Non-Electoral Political Participation among Members of Indonesian Women's NGOs: The Role of Gender Training, Social Bases, and Political Efficacy

ObjectiveCitizens use nonelectoral means of political participation along with electoral ones. However, we expect that engaging in nonelectoral political participation (NEPP) is quite dependent on the legitimacy of the state and its institutions, as well as the regime type. This article explores the relationship between NEPP and political trust (PT), which can indicate the legitimacy of such institutions.MethodWe utilize the seventh wave of World Values Survey to test such relationships in countries classified as democratic and nondemocratic following the Freedom in the World Index. We hypothesize that in democratic countries there is an inverted U‐shaped curvilinear relationship between PT and NEPP. We also hypothesize that there would be a negative relationship between PT and NEPP in nondemocratic countries.ResultThe analysis of the data confirms the first hypothesis, which is our main contribution. We also found that the negative relationship in the second hypothesis exists and is linear.ConclusionsThe findings indicate that respondents in each set of countries interpret trust and participation differently. In democracies, citizens engage in NEPP when they have a medium level of trust in political institutions, and in other regimes, citizens take that risk only when their mistrust of the institutions of the regime falls below a certain level.

Conditional Cash Transfers and Broad Political Participation

A person without trust cannot stand. A country without trust might decline. The rapid development of China's economy and the growing strength of the country cannot be separated from mutual, effective, coordinated and sustainable interaction between the government and the citizens. The achievement can neither be separated from the citizens' trust for the government, nor from the government's improvement of the citizens' political participation and the cultivation of their sense of political efficacy. This paper uses 11,783 pieces of data from the China General Social Survey (2010) to further refine political participation into institutionalised and non-institutionalised participation through factor analysis and regression analysis to explore the effects and mechanisms of influence between institutionalised participation, non-institutionalised participation, political efficacy and trust for government. The results of the analysis show that institutionalised participation has a non-significant positive effect on trust for government, non-institutionalised participation has a significant negative effect on trust for government and political efficacy has a significant positive effect on trust for government. Based on these findings, it is proposed to strengthen the institutionalisation of political participation and improve government performance assessment to further enhance citizens' trust for government.

Gerontologists have long documented how age is associated with political participation. However, few studies have considered how macrocontextual factors shape participation across the life span. Moreover, very few studies have dealt with political engagement and aging in emerging democracies, including those in Africa. This study addresses those gaps, integrating the most recent three waves of Afrobarometer survey data (2011–2018) with country-level data from the freedom house (i.e. freedom index). Findings reveal that, at the individual level, an age gap widens for engagement in protests and shrinks for electoral and non-electoral political participation. When the political context is considered, however, we find that political freedom softens the drop-off of protest behavior at later ages. For electoral and non-electoral political participation, we find that freer countries lessen the expected growth in engagement across the life span. The study implies that political oppression shapes the links between age and political behaviour, but the processes seem different depending on whether they are engaging in risky (where the age gap widens) or non-risky (where the age gap shrinks) political forms of engagement.

Most studies on political participation suggest that social capital is an important factor for individuals to express their political agency. This study provides another perspective—the violence perspective. There has been a debate about the direction of the association between violence and political participation, and most of these studies have focused on electoral participation and civic engagement. This study seeks to examine how the experience of non-domestic violence (NDV) are associated with non-electoral political participation (NEP) in Nigeria. Using the seventh round of the Nigerian Afrobarometer dataset, findings from the study show that individuals who experienced NDV were more likely to be active in non-electoral political activities. The findings of this study have broader implications for the importance of the norms and values that inform engagement in the political realm, especially in developing countries.

PurposeThis paper aims to examine the gender perceptions of members within women’s NGOs in Türkiye, highlighting the persistence of patriarchal values despite the rise in these organizations. The study provides insights into the influence of socio-political factors and demographic variables on gender attitudes within these organizations.Design/methodology/approachThe research utilized a survey conducted among 735 members of women’s NGOs in Istanbul and Ankara, gathering quantitative data on their attitudes toward gender inequality. The study employs a gender inequality index, supplemented with demographic and personal factors like age, marital status, education, political ideology and religiosity.FindingsFindings reveal that members of women’s NGOs often exhibit gender-inequitable attitudes, influenced by factors such as age, religiosity, political ideology and education. Contrary to expectations, these NGOs do not uniformly promote feminist values, and gender inequity is deeply entrenched within the organizational culture.Research limitations/implicationsThe study is limited by its focus on two major cities, which may not reflect the experiences of NGO members in other regions of Türkiye. The findings underscore the necessity to address structural constraints within women’s NGOs to promote genuine gender equality.Practical ImplicationsThis research suggests the need for critical awareness and capacity-building within women’s NGOs in Türkiye. Policymakers and organizational leaders can use these insights to develop targeted interventions that enhance gender consciousness and challenge patriarchal norms in civil society.Originality/valueThis study provides a novel exploration of gender attitudes within women’s NGOs in Türkiye, challenging the assumption that such organizations inherently promote feminist ideals. By combining empirical data with a socio-political analysis, the research reveals how entrenched patriarchal values persist within organizations that advocate for gender equality. This work contributes to understanding the complexities and contradictions in civil society’s role in gender politics, offering valuable insights for scholars and practitioners interested in gender, civil society and socio-political dynamics in Türkiye.

