Abstract
65.4349 ABB, Pascal —
This article provides an overview of activities by Chinese foreign policy think tanks, with a particular focus on developments over the last decade. Covering a sample of prominent institutes, it provides up-to-date information about their academic, advisory and PR functions, and highlights major differences between individual institutes and organizational groups. In line with the findings, I argue that Chinese think tanks have undergone a remarkable increase and professionalization in their academic work, as well as made big strides in improving their footprint in the media. Finally, the article also considers new developments in networking organizations that have been particularly important in bringing experts together to pursue mutual interests, and how these relate to changes in Beijing's international agenda. [R]
65.4350 ABRAJANO, Marisa —
Scholars have long lamented the low levels of political knowledge in the American public, particularly the “racial gap” in the rates of knowledge between racial/ethnic minorities and whites. This article examines whether the racial gap is an artifact of perceptual biases or differential item functioning, brought about by the distinct political experiences of racial/ethnic minorities in the US. In analyzing data from the 2008 American National Election Studies, the raw responses to political knowledge questions indeed reveal a discrepancy in blacks' and Latinos' placements of prominent political figures when compared to whites. However, once these perceptual biases are corrected for, the racial gap dissipates. Blacks and Latinos are able to accurately identify the positions of prominent political candidates and parties on a range of policies across the liberal-conservative dimension. [R, abr.]
65.4351 AKSOY, Hürcan Asli —
The paper analyzes three Islamist women CSOs [civil society organizations): Capital City Women's Platform Association (BKP) from Ankara; Rainbow Istanbul Women's Organizations Platform (GIKAP), and Women's rights Association against Discrimination (AKDR) from Istanbul. During my fieldwork in 2010 and 2011, I conducted in-depth interviews with the activists of these CSOs. I inquired into their activities and their relationships with the other women's groups and the AKP government. To supplement the data, I obtained information from their websites, public statements, and pamphlets and documents they published as well as from the interviews published in diverse Turkish newspapers. The analysis of the relationship between the Islamist women's CSOs and the AKP might provide alternative evidence of the discussion, or propound new questions, on the state-society relations in Turkey. [R]
65.4352 ALLEN, Nicholas; BIRCH, Sarah —
This article explores British citizens' evaluations of political processes against the backdrop of wider political disengagement. It adapts Hibbing and Theiss-Morse's framework for measuring attitudes in both “process space” and “policy space” and, drawing on data from a survey fielded in March 2011, analyzes the factors that shape Britons' preferences concerning political decision-making. It also analyzes the relative importance of policy and process evaluations as predictors of government approval and support for two key civic norms, that people should comply with the law and that they have a duty to vote. It finds that most respondents think that decision making should involve both elected politicians and ordinary people, but respondents who are more critical of politicians' conduct tend to express support for greater levels of popular involvement. [R, abr.]
65.4353 ANAN, Deniz —
The simultaneity of federal and regional elections in 2013 allows a comparison of the policy positions of the parties at federal and regional level. A comparative qualitative content analysis of the financial, labor market, social and economic policy addresses the consistency of the manifestos at federal and regional level and the differences between former parties of notables and successors of the workers' parties. The analysis shows that the policy objectives of the parties are rather consistent, despite the tendency of a less unitary federalism. However, some influence of specific regional interests can be traced. In addition, the parties can be subdivided into three groups, according to the degree of consistency. [R]
65.4354 ANZIA, Sarah F.; MOE, Terry M. —
Public sector unions are major interest groups in American politics, but they are rarely studied. New research would not only shed much-needed light on how these unions shape government and politics, but also broaden the way scholars think about interest groups generally: by highlighting interests that arise inside governments, drawing attention to long-ignored types of policies and decision arenas, and underlining the importance of groups in subnational politics. Here we explore the effects of public sector unions on the costs of government. We present two separate studies, using different datasets from different historical periods, and we examine several outcomes: salaries, health benefits, and employment. We find that unions and collective bargaining increase the costs of government and that the effects are especially large for benefits. [R, abr.]
65.4355 ATIKCAN, Ece Özlem —
The problem of cross-case influences is crucial in the analysis of social phenomena. Is a referendum held in a state entirely a “domestic” event? No work has applied diffusion theories to the study of referendum campaigns. I show diffusion effects among the 2005 referenda on the Constitutional Treaty. Spain, France, the Netherlands, and Luxembourg used the referendum method to ratify the European Constitution. Based on 85 interviews with campaigners in all four countries, I find that campaign arguments and strategies were not always homegrown. However, such diffusion is not automatic and depends on diffusion channels. [R]
65.4356 BAKKE, Elisabeth; SITTER, Nick —
Thirty-nine parties have crossed the electoral threshold in the Czech Republic, Slovakia and Hungary since the collapse of communism. Twenty-three of them subsequently failed. Of these, only two parties managed to return on their own. Another survives in an electoral alliance. The rest have merged, ceased to exist, or maintain a “zombie-like” existence. We map and analyze the fate of failed parties, and explore why some close down quickly while others soldier on. The core factors are the opportunity structures (potential alliances or new homes for the elite), alternative arenas for competition, and the organizational strength of the party. [R]
65.4357 BAKKER, Bert N.; HOPMANN, David Nicolas; PERSSON, Mikael —
Why do some people stably identify with a party while others do not? This study tests whether and how the direction, stability and strength of party identification are associated with big five personality traits, using panel data from a representative sample of German citizens. First, the study confirms that personality traits are related to identification with different political parties. Second, it moves beyond previous research by showing that personality traits are related to the strength and variation in party identification over time. The implications of the study for the classical perspectives on party identification, as well as the personality and politics literature, are discussed. [R]
65.4358 BEN-MOSHE, Danny —
This article examines the sense of Jewish vulnerability and exclusion in Europe that has resulted from manifestations, and Jewish perceptions, of the “new anti-Semitism”, and the role of Islamic communities in Europe in propagating this form of hatred of Jews. First emerging in 2000 with the outbreak of the second Palestinian Intifada, and tied in with the Middle East conflict, anger at Israel is directed at Diaspora Jewish communities. This “new anti-Semitism” targets the Jewish collective with the characteristics of anti-Semitism previously aimed at individual Jews. The article focuses on the wave of anti-Semitism that erupted as a result of the 2014 Israeli-Hamas War. Based on an analysis of European Jewish communities, it considers the active part played by European Muslim communities in perpetrating the new anti-Semitism. [R, abr.]
65.4359 BENMELECH, Efraim; BERREBI, Claude; KLOR, Esteban F. —
This article examines whether house demolitions are an effective counterterrorism tactic against suicide terrorism. We link original longitudinal microlevel data on houses demolished by the Israeli Defense Forces with data on the universe of suicide attacks against Israeli targets. By exploiting spatial and time variation in house demolitions and suicide attacks during the second Palestinian uprising, we show that punitive house demolitions (those targeting Palestinian suicide terrorists and terror operatives) cause an immediate, significant decrease in the number of suicide attacks. In contrast, Palestinian fatalities do not have a consistent effect on suicide terror attacks, while curfews and precautionary house demolitions (demolitions justified by the location of the house but unrelated to the identity of the house's owner) cause a significant increase in the number of suicide attacks. [R, abr.]
65.4360 BERBUIR, Nicole; LEWANDOWSKY, Marcel; SIRI, Jasmin —
Is the Alternative für Deutschland (AfD) the exponent of a successful right-wing populist movement in Germany? By analyzing the positions, the discursive links and the sympathizers of the AfD, this article draws a comprehensive picture of the new party and its environment. The link to populism research offers a conceptual framework for a mixed-method study which focuses on important aspects of the party's history, self-description and position in Germany's public discourse as well as its supporters by analyzing two sets of quantitative and qualitative data. We argue that the AfD follows a nuanced and diverse communication strategy and can be regarded as a functional equivalent for a right-wing populist party in a country where right-wing politics are strongly stigmatized. [R]
65.4361 BERESFORD, Alexander —
This article examines the rise of gatekeeper politics within the ANC, drawing on an analysis of ANC [African National Congress] discussion documents, key informant interviews with senior party officials, and interviews and observations from the ANC's centenary policy conference. On the basis of this material, I identify the symptoms and consequences of gatekeeper politics, including the growth of patronage networks, crony capitalism, and bitter factional struggles within the party. Rather than resembling some uniquely “African” form of political aberration and breakdown, gatekeeper politics should be viewed within a broader spectrum of patronage politics evident elsewhere in the world, because it is intrinsically bound up with the development of capitalism. [R, abr.]
65.4362 BEST, Volker —
Due to the pluralization of the party system, government-formation in Germany is moving away from coalitions within the established political camps and towards grand coalitions or other, sometimes complex coalitions between parties from different camps. As it seems, this development is not regarded as problematic by most scholars of German coalition politics. The author disagrees for three reasons: (1) the bigger part of the electorate still prefers a coalition within a political camp; (2) electoral campaigns mostly revolve around the respective pre-electoral coalitions. This, however, is less and less reflected in the ultimate government formation, causing a problem from the point of view of democracy theory. (3) Party profiles risk to be blurred in “coalitions of the unwilling”. [R, abr.]
65.4363 BOLLEYER, Nicole; LITTLE, Conor; NOSTITZ, Felix-Christopher von —
This article theorizes and empirically assesses some important intraorganizational implications of maximizing democratic equality in political parties both between followers and members and between members and elites. They include weak member commitment, passivity of the rank-and-file membership and — depending on party structure — high levels of internal conflict. To substantiate the arguments, two parties that implement principles of democratic equality in their organizations are examined: the Swedish and German Pirate parties. [R, abr.]
65.4364 BOULDING, Carew; BROWN, David S. —
Some scholars argue that large party systems facilitate matching voter preferences with a specific party, increasing turnout. Others argue multiparty systems produce too many alternatives, decreasing turnout. In developing democracies, there is debate over whether these institutions matter at all. We argue that party systems do matter for turnout in developing countries, but the relationship between turnout and the number of political parties is conditional on the electoral formula. Since electoral rules also influence the number of parties, we use an innovative subnational research design, taking advantage of local variation in the number of parties that is largely unrelated to the electoral system. Specifically, we test these relationships by analyzing turnout data at the municipal level in Brazil and Bolivia, countries with very different electoral rules. [R, abr.]
65.4365 BOURNOUS, Ylannis; KARATSIOUBANIS, Giorgos —
The article explores the implications of the collapse of Greece's Labour Party, Pasok, and the rise of the radical-left party, Syriza, which has a commitment to an anti-austerity movement, for the political and institutional realms of Greece. Topics covered include the main argument of major corporate media on the austerity provision of the Greek government aimed at addressing the country's fiscal instability and the elements of the new status quo of “austeritarianism”. [A]
65.4366 BRAZYS, Samuel; HEANEY, Peter; WALSH, Patrick Paul —
Ethno-regional voting cleavages have featured in a number of sub-Saharan African states during the third wave of democratization. While these voting patterns are well studied, there have been few attempts to understand if pan-ethno-regional coalition building based on targeted economic policies can be employed to secure national electoral coalitions. We examine the 2009 Malawian parliamentary elections where a newly-formed national party used its incumbent position to promote an economic policy based on food security in order to overcome traditional ethno-regional voting patterns. After presenting a formal model of an optimal allocation of an economic resource to induce vote-switching, we use district-level data in a system of equations approach finding that this strategic allocation did indeed contribute to the nation-wide electoral victory. [R]
65.4367 BURDEN, Barry C. —
I argue that the Liberal Democratic Party (LDP) of Japan employed a strategy to prevent unpopular prime ministers from tainting the party's image. Time-series analyses of public opinion data from 1960 to 2006 show that national economic performance had modest effects on prime minister support ratings and no effects on LDP ratings. When prime minister ratings fall below party ratings, cabinets are more likely to be reshuffled and prime ministers to be replaced to avoid having the cabinet's negative image “rub off” on the LDP. Although electoral rules, culture, and other factors surely play a role in sustaining the LDP, I show for the first time that the party manages its cabinet personnel strategically to maintain support. [R]
65.4368 CAMPBELL, Rosie; CHILDS, Sarah —
We assess the extent to which the Conservative Party, while in coalition with the Liberal Democrats from 2010–2015, delivered on its pre-2010 commitments for women. We consider two dimensions of feminizing politics; the descriptive representation of women within the Conservative party in the House and in Government, and the substantive representation of women's interests in the form of policy programs and legislation. In respect of descriptive representation we find that the Conservative party has faltered since 2010: refusing to use quotas and even dropping the 2010 “A list” equality promotion strategy. Turning to the substantive representation of women it is clear that the Conservative party has instituted an array between these inclinations, although there is a tension between the party's liberal inclinations and its continued emphasis on the value of the traditional family. [R, abr.] [See Abstr. 65.4425]
65.4369 CANTÚ, Francisco; GARCÍA-PONCE, Omar —
We examine the partisan, logistic, and contextual factors affecting citizens' perceptions of electoral integrity. Drawing on original survey data collected at different stages of the 2012 Mexican presidential election, we find that confidence in the integrity of the electoral process varies not only over time, but also across partisanship. While those who supported the candidate on the left consistently expressed concerns about electoral corruption, supporters of the incumbent party discredited the integrity of the election only after learning their candidate's defeat. Furthermore, we provide the first empirical assessment of the relationship between voters' perceptions of electoral integrity and the presence of observers and party representatives at the polling station. Our findings contribute to a better understanding of the political factors that influence citizens' trust in elections. [R]
65.4370 CARLIN, Ryan E.; MOSELEY, Mason —
Whom do parties target for clientelist vote-buying? Existing research looks almost exclusively at individuals' socio-economic and, especially, electoral profiles: which parties and candidates they support, professed ideological leanings, past voting turnout, and choice. We argue party brokers also consider democratic attitudinal profiles. Specifically, they are more likely to avoid full-fledged democrats and target citizens who are ambivalent to or reject core democratic principles. We test this proposition with the 2010 Argentina AmericasBarometer. To address selection-bias on observables and unobservables, respectively, we preprocess the data with entropy balancing and employ instrumental variables regression. Results from both strategies are consistent with the notion that democrats are less likely vote-buying targets than their less democratic counterparts. [R, abr.]
