Lëvizja Vetëvendosje ( Albanian pronunciation: [ləvizja vɛtəˈvɛnˈdɔsjɛ] , 'Self-determination movement') ( LVV ) is a left-leaning social democratic political party in Kosovo . It is a member of the Progressive Alliance , and an observer in the Party of European Socialists , and the Socialist International .
170-684: Vetëvendosje was founded in 2005 as a grassroots , anti-establishment , and pro-independence movement. It gained its initial prominence with protests against the United Nations Interim Administration Mission in Kosovo (UNMIK), and it later protested against the process of negotiations between the Kosovar delegations and Serbia over Kosovo's independence, claiming that the Kosovars' right to self-determination
340-515: A federal democracy confronts the widespread issue of political ignorance by allowing citizens to engage in foot voting , or moving to other jurisdictions with more favorable laws. He cites the mass migration of over one million southern-born African Americans to the North or the West to evade discriminatory Jim Crow laws in the late 19th century and early 20th century. The European Union follows
510-478: A populist anti-establishment movement that shows hostility towards Kosovo's politicians on one hand, and international actors that have executive power over Kosovo on the other. As a result, it encourages citizens to engage in direct democracy and for the parliament to have more power over the executive . It promotes a socialist and welfare-oriented public order, political and civil freedoms, as well as internal and local self-governance and self-determination. On
680-542: A "counterpoint to globalization [which] removes decisions from the local and national stage to the global sphere of multi-national or non-national interests. Decentralization brings decision-making back to the sub-national levels". Decentralization strategies must account for the interrelations of global, regional, national, sub-national, and local levels. Norman L. Johnson writes that diversity plays an important role in decentralized systems like ecosystems , social groups , large organizations, political systems . "Diversity
850-496: A 1907 newspaper article about Ed Perry, vice-chairman of the Oklahoma state committee, the phrase was used as follows: "In regard to his political views Mr. Perry has issued the following terse platform: 'I am for a square deal, grass root representation, for keeping close to the people, against ring rule and for fair treatment. ' " A 1904 news article on a campaign for possible Theodore Roosevelt running mate Eli Torrance quotes
1020-402: A French journal that reviewed the dynamics of government and bureaucratic centralization and recent French efforts at decentralization of government functions. Ideas of liberty and decentralization were carried to their logical conclusions during the 19th and 20th centuries by anti-state political activists calling themselves " anarchists ", " libertarians ", and even decentralists. Tocqueville
1190-553: A Kansas political organizer as saying: "Roosevelt and Torrance clubs will be organized in every locality. We will begin at the grass roots". Since the early 1900s, grassroots movements have been widespread both in the United States and in other countries. Major examples include parts of the American Civil Rights Movement of the 1950s and 1960s, Brazil's land equity movement of the 1970s and beyond,
1360-492: A central, authoritative location or group and given to smaller factions within it. Concepts of decentralization have been applied to group dynamics and management science in private businesses and organizations, political science , law and public administration , technology , economics and money . The word " centralisation " came into use in France in 1794 as the post- Revolution French Directory leadership created
1530-530: A centralized " welfarist " policy of entitlements which now has become a "post-welfare" policy of intergovernmental and market-based decentralization. In 1983, "Decentralization" was identified as one of the " Ten Key Values " of the Green Movement in the United States. A 1999 United Nations Development Programme report stated: "A large number of developing and transitional countries have embarked on some form of decentralization programmes. This trend
1700-546: A clear hierarchy are far less effective and are more likely to die off. Astroturfing refers to political action that is meant to appear to be grassroots, that is spontaneous and local, but in fact comes from an outside organization, such as a corporation or think tank. It is named after AstroTurf , a brand of artificial grass . An example of astroturfing was the ExxonMobil Corporation's push to disseminate false information about climate change. ExxonMobil
1870-402: A country's number of regional legislatures, elector procedures, and the order in which national and regional elections occur. Brancati holds that decentralization can promote peace if it encourages statewide parties to incorporate regional demands and limit the power of regional parties. The processes by which entities move from a more to a less centralized state vary. They can be initiated from
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#17327981590732040-414: A decentralized system, there is no single centralized authority that makes decisions on behalf of all the parties. Instead each party, also called a peer, makes local autonomous decisions towards its individual goals which may possibly conflict with those of other peers. Peers directly interact with each other and share information or provide service to other peers. An open decentralized system is one in which
2210-490: A decrease in votes in comparison to the 2010 parliamentary election. A session of the party's General Council was called on December 15, 2013 which between other things discussed these results as well as necessary action in response to them. According to Shpend Ahmeti's words during an interview with Top Channel , there were also changes in the statute of Vetëvendosje, which came out of the General Council meeting. In
2380-455: A directive in their platforms because rightist parties tend to advocate for a decrease in the role of central government. There is also strong evidence to support the idea that government stability increases the probability of political decentralization, since instability brought on by gridlock between opposing parties in legislatures often impedes a government's overall ability to enact sweeping reforms. The rise of regional ethnic parties in
2550-443: A lower level of government while maintaining financial responsibility. While this process usually is called fiscal federalism , it may be relevant to unitary, federal, or confederal governments. Fiscal federalism also concerns the "vertical imbalances" where the central government gives too much or too little money to the lower levels. It actually can be a way of increasing central government control of lower levels of government, if it
2720-570: A new government structure. The word " décentralisation " came into usage in the 1820s. "Centralization" entered written English in the first third of the 1800s; mentions of decentralization also first appear during those years. In the mid-1800s Tocqueville would write that the French Revolution began with "a push towards decentralization" but became, "in the end, an extension of centralization." In 1863, retired French bureaucrat Maurice Block wrote an article called "Decentralization" for
2890-510: A non-profit organization dedicated to creating and supporting grassroots movements in America says that grassroots movements aim to raise money, build organizations, raise awareness, build name recognition, to win campaigns and to deepen political participation. Grassroots movements work toward these and other goals via strategies focusing on local participation in either local or national politics. Grassroots organizations derive their power from
3060-444: A region and the central government. Dawn Brancati finds that political decentralization reduces intrastate conflict unless politicians create political parties that mobilize minority and even extremist groups to demand more resources and power within national governments. However, the likelihood this will be done depends on factors like how democratic transitions happen and features like a regional party's proportion of legislative seats,
3230-401: A respectful manner. Gauging the appropriate size or scale of decentralized units has been studied in relation to the size of sub-units of hospitals and schools, road networks, administrative units in business and public administration, and especially town and city governmental areas and decision-making bodies. In creating planned communities ("new towns"), it is important to determine
3400-580: A return to small scale living. The decentralist movement attracted Southern Agrarians like Robert Penn Warren , as well as journalist Herbert Agar . New Left and libertarian individuals who identified with social, economic, and often political decentralism through the ensuing years included Ralph Borsodi , Wendell Berry , Paul Goodman , Carl Oglesby , Karl Hess , Donald Livingston , Kirkpatrick Sale (author of Human Scale ), Murray Bookchin , Dorothy Day , Senator Mark O. Hatfield , Mildred J. Loomis and Bill Kauffman . Leopold Kohr , author of
3570-663: A smaller share of seats in the assembly. Vetëvendosje formed a coalition with LDK in February 2020 after months of negotiations, with Albin Kurti becoming prime minister of Kosovo. After a disagreement about the handling of the COVID-19 pandemic, Kurti sacked the LDK minister Agim Veliu. In retaliation, LDK initiated a motion of no confidence against the Kurti government , which passed at
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#17327981590733740-507: A strong desire for greater participation of citizens and private sector organizations in governance." Those studying the goals and processes of implementing decentralization often use a systems theory approach, which according to the United Nations Development Programme report applies to the topic of decentralization "a whole systems perspective, including levels, spheres, sectors and functions and seeing