Very often conflict and post-conflict images of Bosnia-Herzegovina overshadow noteworthy developments and changes. Similarly the role and contributions of women's NGOs in the process of civil society building don't receive proper publicity and acknowledgment. Therefore, this paper aims to put in the perspective women's NGOs in Bosnia-Herzegovina by providing historical and theoretical analysis of their contributions towards peace-building and elections, state-building and civil society building. Furthermore, this paper aims to analyze origin and developments of gender legal, economic and socio-political framework as such framework is the precondition for actual application and achievement of gender equality. Finally, this paper applies theoretical framework of civil society functions on leading women's NGOs. The author uses ethnographic methodology, written sources, NGO and governmental reports and gender related laws. The results of this paper indicate that women's NGO's in Bosnia-Herzegovina made significant progress from providing mere humanitarian services to the establishment of gender institutional, legal, economic and socio-political framework. Such progress placed women's NGOs at the position of application and achievement of gender equality in Bosnia-Herzegovina. With regards to the fulfillment of civil society functions, results indicate that women's NGO's made significant achievements in advocating values of human rights, tolerance and understanding, offering civic training, promoting civic education and public issues through media, and promotion of conflict resolution and inter-faith dialogue. However, civil society functions such as control of political power, monitoring of political participation and elections and promoting of anti-corruption awareness don't indicate significant involvement of women's NGOs.

Purpose: The objective of this study was to explore netizens' external and internal political efficacy as being exposed to political branding on social media and to show how political branding would level up the citizens’ political awareness and boost their participation in voting in the parliamentary election. Lebanon was taken as a case study. Theoretical framework: Recent literature has reported the impact of social media political branding on youth participation in voting while other studies have been done separately about the impact of social media political branding on citizens’ political efficacy particularly in developed countries. (Binder et al., 2021; Hassan & Ridzuan, 2021; Moorman et al., 2019; Slipetska, 2021; Lau et al., 2021) However, there is still much to investigate about netizens’ political efficacy and participation in a developing country like Lebanon. Methodology: The study used the deductive approach and was based on using of primary statistical data for testing the hypotheses which have been analyzed by SPSS v22. The population, 491participants, from whom the data was obtained randomly were Lebanese people of age groups over 21 in various provinces. Findings: Overall, the data reflects a positive correlation of social media impact on voters' political participation, and it implies that the political influence of social media platforms on the self-external and internal efficacy is strong. Research, Practical & Social Implications: On the Lebanese level, and as the election has been done, it is recommended to measure the youth participation in voting. Also, this study is very beneficial to be used by the governments themselves for fostering the political efficacy of the nations, especially in developing countries. Originality: This study analyses the role social media does in encouraging citizens’ political efficacy and political participation in voting especially after the offensive revolution Lebanese have done pre- election comparing with many previous parliamentary elections in which participation was so shy and didn’t exceed 49.70 %. (Ministry of Interior and Municipalities, 2018)

This study aims at exploring how the Chinese college students use internet, their offline political participation, political trust and online political participation’s effect on their internal and external political efficacy in the information age. The result composed of 200 students’ use of internet and attitudes to political participation shows the relationship between the main influential factor and political efficacy in China is still far from that in the West. Keywords: Internet – college students – political efficacy – political participation ----- Bibliography: Gao, Xian: Chinese College Students’ Political Efficacy and Its Influencing Factors in the Information Age: A Sample Survey of CUMT, PCS, 1-2014, pp. 34-44. https://doi.org/10.3224/pcs.v5i1.19817

Social capital and self-rated health in Colombia: The good, the bad and the ugly

Recent literature has analyzed the relationship between governmental corruption and political behavior, focusing on voting turnout (Stockemer, LaMontagne, & Scruggs, 2013). Fewer studies have examined the impact of corruption on nonelectoral political participation. This article fills this gap by examining how nonelectoral political participation is influenced by corruption within one of the most important institutions dealing with citizens' welfare and safety: the police. We focus our research on Mexico because the effects of police corruption have been increasingly felt in the country in recent decades. We find that experiences of police corruption raise the likelihood of taking the streets to protest. Interestingly, we also find that corruption experiences specifically with police bureaucracies lead to greater likelihood of nonelectoral participation through institutional channels. We also report that the combination of police corruption and violent crime alienates citizens from the political sphere.

