electoralism
English
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Etymology
[edit]From electoral + -ism. First used in the transitional sense by Terry Karl, professor of political science at Stanford University.
Noun
[edit]electoralism (uncountable)
- (politics) A state of partial transition from authoritarian rule toward democratic rule, in which the regime conducts the electoral aspects of democratic governance in a relatively free and fair manner.
- (politics) The strategy of electing politicians into a representative government in order to create political change.
- 1912 July, William E. Bohn, “La Guerre Sociale not Anti-Political”, in Charles H. Kerr, editor, The International Socialist Review[1], volume XIII, number 1, Chicago: Charles H. Kerr & Company, page 82, quoting Gustave Hervé, translated from French:
- “In December, 1906, […] the great obstacle between the Confederation General du Travail and the Socialist party, the only organized forces of the working-class, was the electoralism which dominated the party. Today, in 1912, the great obstacle is the anti-parliamentarism which rages within the C. G. T.”
- 2000 Fall, Michael Von Tangen Page, M. L. R. Smith, “War by Other Means: The Problem of Political Control in Irish Republican Strategy”, in Armed Forces & Society, volume 27, number 1, Transaction Publishers:
- Indeed, in 1986 the movement had already suffered a split with the southern traditionalists who opposed the twin policy of electoralism and violence. Ruair O Brdaigh became the leader of the breakaway Republican Sinn Fin […]
- 2011 June 28, Tim Evans, “The Great Unrest and a Welsh town”, in International Socialism[2], number 131:
- Yet in the events at Llanelli can be seen aspects of the Great Unrest which went beyond the limits of electoralism, pointing the way towards an insurrectionary challenge both to state power and to the inertia of the reformist leadership in the trade unions and the Labour Party.