3910-507: A symbol for the blood spilled in the Kosovo war, which, according to Vetëvendosje, Ahtisaari was walking over with his plan for Kosovo's monitored independence. In an August 2009 protest that turned violent, Vetëvendosje activists overturned and damaged 28 EULEX vehicles. In March 2016, activists of Vetëvendosje overturned two trucks carrying Serbian goods in a protest against the Serbian decision not to accept Kosovo Albanian schoolbooks in
4080-448: A systems approach. Norman Johnson of Los Alamos National Laboratory wrote in a 1999 paper: "A decentralized system is where some decisions by the agents are made without centralized control or processing. An important property of agent systems is the degree of connectivity or connectedness between the agents, a measure global flow of information or influence. If each agent is connected (exchange states or influence) to all other agents, then
4250-504: A variety of strategies from fundraising and registering voters, to simply encouraging political conversation. Goals of specific movements vary and change, but the movements are consistent in their focus on increasing mass participation in politics. These political movements may begin as small and at the local level, but grassroots politics as Cornel West contends are necessary in shaping progressive politics as they bring public attention to regional political concerns. The idea of grassroots
4420-608: A vital strategic interest of Kosovo. When it comes to education, Vetëvendosje aims to adopt the dual education system , which is mostly practiced in Germany , Austria and Switzerland , countries with significant Albanian diaspora . It sees the switch to the dual education system as necessary to increase the quality of education in general. The welfare state is the third pillar of Vetëvendosje's political program. Vetëvendosje wants to combat income inequality , discrimination against women and against minorities. It wants to improve
4590-615: A wide membership within Kosovo and abroad, though he didn't provide numbers. LPK started in 1982 as a Marxist nationalist grouping of Albanian diaspora organizations in Western Europe and is considered the origin of the KLA . Most of its leadership moved on with the newly created party Democratic Party of Kosovo of Hashim Thaçi after the war . In 2017 and early 2018, a large number of MPs and mayors from Vetëvendosje resigned from
4760-476: Is a conscious process based on explicit policies. However, it may occur as "silent decentralization" in the absence of reforms as changes in networks, policy emphasize and resource availability lead inevitably to a more decentralized system. Decentralization may be uneven and "asymmetric" given any one country's population, political, ethnic and other forms of diversity. In many countries, political, economic and administrative responsibilities may be decentralized to
4930-425: Is accomplished by the institution of reforms that either delegate a certain degree of meaningful decision-making autonomy to sub-national tiers of government, or grant citizens the right to elect lower-level officials, like local or regional representatives. Depending on the country, this may require constitutional or statutory reforms, the development of new political parties , increased power for legislatures ,
5100-595: Is also a controversial example of astroturfing. Critics, notably including Former President Barack Obama and Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi , dismissed the Tea Party as Astroturf. They say that the movement purports to represent large swaths of America when in reality it comes from a select few billionaires seeking policies favorable to themselves. The Tea Party has defended itself, arguing that it comes out of broad popular support and widespread anger at
5270-474: Is an organization dedicated to upholding and advancing the principles of the American dream through highly sophisticated grassroots field operations. With a clear mission to recruit, train, lead, and retain a workforce of passionate and committed patriots, the group is focused on creating a highly skilled army of conservative, cause-driven individuals capable of executing the most effective grassroots campaigns on
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5440-406: Is coupled with a growing interest in the role of civil society and the private sector as partners to governments in seeking new ways of service delivery ... Decentralization of governance and the strengthening of local governing capacity is in part also a function of broader societal trends. These include, for example, the growing distrust of government generally, the spectacular demise of some of
5610-558: Is defined to be unique properties of entities, agents, or individuals that are not shared by the larger group, population, structure. Decentralized is defined as a property of a system where the agents have some ability to operate "locally." Both decentralization and diversity are necessary attributes to achieve the self-organizing properties of interest." Advocates of political decentralization hold that greater participation by better informed diverse interests in society will lead to more relevant decisions than those made only by authorities on
5780-399: Is done through deregulation , the abolition of restrictions on businesses competing with government services, for example, postal services, schools, garbage collection. Even as private companies and corporations have worked to have such services contracted out to or privatized by them, others have worked to have these turned over to non-profit organizations or associations. From the 1970s to
5950-544: Is in the process of abolishing the Kosovo Privatization Agency, whose assets are being taken over by the Sovereign Fund. Vetëvendosje constantly criticized the privatization process in Kosovo, calling it "a corruption model, that contributed to increasing unemployment, ruining the economy, and halting the economic development of the country". The newly-established Sovereign Wealth Fund will halt
6120-678: Is not linked to other kinds of responsibilities and authority. Fiscal decentralization can be achieved through user fees, user participation through monetary or labor contributions, expansion of local property or sales taxes, intergovernmental transfers of central government tax monies to local governments through transfer payments or grants , and authorization of municipal borrowing with national government loan guarantees. Transfers of money may be given conditionally with instructions or unconditionally without them. Market decentralization can be done through privatization of public owned functions and businesses, as described briefly above. But it also
6290-423: Is often conflated with participatory democracy . The Port Huron Statement , a manifesto seeking a more democratic society, says that to create a more equitable society, "the grass roots of American Society" need to be the basis of civil rights and economic reform movements. The terms can be distinguished in that grassroots often refers to a specific movement or organization, whereas participatory democracy refers to
6460-431: Is their blend of military-style leadership and AI-driven "overwatch" technology, which prevents fraud and enhances field performance, making their operations both efficient and reliable. The organization’s unique combination of advanced technology and disciplined management techniques places it at the forefront of grassroots political action, enabling them to play a key role in shaping the future of conservative movements in
6630-466: Is typically designed by outsiders who can only perceive a community’s need and so community needs are often only marginally addressed or not addressed at all. By contrast, bottom-up processing is defined as "observing or monitoring efforts defined and undertaken at the local scale and brought forward to higher-level bodies, often with a focus on supporting outcomes desired by a local community." Bottom-up processing has "local residents and [POC] co-facilitate
6800-631: Is used to organize is through the use of hashtags to group together postings from across the network under a unifying message. Some hashtags that stirred up larger media coverage include the #MeToo movement , started in 2017 in response to sexual assault allegations against prominent figures in the American entertainment industry. Grassroots movements also use hashtags to organize on a large scale on social media. Some examples include: The junior senator from Arizona and standard-bearer of conservative Republicans, Barry Goldwater announced his candidacy on January 3, 1964. Goldwater focused on goals such as reducing
6970-571: The 2017 local elections , Vetëvendosje won in won three municipalities. Vetëvendosje won a second term in Pristina with Shpend Ahmeti and also won in Prizren with Mytaher Haskuka and in Kamenica with Qendron Kastrati. Prior to Vetëvendosje's victory, Prizren was ruled by PDK for 18 years and was called PDK's 'Jerusalem'. Shpend Ahmeti and Qendron Kastrati left Vetëvendosje in early 2018 after
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7140-486: The Ahtisaari Plan and against the process of decentralization. The demonstration was attended by more than 60,000 people and took place in the streets of Pristina . UNMIK Riot Police were deployed after the rioters allegedly planned to storm the government offices. The UNMIK police fired tear gas and rubber bullets at the crowd, which resulted in chaos. Two protesters were killed by the police. The first protester