65.4371 CARNES, Nicholas; SADIN, Meredith L. —
Politicians often highlight how hard their families had it when they were growing up, presumably in the hopes that voters will see them as more supportive of policies that benefit middle- and working-class Americans. What do voters actually infer from how candidates were raised? And what should they infer? We use a set of candidate-evaluation experiments (and an external validity test drawing on actual congressional election returns) to study how Americans perceive politicians raised in more and less affluent families. We then compare these perceptions to data on how lawmakers brought up in different classes actually behave in office. Although voters often infer that politicians from less privileged families are more economically progressive, these lawmakers don't actually stand out on standard measures of legislative voting. [R, abr.]
65.4372 CARTER, Neil; CLEMENTS, Ben —
The environment was D. Cameron's signature issue underpinning his modernization agenda. In opposition, the “Vote Blue, Go Green” strategy had a positive impact on the party's image: the environment operated as a valence issue in a period of raised public concern, particularly about climate change, and Cameron's high-profile support contributed to the cross-party consensus that delivered radical change in climate policy. Although the Coalition government has implemented important environmental measures, the Conservatives have not enhanced their green credentials in government and Cameron has failed to provide strong leadership on the issue. Since 2010, climate change has to some extent been transformed into a positional issue. Conservative MPs, urged on by the right-wing press, have adopted an increasingly partisan approach to climate change, and opinion polls reveal clear partisan divisions on climate change amongst public opinion. [R, abr.] [See Abstr. 65.4425]
65.4373 CAVATORTA, Francesco; MERONE, Fabio —
The electoral rise of Islamist parties following the Arab uprisings has led to different political outcomes in different countries, generating a significant amount of critical engagement with the concept of post-Islamism that emerged two decades ago. This article examines the notion of post-Islamism and uses one important aspect of it to explain the continued relevance of thinking about Islamist politics through ideology. Rather than being a failure for its acceptance of democratic mechanisms — and the apparent renunciation of the creation of an Islamic state — Islamism can be thought of as an evolving ideology within which the legitimation for the Islamic state is found still in religious sources and interpretations. In order to examine this aspect of post-Islamism, the article analyzes in detail the case of the Tunisian Islamist party al-Nahda. [R]
65.4374 CHONG, Alberto, et al. —
Retrospective voting models assume that offering more information to voters about their incumbents' performance strengthens electoral accountability. However, it is unclear whether incumbent corruption information translates into higher political participation and increased support for challengers. We provide experimental evidence that such information not only decreases incumbent party support in local elections in Mexico, but also decreases voter turnout and support for the challenger party, as well as erodes partisan attachments. While information clearly is necessary to improve accountability, corruption information is not sufficient because voters may respond to it by withdrawing from the political process. We conclude with a discussion of the implications of our findings for studies of voting behavior. [R]
65.4375 CHRISTENSEN, Love; DAHLBERG, Stefan; MARTINSSON, Johan —
Issue-ownership (IO) has been an important concept in the analysis of party behavior, party strategy and party competition for several decades. Recently, however, many studies have reported change and fluctuations of IO, and the same studies also makes it clear that we know surprisingly little about what might cause, or facilitate, change in issue-ownership. In fact, we do not even have systematic studies of how stable issue-ownership is, or how frequent shifts in issue-ownership actually are. This article explores the extent of change and stability in issue-ownership in Sweden. For this purpose, the Swedish national election studies from 1979 to 2010 are utilized. Although recent research has indicated that changes in IO have increased over time, this is not supported in the Swedish case. [R, abr.]
65.4376 CHRISTENSON, Dino; MAKSE, Todd —
Scholars of redistricting often discuss “communities of interest” as a guideline for drawing districts, but scholarship offers little guidance on how citizens construe communities and interests in the context of representation. We [examine] how citizens' perceptions of people and places affect preferences regarding representation. Using an original survey conducted in 15 Massachusetts [US] communities, we explore whether citizens have meaningful preferences about the communities with whom they share the same representative. To the extent they do, we test whether these preferences are driven by geographic considerations or other factors such as partisanship, race, and socio-economic status. [R, abr.]
65.4377 CLARK, Tom S.; KASTELLEC, Jonathan P. —
The public often relies on cues or heuristics when forming opinions. At the same time, leading theories of opinion-formation about the [US] Supreme Court see such support as relatively fixed. Using a series of survey experiments, we find source cues significantly influence the public's support for the Court, including the extent to which individuals believe the Court should be independent from the elected branches. Partisan source cues play a significant role in shaping public opinion regarding life tenure for the justices and the extent to which the Court should have the final say in constitutional matters — individuals are less likely to support court-curbing measures when informed that elites from the opposite party have proposed them than when such measures are endorsed by either a neutral source or members of their own party. [R, abr.]
65.4378 CONROY-KRUTZ, Jeffrey; MOEHLER, Devra C. —
Partisan media are often blamed for polarization in newly liberalized regimes. However, there is little empirical work on the subject, and information-processing theories suggest that extreme position-taking is only one possible response to opinionated news. Rather, we theorize that partisan media may cause moderation in post-liberalization settings, because low political sophistication and shifting political landscapes discourage partisan-motivated reasoning. We conducted a field experiment in Ghana in which tro-tros (commuter minibuses) were randomly assigned to one of four conditions. Passengers heard live talk-radio from a pro-government, proopposition, or neutral station, or were in a no-radio control. We find no effect of like-minded media on polarization, but significant evidence of moderation from cross-cutting broadcasts, indicating that rival arguments persuaded subjects. We argue that partisan media can moderate by exposing citizens to alternate perspectives. [R, abr.]
65.4379 COUTURE, Jérôme; BREUX, Sandra; BHERER, Laurence —
In Canada, voter turnout at the municipal level is lower than in elections at other levels of government. The reasons that might explain this low turnout are still unclear. The research tests 15 hypotheses to explain municipal electoral participation based on the case of the province of Québec (mayoral elections in 2005 and 2009 in all municipalities in the province, n = 949). The results show that four factors explain voter turnout and its variations: the size of the electorate, the presence of elderly voters, the margin of victory, and the number of candidates. These results improve our understanding of the cost of voting at the municipal level and they stress the need for conducting additional monographic investigations on this topic in Canada, especially in larger municipalities where voter turnout is often lower. [R]
65.4380 DEMIRKOL, Özhan —
This study offers the first systematic analysis of party splits in Turkish electoral politics. It first explores party splits from major parties since the late 1940s before focusing on splits from three Turkish center-right parties in the 1950s, 1960s, and 1990s. It finds no detectable patterns between the entry costs measured by disproportionality, and the occurrence of party splits in Turkey. Instead, it argues that perceived demand for new parties and internal party dynamics — namely, changes in party ideology and leadership consolidation — push the dissident factions out of the party and have a decisive influence over their decision to establish a new party. The article concludes with a note on the implications of this finding for contemporary Turkish party politics. [R]
65.4381 DeVORE, Marc R.; STÄHLI, Armin B. —
Few issues are more important to scholars of security studies than understanding the impact of state sponsorship on the capabilities of nonstate armed actors. The subject of our study — Lebanon's Hezbollah — was selected based on its reputation among scholars and policy-makers alike as an exceptionally capable organization. In our inquiry, we [address] the following questions about Hezbollah's rapid emergence during the 1980s as one of the world's premier armed non-state actors: (1) how did Iranian sponsorship contribute to Hezbollah's effectiveness?; and (2) to what extent did Hezbollah's success depend on characteristics endogenous to the organization itself? To preview our conclusions, state sponsorship can contribute markedly to non-state actors' capabilities by providing resources and sanctuary. [R, abr.]
65.4382 DIAMOND, Patrick; LIDDLE, Roger; RICHARDS, David —
The British state is in flux and the Labour party is struggling to shape an effective response to the politics of disunification. This article reflects on the nature of Labour's governing project and its conception of modern statecraft which has evolved since the party became a serious contender for power in the aftermath of the First World War. We argue that Labour's initially pluralizing instincts cultivated in opposition have been checked by the ongoing reality of a state-centric mode of governing, in which the party continued to robustly defend the Westminster model operating within the parameters established by the British Political Tradition. E. Miliband's conception of “One Nation” Labour threatens to reinforce this historical pattern of reversion to the Westminster model, when devolutionary forces are destabilizing the existing political settlement. [R, abr.]
65.4383 DISALVO, Jackie —
New York City [US] anarchists played a major role in Occupy Wall Street. Opposition to the ruling 1% promoted an anti-capitalist class consciousness and a political emphasis on inequality. OWS' militant encampments and street action avoided assimilation into the Democratic Party. However, not only massive repression, but dysfunctional organization and an unrealistic strategy also led to its decline. Its supposedly “leaderless” horizontalism and consensus process made decisions impossible, while the autonomy of individuals and groups produced an inability to coordinate its many working groups. Rejection of the demands of actual struggles limited outreach, and made identification with the 99% mostly symbolic rather than the basis for a unifying mass movement. [R, abr.] [See Abstr. 65.4200]
65.4384 DJUPE, Paul A.; LEWIS, Andrew R. —
Despite the theoretical centrality of associational life in interest group formation, there is little research to assess it. We analyze how the social environment affects the individual group joining process. We promote a two-pronged explanation, drawing upon the nature of both associations and individual associational ties. Specifically, we examine the twin forces of solidarity and discord that constrain and expand, respectively, information acquisition within two associational types, using survey data clustered by congregations and neighborhoods. In congregations, we find meaningful variance across social contexts in the available group information, which affects group knowledge and membership. As unstructured social environments, neighborhoods lack the organizational structure to spread group learning and participation. While these results generally confirm the pluralist framework, they highlight the multilevel forces that fuel the chaotic connection of citizens with organized interests. [R]
65.4385 DOHERTY, David —
I report findings from national surveys and two survey experiments that shed light on the factors that affect how people attribute motives to politicians. I find that party cues, policy preferences, and other factors affect which motives people see as the most important explanations for a representative's behavior. I also find suggestive evidence that people are not strictly averse to representatives who are motivated by political self-interest. Instead, they appear to be more concerned with the extent to which a representative is motivated by his or her genuinely held preferences and a desire to serve the public. The findings constitute an important step toward understanding how people attribute motives in the political arena and the potential consequences of these judgments about what drives politicians' behavior. [R, abr.]
65.4386 DOMMETT, Katharine —
As the contributions to this special issue demonstrate, modernization is a slippery word. Although commonly used in political rhetoric, it is often unclear exactly what is meant by the term, or how successful modernization can be discerned. This article reflects on the theory and practice of Conservative modernization to cast some light on these issues. Exploring the party's modernization from 2005 to 2015, it is argued that modernization can occur at different levels. Using the notion of micro-, meso-and macro-level modernization, it is argued that Conservative modernization was pursued at the micro and meso levels but was derailed by events that altered party strategy. This article judges that D. Cameron did not successfully modernize his party and, utilizing this case, examines the challenges of delivering modernizing change more broadly. [R] [See Abstr. 65.4425]
65.4387 DOWLING, Conor M.; MILLER, Michael G. —
We examine mass perception of the relative efficacy of women candidates, whether or not that perception can be changed, and, if so, whether or not any such change persists. Specifically, we test whether a straightforward information campaign can change beliefs about women candidates' likely success. We designed a short video that summarized documented findings in political science about the efficacy of women as candidates and randomly assigned some participants in an online survey to watch this video. We find that exposure to information depicting the above-mentioned success of women (relative to men) in terms of garnering both campaign money and votes substantially increased the proportion of respondents who believed that “a male and female candidate stand the same chance of winning” compared to respondents who received no such information. [R]
65.4388 DUFFY TOFT, Monica; ZHUKOV, Yuri M. —
This article offers the first disaggregated, quantitative comparison of Islamist and nationalist violence, using new data from Russia's North Caucasus. We find that violence by Islamist groups is less sensitive to government coercion than violence by nationalist groups. Selective counterinsurgency tactics outperform indiscriminate force in suppressing attacks by nationalists, but not Islamists. We attribute this finding to rebels' support structure. Because Islamist insurgents rely less on local support than nationalists, they are able to maintain operations even where it is relatively costly for the local population to support them. These findings have potentially significant implications for other contemporary conflicts in which governments face both types of challenges to their authority and existing political order. [R]
65.4389 DUNN, Kris —
The literature on authoritarianism and exclusive forms of nationalism often implies that authoritarian and exclusive-nationalist individuals will prefer radical right-wing populist parties such as Austria's FPÖ. The theoretical case for such implications appears sound, as party programs for radical right-wing populist parties invoke rhetoric that should appeal to individuals with either of these characteristics. To date, these implications have not been examined. This article examines quantitative survey data from five Western European countries with electorally viable radical right-wing populist parties to determine whether radical right-wing populist parties are preferred by authoritarians and/or exclusive-nationalists. Analyses indicate that the radical right-wing populist parties studied here are consistently preferred by exclusive-nationalist individuals, though not necessarily to all other parties, but only inconsistently preferred by authoritarian individuals. [R, abr.]
