This article presents a comprehensive analysis of the Scottish National Party’s (SNP) political evolution through the lens of center-periphery cleavage and resource mobilization theories. It traces the SNP’s transformation from a peripheral movement into an electoral hegemon, facilitated by civic nationalist ideology and devolution institutions. The author examines the party’s post-Brexit strategy and the causes of the 2023–2025 crisis, where corruption scandals and the exhaustion of the “valence politics” model eroded electoral dominance. The study analyzes emerging challenges, including the rise of the right-wing populist Reform UK which undermines the myth of “Scottish exceptionalism” and protectionist threats linked to Donald Trump’s return. It concludes that political survival amidst polarization requires the SNP to pivot from radical rhetoric to a pragmatic restoration of managerial competence.

Resumo Este artigo analisa a dinâmica evolutiva do capitalismo no século XXI, destacando as transformações nas relações centroperiferia à luz das recentes mudanças econômicas, tecnológicas e políticas. A pesquisa parte da premissa de que não é possível compreender o capitalismo contemporâneo sem considerar a influência das Tecnologias da Informação e Comunicação (TIC), o papel do Estado e as mudanças nas finanças globais. A questão central abordada é: “O que mudou na relação centro-periferia com as transformações recentes do capitalismo?”. A hipótese defendida é de que, nas últimas décadas, a periferia tem assumido um papel mais ativo na configuração sistêmica. A investigação identifica a emergência do “Efeito Bumerangue”, um fenômeno novo que caracteriza a clivagem centro-periferia, especialmente no início do século XXI.

The brazilian urbanization was marked by the center-periphery cleavage; however, changed from end the 20th century XX due to the spread of gated communities. These are closed spaces for housing, work, leisure, consumption and business, which are characterized by a defensive architecture, are walled and turned inwards, with sophisticated security systems that separate two social universes: the internal, restricted to the richest, and the external, associated with the violence and the poor population. This paper analyzes the gated communities in countryside cities of São Paulo, addressing the reasons that led to their diffusion – from the effects of the fear narrative to the dynamics of the real estate market – and their harmful urban and social consequences. The gated communities contradict the ideals of modern urban life, marked by diversity, anonymous encounters and the appreciation of public space as a sphere of exercise of citizenship rights. The analysis demonstrates that in the selected cities (Ribeirão Preto, Jundiaí and Bauru) the spread of closed urbanizations for residential use increased socio-spatial segregation, delimiting fragmented territories that obstruct free movement and increase social inequalities, in open contradiction with the Sustainable Development Goals of the 2030 Agenda (New Urban Agenda) of the United Nations (UN).

This paper seeks to explore differences in economic freedom among EU center and periphery countries. We use a sample of the 27 current member states during the 2015-2019 period and we employ a Mann-Whitney test, which yields statistically significant and robust results on disparity in Size of Government and Legal System & Property Rights and less robust results in Regulation among EU center and periphery countries. EU center and periphery countries seem to be closer in the Overall economic freedom score, Sound Money, and Freedom to Trade Internationally areas of economic freedom. Keywords: economic freedom, center-periphery cleavage, EU integration, EU economic policy.

2011’de Suriye İç Savaşı’nın başlamasıyla bugüne kadar Türkiye’ye göç eden 3 milyon 750 bin civarındaki sığınmacı ile birlikte Türkiye siyasetinde göçmenlere karşı tutumlar da araştırılmaya başlanmıştır. Önceki çalışmalar göçmenlere karşı tutumların çeşitli boyutlarını analiz etmiş olsa da bu tutumların parti tercihlerine etkisi diğer ülkelere kıyasla Türkiye’de daha az çalışılmış bir konudur. Amaç: Bu çalışma 2018 yılında toplanan Comparative Study of Electoral Systems (2019) verisini kullanarak Türkiye’de göçmenlere karşı tutumların parti tercihine olan etkisini nicel yöntemler ile analiz etmektedir. Yöntem: Göçmenlere karşı tutumların parti tercihine etkisi farklı lojistik regresyon modelleri ile yapılan analizlerle ölçülmüştür. Kontrol değişkenleri olarak Türkiye siyasetinde daha önceden çalışılmış dindarlık ve sol-sağ düzlemindeki konum gibi merkez-çevre teorisine dayanan ve ekonomik oy verme davranışını ölçen değişkenler ile demografik değişkenler kullanılmıştır. Bulgular: Sonuçlar göstermektedir ki göçmenlere karşı olumsuz tutumlar arttıkça İyi Parti’ye oy verme olasılığı artarken, AK Parti’ye oy verme olasılığı azalmaktadır. Cumhuriyet Halk Partisi’ne oy verme tercihi ile göçmenlere karşı tutumlar arasında sadece demografik değişkenlerle kontrol edildiğinde olumlu bir ilişki varken, dindarlık ve seçmenin sol-sağ düzlemindeki konumu ile birlikte kontrol edildiğinde ise bu etki istatistiksel olarak anlamsızlaşmaktadır. Son olarak ekonomik değerlendirmeler de regresyona eklendiğinde göçmenlere karşı tutumların parti tercihine etkisi tüm modellerde istatistiksel olarak anlamsız hale gelmektedir. Özgünlük: Veri setindeki diğer ülkeler ile kıyaslandığında Türkiye’de göçmenlere karşı olumsuz tutumlar oldukça yüksekken bu tutumların parti tercihini belirlemede zayıf kalması yanıtlanması önemli bir soru olarak ortaya çıkmaktadır.