7310-670: The Alliance for the Future of Kosovo and the Social Democratic Initiative had organized some of the largest protests in Kosovo's post-independence history in front of the parliament, to exert pressure on the governing parties' MPs and prevent them from passing the legislation. When accused that their actions were extreme, Vetëvendosje leaders claimed that what they did was "radical," but not "extreme," and that throwing eggs at politicians only looked violent because
7480-537: The Kosovo Parliament , but had several in local governments. The People's Movement of Kosovo (LPK), with its structures in Kosovo and abroad joined Vetëvendosje on 23 July 2013, as stated from both leaders Kurti and Zekaj during the press conference in Vetevendosje headquarters in Pristina : "...with the only aim to change social flow on the benefit of Albanian people" . Zekaj stated that LPK had
7650-588: The Prime Minister of Kosovo . Vetëvendosje has its roots in the 1997-founded Kosova Action Network (KAN), a grassroots group promoting active citizenry and direct political participation of the masses. KAN was founded in the United States by a group of international activists that supported the 1997 student protests in Kosovo against the occupation of the campus of the University of Pristina by
7820-677: The Trans Adriatic Gas Pipeline . In 2022, the Vetëvendosje-led government issued a project for the generation of central heating energy via solar energy. The government of Vetëvendosje has increased agricultural subsidies in its first year in governance by over 200% compared to the budget of 2021. It has also provided large amounts of subsidies to the Trepča Mines , which are managed by a struggling state-owned company. Vetëvendosje considers agriculture and mining
7990-633: The Yugoslav Police . During the Kosovo War , KAN participated in documenting war crimes and during 1999 and 2000 KAN campaigned for the release of Albanian prisoners of war . In 2003, KAN moved its headquarters to Kosovo. On 10 June 2004, KAN activists led by Albin Kurti protested against the United Nations Interim Administration Mission in Kosovo (UNMIK), fiercely criticizing its 'undemocratic' character, due to its lack of accountability to Kosovar citizens. On 12 June 2005, KAN activists wrote
8160-491: The agreement between Prime Minister of Kosovo Hashim Thaçi and Prime Minister of Serbia Ivica Dačić during the latest round of political negotiations between Pristina and Belgrade in Brussels hosted by Catherine Ashton . Vetëvendosje tried to block all entrances to the parliament building, in order to hinder the assembly members from entering, thus preventing the agreement for being ratified. The protest didn't succeed, and
8330-477: The financial crisis of 2007–2008 . One example of economic decentralization, which is based on a libertarian socialist model, is decentralized economic planning . Decentralized planning is a type of economic system in which decision-making is distributed amongst various economic agents or localized within production agents. An example of this method in practice is in Kerala , India which experimented in 1996 with
8500-479: The taxes on profits . Its government has already increased property taxes by increasing the valuation of residential buildings in richer areas to increase the tax base. In addition, Vetëvendosje strives for Kosovo to have a common currency with Albania by abandoning the euro , and to establish a state-owned development bank . In 2023, the Vetëvendosje government established a sovereign wealth fund and
8670-414: The 1957 book The Breakdown of Nations – known for its statement "Whenever something is wrong, something is too big" – was a major influence on E. F. Schumacher , author of the 1973 bestseller Small Is Beautiful: A Study of Economics As If People Mattered . In the next few years a number of best-selling books promoted decentralization. Daniel Bell 's The Coming of Post-Industrial Society discussed
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#17327981590738840-503: The 1960s. Such discontent gained traction, particularly after Brazil became a democracy in 1985. The movement focused especially on occupying land that was considered unproductive, thus showing that it was seeking overall social benefit. In the 1990s the influence of the MST grew tremendously following two mass killings of protestors. Successful protests were those in which the families of those occupying properties receiving plots of land. Although
9010-541: The 1980s, the movement became far bigger. In 1981, 800 organizations pushed the government to reduce the military size. The push culminated in a protest by 300,000 people in the German capital Bonn. The movement was successful in producing a grassroots organization, the Coordination Committee, which directed the efforts of the peace movements in the following years. The committee ultimately failed to decrease
9180-758: The 1990s, there was deregulation of some industries, like banking, trucking, airlines and telecommunications, which resulted generally in more competition and lower prices. According to the Cato Institute , an American libertarian think-tank, in some cases deregulation in some aspects of an industry were offset by increased regulation in other aspects, the electricity industry being a prime example. For example, in banking, Cato Institute believes some deregulation allowed banks to compete across state lines, increasing consumer choice , while an actual increase in regulators and regulations forced banks to make loans to individuals incapable of repaying them, leading eventually to
9350-578: The Ahtisaari Plan and Kosovo declared its independence in February 2008 . The independence was initially supervised by the European Union via its International Civilian Representative for Kosovo (ICRK). Vetëvendosje argued that Kosovo had gone from UNMIK administration to EU administration and factually nothing had changed. It also opposed the idea of Kosovo being a multi-ethnic country, stressing that with Albanians constituting over 90% of
9520-477: The Albanian-inhabited Preševo Valley in southern Serbia. Similar activities continued to take place even within Kosovo's institutions, with Vetëvendosje members of parliament releasing tear gas inside the parliament chamber to prevent legislation from going through when the ruling parties had the required majority to pass the legislation. Parallel to this, Vetëvendosje, in cooperation with
9690-653: The Balkans and the wider diaspora. It is considered as the leading nationalist party in the contemporary Albanian world, and has advocated for the protection of the Albanians in Preševo Valley and North Macedonia as well as a referendum on possible unification of Kosovo with neighbouring Albania. The first pillar of Vetëvendosje's political program is the justice state, through which Vetëvendosje seeks to change legislation, combat corruption and increase citizens' trust on
9860-540: The Chinese rural democracy movement of the 1980s and the German peace movement of the 1980s. A particular instantiation of grassroots politics in the American Civil Rights Movement was the 1951 case of William Van Til working on the integration of the Nashville Public Schools. Van Til worked to create a grassroots movement focused on discussing race relations at the local level. To that end, he founded
10030-519: The Democratic Party and disenchantment with the GOP. Defenders of the Tea Party cite polls that find substantial support, indicating that the movement has some basis in grassroots politics. Critics point to the corporate influence on the Tea Party, which they believe indicates that the movement is more top-down than the grassroots rhetoric would suggest. The Tea Party can be considered grassroots to
10200-401: The Kosovo parliament on that day: "Specifically, there is the case of U.S. ambassador, but even other foreign representatives to whom we apologize in case they have experienced any unpleasant situation. But, analyzing the harm that the agreement causes, it sounded reasonable to us to act the way we did though I don't deny having possibly made some mistakes." The overall positioning of Vetëvendosje
10370-649: The Kosovo parliament passed the Vetëvendosje-sponsored Law for the State Bureau for the Confiscation of Illegal Wealth . The law aims to give the state the means to confiscate wealth whose origin cannot be proven, thus allowing it to combat money laundering and corruption. The law had been part of the party's electoral platform. Vetëvendosje is also pushing for vetting in the justice system intending to remove judges and prosecutors who fail
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#173279815907310540-541: The LDK-AAK-Nisma coalition and LDK joining a coalition with PDK, in which Isa Mustafa assumed the position of prime minister . This led to Vetëvendosje taking the role of leader of the opposition, with AAK and NISMA being part of it. The Vetëvendosje-led opposition was very aggressive, opposing the border demarcation between Kosovo and Montenegro and the formation of the Association of Serb Municipalities . LDK
10710-587: The Nashville Community Relations Conference, which brought together leaders from various communities in Nashville to discuss the possibility of integration. In response to his attempts to network with leadership in the black community, residents of Nashville responded with violence and scare tactics. However, Van Til was still able to bring blacks and whites together to discuss the potential for changing race relations, and he
10880-567: The People's Plan campaign . Emmanuelle Auriol and Michel Benaim write about the "comparative benefits" of decentralization versus government regulation in the setting of standards. They find that while there may be a need for public regulation if public safety is at stake, private creation of standards usually is better because "regulators or 'experts' might misrepresent consumers' tastes and needs." As long as companies are averse to incompatible standards, standards will be created that satisfy needs of