65.4390 ECKER-EHRHARDT, Matthias —
Based on an analysis of public attitudes in Germany, this contribution discusses three dimensions of the social legitimacy of global IOs. Regarding their social justifiability, public attitudes first of all match political cosmopolitanism's congruence principle to a remarkable degree as “global” perceptions of problems strongly correlate to beliefs that global IOs are effective governance institutions. Secondly, social evaluations of global IOs depend on “input” as well as “output” criteria, however, public demands tend to be disappointed and may even more so in the future. Thirdly, dissatisfaction with global IOs explains the observed lack of social compliance. In conclusion, results seem to suggest a self-reinforcing process of delegitimization. [R] [See Abstr. 65.4043]
65.4391 EMBACHER, Serge; MIESS, Christian; QUEDNAU, Tobias —
The article presents the findings of the project “Protest and Participation in Europe”, [which] identified initiatives and projects dealing with political integration and migration in order to transfer them — if possible — to Berlin. Furthermore, there is an overview on the debate about political integration and migration. Besides reasons of democracy and integration it deals mainly with naturalization and electoral rights. But also the role of immigrant organizations and consulting bodies is discussed. [R] [First of a series of articles on “Migration, protest and participation in Europe”. See also Abstr. 65.4101, 4265, 4504]
65.4392 ENOS, Ryan D.; HERSH, Eitan D. —
As a key element of their strategy, recent [US] presidential campaigns have recruited thousands of workers to engage in direct voter contact. We conceive of this strategy as a principal-agent problem. Workers engaged in direct contact are intermediaries between candidates and voters, but they may be ill-suited to convey messages to general-election audiences. By analyzing a survey of workers fielded in partnership with the 2012 Obama campaign, we show that in the context of the campaign widely considered most adept at direct contact, individuals who were interacting with swing voters on the campaign's behalf were demog-raphically unrepresentative, ideologically extreme, cared about atypical issues, and misunderstood the voters' priorities. We find little evidence that the campaign was able to use strategies of agent control to mitigate its principal-agent problem. [R, abr.]
65.4393 ERIKSON, Robert S.; FOLKE, Olle; SNYDER, James M., Jr. —
It is commonly argued that a [US] presidential candidate will be helped in a state by having a governor of the same party in office. However, there is little research to support this claim. To address this question, we use a regression discontinuity design, which allows us to estimate the causal effect of gubernatorial party control. We show that a presidential candidate is in fact hurt by having a governor from the same party. On average, this penalty is a 3–4 percentage point reduction in a state's presidential vote share in the following election. We also show that voters punish the presidential party in gubernatorial midterm elections. Having established these relationships, we explore why this is the case. The likely explanation is a variation of the ideological balancing argument. [R, abr.]
65.4394 FAUCHER, Florence; HAY, Colin —
Voting is a symbolic practice. Yet, political scientists tend to focus either on the outcomes of elections or on citizens' motivations to vote in the first place — typically by building models of the former on assumptions made about the latter. By doing so, they forget the symbolic significance of the practice itself and the meaning it has for the participants. We seek to restore a focus on this symbolic dimension, through an analysis of voting rituals in France and Britain. We explore what citizens do when they vote. In particular we pay attention to how the voter's choice is constructed as either something that can be performed and hence displayed publicly or as irredeemably secret and private. [R, abr.]
65.4395 FINKEL, Evgeny —
This article links the sustainability of armed resistance to a largely understudied variable — the skills to mount such a resistance. It also argues that the nature of repression experienced by a community creates and shapes these crucial skills. More specifically, the article focuses on a distinction between selective and indiscriminate state repression. Selective repression is more likely to create skilled resisters; indiscriminate repression substantially less so. Thus, large-scale repression that begins at time t has a higher chance of being met with sustained organized resistance at t +1 if among the targeted population there are people who were subject to selective repression at t 1. The article tests this argument by comparing the trajectories of anti-Nazi Jewish resistance groups in three ghettos during the Holocaust: Minsk, Kraków, and Bialystok. [R, abr.]
65.4396 FIRTH, Stewart —
Fiji's 2014 election was its first in eight years, first under the 2013 constitution, and first using a common roll of electors with proportional representation. In the new parliament of 50 seats, the coup leader of 2006, F. Bainimarama, emerged triumphant. His FijiFirst Party won 32 seats, with the Social Democratic Liberal Party, a successor party to earlier indigenous Fijian parties, winning 15 and the National Federation Party 3. The election of the new parliament marked the end of Fiji's longest period under a military government since independence. Do these elections represent the breakthrough to democratic stability that so many Fiji citizens have wanted for so long? Or are they just another phase of Fiji's turbulent politics, a democratic pause before another lurch into authoritarian government? [R, abr.] [First article of a thematic issue on “Fiji: elections and the future”, edited and introduced, pp. 85–91, by Brij V. LAL. See also Abstr. 65.4222, 4238, 4398, 4463, 4479, 4500, 4507, 4649, 4697]
65.4397 FISHER, Stephen D. —
This paper outlines several methods for forecasting the next British general election on a daily basis from 20 months prior using opinion polls. It discusses their performance for previous electoral cycles and shows that the two models with the best historical record lead to substantially different predictions for 2015, but they can be averaged. The historical relationship between the polls and the vote suggests that government support rises substantially in the run-up to elections, that Conservatives outperform but Labour underperform relative to the polls, and parties generally recover from low points or decline from high ones. Approximate prediction intervals and probabilities for key events are also generated. [R, abr.]
65.4398 FRAENKEL, Jon —
Fiji's September 2014 election was the first since the military takeover of December 2006 and the first under a new open list proportional representation system. It proved a landslide victory for coup leader turned Prime Minister V. Bainimarama's FijiFirst Party. This was a “competitive authoritarian” election, characterized by careful controls over media outlets, manipulation of rules regarding political parties and candidate nominations, and selective use of state finances to harass opponents. It was a genuine contest only insofar as the government could control the process. The outcome demonstrates the potency of incumbency in Fiji, which was also an important factor in the country's previous post-coup elections in 1992 and 2001. [R] [See Abstr. 65.4396]
65.4399 GERSTENFELD, Manfred —
In October 2012, the 18th Knesset voted unanimously to dissolve; elections were then set for January 2013. This article follows the events leading to the election, [in] four distinct phases. It describes the internal organization and primary elections in Israel's major parties, Likud and Avoda; the debate about the formation of political alliances which led to the joint list of Likud-Israel Beiteinu; the stabilization of the political blocs; and the emergence of new political forces (such as Yesh Atid). The article also discusses the impact of major events, such as the military operation Pillar of Defense, on the elections and the electoral campaign. The article discusses the parties' campaigns and the proliferation of opinion polls. [R, abr.] [First article of a thematic issue on “Israel at the polls 2013: continuity and change in Israeli political culture”, edited by Eithan ORKIBI and the author. See also Abstr. 65.4428, 4436, 4438, 4445, 4468, 4473, 4482]
65.4400 GESSLER, Sebastian —
Institutional factors have considerable impact on the success of regional minority parties. This can be seen clearly in the cases of Catalonia, Quebec, and Scotland and their minority parties; the PQ, the CiU and the SNP. The combination of party systems and electoral systems as well as the degree of regional autonomy has played an important role for their ability to govern and their capability to act on the regional level. After having been elected into government, regional minority parties need to play the game of politics in which actors, driven by their respective interests, have to compete and govern within a specific institutional context. [R, abr.]
65.4401 GOES, Eunice —
When the Liberal Democrats joined the Coalition government in May 2010, there was an expectation that they would have a restraining effect on the Conservatives, particularly in the area of European politics. But after almost five years as the junior party in the Coalition, the Liberal Democrats struggle to demonstrate their influence over the government's approach to Europe. Not only did they let the Conservatives lead the Coalition's European agenda, but they will be forever associated with the government that brought the UK closer to the exit door of the EU. The article argues that this outcome is the result of a series of avoidable if surprising mistakes, such as the choice of ministerial portfolios and the party's attitude to the Coalition's monitoring mechanisms, as well as some unavoidable mistakes. [R, abr.] [See Abstr. 65.4220]
65.4402 GRAEFE, Andreas —
This study reviews the accuracy of four methods for forecasting the 2013 German election: polls; prediction markets; expert judgment; and quantitative models. On average, across the two months prior to the election, polls were most accurate, with a mean absolute error of 1.4 percentage points, followed by quantitative models (1.6), expert judgment (2.1) and prediction markets (2.3). In addition, the study provides new evidence for the benefits of combining forecasts. Averaging all available forecasts within and across the four methods provided more accurate predictions than the typical component forecast. The results conform to prior research on US presidential elections, which showed that combining is one of the most effective methods to generating accurate election forecasts. [R, abr.]
65.4403 GRIEVE, Dominic —
[The author] challenges Conservatives to think carefully about the party's proposal to break the link between British courts and the European Court of Human Rights in Strasbourg. He recalls why the UK signed the Convention in the first place and, although recognizing that the Court's approach has been on occasion properly criticized, argued that the reforms embodied in the Brighton Declaration 2012 are bearing fruit. He provides a critical exposition of the Conservative paper “Protecting Human Rights in the UK: the Conservatives' Proposals for changing Britain's Human Rights Laws” (October 2014) and concludes that Conservatives should want to remain within the jurisdiction of the ECHR to maintain and ensure the Court's effectiveness and continued viability. [R, abr.]
65.4404 GROSSMAN, Guy —
One key political development in the past decade in many, but not all, countries across Africa has been the growing saliency of morality politics in general, and of lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender (LGBT) politics in particular. I argue that the uneven upward trend in the political saliency of LGBTs is closely related to two recent political processes: (1) a rapid growth of Pentecostal, Evangelical, and related Renewalist or Spirit-filled churches (demand-side factor) and (2) a democratization process leading to heightened political competition (supply side). To evaluate the above proposition, I created an original, fine-grained longitudinal dataset of media coverage of LGBTs in Africa, which I use as a measure of issue saliency. I find robust evidence that the saliency of LGBTs increases with a country's population share of Renewalist Christians. [R, abr.]
65.4405 HAMILTON, Lawrence C.; SAITO, Kei —
Research on US public concern about environmental issues finds ideology or political party are the most consistent background predictors. Party is commonly defined by three groups: Democrats, Republicans, and Independents. Here, using statewide New Hampshire survey data, we elaborate this approach to distinguish a fourth group: respondents who say they support the Tea Party movement. On 8 out of 12 science-or environment-related questions, Tea Party supporters differ significantly from non-Tea Party Republicans. [R, abr.]
65.4406 HAMMOND, John L. —
The Occupy Wall Street movement arose to protest extreme economic inequality, corporate control of economic and political life, and government policies which exacerbated them. Many activists held anarchist principles, though not primarily directed at the abolition of the state but rather at the organization of the movement itself: horizontalism (no formal leadership), prefiguration (attempting to model the desired future society in the movement's own practice), autonomy from the state and other political organizations, mutual aid, and defiance of government authority. The mainly young occupiers were attracted to anarchism because neither employment in large institutions nor a government safety net appeared to offer them any prospect of security, so they invested their faith in autonomous solidary organizations governed by consensus. [R, abr.] [See Abstr. 65.4200]
65.4407 HARAN, Olexiy; ZOLKINA, Maria —
Despite the annexation of Crimea and the war in Donbas, early presidential and parliamentary elections in Ukraine were held in accordance with the demands of Euromaidan (Revolution of Dignity). Candidates from the ousted president V. Yanukovych's party also participated although its support dropped dramatically from 30% to 9.5%. [Neither] the far left [nor] the far right met the 5% voter threshold. The new elections produced an overwhelming pro-European majority. The challenges remain substantial, as the president and the new government need to conduct unpopular reforms in the context of a war-time economy. [R]
65.4408 HARJU, Auli —
The article asks what motivates activists in political participation and activism in the 2010s, and how important media publicity is for their political activities. It first investigates how activists define their experiences on the political: what triggered them to take action, how they see their own activism and its value in the society. Second, the article studies media strategies of the activists and explores their views on the importance of media, both journalism and social media, for their activism. The research material consists of 21 focused interviews with Finnish activists who have experiences on media publicity. [R]
65.4409 HAYES, Danny; LAWLESS, Jennifer L. —
We propose a two-stage process to explain the relationship between the local news environment and citizen engagement. Our original content-analysis of newspaper coverage in every US House district during the 2010 midterms reveals that districts with uncompetitive races and those served by large-circulation outlets see significantly less, and less substantive, coverage than hotly contested districts and those served by smaller outlets. We then merge the news data with survey data from the 2010 CCES and find that a diminished news environment depresses engagement. Citizens exposed to a lower volume of coverage are less able to evaluate their member of Congress, less likely to express opinions about the House candidates in their districts, and less likely to vote. [R, abr.]
