Note from the Editor

Welcome to the June 2024 issue of Politics & Policy (P&P)! We have a full lineup this month that will intrigue scholars with specializations ranging from narrative policy to ethnic voting, government transparency, public opinion, development, foreign aid, income inequality reduction, tariff liberalization, international organizations, and globalization and its manifold discontents.

Testing and building upon the Narrative Policy Framework (NPF), Chalaya and others (2024) argue perceptively that narratives portraying a policy's target group as a hero are most effective in generating support for a policy. Their discussion of the public opinion surrounding new campfire regulations in a Russian national park adds the concept of “audience-as-hero” and joins a growing group of exemplary past P&P articles that contribute solidly to NPF theory and policy practice in both Western and non-Western contexts (see, e.g., Angervil, 2024; Brekken & Fenley, 2021; Chang & Koebele, 2020; Crow et al., 2017; Ertas, 2015; Knackmuhs et al., 2020; O'Donovan, 2018; Shanahan et al., 2011; Smith-Walter et al., 2016).

In their empirical comparative international study, Byaro and others (2024) investigate the impact of government spending, financial development, inflation, and trade on income inequality reduction in 66 low-income countries from 2000 to 2018. They find that while inflation and trade exacerbate income inequality, government spending and financial development in the states under study have surprisingly little or no impact.

Our next article combines framing with international organizations. Hoffmann (2024) highlights the power of epistemic communities created by the World Health Organization (WHO). Using the construct of the “tobacco epidemic” as an urgent global health challenge, she shows how WHO experts and officials can frame issues in a specific way to focus public attention around health problems that would have otherwise been neglected.

Several articles this June use countries from sub-Saharan Africa as in-depth case studies that will be of interest to comparative politics and development scholars as well as to country and regional specialists, policy practitioners and their critics, and those interested more broadly in international relations issues. Ameyaw-Brobbey (2024) concentrates on the media in Chinese-African public relations and China's image-building efforts, particularly in Nigeria, while Mwatu and others (2024) empirically assess the impact of tariff liberalization on economic and social benefits in Kenya. Their article offers rich insights into various optimal liberalization levels that should be considered in negotiating trade agreements. And Kwablah and others (2024) examine the behavioral, psychological, and socioeconomic factors driving the willingness-to-pay for the electronic levy, or e-levy, in Ghana.

Next, through an empirical study conducted in New Zealand, Zhao (2024) examines the influence of parties' political mobilization on ethnic voters. She finds a positive correlation between a party's mobilization efforts and the support level from Chinese ethnic voters. Hong and others (2024) discuss how open government data initiatives can foster increased government transparency with a focus on South Korean local government, as well as wider lessons learned.

Two interesting studies on specific Asian countries follow. Mostofa (2024) explores the main challenges facing the prison system in Bangladesh and how these facilitate prison radicalization and the increasing influx of inmates into militant groups. And Zaidi and others (2024) critically evaluate the effectiveness of foreign aid in Pakistan in recent years and argue that increasing exports and attracting more foreign direct investment hold greater potential than a continued reliance on foreign aid to enhance sustainable economic growth.

Finally, Rahman and others (2024) argue that globalization is currently undergoing a transition exhibiting a new paradox characterized by the emergence of a multipolar world but with local identity and tradition-based politics. For the authors, the consequences of this include a re-emphasis on state borders and a rise in authoritarian and hybrid regimes.

I hope the excellent articles in this issue of P&P provide you with some useful, thought-provoking, and intriguing material to propel your future research forward. As always, I look forward to your continued submissions at https://mc.manuscriptcentral.com/polpol.

Dr. Emma R. Norman

Editor in Chief, P&P