11050-505: The Republican nomination. He sparked a grassroots movement among young conservatives by presenting himself as honest, committed and a genuine politician. The majority of his campaign donations were made by individual supporters; and only one-third of donations were greater than $ 500. The junior United States senator and former Representative from Vermont, Bernie Sanders, formally announced his 2016 presidential campaign on May 26, 2015, on
11220-461: The Serb List, Vetëvendosje's Kurti appointed Nenad Rašić as Minister for Communities and Returns. Vetëvendosje has been described as a nationalist party, and they want to amend Kosovo's constitution to remove the third article, which forbids the unification of Kosovo with other countries. According to the leader of Vetëvendosje, Albin Kurti , Kosovo should be allowed to unify with Albania if
11390-421: The Serbian state to the people of Kosovo. They see all citizens of Kosovo, including Kosovo Serbs as victims of Serbia's aggression. Vetëvendosje is currently the largest political party in Kosovo, having won 58 seats in the 2021 Kosovan parliamentary election together with Vjosa Osmani 's Guxo! list. It is in government in coalition with the non-Serb minorities. Vetëvendosje's leader Albin Kurti serves as
11560-627: The Special Operations Unit of the Kosovo Police to the northern municipalities to enable the mayors to enter their offices led to international backlash and a clash between Kosovo and some of its Western partners. The EU introduced some measures against the government of Kosovo. Over time, Vetëvendosje has engaged in multiple controversial activities, such as "naming and shaming" of political leaders, damaging property belonging to UNMIK (and later EULEX ), campaigning against
11730-565: The Stone Age" through not just chiefdoms and states, but empires and today's "hegemonic core states". Christopher K. Chase-Dunn and Thomas D. Hall review other works that detail these cycles, including works which analyze the concept of core elites which compete with state accumulation of wealth and how their "intra-ruling-class competition accounts for the rise and fall of states" and their phases of centralization and decentralization. Rising government expenditures, poor economic performance and
11900-422: The U.S. There is an ongoing debate as to whether a bottom-up or top-down approach is better suited to address the problems facing communities. Top-down processing involves large-scale programs or high-level frameworks, often driven by governmental or international action. Top-down processing is great for tracking large scale causal relationships in environmental systems and it has better funding. Top-down processing
12070-569: The UNMIK headquarters to "remind" it that Kosovo's right to independence was guaranteed by that resolution. Criticizing UNMIK would become a central theme of Vetëvendosje's activities in the following years leading up to Kosovo's independence. They attempted to delegitimize UNMIK in front of the people of Kosovo by calling it an undemocratic neo-colonial regime whose employees were unelected but nevertheless took executive decisions. They blamed UNMIK for Kosovo's market being flooded by Serbian goods and for
12240-839: The United Kingdom's Labour Party appealed to Scottish constituents by creating a semi-autonomous Scottish Parliament in order to neutralize the threat from the increasingly popular Scottish National Party at the national level. In addition to increasing the administrative efficacy of government and endowing citizens with more power, there are many projected advantages to political decentralization. Individuals who take advantage of their right to elect local and regional authorities have been shown to have more positive attitudes toward politics, and increased opportunities for civic decision-making through participatory democracy mechanisms like public consultations and participatory budgeting are believed to help legitimize government institutions in
12410-473: The action as a "big mistake". According to Zëri newspaper, the U.S. State Department called Kosovo's ambassador Akan Ismajli in Washington, D.C., requiring official explanations, though no comments came from official sources within Kosovo. "As we have stressed with all leaders and particularly to Vetëvendosje, while the United States respects citizens’ rights to free speech and expression, we deplore
12580-407: The agreement was voted from the majority of the assembly representatives. During the protest, U.S. ambassador Tracey Ann Jacobson resulted with an injury on her right arm while entering from a secondary entrance together with some assembly members. Although the video evidence showed no physical contact between protesters and ambassador, confirmed as well by LDK assemblyman Haki Demolli who entered
12750-510: The alliance itself. Vetëvendosje wants Kosovo to cooperate with all countries based on the principle of reciprocity . Vetëvendosje's government's insistence on reciprocity has even led to clashes in North Kosovo and to frictions with Kosovo's international partners, after its government decided to enforce the use of Kosovo's vehicle registration plates in the north of the country. On the issue of ethnic minorities, Vetëvendosje supports
12920-449: The appropriate population and geographical size. While in earlier years small towns were considered appropriate, by the 1960s, 60,000 inhabitants was considered the size necessary to support a diversified job market and an adequate shopping center and array of services and entertainment. Appropriate size of governmental units for revenue raising also is a consideration. Even in bioregionalism , which seeks to reorder many functions and even
13090-578: The basis for a political or continent movement. Grassroots movements and organizations use collective action from the local level to implement change at the local, regional, national, or international levels. Grassroots movements are associated with bottom-up, rather than top-down decision-making, and are sometimes considered more natural or spontaneous than more traditional power structures. Grassroots movements, using self-organization , encourage community members to contribute by taking responsibility and action for their community. Grassroots movements utilize
13260-407: The basis of decentralization that can lead to local efficiency, equity and development." Columbia University 's Earth Institute identified one of three major trends relating to decentralization: "increased involvement of local jurisdictions and civil society in the management of their affairs, with new forms of participation, consultation, and partnerships." Decentralization has been described as
13430-675: The biggest individual party and parliamentary group, Vetëvendosje remained behind the PANA coalition and remained in opposition. In 2018, 12 MPs left Vetëvendosje and created the Group of the Independent Deputies , which would later join the Social Democratic Party of Kosovo (PSD). In addition, Vetëvendosje MP Donika Kadaj-Bujupi rejoined AAK . This split reduced the Vetëvendosje parliamentary group to 19 seats. In
13600-412: The books in a later interview, Toffler said that industrial-style, centralized, top-down bureaucratic planning would be replaced by a more open, democratic, decentralized style which he called "anticipatory democracy". Futurist John Naisbitt 's 1982 book "Megatrends" was on The New York Times Best Seller list for more than two years and sold 14 million copies. Naisbitt's book outlines 10 "megatrends",
13770-414: The boundaries of governments according to physical and environmental features, including watershed boundaries and soil and terrain characteristics, appropriate size must be considered. The unit may be larger than many decentralist-bioregionalists prefer. Decentralization ideally happens as a careful, rational, and orderly process, but it often takes place during times of economic and political crisis,
13940-477: The building together with the ambassador, the incident aggravated the already difficult relationship between the U.S. State Department and Vetëvendosje. The reaction was prompt, following the US embassy official statement, Vetëvendosje was criticized by Kosovo government instances, political factors, as well as public opinion. Even long-time supporter of Vetëvendosje, former OSCE ambassador William G. Walker , described
14110-474: The campaign to challenge the Democratic front-runner, former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton , before ultimately losing. Sanders used his grassroots campaign to receive more than 7 million individual contributions averaging $ 27, effectively breaking Barack Obama's previous individual contribution record in 2008. In 2015 the refugee crisis became front-page news across the world. Affected by images of
14280-985: The capital Helsinki to the provinces. The centre supports substantial subsidies that limit potential economic and political centralization to Helsinki. Political decentralization does not come without its drawbacks. A study by Fan concludes that there is an increase in corruption and rent-seeking when there are more vertical tiers in the government, as well as when there are higher levels of subnational government employment. Other studies warn of high-level politicians that may intentionally deprive regional and local authorities of power and resources when conflicts arise. In order to combat these negative forces, experts believe that political decentralization should be supplemented with other conflict management mechanisms like power-sharing , particularly in regions with ethnic tensions. Four major forms of administrative decentralization have been described. Fiscal decentralization means decentralizing revenue raising and/or expenditure of moneys to
14450-575: The centers of authority (" top-down ") or from individuals, localities or regions (" bottom-up "), or from a "mutually desired" combination of authorities and localities working together. Bottom-up decentralization usually stresses political values like local responsiveness and increased participation and tends to increase political stability. Top-down decentralization may be motivated by the desire to "shift deficits downwards" and find more resources to pay for services or pay off government debt. Some hold that decentralization should not be imposed, but done in