65.4410 HAYTON, Richard; McENHILL, Libby —
This article challenges the perception that modernization has fundamentally transformed the position of social liberalism in contemporary conservatism, questioning the extent to which the Conservatives under D. Cameron have deviated from their socially conservative Thatcherite ideological inheritance. Two key aspects of social liberalism are explored: an inclusive approach to “equality issues”, and a commitment to the idea of positive freedom or “freedom to”. The extent to which positioning under Cameron's leadership has reflected these themes is then considered in relation to two flagship ”modernized” policy areas: the issue of equal marriage rights for same-sex couples, and the party's approach to poverty and social justice. We suggest that Cameron's success in transforming Conservative attitudes and policies in a socially liberal direction has been very limited. [R, abr.] [See Abstr. 65.4425]
65.4411 HECKER, Tobias; HAER, Roos —
Many studies have emphasized the role of natural resources in the onset and duration of armed conflict. Due to its characteristics, narcotics are considered to be one of the most influential resources. However, the dynamics of how this particular commodity is linked to conflict is still not well understood. Most scholars have focused on the revenue aspects of narcotics and only a few have mentioned the micro-level aspect, i. e., the effect of drug intake and alcohol consumption on combatants' behavior during conflict. With the help of a dataset based on 224 interviews held with former combatants in the Democratic Republic of the Congo, we examined this latter dynamic. [R, abr.]
65.4412 HERTNER, Isabelle —
This article analyzes and compares the politics of European policymaking within the British Labour Party, the PS and the SPD between 1997 and 2012. We know that party leaders have assumed much autonomy in the making of European policy, but, as with policy-making in any area, their autonomy is constrained and sometimes even questioned by other parts of the party. In order to establish how they are constrained, and what factors increase the level of constraint, this study explores the roles played by four party actors in the making of European policy: conferences, national executive committees, MPs and MEPs. This article, which is based on over 35 interviews with EU experts from the three parties, confirms that European policy was generally made by the party leadership. [R, abr.]
65.4413 HILDEBRANDT, Cornelia —
The article assesses the potential of Germany's Left Party in pursuing a different economic and social system, which is democratic socialism. Topics covered include the three basic ideas of the party's new platform, the changes in the political landscape in Germany and the position of the Left Party in the German party system. The impact of the entry of the Alternative for Germany (AfD) in the parliamentary system on the bourgeois camp is also discussed. [A]
65.4414 HOYNES, William, ed. —
William HOYNES, “Assessing nonviolent movements”, pp. 1–3; Timothy BRAATZ, “The limitations of strategic nonviolence”, pp. 4–11; Kelly Rae KRAEMER, “Dealing with military defectors”, pp. 12–18; Paul di STEFANO and Mostafa HENAWAY, “Boycotting apartheid from South Africa to Palestine”, pp. 19–27; Jade BATSTONE, “The use of strategic nonviolent action in the Arab Spring”, pp. 28–37; Emily E. WELTY, “Occupy Wall Street as ‘American Spring’”, pp. 38–45; Naomi DANN, “Nonviolent resistance in the Western Sahara”, pp. 46–53; Caitrin HALL, “The seed of nonviolence”, pp. 54–61; Shanna KOHN, “Tibetan nonviolence”, pp. 62–68; Matt MEYER, “Rebuilding revolutionary nonviolence in an anti-imperialist era”, pp. 69–77; Khadija El ALAOUI, “The ethics of Tahreer Square [Cairo, Egypt]”, pp. 78–84.
65.4415 HRISTOVA, Lidija; CEKIK, Aneta —
This article examines the effects of the EU accession process on the representation of interests in Macedonia. Based on interview data from several types of interest groups, we conclude that the EU accession process has contributed towards the greater inclusion of highly Europeanized sectors of civil society in national decision-making. However, these developments are not so substantial as to justify the conclusion that interest groups have become systematically involved in national politics as a result of EU pressure. Our findings also confirm several modes of participation of interest groups in EU-level interest representation, although with limited scope and effects. [R]
65.4416 HSU, Carolyn L.; JIANG Yuzhou —
This article uses an institutional approach to examine Chinese NGOs as an emerging organizational field. In an emerging organizational field, the institutionalized constraints are not yet established, so actors can try out a wide range of practices. Some of these practices will become the new “rules of the game” of the organizational field when it is established. The content of these rules will shape the relationship between NGOs and the Chinese party-state for future generations. We find that a Chinese NGO's resource strategy is shaped by two interacting factors: (1) NGOs operate in an evolving ecology of opportunity; (2) the social entrepreneurs who lead Chinese NGOs perceive that ecology of opportunity through the lens of their personal experiences, beliefs and expertise. [R, abr.]
65.4417 IGAN, Deniz; MISHRA, Prachi —
This paper explores the link between the political influence of the financial industry and financial regulation in the run-up to the global financial crisis. We construct a detailed database documenting the lobbying activities, campaign contributions, and political connections of the financial industry from 1999 to 2006 in the US. We find evidence that spending on lobbying by the financial industry and network connections between lobbyists and legislators were positively associated with the probability of a legislator changing positions in favor of deregulation. The evidence also suggests that hiring lobbyists who had worked for legislators in the past enhanced this link. [R]
65.4418 JALALZAI, Farida; DOS SANTOS, Pedro G. —
This article first provides a brief description of the significance of Dilma's election and the possible contributions to the literature stemming from her election. Second, we discuss the theoretical and methodological implications of a study on presidential gender representation, elaborating on how we define and connect gender with discussions of descriptive and substantive representation. Third, we investigate Dilma's presidency in the context of its impact on descriptive and substantive representation of women in Brazil. [R]
65.4419 JAMAL, Manal A. —
Since the end of the Cold War, the quest to spread democracy has become the rallying call of many Western donor agencies. Reflecting this new agenda, new program priorities prevailed that placed greater emphasis on civil society development, civic engagement and gender empowerment. Contrary to expectations, however, many of these programs have often adversely affected existing social movements. Most scholars attempting to explain these unintended outcomes have focused on the impact of NGO professionalization. Examining the Palestinian women's movement, this article addresses the inadequacy of this explanation and focuses on the political dimension of this discussion by illustrating how Western donors' lack of understanding of the Palestinian women's movement and its “embeddedness” in the broader political context served to weaken and undermine this movement. [R, abr.]
65.4420 JESSE, Eckhard —
The outcome of the sixth election to the Saxon Landtag led, as in 2004, to a coalition of strong Christian Democrats with weak Social Democrats and with S. Tillich as Prime Minister of Saxony, making him the longest-serving Premier of a federal state in Germany. An arithmetically feasible black-green coalition failed because of the Greens. The electorate showed a lack of interest in a change, however, the CDU, the larger coalition party, was seen more favorably than the liberal party (FDP), the smaller coalition party. During the campaign all parties focused heavily on issues related to the state of Saxony. [R, abr.]
65.4421 JOHNSON, Joel W. —
This paper argues that perceptions of corruption in Latin America exhibit predictable fluctuations in the wake of presidential turnover. Specifically, presidential elections that result in the partisan transfer of power are normally followed by a surge-and-decline pattern in perceived corruption control, with initial improvements that fade with time. The causes are multiple and stem from the removal of corrupt administrations, public enthusiasm about administrative change, and the relative lack of high-level corruption scandals in the early phases of new governments. A statistical analysis of two widely used corruption perceptions indices demonstrates the pattern for eighteen Latin American democracies from 1996 to 2010. [R, abr.]
65.4422 JUST, Aida; ANDERSON, Christopher J. —
This article develops a model of immigrants' attitudes towards immigration. We focus on two competing motivations to explain these attitudes: while kinship, solidarity, and shared experiences with other immigrants should lead to more favorable attitudes towards immigration, formal integration into a new society may create a new allegiance to the host country that produces more critical views toward immigration. Using the European Social Survey (ESS) 1–5 data collected 2002–2011 in 18 West European democracies, coarsened exact matching (CEM), and multilevel estimation techniques, our analyses reveal that foreigners support immigration more than natives. However, newcomers who have acquired citizenship in their host countries are more skeptical about the consequences of immigration and admitting new arrivals than noncitizen immigrants. [R, abr.]
65.4423 KAPIDŽIĆ, Damir —
This paper focuses on the democratic transition of Bosnia and Herzegovina and its founding elections in 1990. A variety of electoral systems, both proportional and majoritarian, were employed during these elections. With different incentives they attempted to reconcile inclusion and group representation, while fostering interethnic politics. Utilizing newly available election data and a within-case comparison, the paper analyzes incentives and outcome of different electoral systems under least-likely conditions of success. As no single electoral system was able to overcome the predominance of particularistic ethnic politics during these elections, the paper concludes that under high levels of transitional uncertainty and low levels of ethnic inter-group relations, the choice of electoral system alone is often not enough to make a decisive difference in electoral outcome. [R]
65.4424 KARLSEN, Rune; SKOGERBØ, Eli —
Using new data from the Norwegian Candidate Survey 2009 and in-depth interviews with 29 top candidates, we study whether candidates in the Norwegian 2009 parliamentary election ran party-centered or individualized campaigns. We distinguish between the organizational aspects and the communicative focus of the candidates' campaigns. Moreover, we argue theoretically and show empirically how campaigns can be localized but still party-centered. The analysis shows low levels of individualized campaigning in Norway, but there are differences between candidates, especially based on party affiliation. Moreover, the differences are first and foremost related to the communicative focus, not the organizational aspects. While candidates highlight the importance of localizing the campaign, the results show that this is mostly about “translating” the national campaign strategy to the regional or local level, not about independent local strategies. [R, abr.]
65.4425 KERR, Peter; HAYTON, Richard —
Introducing this special issue, we [examine] the main themes and issues [in] the articles presented in order to make sense of the overall fate of D. Cameron's attempted modernization of the Conservative Party. We argue: (1) that Cameron's early attempts to steer the party into the center of British politics [was] reasonably effective; (2) that in 2007–2008, in the context of the emergence of economic difficulties leading to the financial crisis, the party chose to turn, across a number of policy areas, back towards a more traditional Thatcherite or neo-liberal agenda; (3) that the financial crisis and the [ensuing] political instability exposed the party's lack of ideological coherence; (2) its potential for serious performance deficits because of a lack of consistency in the political leadership; and (3) its vulnerability to party management problems. [R] [First article of a thematic issue on “Conservative Party modernization from opposition to government”, edited by Steve KETTELL and the authors. See also Abstr. 65.4291, 4368, 4372, 4386, 4410, 4442, 4485]
65.4426 KFIR, Isaac —
The article uses social identity group theory and human insecurity to examine the rise of the Islamic State in Iraq and the Levant (ISIL). After first defining social group identity and its characteristics, the article reviews the Al Qaeda ideology that serves as the foundation of ISIL, before turning attention to the message and legacy of A. M. al-Zarqawi and their profound influence on ISIL. The article argues that only by ending the marketplace of identities can stability be restored to Iraq and Syria. [R]
65.4427 KHAN, Muqtedar —
The essay states that the Islamist understanding of democracy allows majoritarian beliefs to override the religious freedom of other people. It notes that Islamists embraced democracy as means to acquire and transfer power. It mentions that Islamists found that acceptance of democracy provided international legitimacy and made strategic sense as popularity increased. [A]
65.4428 KHANIN, Vladimir (Ze'ev) —
This article argues that in the coming years, the Russian community's politics in Israel will continue to search for an optimal model of combination of a party's ethnic base with a mainstream platform, and which constitute an exemplary model and inspiration of political participation for other ethnic or cultural identity oriented groups, such as English-, French- and Amharic-speaking immigrants, and for the “new Haredim”. [R, abr.] [See Abstr. 65.4399]
65.4429 KISCHEL, Uwe —
The Eastern Europe states are no longer in transition. Nevertheless, their legal culture reveals a number of characteristics which are based not only on the reality of the process of transition but also on their common socialist past. These characteristics allow Eastern Europe to be classified as a distinct group within the civil law family. Additionally, an important cultural subdivision needs to be made between those states that are currently members of the EU — whose development is thus particularly close to that of Western Europe — and the remaining states. Russia, however, does not belong to that group. Its characteristics are so pronounced, qualitatively as well as quantitatively, that Russia must be considered to be the core of its distinct legal family. [R]
65.4430 KLÜVER, Heike —
While previous studies have primarily focused on the link between voters, political parties and governments, interest groups have largely been ignored. This article examines how public opinion affects interest group activity. It is argued that interest group activity is a bottom-up process in which interest groups respond to the issue priorities of citizens. Bringing together panel data on citizen concerns with longitudinal data on interest group issue-attention, this article examines the issue-linkage between citizens and interest groups in Germany from 1984 until 2010 in two different policy domains. Based on a time-series crosssection analysis, it is shown that issue-attention of citizens precedes the registration of interest groups in the Bundestag indicating that interest groups play an important role in issue-evolution and political representation. [R, abr.]