Public participation in administrative or political processes has been advocated as an important democratic reform by scholars and practitioners. Despite the importance of such public participation mechanisms, the relationship between participation in administration and political participation remains unexplored. This study aims to connect the missing link by empirically testing the mediating roles of political efficacy between two types of public participation. By connecting administrative and political participation through political efficacy, we intend to demonstrate that citizen participation in administration plays a pivotal role in remedying declining political participation. For the empirical tests, cross-sectional data from local jurisdictions in Korea were collected by survey questionnaires, and a series of Structural Equation Models are used to identify the causal relationships among these variables. The findings demonstrate that participation in administration influences political participation only through political efficacy, while the demand for participation in administration is connected to political participation either directly or through internal political efficacy. Conversely, political participation fosters participation in administration only through political efficacy. Given the empirical evidence, participation in administration and political participation reinforce each other, and political efficacy plays a critical role in mediating the two types of public participation. Points for practitioners Borrowing the concept of political efficacy, this study sheds theoretical light on a missing link between administrative and political participation. Practitioners need to realize that devising authentic administrative programs is a useful way to remedy waning democratic participation. Practitioners need to suggest many specific ideas on how to foster citizens’ political efficacy through public participation. By doing this, citizens could be politically awakened, which would lead to their increased participation. In this sense, this study is an initial step in exploring the possibility of democratic benefits produced by public participation mechanisms beyond the normative and instrumental benefits.

This article explores the British Foreign Office's engagement with International Women's Year (IWY) in 1975, an event which has been viewed as a milestone in histories of transnational feminist activism, and a moment when the status of women became part of mainstream thinking about development, human rights and global security. Much of the existing literature on IWY dwells on the role of non-state actors, especially women's NGOs active at the United Nations (UN). In contrast, this article shifts the lens on to state actors, in order to ask what role diplomats, politicians and ministries of foreign affairs played in the construction of ‘women’ as a global political subject in the late twentieth century. It finds that the Foreign Office's reading of IWY was refracted through the prism of Cold War power politics and postcolonial struggles. Gender politics was conceptualised as essentially a proxy for these larger ideological battles, an approach dating back to Britain's semi-clandestine anti-communist propaganda campaigns after the Second World War. British women's NGOs, by contrast, insisted that women's activism should be accorded an independent dynamic of its own, imagining the possibilities of gender-based solidarities operating across political, social and economic divides. IWY and the subsequent UN Decade for Women tempered this idealism and set the international women's movement on a political learning curve. But, as the article will suggest, the 1970s was also a moment when state elites were forced to confront a new kind of global politics, the repercussions of which for the conduct of foreign policy and diplomatic relations only further fine-grained archival research can fully reveal.

Since the United Nations Security Council adopted UNSCR 1325 on Women, Peace and Security in October 2000, there have been debates about how to achieve security. This thesis explores competing modes of constructions about within feminist and women's NGOs in Serbia, highlighting the ways that personal-political imaginations of Serbia's conflict and post-conflict pasts, presents and futures affect the logics of security. Part one explores the configurations of amongst feminist and women's NGOs in Serbia. Post-structural discourse analysis strategies are deployed to investigate the personal-political imaginations of conflict and post-conflict constituting how feminism and security is thought about. Utilising field research conducted in Serbia during 2008 and 2009, the discursive construction of competing modes of thought about gender and/or security amongst activists is revealed, highlighting that the way that conflict and post-conflict is thought about profoundly affects these modes of thought. Part two is an in-depth examination of the performance of UNseR 1325 within two case studies. UNSCR 1325 is taken to be the site of discursive contact between gender and security, and is productive of the articulation and representation of gender security policies and agendas. The first case study centres upon the feminist-pacifist debate, focussing upon Women in Black. UNSCR 1325 is utilised as a political tool to support the advocacy work of Women in Black. In contrast, the second case study explores ways specific discourses of gender security has stimulated political action. An investigation of the broader domestic violence debate in Serbia makes clear how international gender security discourses triggered an increasing concern about small arms and light weapons (SALW) abuse within domestic violence. Subsequently, activists have pushed SALW concerns higher up the domestic violence agenda in Serbia. The variations in how UNSCR 1325 is utilised is a consequence of the particular configuration of gender security, arising from personal-political imaginations of conflict and post-conflict amongst activists.

M ANY SCHOLARS BELIEVE that a political system cannot operate effectively in the absence of some minimal level of loyalty or allegiance on the part of its citizens. Indeed, the very existence of a political system, and the effectiveness of authoritative decisionmaking within that system, are thought to be imperilled by the presence of widespread discontent among citizens. On the other hand, numerous empirical studies have reported relatively weak correlations between expressions of political discontent and participation in or approval of unconventional behaviors, including political protest and violence.' One of the most theoretically appealing propositions is that of Gamson, who contends, ". . . a combination of high sense of political efficacy and low political trust is the optimum combination for mobilization a belief that influence is both possible and necessary."2 While this hypothesis has received some degree of confirmation in certain circumstances, it generally has failed to account for differences in individual political behavior.3 However, there are theoretical reasons to suspect that the Gamson