14620-428: The community level as the entry point at which holistic definitions of development goals are from the people themselves and where it is most practical to support them. It involves seeing multi-level frameworks and continuous, synergistic processes of interaction and iteration of cycles as critical for achieving wholeness in a decentralized system and for sustaining its development." However, it has been seen as part of
14790-430: The consumption of goods imported from Serbia and actively hijacking and demolishing trucks coming from Serbia, throwing paint at politicians, and other similar violent measures. In 2007, Vetëvendosje activists threw rotten eggs at Boris Tadić , the president of Serbia , when he visited Kosovo. They also poured red paint on the streets leading to the presidential residence of Kosovo when Martti Ahtisaari visited Kosovo, as
14960-545: The cooperation between all ethnic groups in Kosovo. Its government coalition contains almost all minority MPs, except the Serb List , which Vetëvendosje considers a tool of Serbia's president Aleksandar Vučić to destabilize Kosovo. Instead, the Vetëvendosje government wants to cooperate with Kosovo Serbs who recognize the independence of Kosovo. Following the mass resignation of members of the Kosovo Government by
15130-478: The creation of local political units, and encouragement of advocacy groups . A national government may decide to decentralize its authority and responsibilities for a variety of reasons. Decentralization reforms may occur for administrative reasons, when government officials decide that certain responsibilities and decisions would be handled best at the regional or local level. In democracies, traditionally conservative parties include political decentralization as
15300-400: The decentralization of Ancient Greece . Since the 1980s a number of scholars have written about cycles of centralization and decentralization. Stephen K. Sanderson wrote that over the last 4000 years chiefdoms and actual states have gone through sequences of centralization and decentralization of economic, political and social power. Yildiz Atasoy writes this process has been going on "since
15470-421: The demands of minorities for a greater say in local governance, the general weakening legitimacy of the public sector and global and international pressure on countries with inefficient, undemocratic, overly centralized systems. The following four goals or objectives are frequently stated in various analyses of decentralization. In decentralization, the principle of subsidiarity is often invoked. It holds that
15640-492: The early elections of 2019 which were called due to the resignation of Prime Minister at the time Ramush Haradinaj , Vetëvendosje received 26.27% (221,001 votes), remaining the biggest political party in the Kosovo Assembly with 29 seats, despite its split one year prior to the elections. Its total number of votes increased by over 10% relative to the previous election, but due to a higher participation rate, it received
15810-444: The election results in three voting centers and the elections got repeated in three municipalities, leading to a slight increase in the vote share of Vetëvendosje. Vetëvendosje and LB ended their coalition on 20 September 2011, after disagreements on distribution of funds. The two MPs from LB left the Vetëvendosje parliamentary group, reducing it to 12 members. In the 2014 elections, Vetëvendosje received 13.59% (99,397 votes), remaining
15980-573: The elections in the capital Pristina over LDK leader and former mayor Isa Mustafa . Until then, Pristina was considered a LDK stronghold. Vetëvendosje managed to gain local assembly seats in most of Kosovo's municipalities, but it did not win any other mayoral race. Vetëvendosje failed to win local assembly seats in the following municipalities: Dragash , Leposavić , Zvečan , Zubin Potok , Novo Brdo , Gračanica , Mamusha , Parteš , Klokot , and North Mitrovica . Overall, Vetëvendosje came fourth with
16150-479: The electorate at large. Critics of Obama have argued that some of these methods are in fact astroturfing because they believe that Obama faked the grassroots support. For example, the Reason Foundation has accused Obama of planting astroturf supporters in town hall meetings. Many movements and organizations must be placed on a continuum between grassroots and astroturf instead of labeled entirely as one or
16320-404: The entry of peers is not regulated. Any peer can enter or leave the system at any time ... Decentralization in any area is a response to the problems of centralized systems. Decentralization in government, the topic most studied, has been seen as a solution to problems like economic decline, government inability to fund services and their general decline in performance of overloaded services,
16490-556: The express purpose of bringing democracy to the local level of government. Reforms took the form of self-governing village committees that were elected in a competitive, democratic process. Xu Wang from Princeton University called the Congress mutually empowering for the state and the peasantry in that the state was given a renewed level of legitimacy by the democratic reforms and the peasantry was given far more political power. This manifested itself in increased voting rate, particularly for
16660-517: The extent that it comes from the people, but it is considered astroturfing to the extent that it is shaped by corporations and particularly wealthy individuals. The term "grassroots" is used by a number of sporting organizational bodies to reference the lowest, most elementary form of the game that anyone can play. Focusing on the grassroots of a sporting code can lead to greater participation numbers, greater support of professional teams/athletes and ultimately provide performance and financial benefits to
16830-453: The eyes of marginalized groups. Moreover, political decentralization is perceived as a valid means of protecting marginalized communities at a local level from the detrimental aspects of development and globalization driven by the state, like the degradation of local customs, codes, and beliefs. In his 2013 book, Democracy and Political Ignorance , George Mason University law professor Ilya Somin argued that political decentralization in
17000-425: The fall of a regime and the resultant power struggles. Even when it happens slowly, there is a need for experimentation, testing, adjusting, and replicating successful experiments in other contexts. There is no one blueprint for decentralization since it depends on the initial state of a country and the power and views of political interests and whether they support or oppose decentralization. Decentralization usually
17170-402: The fifth of which is from centralization to decentralization. In 1996 David Osborne and Ted Gaebler had a best selling book Reinventing Government proposing decentralist public administration theories which became labeled the " New Public Management ". Stephen Cummings wrote that decentralization became a "revolutionary megatrend" in the 1980s. In 1983 Diana Conyers asked if decentralization
17340-580: The focus from moving problematic waste to changing the system that produced such waste. The movement is considered grassroots because it utilized strategies that derived their power from the affected communities. For example, in North Carolina, African American communities lay down in front of dump trucks to protest their environmental impact. The success of these movements largely remains to be seen. Grassroots movements use tactics that build power from local and community movements. Grassroots Campaigns,
17510-426: The following factors as determinants of decentralization: Historians have described the history of governments and empires in terms of centralization and decentralization. In his 1910 The History of Nations Henry Cabot Lodge wrote that Persian king Darius I (550–486 BC) was a master of organization and "for the first time in history centralization becomes a political fact." He also noted that this contrasted with
17680-445: The foundation of reversing "obscene levels" of income and wealth inequality. Sanders stated that he would run an issue-oriented and positive campaign, focusing his efforts on getting corporate money out of politics, raising taxes on the wealthy, guaranteeing tuition-free higher education, incorporating a single-payer healthcare system, fighting against climate change and other key issues. Those inspired by Sanders were able to elevate
17850-414: The general situation in Kosovo was calm. On 10 December 2012, US Ambassador Tracey Ann Jacobson accused Vetëvendosje of having sent a threatening letter to former State Secretary Madeleine Albright . Vetëvendosje officially replied four days later, stating that "they were amazed with the accusations, and Kurti never sent any letter to Mrs. Albright, but if someone had proof should make it available to
18020-442: The global stage. Founded on a deep sense of patriotism, Patriot Grassroots leverages cutting-edge technology to drive its operations. They specialize in a variety of campaign activities, including canvassing, signature gathering, calling and texting, and managing field teams. Additionally, they take on specialized relationship marketing projects for their clients, ensuring maximum outreach and impact. What sets Patriot Grassroots apart
18190-477: The government and Osmani was elected President, three of the Guxo seats went to the following names on the elected list, increasing VV number to 53. In April 2021, Adelina Grainca, former PDK deputy joined Vetëvendosje, increasing its number of MPs to 54. Vetëvendosje participated in the 2013 local elections , which marked Vetëvendosje's first ever participation in local elections. Shpend Ahmeti from Vetëvendosje won
