In contrast to 1999, in which the Kosovo crisis and the election of the European Parliament imposed some commonality on politics, at least within the NATO and EU member states, the year 2000 was characterized by important, but largely unrelated, political events in the 28 countries reviewed in this issue. There were, however, several exceptions to this pattern of national idiosyncrasy.

The year 2000 saw the Australian people concentrating their minds on the Olympic Games in Sydney in September. They did not think much about politics at all. To the extent that political discussion entered the matter of the games, it related to the question as to who would perform the opQning declaration.

The process of government formation after the general elections to the Lower House of Parliament, the Nationalrat, on 3 October 1999 could not be brought to an end before the turn of the year. The conservative party, the ÖVP, which had been junior partner in a grand coalition with the social democratic party, the SPÖ, since 1987, had declared during its election campaign that it would go into opposition if it did not finish above third place. As a matter of fact, the populist right-wing FPÖ managed to surpass the ÖVP by 414 votes and for the first time in electoral history became the second strongest party at the national level (see Political Data Yearbook 1999). Up to this time, the FPÖ under its charismatic party chairman Jörg Haider had been considered as unacceptable for government participation because of his vehement attacks against the ‘old parties’ and other ‘pillars’ of the democratic republic, in particular social partnership, because of his radical ideas aiming to establish an authoritarian presidential republic, and because of his ambiguous stance towards National Socialism. Expecting heavy international protests in case of government participation of the FPÖ, Federal President Thomas Klestil favoured a continuation of the incumbent SPÖ–ÖVP coalition, even if the political climate between the two parties and the reform capacity of the government had deteriorated in recent years.

A joint Senate-Chamber special ‘political renewal’ committee was installed in order to discuss and put forward reforms of the electoral system, the introduction of instruments of direct democracy, etc. It established a very long list of possible reforms, and the discussions evolved quite slowly. In the meantime, the government decided, on its own, to implement a 50% reduction of the weight of list votes in determining the order in which individual candidates from the list are to be elected for elections at all levels. This reform was the result of a compromise between the Liberals, who wanted a more drastic reform, and the Socialists and Greens who were not clearly in favour of such a reform. The distinction between effective and substitute candidates’ lists was also abandoned. This reform was first implemented for the October local elections. The Council of Ministers also put forward a constitutional reform ensuring the presence of at least one member of each gender in the federal and subnational Cabinets.

The new millennium opened with two historic firsts that signaled the changing face of public life in Canada. In January, the government appointed BeverleyMcLachlin as the first woman Chief Justice of the Supreme Court of Canada. At a time when the court was being recognized as a significant player in the politics of the country – later in the year it declared the controversial Nisga’a Treaty providing for aboriginal self-government (see Political Data Yearbook 2000) constitutional – Justice McLachlin’s ascendancy was widely hailed as confirming the changed place of women in Canadian society. Then, a month later, Ujjal Dosanjh won the leadership of the British Columbia New Democratic Party and was sworn in as the province’s premier. Born and raised in India, Dosanjh had immigrated to Canada as a young man.

There were no elections to the Chamber of Deputies in 2000. Elections to the upper house of Parliament, the Senate, were held on 12 and 19 November 2000 in 27 districts of the 81 senatorial election districts. With the November 2000 elections, all of the transitional two- and four-year terms of the Senators elected in the first Senate elections in 1996 have expired. At present, there are only Senators elected for six-year terms.

By far the most important issue in national politics was the national referendum on 28 September on Denmark’s participation in the third stage of the EMU, the single currency. After the Danish voters in a national referendum in June 1992 had rejected the ratification of the Maastricht Treaty, the Danish government in December 1993 reached an agreement in Edinburgh with the other EU member states. The agreement included four policy areas in which Denmark would not participate fully in the work of the EU (see Political Data Yearbook 1993, pp. 416ff.). The Edinburgh agreement was confirmed by a national referendum in May 1993. Ever since the wisdom of upholding the four exceptions has been an important issue in Danish politics dividing the voters into two almost equal halves. An integral part of the Edinburgh agreement was that the Danish government could only lift the exceptions if it was confirmed by the voters in a national referendum. It was not for the political parties in Parliament to decide alone.

