Abstract
62.4862 AALBERG, Toril; IYENGAR, Shanto; MESSING, Solomon —
No research to date has investigated the parallel relationship between attributes of individuals and willingness to admit these individuals as legal immigrants. This study examines Norwegians' evaluations of individual immigrants. Using an experimental design, specific attributes of immigrants are manipulated, making them appear more or less likely to make an economic contribution and more or less likely to assimilate into Norwegian culture. It is found that the decision to admit individuals is predominantly influenced by the immigrant's economic background. Norwegians are especially supportive of highly skilled immigrants. The immigrant's race is also relevant, but the effect of racial cues varies between men and women. The article recommends that immigration researchers measure public support for immigration at both the policy and individual immigrant levels. [R, abr.]
62.4863 ABOU-EL-FADL, Reem —
This article addresses an aspect of Egypt's 2011 revolution almost entirely ignored in most Western media accounts: Israel and Palestine as prominent themes of protest. In reviewing Egyptian mobilization opposing normalization and in support of the Palestinian cause starting from A. Sadat's peace initiative of the mid-1970s, the author shows how the anti-Mubarak movement that took off as of the mid-2000s built on the Palestine activism and networks already in place. While the trigger of the revolution and the focus of its first eighteen days was domestic change, the article shows how domestic and foreign policy issues (especially Israel and Palestine) were inextricably intertwined, with the leadership bodies of the revolution involved in both. [R]
62.4864 ADAMS, James; GREEN, Jane; MILAZZO, Caitlin —
The British Labour and Conservative Parties have converged dramatically on economic and social welfare policy over the past two decades. The authors ask: has there been a parallel depolarization in the British mass public's policy attitudes and partisan loyalties, pointing to a general mechanism that extends beyond the US case? The authors report analyses of election survey data from 1987 to 2001 that document significant declines in the association between British citizens' policy positions and their partisanship (partisan sorting). However, they find only modest changes in the dispersion of British respondents' self-placements on the policy scales (policy extremity) and in mass attitude constraint, defined as the correlations between citizens' positions across different policy issues. [R, abr.]
62.4865 AKKERMAN, Tjitske —
This article investigates the direct influence of radical-right parties on immigration and integration policies by comparing the output of 27 cabinets of varying composition in nine countries in the period between 1996 and 2010. A Nationalist Immigration and Integration Policy index has been developed to measure legislative changes with regard to citizenship and denizenship, asylum, illegal residence, family reunion and integration. The comparative analysis of immigration and integration legislation shows that the policy output of cabinets including radical-right parties deviates significantly from center-left and center cabinets, but does not differ much from that of center-right cabinets. The quantitative analysis makes clear that although parties matter, radical-right parties do not matter in particular. [R, abr.]
62.4866 ALHARGAN, Raed Abdulaziz —
Since the early 2000s, the effectiveness of local actors in Saudi Arabia has gradually been developing. The space for people to pressure the government from below has increased, representing a greater challenge. Local actors have been especially advocating for civil rights and respect for the law. They arise mainly from the religious establishment, unaffiliated government clerics, independent rights activists, local NGOs, and activists and writers with Islamo-liberal orientations. Saudi society's openness toward international media and the Internet, publicly available since 1999, has played a significant role in empowering local actors. The main trigger for local activity has been the violation of the rights to freedom from arbitrary arrest and detention, following the arbitrary arrests of the early 2000s on suspicion of belonging to al-Qaeda. [See Abstr. 62.5551]
62.4867 ALTSCHULER, Daniel; CORRALES, Javier —
In contrast to more pessimistic studies, we find evidence that civic participation in one domain of public life can lead to more participation elsewhere, what they call spillover effects. Our findings are based on a large survey of participants in community-managed schools throughout rural Honduras and Alta Verapaz, Guatemala. Despite various obstacles to spillovers, once initiated, participation can engender further participation. Many participants acquire and apply new skills, and some join new organizations. These spillover effects are stronger if participants receive state support and perceive the participatory arena to be democratic. The authors' optimism, however, remains guarded: Even where spillovers abound, new groups' autonomy and scope of action remain limited. In short, participatory governance is not a dead-end affair, but its capacity to strengthen civil society locally is not guaranteed. [R]
62.4868 ALTUN, Fahrettin —
This study explores the content, causes and results of Orientalization practices in mainstream Turkish foreign reporting. The analysis is made of the “World” pages of the two national newspapers (Hürriyet and Habertürk), which can be considered the mainstream Turkish media. News articles published between 5 May-5 June 2010 are analyzed. Orientalism theories and the cultural strategies of media provide the basis of analysis. Foreign coverage provides the samples of Orientalization discourse and practices in mainstream Turkish media. This study suggests that Orientalist perspectives are quite common in “foreign coverage” in the Turkish media. Foreign news reports clearly exhibit the Orientalization “reflex”, which is one of the most visible legacies of Orientalist cultural strategies. [R]
62.4869 ALVAREZ, R. Michael; LEVIN, Ines; SINCLAIR, J. Andrew —
The authors analyze the choice of voting mode in the 2008 [US] presidential election using a large-sample survey with national coverage that allows a new perspective of convenience voting. Most importantly, they make clear distinctions among the major forms of convenience voting and demonstrate that not all “convenience voters” share the same attributes. In addition, the authors find little support for the hypothesis that convenience voting methods have partisan implications, despite the differences among mail, early, and election-day voters. Results like these have important implications for future moves toward convenience voting and the design of new outreach campaigns. [R]
62.4870 ANG, Adrian; PETROCIK, John R. —
Social group conflict along regional, ethnic, linguistic, and religious cleavages is deeply embedded in the Canadian historical experience. Contemporary analyses, however, have deprecated the role of religion and religiosity in shaping Canadians' political attitudes. This analysis demonstrates that religion and religiosity are significant correlates of Canadian attitudes on moral issues, paralleling the pattern observed in the US. It demonstrates that the religious cleavage has been a salient feature of Canadian politics for some time and considers whether the contemporary moral divide could serve as a portent of cultural-religious conflict in Canada if a “political entrepreneur” articulated an issue agenda linked to these religion-based differences. [R]
62.4871 ANGELOFF, Tania —
Since the beginning, Chinese feminism has been closely intertwined with the Chinese Communist Party through the latter's All China Women's Federation. What is at stake in that movement, what are its limits and specificities since its origins? Based on the work of Chinese feminists and academics and the study of concrete activism on a local scale, I look at the issue of “state feminism” in China and ask whether an independent feminism really exists, as it claims it does through various Chinese NGOs created since the Fourth UN conference on Women, held in Beijing in 1995, and in the context of “market socialism”. [R] [See Abstr. 62.4911]
62.4872 ANGERMÜLLER, Johannes —
This contribution looks into a speech by Russian President V. Putin after the terrorist attack against a high school in the Northern Caucasian town Beslan in September 2004, widely seen as marking the end of the liberal hegemony in the Russia of the post-Soviet period. However, a closer look reveals the many possible readings that are made of the speech. According to the reactions found in a corpus of press articles, the speech activates both “internationalist” and “sovereignist” readings in media discourse. By pointing out the polyphonic organization of discourse, I make the case for a productive exchange between the French tradition of discourse-analysis, interactionism and critical discourse-analysis. [R, abr.]
62.4873 ANTIĆ GABER, Milica; SELIŠNIK, Irena —
Drawing on P. Bourdieu's concepts of field, capital and habitus, this text [examines] the problem of women entering politics. It builds on the hypothesis that the person entering politics must possess specific forms of capital. This calls for an understanding of the way in which the political field is structured as well as of the broader political and cultural context in which deliberation on and actual entrance into politics takes place. We are interested in the way the political field is structured in Slovenia, how it functions and what its “message” to those who consider entering it. Through an analysis of interviews with representatives of the political elite, we delineate the concrete problems politicians of both genders face when entering and working in politics. [R, abr.] [See Abstr. 62.4496]
62.4874 ARNDT, Christoph —
The 2011 election to the Folketing [Parliament] led to a change of government as Prime Minister L. L. Rasmussen's center-right minority government supported by the Danish People's Party lost its majority. A new coalition government of Social Democrats, Socialist People's Party, and Social Liberals was formed. With no parliamentary majority, this government is dependent on the support of the radical left Unity List and MPs from Greenland and the Faroe Islands. Accordingly, the new center-left government of Prime Minister H. Thorning-Schmidt is in a difficult parliamentary situation, as apparent during and immediately after the government's formation. The intention of a number of leading politicians to break up the political camp formation giving back to 2001 is impeded by the election results. [R]
62.4875 ASAL, Victor; DELOUGHERY, Kathleen; PHILLIPS, Brian J. —
Political organizations claim they are serving the interests of their constituents—but why would [they] sell drugs then? Most often the question of why organizations engage in the drug trade has been explored in the context of organizations that are either criminal or violent, thus leaving a large hole in the literature about how violence and legality intersect with other exploratory factors. We look at both violent and nonviolent organizations using the Middle East Minorities at Risk Organizational Behavior dataset, which has data on over 100 ethnopolitical organizations in the Middle East. Very few of these organizations are involved in the drug trade and yet all of those are engaged in violence at the same time. We explore what factors, other than violence, make this rare behavior for political organizations more likely. [R, abr.] [See Abstr. 62.4456]
62.4876 AVLE, Seyram —
This article examines how globalization and the media influence young democracies in developing countries. it focuses on interactions between evolving technology, regulation and internationally savvy local entrepreneurs, analyzing their combined effect on media ecologies. Drawing on interviews and history, the author suggests that three things have brought the public sphere back to life in Ghana and have created a new cultural elite: the opening of the radio broadcasting industry to competition, the expertise of “global” entrepreneurs, and the proliferation of new media, such as mobile phones and the Internet. [R]
62.4877 AYDIN, Aylin; CENKER, Cerem I. —
This article explores the determinants of confidence in the Turkish government. We question whether confidence-related questions in mass surveys tap specific support for the incumbent government or tap diffuse support for government as a democratic institution. For this purpose, sociocultural, performance, and party explanations are tested. Four waves of the World Values Survey for Turkey are used as the data-set. The article finds that performance and party-based explanations are the most relevant. Turkish citizens place greater emphasis on “government as the incumbent” rather than on “government as a democratic institution”. The analysis also reveals the changing influences of both performance and party-based explanations across time, which points to the significance of context. Through a cross-country analysis, the viability of the findings in the Turkish case are evaluated against those of other developing democracies. [R]
62.4878 BAILARD, Catie Snow —
This study contributes to the research on the internet's effect on political behavior and organization by examining how the internet influences the types of evaluations that may motivate individuals to organize politically. This study employs a randomized field experiment to determine whether the internet influenced individuals' perception of the fairness of the 2010 Tanzanian presidential election. It provides a direct causal test of the internet's effect on political evaluations, and the findings reveal that the internet negatively influenced individuals' perception of the fairness of the election and recount. However, the findings also reveal that the impact of the internet on political life may not always enrich democratic values. In this case, more critical internet users also became less likely to vote. [R] [See Abstr. 62.4377]
62.4879 BAKARI, Mohammed; MAKULILO, Alexander —
In July 2010, the Revolutionary Government of Zanzibar held a referendum to decide on the government of national unity to end the impasse between the two main political camps, each dominating one of the two islands of Unguja and Pemba. [In] the referendum, the majority of Zanzibaris voted in favor of the government of national unity. This article revisits how the referendum was carried out in terms of observing the basic principles of a democratic referendum and whether the referendum would be a panacea for the polarization between the two islands. The main argument held here is that the referendum fell short of observing some of the basic principles of a democratic referendum since it systematically suppressed the voices of those who opted for a “No” vote. [R, abr.]
62.4880 BANKS, Antoine J.; VALENTINO, Nicholas A. —
A steep decline in biologically-based racial animus over the past four decades has not led to a softening of opposition to race-conscious policies such as affirmative action. One explanation is that a new racial belief system—referred to as symbolic racism or racial resentment—has replaced “old-fashioned racism”. Another is that nonracial values such as ideology and a preference for small government now drive policy opinions. We suggest that whereas disgust once accompanied ideas about “biologically inferior” groups, anger has become fused to conservative ideas about race in the contemporary period. Anger now serves as the primary emotional trigger of [US] whites' negative racial attitudes. We experimentally induce disgust, anger, or fear using an apolitical task and find anger is uniquely powerful at boosting opposition to racially redistributive policies among white racial conservatives. [R, abr.]
62.4881 BARRINGTON, Lowell W. —
One of the long-standing criticisms of cross-sectional survey data is that they provide only a contextually driven “snapshot” of attitudes. These attitudes are, the “snapshot critique” contends, highly fragile-subject to significant fluctuation based on events that arise domestically and globally. Although it makes sense that a major event can alter the percentage of people who respond to a given survey question in a particular way, it is less obvious that such an event jeopardizes the validity of multivariate analyses of survey data collected prior to the event. Given the prevalent use of cross-sectional survey data in quantitative political research, this question has significant implications for comparative politics. This study employs survey data from Ukraine before and after the “Orange Revolution” and from Georgia before and after the “Rose Revolution”. [R, abr.]
62.4882 BAŞKAN, Filiz; GÜNEY, Aylin —
The June 2011 parliamentary elections in Turkey marked an important turning point as the Justice and Development Party (AKP) became the winner for the third time and with a higher vote, 49.9 per cent. The Republican People's Party (CHP) and the ethnically-oriented Peace and Democracy Party (BDP), increased their votes to 25.9 and 6.65 per cent, respectively, while the Nationalist Action Party (MHP) obtained 12.9 per cent of the votes. The new parliament is highly representative, with 95 per cent of the voters being represented. This raised hopes about the drafting of a new constitution based on broad consensus. However, the enduring polarization of secular and religious groups, coupled with the obstructive attitude of Turkish and Kurdish nationalists, render this reformist undertaking difficult. [R]
62.4883 BEHNKE, Joachim —
In September 2011, the new German electoral law was passed. From the very beginning the debate on the topic was fundamentally flawed, since the parties could not even agree on which problem was to be solved by the new law. While the governing coalition stuck to a rather narrow interpretation of the parliamentary mandate, limiting their ambitions to eliminating the so-called negative voting weight, a number of arguments suggest an extended interpretation of the Constitutional Court's judgments in the sense that surplus mandates ought to be abolished altogether. Surplus mandates cause negative voting weights, while the linking of party lists impedes this effect. The separation of lists as provided for by the new law is thus an inappropriate solution of the problem. It can be tackled more adequately by eliminating the surplus mandates altogether. [R, abr.]
62.4884 BELL, Sam R.; CLAY, K. Chad; MURDIE, Amanda —
This article examines the neighborhood effects of various activities of human rights international NGOs (as used hereafter, HROs). We argue that the presence of HRO members or volunteers “next door” increases the advocacy mobilization and resources of a domestic population, resulting in improvements in human rights performance. When contiguous countries have large numbers of HRO members within their borders, these members are able to mobilize resources that are either directly transmitted across borders or diffuse across state boundaries. Using spatial econometric techniques in a sample of 117 states from 1994 to 2003, we examine the effect of neighboring HRO membership, permanent location presence, and shaming on the probability of improvements in human rights practices. [R, abr.]
62.4885 BEN PORAT, Guy; SHAMIR, Omri —
Despite legal limitations, commerce in Israel on the Sabbath has expanded significantly in the past two decades. This secular development is counteracted by religious boycotts of stores operating on the Sabbath. Using U. Beck's concept of sub-politics, we explain the shift away from the formal political realm, a result of a deadlocked political system no longer able to regulate boundaries between the religious and secular realm. As a result, both religious and secular communities use their power as consumers, albeit in different ways, to shape the public sphere. Using media reports and open-ended interviews with religious and secular entrepreneurs we demonstrate how (1) the value of formal political channels was eroded and (2) how the economic power of religious and secular consumers is used in the new struggles to shape the day of rest. [R]
62.4886 BENJAMIN-ALVARADO, Jonathan; PETROW, Gregory A. —
The authors examine Gallup World Poll data from Cuba to evaluate both the level of Cuban regime approval, as well as its causes. They conclude that Cubans are satisfied overall with their leaders, and that part of this satisfaction stems from equating the regime with the state. [R]
62.4887 BEYERS, Jan; KERREMANS, Bart —
This article describes and explains the variable extent to which domestic interest organizations seek access to the multiple venues provided by the European system of governance. A multivariate analysis of data collected in France, Belgium, the Netherlands, and Germany reveals substantial variance in multilevel venue-shopping, differences that disconfirm some descriptive accounts reported in the Europeanization literature. Surprising is that French organizations develop extensive multilevel strategies while the strategies of Dutch organizations are rather weakly Europeanized. Our analyses offer a better understanding of the factors that stimulate domestic interest groups to seek access to EU-level policy venues. Factors such as the nature of policy issues in which groups are involved, the group's relation with domestic parties, and overall domestic embeddedness significantly explains multilevel venue-shopping. [R, abr.]
62.4888 BHATTI, Yosef —
Living far from the assigned polling station possibly renders voting less convenient than if the polls are right around the corner. Using a cross-sectional dataset of about 2.3 million potential voters, including the distances between each household and the assigned polling station, a substantial impact of distance on the propensity to vote is found. An individual living five kilometers from the polling station has a ten percentage-point lower propensity to turnout than an individual living right next to it. The relationship between distance and turnout is found to be approximately logarithmic. Additionally, the impact of distance appears to be conditional on the availability of cars in the household. The policy implications of the results are discussed in the concluding section. [R]
62.4889 BIEBER, Christoph —
By electing 15 members of the Berlin assembly on 18 September 2011, the Pirate Party established itself in German politics. Is the party's success sustainable or ephemeral? Why is it so popular? How can digital political communication be translated into analogous party structures? How do the Pirates fit into the German party system, and what is their impact on the establishment? [See Abstr. 62.4488]
62.4890 BLAYDES, Lisa; LINZER, Drew A. —
The battle for public opinion in the Islamic world is an ongoing priority for U.S. diplomacy. The current debate over why many Muslims hold anti-American views revolves around whether they dislike fundamental aspects of American culture and government, or what Americans do in international affairs. We argue, instead, that Muslim anti-Americanism is predominantly a domestic, elite-led phenomenon that intensifies when there is greater competition between Islamist and secular-nationalist political factions within a country. Although more observant Muslims tend to be more anti-American, paradoxically the most anti-American countries are those in which Muslim populations are less religious overall, and thus more divided on the religious-secular issue dimension. We provide case-study evidence consistent with this explanation, as well as a multilevel statistical analysis of public opinion data from nearly 13,000 Muslim respondents in 21 countries. [R]
62.4891 BLUMENSTIEL, Jan Eric; FÜRNBERG, Ossip —
In what is a rather technical discussion about reforming the electoral system in Germany, previous research has largely neglected citizens' knowledge and opinions about supplementary seats. We demonstrate that voters are not totally uninformed about supplementary seat-attribution, but that their opinions about this feature mainly depend on their political preferences. Voters tend to view additional seats as a political instrument more than as a legitimate by-product of the type of electoral rules used in Germany. [R]
62.4892 BOLLEYER, Nicole —
It is widely acknowledged that political parties in European democracies have become increasingly dependent on state resources, most notably direct state funding. Yet cross-national studies on parties' usage of state resources that are not earmarked for partisan purposes, which require the assessment of informal, intra-organizational practices, are still rare. This article looks at one such practice across 33 parties in five European democracies: namely the “taxing” of national MPs' salaries. Under this practice, candidates who enter elected office on a party ticket are obliged regularly to donate a fixed share of their public salaries to party coffers. The empirical analysis shows that the presence of a taxing rule is more likely in parties with a strong extra-parliamentary organization, while a leftist ideology facilitates the collection of high salary shares from parliamentarians. [R, abr.]
