Centre-right Parties Research Articles

Gender biases and linguistic sexism in political communication: A comparison of press news about men and women Italian ministers

This research on press communication uses a synchronic perspective concerning eighteen ministers, balanced by gender, in the Renzi government (in 2014), as well as a diachronic perspective concerning women ministers from five governments (from 2006-2014). The governments in 2014 and of 2013 were predominantly center-left, with the participation of center and center-right parties, whereas the previous governments had technical-professional rather than political ministers (in 2011), center-right (in 2008), and center-left (in 2006) ministers. In the synchronic analysis we explored the different ways in which the ministers are named, the relative presence of sexist/non-sexist, agentive/non-agentive, and abstract/concrete language in which they were presented. The first analysis comprised 332 headlines and the second comprised 1,356 headlines; we conducted a numerical and lexicographical analysis on the headlines. The results showed: more coverage for men than for women; gender biases in naming ministers involving a greater number of citations of women with both first and last name, whereas there were a greater number of citations of men with their first name only; the prevalence of sexist language that uses the generic masculine rather than the specific feminine (that is, the grammatical feminization of a typically masculine form) in representing women; an increment of the specific feminine in representing women in the last three governments over the previous two; no gender differences in the use of “I” and “We” as markers of agency; more quotations of direct discourse for women than for men; language slightly more abstract than concrete, for both men and women; more positive adjectives for women, and more negative adjectives for men. The results are discussed in relation to the international literature and to the Italian cultural-political context.

Seeing the World Through the Other's Eye: An Online Intervention Reducing Ethnic Prejudice

We report the results of an intervention that targeted anti-Roma sentiment in Hungary using an online perspective-taking game. We evaluated the impact of this intervention using a randomized experiment in which a sample of young adults played this perspective-taking game, or an unrelated online game. Participation in the perspective-taking game markedly reduced prejudice, with an effect-size equivalent to half the difference between voters of the far-right and the center-right party. The effects persisted for at least a month, and, as a byproduct, the intervention also reduced antipathy toward refugees, another stigmatized group in Hungary, and decreased vote intentions for Hungary's overtly racist, far-right party by 10%. Our study offers a proof-of-concept for a general class of interventions that could be adapted to different settings and implemented at low costs.

The electoral advantage of the left in times of fiscal adjustment

Despite widely held views on fiscal adjustment as a political minefield for government parties, the empirical literature on the issue has been surprisingly inconclusive. A crucial variable that has been often overlooked in the debate is partisan politics. Building on the micro-logic of Albert Hirschman’s ‘exit, voice, and loyalty’ framework, this article offers a novel theoretical perspective on the conditioning impact of partisan government in the electoral arena. Due to their more limited exit options at their disposal, left-wing voters are less likely to inflict electoral punishment on their parties, offering the latter an electoral advantage over their right-wing rivals. Relying on the largest cross-national data set to date on the evolution of close to 100 parties’ popularity ratings in 21 democracies, time-series–cross-section results confirm this electoral advantage. Somewhat paradoxically, while center-right government parties systematically lose popularity in years of fiscal adjustment, no such regularity is found for left-leaning incumbents.

Mainstream Party Strategies Towards Extreme Right Parties: The French 2007 and 2012 Presidential Elections

The electoral success of extreme right parties (ERPs) has attracted a disproportionate number of studies. By contrast, research into the mainstream parties’ reactions to ERPs has engendered little interest. With few exceptions, the effects of the centre-right parties’ strategic options in electoral competitions with ERPs remain unexplored. To overcome this shortcoming, this investigation examines the strategies employed by the French centre-right party – Union pour un Movement Populaire (UMP) against the Front National in the 2007 and the 2012 presidential elections by focusing on the topics of immigration and integration. This study suggests that the adoption of accommodating approaches in both elections was followed by distinct levels of success in 2007 and 2012. Drawing on a qualitative comparative analysis, this article explores three hypotheses in order to enhance understanding of the divergent effectiveness of the UMP’s accommodative approaches in the elections studied.

