Pub Date : 2023-09-09DOI: 10.1177/14789299231197157
Valgerður Björk Pálsdóttir, Sergiu Gherghina, Paul Tap
Politicians are expressing increasing support for deliberative practices around the world. However, knowledge about their actions beyond expressing support is scarce. To address this gap in the literature, this article aims to explain why politicians do not pick up the results arising from deliberative practices and integrate them into their policies. Our analysis focuses on the 2019 deliberation in Iceland as the most likely case in which we would expect such a process to occur. We use original data from 25 semi-structured interviews conducted in 2021 with Icelandic MPs elected at the national level, which also cover all the party leaders of the eight parliamentary parties in the 2017–2021 term in office. The reflexive thematic analysis finds that, irrespective of their ideological affiliation, politicians are critical of deliberative practices both in procedural and substantive terms. They display a strong belief that political representation achieved through elections must be the rule of the democratic game. As such, deliberation is considered redundant since citizens already have many ways to participate in representative democracy.
{"title":"Why Do Politicians Not Act Upon Citizens’ Deliberations? Evidence From Iceland","authors":"Valgerður Björk Pálsdóttir, Sergiu Gherghina, Paul Tap","doi":"10.1177/14789299231197157","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1177/14789299231197157","url":null,"abstract":"Politicians are expressing increasing support for deliberative practices around the world. However, knowledge about their actions beyond expressing support is scarce. To address this gap in the literature, this article aims to explain why politicians do not pick up the results arising from deliberative practices and integrate them into their policies. Our analysis focuses on the 2019 deliberation in Iceland as the most likely case in which we would expect such a process to occur. We use original data from 25 semi-structured interviews conducted in 2021 with Icelandic MPs elected at the national level, which also cover all the party leaders of the eight parliamentary parties in the 2017–2021 term in office. The reflexive thematic analysis finds that, irrespective of their ideological affiliation, politicians are critical of deliberative practices both in procedural and substantive terms. They display a strong belief that political representation achieved through elections must be the rule of the democratic game. As such, deliberation is considered redundant since citizens already have many ways to participate in representative democracy.","PeriodicalId":46813,"journal":{"name":"Political Studies Review","volume":"17 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2023-09-09","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"136107604","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"社会学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2023-08-31DOI: 10.1177/14789299231193572
Fang-Yu Chen, A. Wang, Charles K. S. Wu, Yao‐Yuan Yeh
For decades, scholars have constructed various ways to measure Taiwanese public opinion on the nation’s future, the independence–unification ( Tondu) question. While existing surveys find that Taiwanese people become more likely to support independence, the majority still favors the “status quo” option. Existing measurements have a number of weaknesses. For instance, most do not inform citizens what the “status quo” means, nor do they specify when and how independence and unification will manifest in reality. We propose a new approach to measuring citizens’ preferences of the nation’s future by specifying five mutually exclusive options on the independence–unification spectrum and field a nationwide survey to illustrate the validity of the new typology. Compared with traditional measurements, our method has more substantial explanatory power for several key political issues in Taiwan.
{"title":"The Multiverse of Taiwan’s Future: Reconsidering the Independence–Unification (Tondu) Attitudes","authors":"Fang-Yu Chen, A. Wang, Charles K. S. Wu, Yao‐Yuan Yeh","doi":"10.1177/14789299231193572","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1177/14789299231193572","url":null,"abstract":"For decades, scholars have constructed various ways to measure Taiwanese public opinion on the nation’s future, the independence–unification ( Tondu) question. While existing surveys find that Taiwanese people become more likely to support independence, the majority still favors the “status quo” option. Existing measurements have a number of weaknesses. For instance, most do not inform citizens what the “status quo” means, nor do they specify when and how independence and unification will manifest in reality. We propose a new approach to measuring citizens’ preferences of the nation’s future by specifying five mutually exclusive options on the independence–unification spectrum and field a nationwide survey to illustrate the validity of the new typology. Compared with traditional measurements, our method has more substantial explanatory power for several key political issues in Taiwan.","PeriodicalId":46813,"journal":{"name":"Political Studies Review","volume":" ","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":1.9,"publicationDate":"2023-08-31","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"48590361","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"社会学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2023-08-29DOI: 10.1177/14789299231195454
Harry Pearse
Although universal suffrage is a broad franchise model, it allows for exclusions provided they are robustly justified. In practice, therefore, suffrage is never universal. Every modern democracy operates with its own exclusion principles, but they are all bounded by some sort of age exclusion screening for competence. However, there is another way to conceptualise universal suffrage – a conceptualisation that finds credence in existing international treaties, and which better fulfil democracies governing promise of political equality. In this model, inclusivity and universalism remain the default, and franchise exclusions are subjected to more rigorous testing. To demonstrate the potential of this framework, I apply it to questions of children’s suffrage, arguing that the theoretical grounds for excluding children are insufficient to overturn the default principles of universalism and inclusion.
