“We’re not as great as we used to be”: Perceived national status threat and the desire for strong leaders

The U.S. presidential campaign in 2008 signified a change on the paradigm of how the political parties deal with local communities. This means that grassroots techniques arose as a key factor for the triumph of Barack H. Obama. After the election, European political parties—even social movements—also adapted some strategies inspired by the U.S. presidential campaigns. The main objective of this article is to analyze how these grassroots techniques have been adapted in a specific scenario: the process of self-determination of Catalonia, an Autonomous Community of Spain that claims to be an independent country after the failing of Estado de las Autonomías (state of autonomies) model. Our method is to explore the parameters that drove the Obama’s first presidential campaign and how they have been applied into the self-determination campaign of Catalonia, such as the creation of local opinion platforms, media spin doctoring, social networking, and the social involvement of foreign actors. We realized that the social commitment with the self-determination process by regional community organizations has had a stronger leadership than the political parties. As a result, we state that political spin doctors in Catalonia could neither drive nor control the framing process of the last parliamentary regional campaign.

Party leaders are often regarded as crucial to a party's success. Successful leaders tend to be big personalities who dominate their party's organisation, policy development and electoral campaigns. But does that control come with a price? We test to see if such leaders damage their parties in the medium term. This happens because strong leaders might be ceded too much control of the party organisation, policy and electoral strategy. We specifically hypothesise that political parties will go through a period of leadership instability and electoral decline after strong leaders step down. Using a dataset with elections under party leaders in nine countries over a 25‐year period, and a qualitative case study, we find some evidence for the theory, which should prompt further research of the question.

Back to table of contents Previous article Residents’ ForumFull AccessPlease Vote in APA’s 2017 ElectionStella Cai,M.D.Stella Cai,Search for more papers by this authorM.D.Published Online:3 Jan 2017https://doi.org/10.1176/appi.pn.2017.1a18AbstractVOTE. This four-letter word brings an instant flashback about this year’s presidential election. I recall staying up late to watch the tally of electoral votes. The following day, my Facebook feed exploded with messages of outrage, dismay, celebration, and hope about our new president-elect. The social climate and the news had certainly stirred up uncertainty and fear in some residents, but have also given a new sense of hope in others.As much as the media make us feel so divided at times, we know that mental health reform reaches beyond party lines. It requires collaboration, strong leadership, and, for us health care providers, active participation in policymaking and expressing our concerns to legislators. So no matter where we stand on our political views, we share the common mission of advocating for our patients and our profession. That is why I ask you to VOTE in this year’s APA election. Because your voice matters. Having strong leadership at APA matters. As an intern, I thought APA was an obscure and distant organization that provided me with the monthly green journal and the Annual Meeting. It was not until I became actively involved that I began to see how powerful organized psychiatry is. To give you a few ideas, in the past year, APA leaders teamed up with the AMA and other medical organizations to successfully defeat the bill that would have allowed psychologists to prescribe medication in Hawaii. In this APA election, I was reminded of what Dr. Jeffrey Akaka from Honolulu had said: “Nobody can do this alone.” We need leaders who can build relationships with other organizations and together protect the practice of psychiatry. For a number of years, APA has also put tremendous effort in building collaborative care and telepsychiatry to help increase access to mental health care throughout the country. This past fall, we were thrilled to receive the news that Medicare will begin reimbursement for psychiatric collaborative care services in 2017. APA recently launched the Telepsychiatry Toolkit, which benefits residents and fellows like us, as it may be an important part of future psychiatric practice.But the job is not done there. As a new chapter begins, we need leaders who can continue the push for mental health reform. We made great progress with the passage of the 21st Century Cures Act, but much more needs to be done. Support our future with a simple vote in this year’s APA election. We have an amazing slate of candidates, with three candidates running for resident-fellow trustee elect (RFMTE): Tanuja Gandi, M.D., from Connecticut, Sarah Kauffman, M.D., from New York, and Benjamin Solomon, M.D., M.B.A., from New York. The RFMTE serves for two years on the APA Board of Trustees and is a liaison between the APA organization and RFMs. The voting began on January 3 and will end on January 31. To make things easier, voting and campaigning information can be accessed at APA’s homepage. Also, APA is sending out reminder emails at regular intervals with a direct link to your personal voting page. That’s right! No log-in or password required. Just check your member profile to make sure it includes your correct email address.It takes just a few seconds to vote. Do it now! For any questions, please contact me at [email protected]. ■Stella Cai, M.D., is APA’s resident-fellow member trustee. ISSUES NewArchived

