Conservative Political Parties Research Articles

Liberal or Conservative? Analysing the Legacy of Abe's Women's Advancement Policy

Prime Minister Abe’s bold policy proposals focused on women attracted significant attention and various responses. However, going back to the fundamentals, LDP is a conservative political party, and Abe himself identifies as a conservative. During the backlash era, he attacked gender equality and emphasised traditional family values and patriotism. This paper reexamines the implications of the women's policies implemented under his leadership from a gender perspective. It sheds light on the deeply entrenched and complex gender inequality regimes that prevail in Japanese society. It becomes evident that Abe's administration carefully avoided any explicit reference to gender equality, skilfully incorporating recommendations such as promoting three-generation households, while consistently depicting women as operating under the guidance of men, signifying that the government's underlying “traditional” values had not changed. Women's Advancement policy, in essence, implies the deep entrenchment of a Japanese-style patriarchal, vertical society made up of political parties, administration, corporations, and society at large, where women are granted opportunities to succeed through assimilation into a gendered world involving subordination to men.

East Prussia 2.0: Persistent regions, rising nations

In this study, we examine the political effects of the breakup of East Prussia into what is today Poland, Russia, and Lithuania. We expect that East Prussian legacies of nationalist and conservative political preferences persist in the respective partitions of Poland, Russia, and Lithuania. We find that there is no pattern of persistence in the Polish partition of former East Prussia, whereas East Prussian persistence appears to be robust in the Lithuanian and Russian partitions. In the context of forced migration, comparative human capital between outgoing refugees (Germans) and incoming settlers (Soviets, Poles) predicts patterns of long-run political development. Hence, higher literacy rates of incoming settlers in the Russian partition (Kaliningrad) predict higher levels of support for conservative and nationalist political parties. The opposite is observed in the Polish partition. The persistence of East Prussian legacies in Eastern Europe relates to settler literacy.

Legal Counterrevolution: Property and Judicial Power in the Weimar Republic

This article offers a new account of the rise of judicial power in modern Germany. Strong judicial control of the government is often associated with the constitutional ethos that emerged in postwar West Germany as a reaction to Nazi rule. This article locates the origins of German judicialization in the political struggles of the Weimar era. It shows how the assumption of a power to judicial review by Germany's highest court, the Reichsgericht, was the product of the successful cooperation of the judiciary with conservative political parties on the issue of property rights in the young republic. These were at the centre of two controversies examined in the article: the expropriation of princes of former ruling houses and the consequences of the hyperinflation of 1923. In both cases the Reichsgericht used an understanding of property as an inalienable right to radically reinterpret Germany's first democratic constitution, which had in fact granted the legislature extensive power to modify property relations. This suited the judiciary's own objective of assuming stronger controls over legislative action and bolstered the political position of conservative forces in Weimar politics. What emerged was a supra-positive constitutionalism that sought to supersede the written constitution. These political realities were an essential context for theoretical debates on the extent and limits of judicial power between theorists such as Carl Schmitt, Hans Kelsen, Hermann Heller, Franz Neumann, and Ernst Fraenkel. An examination of the complex interaction of parliamentary, judicial, and popular politics concerning the issue of property reveals that German judicial empowerment amounted to an attempt to rewrite the Weimar Constitution and limit the scope of Germany's democratic revolution.

Redesigning, Subverting, Rolling Back: How East Asia’s Conservatives Rebuilt Legitimacy

This study examines the legitimation strategies adopted by conservative political parties in Japan, Taiwan, and South Korea from the late 2000s to the late 2010s, a period when these parties experienced political setbacks. By focusing on conservatives’ stances on labour issues, this study identifies three legitimation strategies: redesigning (acting as a superior protector of workers), subverting (destabilising an entire political landscape), and rolling back (undoing reforms implemented by a progressive government). This research aims to uncover the factors driving the adoption of these strategies. By revisiting Polanyi’s The Great Transformation, we establish a comparative framework to analyse these three strategies. This study argues that these differences were not random choices but deliberate responses to specific socio-political configurations that emerged after what Polanyi identified as a “double movement.” While the three countries shared common efforts by society to alleviate the detrimental impacts of market-oriented reforms, variations in the effects of the double movement, in terms of public attitudes towards labour reforms implemented by leftist governments, conservatives’ linkages to civil society organisations, and internal unity within conservative parties, gave rise to distinct legitimation strategies among conservatives.

POLITICAL PERSUASION: THE INFLUENCE OF US POLITICAL PARTY AFFILIATION ON TRAVEL LIKLIHOOD DURING THE COVID-19 PANDEMIC

The COVID-19 pandemic dramatically altered people’s travel behaviors. This research, based upon a set of data that encompassed sixteen months of the pandemic, looks at a significant USA sample to determine, from a political perspective, who was most likely to travel at a time when the science and their government were suggesting they stay home. The results, extending prior research, found a strong relationship between political party affiliation and one’s travel proclivity, with Republicans, the conservative American political party, far more likely to have indicated their likelihood to travel during the pandemic than were more liberal Democrats. The theories of Perceived Behavioral Control and Social Amplification of Risk are considered as concepts to help explain the differences between the two segments and serve as guides for the recommendations provided for travel marketing during future crises.