62.4893 BOOMGAARDEN, Hajo G.; VLIEGENTHART, Rens; DE VREESE, Claes H. —
The 2008 US presidential election was a worldwide event that gained significant public and media attention well beyond the borders of the US. We assess the impact of media coverage of presidential candidates B. Obama and J. McCain on public opinion dynamics in the Netherlands. Drawing on three sources of data—a media content-analysis, ten repeated cross-sectional surveys and a two-wave panel survey—we assess media effects on candidate campaign evaluations and expectations of who will win the election on the macro- and micro-level. We find that media favorability increases positive evaluations of McCain, while being exposed to the campaign in general contributed to more favorable assessments of Obama. We explain these results by pointing to the overwhelmingly stable and positive coverage of Obama in international media. [R]
62.4894 BOŞOTEANU, Ionela Carmen —
Scholars have seldom tested the innovation and normalization paradigm of e-campaigning over time. This article presents an integrated quantitative analysis of the functional, content-related and formal aspects of Romanian political party websites during the 2009 presidential elections. Online communication with various characteristics shows the lack of experience of the candidates and communicators. The results provide evidence of limited interactivity in Romanian e-campaigning. [R] [See Abstr. 62.5052]
62.4895 BOYKOFF, Jules —
Much was at stake at the 2010 UN climate-change conference in Cancún, Mexico. The UN Framework Convention on Climate Change was being challenged by the world's two largest greenhouse gas emitters, China and the US, after these countries reached a tenuous backroom deal one year earlier in Copenhagen. Meanwhile, scientific studies were warning of serious and severe climate change. This article analyzes newspaper articles and television segments from the US media during the time-frame of the Cancún conference, focusing on two key facets of coverage that continue to be important as negotiations proceed: the economic impacts and opportunities that climate change creates and the role that China plays in negotiations. I also examine which sources were allowed through the news gates and which ones were marginalized. [R, abr.]
62.4896 BRANDENBURG, Heinz; VAN EGMOND, Marcel —
This study reassesses the ability of the mass media to influence voter opinions directly. Combining data on media content with individuals' assessments of British political parties during the 2005 general election campaign allows a test of newspapers' persuasive influence in a way previously considered a “virtual impossibility”. Utilizing repeated measures from the 2005 BES [British Electoral Studies] campaign panel, multilevel regression analysis reveals significant impact of partisan slant not just on the evaluation of the party mentioned but also on evaluations of its competitor(s). The strongest evidence of direct media persuasion is provided by the finding that variation in slant over the campaign drives how undecided voters evaluate the incumbent government party, even when controlling for a newspaper's average partisan slant. [R]
62.4897 BRAS, Jean-Philippe —
The coming to power of political parties claiming to support moderate Islamism is challenging the North African societies' political, economic and social modernization. The place of Islam in a modern state is an indication of the extent of the reforms under way. By examining the issue from a legal point of view, the author reveals a fairly conventional political game. [R]
62.4898 BRICEÑO MONTESINOS, Héctor Gabriel —
During its first three decades, the Venezuelan electoral system displayed great stability. The few reforms focused on consolidating and deepening the proportional representation system designed in 1958, as well as adapting it to the new times and new demands from society. Since 1989, however, major changes have been made to the electoral system, ushering in an era of uncertainty in which each election is preceded by a change in rules, modifying the system designed at the outset of Venezuelan democracy. Only since 1999 has the electoral system been changed without major concerns to a system with other characteristics. After the approval in August 2009 of the Organic Law on Electoral Processes and its implementation in the September 2010 parliamentary elections, the electoral system evidenced a change of direction this runs counter to the values enshrined in Art. 186 of the 1999 Constitution, which established the principle of proportional representation and personalization of the vote. The tool used to achieve this reversal was reapportionment, but an arbitrary distribution of lists and nominal parliamentary seats and as well as the independence of the two. [R]
62.4899 BRIGEVICH, Anna —
How do regional and European identities fit together? Building on extant identity theory I formulate three expectations on how territorial identities may relate. I test these using Spanish survey data by constructing a new measure that distinguishes between nested, inclusive and exclusive regional identity, and also accounts for minority nationalism. Consistent with the literature, my findings indicate that nested and inclusive identities are associated with greater European attachment, while exclusive regionalism leads to less attachment. However, counter to the literature, exclusive regionalism dampens European attachment more than exclusive nationalism, and minority nationalism is also associated with less attachment to Europe. [R]
62.4900 BROUARD, Sylvain; GROSSMAN, Emiliano; GUINAUDEAU, Isabelle —
Based on new data from French electoral party platforms between 1981 and 2007, this paper develops an new interpretation of French electoral competition. Rather than focusing on cleavages and alignments, we understand the political game in terms of attention to election issues, starting with the conventional assumption of issue ownership. We confront that with the assumption of issue uptake. This reflects better the dynamics of issue-competition, particularly in the French case. Our conclusions illustrate the importance of analyzing French electoral competition through the lens of issue-competition and provide a new perspective on the dynamics of issue-competition between French parties. [R]
62.4901 BRUNSTETTER, Daniel R. —
The just war tradition provides an ensemble of principles for when and how to wage war, but these principles are subject to hierarchy and interpretation. In the US, the division between Republicans and Democrats delineates different approaches to interpreting the just war tradition that influence the way its principles are applied. To explore the ways in which the just war tradition has been appropriated, I examine the presidential debates of 2000 (Bush-Gore), 2004 (Bush-Kerry) and 2008 (McCain-Obama). These debates provide a lens through which to interpret the salient questions regarding war in the first decade of the third millennium from the perspective of the US. They demonstrate important differences in the interpretation and application of the principles of last resort, just cause, and legitimate authority. [R, abr.] [See Abstr. 62.4601]
62.4902 BRUSATTIN, Lorenzo —
An experiment was designed to ascertain if political sophistication helps the voter focus on the available information about the ideology of candidates as opposed to drawing inferences on the candidates' personality based on their photos. With this purpose in mind, 937 participants in a web questionnaire were presented with two unknown hypothetical candidates and were asked to vote for one of them. Information on the candidates was presented (and successively manipulated) in the fashion of electoral posters showing both the candidates' pictures as well as a set of policy statements. According to the findings, the photograph of a candidate significantly influences voter behavior at the ballot box. Moreover, a higher level of political sophistication does not prevent or reduce the possibility that such visual information may have a bearing on a candidate's electoral success. [R]
62.4903 BÜHLMANN, Marc; SCHÄDEL, Lisa —
In a cross-country comparison of 33 European countries, we tested whether a high degree of female representation attenuates the assumed negative impact of gender on political involvement. Our multilevel analyses show positive interactive effects of female representation: the degree to which the representation of women in a given country's national parliament was descriptively adequate was positively related to women's ratings of the importance of politics and self-reported political interest. With respect to political participation, the findings are mixed. [R] [See Abstr. 62.4527]
62.4904 BURCH, Traci —
This paper re-examines the impact of Florida's disfranchisement law on the 2000 [US] presidential election. The analysis simulates outcomes in Florida under scenarios consistent with the turnout rates of Georgia and North Carolina ex-felons in 2000 and Florida ex-felons in 2008. Survey evidence on candidate preferences as well as data on ex-felon party registration in Florida and North Carolina are used to produce estimates of support for G.W. Bush and A. Gore among ex-felons. Based on the simulations, the ex-felon population in Florida would have favored Bush in 2000. Assuming that ex-felons supported Gore at rates similar to GSS respondents with at most a high school diploma, Bush would have defeated Gore by 4, 925 and 7,048 votes, assuming turnout of 10 and 15%, respectively. [R]
62.4905 BURGOON, Brian —
Political scientists have long debated how economic globalization influences national social policies, but they have so far not explored the political demands of political parties implicitly underlying such influence. This article explores such demands to see how globalization affects partisan-political demands for the welfare state in industrialized countries. It argues that political parties link globalization to welfare policy, but in ways that differ across parties and faces of globalization. First, globalization can be expected to spark support for welfare policies as compensation for globalization's risks, but this applies more for left than for right or other parties. Second, this dynamic is different for immigration than for trade or investment because migration poses fiscal pressures and threats to solidarity that can dampen enthusiasm for welfare compensation and spark calls for welfare retrenchment. [R, abr.]
62.4906 BUSBY, Joshua W.; MONTEN, Jonathan —
The authors analyze opinion polls, focusing on the degree of congruence between [US] Republican elites and the general public on foreign policy. They find Republican elites to be consistently more internationalist than the public on most dimensions. [R]
62.4907 CALLAGHAN, Helen; HÖPNER, Martin —
What determines party positions on issues of economic governance? Most previous research [uses] approaches [that] do well in explaining cross-national variation, but [cannot] adequately account for changes over time. This article documents German Social Democrats' policy preferences and the underlying discourse on organized capitalism from 1880 onward to highlight the crucial role of historical context. The interests reflected in party positions cannot simply be read off the material environment. Instead, as suggested by constructivist work on preference-formation, they depend on theories regarding the causal effect of alterative policy measures. Following P. Hall, we treat the evolution of such theories as a “process structured in space and time”, by illustrating how “context factors” affect the relative salience of the multiple considerations pertaining to organized capital. [R, abr.]
62.4908 CANAN-SOKULLU, Ebru Ş. —
This article analyzes Italian citizens' attitudes towards Turkey's accession to the EU. It identifies opinion patterns in Italy concerning Turkey and key determinants of variation in popular support for Turkey's possible membership. [It] first analyzes whether the Italian public adopts a utilitarian approach in calculating the perceived costs and benefits of EU enlargement with Turkey. Second, turning to identity-related determinants, it examines whether Italians consider Turkey's cultural, religious and universal values to be compatible with those of the EU and Italy. Third, in terms of threat-based determinants, it examines whether Turcoskepticism in Italy is based on the fear of an influx of Turks into Europe, both from realistic and symbolic threat perspectives. [R, abr.] [See Abstr. 62.5257]
62.4909 CARLSON, Matthew —
In 1994, the Japanese Diet implemented a system of public assistance for political parties which many hoped would encourage party-centered rather than candidate-centered campaigns. This study examines some of the consequences of this system for party organizations and politicians. Using data culled from official subsidy and campaign finance reports, two empirical questions are addressed: (1) how has the advent of the subsidy affected the funds available to national party organizations and to individual politicians? (2) What are the factors that shape the allocation of the subsidy from national party organizations to party branches? It is argued that the subsidy has made it easier for party organizations to access funds but that the amounts of subsidies received by individual politicians are generally too small to alleviate much of their fund-raising pressures. [R, abr.]
62.4910 CARSON, Jennifer Varriale; LaFREE, Gary; DUGAN, Laura —
Despite concerns about the growing threat posed by domestic radical environmental and animal rights groups to the US, there has been little systematic quantitative evidence depicting the characteristics of their attacks over time. We analyze data on 1,069 criminal incidents perpetrated by environmental and animal rights extremists from 1970 to 2007. Based on the Global Terrorism Database's definition of terrorism, we classified 17 percent of these incidents as terrorist. We also conducted interviews with a nonrandom sample of twenty-five activists who self-identified as part of the environmental or animal rights movements. Overall, the attacks staged by radical environmental and animal rights groups thus far have been overwhelmingly aimed at causing property damage rather than injuring or killing humans. [R, abr.] [See Abstr. 62.4456]
62.4911 CHAUDHURI, Maitrayee —
This sketch of feminism in India raises some theoretical issues. It argues that postcolonial theory fails to recognize that what counts as “marginal” in relation to the West has often been central in the non-West. With a primarily textual orientation, postcolonial studies neglect the historical analysis of the constraints of social institutions and the possibilities of human agency therein. With this understanding, this paper traces the history of feminism from: India's colonized past through its nationalist and gender struggles; independent India's state-initiated development to the transformed context of globalization; and finally a contemporary India with a simultaneous assertion of marginalized communities and the rise of a “global middle class” with its paradoxical impact on feminism. [R] [First article of a thematic issue on “Decolonial feminism, gender and development”, edited and introduced, pp. 7–18, by Christine VERSCHUUR and Blandine DESTREMAU. See also Abstr. 62.4871, 4961, 4972, 4991, 4994, 5007, 5017]
62.4912 CHEONG, Pauline Hope; LUNDRY, Chris —
This article discusses the structural and cultural conditions underlying the production and spread of online user-generated content as radical media tactics. By presenting a case study on the escape and man-hunting of a key terrorist in Southeast Asia, the article examines prosumption and transmediation practices whereby official stories of the terrorist escape are appropriated, remediated, and virally disseminated across different social media-blogs, vlogs, and digital games—to help clarify how new media supports critical citizen engagement. The identification of online activities exhibiting middle-ground resistance, including rumors, political parodies, and infotaining play, illustrates counter narrative responses to mainstream media representations. Findings have implications for the management of tensions in wired global insurgency and strategic communication performances. [R, abr.] [See Abstr. 62.4471]
62.4913 CLAIBOURN, Michele P.; MARTIN, Paul S. —
We investigate how material and symbolic campaign appeals may motivate segments of the [US] electorate to be more engaged with the unfolding presidential campaign; this engagement is a first step toward bringing these populations into an electoral coalition. We pair two massive new data collections—the National Annenberg Election Study capturing public opinion across an entire campaign and The Wisconsin Advertising Project recording and cataloging the political commercials aired by campaigns—to examine how the candidates' choice of issues affects who gets into the game. We find evidence that appeals to symbolic interests are more likely than appeals to material interest to selectively engage targeted groups. [R]
62.4914 CLARKE, Harold D., et al. —
This paper assesses the explanatory power of rival models of voting behavior in the 2010 elections for the US House of Representatives. Multivariate analyses of data gathered in a 2008–2010 national panel survey indicate that a combination of national-level valence and positional issues had strong effects on the choices voters made. Campaigning in 2008 during the biggest financial crisis since the Great Depression, B. Obama had boldly reiterated the “Change You Can Believe In” mantra to propel his successful race for the presidency. There were serious political consequences when the expectations he raised went unfulfilled. The result was a politically toxic mix of valence and positional issues which corroded Obama's image and worked strongly against Democratic candidates. [R, abr.]
62.4915 CLEMENTS, Ben —
Addressing the effects of climate change constitutes a complex and pressing public policy challenge requiring action at the national and international levels. Securing public support for initiatives in this area is an important aim for policy-makers and civil society actors concerned with the environment and sustainability. Although opinion polls and surveys consistently show proportions of the British population with skeptical views, little scholarly investigation has been undertaken into public opinion on climate change in Britain. This research note examines which factors affect citizens' awareness of and attitudes towards climate change. It undertakes multivariate analysis of nationally representative surveys to examine the social and attitudinal correlates of climate change attitudes. [R, abr.]
62.4916 CLEMENTS, Ben —
This article undertakes a micro-level analysis of public opinion towards military action in Libya. It examines the effect of sociological factors and political attitudes. It finds evidence of a “gender gap” in support for military action. The effects of partisanship are mediated by attention to politics. Politically attentive Conservative and Liberal Democrat partisans are more supportive of military action. Public opinion is also affected by ideological beliefs, economic perceptions and pre-existing foreign policy attitudes. The findings contribute to research on public opinion and military intervention and to scholarly understanding of foreign policy attitudes in Britain. [R] [See Abstr. 62.4258]
62.4917 CONTI, Nicolò; MEMOLI, Vincenzo —
The article presents a large-scale analysis of party attitudes toward the EU with a specific focus on Euroskepticism. We first compare the attitudes of radical parties to those of mainstream parties in order to assess their differences with regard to many specific aspects of the EU process. Then, we show that extreme left and extreme right express rather distinctive views when moving from broad Euroskeptical stances to more specific preferences on the integration process. Finally, we highlight significant differences in party attitudes toward the EU across countries, particularly between the old and the new member states. [R]
62.4918 COWLEY, Philip; STUART, Mark —
The backbench rebellion that hit the [UK] Coalition government in October 2011 was one of the largest Commons revolts of the postwar era, on any issue. But it was not just its size that was noteworthy. This article outlines ten points about the origins of the vote, its timing, its composition, and the nature of the divisions it revealed. Facilitated by recent procedural innovations in the Commons, the rebellion was both evidence of a longer-term rise in dissent among MPs of all parties, as well as other medium- and short-term factors within the Conservative party. It leaves the Prime Minister caught in an impossible triangle, attempting to satisfy his pro-European Liberal Democrat partners in the Coalition, while keeping his Euro-skeptic rebels happy, and yet retaining enough credibility in European capitals to negotiate successfully. [R]
62.4919 DADDIEH, Cyril K.; BOB-MILLIAR, George M. —
Its newfound status as the bellwether state of African democracy makes Ghana ripe for a critical analysis of her democratic institutions. This article places the handling of parliamentary primaries by the two leading political parties in Ghana—the National Democratic Congress (NDC) and the New Patriotic Party (NPP)—under the microscope for closer scrutiny. The article interrogates the nature of these primaries, the procedures that govern their conduct, the factors that determine whether or not they are held, and the extent to which these parliamentary primaries have satisfied or deviated from democratic norms. While tremendous progress has been made in the candidate-selection process by both major parties, there is plenty of room for improvement to ensure that the process is sufficiently empowering of voters in the constituencies and, hence, genuinely democratic. [R, abr.]
62.4920 DARDANELLI, Paolo —
Research on Europeanization has greatly deepened our understanding of the domestic impact of European integration but has largely neglected the question of the extent to which it has influenced domestic politics in relation to state reform. The article addresses this question by investigating the case of Belgium, which has experienced the deepest process of state reform and at the same time has been the most exposed to Europeanization. It explores the connections between the two through a qualitative comparative analysis of the degree to which political parties have exploited the European dimension in their rhetorical strategies on state reform, with focus on three key time points. The results paint a contrasting picture. [R, abr.]