The 1994 presidential election was the first direct election in two rounds in Finnish political history. It opened the gates for new political constellations where party loyalty was easily replaced by individual qualities of the candidates. At that time, a female candidate (Elisabeth Rehn) from the small Swedish People’s Party challenged the male candidate of the Social Democratic Party, which is the biggest party in Finland. Parties took note, and in the 2000 presidential election four candidates out of seven were female. In the 1994 election only two candidates of 11 were women, and of these only one was nominated by a party. Now all the biggest or the most influential parties except for the Centre Party (whose candidate was candidate Esko Aho) nominated women.

The government, in power for three years, faced a difficult year because it became more and more difficult to implement the reforms announced in 1997. Some of them (equality between men and women in the political as well as in the economic domain; laws to give juridical status to unmarried or homosexual couples (the Civil Pact of solidarity – PACS ); reduction of the work week from 39 to 35 hours with the same weekly pay) have been implemented in 1997–1999 with success and with the support of the citizenry. As far as the economic environment was concerned, the decrease in unemployment rates could appear as a consequence of world-wide economic growth, but the government might also be credited for having backed the trend with specific laws passed in order to offer jobs to the youngest unemployed and to help middle-sized and small enterprises to develop their activities and to offer jobs (see the 1999 Data Yearbook). However, Jospin’s hopes to change and to modernise French society and political life appeared to have been thwarted in other domains due to either the strong opposition of the right wing camp or to blockages coming its own ranks.

Throughout the year 2000 the party finance scandal involving the CDU in general and former chancellor Helmut Kohl in particular continued to dominate national politics. It involved money laundering, illegal donations to the party and secret bank accounts abroad (see also previous issue). During the early months of the year the Christian Democrats found themselves in the worst crisis of their entire history. In January it emerged that Helmut Kohl’s successor Wolfgang Schäuble, chairman of the CDU and the joint parliamentary party of CDU and CSU in the Bundestag, had also accepted cash from a dubious arms trader. In mid-February, he resigned after agonising weeks and after he had to admit that he had lied to the Bundestag. At the same time, however, he implied that he had fallen victim to a plot orchestrated by his predecessor and former mentor Helmut Kohl. He was succeeded by Friedrich Merz as parliamentary leader and by Angela Merkel as party chair (elected in April). Angela Merkel became the first female, Protestant and East German chair of the CDU which is traditionally dominated by Catholics, reaping the benefit of being the first senior Christian Democrat to openly criticise Helmut Kohl in late 1999.

Despite the government’s monotonous arguments over the previous months that an early election would endanger the country’s course into EMU, on 4 February Prime Minister K.Simitis actually announced an early election, to be held on 9 April. He thus completed his tactical triumph over ND leader K. Karamanlis, who had tried to force an early parliamentary election on the basis of the presidential election due in February (which would require 180 votes in Parliament). In December 1999, however, Karamanlis had himself been forced to declare his support for the incumbent President of the Republic, K. Stephanopoulos, whose re-election was therefore a foregone conclusion (see previous Yearbook.

2000 was the third year in a row in which Hungary was struck by serious floods of the Tisza River and its tributaries. In addition to actual damages, the government will have to spend more money in flood defence in the future because about one-third of the flood protection system is outdated and does not perform its function adequately. Luckily, the floods contributed to clearing the Tisza of the consequences of serious water pollution caused by cyanide released by a gold and silver producing factory in Romania. The damage was estimated at about US$100 million.

For the coalition government of the Independence Party and the Progressive Party the year 2000 was relatively plain sailing most of the time. Co-operation between the two parties has lasted since 1995 and it still bears the aura of stability and tranquillity. There are minor signs of coalition fatigue, especially in the Progressive Party, which tends to be overshadowed by its larger coalition partner. But the weakness of the opposition and the lack of obvious governmental alternatives make the position of the government fairly secure.

