with passing LDP draft revisions to the Constitution in the National Diet as soon as possible,in order to submit these to national referendum.In the meantime,preparatory works for this referendum are being carried out through the use of political resources to mobilize public support.Whether Abe can reach the political objective of Constitutional amendment during his current term of office and how the Constitutional issue in Japan will play out is sure to attract global attention.
文摘Since the demise of colonialism as well as the cold war, Africa has battled to put democratic governments in place. The legacies of these two political and historical landscapes have had a hand in shaping and disfiguring the nascent governments that would be born in Africa with vanguard parties not tolerating opposition. In a bid to stay in leading positions, as founding fathers of revolution, incumbent governments have used different tools, some very unorthodox, from brute force, genocides, governments of national unity and violent elections to stay in power and destroy opposition. This paper seeks to trace how Zimbabwe has fared in establishing a democratic government from Lancaster to the 2013 March referendum. Zimbabwe, following a Lancaster House Agreement C1979）, like Kenya （1960）, held elections in 1980, making R. G. Mugabe the first black Prime Minister and C. Banana the President. Some scholars have argued that the 1980 elections have been the only free and fair elections in Zimbabwe＇s history of elections. To measure the level of democracy in Zimbabwe, the paper shall highlight the euphoria at 1980, read through gukurahundi of 1983, the unity accord of 1987, select parliamentary and presidential elections, the fast track land reform of 2002, the 2009 Government of National Unity as well as the 2013 constitution amendment. The study shall largely make use of desktop and interviews of ordinary Zimbabweans, politicians, and students in universities with regards to matters of governance. The paper concludes that post communist governments have struggled to establish democracy.