62.4921 DEBUS, Marc —
The political process and patterns of legislative decision-making in Germany are strongly affected by coalition governance. Pre-electoral coalition statements strongly affect the outcome of the government-formation process in Germany on the state and federal level. Little is known, however, on the congruence between the coalition preferences of parties and their voters. Furthermore, we do not know why coalition preferences of voters should affect voting behavior and if there is a causal relationship. Building on the literature on democratic responsiveness on the one side and theories of voting behavior on the other side it can be argued that coalition preferences of voters should influence their behavior at the polls. Data from the German election study 2009 show that coalition preferences of voters and parties are not only congruent. [R, abr.]
62.4922 DEMIRALP, Seda —
According to popular views, contemporary Turkish politics is defined by the ideological conflict between Islamist and secularist parties. However, the focus on the Islamism-secularism dichotomy, a common bias in the studies of Muslim countries, disguises a deeper fault-line between the old urban elites and the newly rising provincial actors. This article highlights the need to see beyond the “Islamism-secularism” divide and to consider the complex relations of power between alienated social groups in Turkey. It analyzes the intricate and multi-layered forms of “othering” in the urban secularist discourse, which perpetuates the inequalities and contention in society. Instead of taking the “Islamism-secularism” divide as given, the article analyzes the construction of secularist and Islamic identities and considers how this dichotomous discourse has empowered the urban parties to control the provincial. [R, abr.]
62.4923 DEO, Nandini —
The first wave of feminism in India was closely connected to electoral politics, while the second wave turned away from party politics. This resulted in a growing marginalization of feminist concerns from the public agenda. There is a strong relationship between movement success and electoral engagement. This article reviews the history of feminist interventions in electoral politics and demonstrates that early victories for women depended on their participation in party politics. I argue that the creation of the autonomous women's movement has had a diminishing effect on women's progress in recent years. A number of paths remain available to the women's movement to engage with political parties and political leaders. Staying outside the electoral arena has not served Indian feminism well. [R]
62.4924 DINESEN, Peter Thisted —
Looking at young immigrants from low-trust, non-Western countries in the high-trust society of Denmark, two perspectives on how generalized trust is formed can be examined. The first is a cultural perspective emphasizing that trust is a stable cultural trait passed on from one generation to the next through parental socialization. The second is an experiential perspective emphasizing the role of perceptions of fairness of state institutions concerning equal treatment of immigrants and natives. Building on a new Danish survey, results show that both parental transmission of trust as well as perceptions of institutional fairness matter for the level of trust of young immigrants, but the impact of the latter is considerably stronger. Additional analyses show that these perceptions are mainly formed by concrete experiences of fairness of teachers in school. [R]
62.4925 DOHERTY, Brian; HAYES, Graeme —
This article compares the tactic of trashing genetically modified crops in activist campaigns in Britain and France. In Britain, most croptrashing was carried out covertly, while in France most activists undertook open, public actions. The analysis of political opportunities, dominant in comparative studies of social movements, can take us only so far. While it helps explain the occurrence of direct action, it is much less useful in explaining the tactical differences between each country. A fuller explanation requires an understanding of how action was shaped by different activist traditions. In France, action was staged as a demonstration of serious, responsible, collective Republican citizenship; in the UK, activists combined a skeptical view of legality developing from anarchist individualism with an explicitly non-threatening, playful, ethos. [R, abr.]
62.4926 DONNO, Daniela; ROUSSIAS, Nasos —
This article examines the effect of electoral misconduct on party systems in new electoral regimes. The authors distinguish between different forms of electoral misconduct and argue that pre-election tools—which aim to deter opposition parties and their supporters and create a biased information environment—exert a “psychological” effect on parties and voters, whereas ballot fraud exerts a direct, “mechanical” effect on vote shares. Using original data on electoral misconduct in legislative elections in Latin America and post-communist countries, the authors find that pre-election misconduct has a strong reductive effect on the effective number of parties; however, ballot fraud does not. Further investigation suggests that intimidation of opposition parties and voters is the most important mechanism through which misconduct reduces party numbers. [R, abr.]
62.4927 DOWDING, Keith; JOHN, Peter; RUBENSON, Daniel —
It is known that those recently moved are less likely to vote. If the decision to vote is a cost-benefit calculation, then those intending to move may also be less likely to vote as they will not be affected by the local result. This self-interested calculation might be mitigated if people vote sociotropically. We show that the effect of intending to move is conditional on levels of social capital: those who have invested in their community are less affected by their intention to move in their decision whether to vote. Using survey data from the UK we show that (1) those intending to move are less likely to vote, (2) higher social capital increases the likelihood of voting and (3) the negative effect of intending to move diminishes when people have more social investments in their community. [R]
62.4928 DYCK, Joshua J.; JOHNSON, Gregg B.; WASSON, Jesse T. —
Party identification is notoriously “sticky”, yet over the last three decades the California [US] electorate has changed tremendously. A once “red” state has become one of the most reliable Democratic strongholds in the nation. What explains this change? One common explanation rests with population shifts and macropartisan trends. Another claims the combination of a rapidly expanding Latino electorate and a series of high-profile anti-immigrant ballot initiatives supported by the state's Republicans drove partisan change in California. Building [on] previous research, we reconcile the differential impacts of these factors on the state's Latinos and non-Hispanic Whites. Our analyses partially confirm and clarify previous findings regarding Latino partisan change, while directly challenging findings regarding partisan change among non-Hispanic Whites. [R]
62.4929 ECCARIUS-KELLY, Vera —
The Armed Revolutionary Forces of Colombia (FARC) and Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK) have both demonstrated an uncanny ability to transform themselves and adapt to changing environmental conditions. Integral to the groups are webbed criminal enterprises, cross-border sanctuaries, and internationally-oriented advocacy networks. Both organizations avoided catastrophic breakdowns through a combination of organic survival mechanisms and precise organizational restructuring. Since 2008, the FARC moved away from a centralized wheel structure model toward a system of multiple decision-making nodes. This encouraged a growing number of FARC commanders to focus on narco-profits rather than the organization's ideological goals. Meanwhile, the PKK functions in an octopus-like manner. However, the process of democratization in Turkey and improved international law-enforcement collaboration increased pressure on the PKK to restructure. As a result the PKK is struggling to keep its far-reaching tentacles coordinated. [R, abr.] [See Abstr. 62.4456]
62.4930 ELDER, Laurel; GREENE, Steven —
This project employs 2008 [US] National Election Study (NES) data to explore whether parents are different [from] nonparents in terms of their political attitudes and candidate evaluations. We find that parenthood does have political consequences, although often not in ways suggested by conventional wisdom. Rather than finding parents to be a conservative group, our results support the idea that raising children has liberalizing effects on the attitudes of women. Fatherhood shapes attitudes less than motherhood, but these fewer effects are in a conservative direction. We argue that the distinctive politics of mothers and fathers reflects the impact of parenting as a gendered socialization experience combined with the contrasting parenthood themes articulated by the Republican and Democratic parties. [R, abr.]
62.4931 ELMELUND-PRAESTEKAER, Christian; HOPMANN, David Nicolas —
Scholars have long argued that politics has become personalized throughout the post Second World War era. Increasingly, focus shifts from policy to politicians' personal traits. The media—particularly television—[are] the driving force in the process by focusing more on individual politicians and their personal traits than parties and their policy proposals. Empirically, it is not known whether the personalization of media content affects the political behavior of voters. Based on survey data from the 2009 Danish local elections, this article explores the determinants of preferential voting: voting for a specific candidate rather than a party. The findings show that institutional factors and individual characteristics are far better predictors of personalized voting behavior than any measure of media exposure. [R, abr.]
62.4932 ENGSTROM, Erik J. —
Considerable debate exists over the impact of electoral institutions on turnout in US national elections. I exploit the rich variation in electoral rules present throughout the 19th and early 20th c. Using a newly constructed dataset of district-level turnout results for the US House from 1840 to 1940, I find that electoral institutions and political competition jointly provided incentives, and by the turn-of-the-century disincentives, for political leaders to mobilize the electorate. The results demonstrate that changes in electoral institutions and varying levels of political competition help explain congressional turnout across districts and over time. [R]
62.4933 FAUCHER, Florence —
The article draws form archival research, interviews and observations collected over several years in both Les verts and the British Green party to reflect on the differences between the ways party members conceive their commitment to green politics. It argues that, beyond an analysis of political opportunities and constraints, one needs to compare the cultural roots of green attitudes and practices to understand the singularities of political organizations that share a broad commitment to sustainable politics and democracy. [R] [See Abstr. 62.5023]
62.4934 FICEAC, Bogdan —
The originality of the Romanian transition from totalitarianism to democracy is, in fact, its failure. Power was not transferred from the hands of a leader or of a small group of discretionary leaders to the legal-rational-bureaucratic institutions, but to large structures of “new rich”, which control the entire economic and political life, including the political parties. The only way to cure the Romanian political life is to professionalize politics, to make the political class to live for politics, not off politics. This vital goal could be reached by bringing strictly into force the EU rules and practice, especially the EU model of public expenditure. [R] [See Abstr. 62.5052]
62.4935 FIONNA, Ulla —
Political parties were granted freedom in their operations more than a decade ago, most notably through the lifting of bans on grassroots operations. The combination of political freedom and decentralization has given parties the opportunity to establish active and functioning grassroots branches and the chance to get local communities to engage in politics. This article examines and compares the operational capacities of four different parties (Partai Golkar, Partai Demokrasi Indonesia Perjuangan, Partai Amanat Nasional, and Partai Keadilean Sejahtera) in their local branches in Malang, East Java. Focusing on the aspects of local administration and local-central relationship, the article demonstrates that although the parties have responded positively to their newfound freedom to operate locally, that same freedom has benefited parties with better local resources and better central support. [R, abr.]
62.4936 FITZGERALD, Jennifer; CURTIS, K. Amber; CORLISS, Catherine L. —
The authors investigate the relationship between concerns about crime and concerns about immigration. Panel survey data from Germany allow the authors to examine people's views about immigration as they develop over time, showing that consternation about crime is a significant predictor of anxiety over immigration. Moreover, it has a greater substantive impact than other explanatory factors, such as concerns about the economy and objective measures of crime and immigration at the regional level. The authors also demonstrate an interactive effect: the connection between these two issues is especially strong among those interested in politics. A confirmatory step using the European Social Survey reveals that the moderating effect of political engagement is generalizable to the rest of Western Europe. [R, abr.]
62.4937 FLANIGAN, Shawn Teresa —
Drawing from interviews, surveys, and other forms of research conducted in Lebanon, Gaza and the West Bank, and Mexico, this article compares Mexican cartels to Hamas and Hezbollah. The similarities between them are striking: these are all by necessity territorially specific organizations tied to relatively defined geographic locations, and have deep and sophisticated relationships with the states within which they operate. However, there are critical differences between Mexican drug cartels and Hamas and Hezbollah as well, the most important (according to an analysis of multiple definitions of terrorism) being the presence of political and ideological motivations. This analysis illustrates the conceptual challenges and classificational ambiguity involved in analyzing terrorism and organized crime. [R] [See Abstr. 62.4456]
62.4938 FOUCAULT, Martial; NADEAU, Richard —
Who will win the next French presidential election? Forecasting electoral results from political-economy models is a recent tradition in France. We pursue this effort by estimating a vote function based on both local and national data for the elections held between 1981 and 2007. This approach allows us to circumvent the small-N problem and to produce more robust and reliable results. Based on a model including economic (unemployment) and political (approval and previous results) variables, we predict the defeat, although by a relatively small margin, of the right-wing incumbent N. Sarkozy in the second round of the French presidential election to be held in May 2012. [R]
62.4939 FULTON, Sarah A. —
The question of whether voter bias exists toward female politicians remains unsettled. Although anecdotal accounts of gender inequality abound, systematic research demonstrates that women “do as well as men” when they run. Previous work suggests that these conflicting observations result from an omitted variables problem. Specifically, if women are higher quality than men, and if quality is omitted from models of vote-share, then voter bias may be concealed. Using a unique measure of incumbents' political quality, the author's research documents a sex-based quality gap and importantly, is the first to link the quality gap to the gender parity in electoral success. [R]
62.4940 GARCÍA VIÑUELA, Enrique; ARTÉS, Joaquín —
The extent of strategic voting in the Spanish general elections of 2000, 2004 and 2008 is estimated using a new measure of strategic incentives suitable for proportional representation systems that avoids some of the problems associated with lagged variables. Strategic behavior increased from 12 to 33 per cent of the electoral base of the United Left Party, the major victim of strategic defection. This estimate is a conservative one as elite mobilization is controlled for in the constituencies, which is unusual in the literature on strategic voting that uses regression-based methods. [R]
62.4941 GARRY, John —
Consociational institutional arrangements in deeply divided societies are often criticized for cementing the underlying conflict cleavage, encouraging the continued dominance of conflict-based party competition and voter behavior and prohibiting the emergence of “normal” (non-conflict-based) dimensions of political competition. However, drawing on evidence from a post-election survey at the 2009 Northern Ireland election to the EP, I find that EU issues determined intra-bloc vote choice (at least in the nationalist community). This suggests that there is potential for regional integration projects, such as the EU, to contribute to the “normalization” of politics in a consociational system by acting as the source of an externally generated dimension of political competition. [R]
62.4942 GAUCHAT, Gordon —
This study explores time trends in public trust in science in the US from 1974 to 2010. More precisely, I test C. Mooney's claim [The Republican War on Science, New York, 2005] that conservatives in the US have become increasingly distrustful of science. Using data from the 1974 to 2010 General Social Survey, I examine group differences in trust in science and group-specific change in these attitudes over time. Results show that group differences in trust in science are largely stable over the period, except for respondents identifying as conservative. Conservatives began the period with the highest trust in science, relative to liberals and moderates, and ended the period with the lowest. The patterns for science are also unique when compared to public trust in other secular institutions. [R, abr.]
62.4943 GERVAIS, Bryan T.; MORRIS, Irwin L. —
In 2010, 52 Republican members of the US House of Representatives joined the newly formed Tea Party Caucus, the first institutional voice to the Tea Party movement. To understand both the policy orientations of the organized Tea Party and the institutional strength of the caucus's membership, we assess the extent to which caucus members are distinctive from their fellow House Republicans. Our results suggest that membership in the caucus is primarily driven by ideology and economics. Specifically, we find that Tea Party Caucus members are Republicans who are ideologically oriented toward limited government and lower taxes and who hail from particularly prosperous congressional districts. These findings speak not only to the nature and orientations of the Tea Party Caucus, but to the wider Tea Party movement itself. [R, abr.]
62.4944 GHERGHINA, Sergiu; CHIRU, Mihail —
The November 2009 Romanian presidential elections illustrate the process through which media exposure to exit polls during the election day allows strategic voting in the least expected situations (i.e., in the first round of a two-ballot setting). Organized in a two-round system in which the first two competitors qualify for the second round, these elections display one unsolved dilemma. The difference registered in elections between the two challengers is twice as large as the average support in the pre-election polls. Our quantitative analysis uses election results from the past two decades and aggregated poll data from 2009 and reveals that a large share of the Romanian electorate avoids wasting votes and casts them for candidates with real winning chances. Polls presented to the voters, by the media during the elections, made the difference. [R, abr.]
62.4945 GIBSON, Troy; HARE, Christopher —
This article examines the effect of religious affiliation and depth of religious commitment on the political behavior of Catholic Latinos, evangelical Latinos, and secular/unaffiliated Latinos. The culture war theory connects theological conservatism with political conservatism, but because prior research shows that minority groups often have alternate experiences with churches that place religious doctrine and teachings in varying political contexts, it is not clear that Latinos fit the culture war profile. We find that religious tradition and church attendance have an additive but differing impact on ideological and partisan identification as well as various policy preferences on social issues where culture war religious divisions are usually found (abortion, gay marriage, death penalty, and support for Israel) and other non-social issues (universal healthcare and taxing and spending). [R, abr.]
62.4946 GILLJAM, Mikael; PERSSON, Mikael; KARLSSON, David —
What affects political representatives' attitudes toward citizen protests? We test the impact of political representatives' left-right ideology, parliamentary position, and earlier experience of citizen protests. Using data from a pioneering survey covering all local political representatives in Sweden (n = 9,101, response rate 70%), we examine attitudes toward controversial non-institutionalized forms of citizen protests. The results show that representatives to the right show considerably lower protest acceptance than those to the left. Representatives in office show significantly lower levels of acceptance than those of the opposition. Finally, the results show that representatives with more protest experience show higher protest acceptance. [R]
62.4947 GLODEANU, Antonio —
The referendum has become in Romania an increasingly used method for consulting the citizens both legislative and administrative issues. Not all the results of referendum can be imposed in the parliamentary arena. Is the referendum a new road to conciliation, or a cause of conflicts? This article inquires if the referendum has the ability to provide a true government based on the sovereignty of the people, or is a delusion. [R] [See Abstr. 62.5052]
62.4948 GRECU, Silviu-Petru —
The success of the democratic order in the post-communist countries depends on the balance of political parties, the equilibrium of electoral systems and the role played by social capital in spreading the rules of democracy. This paper focuses on a multivariate analysis of political and party dynamics in Eastern Europe. The main purpose is to underline the party dynamics and evolution in a comparison between Romania and Poland, to create a comprehensive image of the evolution of elections and party evolution in post-communist countries. [R] [See Abstr. 62.5052]
62.4949 GREEN, Jane; JENNINGS, Will —
This article develops the reward-punishment issue model of voting using a newly collated aggregate measure of issue competence in Britain between 1971 and 1997, revealing systematic differences between governing and opposition parties in the way citizens' evaluations of party competence are related to vote intention. Using monthly Gallup “best party to handle the most important problem” and vote-intention data, time-series Granger-causation tests give support to a classic issue reward-punishment model for incumbents. However, for opposition parties this reward-punishment model does not hold: macro-issue competence evaluations are Granger-caused by changes in vote choice or governing party competence. An explanation is offered based upon the differentiating role of policy performance and informational asymmetries, and the implications are considered for comparative studies of voting, public opinion and for political party competition. [R]
62.4950 GREEN, Jane; JENNINGS, Will —
There is a discernable mood in macro-level public evaluations of party issue-competence. This paper argues that voters use heuristics to transfer issue-competence ratings of parties between issues, therefore issue-competence ratings move in common. Events, economic shocks and the costs of governing reinforce these shared dynamics. These expectations are analyzed using issue-competence data in Britain 1950–2008, and using J. A. Stimson's dyad ratios algorithm [Public Opinion in America: Moods, Cycles, and Swings, Boulder, 1991] to estimate “macro-competence”. Effects on macro-competence are found for events and economic shocks, time in government, leader ratings, economic evaluations and partisanship, but macro-competence also accounts for unique variance in a model of party choice. The article presents an aggregate-level time-series measure to capture the long-term dynamics of “valence”. [R]
62.4951 GRIESSHABER, Nicolas; GEYS, Benny —
This paper analyzes the relation between different forms of civic engagement and corruption. This first of all extends earlier analyses linking generalized trust to corruption by incorporating another element from the social capital complex (namely formal forms of civic engagement). Second, based on the idea that social networks' beneficial or harmful impact may depend on their characteristics, it investigates how the structure of social networks (i.e., inclusive vs. exclusive and isolated vs. connected) matters. Evaluating the engagement-corruption nexus for a cross-section of 20 European democracies in 2002/2003, we confirm that social networks are linked to corruption even when controlling for the effect of generalized trust, and that their relation to corruption is type-specific. [R, abr.]