65.4431 KOURTIKAKIS, Kostas; PAHRE, Robert —
The article discusses the role of political parties in the foreign economic policies of EU countries. The authors emphasize the importance of domestic politics in regional international politics and argue that changes in the strength and goals of governing parties are key factors in changes to EU economic policy. Details on changes in the French and British policy towards the European Sovereign Debt Crisis of 2009 are presented. Other topics include elections and coalitions. [A] [See Abstr. 65.4669]
65.4432 KROPIVNIK, Samo; LIPICER, Simona Kustec —
This article draws on the assumption that certain congruence between the parties' electoral platforms and of the succeeding government's performance shall exist in democratic systems and shall, as such, be considered as an important research topic for the researchers of democratic policy-making processes and political systems in general. We analyze whether the contents of parties' electoral programs and the contents of key post-electoral governmental policy documents — e.g., the coalition agreement, the government sessions' agenda and governmental weekly press releases — correspond to each other. Slovenia, one of the younger EU democracies, is used as a case study to test the application. Original Manifesto Research on Political Representation (MARPOR) methodology for quantifying documents' content is applied and analysis primarily focuses on governmental period of the first right-centered government from 2004 to 2008. [R, abr.]
65.4433 LAVERTY, Nicklaus —
The post-Soviet “party of power” and the United Russia (UR) party have received increased attention in recent years, but it is not clear where they fit in comparison with other authoritarian parties. This article argues that by examining the relationship between the state and the party, and the degree of manipulation used to secure the party's dominance, we can move towards placing the party of power in a typological framework. Compared to other authoritarian parties, the party of power relies almost exclusively on the state for its political position, and is vulnerable to shifts in the state's priorities. [R]
65.4434 LAYTON, Matthew L.; SMITH, Amy Erica —
We study how social assistance shapes election results across Latin America. Case studies in several countries have found electoral effects, yet it remains unclear whether and how effects vary cross-nationally, and whether electoral effects are due to mobilization or persuasion. We theorize that programs mobilize non-voters and convert the opposition simultaneously, but that the effects vary based on country-level political and programmatic differences. Using 2012 AmericasBarometer data, we develop a unified cross-national model that confirms that public assistance makes recipients more likely to turn out and, once at the polls, to vote for the incumbent. Compulsory voting laws and program politicization magnify the electoral effects of social assistance, but effects do not vary by presidential ideology or program conditionalities. [R]
65.4435 LEFÈVRE, Raphaël —
Much of the discussion regarding the situation in Syria has focused on the rise of Islamic extremists, to the detriment of another trend of the past months: the slow rebirth of the local branch of the Muslim Brotherhood and its claims to support “centrist” rebel groups on the ground. This article provides an overview of the group's history, before moving on to analyze its military influence in the current Syrian crisis. [R]
65.4436 LEON, Nissim —
This article examines the emergency election campaign launched by the Haredi parties in anticipation of the 2013 general elections in Israel, in order to attract the votes of those generally perceived as their automatic supporters — the Haredim. The 2013 campaign was a struggle for the “converted” — the Haredi vote — amongst UTJ and Shas supporters alike. The battle was fought openly and assertively. The intensive efforts ultimately achieved what may be described as an uneasy electoral stability. The reasons for this situation, and how the Haredi parties addressed it, is the subject of this article. [R] [See Abstr. 65.4399]
65.4437 LEWANDOWSKY, Marcel; JANKOWSKI, Michael —
Similar to the thesis that regional elections in Germany are affected by factors at the federal level, some scholars assume that the federal party in central office had interest in influencing the election campaigns of their regional branches. However, we still know little about the form and the extent to which the federal party appears in the campaign organization at the Land level. Linked to recent conceptual attempts of parties in multilevel contexts, we shall formulate theoretical assumptions and offer a first empirical approach to the question of what role the federal party plays in both the political and the technical dimension of regional election campaigns. [R]
65.4438 LEWIN, Eyal —
The 2013 election campaign in Israel shows some unanticipated results and unexpected reactions of several political actors. Three events in particular can be noted: (1) the rise of a significant centrist middle-class party; (2) the association of the newly elected right-wing Prime Minister with his left-wing rivals; and (3) the revival of a national religious party after years of decline. A broad overview, however, reveals that from many perspectives numerous key elements of Israeli politics have remained broadly the same over the decades. Some unanticipated outcomes of the elections are to a substantial extent repetitions of past events, referred to in this paper as historic recurrences. In order to establish this claim about historic recurrence, each event is compared to past events with which several striking similarities are found. [R, abr.] [See Abstr. 65.4399]
65.4439 LINDGREN, April —
Canada's political class is embracing ethnocultural news media with increasing zeal, highlighting the need to understand the role of these news organizations in the political process. This study investigated coverage of Canada's 2011 federal election in five Toronto-area ethnocultural newspapers. The publications, which carried campaign news to varying degrees, provided coverage that was distinct in many ways from mainstream media. Content such as the focus on in-group candidates had the potential to strengthen community bonds while more general election news equipped readers with information that would facilitate participation in society through informed voting. Analysis of reporting about the Conservative Party of Canada, which pursued an aggressive ethnic media strategy, identified no clear pattern of stories with explicitly biased content. [R, abr.]
65.4440 LOWRY, Robert C. —
I study itemized contributions to candidates, parties, and political action committees (PACs) aggregated by [US] congressional district for 1994–2006. The timing and competitiveness of presidential, congressional, and even state elections affect the expected benefits and opportunity costs of contributing to all types of committees, and this is reflected in the amounts contributed through different channels. Political party committees raising hard money contributions relied more on districts with high per capita income, education attainment, and urbanization after the Bipartisan Campaign Reform Act (BCRA) than before, but were still less dependent on these districts than soft money committees before the BCRA. Overall, the BCRA led to less reliance on districts with high socioeconomic status as sources of itemized contributions to committees regulated by the Federal Election Commission. [R, abr.]
65.4441 LUPTON, Robert N.; MYERS, William M.; THORNTON, Judd R. —
Some scholars assert that increased complexity — political sophistication — constrains political attitudes to a single ideological dimension while others argue that complexity instead leads to a multidimensional attitude structure. We investigate the role of sophistication in structuring issue attitudes using a unique survey of Democratic and Republican party elites in conjunction with the American National Election Studies (ANES). The two surveys allow us to compare directly the structure of elites' and mass issue attitudes. We hypothesize that elites' attitudes are unidimensional and mass attitudes are multidimensional. The difference, we argue, is that political sophistication constrains elites' attitudes to a single ideological dimension, whereas much of the mass public is not fully capable of making the necessary connections between ideology and issue attitudes. [R, abr.]
65.4442 LYNCH, Philip —
The re-emergence of European integration as a difficult issue for the Conservative Party exposed the limits of D. Cameron's modernization project. In opposition, Cameron had suppressed rather than effectively addressed the issue, allowing Euroskeptics who favor withdrawal or fundamental renegotiation to shape the agenda. In office, new and familiar challenges emerged. The Eurozone sovereign debt crisis changed the dynamics of the UK's relationship with the EU. Domestically, coalition with the Liberal Democrats and dissent from Euroskeptic Conservative MPs restricted Cameron's room for maneuver, while the rise of the UK Independence Party (UKIP) added a new dimension to the problems the EU issue poses for the Conservatives. Cameron responded by promising that if the Conservatives win the 2015 general election, he will negotiate a “new settlement” in the EU and hold an “inout” referendum. [R, abr.] [See Abstr. 65.4425]
65.4443 MAHONEY, Christine; BAUMGARTNER, Frank R. —
One of the most important demonstrations of power in Washington is the ability to recruit sitting government officials to become active proponents of one's position. Many have suggested money is the key: Campaign contributions buy friends, access, and perhaps even policy activism. We provide an alternative view based on a deceptively simple observation: Lobbyists rarely lobby alone. We show empirically that government policy-makers respond to the overall structure of conflict, not the resources of individual lobbying groups. Our project is based on in-depth interviews with over 300 policy advocates and systematic information on each of more than 2,000 advocates playing a significant role in a random sample of 98 policy issues in the US federal government from 1999 to 2002. [R]
65.4444 MANER, Hans-Christian —
For the presidential elections, then governing President T. B sescu was no longer allowed to compete for re-election; polling forecasts predicted a victory of the Prime Minister, V. V. Ponta. K. W. Johannis was not considered a genuine alternative. The final result was a big surprise. Numerous young voters celebrated Johannis's victory: many spoke of a new beginning in the country's politics, even of a “revolution” or a “November miracle”. The article examines the election in 2014 in its historical context. The analytical focus is on the campaign, the programs of the two candidates Ponta and Johannis, and the final results. In conclusion, the winner's road to the inauguration and his first steps as President are illuminated. [R]
65.4445 MANN, Rafi —
The electoral success of Y. Lapid's Yesh Atid party in the 2013 Knesset elections is discussed as a test case of a worldwide phenomenon of celebrities, among them media personalities, who enter the political field. P. Bourdieu's interpretive research framework regarding symbolic and social capitals, as well as media capital, is used here to analyze Lapid's versatile career and celebrity status as the background to his performance during the campaign and his ability to win 19 seats in the Knesset. The article also places Lapid's case in the context of political and social developments in Israel in the last decades. [R] [See Abstr. 65.4399]
65.4446 MANNEWITZ, Tom —
Regional political cultures play only a minor role in (German) political culture research — without any reason. That is why it cannot detect several causes of democratic (in)stability: existential stress (caused by regionally concentrated anti-system attitudes and concealed by a view on societal average values) and dilemma-stress, where political-cultural polarization overcharges the capabilities of the political system. The study of regionalization of political culture promises to detect these causes of systemic stress, to give a methodologically satisfying answer to the question of an East-West-contrast in Germany and to explain regional variances in political and economic performance within states. Instead of defining regions and then measuring differences between them, research should derive political cultural regions from the comparison of sub-state units with the help of cluster analyses. [R]
65.4447 MANSKI, Ben —
I look at the contours and origins of the present US democracy movement, and identify certain theoretical questions that emerge from that description. I examine the democracy movement's integration of prefigurative and strategic politics, in order to illustrate the point that democracy movements are qualitatively distinct from other social movement forms. Democracy movements in general, and this democracy movement in particular, require specific attention and analysis. The present turn toward deep democracy is far from complete; understanding its pathways will prove essential if we are to confront future hardships. [R]
65.4448 MATSUBAYASHI, Tetsuya; UEDA, Michiko; UEKAMI, Takayoshi —
This paper examines whether candidates in Japanese local elections are more likely to declare affiliation with parties as the population size of districts increases, and thus the importance of party reputations and resources for mobilization increases. To test this hypothesis, we use data from Japanese municipal legislative elections between 1999 and 2010, where the vast majority of candidates run as independents. We exploit variations in the population size of districts before and after massive municipal mergers. We find that the percentage of candidates affiliated with political parties increased when the number of votes required for winning a seat increased as a result of municipal mergers. Our analysis also finds that candidates in municipalities that merged were more likely to join parties, compared to those in municipalities that did not experience mergers. [R]
65.4449 MAVROMMATIS, George —
From the December 2008 “riots” to the “Indignant” protests and after, the streets of Athens have been flaring up in scenes of turmoil and dissent. This article sheds light on a particular moment of this continuous political upheaval, the 2011 Aganaktismenoi movement that grew massively and disappeared into thin air in all but a few months. These political phenomena are approached by deploying Arendt's method of hermeneutic phenomenology and by trying to understand these events through a narrative analysis of participants' stories. Among others, this analysis reveals an emptiness of political narratives (words) that did not correspond with the newness of the political actions (deeds) and allegedly created obstacles for political newness to enter the world of old politics or post-politics. [R, abr.]
65.4450 McALLISTER, Ian —
While national election campaigns have become increasingly personalized, it is unclear to what extent this trend has been replicated at the constituency level. Using surveys of Australian election candidates conducted from 1996 to 2010, this article tests the personalization hypothesis at the local constituency level. Three areas that may be affected by personalization are examined: constituency service; geographic proximity between candidates and potential voters; and local election campaigning. Among MPs, constituency service has grown in importance at the expense of local party engagement. However, among the broader group of candidates standing in the election, the results show that party-related activities deliver more votes than personal ones. [R]
65.4451 McCOY, John; KNIGHT, W. Andy —
The article examines how global trends related to militant Islamism have influenced patterns of homegrown terrorism in Canada. It [considers] how an evolving movement has shaped three case studies, two cases of homegrown terrorism, the case of Momin Khawaja, the “Toronto 18” plot, and the emerging trend of extremist travelers. Recognizing the notable gap in the literature, a growing number of cases of homegrown terrorism and extremism in Canada suggest that further study is required. The article asks why Canadians choose to participate in this movement and why militant Islamist movements are actively recruiting them. [R]
65.4452 McGREGOR, R. Michael; ANDERSON, Cameron D. —
Voter participation is widely viewed as invaluable by democratic theorists, and a large majority of members of the Canadian public believe that low turnout weakens Canadian democracy. In response to decreasing rates of turnout in federal elections, Elections Canada has run advertising campaigns during the last several election campaigns encouraging Canadians to participate by voting. Using Election Canadian Study data from 2006 and 2008, this note examines the effect of Elections Canada's advertisements upon turnout and the partisan outcome of elections. Results reveal that the ad campaigns have effects upon both factors. The ads increase turnout among segments of the population with traditionally low turnout rates and are associated with an overall decrease in the Conservative party's vote share. [R]
65.4453 MILAZZO, Caitlin —
Despite the importance of national party politics in Britain, constituency-level electoral marginality makes it easier for citizens to select parties based on policy. Using data from the 2005 and 2010 British Election Studies, I find that citizens residing in marginal constituencies are more likely to perceive parties' relative ideological positions correctly, and that electoral marginality promotes knowledge by increasing both the attention that parties pay to a constituency and citizens' engagement in the election. Finally, preliminary findings suggest that citizens do not necessarily perceive differences in the tone of the campaign material. [R]
65.4454 MORASKI, Bryon —
This work considers how a ruling party in an increasingly authoritarian regime utilizes legislative electoral system changes. It argues that the placement of former district deputies on the list of Russia's ruling party after the move to a PR-only system reflected an interest in expanding its presence in the countryside as well as the attractiveness of the ruling party to the former district deputies themselves. It submits that both the party's willingness to place former district deputies on its list and the willingness of the deputies to accept positions should vary by previous party affiliations, yielding predictable patterns in the aggregate. [R, abr.]
