Abstract The quantitative strand of social policy research suffers from a double deficit: on the one hand, analyses of aggregate expenditure dominate, and on the other hand, most studies of replacement rates focus on unemployment or sickness benefits, while pensions are excluded. This paper addresses the said deficit firstly by discussing the pension sectors’ theoretical peculiarities and by proposing two hypotheses: one on the retrenchment of pension replacement rates and one on the role played by political parties in implementing it. Secondly, after a brief literature review and an outline of our methodological approach, we present regression results of replacement rate changes in 18 developed democracies. Our findings show considerably smaller cuts of pensions than of unemployment or sickness benefits, and striking differences regarding partisan effects between the sectors.
{"title":"Political Parties and Pension Generosity in Times of Permanent Austerity","authors":"Reimut Zohlnhöfer, F. Wolf, Georg Wenzelburger","doi":"10.1515/wpsr-2013-0012","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1515/wpsr-2013-0012","url":null,"abstract":"Abstract The quantitative strand of social policy research suffers from a double deficit: on the one hand, analyses of aggregate expenditure dominate, and on the other hand, most studies of replacement rates focus on unemployment or sickness benefits, while pensions are excluded. This paper addresses the said deficit firstly by discussing the pension sectors’ theoretical peculiarities and by proposing two hypotheses: one on the retrenchment of pension replacement rates and one on the role played by political parties in implementing it. Secondly, after a brief literature review and an outline of our methodological approach, we present regression results of replacement rate changes in 18 developed democracies. Our findings show considerably smaller cuts of pensions than of unemployment or sickness benefits, and striking differences regarding partisan effects between the sectors.","PeriodicalId":37883,"journal":{"name":"World Political Science","volume":"128 12","pages":"291 - 318"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2013-07-23","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://sci-hub-pdf.com/10.1515/wpsr-2013-0012","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"72506798","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Abstract This paper examines internet use as a personal political device among Members of the Knesset (hereafter: MKs). We will first describe the social and political trends which promote Israeli and worldwide parliamentarians’ use of personal internet platforms as a communication medium. Description of these trends will be accompanied by examples from 17th-Knesset MKs’ websites. We will also review the changes which took place in MKs’ use of personal internet tools, in accordance with the identified developmental phases. Finally, we will discuss the distinction between Internet use as a means of political communication during campaigns and Internet use as a platform for interaction with the public while in office.
{"title":"MKs Usage of Personal Internet Tools, 2009: On the verge of a New Decade","authors":"Sharon Haleva-Amir","doi":"10.1515/WPSR-2013-0010","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1515/WPSR-2013-0010","url":null,"abstract":"Abstract This paper examines internet use as a personal political device among Members of the Knesset (hereafter: MKs). We will first describe the social and political trends which promote Israeli and worldwide parliamentarians’ use of personal internet platforms as a communication medium. Description of these trends will be accompanied by examples from 17th-Knesset MKs’ websites. We will also review the changes which took place in MKs’ use of personal internet tools, in accordance with the identified developmental phases. Finally, we will discuss the distinction between Internet use as a means of political communication during campaigns and Internet use as a platform for interaction with the public while in office.","PeriodicalId":37883,"journal":{"name":"World Political Science","volume":"6 1","pages":"219 - 261"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2013-07-23","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"82730953","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Abstract The empowerment of chief executives has been apparent in several parliamentary democracies in recent decades. However, few accounts have been produced of developments in recent Norwegian cabinets. The aim of this article is two-fold. First, changes regarding the concentration of decision-making power in Norwegian cabinets in the past 15 years are examined and, second, how political factors have contributed to the concentration of power is also examined. Drawing on interviews with 19 ministers from the Bondevik II and Stoltenberg II cabinets, the article finds that collegial elements of cabinets have been weakened, and there has been a centralization of power around an inner cabinet, the so-called subcommittee, consisting of the prime minister and the party leaders. The article also shows how political distances between coalition parties and the cabinet’s parliamentary basis have affected the concentration of power.