62.4952 GUEORGUIEVA, Valentina —
This article elaborates on the question of how ordinary Bulgarians understand participatory democracy, studying a range of street demonstrations organized via digital media during the period 2006 to 2010. It starts with a brief history of spontaneous street demonstrations in Bulgaria, followed by an analysis of the uses of digital technology in this context. The analysis of participants' discourse reveals mistrust in the political system and a deterioration of the principles of political representation. The deficiency of the system, according to the protesters' view, can be compensated with a stronger acts of participation (court and legal actions, petitions, artistic manifestations, street protests, other forms of contentious actions. Spontaneous protest movements from the last years in Bulgaria are considered as an enactment of the changing patterns of political participation. [R, abr.]
62.4953 GYÁRFÁŠOVÁ, Olga —
Slovakia's new strong man is R. Fico. For the first time since the democratic upheaval of 1989, Fico, together with his party Smer, succeeded in winning a majority in the March 2012 election that makes it possible to form a single-party government. In his first term, 2006–2010, Fico pursued a left-wing, populist course. Now the party has changed. It remains to be seen whether Smer will in fact act as a social democratic party, especially on the issues of democracy, rule of law, and minority protection. [R]
62.4954 HACHEMAOUI, Mohammed —
Why, after more than a century of breaking off—from the collapse of the Turkish Makhzen to settlement colonization, from the disintegration of tribes to land dispossession, from colonial domination to the triumph of nationalism, from socialism to Islamism—has the tribal fact proven to be of such importance in Bouteflika's Algeria? This article proposes a dual thesis: the interpretative approach, opposed to the assumptions of the dominant paradigms, is used first to demonstrate the salience of tribalism without tribes. The analysis then goes on, surpassing theoretical metonyms, to show the prevalence of political clientelism and electoral corruption, the hybridization of the three répertoires presiding over the fabrication of politics under authoritarianism. [R, abr.]
62.4955 HALIKIOPOULOU, Daphne; NANOU, Kyriaki; VASILOPOULOU, Sofia —
What can explain the strong Euroskepticism of radical parties of both the right and the left? The answer lies in the paradoxical role of nationalism as a central element in both party families, motivating opposition towards European integration. Conventionally, the link between nationalism and Euroskepticism is understood solely as a prerogative of radical right-wing parties, whereas radical left-wing Euroskepticism is associated with opposition to the neoliberal character of the EU. This article contests this view. It argues that nationalism cuts across party lines and constitutes the common denominator of both radical right-wing and radical left-wing Euroskepticism. It adopts a mixed-methods approach, combining intensive case-study analysis with quantitative analysis of party manifestos. [R, abr.]
62.4956 HAMDY, Naila; GOMAA, Ehab H. —
This study examines the framing of Egypt's January 2011 uprising in the country's state-run, independent and social media using a unique dataset of Arabic language content from newspapers and key social media posts collected during the peak of protests. Semiofficial (governmental) newspapers framed the event as “a conspiracy on the Egyptian state”, warning of economic consequence and attributing blame and responsibility for the chaos on others. Social media posts used a human interest frame defining protests as “a revolution for freedom and social justice” and independent newspapers used a combination of these frames. Findings point toward the potential roles that news media play in shaping public opinion and demonstrate why social media have wide appeal in times of political crisis. [R] [See Abstr. 62.4377]
62.4957 HARMEL, Robert; TAN, Alexander C. —
This article tests multifactor explanations for variance among Chinese citizens' attitudes to two related but separable party-system concepts: the appropriateness of the current one-party system for China today, and the more abstract notion that multiple parties lead to chaos. Using data from The China Survey, conducted with a nationwide sample in 2008, the authors find that feelings of satisfaction with life and with the government contribute more to the explanation of support for China's current one-party system, while more general attitudes concerning competition relate more strongly to judgments directed at the abstraction of multipartyism. The data also reveal that while a bare majority of those expressing an opinion accept the argument that multiple parties necessarily bring chaos, the vast majority support the one-party regime for China. [R, abr.]
62.4958 HASAN, Mubashar —
This paper looks into the historic development of political Islam in Bangladesh, the third largest Muslim country of the world. Identifying origins and sociology of Bengali Muslims, this paper finds that development of political Islam took place in Bangladesh mainly in four phases: the Turkish war and the founding of the Khilafat movement during the First World War; the oil crisis in the 1970s and the boost of Islamic institutions and practices in Bangladesh's political discourse, mainly supported by the Middle Eastern countries; the Soviet-Afghanistan war and its linkage with Bangladeshi radicals in the 1990s; and by the globalization of war between Al-Qaida and West and its implication on Bangladesh through the rise of extreme groups. [R]
62.4959 HASSID, Jonathan —
Despite censorship, Chinese bloggers routinely uncover corruption, help solve social problems, and even pressure state officials to change policy. The power of online opinion is undisputed in individual cases, but the overall effect of blog discourse on Chinese political life is unclear. Do blogs relieve pressure for political change by allowing troublemakers to vent frustrations in a marginal medium, or are they integrated with the larger system of political communication in China, inspiring political activism and building communities of like-minded activists? Using large-scale content-analysis and specific case studies, I argue that blogs serve as a “safety valve” on issues where the mainstream media set the agenda, and a “pressure cooker” on issues where bloggers get ahead of journalists. [R] [See Abstr. 62.4377]
62.4960 HAUKIO, Jenni —
This article focuses on the publishers of Finnish voting advice applications (VAAs), their substantive contents and framing of the question. It examines the role and development of electoral engines in the media field. Which organizations create and publish VAAs in Finland? What kinds of agendas [do] the question contents form? Are the contents electorally specific or do they refer to issues unrelated to elections? What does the substantive frame-analysis tell about the contents of the VAAs? How does the general collectivist trend prevailing in the internet show in the VAAs and affect their development? The empirical data of the article [are] a sample of the VAAs used during the 2009 EP [European] election. [R, abr.]
62.4961 HERNÁNDEZ CASTILLO, Rosalva Aída —
Cet article analyse les défis méthodologiques et politiques posés par la décolonisation de la pensée et de la pratique féministe en dialoguant avec la production théorique des études subalternes des “féminismes postcoloniaux”. Dans un effort pour établir des dialogues Sud-Sud constructifs et pour confronter la fragmentation politique, l'auteure propose d'aborder la production théorique des féministes postcoloniales dans une lecture de leurs contributions à partir de leur propre perspective historique et géographique, et des réalités politiques et culturelles vécues par les femmes en Amérique latine. [R] [See Abstr. 62.4911]
62.4962 HERSHKOVITZ, Shay —
In 2010, Israel's Ministry of Information and Diaspora Affairs launched a new campaign: Masbirim Israel. Its purpose was to “recruit” Israeli citizens to the task of improving the nation's public image in the world. It was the first time a well-organized campaign was launched, systematically employing new-media tools and calling on Israeli citizens to take part independently in improving their country's international image—all at the behest of a government ministry. This article discusses prosumption in the political sphere and expands the idea of prosumption to a domain in which the state itself is the producer and its citizens are the consumers. The campaign is an expression of the idea of prosumption in the political sphere, [and] expresses a glocalized and grobalized condition in Israeli reality. [R, abr.] [See Abstr. 62.4471]
62.4963 HETHERINGTON, Marc J.; HUSSER, Jason A. —
Americans most often think about government in terms of its ability to grapple with issues of redistribution and race. However, the 11 September 2001 terrorist attacks led to a massive increase in media attention to foreign affairs, which caused people to think about the government in terms of defense and foreign policy. We demonstrate that such changes in issue-salience alter the policy preferences that political trust shapes. Specifically, we show that trust did not affect attitudes about the race-targeted programs in 2004 as it usually does, but instead affected a range of foreign policy and national defense preferences. We show that trust's effects on defense and racial policy preferences, respectively, increase as the media focus more attention in these areas and decrease when that attention ebbs. [R, abr.]
62.4964 HOLBROOK, Thomas M.; CLOUSE, Clayton; WEINSCHENK, Aaron C. —
Despite prevailing negative conditions, initial analyses of the 2008 [US] presidential election, including this one, find significant but not particularly strong economic voting effects during the fall campaign. We pay special attention to how the economic information context changed during the campaign and how those changes affected the evolution of retrospective voting. The findings show that there were two distinct phases of the fall campaign, that retrospective voting was nonexistent prior to the collapse of Lehman Brothers but was strong following the collapse. In effect, the collapse of Lehman Brothers turned the election into a referendum election. [R]
62.4965 HOPKINS, Daniel J. —
This article uses the post-Katrina migration as an exogenous shock to test theories of racial threat while minimizing concerns about selection bias. Drawing in part on a new survey of 3,879 respondents, it demonstrates that despite the [US] national concern about issues of race and poverty following Katrina, people in communities that took in evacuees became less supportive of spending to help the poor and African-Americans. The results suggest a novel hypothesis that threatened responses to newcomers hinge on both local conditions and the frames that develop around their arrival. [R]
62.4966 HOPKINS, Daniel J.; WILLIAMSON, Thad —
Critics have long denounced the design of suburban communities for fostering political apathy. We disaggregate the concept of suburban design into four distinct attributes of neighborhoods. We then use tract-level Census data, the Social Capital Community Benchmark Survey, and multilevel models to measure the relationship between these design features and political participation. Certain design aspects common in suburban neighborhoods are powerful predictors of reduced political activity, illustrating a potential link between neighborhood design and politics. Yet low-density environments appear to facilitate some types of participation. Suburban designs vary, and so do their likely impacts on political participation. [R]
62.4967 HORNE, Cynthia M. —
Lustration is alternately theorized and anecdotally alleged to either undermine or contribute to the democratic transitions in Central and Eastern Europe (CEE) by supporting or undermining trust in public institutions, and by extension trust in national government. Using quantitative data on nine countries in CEE, this study examines the impact of lustration and transitional justice measures on citizen perceptions of the trustworthiness of public institutions and national government. It tests whether and how the timing of lustration, the severity of lustration, or the packaging of lustration with other forms of transitional justice affect trust in public institutions and national government. This article finds that even when controlling for economic growth, democratization, and corruption levels, lustration consistently and positively contributes to citizen trust in public institutions. [R, abr.]
62.4968 HUGHES, Christopher W. —
This essay challenges the dominant negative critiques of the foreign policy of the Democratic Party of Japan (DPJ). The DPJ possesses a coherent grand strategy vision, capable of securing Japan's national interests in an age of multipolarity and centered on a less dependent and more proactive role in the US-Japan alliance, strengthened Sino-Japanese ties, and enhanced East Asian regionalism. However, the DPJ has failed to implement its policy due to domestic and international structural pressures. Consequently, the DPJ is defaulting back into a strategy in the style of the Liberal Democratic Party (LDP). Japanese and US policy-makers should recognize the risks of a strategy characterized not by “reluctant realism” but by more destabilizing “resentful realism”. [R]
62.4969 IERACI, Giuseppe —
Government alternation is a fundamental component of any efficient democracy and it could be seen both as an empirical proof (in democracy there is government alternation) or as an ideal pattern of competition (in democracy there should be government alternation). However, to what extent do democracies work according to such an ideal pattern? A Government Turnover Index (GTI) answers this question with respect to 524 governments in 22 European contemporary democracies since World War II. As suggested by the data and by the GTI, there is not necessarily a link between democratic competition and government alternation, although some democracies are more likely to experience it. It is therefore necessary to direct the analysis towards some systemic factors which may favor or hinder government alternation. [R]
62.4970 IGWE, Dickson Ogbonnaya —
The importance currently attached to elections around the world readily suggests that its successful conduct everywhere is critical to the advancement of democracy and to the maintenance of both national as well as global peace and security. Despite attempts to entrench peacefully electoral democracy in Nigeria, democratization has been marred by an upsurge of electoral violence. The effects of electoral violence transcend the political arena to socio-economic development and security. This study [examines] the factors underpinning electoral violence in Nigeria. It undertakes a theoretical excursion to explain events of electoral violence within democratization processes and highlights the characteristics of electoral violence and the determinants of its occurrence. [R, abr.]
62.4971 JAAKOLA, Vesa —
When the voter is choosing a candidate in elections using voting advice applications, will the decision be based on rational judgment of interest or values or is the decision more arbitrary or emotional? This question leads easily to situations where research focuses only on conditions which weaken rationality. This ignores heuristics, which is the most significant mechanism of the human mind in decision-making and judgment. The background of this qualitative study is the tradition of bounded rationality and heuristic for judging, initiated by A. Tversky and D. Kahneman. From this starting point, empirical evidence is presented on factors that influence selection decision and heuristics behind inference processes. The study was carried out during the [Finnish] 2009 EP [European] elections. [R, abr.]
62.4972 JARRY-OMAROVA, Anna —
During the 1990s and following the perestroika, the new public space was invested in Mongolia by a surprising associational movement of women which was very dynamic and whose main purpose was to promote women in politics. The Mongolian women's discourse demanded equality, revealing a true “sex class consciousness” independently of social class, generation and “clan identity”. The article explores the gender ideology, spread by the Communist Party, which needed women to “build the progress” of the country during the seven decades of communism. In addition, the Women's Party Committee allowed women to conceive a political action “as women” and for the entire nation, although controlled by the leaders. This enables us to understand the emergence and the activities of the women's associational movement and its inclusion in the international women's movement, with, for instance, the appropriation and use of the term “gender”. [R] [See Abstr. 62.4911]
62.4973 JENSEN, Carsten —
The social policy literature normally perceives left-wing governments and labor unions as pursuing the same policies, namely generous social protection. This paper investigates whether this is accurate. It argues that due to their different criteria of organizational success, unions and left-wing governments prioritize social programs differently. Unions give priority to labor market-related programs like unemployment protection; left-wing governments prioritize family services and old-age pensions. The paper thereby adds considerable nuance to the literature on labor movements and the welfare state. [R]
62.4974 JOHNSON, Gbemende; OPPENHEIMER, Bruce I.; SELIN, Jennifer L. —
Although a commonly recognized pathway to the US Senate is through the US House of Representatives, only four African-American House members have run for the Senate since the passage of the 17th Amendment, and none has been elected. We examine why so few African-American House members run for the Senate. Using an original dataset that includes all House members in the 102nd through the 110th Congresses, we explore the decision of House members, particularly African-American House members, to run for the Senate. Our results raise doubts about the existence of direct race-based explanations. Instead, we demonstrate with mediation analysis that contextual factors linked to race, such as state population, ability to raise campaign funds, and ideological extremity, play an intervening role in the strategic decision to run. [R, abr.]
62.4975 KAJSIU, Blendi —
The importance of the media for democracy is at least twofold; they provide a space for public deliberation, and they serve as a watchdog of accountability over the executive, the legislative, and the judiciary. This paper argues that in Albania the media fail to perform these two functions due to their ownership and financing structure. They key print-media outlets are owned by individuals or businesses who use and finance them primarily to promote their own interests. Therefore, to a considerable degree, the media are reduced to functioning as an instrument of those who finance it. I also consider the role of international actors and sponsors. The Albanian setting is contextualized on the basis of other European countries' media landscapes, as to avoid any stereotypical placement of post-socialist (failed) democratization. [R]
62.4976 KAKIZAKI, Masaki —
Turkish politics experienced a major political realignment in 2002, when the Justice and Development Party [AKP] came to power. This essay investigates the levels of trust in political institutions at this turning point of Turkish political life and by using the 2001 World Values Survey assesses the relative impacts of religion, economics, and political performance on that trust. Empirical results show that Turkish citizens lost a great deal of confidence in political institutions during the 1990s. Statistical analysis indicates that people's evaluation of political performance has the largest impact on political confidence, whereas religiosity has the least impact. [R]
62.4977 KALANDRAKIS, Tasos; SPIRLING, Arthur —
We estimate the parameters of a reputational game of political competition using data from five two-party parliamentary systems. We find that latent party preferences (and party reputations) persist with high probability across election periods, with one exception: parties with extreme preferences who find themselves out of power switch to moderation with higher probability than the equivalent estimated likelihood for parties in government (extreme or moderate) or for moderate parties in opposition. We find evidence for the presence of significant country-specific differences. We subject the model to a battery of goodness-of-fit tests and contrast model predictions with survey and vote-margin data not used for estimation. [R, abr.]
62.4978 KAM, Cindy D.; KINDER, Donald R. —
Faced with a choice between J. McCain and B. Obama, [US] voters in 2008 were swayed by the familiar play of factors—party identification, policy preferences, and economic conditions—but also, we find, by ethnocentrism, a deep-seated psychological predisposition that partitions the world into in-groups and out-groups—into “us” and “them”. The effect of ethnocentrism was significant and substantial, and it appeared over and above the effects due to partisanship, economic conditions, policy stances, political engagement, and several varieties of conservatism. Two features of Obama were primarily responsible for triggering ethnocentrism in 2008: his race and his imagined Muslim faith. [R, abr.]
62.4979 KANJUO MRČELA, Aleksandra; ŠORI, Iztok; PODREKA, Jasna —
We assume that specific everyday practices in politics in Slovenia are based on the traditionally defined gender roles of men and women in private and public life, that they reinforce these roles, as well as hinder the equal participation of men and women in politics. The analysis of interviews with male and female politicians active at the national level shows the existence of a gender contract that operates at the level of expectations as well as actual practices and which results in an asymmetrical load of private-life responsibilities of men and women in politics. The political profession in Slovenia is highly masculine. Female and male politicians adapt to the existing structure, which does not consider the benefits of the coordination of their private and professional lives. [R] [See Abstr. 62.4496]
62.4980 KATZNELSON, Ira; MULROY, Quinn —
Committed to a situated historical approach to studies of [the US] Congress, this article demonstrates how the 17-state Jim Crow South composed a structurally pivotal bloc during the New Deal and Fair Deal (1933–1952) due to its size and cohesion and the need for southern votes to constitute majority coalitions. Empirically, it asks how southern members deployed this capacity and with what consequences. Utilizing a multilevel coding of policy substance, it tracks whether southern roll-call behavior was consistent with Democratic Party positions and traces changes over time with consequences for lawmaking and party politics. Analytically, the article advances “situated partisanship”, an approach that privileges temporality and policy substance to understand when and with regard to which issues political parties are able to organize the preferences of their members and control lawmaking. [R, abr.]