{"title":"Children, Voting, and the Meaning of Universal Suffrage","authors":"Harry Pearse","doi":"10.1177/14789299231195454","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1177/14789299231195454","url":null,"abstract":"Although universal suffrage is a broad franchise model, it allows for exclusions provided they are robustly justified. In practice, therefore, suffrage is never universal. Every modern democracy operates with its own exclusion principles, but they are all bounded by some sort of age exclusion screening for competence. However, there is another way to conceptualise universal suffrage – a conceptualisation that finds credence in existing international treaties, and which better fulfil democracies governing promise of political equality. In this model, inclusivity and universalism remain the default, and franchise exclusions are subjected to more rigorous testing. To demonstrate the potential of this framework, I apply it to questions of children’s suffrage, arguing that the theoretical grounds for excluding children are insufficient to overturn the default principles of universalism and inclusion.","PeriodicalId":46813,"journal":{"name":"Political Studies Review","volume":" ","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":1.9,"publicationDate":"2023-08-29","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"49066551","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"社会学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2023-08-19DOI: 10.1177/14789299231195458
Alok Ranjan
{"title":"Commissioned Book Review: Rahul Ranjan, <i>The Political Life of Memory: Birsa Munda in Contemporary India</i>","authors":"Alok Ranjan","doi":"10.1177/14789299231195458","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1177/14789299231195458","url":null,"abstract":"","PeriodicalId":46813,"journal":{"name":"Political Studies Review","volume":"68 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2023-08-19","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"135937623","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"社会学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2023-08-19DOI: 10.1177/14789299231193570
Z. Nwokora
The attention to and concerns about conspiracy theories have increased in recent years, fuelled by a surge in conspiratorial discourse during the Donald Trump presidency in the United States. Responding to this development, the scholarship on how democracies should deal with conspiracy theories has focused on what new regulations and institutions ought to be introduced to tackle its threats to democracy. In this article, I consider this practical question from a different angle by exploring the discursive strategies that are available to political elites when they encounter a conspiracy theory. I flesh out three general strategies – ignore, rebut and embrace – and identify the circumstances that shape when each strategy should be used in order to maximize the effects of discourse as an anti-conspiracy mechanism. This perspective thereby aims to reveal the elements of skill and nuance that are required of a politician who seeks to engage a conspiracy theory in a way that advances democratic values.
{"title":"Ignore, Rebut or Embrace: Political Elite Responses to Conspiracy Theories","authors":"Z. Nwokora","doi":"10.1177/14789299231193570","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1177/14789299231193570","url":null,"abstract":"The attention to and concerns about conspiracy theories have increased in recent years, fuelled by a surge in conspiratorial discourse during the Donald Trump presidency in the United States. Responding to this development, the scholarship on how democracies should deal with conspiracy theories has focused on what new regulations and institutions ought to be introduced to tackle its threats to democracy. In this article, I consider this practical question from a different angle by exploring the discursive strategies that are available to political elites when they encounter a conspiracy theory. I flesh out three general strategies – ignore, rebut and embrace – and identify the circumstances that shape when each strategy should be used in order to maximize the effects of discourse as an anti-conspiracy mechanism. This perspective thereby aims to reveal the elements of skill and nuance that are required of a politician who seeks to engage a conspiracy theory in a way that advances democratic values.","PeriodicalId":46813,"journal":{"name":"Political Studies Review","volume":" ","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":1.9,"publicationDate":"2023-08-19","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"41671757","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"社会学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2023-08-12DOI: 10.1177/14789299231187220
Sergiu Gherghina, P. Tap, R. Fărcaș
Country presidents and their political parties have strong connections along partisan lines. However, it remains unclear how this relationship unfolds when country presidents have to be non-partisans and formal ties are not permitted. This article seeks to address this gap in the literature and analyzes how country presidents use informal powers to maintain an influence in the life of their (former) political parties. We use Romania as the most likely case where we would expect such powers to occur and matter, because the country’s constitution bans the country’s president from being a party member once they are elected to public office. We compare the behaviour of the two Romanian country presidents who have each served two complete consecutive terms in office in the post-communist period. Our analysis covers the 2004–2022 period and focuses on the following four dimensions: electing successors, prime ministerial appointments, inclusion in coalition agreements and parties’ electoral performance.