Paweł Adamowicz, the liberal mayor of Gdańsk, Poland, died on January 14, 2019, after being stabbed by a man who rushed onstage during a charity event. Four studies were carried out to analyze the predictors of willingness to engage in collective action in support of the progressive city policies he initiated. In Study 1 ( N = 214), collective angst was related to collective action intention. Identification with Gdańsk mediated this relation. In the next two studies, we tested the role of the perceived continuity of the in-group. The relationship between collective angst and willingness to support collective actions was mediated by perceived essentialist continuity of the group (Study 2, on snap election day, N = 121). Moreover, results confirmed that collective angst predicted strength of identification with Gdańsk. This identification was related to the perceived essentialist continuity of the group, which in turn was linked to willingness to engage in collective actions in support of progressive policies (Study 3, N = 98). In Study 4 ( N = 456), conducted within a few days before the presidential election in Poland, we replicated the model of mediation obtained in Study 3, and showed that contextualized collective angst also predicted collective action intentions.

THE UBIQUITY OF PRESIDENTIAL LEADERSHIP IN AMERICAN POLITICS Leadership is an important standard by which presidents and presidential candidates are judged. For example, one voter had this to say about trying to decide whom to vote for in the 2012 presidential election: “What I look for in a candidate … Mostly, I want someone that I trust as a leader” (Appelbaum, March 17, 2012). Richard Wirthlin, who has conducted polls and provided advise for Republican presidential candidates, once asserted that “the single most important value of the American public is respect for strong presidential leadership” (Moore 1995, p. 205). Candidates for the office recognize the importance of leadership to voters in selecting a president. The competing candidates routinely try to convince voters that they will do a better job of providing leadership than their opponent. A major theme of the challengers is that the incumbent does not provide strong leadership, that the incumbent is weak, and that they, the challengers, will do a better job of leading. For instance, during the 2012 presidential election campaign, Mitt Romney, the Republican nominee, continually criticized President Obama for his “appalling lack of leadership” (Memmott, April 4, 2012). On October 22, 2012, during the nationally televised presidential debate in Boca Raton, Florida, Romney stated that “what we need to do with respect to the Middle East is strong, steady leadership, not wrong and reckless leadership that is all over the map.” Although it may be uncomfortable for candidates to tout their leadership qualities, as opposed to attacking their opponents, their allies are often not so reticent in extolling those traits. Romney's vice presidential running mate, Paul Ryan, at the vice presidential debate with Joseph Biden, illustrated Romney's ability to work with others and overcome the high level of partisanship in current politics by pointing to Romney's stint as governor. “Mitt Romney was governor of Massachusetts, where 87 percent of the legislators he served, which were Democrats.

Countries transitioning from autocracy to democracy often struggle to maintain law and order. Yet relatively little is known about how increasing crime rates impact public support for authoritarian leadership during a transition. We find an empirical relationship between rising crime and support for authoritarian leadership in Egypt following the 2011 uprisings. Analysis of original crime data from Egypt suggests that electoral districts exposed to larger year-on-year changes in localized patterns of crime were more likely to vote for the ‘strongman’ candidate in Egypt’s first, and only, free and fair presidential election in 2012. We also analyze survey data which shows that Egyptians who were highly concerned about crime were more likely to express support for a ‘strong leader’ as well as for military rule, even after controlling for a broad set of covariates. This research illustrates how instability triggered by political transitions can have negative implications for democratic consolidation.