18360-403: The government in justice. Finally, the welfare state is supposed to ensure equality of outcomes , and not just opportunities , which is achieved through progressive taxation and protection of minorities and vulnerable groups . Furthermore, Vetëvendosje adheres to Albanian nationalism and populism in its policies regarding Kosovo's future, relations with Albania and ethnic Albanians in
18530-476: The government. This led to new elections, which were held on 14 February 2021. Vetëvendosje ran together with Guxo . Because of a conviction for setting off tear gas, Albin Kurti was not allowed to run for a seat at the parliament. Vetëvendosje won the elections and experienced a significant increase in its vote share, receiving 50.28% of the total votes. The common list of VV and Guxo gained 58 seats, with 51 for VV and 7 for Guxo. As two elected members of Guxo joined
18700-701: The grassroots efforts of the MST were successful in Brazil when they were tried by the South African Landless People's Movement (LPM) in 2001 they were not nearly as successful. Land occupations in South Africa were politically contentious and did not achieve the positive results seen by the MST. The National People's Congress was a grassroots democratic reform movement that came out of the existing Chinese government in 1987. It encouraged grassroots elections in villages all around China with
18870-564: The inhabitants there. Other volunteers journeyed to support refugees across the Balkans, Macedonia and the Greek islands. Grassroots aid filled voids and saved lives by plugging gaps in the system between governments and existing charities. The Axis of Justice (AofJ) is a not-for-profit group co-founded by Tom Morello and Serj Tankian. Its intended purpose is to promote social justice by connecting musicians and music enthusiasts to progressive grassroots ideals. The group appears at music festivals;
19040-488: The larger system of governance. The earliest origins of "grass roots" as a political metaphor are obscure. In the United States, an early use of the phrase "grassroots and boots" was thought to have been coined by Senator Albert Jeremiah Beveridge of Indiana , who said of the Progressive Party in 1912, "This party has come from the grass roots. It has grown from the soil of people's hard necessities". In
19210-457: The larger urban areas, while rural areas are administered by the central government. Decentralization of responsibilities to provinces may be limited only to those provinces or states which want or are capable of handling responsibility. Some privatization may be more appropriate to an urban than a rural area; some types of privatization may be more appropriate for some states and provinces but not others. The academic literature frequently mentions
19380-470: The local elections in Pristina in 2013. He would go on to get re-elected as mayor of Pristina in 2017, before leaving Vetëvendosje soon after elections to join the Social Democratic Party of Kosovo (PSD) in early 2018. The Socialist Party of Kosovo, led by Ilaz Kadolli, joined Vetëvendosje on 26 April 2013. Kurti and Kadolli agreed that the merger would be in the interest of building a strong political and economical state. The party had no representatives in
19550-505: The local information make decisions and in a more timely fashion; that their taking responsibility frees upper management for long term strategics rather than day-to-day decision-making; that managers have hands on training to prepare them to move up the management hierarchy; that managers are motivated by having the freedom to exercise their own initiative and creativity; that managers and divisions are encouraged to prove that they are profitable, instead of allowing their failures to be masked by
19720-427: The lowest or least centralized authority that is capable of addressing an issue effectively should do so. According to one definition: "Decentralization, or decentralizing governance, refers to the restructuring or reorganization of authority so that there is a system of co-responsibility between institutions of governance at the central, regional and local levels according to the principle of subsidiarity, thus increasing
19890-489: The most centralized regimes in the world (especially the Soviet Union) and the emerging separatist demands that seem to routinely pop up in one or another part of the world. The movement toward local accountability and greater control over one's destiny is, however, not solely the result of the negative attitude towards central government. Rather, these developments, as we have already noted, are principally being driven by
20060-556: The most prominent being Lollapalooza in 2003. The Axis of Justice most regularly appears whenever the bands System of a Down or Audioslave are performing. The group also has a podcast on XM Satellite radio and KPFK (90.7 FM), a Pacifica Radio station in Los Angeles, California. The AofJ's mission is to connect local music fans to organizations, local and global, aimed at effectively working on issues like peace, human rights and economic justice within communities. Patriot Grassroots
20230-672: The national level. Decentralization has been described as a response to demands for diversity. In business, decentralization leads to a management by results philosophy which focuses on definite objectives to be achieved by unit results. Decentralization of government programs is said to increase efficiency – and effectiveness – due to reduction of congestion in communications, quicker reaction to unanticipated problems, improved ability to deliver services, improved information about local conditions, and more support from beneficiaries of programs. Firms may prefer decentralization because it ensures efficiency by making sure that managers closest to
20400-455: The national politics of parliamentary democracies is also heavily associated with the implementation of decentralization reforms. Ethnic parties may endeavor to transfer more autonomy to their respective regions, and as a partisan strategy, ruling parties within the central government may cooperate by establishing regional assemblies in order to curb the rise of ethnic parties in national elections. This phenomenon famously occurred in 1999, when
20570-488: The need for decentralization and a "comprehensive overhaul of government structure to find the appropriate size and scope of units", as well as the need to detach functions from current state boundaries, creating regions based on functions like water, transport, education and economics which might have "different 'overlays' on the map." Alvin Toffler published Future Shock (1970) and The Third Wave (1980). Discussing
20740-622: The next election. After the fall of the Kurti government, LDK, together with AAK, NISMA, the Serb List, and other minorities, formed a new government on 3 June 2020. The government was elected with 61 votes, which was the critical minimum required to form a government. In December 2020, the Constitutional Court deemed the LDK-led government illegal, because one of the 61 MPs that voted for it had been convicted for corruption, meaning that he had lost his valid mandate before voting for
20910-522: The organization to invest into the growth and development of the sport. Some examples of this are FIFA 's Grassroots Programme and the Football Federation Australia 's "Goals for Grassroots" initiative. Decentralization Decentralization or decentralisation is the process by which the activities of an organization, particularly those related to planning and decision-making, are distributed or delegated away from
21080-565: The other hand, Vetëvendosje supports policies to strengthen Kosovo's statehood, including the strengthening of the rule of law, police , and military , which from a traditional sense would be considered right-wing ideas. Despite its sovereignist stance, it still considers that Kosovo should eventually unify with Albania via a referendum, as an expression of the will of the people of Kosovo. They have also been described as an Albanian nationalist movement, with their views being mainly framed based on Albanian history and perceived injustices done by
21250-453: The other. For example, Australia's Convoy of No Confidence, a movement seeking to force an early election in 2011, incorporated elements of grassroots infrastructure in its reliance on the anger and discontentment of the participants. It also had elements of astroturf, namely the large extent to which it relied on support from political elites in the opposition party. The Tea Party , a conservative force in American politics that began in 2009,
21420-622: The overall profitability of the company. The same principles can be applied to the government. Decentralization promises to enhance efficiency through both inter-governmental competitions with market features and fiscal discipline which assigns tax and expenditure authority to the lowest level of government possible. It works best where members of the subnational government have strong traditions of democracy, accountability, and professionalism. Economic and/or political decentralization can help prevent or reduce conflict because they reduce actual or perceived inequities between various regions or between
21590-422: The overall quality and effectiveness of the system of governance while increasing the authority and capacities of sub-national levels." Decentralization is often linked to concepts of participation in decision-making, democracy, equality and liberty from a higher authority. Decentralization enhances the democratic voice. Theorists believe that local representative authorities with actual discretionary powers are
21760-563: The parliament and the Kurti government was overthrown. Apart from Veliu's sacking, LDK blamed Vetëvendosje for ruining Kosovo's relations with the US, after Kurti exchanged skirmishes with the US envoy for the Kosovo-Serbia dialogue, Richard Grenell . Vetëvendosje remained in opposition and Kurti with the former government ministers from Vetëvendosje could not return to the parliament because they had resigned before taking executive roles, leaving them out of Kosovo's institutional life until