62.4981 KIM Min Gyu; KIM Joohan —
The article argues that the reasons of the theoretical predicaments regarding the relationship between news media and public opinions are: (1) news media might not be a single entity—different types of news media (newspaper, TV news, and internet news) might have different effects on political behaviors; and (2) while effects of media on political behaviors should be probed through longitudinal data, most studies so far have exclusively relied on cross-sectional single-wave data. Through the latent growth modeling with a set of longitudinal data, the study reveals that TV news use had positive influences on the evaluation of the candidate's morality. In contrast, the internet news use showed negative effects. [R]
62.4982 KINGSER, Taren; SCHMIDT, Patrick —
The [US] Supreme Court's 2010 decision in Citizens United has generated a storm of debate about the role of corporations and unions in American elections. Since organizations may not be barred from participating directly in elections, the political agenda turned to whether disclosure of corporate and union involvement can serve as a check or tool of accountability. We argue that disclosure provides a very limited check, grounding this conclusion on the highest profile case-study to emerge in the 2010 midterm election cycle, that of the Target Corporation's contribution supporting a Republican gubernatorial candidate in Minnesota. This case should have provided extremely fertile ground for opponents of direct corporate political contributions, but even with disclosure and targeted mobilization, the effect appears to have been sharply limited. [R]
62.4983 KLÜVER, Heike —
Information supply is an important instrument through which interest groups can exert influence on political decisions. However, information supply to decision-makers varies extensively across interest groups despite the common objective to influence policy-making. Drawing on resource-mobilization and organizational theory, a new theoretical framework is developed that identifies organizational characteristics, more specifically the resources, the functional differentiation, the professionalization and the decentralization of interest groups as determinants of information supply. These theoretical expectations are tested based on a large new dataset. Using multilevel modeling, this article examines information supply to the European Commission across a large number of policy issues and interest groups by combining an analysis of consultation submissions with a survey conducted among interest groups. [R, abr.]
62.4984 KNUCKEY, Jonathan —
Using data from the American National Election Studies, this article addresses whether Sarah Palin affected vote choice in 2008. Findings indicate not only that evaluations of Palin were a strong predictor of vote choice—even when controlling for confounding variables—but also that Palin's effect on vote choice was the largest of any vice-presidential candidate in elections examined dating back to 1980. Theoretically, the article offers support for the proposition that a running mate is an important short-term force affecting voting behavior. Substantively, the article suggests that Palin may have contributed to a loss of support among “swing voters”. [R]
62.4985 KOSCHKAR, Martin; SCHOON, Steffen —
The [low] turnout might be [because] the campaigning for parties in a grand coalition is less confrontational and less polarizing. The SPD and the Greens reached significant gains, the Greens [entering] the Schwerin parliament for the first time. Prime Minister E. Sellering's party consolidated their position. Backed by positive frame conditions, the social democrats [became] a Landespartei. This fact worked against the CDU, which has to cope with the worst election result since 1990. The structure of the new government symbolizes the change in the balance of power between the partners of the grand coalition. The Die Linke party stagnated at 20 percent of the votes and remains in third place. The FDP lost three-fourths of their voters and cannot re-enter the parliament. [R, abr.]
62.4986 KRINER, Douglas L.; REEVES, Andrew —
In a county- and individual-level study of presidential elections from 1988 to 2008, we present evidence that [US] voters reward incumbent presidents (or their party's nominee) for increased federal spending in their communities. This relationship is stronger in battleground states. Furthermore, we show that federal grants are an electoral currency whose value depends on both the clarity of partisan responsibility for its provision and the characteristics of the recipients. Presidents enjoy increased support from spending in counties represented by co-partisan members of Congress. At the individual level, we also find that ideology conditions the response of constituents to spending; liberal and moderate voters reward presidents for federal spending at higher levels than conservatives. Although voters may claim to favor deficit-reduction, presidents who deliver such benefits are rewarded at the ballot box. [R, abr.]
62.4987 KUMLIN, Staffan; ESAIASSON, Peter —
Elections involving a major scandal were unusual in the late 1970s, but today nearly half are so affected. Multilevel analyses of Eurobarometer data reveal that scandal elections once had negative net effects on satisfaction with democracy. However, as scandals have become more common, the negative effect has withered away. This “scandal fatigue” process appears driven by changes in scandal material, rather than by changes in citizens' reactions to a given type of material. Scandals involving several politicians and parties still really matter, but these have not become markedly more common. The possibility that the increasing incidence of scandals has created a more critical approach to scandal material is discussed. As scandals accumulate, citizens may become more prone to ponder the relevance of a story and the motives of the messenger. [R]
62.4988 KUSTEC LIPICER, Simona; KROPIVNIK, Samo —
This article discloses the prevailing characteristics of those party programs used for Slovenian national parliamentary elections. We give mainly a general descriptive assessment of the status and importance of party electoral programs in the case of a young post-socialist democratic state, actually the first of that kind in the Slovenian case. Accordingly, a comparative approach of analyzing the outlook and content dimensions of party programs is applied. The comparison is made from three different perspectives: (1) party perspective, comparing the program content of the competing political parties; (2) time perspective, comparing the last two national parliamentary elections (2004 and 2008); (3) coalition agreement perspective. [R, abr.]
62.4989 LA RAJA, Raymond J.; WILTSE, David L. —
Are campaign contributors to parties and candidates in the US becoming more ideological? Popular and scholarly accounts suggest that political contributors have disproportionate influence in politics, which suggests an important role for them in shaping party ideology and widening the divide between the major American parties. Using the American National Election Studies (ANES) time-series data from 1972 to 2008, we find that although the importance of ideology in motivating donations fluctuates from election to election, there is substantial ideological stability in the donor population over time until 2002 when the proportion of ideological donors sharply increases. Ideological extremism has not become a stronger predictor of contributing money. We conclude that mass donors are not necessarily driving partisan polarization. [R, abr.]
62.4990 LADRECH, Robert —
The literature on party organizational change emphasizes environmental factors as well as internal circumstances. The literature on Europeanization and political parties privileges the EU as a key environmental factor in terms of change. This article combines insights from the party organization and Europeanization literatures in order to conceptualize the EU more precisely as a stimulus and therefore causal factor in party organizational change. Two types of party change are analyzed, new party positions (MEPs and specialized EU party staff) and party leaderships' responses to internal dissent over the EU. Linking a specific form of EU stimulus to a particular party goal helps to explain certain types of change, while inter-governmental bargaining may produce uncertainty for domestic political actors thereby inducing defensive reactions. [R]
62.4991 LATTE ABDALLAH, Stéphanie —
In the early 1990s, by producing new theologies, Islamic feminism challenged dichotomies linked to the colonial and decolonizing discourse shaped throughout the 20th c. on women's rights and movements. This feminist theology shows the ongoing appropriation of Islam by women, the individualization of religious knowledge, authority and practices. Since the beginning of the 2000s, Islamic feminism has entered a new period: it has started to influence political Islam and has contributed to third wave feminist mobilization in Arab and Muslim countries and communities. Being hybrid and pragmatic, this mobilization has challenged ideological oppositions. As such it is deeply linked to the postcolonial times. Renewing feminism and Islamic exegesis, the third wave is part of the process of democratization which started in the 1990s and has become visible with the ongoing uprisings and revolutions in the Arab world. [R] [See Abstr. 62.4911]
62.4992 LEE Wei-chin —
This essay analyzes media discourse and the political deliberation process in Taiwan in the 2000s, by concentrating on the talk-show fever of the past decade. Over this period, any political issue in Taiwan could easily develop into a heavily mediated political event, attracting widespread public attention and leading to a complex, intriguing power relationship among the media, politicians, and the general public. Talk shows have become a forum used by various political forces in Taiwan to compete and struggle for agenda-setting power and to try to manipulate public debates in favor of their political space and place. This study illustrates several distinctive features of Taiwan's political talk shows, identifies how they frame and promote political issues, shows the mediated interaction among different political actors, and evaluates their contribution to Taiwan's democratic deliberation process. [R, abr.] [See Abstr. 62.4309]
62.4993 LEFKOFRIDI, Zoe; HORVATH, Ken —
Does the diversity of party positions reflect the spread of mass opinions on migration issues? Our examination of mass and party positions as well as parties' compactness on migration issues in fourteen EU member states counters previous work portraying public opinion as mostly favorable of restrictive immigration policies and political elites as being biased towards expansionist policy. We find that citizens are more moderate than parties on migration issues, while party positions strongly supporting immigration and multiculturalism are largely absent. [R] [See Abstr. 62.4527]
62.4994 LÉNEL, Pierre; MARTIN, Virginie —
This paper deals with the Islamic headscarf polemic in France. The authors offer a new paradigm of feminism through a radical approach. They proposes a criticism of traditional French feminism, considered as too universalistic and might in some ways be seen as racist. Intersectionality is the paradigm which allows the authors to mix gender, race and postcolonialist studies and move beyond traditional Western feminism. [R] [See Abstr. 62.4911]
62.4995 LI Hua —
This article focuses on a specific aspect of Yu Hua's satiric criticism of Mao-era rhetoric through the use of double-voiced discourse in his novel Cries in the Drizzle [New York, 2007]. I analyze how this double-voiced discourse is achieved through the contrast between the focalizers' unreflective and matter-of-fact use of Maoist rhetoric and the public narrator's clear awareness of the shabby realities behind this rhetoric. The varied understandings of Maoist rhetoric within a variety of narrative voices give rise to sarcasm, irony, and parody. Four episodes in Cries in the Drizzle will be analyzed in detail. In each of these, Mao-era rhetoric is projected and embedded in the daily conversations and language of some characters who hail from villages in the countryside. [R, abr.]
62.4996 LIM, Merlyna —
To deepen our understanding of the relationship between social media and political change during the Egyptian uprising of early 2011, events in Tahrir Square must be situated in a larger context of media use and recent history of online activism. For several years, the most successful social movements in Egypt, including “Kefaya”, the “April 6th Youth”, and “We are all Khaled Said”, were those using social media to expand networks of disaffected Egyptians, broker relations between activists, and globalize the resources and reach of opposition leaders. Social media afforded these opposition leaders the means to shape repertoires of contention, frame the issues, propagate unifying symbols, and transform online activism into offline protests. [R] [See Abstr. 62.4377]
62.4997 LINDE, Jonas —
Mainstream research on system support and political legitimacy has to a large extent overlooked the crucial importance of public perceptions of procedural fairness for fostering public support and regime legitimacy. Taking its departure in the theory of procedural fairness, this article challenges the conventional wisdom of earlier research by arguing and demonstrating that public perceptions of procedural fairness and impartiality on behalf of the authorities are the most important determinants of system support in the post-communist EU Member States. The empirical analysis lends strong support to the fact that perceptions of fairness and the extent of corruption exercise a strong effect on public support for the performance of the political system and approval of regime principles. [R, abr.]
62.4998 LONGO, Matthew; LUST, Ellen —
This article examines the role of armed parties in democratization. Usually considered volatile and thus excluded from the democratic process, we argue instead that in certain circumstances, armed parties can have a productive role in elections aimed at democratization—most notably by contributing to the balance of power between incumbents and opposition, both before, during and after elections. An in-depth analysis of the 2006 Palestinian elections, in comparative context, shows how arms affect the calculus of voters, opposition elites, and incumbents to make elections more competitive and democracy more likely. The article then directly addresses the objection that postponing disarmament fosters civil war, arguing rather that postponing disarmament may actually help promote peaceful, democratic outcomes of states emerging from civil war. [R, abr.]
62.4999 LUCASSEN, Geertje; LUBBERS, Marcel —
This contribution first [examines] whether support for the far right is based on perceptions of cultural or economic threats posed by immigrants in 11 European countries. Second, it reanalyzes the question of whether class is an important explanation for support for the far right using new measures of class and, related to this, determines the extent to which class interacts with perceived threat to explain support for far-right parties. It reveals that perceived cultural ethnic threats are a stronger predictor of far-right preferences than are perceived economic ethnic threats. This cultural versus economic distinction is also depicted in social class differences in far-right preference. These are particularly evident between sociocultural specialists and technocrats, as anticipated by the new social class scheme. [R, abr.]
62.5000 MacDONALD, Geoffrey P. —
Indonesian politics is rife with contradictions. Islamic parties are performing worse across election cycles even while conservative legislation is passed and violence continues against “heretical” Islamic sects. Surveys indicate the Indonesians are becoming more “rational” in their assessment of governmental performance, yet also show strong support for Sharia law. In this complex political environment, how do political parties appeal to voters during elections? Are voters' rational instincts cultivated with innovative policy proposals? Or is general support for Sharia law exploited with conservative appeals? This paper investigates party strategy during the 2009 election using a content-analysis of parliamentary and presidential campaign statements. [R, abr.]
62.5001 MAEDA, Ko —
This study presents a new explanation to a puzzle regarding the reluctance of the Japan Socialist Party (JSP) to moderate its hard-liner Marxist platform. The author focuses on the preferences and strategies of individual JSP members, in contrast to previous studies that treat the party as a unitary actor. The author shows that Japan's electoral system created a unique environment in which the electoral prospects for some JSP incumbents would be seriously jeopardized if their party increased its popular support. The analysis demonstrates that the degree of security JSP politicians had in retaining their own seats was a significant determinant in their attitudes toward a proposed policy moderation plan that was considered during a critical period in the early 1960s that could have increased support for the party. [R]
62.5002 MAGAR, Eric —
Mexican congressional elections 1979–2009 are examined to determine if gubernatorial candidates have coattails helping candidates on the same ticket get elected to higher office and how the advent of democracy changed this. Analysis distinguishes rates at which gubernatorial votes transfer to congressional races from vote thresholds that gubernatorial candidates must exceed to help, rather than hinder, co-partisans. Regression estimates reveal that state parties transferred, on average, 49% of their gubernatorial success to congressional candidates in a concurrent race since 1979 and 69% since 1997. Local forces appear to move Mexican congressional campaigns and elections as much as national forces since at least 1979, raising questions about the relevance of federalism in developing nations. [R, abr.]
62.5003 MALBIN, Michael J.; BRUSOE, Peter W.; GLAVIN, Brendan —
Restrictions on speech will not be accepted by the [US] Supreme Court in the name of equality, but this does not rule out equality and participation as legitimate policy goals. It is both constitutional and appropriate to promote these goals without new constraints on speech by using incentives to increase the number and importance of low-dollar donors. The constitutional theory is straightforward. The empirical question is whether this could work. There are few examples of current policies with this specific purpose. One run by the City of New York gives participating candidates six dollars in matching funds for each of the first $175 that a city resident donates. This article asks whether a similar approach could become a model for others. [R, abr.]
62.5004 MALKA, Ariel, et al. —
Some argue that there is an organic connection between being religious and being politically conservative. We evaluate an alternative thesis that the relation between religiosity and political conservatism largely results from engagement with political discourse that indicates that these characteristics go together. In a combined sample of national [US] survey respondents from 1996 to 2008, religiosity was associated with conservative positions on a wide range of attitudes and values among the highly politically engaged, but this association was generally weaker or nonexistent among those less engaged with politics. The specific political characteristics for which this pattern existed varied across ethnoreligious groups. These results suggest that whether religiosity translates into political conservatism depends to an important degree on level of engagement with political discourse. [R]
62.5005 MANTILLA, Luis Felipe —
What accounts for the virtual absence of new Catholic parties in Latin America over the past four decades? From the late 19th to the mid-20th c., Catholic activists organized a variety of political parties in the region. Yet since the 1970s, despite the dramatic expansion of political opportunities in Catholic-majority countries, Catholicism has played only a marginal role in the formation of new parties. This article develops a novel interpretation of this phenomenon, arguing that changes in the structure of religious communities and church-society relations resulting from the reforms of the Second Vatican Council account for the absence of new Catholic parties. Empirically, it explores this topic through the structured, focused comparison of two periods of social and political upheaval in Venezuela. [R]
62.5006 MARCELLINI, Margherita; ŞENYUVA, özgehan —
This article examines the representation of Turkey in Italian newspapers. [It asks] if the representation of Turkey in Italian newspapers is stereotyped and ill-informed; if there is a convergence among the political elites and the media on Turkey; and whether Islam is being inserted into the construction of the perception about Turkey by the Italian media. [It] argues that religion plays an important role in the Italian newspapers' construction of the Turkish image. Several studies argue that a linear relationship exists between the quantity of media reports and the opinions of the population. Thus it is argued that Italian public opinion on Turkey is highly related to the media coverage and, most importantly, [to] how it is addressed. [R, abr.] [See Abstr. 62.5257]
62.5007 MARTEU, élisabeth —
The continuation of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict has undoubtedly weighed on Israeli and Palestinian feminist formulations that developed in parallel, as mirror images of each other, often in opposition and sometimes in dialogue. A crossover study of those movements makes it possible to re-examine the development of anti-colonial and anti-hegemonic feminists, revealing not only the interlocking but also the overturn of dominant/dominated positions between feminist movements rooted in national liberation struggles. This comparative approach aims at analyzing how coextensivity between power relations are captured by feminist collective action, including limiting the forms of solidarity across borders. [R] [See Abstr. 62.4911]
62.5008 MATEESCU, Silviu-Dan —
The author analyzes the cartelization of the Romanian party system and its impact on citizen representation and the consolidation of democracy. He surveys the development of the Romanian party systems, emphasizing on those electoral rules and regulations that limit open political competition on the party finance system. The electoral rules have became progressively harsher, and the party finance system clearly handicaps new competitors. This holds true for the rules on formal registration of new political parties. The present cartel has been extremely successful in keeping new competitors out of Parliament. [R] [See Abstr. 62.5052]
62.5009 MATSUBAYASHI, Tetsuya; WU Jun-Deh —
Do distributive policies affect voter turnout? Drawing upon previous research on distributive politics and policy feedback, we hypothesize that more distributive federal grants increase the rate of voting. Our analysis using district-level data from 1993 to 2000 reveals that the larger amount and number of distributive [US] federal grants allocated to congressional districts are associated with the higher percentages of voter turnout in the subsequent congressional elections. We address estimation problems that result from the reciprocal relationship between federal spending and voter turnout and of omitted variable bias by using an instrumental variable. [R, abr.]