Politicization of the refugee crisis?: a content analysis of parliamentary debates in Italy, the UK, and the EU

This paper draws on the literature on party competition and issue ownership to assess whether political membership on the right-left dimension explains party stances on migration. While some scholars argue that on this issue a clear distinction between left and right exists, some more recent quantitative and fine-grained analyses show a more nuanced picture. According to them, a clear difference in narratives exists only when the salience of the issue is high, under pressure of the electoral success of a far-right party or about specific policy issues. This paper further investigates this aspect in the context of the 2015 refugee crisis. It looks at the positions held by the main centre-left, centre-right, Radical Right, and Populist Parties in the Italian, British, and European Parliaments. The content analysis shows that centre-left parties frame the refugee crisis mainly as a humanitarian emergency and held pro-European Union (EU) positions, while centre-right parties differ substantially between Italy and the United Kingdom. Both radical right and Populist Parties exploit the political-opportunity offered by the refugee crisis to foster their anti-establishment claims. Moreover, Radical Right Populist Parties stress the need to secure external borders and restore national sovereignty, against further integration. At the EU level, left- and right-wing groups (Socialist and Democrats Party, European Conservatives and Reformists Party, and European People’s Party) are cohesive, while the populist group (European Freedom and Direct Democracy Party) is not. This paper adds on the academic debate on the refugee crisis, showing how the immigration issue can impact on domestic and European party politics, challenging party identities and alliances.

Half-heartedly: Menachem Begin and the establishment of the Likud Party

ABSTRACTThis article seeks to add another dimension to the growing and extensive research on right-wing Zionism, by returning to an era when the Likud was first created. I will examine the major difference between processes that have led to the two key landmarks in the formative years of the Right in Israel: the establishment of Gahal in April 1965 and the founding of the Likud in August–September of 1973. While Gahal's establishment was a product of a prolonged, determined, patient and conscious effort on the part of Menachem Begin, the establishment of the Likud was, to a considerable degree, forced upon him. Those who were interested in expanding Gahal and creating an alignment of centre-right parties were actually the factors outside Herut, while Herut's more veteran leadership disapproved of these attempts. Within the Herut Movement, the voices that called for the creation of a broad political alignment were those that came from Herut's ‘internal opposition’, which revolved around Ezer Weizman. The article analyses the reasons behind Begin's reservations about a continued right-wing merger, examines the negotiation process and sheds light on the oscillation in Menachem Begin's ideology and politics between the fundamental and the pragmatic poles.

The Evolution of European CCS Policy

The European Carbon Capture and Storage (CCS) industry is still grasping for an effective policy structure which will support deployment of commercial CCS projects. This paper will consider the current context of CCS policy given three significant developments: (a) the agreement in 2014 for a technology neutral 2030 EU emissions reduction target; (b) a binding commitment at COP21 in Paris, Dec 2015, for a global emissions reduction target; (c) the collapse of the UK's CCS Commercialisation Programme in Nov 2015.The period 2010-2015 saw continued stagnation in the European CCS industry, with a series of projects proposed but then subsequently cancelled. This hints as three problems (1) an industry which is weak in communicating why CCS is important, and failed to engage a wider stakeholder base; (2) incumbent governments which are not willing to fund the initially high costs of the first CCS projects; (3) weak market based structures which force industrial consortia to rely on government subsidy, thus leaving projects vulnerable to political forces.The tension within the UK's Commercialisation Programme could still offer lessons for other potential CCS projects in Europe; and inform policy developments at the UK and European level. Namely (i) payment flows between the emitter / capture plant to the transport & storage provider, and the risk apportionment between those partners; (ii) the cost-benefit of oversized infrastructure and the challenges of a first project to finance the bulk of these costs.A recent report to the UK government on CCS recommended state-owned companies delivering all aspects of CCS, but such a recommendation makes it all too easy for a centre-right party focussed on smaller government and tight expenditure to dismiss CCS as “too difficult”. An alternative would be normal commercial and market arrangements for the power & capture section; and a regulated monopoly for the transport & storage infrastructure, backed by the state for risk and liabilities.

The Electoral Consequences of Offshoring: How the Globalization of Production Shapes Party Preferences

How does offshoring affect individual party preferences in multiparty systems? We argue that exposure to offshoring influences individual preferences for those political parties with clear policy positions on issues relevant for individuals with offshorable jobs (left, liberal, and center-right parties) but does not affect voting decisions for parties concentrating on other issues (green or populist right parties). Examining individual-level data from five waves of the European Social Survey for 18 advanced democracies, we find that these effects vary by skill level and exposure. Offshoring increases preferences for liberal and center-right parties that advocate economic openness among the highly skilled. In contrast, low-skilled individuals exposed to offshoring are more likely to prefer leftist political parties that champion social protection and redistribution. Offshoring does not affect the propensity to vote for green and populist right parties.

