Deepening democracy or stabilization?

The limits of the EU : enlargement , deepening and democracy Wolfgang

Bridging the divide or deepening it?

IN “BRIDGING THE DIVIDE IN THE HOLY LAND” (News Focus, 21 Apr., p. 352), J. Bohannon discusses his view of how Israeli and Palestinian scientists are working together within the frame of the Israeli-Palestinian Scientific Organization (IPSO). The article ends on an optimistic note, with the Palestinian scientist Mukhles Sowwan stating that “science is a universal language, like music. It can ma...

Parliamentary Immunity: Protecting Democracy or Protecting Corruption?*

ARECURRING question within contemporary democratic countries relates to whether parliamentary immunity only serves to protect the interests of representatives, rather than the interests of those they were elected to represent. With every act that is suspected of being corrupt (for example, accepting a bribe in return for asking a question or delivering a speech in parliament, failure to declare...

Internet-Voting: Opportunity or Threat for Democracy?

During the last decade, Internet-voting (i-voting) moved from the field of fundamental research to practical application. First, we will see that theoretical research provides satisfying algorithms for some of the challenges raised by i-voting and that some real world experiments have already been developed and performed. Unfortunately, in current i-voting systems, the citizen loses his/her con...

Online voting: Boon or bane for democracy?

Estonia is the only country in the world where all voters can vote online in national elections. In the 2015 election, 31% of voters did so. This paper discusses the sociology and politics of online voting in Estonia. I first show that online voting is a partisan project. Liberal, conservative, and social democratic parties support online voting as a way of modernizing the electoral system, whi...