{"title":"Informal Power and Short-Term Consequences: Country Presidents and Political Parties in Romania","authors":"Sergiu Gherghina, P. Tap, R. Fărcaș","doi":"10.1177/14789299231187220","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1177/14789299231187220","url":null,"abstract":"Country presidents and their political parties have strong connections along partisan lines. However, it remains unclear how this relationship unfolds when country presidents have to be non-partisans and formal ties are not permitted. This article seeks to address this gap in the literature and analyzes how country presidents use informal powers to maintain an influence in the life of their (former) political parties. We use Romania as the most likely case where we would expect such powers to occur and matter, because the country’s constitution bans the country’s president from being a party member once they are elected to public office. We compare the behaviour of the two Romanian country presidents who have each served two complete consecutive terms in office in the post-communist period. Our analysis covers the 2004–2022 period and focuses on the following four dimensions: electing successors, prime ministerial appointments, inclusion in coalition agreements and parties’ electoral performance.","PeriodicalId":46813,"journal":{"name":"Political Studies Review","volume":" ","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":1.9,"publicationDate":"2023-08-12","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"45492459","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"社会学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2023-08-09DOI: 10.1177/14789299231190731
Johanness Kiess
Saxony remains a hot spot for far-right mobilization making it a prominent case for studying Neonazi-networks as well as broader issues of challenges for democracy. Local and regional mobilization has intensified during the political contestation of migration 2013ff. with Dresden’s PEGIDA becoming a benchmark for regional regressive movements. During the pandemic, we observed yet another uptick in far-right mobilization, again deeply rooted in local networks that existed before the crisis and leading to a specific dynamic distinct from other regions in Germany. To explain this phenomenon, it is important to consider regional and local characteristics of identity formation, perceptions of ‘winner-and-loser’ dichotomies, and the broader challenges of global and European inequalities. As this contribution argues, here lie yet idle potentials for the comparative study of Euroscepticism and place.
{"title":"Euroscepticism and Local Far-Right Mobilization via Telegram in Light of the Fundamental Transformation of the Public Sphere","authors":"Johanness Kiess","doi":"10.1177/14789299231190731","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1177/14789299231190731","url":null,"abstract":"Saxony remains a hot spot for far-right mobilization making it a prominent case for studying Neonazi-networks as well as broader issues of challenges for democracy. Local and regional mobilization has intensified during the political contestation of migration 2013ff. with Dresden’s PEGIDA becoming a benchmark for regional regressive movements. During the pandemic, we observed yet another uptick in far-right mobilization, again deeply rooted in local networks that existed before the crisis and leading to a specific dynamic distinct from other regions in Germany. To explain this phenomenon, it is important to consider regional and local characteristics of identity formation, perceptions of ‘winner-and-loser’ dichotomies, and the broader challenges of global and European inequalities. As this contribution argues, here lie yet idle potentials for the comparative study of Euroscepticism and place.","PeriodicalId":46813,"journal":{"name":"Political Studies Review","volume":" ","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":1.9,"publicationDate":"2023-08-09","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"48912791","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"社会学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2023-08-07DOI: 10.1177/14789299231187225
Bai Linh Hoang
Constituents in the United States have used local public meetings in recent years to shape policy on some of the most high-profile race-related issues. However, public meeting participation remains less studied relative to other modes of participation. This study investigates the extent to which race shapes the way a message is heard and evaluated by the public audience and the degree to which its impact depends on the issue of the message. To carry out the study, I set up a 2 × 3 experiment containing six short treatment videos in which I manipulated the race of the actor/speaker (Black or White) and the message issue (innocuous service request, race-related policy, and race-neutral policy). Subjects were randomly assigned to watch one of the six videos and then asked to evaluate the message in the video. The early results of this study show that unlike previous studies revealing racial bias in a range of political contexts in the United States, race exerts neither independent nor conditional effects on the evaluation of the message as reasonable. I discuss the limitations and implications of these findings and useful considerations to think about in expanding this study.
{"title":"Does Race Affect Public Evaluations of Constituent Messages in Local Government Meetings? Results from an Experiment","authors":"Bai Linh Hoang","doi":"10.1177/14789299231187225","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1177/14789299231187225","url":null,"abstract":"Constituents in the United States have used local public meetings in recent years to shape policy on some of the most high-profile race-related issues. However, public meeting participation remains less studied relative to other modes of participation. This study investigates the extent to which race shapes the way a message is heard and evaluated by the public audience and the degree to which its impact depends on the issue of the message. To carry out the study, I set up a 2 × 3 experiment containing six short treatment videos in which I manipulated the race of the actor/speaker (Black or White) and the message issue (innocuous service request, race-related policy, and race-neutral policy). Subjects were randomly assigned to watch one of the six videos and then asked to evaluate the message in the video. The early results of this study show that unlike previous studies revealing racial bias in a range of political contexts in the United States, race exerts neither independent nor conditional effects on the evaluation of the message as reasonable. I discuss the limitations and implications of these findings and useful considerations to think about in expanding this study.","PeriodicalId":46813,"journal":{"name":"Political Studies Review","volume":" ","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":1.9,"publicationDate":"2023-08-07","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"45435060","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"社会学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2023-08-07DOI: 10.1177/14789299231191428
Jacopo Custodi
{"title":"Commissioned Book Review: Michaelangelo Anastasiou, <i>Nationalism and Hegemony: The Consolidation of the Nation in Social and Political Life</i>","authors":"Jacopo Custodi","doi":"10.1177/14789299231191428","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1177/14789299231191428","url":null,"abstract":"","PeriodicalId":46813,"journal":{"name":"Political Studies Review","volume":"7 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2023-08-07","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"135904446","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"社会学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}