Abstract This paper identifies changes in the center-periphery structure due to transformations in capitalism since 1970. In its new configuration, capitalism not only altered center-periphery relations but also exerted impact upon peripheral units that affect the system structure itself. This paper aims to apply Ruggie’s famous critique of Waltz in International Relations to analyse global capitalism and show how the changes in the center-periphery cleavage is affecting its systemic reconfiguration in the 21st century. This research identifies the boomerang effect as a new systemic element, that is, as a byproduct of the interaction of units of the global capitalist system in the 21st century.

Recent works have coined the term Online Political Efficacy (OPE) to assess the impact of Internet use on the perceived political empowerment of citizens. As the classic concept of political efficacy distinguishes between internal (IPE) and external (EPE) efficacies, we seek to confirm the usefulness of a new indicator of political efficacy for online engagement and assess the impact of the territory where people reside on OPE. Although OPE is mostly explained by the same determinants that account for IPE, the center-periphery divide influences OPE and IPE in opposite directions. Those who reside in the territorial—and political—periphery believe more strongly that they can use Internet to participate in public affairs (OPE), though they do not feel more competent in doing so (IPE). The democratizing power of Internet helps bridge the center-periphery social and political territorial divide.

The Basque Country has traditionally been considered a strongly polarized political community. The influence of the center-periphery cleavage and the shadow of political violence have conditioned many aspects of social life, including relations among civic organizations. Previous literature suggests that differences in organizations’ national identities and/or position towards ETA’s (Euskadi ta Askatasuna, or Basque Country and Freedom in the Basque language) violence have often acted as cleavages fragmenting collective action fields. This research examines whether this picture changed substantially after ETA’s abandonment of violence in 2011 by taking the environmental field as a case study and looking at the evolution of patterns of interorganizational collaboration between 2007 and 2017. The results of statistical network analyses show that both Basque nationalism and ideological positions towards ETA’s use of violence had a strong influence on organizations’ decisions to collaborate with one another up to 2011, whereas during the more recent postconflict period, collaboration seems to occur in a more pluralistic and less ideologically driven fashion.

States often engage in internal purges to eliminate political dissidents within their own ranks. However, partly because of the absence of reliable data, we know little about the logic and dynamics of these purges, particularly of lower-rank members of the state. Why do state authorities persecute these individuals when they do not entail a clear threat to the regime? We focus on the purges of public-school teachers during the early years of Francisco Franco’s regime in Spain. Using detailed historical sources, we explore whether teachers were more likely to be purged following the two main cleavages in 1930s Spain: the left-right divide and the center-periphery (i.e., nationalist) cleavage. Our results suggest that while the Spanish Civil War (1936–1939) was still unfolding Francoist authorities targeted mainly teachers from leftist localities, thus focusing on potential security threats behind the frontlines. After winning the war, Francoists started to target more intensively teachers from national minority groups in order to promote nation-building policies leading to their assimilation. Our findings highlight the double logic of purging as both a preemptive measure against internal threats and as a nation-building tool.

The double logic of internal purges: New evidence from Francoist Spain

The capacity of the left–right scale to summarize most political issues can be challenged by the salience of the center–periphery cleavage. However, the existing literature does not agree on whether both attitudinal dimensions are related and, if so, to what extent. In this paper, we argue that both axes can have a dependency relationship, going from the latter to the former. Our main argument is that individuals with a strong regional attachment will assume a more progressive stance on the left–right axis regardless of their positions on the economic and cultural issues, and that this relationship is reinforced by contextual characteristics of the region such as internal homogeneity and external distinctiveness. We test our arguments by using the survey data from the Making Electoral Democracy Work project, which has data for 11 regions in 5 different countries.

