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2021 Latvian Municipal Elections
Municipal elections were held across Latvia on 5 June 2021. This was the first election after the Saeima passed a municipal reform in 2020 that reduced the 110 municipalities and 9 cities to 43 municipalities, including 11 state cities and added 5 new Latvian towns: Ādaži, Iecava, Ķekava, Koknese, and Mārupe. In total, 645 councilors were elected to 40 municipal councils across the country. The 60 seats in the Riga City Council is not up for election until 2025, as snap elections were held in August 2020. On 28 May, following the decision of the Constitutional Court of Latvia that declared a part of the municipal reform about the inclusion of Varakļāni Municipality into the new Rēzekne Municipality unconstitutional, the Central Election Commission (CEC) cancelled elections in the municipalities of both Rēzekne and Madona. The Saeima decided on 1 June to reverse the decision of the CEC and to move forward with the elections in Madona Municipality on 5 June as initially sche ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Latvia
Latvia ( or ; lv, Latvija ; ltg, Latveja; liv, Leţmō), officially the Republic of Latvia ( lv, Latvijas Republika, links=no, ltg, Latvejas Republika, links=no, liv, Leţmō Vabāmō, links=no), is a country in the Baltic region of Northern Europe. It is one of the Baltic states; and is bordered by Estonia to the north, Lithuania to the south, Russia to the east, Belarus to the southeast, and shares a maritime border with Sweden to the west. Latvia covers an area of , with a population of 1.9 million. The country has a temperate seasonal climate. Its capital and largest city is Riga. Latvians belong to the ethno-linguistic group of the Balts; and speak Latvian, one of the only two surviving Baltic languages. Russians are the most prominent minority in the country, at almost a quarter of the population. After centuries of Teutonic, Swedish, Polish-Lithuanian and Russian rule, which was mainly executed by the local Baltic German aristocracy, the independent R ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Electoral Threshold
The electoral threshold, or election threshold, is the minimum share of the primary vote that a candidate or political party requires to achieve before they become entitled to representation or additional seats in a legislature. This limit can operate in various ways, e.g. in party-list proportional representation systems where an electoral threshold requires that a party must receive a specified minimum percentage of votes (e.g. 5%), either nationally or in a particular electoral district, to obtain seats in the legislature. In Single transferable voting the election threshold is called the quota and not only the first choice but also the next-indicated choices are used to determine whether or not a party passes the electoral threshold (and it is possible to be elected under STV even if a candidate does not pass the election threshold). In MMP systems the election threshold determines which parties are eligible for the top-up seats. The effect of an electoral threshold is to d ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Regionalism (politics)
Regionalism is a political ideology that seeks to increase the political power, influence, and/or self-determination of the people of one or more subnational regions. It focuses on the "development of a political or social system based on one or more" regions and/or the national, normative or economic interests of a specific region, group of regions or another subnational entity, gaining strength from or aiming to strengthen the "consciousness of and loyalty to a distinct region with a homogeneous population", similarly to nationalism. More specifically, "regionalism refers to three distinct elements: movements demanding territorial autonomy within unitary states; the organization of the central state on a regional basis for the delivery of its policies including regional development policies; political decentralization and regional autonomy". Regions may be delineated by administrative divisions, culture, language and religion, among others. Regionalists' demands occur in "stron ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Latvian Association Of Regions
The Latvian Association of Regions or Latvian Regional Alliance ( lv, Latvijas Reģionu apvienība, LRA) is a centrist political party in Latvia. It was founded as an alliance on 13 March 2014 and is headed by former Unity MP Edvards Smiltēns. History The alliance won 8 seats in the Saeima at the 2014 parliamentary election. It contested the elections as a political alliance of several smaller regionalist parties, including the , the LSDSP, the Christian Democratic Union and the . The first leader of the LRA was Mārtiņš Bondars until stepping down and leaving the alliance in 2017, after which he was succeeded by Nellija Kleinberga. In the lead up to the 2018 elections, the LSDSP and the Christian Democrats left the alliance, which eventually fell just short of the 5% barrier at the polls. An even closer result came in the 2019 European Parliament elections, where the LRA lacked 0.02 percent to reach the minimum threshold of votes needed for gaining a seat. On 22 ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Liberal Conservatism
Liberal conservatism is a political ideology combining conservative policies with liberal stances, especially on economic issues but also on social and ethical matters, representing a brand of political conservatism strongly influenced by liberalism. The ideology incorporates the classical liberal view of minimal government intervention in the economy, according to which individuals should be free to participate in the market and generate wealth without government interference. However, liberal conservatives also hold that individuals cannot be thoroughly depended on to act responsibly in other spheres of life; therefore, they believe that a strong state is necessary to ensure law and order and that social institutions are needed to nurture a sense of duty and responsibility to the nation. Liberal conservatives also support civil liberties, along with some socially conservative positions. Nevertheless, liberal conservatism differs from social conservatism in a sense that it d ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
New Unity