62.5010 MATTES, Kyle —
Formal models of candidate and voter election behavior often assume that the voters are Bayesian learners who are able to draw inferences not only from the choices candidates make, but also from choices that the candidates did not make. Here, we introduce a formal model and experiment designed to test the extent of voter updating and how it affects campaign strategies. We find that voter behavior tends toward quite incomplete updating, which in turn leads candidates to increase their use of negative campaigning. [R]
62.5011 MATTILA, Mikko; RAUNIO, Tapio —
Whether parties are representative of their voters over the EU is a key concern in modern European governance. Using European Election Studies data, this article compares opinion congruence between parties and their electorates on the EU dimension in 2004 and 2009 and examines, at the levels of both member states and individual parties, which factors explain variation in opinion congruence between parties and their supporters over integration. The article shows that parties have become less representative of their voters and that they adopt more convergent positions on the EU dimension than their voters. Congruence is higher in smaller parties and in ideologically more extremist left-wing parties. Overall parties are thus drifting further apart from their voters on the EU dimension. [R]
62.5012 McEVOY, Caroline —
This article analyzes unequal representation in the EU by using a multilevel model to examine voter-party congruence across three policy dimensions in EP elections. Taking data from the European Election Study and the Chapel Hill expert surveys, I find that congruence is weaker amongst citizens who don't vote in EP elections, who switch party preferences between national and EP elections and who have low political knowledge but find limited evidence that smaller and ideologically extreme parties are more congruent with their support base. [R] [See Abstr. 62.4527]
62.5013 McEWEN, Nicola; SWENDEN, Wilfried; BOLLEYER, Nicole —
This introduction highlights the concepts of intergovernmental relations (IGR) and party political incongruence which are central to the analyses contained in the issue. It considers the nature and form of intergovernmental relations in the early years of devolution, under conditions of predominant party congruence in the composition of the [UK] central and sub-state governments. It then develops the hypothesized relationship between party political incongruence and intergovernmental relations, focusing on the nature and structure of IGR. It introduces the key questions to be addressed in the issue and each of the subsequent contributions which explore this relationship in greater depth. [R, abr.] [Introduction to a thematic issue on “Governments in opposition? Intergovernmental relations in the UK in a context of party political incongruence”, edited by the authors. See also Abstr. 62.4686, 4713, 4714, 4740, 4759, 4797, 4820, 4824]
62.5014 McGRATTAN, Cillian —
This article critically explores the idea that resolving ethnic conflicts requires some form of truth-recovery mechanism to ensure accountability for past actions. While the truth-recovery model suggests the need for a pluralistic, inclusive approach to peace-building, I argue that its intersection with party and identity politics means that it has the potential to destabilize settlement processes. Using the Northern Ireland case as an example, I describe how the truth-recovery model can trigger a contest over the past in which ethicized understandings of the past and the present come to the fore. An essentially disruptive element in peace-building, truth-recovery conjures into existence alternative historical narratives, counterfactual historical scenarios and, in an ethnically divided society, may actually narrow the space for debating “peace” and thereby reproduce entrenched and polarized identities. [R]
62.5015 MELNIK, Alexandre —
The [2012] Russian presidential election marked a real turning point in the country's history. By once again becoming the president of the Russian federation for a new six-year term, V. Putin won the election, but he lost the battle for hearts and minds. The main locomotives of the “Putin system” are slipping: the strengthening of the state has resulted in an unwieldy, inefficient and corrupt public sector; the flaunted patriotism has turned into a threatening pan-Slavism; and the Orthodox religion, presented by propaganda as the quintessence of Russian identity, in fact prevents people from acting by presenting fatalism as a virtue. Weighed down by these attributes, Russia is unable to position itself in the international race. And it is disappointment that pushed thousands of Russians into the street the day before the election. [R, abr.]
62.5016 MILICÂ, Ioan —
This paper inquires into the nature of violence, providing a basic pragmastylistic typology of speech acts by focusing on the features and the relevance of discursive violence. it also investigates the array of the linguistic resources used by the Romanian MPs to violently challenge their opponents, and gives evidence of the most recurrent aggressive discursive practices currently in use within the Romanian parliamentary speech. Last but not least, the research aims at providing insights into the discursive solidarity between violence and impoliteness, on the one hand, and between violence and stylistic inadequacy, on the other hand. The theoretical framework is supported with illustrative linguistic data extracted from the electronic archives of the Romanian parliamentary debates, available at www.cdep.ro. [R] [See Abstr. 62.4432]
62.5017 MILLÁN, Márgara —
Feminism is an ongoing process of practices and theorizing that unveils the complexity of the feminism as a topic. In the first part, I describe the anarchist, socialist and liberal roots of Latin American feminism. The 1970s and 1980s were marked by the processes of the radical left and repressive dictatorship. In the 1990s we see democratization with ONGization, and the de-centering of “enlightened” Latin American feminism and multiethnic feminism. [R] [See Abstr. 62.4911]
62.5018 MIRAGLIOTTA, Narelle —
The rise of green parties in Australia follows a path that is well documented in the literature; the inability of other parties to accommodate environmental concerns, the increasing salience of green issues for governments and an electoral regime that permits party insurgency. This article examines how these factors have operated in Australia, and the extent to which a distinctive federal structure and federal electoral regulation of parties served to modify the emergence of a national green party. [R]
62.5019 MITRACHE, Marius-Mircea —
At the end of World War II, new parties emerged on the French political stage based on their newly found legitimacy of participating in the Resistance movement. Among the new political forces, the Christian Democratic party Mouvement Républicain Populaire gained much popular support. In the following years, it became a constant government party in the Fourth Republic, but it did not outlive the life of the Republic which it had helped to found, and vanished from the political landscape after 1968. [R, abr.] [See Abstr. 62.4612]
62.5020 MITULESCU, Sorin —
The author focuses on the relationship between parties and their members, comparing the situation in Romania to the European trends. In Romania, after the unhappy legacy of the mass (communist) party the pattern of the staff party has been adopted, preferring to a large number of members, a mass of “sympathizers” easy to mobilize but with limited claims participate in the life of their party. The same trends can be observed in other European countries, and especially in Eastern Europe, e.g. Poland. The possibility of a good connection with the society persists, as seen in the Netherlands. [R] [See Abstr. 62.4264]
62.5021 MOMOC, Antonio —
The main topic for this study is the aggressiveness of the comments posted on the blogs of the 2009 presidential campaign candidates. The violence of discourse considered as freedom of expression was such that, candidates blogs were positive one, comments posted were negative. [R, abr.] [See Abstr. 62.4432]
62.5022 MOMOC, Antonio —
The main hypothesis is that populist candidates displayed interest in the new technologies than the other candidates. The online campaign of the 12 presidential candidates was monitored on social networks (Facebook), blogs and content-oriented networks (YouTube). The research method was content analysis. The result answered whether the online environment was used by the candidates at the 2009 presidential elections for purposes of political debate or merely for promoting themselves. [R] [See Abstr. 62.5052]
62.5023 MOUHOT, Jean-François; MATHIS, Charles-François —
Viewed from the USA or the UK, France's record on nature and environmental protection appears to be lagging behind other countries. However, French thinkers' contributions to environmental ideas are numerous, and several authors have even been important precursors. How, then, can we account for the lack of visibility of France and its intellectuals in global histories of environmentalism published in the last few years? By the preponderance of Anglo-Saxon historians in the new field of environmental history? By the greater willingness of American authors to engage in political contestation or their greater pragmatism? We provide some elements to answer these questions, as well as introduce and present the various contributions included in this special issue on “Thinking about the environment in France in the 20th c.” [R] [First article of a thematic issue on “Thinking political ecology in France in the 20th c.”. See also Abstr. 62.4567, 4570, 4582, 4586, 4603, 4609, 4615, 4933]
62.5024 MÜLLER, Evamaria —
National-socialist themes and symbols are increasingly popular within the Indonesian urban middle classes: Hitler's Mein Kampf is available, as well as T-shirts and other paraphernalia with Nazi insignia, partly as a fashion phenomenon, but also as symbols of supposed virtues such as strength, leadership qualities, discipline and loyalty. These should also be understood in the context of the Suharto period and system. [See Abstr. 62.5495]
62.5025 MURPHY, Chad, et al. —
What shapes the use of language in political settings? Is it differences between ideologues—liberals and conservatives—that change language-use? Or is it support or opposition to the issue? Using techniques adapted from cognitive psychology, we examine arguments used in ballot proposition elections and show them to exhibit systematic patterns in line with the theoretical arguments of W. Riker (1996). Actors' choice of issue position—for or against—can be seen to imply that the arguments they advance in support of their position are constrained. More specifically, we show that arguments in support of propositions are consistently similar to each other and consistently dissimilar from arguments against a proposal in language use. These patterns of similarity and dissimilarity persist across a wide range of issues and actors. [R, abr.]
62.5026 MWESIGE, Peter G. —
This article examines radio broadcasts in Uganda, and the promise and limits of talk radio as a forum for citizen participation, political competition and policy debate. Listeners use the radio airwaves to hear news, discuss common political problems and demand accountability from public officials. The government, political groups and other organized interest groups use talk radio to influence public opinion. They also use talk radio shows as platforms to mobilize voters, campaigning and promoting policies on the air. The author's analysis shows that these talk radio discussions also spread a kind of disinformation. Ironically, talk radio gives the listening public the illusion of influence, but leads to political inertia. [R]
62.5027 NAHTIGAL, Lea; PREBILIČ, Vladimir —
We define the notion of patriotism and place it in a broader context, namely from the perspective of globalization, a perspective from which the question of whether patriotism represents an obstacle to cosmopolitanism and successful European integration cannot be avoided. In the empirical part, the emphasis, aided by the selected parameters, is on the presentation of the results of comparative studies performed in 2008 and 2010 among primary school pupils and secondary school students. This presentation enables us to analyze the degree of patriotism among the young in Slovenia. [R, abr.]
62.5028 NAJDI, Youhanna; KARIM, Mohd Azhari Bin Abdul —
Iranians have experienced some democratic movements during the last fifteen years, but they did not succeed in establishing democracy in the country. However, the Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps (IRGC) has increasingly played an undeniable role in different fields of Iran's society, particularly after the war with Iraq in the early 1990s. Additionally, Iran's political economy, based on oil revenue, helped the center of power to support the IRGC and the government. This article discusses the relationship between the government and IRGC, concluding that this condition plays an obstacle role for democracy in Iran. [R]
62.5029 NELSON, David; YACKEE, Susan Webb —
Coalition lobbying is one of the most frequently employed influence tactics used by interest groups today. Yet, surprisingly, the existing literature measuring its policy effects finds either no relationship or a negative association between coalition lobbying and policy change. We theorize the conditions under which coalition lobbying will influence policy and then test for its policy effects. We expect greater influence when there is consensus across the messages sent from coalitions and when coalitions are larger and mobilize new participants. Using a multilevel model, we assess the argument with survey data from lobbying entities and a content-analysis of regulations promulgated by seven US federal agencies. In contrast to the existing literature measuring policy effects, we find evidence that coalition participants hold important influence during regulatory policy-making. [R, abr.]
62.5030 NIEDERMAYER, Oskar —
The SPD gained ground, while the Left party failed to convince the voters. The CDU communicated a new, more liberal image, while the Berlin FDP could not contrast the negative image of its federal party with an own positive image. [Just] before the election, the Pirates, a new party, entered the political stage. The SPD remained the strongest party, followed by the CDU; the Greens underachieved but surpassed the Left party; the FDP failed to jump the five percent hurdle and the Pirates entered the state parliament. After the election, the SPD aborted the red-green coalition negotiations, [viewing] the Greens [as] not reliable enough to secure a stable government. The coalition negotiations with the CDU went fairly smoothly and K. Wowereit was re-elected as head of the new SPD-CDU government. [R, abr.]
62.5031 NIVEN, David —
Most rigorous studies conclude that there is no consistent partisan or ideological bias in the mainstream American news media. This suggests a natural but little-asked question: Why is there no more bias in the media? A year spent working as a journalist suggests a possible answer: Advancing a political perspective does not help secure a place on the front page. Instead, the core incentive for a journalist is to be interesting. Interesting work that reveals the essence of a situation garners a more prominent spot in the newspaper and all its associated benefits. Because “interesting” sources are found on both the left and the right, among Republicans and Democrats, balance does not require a Solomonic commitment to fairness. Rather, balance can be achieved merely as a by-product of the effort to be interesting. [R]
62.5032 NOWNES, Anthony J. —
I report the results of a pre-test/post-test, control-group experiment in which some of my more than 500 respondents were exposed to factual information about celebrity support for political parties and some were not. I proceed from the assumption that celebrity political activity is more likely to influence citizens' views of political parties than it is to affect either citizens' vote-choices or views of individual candidates. I make this assumption based on the work of D. Green, B. Palmquist, and E. Schickler, who posit that party identification is a social identity. The results provide support for this notion. Specifically, they show that celebrity political activity can indeed influence some citizens' views of political parties. The results show also that celebrity political activity can affect citizens' views of politically active celebrities. [R]
62.5033 O'BRIEN, McKenzie —
The Abu Sayyaf Group (ASG) in the Philippines is often labeled a terrorist organization, yet there are periods when the group has engaged in far more criminal activity than terrorism. Specifically, this article describes phases in which organized criminal activity far exceeds any terrorist activities before returning to a more predominant focus on terrorism. This study explores reasons for these temporal fluctuations in criminal versus terrorist activity from 1991 thru August 2011, identifying four categories of explanatory factors: leadership, structure, membership and grievances, and linkages to other actors. The study highlights some implications for policy, research, and the future of ASG. [R] [See Abstr. 62.4456]
62.5034 O'GORMAN, Melanie —
[Although] Tanzania has had a multiparty democracy since 1995, the party which governed during single-party rule, the Chama Cha Mapinduzi (CCM), has won the vast majority of seats in the National Assembly in the first four multi-party elections. In order to understand the CCM's grip on power, this article analyzes the results of a survey conducted among subsistence farmers in Tanzania, which provides information on farmers' livelihood conditions, access to media and political views, and hence provides insight into the preferences underlying voting behavior. It discusses the dominant reasons for CCM support, as well as the characteristics of farmers who are more likely to support an opposition party. [R, abr.]
62.5035 OWENS, Michael Leo; SMITH, Adrienne R. —
Examining the discretion of [US] states to retain or reform federal bans on drug felons receiving cash and food assistance between 1997 and 2004, we explain the choices states make about extending social rights to “deviants”. We draw from theories of neo-institutional organization, group threat, and political incorporation. Multivariate analysis suggest that the severity of states' penal regimes and the degree to which felons and poor people threaten social order have the greatest influence on states' responses to the federal sanctions on drug felons. Our study informs understandings of why some states take a “punitive turn” while other states may counter convention, exercising discretion to reduce rather than increase their punitiveness toward felons specifically and law-breaking generally. [R, abr.]
62.5036 OWENS, Michael Leo; YUEN, Amy —
Incorporating race into tactical spending for electoral gain, this article revisits the relative effects of vote-production and vote-retention on [US] distributive politics. It investigates whether a “compassion strategy” to influence the electoral behavior of voters while being responsive to need-based social welfare demands affected federal discretionary grants to faith-based organizations (FBOs) during the administration of G.W. Bush. The findings suggest that federal domestic social welfare funding of FBOs may have involved a combination of the tactical use of grants for both electoral purposes (i.e., vote-production and vote-retention) and the reduction of need among the states. [R]
62.5037 OZYMY, Joshua —
Political scientists maintain that self-interest should motivate political participation; however, empirical verification of the self-interest motive for participating is rare. Self-interested activism among the less-affluent is shown to be even more uncommon. Results suggest that when lower-income college students have resources and increased self-interest motives to act, not only do they choose to participate, they do so at higher levels than their more affluent peers. Utilizing policy-motivated activism (defined as voting, contributing, and contacting officials) with respect to student loans, the analysis suggests that the probability of contacting increases among student borrowers as their income decreases. Results suggest that lower-income borrowers are more likely to participate out of concern for the program than their higher-income counterparts, and self-interest explains the behavior. [R]
62.5038 PANAGOPOULOS, Costas —
We elaborate a theory of campaign effects that proposes campaigns matter, at least in part, because they function as a filter to mediate the impact of events. By amplifying and reinforcing the impact of relevant events, campaigns help voters process campaign developments, permitting citizens to form, crystallize or update candidate preferences. In quadrennial presidential contests, active campaigns are generally limited to battleground states, setting up natural experiments that allow scholars to investigate the claim that competitiveness influences campaign dynamics by generating vigorous campaigns that intensify the impact of events. We examine this hypothesis by comparing the dynamics of voter preferences for US president in battleground and non-battleground states in the fall 2008 campaign using statewide survey data. [R, abr.]
62.5039 PAPACHARISSI, Zizi; DE FATIMA OLIVEIRA, Maria —
This study traces the rhythms of news storytelling on Twitter via the #egypt hashtag. Using computational discourse-analysis, we examine news values and the form of news exhibited in #egypt from January 25 to February 25, 2011, pre- and post-resignation of H. Mubarak. Results point to a hybridity of old and newer news values, with emphasis on the drama of instantaneity, the crowdsourcing of elites, solidarity, and ambience. The resulting stream of news combines news, opinion, and emotion to the point where discerning one from the other is difficult and doing so misses the point. We offer a theory of affective news to explain the distinctive character of content produced by networked publics in times of political crisis. [R] [See Abstr. 62.4377]
62.5040 PARRY, Janine A.; SMITH, Daniel A.; HENRY, Shayne —
Generally speaking, campaign-related contact motivates voters. One form of such contact not much explored in the voter mobilization literature is the petitioning for ballot initiatives that occurs with considerable frequency in about half the states and even more localities. Using newly-available data that allow us to match individual petition-signers with their subsequent election behavior, we explore the role of having had a hand in a ballot measure's qualifying stage in propelling individual voters to the polls. Specifically, we perform multivariate analysis on a random sample of 1,000 registered Arkansas [US] voters, 1,100 registered Florida voters, and all 71,119 registered voters in Gainesville, Florida to measure the influence of petition-signing in spurring voter-turnout. [R, abr.]
62.5041 PARTINGTON, Alan —
This paper examines the discourses relating to anti-Semitism in the three leading UK national “quality” newspapers from 1993 to 2009. To this end, three corpora were compiled, each consisting of the complete set of instances in context in these papers where anti-Semitism is mentioned, the first from 1993 the others from 2005 and 2009. Considerable changes were noted between the discourses in the earlier corpus compared to the later ones. In the later corpora, there is much more discussion about a perceived resurgence of anti-Semitism in the UK and Western Europe. After an overview of these changing patterns, particularly controversial recent cases of alleged anti-Semitism in British politics are discussed. [R, abr.]