{"title":"Concentration of Decision-Making Power: Investigating the Role of the Norwegian Cabinet Subcommittee","authors":"Kristoffer Kolltveit","doi":"10.1515/wpsr-2013-0008","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1515/wpsr-2013-0008","url":null,"abstract":"Abstract The empowerment of chief executives has been apparent in several parliamentary democracies in recent decades. However, few accounts have been produced of developments in recent Norwegian cabinets. The aim of this article is two-fold. First, changes regarding the concentration of decision-making power in Norwegian cabinets in the past 15 years are examined and, second, how political factors have contributed to the concentration of power is also examined. Drawing on interviews with 19 ministers from the Bondevik II and Stoltenberg II cabinets, the article finds that collegial elements of cabinets have been weakened, and there has been a centralization of power around an inner cabinet, the so-called subcommittee, consisting of the prime minister and the party leaders. The article also shows how political distances between coalition parties and the cabinet’s parliamentary basis have affected the concentration of power.","PeriodicalId":37883,"journal":{"name":"World Political Science","volume":"60 1","pages":"173 - 195"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2013-07-23","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"90636621","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Abstract European Impact Assessment (IA) has been in place for the last 10 years. By and large, this is deemed best practice within the context of the various endeavours in the direction of “Better Regulation” which have burgeoned in the last few years or so internationally. IA is based on common guidelines for all Commission services; the sharing of methodologies for impact analysis of the proposals; various forms of cooperation among General Directorates. In this article it is argued that IA has served to enhance the coordination role of the Secretariat-General and a more integrated decision-making process within Directorates. These outcomes have been favoured by a set of mechanisms triggered by the design of the procedure.
{"title":"Ten Years of European Impact Assessment: How It Works, for What and for Whom","authors":"E. Melloni","doi":"10.1515/wpsr-2013-0011","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1515/wpsr-2013-0011","url":null,"abstract":"Abstract European Impact Assessment (IA) has been in place for the last 10 years. By and large, this is deemed best practice within the context of the various endeavours in the direction of “Better Regulation” which have burgeoned in the last few years or so internationally. IA is based on common guidelines for all Commission services; the sharing of methodologies for impact analysis of the proposals; various forms of cooperation among General Directorates. In this article it is argued that IA has served to enhance the coordination role of the Secretariat-General and a more integrated decision-making process within Directorates. These outcomes have been favoured by a set of mechanisms triggered by the design of the procedure.","PeriodicalId":37883,"journal":{"name":"World Political Science","volume":"8 1","pages":"263 - 290"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2013-07-23","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"86210332","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Abstract Referendum, the instrument which allows the citizens to directly decide on important public issues, is the original form of democratic decision-making procedure. It may be perceived as a welcome and necessary complement to representative democracy, especially in the current crisis of confidence in political institutions and parties. However, leaving the decisions to citizens may also cast doubt on the ability and credibility of the elected representatives; the referenda may become a public vote of confidence or distrust in the initiator(s). This article considers the implementation of the referendum in history, as well as the conception of it in political theory and political practice, and implementation of the referendum in (post-Communist) Central Europe. To this end, a comparative analysis of six Central European representative democracies is presented, from the perspective of past national experience with direct democracy, and related national issues and regulatory solutions.
{"title":"Referendum: A Complement or a Threat to Representative Democracy?","authors":"C. Toplak","doi":"10.1515/wpsr-2013-0009","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1515/wpsr-2013-0009","url":null,"abstract":"Abstract Referendum, the instrument which allows the citizens to directly decide on important public issues, is the original form of democratic decision-making procedure. It may be perceived as a welcome and necessary complement to representative democracy, especially in the current crisis of confidence in political institutions and parties. However, leaving the decisions to citizens may also cast doubt on the ability and credibility of the elected representatives; the referenda may become a public vote of confidence or distrust in the initiator(s). This article considers the implementation of the referendum in history, as well as the conception of it in political theory and political practice, and implementation of the referendum in (post-Communist) Central Europe. To this end, a comparative analysis of six Central European representative democracies is presented, from the perspective of past national experience with direct democracy, and related national issues and regulatory solutions.","PeriodicalId":37883,"journal":{"name":"World Political Science","volume":"77 1","pages":"197 - 218"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2013-07-23","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"76835889","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Abstract Since the 1990s, transitional justice has become almost synonymous with the concern for the rights of victims. Compared with the Nuremberg Trials – in which victims did not even appear as witnesses – this is a major change and one for which an explanation will be sought here with recourse to neo-institutional research perspective. The core argument put forward in this article is that the change in transitional justice towards a stronger inclusion of victims could be explained as the result of the expansion of a rationalist world culture in which a model of victimhood is created and diffused worldwide, primarily through international organizations and NGOs. This notion of global victimhood developed only after World War II, following the global diffusion of human rights, the change in academic conceptions of traumatic experiences and the advocacy of International NGOs, so that the development of normative pressure on national transitional justice processes placed victims at the centre of processes dealing with the past.