65.4455 MUJANI, Saiful; LIDDLE, R. William —
How democratic is contemporary Indonesia? Indonesian citizens, when asked in systematic public opinion surveys conducted regularly by the authors since 1999, consistently express strong support for democratic principles and also believe that their country's democratic performance is high. Support for democratic performance is highly correlated with support for government performance, as measured by perceptions of the condition of the national economy and political system. At the same time, higher levels of education and income, in Indonesia as in other countries, have created a considerable number of critical citizens, that is, citizens who value democracy but are critical of its performance. On our evidence for Indonesia, it is members of this group who are the most motivated and best prepared to demand a higher level of democratic performance from their elected officials. [R] [See Abstr. 65.4738]
65.4456 MURDIE, Amanda; URPELAINEN, Johannes —
Why do international NGOs (INGOs) “name and shame” the countries that they do? Do they target states that provide domestic groups with political opportunities to collaborate with INGOs, or do they target states that repress domestic activism? Focusing on the case of the environment, we test the empirical validity of these competing hypotheses. We find that environmental INGOs target countries as a substitute for national political institutions that encourage domestic activism or a lack of environmental institutions. This is in contrast to a “strategic complementarity” approach, where INGOs would target “easy” countries in which domestic institutions would bolster the effectiveness of international shaming. Using a novel data-set of environmental INGO shaming by over 2,000 organizations, we find support for the strategic substitution approach: INGOs shame autocratic regimes and those countries that lack environmental ministries. [R, abr.]
65.4457 MUSGRAVE, Paul; ROM, Mark —
Is grading polarized in political science classrooms? We offer experimental evidence that suggests it is not. Many have argued that instructors' grading in political science classrooms is skewed by the political characteristics of the instructor, the student, or an interaction between the two. Yet the evaluations of whether such biases exist has been asserted and denied with little evidence — even though prominent theories in political science suggest that the charge is not entirely implausible. Using a set of anonymous essays by undergraduates graded by teaching assistants at a variety of institutions, we test for the presence of bias in a framework that avoids the usual selection bias issues that confound attempts at inference. After evaluating the evidence carefully, we find that the evidence for bias is much weaker than activists claim. [R]
65.4458 MUYARD, Frank —
English version: see Abstr. 65.4459.
65.4459 MUYARD, Frank —
The tremendous defeat of the KMT ([Kuomintang] nationwide and in the most important contests coincides with a continuous downslide from its past dominance at the lower rungs of elected positions. In this respect, the DPP (Democratic Progression Party] certainly benefited from the low popular support for Ma and his administration, but the poll results also confirm significant medium-term political shifts and a protest vote that were not understood by many analysts, and may foretell more change in future electoral behavior. [R]
65.4460 NACHTWEY, Oliver —
The Pegida phenomenon has caused outrage and, especially, an immense curiosity of the media. Tens of thousands of “normal citizens” that seem to come out from nowhere have taken to the streets in order to shout a vigorous message that calls up extreme-right ideologies. The author examines this movement. Pegida is not primarily a far-right political organization, but rather the product of a highly nervous, neoliberal center that lacks emotional control and increasingly longs for an authoritarian guide. [R, transl.]
65.4461 NALL, Clayton —
In the postwar era, Democratic voters have become increasingly more likely than Republican voters to live in urban counties. Public policies that shape geographic space have been a major contributor to this geographic polarization. This article examines the effect of the Interstate Highway System, the largest public works project in American history, on this phenomenon. Drawing on a database of US highway construction since the passage of 1956 highway legislation, it shows that suburban Interstate highways made suburban counties less Democratic, especially in the South and where highways were built earlier. Metropolitan areas with denser Interstate networks also became more polarized. Analysis of the Youth-Parent Socialization Panel Study (1965–1997) reveals individual-level mechanisms underlying these changes: Interstates drew more white and affluent residents, who tended to be Republican, to the suburbs. [R]
65.4462 NIEDERMAYER, Oskar —
The election campaign became “cuddly” since neither the Left Party nor the CDU confronted the SPD, a desired coalition partner for both parties, head-on. Furthermore the government had settled potentially controversial topics before the campaigning began. This contributed considerably to the very low turnout of 47.9 per cent. The SPD won the election, because their front-runner D. Woidke left behind his competitors in all relevant policy issues and because the party was seen as being most competent regarding the significant topics at hand. The CDU advanced to second place and the Left party dropped to third. [R, abr.]
65.4463 NORTON, Robert —
The tendency for ethnic conflict to dominate political life has impeded attempts to achieve leadership and equitable government for the multiethnic nation and caused crises of political instability. A review of the past attempts to achieve national leadership through electoral competition illuminates the historical context of the turbulent political process of the last decade. Overcoming the impasse of ethnic conflict is the central objective of the military-based regime which continues to rule following the first parliament elections since the 2006 coup against an ethno-nationalist government and the first based on a full common franchise and the prohibition of invidious ethnic appeals in campaigning. Interethnic cooperation and cross-ethnic voting were stronger features than in past elections and perhaps augur well for achievement of the elusive broad-based national leadership. [R] [See Abstr. 65.4396]
65.4464 O'BRIEN, Kevin J.; DENG Yanhua —
In spring 2005, villagers in Dongyang County, Zhejiang were unhappy. For four years they had been complaining about pollution emitted by 13 factories located in the Zhuxi Chemical Park, but nothing had been done. So they set up a tent encampment to block delivery of supplies to the factories. After a harsh repression produced hundreds of injuries and left dozens of damaged vehicles and other evidence of police action strewn about, the tent-sitters switched to more aggressive tactics. The authorities' ill-considered and poorly-timed repression led to tactical escalation, helped draw thousands of people to the scene, and ultimately resulted in the chemical park being closed. This episode speaks to the “dissentrepression nexus” and suggests that repression can be counterproductive when it encourages protesters to ratchet up their tactics and a “protest spectacle” ensues. [R, abr.]
65.4465 OCHOTIN, Grigory —
In mid-2012, the Russian Duma passed the so-called “foreign agent law”: since then, NGOs receiving funding from foreign foundations have been required to register as “foreign agents”. The law was a direct response to the 2011–2012 protest movement: the election observation organization Golos came under the most immediate and sustained pressure. By means of civil disobedience and legal action, the remaining NGOs were able to hold off the first attacks. But in the spring of 2014 — after the revolution in Ukraine — a second wave of inspections got under way. The consequences have been much more serious. Most NGOs can hardly work anymore; the existence of many is at risk. [R] [See Abstr. 65.4729]
65.4466 ONBAŞI, Funda Geçgoğlu —
Parallel to the politicization of ethnicity, religion and sexuality on the one hand, and the rise of the internet, on the other hand, hate speech has become one of the most topical issues of political debates. Academic interest has focused largely on the questions of (im)possibility of defining hate speech, on the hate speech/free speech dichotomy, and, thus on the possible ways of dealing with this big challenge of our times. This study argues that rival understandings of security (traditional or critical) lead to differences in perceptions of threats/harms which in turn lead to different conceptions of hate speech. This argument is illustrated through an analysis of the way the Kurdish issue in Turkey has been tackled in Eksi Sözlük, one of the most popular web sites in the country. [R, abr.]
65.4467 OPPELLAND, Torsten —
After 24 years in power, the CDU was replaced by a new coalition composed of The Left, the SPD and the Greens and led by Prime Minister B. Ramelow, a member of The Left party. This constellation is entirely new in Germany. Although the CDU remained the strongest party, it failed to win the votes necessary to come into a position where no politically viable coalition could be formed without it. The Left's strategy of personalization, on the other hand, proved successful to moderately improve its good result of 2009. The SPD had made the wrong strategic decision of keeping all coalition options open before the election and thus experienced not only another debacle but, with 12.4 percent, an all time low. [R, abr.]
65.4468 ORKIBI, Eithan —
Political campaigns running during the Israeli general elections of 2013 saw a rapidly growing use of new media. According to reports, most of the electronic campaign activity focused on candidates' or their respective party's Facebook page. This article explores the rhetorical dimensions of electronic campaigns and particularly focuses on the formation of the public image of three candidate, all of whom were identified with the promise of a “new politics”: Y. Lapid, head of the newly formed “middle class party” Yesh Atid; S. Yachimovich, head of the Israeli Labour Party; and N. Bennett, newly elected head of the religious Zionist party, Habayit Hayehudi. The rhetorical analysis uncovers three discursive strategies used by all three candidates: informality, meta-textuality and narrativity. [R, abr.] [See Abstr. 65.4399]
65.4469 ÖZKUL, Derya —
This article reviews recent government efforts to address the “Alevi issue” and identify their successes and failures. It demonstrates that the “Alevi openings” constituted paradoxical processes: tracing various components of the “openings” through news media, it shows that, on one hand, they enabled the “Alevi issue” to be brought to public attention. On the other hand, once Alevis were made more visible in public, nonsympathizers could mobilize their representation for their own ends. These empirical findings have profound theoretical implications. They show that “discursive claims of democratization” at the state level do not necessarily result in democratic mechanisms, which can resolve the demands of a pluralistic civil society. [R, abr.]
65.4470 PARDOS-PRADO, Sergi —
The individual and systemic determinants of radical-right voting in Europe have been thoroughly analyzed in past research. Surprisingly, these studies have largely ignored the conditions under which moderate parties can limit the success of radical actors from a spatial perspective. This article shows that center-right parties can more successfully compete on the immigration issue when the issue space is one-dimensional and when immigration party positions are correlated with broader economic and cultural dimensions of competition. My findings highlight the critical role of economic dimensions of competition, which are usually neglected when explaining radical right success and failure. [R]
65.4471 PATEL, Nandini; WAHMAN, Michael —
In May 2014, Malawi arranged tripartite elections for president, parliament and local councils. The elections were remarkable for several reasons, seen from both an African and a Malawian perspective. Despite an uneven electoral playing field, the elections were highly competitive, ultimately leading to the country's second turnover of power when opposition challenger P. Mutharika defeated the incumbent president, J. Banda. The electoral results also show a return to regionalist voting patterns and a continuing weakening of political parties, as independent candidates emerged as the largest group in parliament. Although the results were generally credible, the election remains controversial. Several stakeholders questioned the general integrity of the process, and significant logistical problems on election day might have harmed public trust in the electoral authorities. [R]
65.4472 PATTON, David F. —
This article examines the conditions under which political parties that have dropped below the threshold of legislative representation later re-enter parliament. It compares two German parties that did not return to the Bundestag and two that did. In light of the “lessons” of previous cases in the Federal Republic, the essay considers the prospects of the Free Democratic Party (FDP) in the wake of its 2013 federal election defeat. [R]
65.4473 PERLIGER, Arie; ZAIDISE, Eran —
This article argues that attempts to characterize the outcome of the elections to the 19th Knesset as a defeat of the Israeli right are misleading. By using a three-dimensional analysis of the ideological makeup of the Knesset, based on the ideological manifestos of the parties, the socio-demographic profiles of Knesset members and analyses of election results utilizing electoral data and socio-demographic data obtained from Israel's Central Bureau of Statistics (CBS), the article claims that the 19th Knesset is no less right-leaning than its predecessor. Hence, contrary to some commentators in both the media and academia, the 2013 elections represent a true landmark for the settlers. For the first time since the movement appeared in the 1970s, it managed to obtain a solid base in the Knesset. [R] [See Abstr. 65.4399]
65.4474 PHILLIPS, Brian J. —
Many governments target leaders of violent groups, but consequences of this strategy are unclear. Additionally, most studies examine political groups such as terrorists, ignoring criminal organizations — even though they can represent serious threats to security. This article presents a theoretical framework for how political and criminal groups differ and uses the framework to explain how group type should condition leadership removal's effects. Decapitation should weaken criminal organizations, temporarily reducing violence. However, as groups fragment and newer groups emerge to address market demands, violence increases in the longer term. Empirical analysis using original data on Mexican criminal organizations generally supports the argument. Interestingly, the short-term violence-reduction is associated only with leaders arrested (not killed) and when the target is a midlevel leader as opposed to the top leader. [R, abr.]
