La battaglia per il Sì o per il No al referendum per l’indipendenza della Scozia dal Regno Unito non poteva non concludersi a colpi di tweet: Yes Scotland contro Better Together. Nell’era della politica digitale, i sostenitori dell’indipendenza sembrano aver ottenuto un successo decisamente maggiore nella campagna di sensibilizzazione sui social network. Se dovessimo misurare la vittoria in termini di followers il partito del Sì sarebbe al comando con più del doppio (93.300 circa) rispetto a quello del No (40.700 circa).
Mentre si stava votando per le elezioni europee in Gran Bretagna, il panorama politico appariva largamente condizionato dalla tendenza euroscettica, incarnata dallo UK Independence Party (UKIP), diretto da Nigel Farage, il quale ha saputo coinvolgere in modo crescente l’opinione pubblica britannica, nel corso degli ultimi anni. Quanti saranno i parlamentari europei che siederanno a Bruxelles e che rappresenteranno lo UK Independence Party?
Executive branches of governments have always enjoyed a primacy in managing foreign policy and waging war. However, the highly influential parliamentary debates in the United Kingdom, the United States or France on the Syrian conflict have given rise to the perception that parliaments are becoming increasingly influent in first-order international affairs. When looking at recent developments concerning the Syrian crisis, could it be that parliamentary prerogatives in matters of foreign and defense policy are gaining new momentum?
Abstract
With its vote on Syria in August 2013, the UK House of Commons delivered a historic defeat to a Prime Minister and a government on a matter of military policy. We examine that vote, and the developments leading to it, by identifying the conditions that produced this unexpected outcome. We conclude that public opinion, intraparty divisions, poor party management, and the shadow of Iraq combined to create a context in which parliament exerted decisive influence.
Abstract
Executive branches of governments have always enjoyed a primacy in managing foreign policy and waging war. However, in several contemporary constitutional systems this trend has been offset through (more or less effective) parliamentary powers. When looking at recent developments concerning the Syrian crisis, could it be that parliamentary prerogatives in matters of foreign and defense policy are gaining new momentum?
Il Partito britannico dell’indipendenza (UK Independence Party – Ukip) venne creato all’inizio degli anni Novanta (1993), in seguito alla dissoluzione della Lega Anti Federalista, nata nel 1991 per contrastare le proposte contenute nel Trattato di Maastricht.
The rhetoric on the sovereignty over the Falkland Islands (or Malvinas), an Overseas Territory of the United Kingdom disputed by Argentina since the XIXth century, has recently grown up as the 30th anniversary of the war of 1982 approaches. In February, the Argentinean Minister of Foreign Affairs, Hector Timerman, asserted that the defence of British sovereignty is «the last refuge of a declining power». Last year, the President at Casa Rosada, Christina Fernandez de Kirchner, stated that Britain «continues to be a crude colonial power in decline».