{"title":"Global Victimhood: On the Charisma of the Victim in Transitional Justice Processes","authors":"Thorsten Bonacker","doi":"10.1515/wpsr-2013-0005","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1515/wpsr-2013-0005","url":null,"abstract":"Abstract Since the 1990s, transitional justice has become almost synonymous with the concern for the rights of victims. Compared with the Nuremberg Trials – in which victims did not even appear as witnesses – this is a major change and one for which an explanation will be sought here with recourse to neo-institutional research perspective. The core argument put forward in this article is that the change in transitional justice towards a stronger inclusion of victims could be explained as the result of the expansion of a rationalist world culture in which a model of victimhood is created and diffused worldwide, primarily through international organizations and NGOs. This notion of global victimhood developed only after World War II, following the global diffusion of human rights, the change in academic conceptions of traumatic experiences and the advocacy of International NGOs, so that the development of normative pressure on national transitional justice processes placed victims at the centre of processes dealing with the past.","PeriodicalId":37883,"journal":{"name":"World Political Science","volume":"298 2","pages":"129 - 97"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2013-04-16","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://sci-hub-pdf.com/10.1515/wpsr-2013-0005","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"72455207","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Abstract By offering a critical analysis of Nicolás Maloberti’s recent theory and justification of punishment, this article accounts for a series of principles and considerations that any liberal and Lockean theory of punishment must take seriously. This article contends that Locke’s conception of the state – an institution grounded on the right to punish violators of natural rights – and the basic character of the right to property within Locke’s scheme of rights are elements that should lead us to affirm that no genuine liberal theory of punishment can dispense with the political character of the right to punish.
{"title":"Toward a Liberal Theory of Punishment: Locke, Property, and Individualism","authors":"Alfonso Donoso","doi":"10.1515/wpsr-2012-0017","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1515/wpsr-2012-0017","url":null,"abstract":"Abstract By offering a critical analysis of Nicolás Maloberti’s recent theory and justification of punishment, this article accounts for a series of principles and considerations that any liberal and Lockean theory of punishment must take seriously. This article contends that Locke’s conception of the state – an institution grounded on the right to punish violators of natural rights – and the basic character of the right to property within Locke’s scheme of rights are elements that should lead us to affirm that no genuine liberal theory of punishment can dispense with the political character of the right to punish.","PeriodicalId":37883,"journal":{"name":"World Political Science","volume":"28 1","pages":"350 - 366"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2013-02-15","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"86131691","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Abstract Economic discourses are dominated by stylized facts and other statements of fact concerning the institutional economic order. Yet, there is still very little knowledge on how exactly facts are formed in economic discourse, how they serve as a means for rendering issues “economic”, and how they legitimize, renew and change institutions. This article introduces a theoretical model for studying the relationships between the presentation of institutional facts, institutional change and processes of economization. The model is based on John R. Searle’s theory of speech acts, on the so-called discursive institutionalism in political science and the study of institutional entrepreneurship as a political activity. The model is then applied on a limited scope to study the construction of institutional facts concerning public sector economies in three Finnish government and consultant reports. The key empirical findings conclude that the most common institutional facts are produced either by generalizing individual facts for various institutionalized activities or by combining one fact into various meanings. These facts are used to legitimize various policies, including cuts in public spending, strengthening the power of experts, increasing budgetary stability, lengthening working careers and the increase in public sector productivity.
