The views expressed and the content presented in the paper are those of the authors and do not imply any expression of opinion on the part of the United Nations.

In many democratic parliamentary systems, election timing is an important decision availed to governments according to sovereign political systems. Prudent governments can take advantage of this constitutional option in order to maximize their expected remaining life in power. The problem of establishing the optimal time to call an election based on observed poll data has been well studied with...

Governments are increasingly investing in information and communication technologies (ICT) as tool to foster the rationalization of public administration. This paper discusses e-government within the context of governmental reforms heavily influenced by the New Public Management (NPM), which suggests that the use of ICT within the public sector will enhance efficiency, effectiveness and account...

report on the 2008 election said that there were significant problems for persons with disabilities in gaining access to the polls. Physical barriers remain in far too many cases. In fact, 31 states reported that ensuring polling place accessibility was ‘‘challenging.’’ The EAC should be strengthened to ensure that we have in place strong standards that will improve the voting experience for al...

The virtual state is a metaphor meant to draw attention to the structures and processes of the state that are becoming increasingly aligned with the structures and processes of the semantic web. Semantic Web researchers understand the potential for information sharing, enhanced search, improved collaboration, innovation, and other direct implications of contemporary informatics. Yet many of the...

High up on the agenda of the World Trade Organisation (WTO) is the privatisation of education, health, welfare, social housing and transport. The WTO's aim is to extend the free market in the provision of traditional public services. Governments in Europe and the US link the expansion of trade in public services to economic success, and with the backing of powerful medico-pharmaceutical, insura...

Recent studies have called into question the effectiveness of international human rights treaties. In this study I examine the variations in compliance that governments display concerning the Convention on the Elimination of all Forms of Discrimination Against Women (CEDAW). I argue that states will only keep their promises if the benefits of doing so outweigh the costs involved. In distinguish...

 The idea that voters use elections to hold governments to account for their performance lies at the heart of democratic theory, and countless studies have shown that economic performance can predict support for incumbents. Importantly, however, recent literature has shown that the link between economic performance and vote electoral outcomes is conditioned by countries " institutional setup ,...

Strong claims have been made for the potential benefits to be derived from government open data initiatives: from open data fuelled economic growth, to stronger democratic accountability and improved delivery of public services (33; 16; 11; 22; 15; 21). Activists have called on governments to free our data(1) and provide raw data now (3). Open data initiatives are conventionally presented with ...

The recent diffusion of democracy across the globe has led to an increase in curiosity scholars, policymakers and public alike about main principles characteristics democracy. Equally important are concerns over outcomes democracy, especially responsiveness environmental citizens’ protection times disasters. This article aims answer several questions understanding complexity variability countri...