21930-527: The party and joined the already-extant PSD. Among the members who left Vetëvendosje were the former chairman of the New Spirit Party and mayor of Prishtina Shpend Ahmeti , former Vetëvendosje deputy Dardan Molliqaj , and former chairman of Vetëvendosje Visar Ymeri . They were unhappy with the idea of Albin Kurti returning as chairman and accused the party of authoritarianism. In response, Vetëvendosje members accused those leaving that they had misused
22100-676: The party's budget for private gain, and of having sabotaged Vetëvendosje in the 2017 Kosovan parliamentary election and the 2017 Kosovan local elections . Vetëvendosje has been described as centre-left and left-wing that bases its program on three main axes: meritocracy , developmental state , and welfare state . Vetëvendosje supports the free market economy with an active role of the state through ownership of key industries, export promotion and import substitution . Meritocracy, alternatively called justice state by Vetëvendosje, consists of radical transparency , checks and balances , as well as separation of powers and no interference from
22270-426: The people but instead served UNMIK and could take no decisions without UNMIK's approval. In addition, it claimed that politicians in Kosovo could only be elected if they were approved by the international community. Therefore, the government was illegitimate. They boycotted the 2007 Kosovan parliamentary election and asked the people not to vote. On 10 February 2007 Vetëvendosje organized a large demonstration against
22440-554: The people express this will through a referendum. After five years of participating in Kosovo's political scene through protests and demonstrations, Vetëvendosje took the decision to participate in the 2010 Kosovan parliamentary election in its fifth anniversary as a political movement. After the decision was taken, Albin Kurti got arrested by EULEX in relation to the 10 February 2007 protest. Kurti would go on and get sentenced to 9 months in prison, but given that he had already spent 5 months in custody and another 5 in house arrest for
22610-462: The people. This focus manifested itself in the democratic institutions that focused on engaging the poor and in reform efforts that sought to make the government more responsive to the will of the people. Another instance of a historical grassroots movement was the 1980s German peace movement. The movement traces its roots to the 1950s movement opposing nuclear armament or the "Ban the Bomb" Movement. In
22780-512: The people; thus their strategies seek to engage ordinary people in political discourse to the greatest extent possible. Below is a list of strategies considered to be grassroots because of their focus on engaging the populace: Social media's prominence in political and social activism has skyrocketed in the last decade. Influencers on apps like Instagram and Twitter have all become hot spots for growing grassroots movements as platforms to inform, excite and organize. Another influential way media
22950-584: The plight of refugees arriving and travelling across Europe, the grassroots aid movement (otherwise known as the people-to-people or people solidarity movement), consisting of thousands of private individuals with no prior NGO experience, began in earnest to self-organise and form groups taking aid to areas of displaced persons. The first wave of early responders reached camps in Calais and Dunkirk in August 2015 and joined forces with existing local charities supporting
23120-419: The poor, and increased levels of political awareness according to Wang's research. One example of the increased accountability from the new institutions was a province in which villagers gave 99,000 suggestions to the local government. Ultimately, 78,000 of these were adopted indicating a high rate of governmental responsiveness. This movement is considered grassroots because it focuses on systematically empowering
23290-620: The population, Kosovo was one of the most ethnically homogenous countries in Europe, and that minorities should be integrated via socio-economic development, not by dividing people along ethnic lines. Parallel to this, Vetëvendosje started to slowly shift towards directly participating in the political scene of Kosovo. In 2010 it registered at the Central Election Commission as a 'citizen initiative', to distinguish itself from political parties and to reject accusations that it
23460-584: The power of workers' unions by changing the law on unions. Vetëvendosje sees Kosovo's ability to defend itself as vital to the country's interests, despite the presence of international peacekeepers in the country. Its government quadrupled annual military spending in 2023, compared to the year in which the party took power. The party has entertained the idea of introducing mandatory military conscription in Kosovo, based on EU and NATO standards. The party seeks to join NATO 's Partnership for Peace and eventually
23630-487: The principle of subsidiarity , which holds that decision-making should be made by the most local competent authority. The EU should decide only on enumerated issues that a local or member state authority cannot address themselves. Furthermore, enforcement is exclusively the domain of member states. In Finland, the Centre Party explicitly supports decentralization. For example, government departments have been moved from
23800-512: The process of privatization and it will manage Kosovo's public assets, collecting dividends from profitable state enterprises and subsidizing the ones that struggle. When it comes to environmental issues, Vetëvendosje supports green alternatives to energy production despite Kosovo's endowment with large amounts of lignite. It has vocally opposed the construction of a new coal-powered plant, the Kosova C , and its government refused to connect Kosovo to
23970-566: The process. In 2022, the Venice Commission advised in favor of the government's vetting plan. The second pillar of Vetëvendosje's program is the developmental state model. Through the developmental state, Vetëvendosje seeks to develop the economy of Kosovo by providing fiscal support to certain sectors of the economy and protecting vital industries from foreign competition. Vetëvendosje strives to implement progressive taxation on income and sales , as well as introduce changes of
24140-701: The protesters got killed by out-of-date rubber bullets that were fired from 10 of the Romanian members of the police force, but declined to file charges because it was unclear who of them had fired the fatal shots. On the other hand, the leader of Vetëvendosje, Albin Kurti , got arrested and charged with three offences: leading masses of people believed to have committed criminal offences, calls for resistance, and disruption of police measures. In 2010, an EULEX judge sentenced him to 9 months in prison, but given that he had already spent 5 months in custody and another 5 in house arrest, he got released. Kosovar leaders accepted
24310-515: The provision of healthcare services by introducing health insurance based on the Bismarck Model . Vetëvendosje wants to reform the labor law. It wants to allow fathers to take parental leave , which is allowed only for the mother by the current legislation. Vetëvendosje further seeks to limit working hours to 40 per week and to introduce severance payments for laid-off workers. It further wants to combat informal employment and to increase
24480-408: The public". They explained that they had urged citizens of Kosovo to mail to companies which were racing for the privatization of PTK while explaining to them the harm that the privatization was causing the country's economy and the wrong practices applied during the process. Apparently, one of the runners was a consortium of Portugal Telecom with Albright Capital Management , which dropped out of
24650-515: The race in January 2013. "We did not threaten anyone and we definitely did not, as you claim, try to deter Ms. Albright from visiting Kosovo. Indeed, after this letter of September 1, Ms. Albright visited Kosovo in November, without the slightest opposition from VETËVENDOSJE! During her visit, she even met our deputies." On 27 June 2013, the movement organized a protest against the ratification of
24820-545: The resignation of four mayors in the north of Kosovo and the subsequent boycott by the Serb local majority, Vetëvendoje won the 2023 elections in Leposavić and North Mitrovica , with a turnout of 1.06% and 4.62%, respectively. The election result was recognized by the US and other Western countries, but groups of local Serbs refused to allow the newly-elected mayors to enter their offices. Kosovo government 's decision to deploy
24990-488: The rise of free market -influenced ideas have convinced governments to decentralize their operations, to induce competition within their services, to contract out to private firms operating in the market, and to privatize some functions and services entirely. Government decentralization has both political and administrative aspects. Its decentralization may be territorial, moving power from a central city to other localities, and it may be functional, moving decision-making from
25160-463: The same case, he got released. In December 2010, Vetëvendosje participated in the national elections of 2010 in coalition with LB and obtained 12.66% of the votes, which translated to 14 seats at the parliament. Local and international observers detected many irregularities, including a participation rate of 95% certain municipalities, which were strongholds of the PDK . Vetëvendosje and LDK contested