62.5042 PASQUARIELLO MARIANO, Karina —
This article examines parliamentary representation in Mercosur and the implications of the institutionalization of Parlasur, relating how it was designed and the consequences of its institutionalization. Its aim is to identify changes and its relationship with policy-making bodies of Mercosur and national parliaments. [R]
62.5043 PAXTON, Pamela; KNACK, Stephen —
This paper examines support for foreign aid with a large, multi-level, cross-national study. Hypotheses are tested with multi-level models, including both individual-level and country-level variables, to predict positive attitudes. Two datasets are used to measure attitudes in donor countries: (1) the 1995 World Values Survey, which has information from approximately 6,000 individuals in nine countries and asks a rich battery of questions at the individual level; (2) the 2002 Gallup Voice of the People survey, asks fewer questions of individuals but contains 17 donor countries. Using both surveys combines their distinct strengths and allows tests of individual- and national-level theories across disparate samples. Results generally support the predictions that attitudes toward aid are influenced by religiosity, beliefs about the causes of poverty, awareness of international affairs, and trust in people and institutions. [R, abr.]
62.5044 PETTITT, Robin T. —
This article deals with the level of self-referencing in the speeches of Labour Party leaders at the annual conference, especially in the “Parliamentary Report” and how this varies over time and between leaders. The article starts from the point of view that the extent to which politicians put themselves at the center of their rhetoric is an important issue to consider when examining how they communicate with us. It also provides an insight into the personality, genuine or manufactured, of politicians. This article uses quantitative content-analysis to compare the speeches of Labour leaders. [R]
62.5045 PHILLIPS, Hayden —
Despite attempts over the last decade to bring an end to what has become an ‘arms race’ between political parties, party funding in the UK continues to defy resolution. Drawing on the experience of the committee charged by the last Labour administration to put party funding and electoral spending on a more sustainable footing, this article examines the issues and the main sticking points. It outlines the basis on which the negotiations were undertaken, and the main hurdles they sought to overcome. It highlights the disagreement between the parties on the definition of the central issue, the problems associated with the main funding sources for each of the parties, and the viability of state funding. It discusses why success proved elusive, but also why a solution is necessary, since in the absence of robust rules, parties and therefore the UK political system more broadly, are ‘a hostage to the next scandal’. [R] [See Abstr. 62.4295]
62.5046 PICQ, Jean —
The presidential elections represent a good opportunity for discussing the great risks which France is currently facing. During the past few years France has been taking a radically new direction with the unfolding of communication strategies which aim at shaping images to the candidates' advantage, supposedly in response to the demand of public opinion. [R, transl.]
62.5047 PILATI, Katia —
This article analyzes the political engagement of immigrant organizations in Milan. Theoretically, I discuss three types of resource which may affect this engagement: institutional, group-related and network resources. Using data on 46 immigrant organizations, I examine the role of network resources and how they affect the contacts that immigrant organizations build with Italian political institutions. The study shows that networks among organizations increase the number of political contacts organizations build. However, not all links are significant. While links with autochthonous organizations are relevant, links with immigrant ones are not. Comparing my results with the literature developed in other contexts, I suggest that the political context may affect the type of organizational structure which develops and the network resources with which immigrant organizations are endowed. [R, abr.]
62.5048 PINKLETON, Bruce E., et al. —
A telephone survey of 416 randomly selected registered voters examined the distinctive contributions of cynicism and skepticism to citizens' media satisfaction, external political efficacy, and apathy. Results suggests that cynicism and skepticism reflect dissatisfaction with media coverage, but have opposite effects on external efficacy. Cynicism has no relationship with apathy, while skepticism decreases it. Satisfaction with news media increases efficacy and apathy. Although cynicism's relationship to efficacy is of concern, these findings undercut the argument frequently made that dissatisfaction with media coverage is responsible for cynicism and political apathy. [R]
62.5049 POOL, Heather —
A politics of mourning invokes the deaths of everyday citizens to call for political change. For this to occur, a loss must be visible and provoke discussions about responsibility. Mourning gauges political standing and belonging; it is also a moment when these categories can be transformed. This article analyzes the Triangle Fire of 1911 as a site of political mourning, which ultimately provoked a mixed response to the political status quo. Mourning improved [US] labor's position in relation to industry by opening formerly private spaces of employment to government regulation, but it did so by expanding the domain of whiteness rather than contesting the racialized construction of the polity. In doing so, the mourning contributed to the construction of a white body politic. [R] [See Abstr. 62.4412]
62.5050 POTEAT, V. Paul; MEREISH, Ethan H. —
This study tested the effects of multiple ideologies on support for restrictive policies against gay and lesbian individuals and organizations and if these effects were mediated by sexual prejudice. Social dominance orientation (SDO), conservatism, and right-wing authoritarianism (RWA) each had significant direct and indirect effects. Results suggest that high-RWA individuals adopt their positions largely because of prejudice toward sexual minorities, while high-SDO individuals adopt their positions partly out of prejudice and partly because these positions perpetuate hierarchies between heterosexuals and sexual minorities. Results also diminish the principled conservatism argument that conservative positions on these policies and organizations are absent of prejudice. As policies continue to be enacted that affect the sexual minority community, research is needed to identify the underlying motivations for individuals' positions toward these policies. [R, abr.]
62.5051 POTEETE, Amy R. —
The Botswana Democratic Party (BDP) has maintained a super-majority in the National Assembly for over forty years despite increasingly competitive elections. Several factors contribute to the BDP's continued legislative dominance, including features of the electoral system, fragmentation of the party system, and obstacles to strategic voting behavior. Factional competition has played a particularly important role. Botswana's political institutions encourage factional competition, and factionalism interacts with the electoral system to hinder consolidation of the party system. Botswana's experience underlines the importance of internal party dynamics and their interaction with features of the electoral and party system in enabling the persistence of legislative dominance in competitive electoral systems. [R]
62.5052 RADU, Alexandru —
This article aims to investigate the relationship between the type of the practiced electoral system and the form of the party system, using M. Duverger's theories to negate the exceptional character of the postcommunist period in Romania. The analysis leads to the conclusion that, from this perspective, Romania is actually an exemplary case of confirmation Duverger's thesis on the relationship between proportional elections system and the multipartyism. [R] [First article of a thematic issue on “Parties and elections”. See also Abstr. 62.4266, 4457, 4894, 4934, 4947, 4948, 5008, 5022, 5086]
62.5053 RAMET, Sabrina P.; KUHAR, Roman —
Since the proclamation of Slovenian independence in 1991, new laws governing the media have been passed in 1994, 2001 and 2005—in each case giving rise to controversy. An effort undertaken by center-left parties in 2010 to pass yet another law, aimed this time at expanding the autonomy of Radio-Television Slovenia and narrowing the possibility for government interference, was defeated in a public referendum in which less than 15% of those eligible to vote took part. There has also been controversy in Slovenia about ownership of the media. These controversies about the public media in Slovenia—both regarding government interference and media monopolies—are symptomatic of the transition pangs experiences throughout post-communist central and Southeastern Europe, with similar controversies having erupted in most of the countries of the region. [R]
62.5054 RAMPAL, Kuldip Roy —
Within the framework of the theories of civil society and the public sphere, this study examines the work of several prominent civil society organizations (CSOs) in Taiwan and the quality of access to the mediated public sphere provided to them by the mass media. Taiwan's underground press and radio, along with political dissidents, successfully campaigned for an end to martial law and adoption of a democratic system. Since then, the dynamic political evolution of Taiwan has included the emergence of many CSOs dedicated to making democracy work in the best interest of citizens at the grass-roots level and to inculcating the values and responsibilities of citizenship in the Taiwanese public. The CSOs' effectiveness, however, has been closely linked to the quality of access and representation they obtained in the “public sphere” provided by the media. [R, abr.] [See Abstr. 62.4309]
62.5055 REHM, Philipp; HACKER, Jacob S.; SCHLESINGER, Mark —
Popular support for the welfare state varies greatly across nations and policy domains. We argue that these variations reflect in part the degree to which economic disadvantage (low income) and economic insecurity (high risk) are correlated. When the disadvantaged and insecure are mostly one and the same, the base of popular support for the welfare state is narrow. When the disadvantaged and insecure represent two distinct groups, popular support is broader and opinion less polarized. We test these predictions both across nations within a single policy area (unemployment insurance) and across policy domains within a single polity (the US). Results are consistent with our predictions and are robust to myriad controls and specifications. When disadvantage and insecurity are more correlated, the welfare state is more contested. [R, abr.]
62.5056 RIEDERER, Bernhard; TEITZER, Roland —
In the context of declining satisfaction with democracy in Austria, the article examines the importance of trust in state and politics for attitudes towards democracy. We assume that the social position influences attitudes towards democracy both directly and indirectly via trust in politics. Data from the European Values Studies 1999 and 2008 are analyzed using Structural Equation Modeling. The results confirm that socio-economic status affects attitudes towards democracy via trust (e.g., the lower people's status, the less trust they express, and, thus, the less satisfied with the democratic system they are). In addition, findings support the proposition that personal experience is relevant to the constitution of trust, and indicate that trust in EU becomes more important for attitudes towards democracy with time. [R]
62.5057 RÖMMELE, Andrea; EINWILLER, Sabine —
By drawing on the German Longitudinal Election Study, the following questions are answered: Who actually received political news/campaign information from social media during the 2009 federal election campaign? And, even more important from our theoretical point of view, who posted campaign information on his/her network? Parties still invest heavily in agencies and professional consultants when it comes to elections. With a shrinking number of party members, however, a change in election (street) campaigns towards more engagement in social media is very likely. Hence, parties are looking for ways to support engaged citizens and make them part of their election campaigns. They will be taking advantage of the heterogeneity of networks in which citizens communicate. [R]
62.5058 ROSENZWEIG, Luc —
V. Orbàn has retaken the reins of the Hungarian government. But this time, his party, Fidesz, won a large majority in the 2010 elections, giving it a free hand to impose its program of radical changes. Hungarian institutions are undergoing a total revamp, including election procedures, the balance of power between the executive, legislative and judicial branches, relations between church and state media and government, and local communities and the central power. All these changes are in the new constitution, which took effect on 1 January 2012. The unspoken aim is to make it very difficult, or even impossible, for another change in power. This “revolution at the voting urn” did not fail to provoke an angry response from European authorities, who deemed it, on certain points, incompatible with the EU's fundamental values. [R, abr.]
62.5059 ROVIRA KALTWASSER, Cristóbal —
I argue that it is more fruitful to categorize populism as an ambivalence that, depending on the case, may constitute a threat to or a corrective for democracy. Unfolding my argument, I offer a roadmap for the understanding of the diverse and usually conflicting approaches to studying the relation between populism and democracy. In particular, three main approaches are identified and discussed: the liberal, the radical and the minimal. I stress that the latter is the most promising of them for the study of the ambivalent relationship between populism and democracy. In fact, the minimal approach does not imply a specific concept of democracy, and facilitates the undertaking of cross-regional comparisons. [R, abr.]
62.5060 ROŽMAN, Sara; MENCIN ČEPLAK, Metka —
Based on interviews with Slovenian male and female politicians, we analyze two sets of factors of political professionalization: early political education and socialization as well as professional experience. These factors serve as the basis of male and female politicians' competencies and skills, their autonomy in relation to a political party, as well as their freedom in exercising political views. The analysis shows that women express discomfort towards professional politics and their political function more often and more explicitly than men. This discomfort and ambivalence is often mitigated by invoking their professionalism which stems from their education and experience in previous professions. [R] [See Abstr. 62.4496]
62.5061 RUUSUVIRTA, Outi —
This article analyzes the potentially rationalizing impact that online voting advice application (VAA) use may have on citizens' vote choice. Having used a VAA, does the user vote for a candidate which, according to the VAA, best matches her opinion profile. Certain background variables, such as the user's interest in politics, party identification and socio-economic background can be expected to affect how much VAAs can rationalize a user's vote choice. A simple pre-test post-test quasi-experiment of 292 high school and vocational school students was used to test the hypothesis in connection with the 2006 Finnish Presidential election. [R, abr.]
62.5062 SALAMEY, Imad; COPELAND, Gary —
A study of aspects of sectarian political support, national identification and other contested propositions reveals whether such variables are consistent with scholarly theories on Islamist movements and whether they are exceptional to Islamists. Before discussing the various theories that might account for the general appeal of militant groups, it is necessary to examine some background regarding Hezbollah and the Islamist movement in Lebanon. While there are alternative theories for sectarian militant movements, the key concern is whether there is evidence supporting Islamic exceptionalism. To what extent can post-national, comparative institutional or class analysis explain political support for militant sectarian groups? A public opinion survey of Hezbollah and Lebanese Forces supporters determines whether there are unique, or exceptional, characteristics of Hezbollah supporters.
62.5063 SANDVOSS, Cornel —
This article explores the interplay of political enthusiasm as a form of fandom and the creation and disappearance of trust as a result of the evolving relationship between fans and their objects of fandom. Drawing on semi-structured interviews with supporters of B. Obama and the UK Liberal Democrats, the article illustrates how the bond between fans and their political fan object is built in the highly polysemic environment of convergence media in which audiences actively construct textual boundaries. Based on projective and self-reflective readings, enthusiasts of given political causes, actors or parties thus build an affective attachment to their fan object which allows for the creation of trust in its perceived proximity. If such readings become unsustainable over time, this affective bond and its associated levels of trust are eroded. [R]
62.5064 SARAVANAMUTTU, Johan —
In March 2008, the opposition parties in Malaysia deprived the ruling National Front coalition of its two-thirds majority of seats. This result led analysts to suggest that electoral politics had breached a new watershed in Malaysia, and that it augured well for the development of a full-fledged two-party system. This paper argues that March 2008 augurs the beginnings of a new path-dependent emergence of a turnover electoral system in Malaysia. Path-dependence theory could explain why the National Front increasingly lost its “first-mover advantage” in electoral politics, which for decades dominated political and economic institutions which reproduced the racialized political structures. March 2008 represents a rupture and departure from this earlier path-dependence. The overall impact of this new path-dependent process is the valorization of electoral democracy in Malaysia. [R, abr.]
62.5065 SCHINDLER, Danny —
Is there empirical evidence for assumptions that governing has become more “difficult”? A longitudinal analysis of election results for the German Bundestag (1953–2009) shows a complex picture. On the one hand, there is a trend to losses for the government coalition and in particular the chancellor's party. On the other hand, this development is embedded in a challenging environment for catch-all parties in general. Indeed, being in opposition, these parties did not suffer more losses during recent decades. But neither could they profit from government losses as much as in the past. Above all structural, demand-induced and supply-induced developments are responsible for the particularly difficult situation of governing catch-all parties. [R]
62.5066 SCHOFIELD, Norman, et al. —
This paper constructs formal stochastic models of the elections in Georgia in 2008 and in Azerbaijan in 2010. The models include various kinds of valence, where valence is defined as being associated with the non-policy considerations involving the electoral perceptions of party leaders. We consider logit models of electoral choice, involving these valences, as well as spatial components derived from policy differences between voters' and candidates' positions. We compute the “equilibrium” vote maximizing positions of the candidates or parties in the two elections and show that these involved divergence from the electoral center. [R, abr.]
62.5067 SELEPAK, Andrew; SUTHERLAND, John —
Prior to the internet, information available to the [US] public on white extremist groups, such as the United White Knights of the Ku Klux Klan, came from news events which prevented these groups from controlling the information presented to the public about themselves, their organization, ideals, or goals. But the internet has allowed these groups to develop websites through which they can directly dictate their image to vast audiences. This study explores the relationship between political orientation and fundamental Christian beliefs and agreement with the values of a white extremist group, as presented by the United White Knights on their website. Results suggest political orientation and Christian fundamental beliefs are significantly related, but not as strong as expected, to agreement with the values of the United White Knights. [R, abr.]
62.5068 SEO Hyunjin; THORSON, Stuart J. —
Linkages between countries have changed significantly as the global information infrastructure has evolved over the past decade. We argue that communication infrastructure and political processes evolve together, and we measure key structural changes in bandwidth and the centrality of digital nodes in Middle East and North Africa. Using a combination of bandwidth metrics and centrality indicators, we demonstrate how global information infrastructure evolved between 2002 and 2010, and how several countries in the Middle East rose to prominence as good nodes mediating strong intraregional networks. [R] [See Abstr. 62.4377]
62.5069 SHAHROKNI, Nazanin —
This article focuses on the ways in which opinion polls in Iran were conducted during the “reform” in Iran (1997–2005). Instead of highlighting the various ways in which polls strategically manipulate, persuade or represent “the people”, the article shows how the specific modes of interpretation of polls enable different kinds of publics. Drawing on the case of the Ayandeh Polling Institute, the author demonstrates how opinion polling in Iran was utilized as a political strategy that contributed to the formation of a counter-public, which served as the backbone of the reform movement. The author highlights not just the macro-historical processes within which the practice of polling is embedded, but also the micro-interactional impact of polling on the people whose opinions are being gauged. [R]
62.5070 SHAW, Aaron; BENKLER, Yochai —
The authors compare the practices of discursive production among top US political blogs on the left and right during summer 2008. An examination of the top 155 political blogs reveals significant cross-ideological variations along several dimensions. Notably, the authors find evidence of an association between ideological affiliation and the technologies, institutions, and practices of participation. The cross-ideological divergence in the findings illustrates that the internet can be adopted equally to undermine or to replicate the traditional distinction between the production and consumption of political information. These findings have significant implications for the study of prosumption and for the mechanisms by which the networked public sphere may or may not alter democratic participation relative to the mass mediated public sphere. [R, abr.] [See Abstr. 62.4471]
62.5071 SHI Xu —
In international scholarship, Chinese political communication is usually viewed from a political-economic and West-centric perspective, portrayed as a product of the Communist Party's ideology), deviant, totalitarian and unchanging. I argue for a historical and intercultural approach and a view of contemporary Chinese political discourse as dynamic, critical-creative and cultural-hegemony-resistant. Then I analyze and assess accordingly the case of the Chinese discourse of human rights. This discourse has been evolving topically, reinforcing socially, and responding interculturally, thereby constituting a historic transformation in China's human rights situation on the one hand and a counter-veiling force in the unbalanced international communication on human rights on the other. I suggest that mainstream scholarship go beyond the a-historical and a-intercultural approach to political communication in general and to that of non-Western societies in particular. [R]
62.5072 SIMPSER, Alberto; DONNO, Daniela —
The monitoring of elections by international groups has become widespread. But can it have unintended negative consequences for governance? We argue that high-quality election monitoring, by preventing certain forms of manipulation such as stuffing ballot boxes, can unwittingly induce incumbents to resort to tactics of election manipulation that are more damaging to domestic institutions, governance, and freedoms. These tactics include rigging courts and administrative bodies and repressing the media. We use an original-panel dataset of 144 countries in 1990–2007 to test our argument. We find that, on average, high-quality election monitoring has a measurably negative effect on the rule of law, administrative performance, and media freedom. We employ various strategies to guard against endogeneity, including instrumenting for election monitoring. [R]
62.5073 SIRIN, Cigdem V. —
This study examines the effect of political information levels and intervention stages on the formation and continuity of [US] public support for military interventions by analyzing survey data pertaining to the 2003 military intervention in Iraq. The results show that before and immediately after the launch of the intervention, politically uninformed individuals expressed higher support for the war compared to politically informed ones. However, as the intervention proceeded and casualties were incurred, higher rates of decrease in support were observed among the politically uninformed. Politically informed individuals, on the other hand, demonstrated more stable levels of support throughout the course of the intervention. [R]
62.5074 SKINNER, Marianne Sundlisaeter —
This article presents a new theory—the VCR (Values, Political Culture and Rural society) model—to clarify what Norwegian Euroskepticism is really about and explain why so many Norwegians do not want their country to be a member of the EU. At the center of Norwegian Euroskepticism is a concern for post-materialist values, political culture and rural society; values (the desire to make Norway and the world a better place) is a much more potent explanation for Norwegian Euroskepticism than economic interest (the desire to make Norway a richer place) or perceived threat to Norwegian national identity. The VCR theory finds support in the empirical study conducted: a thematic analysis of newspaper debates in a major Norwegian newspaper from the 1960s, 1970s and 1990s. [R, abr.]