{"title":"The Production of Institutional Facts in Economic Discourse","authors":"T. Eskelinen, Ville-Pekka Sorsa","doi":"10.1515/wpsr-2013-0002","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1515/wpsr-2013-0002","url":null,"abstract":"Abstract Economic discourses are dominated by stylized facts and other statements of fact concerning the institutional economic order. Yet, there is still very little knowledge on how exactly facts are formed in economic discourse, how they serve as a means for rendering issues “economic”, and how they legitimize, renew and change institutions. This article introduces a theoretical model for studying the relationships between the presentation of institutional facts, institutional change and processes of economization. The model is based on John R. Searle’s theory of speech acts, on the so-called discursive institutionalism in political science and the study of institutional entrepreneurship as a political activity. The model is then applied on a limited scope to study the construction of institutional facts concerning public sector economies in three Finnish government and consultant reports. The key empirical findings conclude that the most common institutional facts are produced either by generalizing individual facts for various institutionalized activities or by combining one fact into various meanings. These facts are used to legitimize various policies, including cuts in public spending, strengthening the power of experts, increasing budgetary stability, lengthening working careers and the increase in public sector productivity.","PeriodicalId":37883,"journal":{"name":"World Political Science","volume":"23 1","pages":"1 - 30"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2013-02-14","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"83225593","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Abstract The purpose of this paper is to sketch an anthropology for political studies. Political science relies extensively on behavioral models borrowed from economics (taking human action to be rational and self-interested), sociology (explaining behavior in terms of norm-abidance and conformity), or even psychology (seeing actors as being motivated by their emotions, neurosis etc.). Strikingly, political science has not endeavored to develop an anthropology for its own purposes. Does it mean that there are no motivational structures that are distinctively relevant to political action? The paper argues that this is not the case. In fact, there is a distinctive conception of a human actor present in political science, even if implicitly, i.e., the conception of an actor who aims at what she perceives to be the common good, and guides her behavior along the lines of collective rationality. The paper aims at providing the first steps towards laying the theoretical and empirical foundations of such a model.
{"title":"Homo Politicus – Towards a Theory of Political Action and Motivation","authors":"Zsolt Boda","doi":"10.1515/wpsr-2013-0004","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1515/wpsr-2013-0004","url":null,"abstract":"Abstract The purpose of this paper is to sketch an anthropology for political studies. Political science relies extensively on behavioral models borrowed from economics (taking human action to be rational and self-interested), sociology (explaining behavior in terms of norm-abidance and conformity), or even psychology (seeing actors as being motivated by their emotions, neurosis etc.). Strikingly, political science has not endeavored to develop an anthropology for its own purposes. Does it mean that there are no motivational structures that are distinctively relevant to political action? The paper argues that this is not the case. In fact, there is a distinctive conception of a human actor present in political science, even if implicitly, i.e., the conception of an actor who aims at what she perceives to be the common good, and guides her behavior along the lines of collective rationality. The paper aims at providing the first steps towards laying the theoretical and empirical foundations of such a model.","PeriodicalId":37883,"journal":{"name":"World Political Science","volume":"296 ","pages":"71 - 96"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2013-01-16","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"72549630","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Abstract Since the end of the Cold War new practices of external interferences in the domestic affairs of states have revealed an unprecedented relationship between international intervention and the promotion of democracy. In fact, the new generation of peace-building missions is oriented toward the democratization of the target country. Moving from the paradoxes brought about by the goal of democratization, the paper offers an explanation of the power-sharing between international officials and local political actors in the target country. On the one hand, a democratic approach to international intervention fosters self-determination, tends to grant sovereignty and independence and considers the international mandate as temporary. On the other hand, the goal of democratization entails the establishment of enduring neo-trusteeships, violating the sovereignty and independence of the target-state. The paper focuses on three case-studies (Bosnia, Kosovo and East Timor) to assess how those paradoxes lead to conflicting attitudes by international officials – who both concede and retain essential powers over local political actors – creating a power-sharing in the target country.
{"title":"Intervention and Promotion of Democracy. The Paradoxes of External Democratization and the Power-Sharing Between International Officials and Local Political Leaders","authors":"A. Carati","doi":"10.1515/wpsr-2013-0006","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1515/wpsr-2013-0006","url":null,"abstract":"Abstract Since the end of the Cold War new practices of external interferences in the domestic affairs of states have revealed an unprecedented relationship between international intervention and the promotion of democracy. In fact, the new generation of peace-building missions is oriented toward the democratization of the target country. Moving from the paradoxes brought about by the goal of democratization, the paper offers an explanation of the power-sharing between international officials and local political actors in the target country. On the one hand, a democratic approach to international intervention fosters self-determination, tends to grant sovereignty and independence and considers the international mandate as temporary. On the other hand, the goal of democratization entails the establishment of enduring neo-trusteeships, violating the sovereignty and independence of the target-state. The paper focuses on three case-studies (Bosnia, Kosovo and East Timor) to assess how those paradoxes lead to conflicting attitudes by international officials – who both concede and retain essential powers over local political actors – creating a power-sharing in the target country.","PeriodicalId":37883,"journal":{"name":"World Political Science","volume":"20 1","pages":"131 - 153"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2013-01-16","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"87251992","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
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