25330-1010: The size of the German military, but it laid the groundwork for protests of the Iraq war in the 2000s. Further, the movement started public dialogue about policy directed at peace and security. Like the Civil Rights Movement, the German Peace movement is considered grassroots because it focused on political change starting at the local level. Another example of grassroots in the 1980s was the Citizens Clearinghouse for Natural Waste, an organization that united communities and various grassroots groups in America in support of more environmentally friendly methods of dealing with natural waste. The movement focused especially on African American communities and other minorities. It sought to bring awareness to those communities and alter
25500-482: The size of the federal government, lowering taxes, promoting free enterprise and a strong commitment to U.S. global leadership and fighting communism, which appealed strongly to conservatives in the Republican Party. Despite vehement opposition from the leaders of his party's dominant moderate-liberal wing, such as New York governor Nelson Rockefeller and Michigan governor George Romney ; Goldwater secured
25670-493: The slogan "Jo Negociata - VETËVENDOSJE!" (Albanian for "No negotiations - SELF-DETERMINATION!") on the walls of UNMIK, marking the official transformation of KAN to Vetëvendosje. This was followed by the establishment of Vetëvendosje centers in most municipalities of Kosovo and in countries with a significant Albanian diaspora . On 25 July 2005, Vetëvendosje activists distributed copies of the UN Resolution 1514 in front of
25840-516: The split of the movement. In the summer of 2019, Agim Bahtiri, mayor of Mitrovica joined Vetëvendosje. After the resignation of mayor Agim Veliu, an extraordinary election was held in Podujevë on 29 November 2020. Vetëvendosje's Shpejtim Bulliqi won the election and is now the mayor of Podujeva until the regular 2021 election. Vetëvendosje participated in the 2021 local elections and won 4 municipalities and 193 municipal council positions. After
26010-414: The state institutions. Vetëvendosje wants to amend Kosovo's constitution and to remove, among others, the parts that derive from the Ahtisaari Plan , UNMIK regulations, and Yugoslav legislation. It additionally strives to ensure clear independence for the judiciary and introduce more checks and balances. Anti-corruption is one of the pillars of the justice state according to Vetëvendosje. In early 2023,
26180-444: The system is highly connected." University of California, Irvine 's Institute for Software Research's "PACE" project is creating an "architectural style for trust management in decentralized applications." It adopted Rohit Khare 's definition of decentralization: "A decentralized system is one which requires multiple parties to make their own independent decisions" and applies it to Peer-to-peer software creation, writing: In such
26350-509: The third strongest political force in the Kosovo Assembly with 16 seats. Despite PDK's electoral victory, Vetëvendosje, along with the LDK - AAK - Nisma coalition, tried to thwart PDK by attempting to form a new government together. A decision by the Constitutional Court of Kosovo that deemed Isa Mustafa 's election as Chairman of the Assembly of Kosovo unconstitutional, led to the breakup of
26520-457: The top administrator of any branch of government to lower level officials, or divesting of the function entirely through privatization. It has been called the " new public management " which has been described as decentralization, management by objectives, contracting out, competition within government and consumer orientation. Political decentralization signifies a reduction in the authority of national governments over policy-making. This process
26690-423: The trainings and workshops" -- this "empowers participants." Bottom-up approaches are often not impactful beyond local settings. Grassroots organizations take on a bottom-up approach as they often allow for direct community participation. Grassroots movements are usually criticized because the recent rise in social media has resulted in leaderless and horizontal movements. Some argue that social movements without
26860-486: The unemployment that resulted from the public enterprises privatization process overseen by UNMIK. In other activities, Vetëvendosje activists opposed the decentralization of local government along ethnic lines and demanded the return of the bodies of missing persons from the Kosovo War , as well as an apology from Serbia for its crimes committed during the war. Apart from criticizing UNMIK, Vetëvendosje also criticized local politicians, arguing that they did not represent
27030-493: The use of violent tactics in obstructing the democratic process. Freedom of speech does not mean the right to restrict the freedom of movement of others. Vetëvendosje’s continued reliance on violent tactics undermines Kosovo’s reputation as an emerging democracy." The reaction from Vetëvendosje was vague, with soon-to-be-gone Alma Lama being the first one to personally apologize to the U.S. ambassador. On 1 July 2013, Glauk Konjufca apologized to all foreign representatives visiting
27200-438: The words: agricultural-industrial federation. All my political ideas boil down to a similar formula: political federation or decentralization." In the early 20th century, America's response to the centralization of economic wealth and political power was a decentralist movement. It blamed large-scale industrial production for destroying middle-class shop keepers and small manufacturers and promoted increased property ownership and
27370-418: Was accused of betraying the opposition and keeping PDK in power. The opposition organized massive demonstrations on the streets, and it used tear-gas to block meetings of the parliament. In the 2017 elections, Vetëvendosje received 27.49% (200,132 votes) making it the biggest political party in the Kosovo Assembly with 32 seats. In comparison to the 2014 elections, Vetëvendosje doubled in size. Despite being
27540-620: Was an advocate, writing: "Decentralization has, not only an administrative value but also a civic dimension since it increases the opportunities for citizens to take interest in public affairs; it makes them get accustomed to using freedom. And from the accumulation of these local, active, persnickety freedoms, is born the most efficient counterweight against the claims of the central government, even if it were supported by an impersonal, collective will." Pierre-Joseph Proudhon (1809–1865), influential anarchist theorist wrote: "All my economic ideas as developed over twenty-five years can be summed up in
27710-424: Was becoming part of Kosovo's political establishment, which it had criticized until that point. It would later switch to the status of a political party in 2017 in order to be allowed to enter into pre-electoral coalitions. The New Spirit Party ( Albanian : Partia Fryma e Re ) merged into Vetëvendosje on 31 March 2011. The leader of New Spirit Party, Shpend Ahmeti became vice-chairman of Vetëvendosje and he won
27880-435: Was described by Shpend Ahmeti statement: "The protest was not violent, we didn't want anyone to get hurt, we are sorry if someone actually did, but the negative effects of the agreement overrun any side effects of the protest", adding "the government is trying to show us as anti-American , which we are not". Grassroots A grassroots movement is one that uses the people in a given district, region or community as
28050-520: Was founded in the 1970s and has grown into an international organization. The MST focused on organizing young farmers and their children in fighting for a variety of rights, most notably the right to access land. The movement sought organic leaders and used strategies of direct action such as land occupations. It largely maintained autonomy from the Brazilian government. The MST traces its roots to discontent arising from large land inequalities in Brazil in
28220-463: Was killed while in the crowd, while the second protester was hiding from the tear gas inside Hotel Iliria when he got shot on the head. Apart from the two deaths, the protest resulted in an additional seven serious injuries and 73 minor injuries. One protester who was shot next to his heart survived after a long state of coma and had to live with the projectile inside his chest until his natural death in 2020. A UNMIK internal investigation revealed that
28390-402: Was largely successful both in disseminating the information through think tanks and in disguising the true nature of the think tanks. More controversial examples of astroturfing often exhibit some characteristics of a real grassroots organization, but also characteristics of astroturf. Many of President Obama's efforts, for example, have been deemed grassroots because of their focus on involving
28560-410: Was not subject to Serbia's approval. A major turning point for Vetëvendosje's position in Kosovo's politics took place in 2010, when the movement expanded its activity and registered as a citizen initiative at the Central Election Commission and ran for the 2010 Kosovan parliamentary election , where it established itself as the third-largest political party in Kosovo. Vetëvendosje has been described as
28730-410: Was the "latest fashion" in development administration. Cornell University 's project on Restructuring Local Government states that decentralization refers to the "global trend" of devolving responsibilities to regional or local governments. Robert J. Bennett's Decentralization, Intergovernmental Relations and Markets: Towards a Post-Welfare Agenda describes how after World War II governments pursued
28900-538: Was ultimately instrumental in integrating the Peabody College of Education in Nashville. Furthermore, the desegregation plan proposed by Van Til's Conference was implemented by Nashville schools in 1957. This movement is characterized as grassroots because it focused on changing a norm at the local level using local power. Van Til worked with local organizations to foster political dialogue and was ultimately successful. The Brazilian Landless Workers Movement (MST)
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