This paper examined the domestic environment of international relations by conducting a study of the Nigerian state, under the Buhari administration. It investigated the nature of the linkages between the domestic environment and international altercations or cooperation. Where previous works concentrated on how the domestic setting influenced foreign policy-output and consequent international reaction(s), this contribution focused on how the domestic environment begot foreign policy reaction from the other actors on the international podium. The general objective of the study was to determine the character of the international relations which Nigeria’s domestic environment begets. A specific objective of the work was to identify some trajectories of these general tendencies under the Buhari administration. The study was framed on behaviouralism, bordering on man and his behaviour in states and organizations. The work adopted a qualitative methodology with secondary sources of data consulted. It found that Nigeria’s domestic environment has continued to weaken its giant-sized international capabilities. The country’s domestic impairments have consequently continued to beget for the African giant state, frequent scornful diplomatic relations from the other actors on the international scene. Corruption, egotism and venality of the leadership class remained the central contributory issues in the nation’s domestic derailments. The work recommends the institution of strong and altruistic leadership, as panaceas against disorder in the domestic environment of international relations in the case study state

The impact of the 2024 US presidential election campaign on population sleep: A representative survey from National Sleep Foundation.

The work carried out a systematic study of the practice of using electoral technologies during presidential campaigns in Ukraine. The concept of electoral technologies as a tool to influence public opinion has been analyzed. The peculiarities of electoral technologies development in Ukraine during the period of independence have been highlighted and analyzed in stages. It is claimed that in the context of modern society digitalization, the approach to the use of technology in electoral campaigns is changing significantly. An important place in the recent electoral (presidential and parliamentary) campaigns was played by the latest electoral technologies, including the use of social networks. The advantages and disadvantages of their implementation have been outlined. Despite the tendency to use the latest electoral technologies, traditional electoral technologies (talk shows, debates, etc. ) remain quite effective. The «dirty» electoral technologies that were used during the presidential election campaigns in Ukraine have been detailed. Among them, the most popular were: «double» technology, «clone», «revolutionary» technologies, «bribery of voters», image-building, disinformation technologies, fakes (deep fake), etc. It should be noted that the technologies of «performance» and theatricalization of the election process played a rather important role in the successful conduct of the presidential election campaign. It is noteworthy that the effectiveness of the applied electoral technologies depends on human and material resources, the qualities of the leader himself and the team of specialists.

This chapter analyzes the failure of Jusuf Kalla to win the Indonesian presidential election held in July 2009. It highlights the political background and dynamics that placed Kalla and his Golkar Party in a difficult position in the election, while, at the same time, providing Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono (SBY) and his Democratic Party with a huge political advantage to win the race. Kalla was notably unsuccessful in convincing the voters that the country needed a more decisive and strong leader, in contrast to the SBY leadership style that heavily emphasized image-building rather than actual performance.

The Issues and Leaders model predicts the national popular two-party vote in US presidential elections from people’s perceptions of the candidates’ issue-handling competence and leadership qualities. In previous elections from 1972 to 2012, the model’s Election Eve forecasts missed the actual vote shares by, on average, little more than one percentage point and thus reduced the error of the Gallup pre-election poll by 30%. This research note presents the model’s forecast prior to the 2016 election, when most polls show that voters view Republican candidate Donald Trump as the stronger leader but prefer the Democrat’s nominee Hillary Clinton when it comes to dealing with the issues. A month prior to Election Day, the model predicts that Clinton will win by four points, gaining 52.0% of the two-party vote.

