Moisey Ostrogorsky

Moissei Yakovlevich Ostrogorski (Russian Моисей Яковлевич Острогорский, scientific transliteration Moisey Jakovlevic Ostrogorskij; * 1854 in Grodno, Belarus, † February 10, 1921 in Petrograd ) was a Belarusian political scientist who is known for his studies on comparative party systems research today.

Ostrogorski studied law in Saint Petersburg and worked for several years for the Russian Ministry of Justice. In the 1880s he went to Paris and studied there until 1885 an independent Department of Political Science. He wrote works on Russian history that have been used in schools, and wrote a treatise on women's rights in public law in French.

Ostrogorskis main activity was as a researcher on the study of political parties. To this end he held for many years on in the United States and Britain. In 1902 he published Democracy and the Organization of Political Parties (original in French). After his return to Russia, he got himself elected to the Duma in 1906, where he became an important representative within the constitutional democratic parties. After the dissolution of the Duma Ostrogorski left active politics again.

Work

The most important result of his observations and scientific work is the finding that even democratic parties a quasi- pathological tendency to be too bureaucratic - oligarchic organizations. This was later proven by Robert Michels for the Social Democratic Party in the German Empire, at that time the only German party with a ( basic) democratic self- claim in which to extend the decision-making from the bottom up (te). Maurice Duverger has proved what Ostrogorskis on a broader base material 1951 again.

Ostrogorski was the first to attempt a systematic theory about comparing different political systems, notably the United States and Great Britain to set up. Here, he paid special attention to the two party systems of the two companies and offered hypotheses about voting behavior and opinion formation, which can not be explained by the electoral law, which is a majority vote in both systems alone.

Ostrogorski was not ready with the oligarchic tendencies that lead to undemocratic structures to resign and suggested various countermeasures before. One of his more radical proposals was completely abolishing the parties and replace it with a system of fixed-term associations. This should only be established in order to achieve a specific purpose and are resolved immediately after achievement again. This would Ostrogorski the oligarchical recognized as inevitable tendency of parties that develop with time certain circles of power, stop. To lack of professionalism of the staff and efficient workflows in such a rotation system he set out, in view of the pervasive lack of investment opportunities, understandably less concerned as to the seizure and removal emancipating democratic structures.

Reception

The political scientist Hans Daudt and Douglas W. Rae rename the choice of them in 1976 formulated paradox " Ostrogorski paradox". This means that it can come in elections and referendums to strong distortions of the actual " voter intent " when the vote on the entire party program and not separated on the individual subject areas.