65.4475 PIETSCH, Juliet; CLARK, Marshall —
In recent years, much has been said about how new democracies are backsliding or have regressed since the turn of the century when hope and optimism about the future spread of democracy was widespread. However, ideas that democracy would spread were based on institutional and governance indicators rather than from the perspective of everyday citizens. When we look at public attitudes towards democracy during this period, we can see that such optimism was perhaps misplaced or premature. Drawing on findings from the AsiaBarometer and the World Values Survey, this research finds that public attitudes during this time were not overly convinced by democracy and certainly not yet satisfied with their government's performance in terms of providing basic democratic freedoms and independence. [R] [See Abstr. 65.4738]
65.4476 POMANTE, Michael J., II; SCHRAUFNAGEL, Scot —
The research addresses youth voter turnout in the US and, specifically, tests the relationship between candidate age and a commitment to vote by young people in a controlled experiment. We learn that potential young voters are more willing to commit to vote when they view pictures of younger candidates running. This is the case after controlling for the age and partisanship of respondents. In a real-world test of our experimental results, we examine state-level variation in youth voter turnout in midterm governor and Senate races (1994–2010). In the state-level analysis, we find a larger candidate age gap in governor and Senate races associates with higher levels of youth mobilization. In all, the research affirms the value of candidate characteristics as a predictor of voting behavior. [R]
65.4477 POPA, Sebastian Adrian —
This article investigates how parties can influence the level of political sophistication their supporters have. Although the importance of parties in providing their supporters with political information was first suggested in early studies of voting behavior, this level of analysis has been omitted from individual studies of political sophistication. Focusing on the political environment of post-communist societies, where parties played a key role in helping citizens understand politics, I theorize both a direct and an indirect path through which parties can contribute to the level of sophistication of their supporters. Using cross-national data from the Eurequal 2007 project on 13 post-communist countries, I show three characteristics related to parties' motivation to mobilize the electorate against the status quo that have an impact on individual level political sophistication. [R, abr.]
65.4478 PRATT, Douglas —
Since 9/11, 2001, within North America and Western Europe, as elsewhere, there is an upsurge of various forms of reactionary rhetoric and opposition expressed towards Islam and Muslims. An increase in extremist behavior, even violence, is appearing from quarters opposed to, or varyingly fearful of, Islamic extremism if not Islam or Muslims. Islamophobia, as a manifestation of fear of an exclusionary Islam, manifests as exclusionary or negatively reactive behaviors with Muslims and Islam as the target. This article explores the idea that Islamophobia can be regarded as a manifestation of religious extremism and, further, that such extremism is construable as “reactive co-radicalization”. It focuses on two European cases — the 2009 Swiss ban on the building of minarets and the 2011 Norwegian massacre carried out by Anders Breivik — as examples of this “reactive co-radicalization”. [R, abr.]
65.4479 RATUVA, Steven —
Discussion of intra-communal discourse in Fiji has often been overshadowed by the focus on inter-communal tension. Although the two are linked in dynamic ways, it is important to have an insight into some of the fundamental ideological schisms that have shaped inter-communal politics because they do shape the form and trajectory of national politics in a significant way. This was so during the 2014 election when the two leading political parties, FijiFirst and the Social Democratic Liberal Party (SODELPA), put in significant resources and effort into mobilizing Taukei (indigenous Fijian) votes. The differences between the two parties represented the two sides of the Taukei political divide. [R, abr.] [See Abstr. 65.4396]
65.4480 ROJAS, René —
The article examines the result of the 2013 elections in Chile in relation to elite interests and movement strategies so as to understand what elections mean for neoliberalism's continuity and prospects for emancipatory politics in the country. Topics covered include the views of progressives on the re-election of socialist M. Bachelet and the developments in the Chilean history that have shaped the current elections and new movements. [A]
65.4481 ROSAS, Guillermo; MANZETTI, Luigi —
Do economic conditions drive voters to punish politicians that tolerate corruption? Previous scholarly work contends that citizens in young democracies support corrupt governments that are capable of promoting good economic outcomes, the so-called trade-off hypothesis. We test this hypothesis based on mass surveys in eighteen Latin American countries throughout 2004–2012. We find that citizens that report bribe attempts from bureaucrats are always more likely to report presidential disapproval than citizens that report no such attempts, that is, Latin American victims of corruption are not duped by good economic performance. However, we find some evidence for a weaker form of the trade-off hypothesis: presidential disapproval among corruption victims might be more pronounced in contexts of high inflation and high unemployment. [R]
65.4482 ROTH, Anat —
Habayit Hayehudi party was one of the most noteworthy phenomena of the 2013 general elections in Israel. In the 2009 elections the party's main predecessor won only three seats, and polls conducted in the first half of 2012 cast doubt upon its chances of passing the minimum threshold. Defying these predictions, Habayit Hayehudi won 12 seats to become the fourth largest Knesset party. This article's primary claim is that the party's success derived from its leaders' ability to cater to the aspirations and needs ensuing from the traumatic 2005 Gaza disengagement and to replace the feelings of distress and disorientation with a positive momentum. [R] [See Abstr. 65.4399]
65.4483 RYAN, Josh M.; LYONS, Jeffrey —
Reformers advocate the use of commissions rather than legislatures to redistrict as a way of promoting less partisan districts and ideologically moderate congressional members. Much of the evidence in political science suggests that gerrymandering is not a cause of [US] congressional polarization, but whether or not commissions produce different types of districts or members remains an important and unanswered question, especially now that many states have adopted reforms. This article examines whether commissions reduce district partisanship or ideological extremity using time-series cross-sectional data. We find that bipartisan districts promote member moderation, but there is no evidence that commissions have distinct effects on districts or members as compared to districts drawn by legislatures, consistent with the notion that limiting gerrymandering is not a solution for polarization. [R, abr.]
65.4484 SÁNCHEZ FERRO, Susana —
This article explores the causes that led to the implementation of devolution in Scottland in 1997 and the call for a referendum on independence in 2014. It argues that the devolution movement succeeded mainly thanks to the support of large parts of the Scottish population disenchanted with the British political model. The article describes the legal framework and the failures of devolution and contends that the SNP victory in the 2011 Scottish elections cannot be put down to the desire of independence by an extended part of the Scottish population. Finally, it argues that the referendum of independence has to be seen as part of a series of changes that have transformed the very essence of the British Constitution. The article finishes with a reflection on the Spanish situation. [R]
65.4485 SMITH, Martin; JONES, Rhonda —
The Conservative's modernization strategy contained a renewed commitment to public services and a continuing role for the state in the delivery of collective goods. Promises about health and education spending were central to the detoxification strategy of D. Cameron. However, the article argues that faced with the combination of austerity economics and public support for health and education spending, the Coalition has pushed towards a radical shrinking of the state, but one that is focused on particular policy areas such as welfare. At the same time, we have also seen a growing integration of the public and private in the supply and delivery of public policy. Hence, the article demonstrates that although the Conservatives' trajectory initially followed closely from New Labour's, they have since made significant changes to the role of the state. [R] [See Abstr. 65.4425]
65.4486 SPOON Jae-Jae; KLÜVER, Heike —
How does voter polarization affect party responsiveness? Previous research has shown that political parties emphasize political issues that are important to their voters. However, we posit that political parties are not equally responsive to citizen demands across all issue areas. The hypothesis is that party responsiveness varies considerably with the preference configuration of the electorate. More specifically, it is argued that party responsiveness increases with the polarization of issues among voters. To test these theoretical expectations, party responsiveness is analyzed across nine West European countries from 1982 until 2013. Data on voter attention and voter preferences with regard to specific policy issues from a variety of national election studies is combined with Comparative Manifestos Project data on parties' emphasis of these issues in their election manifestos. [R, abr.]
65.4487 SPOON Jae-Jae; WEST, Karleen Jones —
Prior research has shown that institutions affect parties' incentives to coordinate within elections or compete on their own. However, no study to date has examined with institutional effects when parties coordinate in the most important of electoral contests: the presidential race. We explain which institutions encourage parties to run as part of pre-electoral coalitions (PECs) or shun them and run on their own in the race for the presidency. Using an original dataset of over 1400 parties that sponsored a candidate on their own or ran as part of an alliance in presidential elections across 23 democracies in Europe and South America from 1975 to 2009, we find that the powers of the presidential office, electoral rules and multi-level governance determine when parties decide to enter the race on their own or form an alliance. [R, abr.]
65.4488 STOLL, Heather —
This article takes a closer look at how presidential elections affect the fragmentation of the legislative party system. It reviews the theory and conventional empirical modeling strategy; identifies some drawbacks to this strategy and suggests solutions; and then conducts an empirical investigation of the implications of this critique by combining replication data from M. Golder [“Presidential coattails and legislative fragmentation”, American Journal of Political Science 50(1), Jan. 2006: 34–48; Abstr. 56.5666] with new data on the key variables measuring the presidential coattails. Fortuitously, the literature's findings about the shadow cast by presidential elections, usually known as the presidential coattails, are relatively robust. However, important differences emerge on the margins, such as regarding the effect of midterm elections. Moreover, this article demonstrates that subsequent presidential elections, like concurrent and preceding ones, cast shadows, too. It also demonstrates that the conventional modeling strategy underestimates the presidential coattails. [R]
65.4489 STRIJBIS, Oliver; KOTNAROWSKI, Michal —
Measurement of the electoral mobilization of ethnic parties has posed a considerable challenge to those performing comparative research on the political mobilization of ethnic groups. To address this issue, we propose indicators that estimate the electoral mobilization of ethnic parties by combining administrative and survey data. Specifically, we propose two measures: an absolute one, fully isolable from context, and a relative one, which corrects for turnouts. Furthermore, we show that a particular indicator based entirely on more widely available administrative data is valid when a narrow definition of ethnic parties is applied. Our indicators for the electoral mobilization of ethnic parties allow for valid comparisons across ethnic parties in different countries and regions at different points in time. We expect these new indicators to trigger further comparative studies on ethnic parties. [R]
65.4490 SUVEREN, Yaşar —
The understanding of the processes which shape the political belonging and political socialization of right-wing conservative politicians in Turkey is crucial for clarifying right-wing political tradition and the series of factors influencing political views of the politicians who belonged to this tradition. Figuring out these factors would make it possible to explain and evaluate the political culture in Turkey by focusing on a single dimension constituted by the politicians who fabricate and transmit that very culture per se. What are the dynamics of being part of right-wing conservative political tradition? Which social, political, ideological, cultural and institutional aspects prevail while one affiliates [with] this tradition? How do these factors influence and guide while one forms his/her political thought, political mindset and belonging? [R, abr.]
65.4491 SYMONS, Jonathan; KARLSSON, Rasmus —
The implications for Green political theory of the international community's failure to avert dangerous warming are evaluated. An emerging conflict is identified between the Green-romantic value of restraint and the Green-rationalist value of protection, between a desire to preserve biotic systems and a distrust of scientific solutions to problems that are intrinsically social. In response, approaches are outlined that can help to navigate the current period of overshoot beyond safe planetary boundaries by informing choices among bundles of environmental harms. An ethic of restraint, encompassing non-domination and post-materialist values, can validly be justified without reference to ecological catastrophe. [R, abr.]
65.4492 SZEKELY, Ora —
Like many non-state military actors, Hamas has long provided social services to its constituents, but the mechanism by which charity leads to increased public support is poorly understood. This article argues that providing charity benefits non-state actors not because it isolates recipients or acts as a bribe but because it allows organizations like Hamas to overcome the legacies of their own military activities and extremist ideologies. Service-provision allows them to demonstrate that they are not merely soldiers or ideologues, but capable bureaucrats and managers as well. [R]
65.4493 TESSIER, Charles; BODET, Marc André; GÉLINEAU, François —
The use of active sampling methods for online surveys is generally considered superior to passive sampling methods, both for recruiting new participants and in terms of sample representativity. In active sampling, specialized firms contact respondents directly, whereas in passive sampling participants are required to visit a Web platform and complete the survey on their own, without being directly recruited to do so. We evaluate the relative efficiency of passive sampling in the context of the Web experiment Votes Quebec, which was conducted during the 2012 Quebec provincial election. This project had a media outreach dimension whose goal was to increase the number of participants and to increase the representativity of the sample. Our results suggest that the media outreach had a significant but limited impact on these two dimensions. [R, abr.]
65.4494 TEZCAN, Ercüment; ARAS, Ilhan —
This paper examines the approach of the Justice and Development Party to the EU from 2002 to 2014. It focuses on the subject using a theoretical framework that relies on notions of hard/soft Euroskepticism while also giving place to four deputies of the Justice and Development Party who are in the EU Harmonization Committee in the [Turkish] Grand National Assembly. Support of the EU has declined since 2005, and after 2010 in particular, Euroskepticism has gained strength. The Justice and Development Party can be increasingly regarded as a soft Euroskeptic party whose approach toward the EU has shifted from being supportive in nature in the beginning to being more and more critical in the recent period. [R, abr.]
65.4495 TOLKSDORF, Dominik —
The defining issue in the run-up to the November 2014 parliamentary elections was the country's foreign policy orientation. While many parties supported convergence with the EU, some opposition parties promoted closer cooperation with Russia and joining the Russian-led Customs Union. Strongly before election day, one of the opposition parties was excluded from the electoral list. Although the election was free, it was not necessarily conducted in a fair manner. [R, abr.]