This research explores the role of political memes in building the image and influencing public perception of the candidate pair Prabowo Subianto and Gibran Rakabuming Raka during the 2024 presidential election campaign. Using the symbolic interaction theory approach and qualitative content analysis, this study analyzed the visual and verbal symbols in memes circulating on social media such as TikTok, Twitter (X), and Instagram. The results show that political memes not only serve as a means of entertainment, but also become an effective communication tool in conveying complex political messages in a way that is easily accepted by the audience. Memes depicting Prabowo as a strong and decisive leader and Gibran as a young innovator create a narrative that reinforces their image as a representation of a blend of experience and innovation. In addition, memes also play a role in increasing political participation among young voters through humor and emotional engagement. This research concludes that political memes play an important role in political contestation in the digital age, facilitating social interaction and shaping political narratives that have a significant impact on public perception and participation.

Jakarta Shinbun is one of the largest, and the only Japanese language dailynewspaper published in Indonesia. The head office is located in Jakarta and all of the editorial teams are Japanese journalists. Reader target of this daily are Japanese people living in Indonesia. Therefore, it could be predicted that it has a strong influence in shaping public opinion among Japanese living in Indonesia. At the time of Indonesian presidential election campaign from June 4 to July 5, 2014, Jakarta Shinbun (JS) published so many articles about campaign of two Indonesian presidential candidates, namely: Joko Widodo and Prabowo Subianto. This study aims to examine how the images of Joko Widodo and Prabowo Subianto were constructed in the news of Jakarta Shinbun during the presidential campaign. There are 56 articles to be examined, and to analyze them, the used methods are quantitative and qualitative approach by applying media content analysis, and discourse analysis. The result is known Prabowo Subianto was negatively imaged than Jokowi during the presidential election campaign of 2014. So it can be interpreted as well that this newspaper supported Joko Widodo more than another candidate during presidential election campaign.

Some of the most important problems of modern civilization are issues related to the functioning of contemporary democracy, such as participation of citizens and political competition. In this context, new media have become an excellent platform for information, involvement and mobilization of the electorate. It means that in the period analyzed, new functions of modern media have been developed, and they seem to differentiate significantly each presidential campaign from previous ones. Information and communication technologies have found their wide application in electoral strategies. However, this mainly concerns the last two elections. Recent presidential campaigns in Poland have become interesting for researchers in terms of new media development and their implementation in politics. The main goal of the chapter is as follows: comparative analysis of activities implemented by presidential election committees in Poland and the use of new media in presidential campaigns (information dissemination, mobilization and engagement of voters); identification of effects the use of the Internet had in presidential election campaigns, and examination of how Internet tools used for information dissemination, mobilization and engagement of the electorate have developed over the years.

In this article, three one-year electoral cycles during the Independence of Ukraine have been researched. In 1994, 2014 and 2019 the President of Ukraine and the Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine were elected in one year. The main causes of these elections were political crises that paralyzed the further development of the state and public attitudes that did not match the party composition of the current electoral authorities.It is emphasized that in terms of the sequence of conducting parliamentary and presidential campaigns 1994 is different from 2014 and 2019. In 1994 parliamentary elections were first conducted and then the presidential elections, in 2014 and 2019, on the contrary: presidential and then parliamentary. In terms of the timing of the elections, in 1994 and 2014 the presidential and parliamentary election campaigns were extraordinary and in 2019 the presidential campaign was regular and the parliamentary one was extraordinary.The election systems that have been applied under one-year electoral cycles are analyzed. At the election of the President, the electoral system has remained unchanged during Ukraine’s Independence period – the majoritarian system. At the same time, in relation to the elections to parliament: in 1994 a majoritarian system was used and in 2014 and 2019 – a mixed electoral system (50% majority and 50% proportional with a 5% barrier for political parties).It has been outlined that technologically presidential campaigns of L. Kravchuk and L. Kuchma in 1994 were based on the electoral attitudes of the parliamentary elections, but in 2014 and 2019 elections to the Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine were a logical continuation of the presidential elections while maintaining the basic strategy and main messages of the political parties campaigns.It have been clarified that the request for a radical reformation of authority, a quick reboot of the political system and anti-elite attitudes are the current world trends which are in line with Ukrainian realities through the election of V. Zelensky as President of Ukraine and a high level of electoral confidence in the new party “Servant of the people” in 2019.