To Grunge or Not to Grunge on the Periphery? The Polish Grunge Scene of the 1990s and the Assimilation of Cultural Patterns

ABSTRACTThis article offers a critical rereading of Şerif Mardin’s center–periphery framework. This cleavage has offered a simple and politically appealing theoretical foundation to scholarly and journalistic works for several decades. Empirical evidence, however, suggests institutions and worldviews have not been continuous across time, as the center–periphery framework suggests. Furthermore, disagreements and conflicts among groups perceived as peripheral, the fluidity of relationships between peripheral and central actors, and the lack of cohesion within the institutions of the center leave no reason to maintain the center–periphery cleavage as an organizing framework. The authoritarian turn in Turkey in the 2010s under the Adalet ve Kalkınma Partisi invites further scrutiny of the framework. Future research should take into consideration historical patterns and events that do not fit into the binary framework, pay attention to micro-level dynamics within and between social actors and institutions, incorporate strategic decision making into theoretical models, acknowledge the interconnectedness and hybridity of ideologies and worldviews, and conduct comparative research.

Since the center-periphery cleavage is widely used in the rhetoric of the two highly controversial political figures of R.T. Erdogan and D. Trump, it is interesting to examine their political careers. Both perform their political routes and construct their electoral appeal on the base of the center-periphery divide. The presented paper in general aims at qualifying the leadership style of both politicians. While the two leaders function in different political entities and traditions, their perception and understanding of politics seems to be quite similar

The article examines the evolution of Eastern and Central European party systems from the previous communist/anticommunist conflict to the emergent division between pro-EU and Eurosceptic forces and puts forward a revised view of the traditional center-periphery cleavage in six countries: Poland, Hungary, the Czech Republic, Slovakia, Bulgaria, and Romania. The first part addresses the question of “stateness” and the second the Rokkan spatial approach while the third develops a revised view of the center-periphery cleavage in relation to space at the national (minority ethnic groups vs. state), regional (EU vs. Eastern European member states), and global (USSR vs. satellite countries during the bipolar system) levels.

The Spanish executive centralized political power to manage the politics of austerity better in the aftermath of the Great Recession. This article analyzes the reinforcement of the power of the central government and argues that three explanatory variables—economic crisis, ideology, and party politics—account for recentralization, which is defined as fiscal consolidation, concentration of competences, bureaucratic rationalization, and ideological convergence. The debate about the motives and nature of recentralization (de jure vs. de facto) further polarized the center-periphery cleavage. Regional prosovereignty parties interpreted the reversal of decentralization as another sign that accommodation within Spain was not possible and that contestation was the way forward.

Social Mobility and Its Discontents: The Center-Periphery Cleavage of Turkey Abstract This study analyzes effects of the center-periphery cleavage on the relationship between state and religion in Turkey during the period of 2002 and 2012. The confrontation between center and periphery is one of the most important social cleavages underlying Turkish politics that has lasted since the late Ottoman period. This study suggests that the social cleavages between the center and the periphery are still prominent factors shaping discussions on the state’s interaction with religion. That the periphery has gained more social capital since the 1980s has fueled these discussions. In recent years, the Republican People’s Party, the armed forces, and the higher judiciary have represented the centrist coalition, while the Justice and Development Party has established itself as the main representative of the periphery. During this period, the previous elites have lost more power on the state level, a development that can be read as the conservative periphery displacing the secular center to some extent.

Abstract For nearly forty years, scholars have utilized the metanarrative of a center–periphery cleavage first proposed by Şerif Mardin to explain a variety of phenomena in Turkish politics and society. When used to interpret electoral cleavages in the multiparty period, however, a center–periphery cleavage cannot effectively explain electoral outcomes. Focusing on the initial stage of multiparty competition, when the cleavage is often said to have been most salient, this article explores the empirical evidence to show that the concept as commonly employed has actually confounded an effective understanding of electoral behavior in Turkey. Rather than demonstrating a clear electoral division between the elites of the social center and the masses during this period, the article reveals two distinct cross-cutting patron-client strategies used by elite-dominated parties to cater to the rural population. The significant patterns of change in Turkey's electoral outcomes over time further illustrate the need to focus on how political parties and elites accumulate votes—that is, on their vote targeting strategies—rather than rely on static sociopolitical cleavages.

Greater Ethiopia: Evolution of a Pluralist Politico-Legal System in a Pluralist Polity

This article explores the effects that a salient political center—periphery cleavage has on the structure (social networks) and outcomes (political attitudes) of social capital. The comparison of different regions within the same country supports the thesis that social capital is a reflection of the context in which it takes place. In this framework, social capital undermines equal representation of citizens’ identities. Second, political fragmentation is reproduced by the existence of more bonding than bridging social capital. Finally, it allows for the identification of scenarios in which involvement in informal social networks leads to both positive and negative consequences for citizens’ attitudes toward politics.