62.5075 SKOVGAARD-PETERSEN, Jakob —
Research in Arab media was weak and marginal until the 1990s, [when] the deregulation and privatization of media, and the rise of pan-Arab satellite TV, led to a dramatic increase in the quality and impact of the Arab media, locally, regionally and gradually even globally. Scholarship has taken up a number of themes—big and small media; local and regional public; Saudization; translocal Islamic identity; TV-dramas as social comment, blogs—that were clearly visible in this new, invigorated media environment. Along with these themes, there has been an ongoing discussion about the democratic potential of the new, competitive media, and the events of 2011 will be seen as a confirmation of their political impact. [R, abr.] [See Abstr. 62.5594]
62.5076 SMITH, Adrienne R.; REINGOLD, Beth; OWENS, Michael Leo —
Despite a strong body of work on the descriptive representation of women in state government, research on the presence of women in municipal government is limited in empirical scope and theoretical development. We employ an original data set of 239 cities with populations of 100,000 or more to update and extend the empirical reach of scholars' knowledge. Second, we develop and test hypotheses to explain how the urban political context affects women's descriptive representation. The analysis reveals that the election of women as council members and mayors are interdependent phenomena. We also find that political characteristics of local communities are consequential for predicting the presence of women as municipal policy-makers—just as consequential as electoral structures and other institutional features. [R, abr.]
62.5077 SOMERVILLE, Keith —
In reaction to post-election violence in Kenya in 2008, media specialists, human rights organizations, politicians and journalists accused certain Kenyan media outlets of inciting ethnic hatred and violent attacks. This article examines the context for the post-election violence, the provoking and violent nature of political discourse in Kenya, and the role of radio stations that broadcast political speeches in vernacular languages. The author identifies the criteria that define “hate media” to determine whether they apply to Kenyan radio programs. [R]
62.5078 SPECKMANN, Guido; WIEGEL, Gerd —
All over Europe, political parties on the far right are reconnecting with their fascist predecessors. However, the question is whether fascism is an appropriate term for describing current phenomena. In a fundamental crisis situation, a modern form of fascism could become attractive gain, albeit in the form of a racist version of social Darwinism.
62.5079 STAVRIANAKIS, Anna —
NGO activism on the arms trade is emblematic of the significant and emancipatory role attributed to civil society in post-Cold War international politics. Discussions of NGOs' efforts are marked by a distinctively liberal understanding of civil society as an increasingly global sphere separate from the state and market, promoting progressive and non-violent social relations. However, there are significant conceptual and empirical problems with these claims, which I illustrate using examples from contemporary NGO activism on the international production of and trade in conventional weaponry. [R, abr.] [See Abstr. 62.4587]
62.5080 STOCK, Paul V. —
This article proposes a revised conceptual definition of consensus social movement. By using the example of the Catholic Worker, I construct a workable concept of a consensus social movement based on Quaker consensus and indigenous decision-making. The new definition of consensus social movement brings theoretical strength as demonstrated in the illustration of the Catholic Worker. The concept of a consensus social movement offers a revised theoretical tool for the social movement literature toolkit. [R]
62.5081 TENSCHER, Jens —
Not only the voters and the media are less interested and engage reluctantly in European election campaigns, when compared to first-order national elections; this also holds true for political parties. Their reduced commitment results in lower levels in campaign professionalism—not only in Germany, but also in other EU member states. Although this assumption is widespread, it lacks empirical backing. Against this backdrop, a direct, quantitative comparison of the political parties' campaign professionalism in the last first-order and second-order elections in Germany and Austria is conducted. The analysis is based on postelection interviews with the campaigners in charge. [R, abr.]
62.5082 TEPE, Markus —
This study explores a refined model of public/private-sector cleavage voting. Assuming that market and work experiences are crucial for people to develop common political views, it investigates three contexts that shape government employees' willingness to vote as a single constituency: the branch of public sector production, the occupational status, and the type of service economy. Estimation results obtained from regressions on European Social Survey (ESS) data indicate that government employees in public health, education and service-production rather than public administration utilize sector cleavage voting. Regardless of their actual occupational status, public health and education employees show persistently stronger attitudes in favor of expanding state responsibility. With respect to party choice, stronger signs of alignment along the sector cleavage are observed in Social Democratic service economies. [R, abr.]
62.5083 TEZCÜR, Güneş Murat —
This article presents the first systematic analysis of support for democracy in the Islamic Republic of Iran and contributes to the scholarly literature on popular views of democracy in an authoritarian regime. It reaches three main findings: (1) religiosity is strongly and negatively related with support for democracy; (2) education and age indirectly affect support for democracy: their effects are mediated through satisfaction with regime performance; (3) greater dissatisfaction with the regime strongly correlates with greater demands for democratization. The data come from a survey conducted in Tehran in 2008 and the 2005 Iranian World Values Survey. [R]
62.5084 THOMSEN, Jens Peter Frølund —
As European majority members are often hostile toward ethnic minorities, it is important to identify sources that reduce opposition to immigrants. First, focusing on Denmark, this article examines whether intergroup contact influences attitudes toward ethnic minority rights (henceforth: “ethnic tolerance”). Second, this study tests whether the contact-tolerance relationship is mediated by self-disclosure and symbolic threat. Furthermore, contact is measured as workplace contact in order to reduce self-selection biases. The empirical tests are performed on a Danish high-quality national probability sample from 2009. Analysis shows that intergroup contact generates ethnic tolerance because workplace contact weakens threat perceptions and stimulates disclosure of personal information. Generally, these results suggest that regular intergroup contact can improve ethnic relations in contemporary democracies. [R]
62.5085 TUFEKCI, Zeynep; WILSON, Christopher —
Based on a survey of participants in Egypt's Tahrir Square protests, we demonstrate that social media in general, and Facebook in particular, provided new sources of information the regime could not easily control and were crucial in shaping how citizens made individual decisions about participating in protests, the logistics of protest, and the likelihood of success. We demonstrate that people learned about the protests primarily through interpersonal communication using Facebook, phone contact, or face-to-face conversation. Controlling for other factors, social media use greatly increased the odds that a respondent attended protests on the first day. Half of those surveyed produced and disseminated visuals from the demonstrations, mainly through Facebook. [R] [See Abstr. 62.4377]
62.5086 TURŞIE, Corina —
Although European elections were meant to boost European integration, this objective was hardly achieved, and they were commonly labeled “second order elections”. After summarizing the causes and consequences of this general agreed perception, the paper presents an institutional attempt, originated in the European parliament, to reform these elections. This initiative is anchored in a new dichotomic theoretical approach—the Europeanization of the European elections by introducing transnational party lists, starting in 2014. This challenging initiative has been approved by the Constitutional Affairs Committee of the European Parliament; awaiting the plenary vote, it already has many supporters, as well as critics. [R] [See Abstr. 62.5052]
62.5087 TVERDOVA, Yuliya V. —
In the early transition phase in post-communist Europe, citizens' perceptions of the national economy appeared more favorable than objective economic indicators would suggest. With triple and quadruple digit annual inflation rates and a severe economic contraction, a substantial portion of the population in these countries still thought that the national economy had been and would be improving. Thus, sociotropic economic perceptions in the wake of the democratic transformation appeared to be disconnected from the real economic situation. This paper first explores the link between objective economic indicators and public evaluations of the economy. Second, it investigates the microfoundations of economic perceptions. And finally, it tests a well-established proposition that political sophisticates are more accurate in their perceptions than their less informed counterparts. [R, abr.]
62.5088 ULBIG, Stacy G.; MARTORANO MILLER, Nancy —
Little work has been done to investigate about how scandals related to one level of government affect attitudes about political actors at other levels. We investigate what happens when a major and well-publicized state-level scandal occurs. Using individual-level public opinion data collected during 2006, we analyze the impact that a state-level scandal had on citizen approval of state and federal political actors, considering the mediating impact of exposure to media coverage of the scandal. Overall consumption of news coverage of state governors boost approval of the governor relative to the president. At the same time, however, citizens exposed to negative scandalous news coverage of their governor show a decline in relative gubernatorial approval. [R, abr.]
62.5089 VAIDA, Ovidiu —
The article seeks to what extent the European People's Party is still a Christian-Democratic party federation or has become a moderate conservative one. The question is answered by analyzing five EPP party programs, from the 1992 Basic Program, to the 2009 election on. [R] [See Abstr. 62.4612]
62.5090 VALENZUELA, Sebastián; ARRIAGADA, Arturo; SCHERMAN, Andrés —
Protest activity has become a central means for political change in Chile. We examine the association between social media use and youth protest, as well as mediating and moderating mechanisms of this relationship, using survey data collected in Chile in 2010. We found that Facebook use was associated significantly with protest activity, even after taking into account political grievances, material and psychological resources, values, and news media use. The link between overall Facebook use and protest activity was explained by using the social network for news and socializing rather than when it was used for self-expression. Postmaterialist values and political ideologies were not found to moderate the association between Facebook use and protest. [R] [See Abstr. 62.4377]
62.5091 VAN BIEZEN, Ingrid; MOLENAAR, Fransje —
This paper explores the process of Europeanization of party politics by examining the regulation of political parties by supranational European organizations. Despite the increased relevance of the regulation of the activity, behavior, organization and finances of political parties in European democracies, the supranational dimensions of this phenomenon have hitherto received relatively little systematic scholarly attention. This paper adopts an interdisciplinary perspective, combining approaches from the Europeanization literature with legal theory and party scholarship. The rulings and regulations of the EU, the various organs of the Council of Europe, and the European Court of Human Rights are analyzed. The paper highlights the horizontal and vertical patterns of norm-creation and diffusion; conceptions of democracy and corresponding regulatory paradigms have not become so similar as to be virtually indistinguishable from one another. [R, abr.]
62.5092 VAN DEN BERG, Job C.; COFFE, Hilde —
This study compares the effect of EGP [Erikson-Goldthorpe-Portocarero] class, income and level of education on voting behavior in Flanders and Wallonia and tests to what extent these effects are mediated by economic and cultural attitudes. Rather than using a left/right dichotomy or a one-dimensional left/right continuum, as is common in research on cleavage voting, we distinguish the main different parties in both regions. Using data from the 2008 European Social Survey, our Multinomial Logistic Regression analyses indicate some regional variation. We find that education generally plays a more important role in party choice in Flanders than in Wallonia, whereas income and EGP class are relevant only for party choice in Wallonia. [R, abr.]
62.5093 VAN DER VLEUTEN, Anna; ALONS, Gerry —
France is considered a strong state, but French governments have always fiercely defended the interests of French farmers in European and global negotiations. Why would a “strong state” be unable to resist farm lobby pressure? Is agriculture an exception to French “strong state” rule? This article offers a structural model of varying state sensitivity to interest group pressure, and argues that farm lobby pressure cannot fully explain French foreign policy on agriculture, as governments often go against farmers' preferences and as the level of pressure varies more than the continuity of governmental preferences. From an analysis of the negotiations on the CAP [Common Agricultural Policy] and the GATT in the 1960s and in the 1990s, it emerges that ideational constraints played a major role in French obstinacy. [R, abr.]
62.5094 VAN MEURS, Wim —
Agrarian policies, rural areas and the peasantry in Southeastern Europe are typically studied from the perspective of either economic transition or EU institutionalism. Students of multi-layered governance often approach rural issues in Southeastern Europe in terms of the intricacies of EU integration and acquis harmonization. Conversely, studies of post-communist transition discuss agriculture and the peasantry mostly by holding them responsible for economic and political wrongs. The study questions these assumptions. A closer look a electorates and elections in selected rural counties of Bulgaria, Serbia, Romania and Croatia suggests that the stereotype of rural areas as strongholds of conservatism susceptible to post-communist, nationalist and populist propaganda needs revising. [R, abr.]
62.5095 VRAGA, Emily K., et al. —
Tailored within the increasingly competitive news environment, [US] political talk shows have adopted a range of styles, heralding a rise in “combatant” and “comic” hosts to complement the conventional “correspondent”. Using an experimental design to rule out self-selection biases, this study isolates the impact of host style on media judgments. In comparison to the other styles, the correspondent host increases perceptions of informal value, enhances host and program credibility, and reduces erosion of media trust, while a comic host mitigates some of the negative impact compared to a combatant host. Implications for media accountability and democratic functioning are discussed. [R]
62.5096 WAMPLER, Brian —
Participatory governance programs, which institutionalize government-civil society interactions through the promotion of public deliberation and decision-making, are being adopted by local governments to harness a wide range of outcomes believed to be positively associated with citizens' and civil society organizations' active involvement in public life. This article draws from an original survey administered to 833 individuals elected to leadership positions in Brazil's municipal-level participatory budgeting program. Analysis using a series of outcome variables and a set of individual- and municipal-level variables demonstrates that civil society organization (CSO) leaders now engage in direct negotiations with other CSOs, form alliances with other CSOs and carry these practices into other institutional venues, which helps to undercut traditional clientelistic practices while also empowering citizens and enhancing the quality of democracy. [R, abr.]
62.5097 WEAVER, Vesla M. —
Despite the significant role that skin color plays in material well-being and social perceptions, scholars know little if anything about whether skin color and Afrocentric features influence political cognition and behavior and specifically, if intraracial variation in addition to categorical difference affects the choices of voters. Do more phenotypically black minorities suffer an electoral penalty as they do in most aspects of life? This study investigates the impact of color and phenotypically black facial features on candidate evaluation, using a nationally representative survey experiment of over 2000 whites. Scholars of race politics, implicit racial bias, and minority candidates are missing an important aspect of racial bias. [R, abr.]
62.5098 WEBER, Christopher; THORNTON, Matthew —
Drawing on recent work that contends views about religious traditionalism have replaced many interdenominational differences in vote choice and issue attitudes, we argue that religious cues activate religious traditionalism, which subsequently influences how [US] political candidates are considered. In a priming experiment administered to a representative cross-section of adults, we examine whether religious priming occurs. By manipulating the participant's information environment, we also examine whether there are limits to priming. We find strong evidence religious traditionalism is activated when religious cues are embedded in campaign ads, but we find priming effects are reduced when participants are provided information about the candidate. While religious cues have the potential to shape how candidates are evaluated, the consequences of religious cues are dampened among those who learn more about political issues and candidates. [R, abr.]
62.5099 WICHOWSKY, Amber —
The conventional wisdom is that turnout is higher in competitive contests and that electorates are more representative when more people vote. But whether more competition produces a more representative electorate remains unclear. Using measures of income bias that improve measurement equivalence across states, I show that income biases in voting participation tend to shrink as the state's party system becomes more competitive and as the Democratic Party does more to mobilize voters. Close elections, however, do little to explain the income composition of the electorate. Rather, competition reflects a political struggle that varies in the extent to which it increases turnout among less advantaged citizens. [R]
62.5100 WILLEMS, Wendy —
This article critiques the tendency in work on media in Africa to equate democracy with a form of electoral democracy. Adopting radical democracy as a normative ideal reveals the crucial role of media in democratizing power relations and correcting structural inequalities. It argues that liberal-democratic approaches to media and elections presuppose a universal meaning of elections, hereby ignoring the particular embedded meaning that elections obtain in the African context. Instead of treating media as the neutral arbiters of information on election candidates, I offer an alternative, critical research agenda that considers the engagement between media institutions and political actors as a symbiotic relationship that ultimately seeks to legitimize certain election candidates and condone election rituals as democratic events par excellence. [R, abr.]
62.5101 WILSON, Alex —
This article compares party systems in Spain from a multilevel perspective, evaluating structures of party competition and processes of party-system change at central and regional levels, with a view to understanding their broader impact on territorial dynamics in Spanish politics. Since the 1990s, the central party system has become characterized by intense bipolarization between state-wide parties and wholesale alternation in government. Spanish regions are characterized by innovative coalitions between state-wide and non-state-wide parties, with patterns of government alternation that diverge from the central level. A majority of regions are characterized by predominant party systems with no alternation in government, while others see partial alternation where small regionalist parties form promiscuous coalitions with state-wide parties to stay perpetually in office. [R, abr.]
62.5102 YAMAMURA, Eiji —
This paper uses individual-level data from the Japanese General Social Survey to examine how government size influences generalized trust. After controlling for the endogeneity of government-size using instrumental variables, I find: (1) using all samples, government-size is not associated with generalized trust, and (2) after splitting the sample into workers and non-workers, government-size does not influence generalized trust for non-workers, whereas it significantly reduces generalized trust for workers. This suggests that workers, through their work experience, might have to face greater bureaucratic red tape coming from “larger government”, leading to negative externality effects on relationships of trust in the labor market. [R]
62.5103
Articles on legal aspects of the election, by Gilles BACHELIER; Jean-Claude COLLIARD; Marie-Laure DENIS; Hugues PORTELLI; Régis LAMBERT.
62.5104
Introduction by Daniel ŞANDRU. Articles by Sorin BOCANCEA; Adina ALDEA and Maria BILAŞEVSCHI; Mihai ŞTEFÂNOAIA; Alina HURUBEAN; Georgeta CONDUR; Tudor PITULAC; Sorin-Cristian SEMENIUC; Constantin ILAŞ; Livia DURAC; Dan DRUGÂ and Larisa DEMETER; Anita GRIGORIU and Ruxandra COMAN; George BONDOR.
62.5105
Articles by Mike BURKE, Sandrine CATHELAT, Bernard CATHELAT, Robert EBGUY and Denis QUÉNARD; Gérard LE GALL; Rémi LEFEBVRE; Christophe PIAR; Yves-Marie CANN; Jean-Louis MASSON; Jean-Pierre PHILIBERT; Jacques SOPPELSA; Jean-Noël CABANIS; Jean-Marie COTTERET; Marie-Laure FAGES; Edwin MATUTANO; Pierre CALAME.