The New Unity ( lv, Jaunā Vienotība, JV) is a centre-right political alliance in Latvia. Its members are Unity, the Latgale Party and four other regional parties, and it is orientated towards liberal-conservatism and liberalism. History Before the 2018 Latvian parliamentary elections the Unity party formed the New Unity party alliance (the party itself is still registered as Unity) in April 2018 together with the regional ''For Kuldīga Municipality'', ''For Valmiera and Vidzeme'' and parties, joined by the ''Jēkabpils Regional Party'' in June. The Latgale Party, a previous partner of Unity that had run on its list in the past, initially was uncertain whether to join the alliance, since a faction of the party supported a partnership with the Latvian Association of Regions, ended up ultimately signing a cooperation agreement in July. An offer to join the list was also extended to the liberal Movement For! and the centre-left Progressives, but both parties eventually decli ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Centre-left Politics
Centre-left politics lean to the left on the left–right political spectrum but are closer to the centre than other left-wing politics. Those on the centre-left believe in working within the established systems to improve social justice. The centre-left promotes a degree of social equality that it believes is achievable through promoting equal opportunity.Oliver H. Woshinsky. ''Explaining Politics: Culture, Institutions, and Political Behavior''. New York: Routledge, 2008, pp. 143. The centre-left emphasizes that the achievement of equality requires personal responsibility in areas in control by the individual person through their abilities and talents as well as social responsibility in areas outside control by the person in their abilities or talents. The centre-left opposes a wide gap between the rich and the poor and supports moderate measures to reduce the economic gap, such as a progressive income tax, laws prohibiting child labour, minimum wage laws, laws regulating ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Social Democracy
Social democracy is a Political philosophy, political, Social philosophy, social, and economic philosophy within socialism that supports Democracy, political and economic democracy. As a policy regime, it is described by academics as advocating Economic interventionism, economic and social interventions to promote social justice within the framework of a liberal-democratic polity and a capitalist-oriented mixed economy. The protocols and norms used to accomplish this involve a commitment to Representative democracy, representative and participatory democracy, measures for income redistribution, regulation of the economy in the Common good, general interest, and social welfare provisions. Due to longstanding governance by social democratic parties during the post-war consensus and their influence on socioeconomic policy in Northern and Western Europe, social democracy became associated with Keynesianism, the Nordic model, the social-liberal paradigm, and welfare states within po ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Social Democratic Party "Harmony"
The Social Democratic Party "Harmony" ( lv, Sociāldemokrātiskā partija "Saskaņa"; russian: Социал-демократическая партия «Согласие», Sotsial-demokraticheskaya partiya «Soglasiye», S),The party officially translates its name as ''Social Democratic Party "Concord"''. also commonly referred to as Harmony (''Saskaņa''), is a social-democratic political party in Latvia. It was the largest political party in the Saeima, representing the Russian minority of Latvia, before losing all of its parliamentary seats in the 2022 Latvian parliamentary election, and it is currently led by Jānis Urbanovičs. It was founded in 2010 as the merger of the National Harmony Party (TSP) with New Centre (JC) and the Social Democratic Party (SDP), a breakaway from the Latvian Social Democratic Workers' Party (LSDSP). At the time, all three parties were a part of the Harmony Centre coalition, which was also made up of the Socialist Party of Latvia. The Daugavpils ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Right-wing Politics
Right-wing politics describes the range of political ideologies that view certain social orders and hierarchies as inevitable, natural, normal, or desirable, typically supporting this position on the basis of natural law, economics, authority, property or tradition.T. Alexander Smith, Raymond Tatalovich. ''Cultures at war: moral conflicts in western democracies''. Toronto, Canada: Broadview Press, Ltd, 2003. p. 30. "That viewpoint is held by contemporary sociologists, for whom 'right-wing movements' are conceptualized as 'social movements whose stated goals are to maintain structures of order, status, honor, or traditional social differences or values' as compared to left-wing movements which seek 'greater equality or political participation.' In other words, the sociological perspective sees preservationist politics as a right-wing attempt to defend privilege within the ''social hierarchy''."''Left and right: the significance of a political distinction'', Norberto Bobbio an ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Nationalism
Nationalism is an idea and movement that holds that the nation should be congruent with the State (polity), state. As a movement, nationalism tends to promote the interests of a particular nation (as in a in-group and out-group, group of people),Anthony D. Smith, Smith, Anthony. ''Nationalism: Theory, Ideology, History''. Polity (publisher), Polity, 2010. pp. 9, 25–30; especially with the aim of gaining and maintaining the nation's sovereignty (self-governance) over its homeland to create a nation-state. Nationalism holds that each nation should govern itself, free from outside interference (self-determination), that a nation is a natural and ideal basis for a polity, and that the nation is the only rightful source of political power. It further aims to build and maintain a single national identity, based on a combination of shared social characteristics such as culture, ethnicity, geographic location, language, politics (or the government), religion, traditions and belief ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
National Alliance (Latvia)
The National Alliance ( lv, Nacionālā apvienība, NA), officially the National Alliance "All for Latvia!" – "For Fatherland and Freedom/LNNK" (), is a national-conservative and right-wing populist political party in Latvia. A right-wing party, it has also been placed as the far right, or radical right, of the political spectrum. It is economic liberal. It was formed as an electoral alliance for the 2010 Latvian parliamentary election between the For Fatherland and Freedom/LNNK and All for Latvia! parties. It won eight seats, placing it fourth among all parties. In July 2011, it merged into a single political party under the leadership of Gaidis Bērziņš and Raivis Dzintars. In the 2014 Latvian parliamentary election, it again increased its seats to seventeen, and entered a centre-right coalition, along with Unity and the Union of Greens and Farmers under Prime Minister Laimdota Straujuma. It has participated in every government of Latvia since the 2011 Latvian parliament ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