65.4496 TOLLEY, Erin —
This article proposes a theory of racial mediation and examines how candidate race affects media coverage of political viability. Using two different types of content-analysis — manual and automated — the article assesses print media coverage of white and visible minority candidates in the 2008 Canadian federal election. The study reaches two substantive conclusions. First, it appears that candidate race does not influence reporting on political viability in the aggregate, but does affect how non-incumbent candidates with racial minority backgrounds are portrayed. Although non-incumbent white candidates receive fairly positive coverage of their electoral qualifications, this is not the case for visible minority candidates. Incumbency washes away these differences. Second, this study demonstrates how methodological choices influence the conclusions reached by content-analysts. [R, abr.]
65.4497 TRÄGER, Hendrik —
Since 2014, the Prime Minister of Thuringia is a member of The Left party. However, in the Western part of Germany, The Left is hardly present in regional parliaments, [which] suggests important differences in voting behavior in East and West. Looking at the voter turnout, the results of all relevant parties (CDU/CSU, SPD, FDP, Bündnis 90/Die Grünen, Die Linke/PDS, Die Republikaner, DVU, NPD) and the volatility for all elections to the Bundestag, the EP and the parliaments of German Länder since 1990, a number of findings are surprising: the voter turnout is not essentially lower in the East than in the West and the volatility is not higher. Altogether there are both regional differences and similarities between East and West. [R]
65.4498 TSAI Wen-Hsuan; KOU Chien-Wen —
This article discusses the origin and consolidation of the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) reserve cadre system and considers its impact on the resilience and perpetuation of the Party's authoritarian regime. Reserve cadres are essentially the Party's “disciples”; through careful selection and training, the CCP is able to build a legion of youthful political elites with exceptional administrative ability and correct political thinking. Upon assumption of Party and government posts, these reserve cadres are able to reinforce the Party's autonomy and resist outside pressures to democratize, thereby manifesting the very nature of a resilient authoritarian regime. [R]
65.4499 TYLER, Colin —
This article counters a persisting criticism of the British idealists: that they endorsed the allegedly oppressive and static theory of the state associated with German idealists, especially J. G. Fichte. The article introduces the British idealists' reputation as Fichtean collectivists and provides an overview of leading current interpretations of Fichte's political thought. It then analyzes T. H. Green's use of Fichtean terminology against the background of Fichte's reception in Britain in the 1860s and 1870s. E. Caird's interpretation of — and alternative to — Fichte's socialism is analyzed, followed by an examination of the readings of W. Wallace and B. Bosanquet. These British idealists rejected the alleged Fichtean centralism for which they have been condemned, and did so on grounds that retain force in contemporary debates between Fichte scholars. [R, abr.]
65.4500 VAKAOTI, Patrick; MISHRA-VAKAOTI, Vanisha —
Fiji returned to parliamentary democracy with the September 2014 elections. Reactions to the election results were swift, thanks to the media, particularly social media. While reactions to such events have often been sought from or dominated by political commentators and academics, a new trend emerged in post-election Fiji. Ordinary people through social media were actively participating in this process, extending conversations beyond their immediate family and community environments. Social media have been touted as a valuable tool for public participation. In Fiji, the infancy of social media raises questions regarding whether it facilitates public participation and engagement, whether it has a place in Fiji's new democracy and if it does, how it affects public discourse that, since December 2006, has been one-dimensional. [R, abr.] [See Abstr. 65.4396]
65.4501 VAN HAM, Carolien; LINDBERG, Staffan I. —
In Africa the quality of elections still varies widely, ranging from elections plagued by violence and fraud to elections that are relatively “free and fair”. Yet, little is known about trade-offs between different strategies of electoral manipulation and the differences between incumbent and opposition actors' strategies. We theorize that choices for specific types of manipulation are driven by available resources and cost considerations for both incumbents and opposition actors, and are mutually responsive. We also suggest that costs of manipulative strategies are shaped by the level of democratization. We test our hypotheses on a time series, cross-sectional data set with observations for 286 African elections from 1986 to 2012. [R, abr.] [See Abstr. 65.4030]
65.4502 VIVYAN, Nick; WAGNER, Markus —
This article summarizes the findings from a study of what constituents want from their local MP. We use a survey technique known as conjoint analysis, wherein we present a national sample of British voters with profiles of hypothetical MPs who vary randomly in their characteristics, activities and behavior. We find that voters like MPs who are independent from the party line and who do not focus exclusively on national policy work. MPs' gender and experience matter far less to constituents. Overall, voters want a Parliament made up of strong-minded MPs who see their role as that of a constituency representative. This has important implications for parliamentary democracy in Britain. [R]
65.4503 VOLINTIRU, Clara —
An extensive body of literature refers to the informal linkage channels developed and supported by political parties as part of their survival strategy. This article's contribution to the existing literature is twofold. First, it presents original empirical evidence on the party patronage phenomenon in the post-communist context, which gives us a better understanding of the specific mechanisms that grant discretionary control over public resources. Second, it extends our theoretical understanding of the functions of party patronage by exploring the exploitative function performed by patronage networks, and evaluates their potential detrimental effects for the patron parties. [R]
65.4504 VOLKERT, Daniel —
The author analyzes which factors influence the incorporation of immigrants into political parties. Developments in several European countries show that it is not only the potential of immigrants as voters which explains why parties are more open to immigrants. As left-wing parties have an advance in incorporating immigrants you can see that also the party's patterns of values is decisive. [R] [See Abstr. 65.4391]
65.4505 WAMPLER, Brian; TOUCHTON, Michael —
Civil society has exploded in Latin America as democratization has continued over the last 30 years. Civil society organizations (CSOs) are thought to improve governance and oversight and to increase social capital. Nonetheless, we have limited knowledge about what motivates CSOs' political strategies, which include participating in formal political institutions, attending demonstrations, and providing services. We build knowledge here by evaluating data from a unique survey of nine hundred CSOs across seven Brazilian cities. Our findings showcase several parallel processes: poorer CSOs continue to rely on the state and actively participate in political processes despite protesting at greater rates than wealthier CSOs; therefore, we contend that institutional and political process arguments better explain poorer CSOs' behavior. [R, abr.]
65.4506 WEINSCHENK, Aaron C.; HELPAP, David J. —
This article illustrates that trust in state government varies considerably across states. Using newly available public opinion data, the authors investigate the effects of political polarization, corruption, income inequality, unemployment, state fiscal conditions, median income, ideology, state size, tax rates, and social capital on differences in trust in state government. A number of these variables have statistically significant effects on trust in state government, including state fiscal conditions, unemployment, state ideology, and corruption. The article concludes with a discussion of the implications of the findings for policy makers and elected officials. [R]
65.4507 WEIR, Christine —
The Methodist Church of Fiji has around one-third of Fiji's population as members, and is a strong influence on all aspects of Fiji's life, including its politics. Since 2006, the relationship between the Methodist Church of Fiji and the V. Bainimarama regime has been variously tense, acrimonious and downright hostile, with Church conferences cancelled by the government in 2009–2011 after the Methodist Church was accused of “playing politics”. A further attempt to minimize the influence of the Methodist Church has included government encouragement of the New Methodists (Souls to Jesus) movement in 2008–2009. This paper suggests that more recently the dynamics within the Methodist Church have changed, a shift that is only partly influenced by Bainimarama's actions. [R, abr.] [See Abstr. 65.4396]
65.4508 WESTLE, Bettina; BEGEMANN, Christian; RÜTTER, Astrid —
The German “Wahl-O-Mat” aims at informing the electorate on party positions and at fostering “correct voting”. During the campaign for the Bundestag election 2013 the “Wahl-O-Mat” was used more than 10 million times. In this article we ask in how far the “Wahl-O-Mat” contributes to voters' political knowledge on parties' positions on selected political issues. Our analysis is based on an online pre-experimental design conducted two weeks before the election. The main results show that using the “Wahl-O-Mat” increases knowledge on party positions, but only to a small degree. [R, abr.]
65.4509 WILLERMAIN, Fabian —
“This time it's different”, proclaimed the official slogan of the EP for the 2014 pan-European elections. Were the elections really different? Was the slogan too ambitious? Are the Parliamentary elections still second-order elections? As the new European Commission takes its place, and the new president uses the European elections and “his election” as a tool of legitimization, it is worth analyzing the nature of this political moment in European democracy. [R]
65.4510 WINKELMANN, Thorsten; NOLLER, Jost F. —
The fifth democratic election in South Africa was clearly again won by the African National Congress, [which] won a comfortable majority in the National Assembly. The liberal and pro-business Democratic Alliance raised its percentage of votes considerably. Its main topics in the election campaign had been the economic and social problems as well as the endemic corruption in the country. The newly formed Economic Freedom Fighters (6.35%) advocates the nationalization of certain branches of industry as well as a comprehensive land reform of the kind that led to disastrous consequences in neighboring Zimbabwe. The election campaign was strongly polarized not only by these extreme demands, but also by a poor political performance of the government especially in the fields of fighting poverty and crime. [R, abr.]
65.4511 WINTERS, Matthew S.; WEITZ-SHAPIRO, Rebecca —
In long-standing democracies, the partisan attachments of most citizens are stable and not responsive to short-term political events. Recent studies from younger democracies, however, suggest that partisanship may be more malleable in these contexts. We develop hypotheses about how political corruption might affect voter attachment to the parties of corrupt officials or to the party system as a whole. Using data from an original survey experiment in Brazil, we show that prompts about political corruption shift patterns of partisan attachment for highly educated respondents — specifically, that corruption associated with one political party reduces nonpartisanship and significantly increases identification with other political parties. In contrast, we find that information on corruption has no consistent measurable effect on partisanship for less educated respondents. We discuss the implications of malleable partisanship for democratic accountability. [R]
65.4512 WOLFF, Noga —
This article assumes that the chronicles of Italian Fascism and German Nazism reflect a common trajectory in the history of two respective democracies in which a nationalist socialization overpowered the universal values of democratic civil society. This history underscores the persuasive authority and power of the nationalist narrative, running ever so blindly and counter to the humanistic principles that aspire to the welfare of all human beings. While fully acknowledging the singularity of German National Socialism during the first half of the 20th c., I conclude [that] Nazism is a highly applicable instance of the principles of fascism and an ultimate expression of the dangerous potential inherent to nationalism. Analyzing the speeches and writings of Mussolini and Hitler, I demonstrate the core principles of nationalism. [R, abr.]
65.4513 YONG, Ben; BALE, Tim —
[In] the 2015 general election, Labour could emerge as the largest party or finish just a handful of seats behind the Conservatives. Either scenario would give it at least a chance — and a bigger chance than many realize, we argue — of forming a government. In that event, Labour may be faced with a choice between getting together with another party (or parties) to form a majority coalition or else forming a minority government (either on its own or with one or more partners), which could assemble different majorities for different pieces of legislation or try to negotiate a “confidence and supply” agreement. Given the precedents from the UK and overseas, we argue that, faced with this dilemma, Labour should do all it can to form a majority coalition. [R, abr.] [See Abstr. 65.4220]
65.4514 YUEN, Samson —
Despite the uncertain impact of the Occupy Movement, the 79-day occupation has significantly transformed Hong Kong politics. Not only will the Hong Kong populace — especially the younger generation — become more politically active, they will also adopt novel, and more radical, means of protest to reiterate demands for universal suffrage and to push for greater autonomy. Nevertheless, the Umbrella Movement did not resolve the problems that contributed to its emergence in the first place; on many levels, as is shown by this article through the debate on the rule of law and Hong Kong's constitutional relations with China, the movement has deepened the social rift, leaving the city with a more fragmented and divided society and less room for compromise over disagreements. [R, abr.]
65.4515 YUEN, Samson —
English version: see Abstr. 65.4514.
65.4516 ZUNES, Stephen —
The article focuses on anti-imperialist struggles and nonviolent action. The author states that imperialism is violent because it comes through the guns, missiles and ships of troops of imperialist powers. The national liberation struggles in Africa during the early 1960s which used nonviolent methods in Zambia is discussed. [A]
65.4517 ZÚQUETE, José Pedro —
Recent years have been characterized by efforts from political parties and movements to create a Nationalist International in order to counter the alleged destruction of their communities by global developments and trends. Increasingly, nationalists conceive of the solutions for their own problems on a global scale. This nationalist push to unify efforts is particularly, albeit not exclusively, visible within the context of the EU. The article describes and analyzes the major developments of the nationalist transnational network and its potential and flaws, as well as the network figures, organizations, resources and repertoire, while calling for a cognitive change in the study of nationalism, especially its extreme-right variant. [R]
65.4518
Introduction by Netina TAN, “Quotas and non-quota strategies in East Asia”, pp. 171–175. Articles by Alisa GAUNDER, “Quota non-adoption in Japan: the role of the women's movement and the opposition”, pp. 176–185; YOON Jiso and SHIN Ki-young, “Mixed effects of legislative quotas in South Korea”, pp. 186–195; Netina TAN, “Party quotas and rising women politicians in Singapore”, pp. 196–206; HUANG Chang-Ling, “Gender quotas in Taiwan: the impact of global diffusion”, pp. 207–217.
65.4519
Articles by Karl GABRIEL; Rupert STRACHWITZ; Olaf ZIMMERMANN; Karin KORTMANN; Christian WEISNER; Sabine DEMEL; Thomas WAGNER; Thomas SCHÜLLER; Thomas MITTMANN; Peter NEHER; Cornelia COENEN-MARX; Rainer HUB; Aleksandra LEWICKI; Johann-Albrecht HAUPT.