Career experience, political effects, and voting behavior in the Riksbank’s Monetary Policy Committee

We find that career experience shapes the voting behavior of the Riksbank’s Monetary Policy Committee (MPC) members. Members with a career in the Riksbank and the government prefer higher rates. During a legislation with a center-right (center-left) party administration, MPC members with a career background in the government favor higher (lower) interest rates.

An Enduring Problem: Radioactive Waste From Nuclear Energy [Point of View

Decades after the idea was first proposed, it appears that underground repositories to manage radioactive spent fuel from commercial reactors are finally going to be constructed. In November 2015, the ruling center-right party in Finland became the first government to grant a construction license for such a repository [1] . The U.S. Department of Energy is pursuing a consent-based process to set up a similar repository. Do these developments mean that a long-sought solution to the problem of nuclear waste is imminent?

Constrained Politics: Labour Market Actors, Political Parties and Swedish Labour Immigration Policy

Sweden used to be one of the most restrictive countries in the Organisation of Economic Development and Cooperation (OECD) in terms of labour immigration policy. This was drastically changed in 2008 when a very liberal immigration law was passed. Why did one of the most restrictive labour immigration countries suddenly become one of the most liberal ones? The article argues that it is necessary to consider labour market institutions and their consequences for labour migration. These factors will influence the preferences, strategies and chances of success for various policy actors. A decline in union power and corporatism in Sweden had important consequences for its labour immigration. Following this decline, employers and centre-right parties became more active and adopted more liberal policy positions than previously. The article analyses policy developments since the 1960s and draws on official documents, position statements, party manifestos, media coverage and original elite interviews.

Консерваторы о консерваторах

In this critical review of the issue of the almanac Essays on Conservatism (Institute of Socio-economic and Political Research, ISEPR), which offers a deep insight in the contemporary history of conservatism, the author analyzes the current state of conservatism as a political movement in the United States on the basis of the Essays devoted to this subject, and of the recent presidential elections in the USA. The author proceeds from the fact that, existing in a competitive political environment, conservatism faces challenges of a changing public demand for policies, due to both the socio-economic situation and changing demographic composition of the population. The author shows how radicalism increased in response to frustration of the society and analyzes the roots of the radical and powerful demand for right populism in the United States in general. For decades, democratic political regimes provided stability both in politics and economics: population of these counties profited from integration, globalization, “open economy”: therefore, dominant position of establishment – the political “center”, left- and center-right parties was accepted without doubt. However, the last decades changed this trend. American conservatism, on the one hand, found a new base of support that helped Republican candidates win in the elections; on the other hand, conservatism deepened the divisions and contradictions in American society, and thus came into a conflict with a number of other traditional settings of conservatism. The author concludes that after the presidential elections of 2016, American conservatism faces serious top-down redefinition.