For outside observers, Northern Ireland probably dominated the news from Ireland in 2000 but ‘the North’ was less of an issue within the Republic. Domestic matters were more important to the people of the fastest growing economy in the EU.

When Ehud Barak formed his government, following his impressive success in the May 1999 elections, the government enjoyed a formal majority of 73 Members of Knesset (MKs), with even larger informal support. The coalition formation was not ‘closed’ (‘connected’) as one major political party (Likud) and a couple of minor political parties (Am Ehad and the party established by Yisrael Ba’Aliyah defectors, Democratic Choice) remained in opposition although one could claim that all three did belong within the policy range of Barak I.

On 17 April, local elections were called for 15 of the 20 Italian regions. For the first time following the November 1999 constitutional reform of articles 121, 122, 123 and 126, the presidents of the regional executives were to be elected directly using a first-past-the-post majoritarian system. Under the electoral law approved in 1995, the regional councils are elected using a dual electoral system: 80% of the seats are allocated with a PR system (Droop formula with a threshold of 3% at the provincial level or 5%at the regional level) with a number of constituencies equal to the number of provinces in the region, and 20% are elected using a plurality system with a single constituency covering the entire region. This second part of the electoral system provides a ‘bonus’ for the winning list in the PR section as it assures a minimum quota of 55% of the seats to the winning list. The party lists in the PR and plurality sections must be clearly tied: i.e., party A in the PR section must be present in the plurality section as well or it must specify the party in the plurality section with which it is affiliated. The voter can split his or her vote, but if he or she votes only in the PR section the same party preference is in the other section attributed by default. But the reverse does not apply: a vote cast only in the plurality section is not attributed to any party lists in the PR section.

In 2000, Japanese party politics continued to experience many changes. Although these changes may not have surprised attentive observers of Japanese politics, they were not necessarily expected in industrial democracies. They included the unexpected formation of the Mori cabinet following the fatal illness of Prime Minister Obuchi, the reshuffling of the governing coalition accompanied by the breakup of the Liberal Party, and revisions of the electoral systems of both houses of the Diet.

The country’s financial situation, industrial and party relations, and the Government’s eleven-year old bid to join the European Union formed the web of national politics during the year 2000.

Bram Peper resigned as Minister of Home Affairs and Relations with the Dutch Antilles on March 13, after he had been accused of illegitimate declaration of expenses in the years 1982–1998, when he was burgomaster (mayor) of Rotterdam. Peper denied the accusations, but felt he had to resign in order to defend himself. His expenses had been investigated by a committee of the Rotterdam city council. The public prosecutor also investigated Peper’s behaviour, but decided in December that there was no reason to prosecute him.

The main event in the cabinet during 2000 was the dismissal of Dover Samuels. Allegations were made that some years before entering Parliament he had a sexual relationship with an under-age teenager. On June 17 the allegations were in the hands of an opposition party, Act, and leader Richard Prebble sent a letter containing the claims to the Prime Minister on June 20. Samuels stood down from cabinet, and referred the matter to the police for investigation. Before any findings from the investigation were available, on June 28 the Prime Minister dismissed Samuels on the grounds that he could not be effective as a minister while ’allegations, controversy, and public debate swirl around him’. Various other allegations had surfaced behind the scenes, including drug running and incest. In September all allegations against Samuels were found to be without foundation, but Samuels was not restored to cabinet. On July 6 Parekura Horomia had taken his place. Samuels had been Minister of Maori Affairs, and his performance in that role was already under question before the events that led to his dismissal. Prime Minister Helen Clark had described herself in May as the de facto Minister of Maori Affairs. Samuels had owed his cabinet position to support from his colleagues on the right of Labour’s parliamentary party and his status as senior Labour Maori MP. The allegations against Samuels made it possible for the Prime Minister to appoint a minister in whom she had more confidence.