A Religious Party Takes Hold: Turkey

A Religious Party Takes Hold:Turkey Svante Cornell (bio) Turkey has a unique position in the Muslim world as a country that held the Caliphate for several hundred years but then turned into a secular republic. Over the past ninety years, Islam has coexisted uneasily with the Turkish state, which has tried both to co-opt and suppress a powerful political Islamic movement that began gathering force in the 1960s. Turkey is unique in the fact that a movement rooted in political Islam managed not only to come to power in democratic elections, but proved able to stay in power and continue to win elections for over a decade. Whereas this aspect of the Turkish experience is widely lauded by Western observers, there is nevertheless another side to the coin. As the power of Recep Tayyip Erdoğan and his Justice and Development Party (AKP) grew, they also turned increasingly authoritarian and Islamist. Turkey's experience is indicative of the broader nature of "moderate" political Islam, and its relationship with democracy; it suggests that "moderate Islamism" has embraced the mechanics of electoral democracy but not its fundamental values. The Scene: Turkey's Political System Since the introduction of multi-party democracy in 1950, Turkey has with brief exceptions been ruled by center-right parties that tried to court religious voters while maintaining a commitment to the secular character of the Turkish state. Importantly, this took place in a Cold War context where the main existential concern was perceived to be the threat from the left. To counter that threat, Turkish governments began to actively support nationalist and Islamic sentiments that were believed to constitute a counter-balance to leftist ideologies. The U.S. government saw little problem with this strategy which would come to consume its creators. In this context, the 1980 military coup was a decisive event in both a political and ideological sense. Politically, the coup dealt a severe blow to Turkish politics, banning all active political parties. Since the coup was a reaction to the growth of the urban left in Turkey, it hit the Turkish left hard, destroying the foundation of what could have been a social democratic movement in the country. It also created divisions within the center-left and center-right political [End Page S-21] camps that would contribute to the decade of weak coalition governments in the 1990s—in turn creating the opening in which the AKP would emerge. The 1982 Constitution returned power to civilian rule, but decidedly placed the interests of the state ahead of those of the citizens. The coup and its aftermath were also of tremendous importance in an intellectual sense. The military junta viewed the left and the Kurdish nationalists, both supported by the Soviet Union, as the main threats to Turkey. In search of an antidote, the military regime supported the rise of what came to be termed the Turkish-Islamic synthesis. This was essentially an attempt to wed right-wing nationalism and Islam in order to build a dominant ideology that would withstand and roll back leftist ideas. The coup leader and subsequent president, General Kenan Evren, delivered public speeches with the Koran in one hand. The new constitution made education in the tenets of Sunni Islam compulsory in elementary schools (it was already compulsory at the high school level). The expansion of the imam hatip schools (government-financed and operated clerical training schools), which began in the 1970s, accelerated. The government oversaw a frenzy of mosquebuilding; with 85,000 state-operated mosques, nominally secular Turkey has more mosques than any other country. While the imam hatip schools were created to educate prayer leaders in mosques, enrollment rapidly came to vastly exceed the need for prayer leaders. For example, girls, who are barred by the rules of Islam from serving as prayer leaders, make up the majority of students in these schools, as religious conservative families prefer to send their daughters to them. As a result of the surplus of graduates from religious schools, a new Islamic intelligentsia was born, which gradually came to occupy positions of power within the bureaucracy, academic world, and media. As the left disappeared, Islamism—understood here as "a form...

Prime ministerial careers in the European Union: does gender make a difference?

ABSTRACTThis article presents empirical findings on two questions: what are the ‘political stepping stones’ on the way to the prime ministerial post? Are there any differences between female and male prime ministers on their way to the chief executive? These questions are primarily linked to the literature on women’s recruitment in top political offices. The data for this analysis stem from unique biographical records of 76 prime ministers in those 10 member states of the European Union where women have been in prime ministerial positions from 1979 to 2015. Consistent with theoretical expectations, the empirical findings show that there is indeed a gender difference in the pathways to the prime ministerial post. Female prime ministers are predominantly recruited in centre-right parties. They have more political experience in parliament and cabinet than their male counterparts, but a shorter duration in office once becoming prime minister.

Why Splinter? Parties that Split from the FSLN, FMLN and URNG

AbstractFollowing the ends to the civil wars in Nicaragua, El Salvador and Guatemala, the revolutionary coalitions that had led the fight against authoritarian regimes began to fracture. However, none of the splinter parties that broke from the Sandinista National Liberation Front, Farabundo Martí National Liberation Front, and Guatemalan National Revolutionary Unit has succeeded on their own as political parties. In this article, I argue that there is no single reason to explain the poor performances of the Democratic Party (PD), the Renovating Movement (MR), and the Democratic Front Party (FDR) in El Salvador, the Sandinista Renovation Movement (Renovate-MRS) and the Movement to Rescue Sandinismo (Rescue-MRS) in Nicaragua, and the New Nation Alliance (ANN) in Guatemala. However, their limited financial resources, alliances with non-revolutionary centrist and centre-right parties, and voter tendency to overlook internal ideological and personal debates within the original political parties, especially the FSLN and FMLN, have not helped.

Public policy-making and risk profiles: Scandinavian centre-right governments after the turn of the millennium

Recent theoretical advances in the welfare state literature have outlined the differences between labour market- and life course-related schemes as centre-right parties have difficulties in enacting retrenchment on life course-related schemes because these concern every voter. In contrast, the textbook risk profile of centre-right parties’ electorates allows them to cutback on labour market-related schemes as these parties get negligible support from workers and low-income voters. Conducting a comparative case study of recent Danish and Swedish centre-right governments, this article analyses the stylized assumptions on the party level by comparing two similar centre-right governments, which differed in their voter coalitions’ risk profile. I first argue that centre-right governments are generally constrained by the popular entrenchment of the universal welfare state when it comes to life course-related welfare schemes. Second, I argue that the leeway on labour market-related schemes is contingent on the actual risk profile of the centre-right’s electorate, and thereby move beyond the stylized assumptions from recent literature. In this respect, the Danish centre-right did, in contrast to its Swedish counterpart, gain power with an unusual high support among working-class voters which constrained its latitude on labour market-related schemes. I find that the Danish centre-right governments after 2001 acted with bound hands thanks to its high working-class backing, and refrained from outright cutbacks on both labour market- and life course-related schemes until 2010 except for labour market outsiders. In contrast, the Swedish centre-right had a much lower working-class backing and therefore engaged in some outright cutbacks of labour market-related schemes such as unemployment benefits directly after taking office 2006. The centre-right’s actual voter coalition’s risk profile is thus an important determinant for its public policies and its leeway for policy-seeking.

An aggregate analysis of the AKP vote and electoral continuities in the Turkish party system

ABSTRACTThis article aims to analyze the dynamics of the party system in Turkey by focusing on the AKP and construct an aggregate-level analysis of the electoral environment it operates in using regression models (1950–2011). Findings show strong patterns of continuity in the electoral geography of Turkey since the 1970s, mapping electoral strongholds of center-right, ultra-nationalist and pro-Islamist parties compared to those of the AKP. As of 2015, the AKP seems to have achieved a great deal of stabilization electorally and there is now handful of data that can identify and answer some of the questions related to the AKP, especially regarding its ideology, origins, electoral strength and appeal.

BECOMING MAINSTREAM? EUROSCEPTICISM AMONG ESTABLISHED PARTIES IN V4 COUNTRIES

The recent conflicts of the Hungarian and the Polish governments with the European Union as well as the cooperation between the Visegrad countries during the migrant crisis have drawn attention to this region. Eurosceptic parties in these countries have ensured significant reinforcement to the critics of the European Union since the Big Bang enlargement in 2004. Most of them (League of Polish Families and Self-Defence in Poland, Communist Party of Bohemia and Moravia, Slovak National Party and Movement for a Better Hungary) have had a populist profile and have profited from the general protest mood. However, in recent years more mainstream or established parties have started to criticize the European Union. Parties considered Eurosceptic are in governmental position in two out of the four countries (Hungary and Poland) while they play significant role in Slovakia (Freedom and Solidarity) and in the Czech Republic (Civic Democratic Party). The paper aims to explain the reasons lying behind the Euroscepticism of these mainly centre-right parties in the region, i.e. it examines if Euroscepticism is a consequence of the ideology or only a part of a broader party strategy.

The Center-Right’s Search for a Leader: Crisis and Radicalization

This chapter deals with the political crisis of the Italian center-right that started with the fall of the Berlusconi IV government and the 2013 general elections. In 2015, the struggle for leadership of the center-right took place between Matteo Salvini and Silvio Berlusconi, resulting in the reversal of the balance of power between Forza Italia and the Lega Nord. Based on election results and some electoral surveys, Lega Nord seems to have become the third party at the national level and, through a process of radicalization, also the party of the new Italian right. From an organizational point of view, Salvini’s leadership can be defined as a personalized and postmodern media leadership. The systemic risks of this scenario are the absence of a center-right party that can compete with the Partito Democratico led by Matteo Renzi, the growing fragmentation of the center-right, and the conflict between moderate and radical tendencies. All these factors challenge the return to an alternating democracy.

Influences on Citizens' Electoral System Preferences: A Comparative Study of Britain and New Zealand

Choosing electoral systems is no longer a task confined to political elites, as evidenced by the increasing number of popular referendums on electoral reform. While previous works that discussed determinants of citizens' electoral system preference have mostly relied on single case studies, this study examines this topic from a comparative perspective, analysing data from Britain and New Zealand in search of common factors that influence referendum vote. In addition to partisanship (large or small party identifier; supporter of major centre-right or centre-left party), satisfaction with democracy and cabinet type preference (single-party or coalition), results show that opinions on the key economic issues which have traditionally structured the ideological spectrum also exert a substantial impact.