Why Are Public Attitudes towards Immigration in Canada Becoming Increasingly Positive? Exploring the Factors Behind the Changes in Attitudes towards Immigration (1998–2021)

Focusing on why and how public attitudes towards immigration in Canada have grown more positive between 1998 and 2021, this paper examines whether the changes in attitudes stem from changes in population characteristics or changes in the effect of these characteristics. Our analysis sheds light on the implications of the 2008–2010 financial crisis on the support for immigration. Our logit regression analysis shows that positive attitudes towards immigration are positively related to higher levels of education attainment regardless of the survey years but negatively associated with the support for conservative political parties, especially during and after the financial crisis. By employing decomposition analysis, we investigate the shift in public opinions across individual characteristics before, during, and after the 2008 financial crisis. We find that, for all periods, most of the attitude shift results from the change in the effect of population characteristics rather than the change in the characteristics themselves.

Neighbourhood sociodemographic factors and COVID-19 vaccine uptake in the Netherlands: an ecological analysis

BackgroundWhile overall COVID-19 vaccine uptake is high in the Netherlands, it lags behind in certain subpopulations.AimWe aimed to explore the characteristics of groups with lower COVID-19 vaccine uptake at neighbourhood level to inform the strategy to improve uptake and guide research into barriers for vaccination.MethodsWe performed an ecological study using national vaccination register and socio-demographic data at neighbourhood level. Using univariate and multivariable generalized additive models we examined the (potentially non-linear) effect of each determinant on uptake. We focused on those aged 50 years and older, since they are at highest risk of severe disease.ResultsIn those over 50 years of age, a higher proportion of individuals with a non-Western migration background and higher voting proportions for right-wing Christian and conservative political parties were at neighbourhood level univariately associated with lower COVID-19 vaccine uptake. In contrast, higher socioeconomic status and higher voting proportions for right-wing liberal, progressive liberal and Christian middle political parties were associated with higher uptake. Multivariable results differed from univariate results in that a higher voting proportion for progressive left-wing political parties was also associated with higher uptake. In addition, with regard to migration background only a Turkish background remained significant.ConclusionWe identified determinants associated with COVID-19 vaccine uptake at neighbourhood level and observed heterogeneity in uptake between different subpopulations. Since the goal of vaccination is not only to reduce suffering and death by improving the average uptake, but also to reduce health inequity, it is important to focus on subpopulations with lower uptake.

FROM TRADITION TO INNOVATION: A STUDY OF RIGHT-WING CONSERVATIVE PARTIES IN CONTEMPORARY POLAND

The purpose of this article is to systematize and generalize information about the political right-conservative movement in modern Poland. In the course of the study, the potential for support for right-wing parties exists in every society. It can grow due to two groups of factors. The first concerns issues related to the difficult economic situation, the modernization of societies or cultural aspects, which are called demand-related in the literature. The second large group consists of supply factors: factors of possible political success (structure of political opportunities), electoral rules, inter-party competition, the role of the mass media, the structure of political divisions or the role of the winning ideology. Polish right-wing conservatism and nationalism is characterized, both in the past and in the present, by a powerful influence on the social and political life of the Republic of Poland, acting as a fundamental element of the unification of the Polish people. This movement retains its traditional features, which are reflected in the ideology of the Polish ruling party “Law and Justice”, which adheres to a national-conservative orientation with elements of clericalism, maintains close ties with the Catholic Church and organizations close to it. In the period after coming to power (2015), “PiS” slowly but steadily lost its Christian-democratic character and evolved into a conservative political force. This allowed “PiS” to win elections for a long time, and in 2023, it allows it to maintain leading positions in public opinion polls regarding support for political parties. In the field of international relations, supporters of “PiS” operated with judgments that expressed the ideas of nationalism, presenting the Poles as a strong nation that should occupy an important place among other countries. The process of creating right-wing conservative political parties and associations in Poland continues on an ongoing basis. The strengthening of nationalist movements in Poland takes place with the support of the state authorities of the Republic of Poland and is accompanied by a gradual shift of emphasis on controversial historical issues in the direction of nationalist ideology. Despite official Warsaw providing political support to Kyiv in the international arena in connection with the Russian military threat, the authorities of the Republic of Poland have no intention of blocking anti-Ukrainian activities carried out by Polish national-patriotic right-wing movements. This is due to the preparation of the ruling elite for the celebration of the 80th anniversary of the tragic events in Volyn in 2023, as well as the parliamentary election campaign. In the future, the activation of radical right-conservative formations on the territory of the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth may lead to protest actions in Poland, the purpose of which will be the dissemination of information unfavorable to our state in the Polish information space, which will have a negative impact on the formation of the foreign policy vector of the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth in the Ukrainian direction.

The Genderbread Person: mapping the social media debate about inclusive sexuality education

ABSTRACT In June 2021, a member of the Belgian conservative political party (N-VA) sparked online controversy regarding inclusive sexuality education by criticising the Genderbread Person, an educational tool used to explain gender identity and sexual orientation. This study analyses the notion of childhood innocence in online debate about the Genderbread Person utilising a mixed-methods approach. Using the framework of anti-genderism and heteroactivism, it analyses resistance against and the support for informing children about gender and sexual diversity. Based on 673 tweets, the study identifies who features in this debate, which positions are articulated, and which discursive themes (de)legitimise inclusive sexuality education. Using qualitative analysis, we identify four discursive themes against and three in favour of inclusive sexuality education based on how children are represented in this online discussion. Our quantitative analysis indicates that social media debate is primarily supportive of inclusive sexuality education. However, the findings suggest anti-gender beliefs are beginning to find their way into Belgian online debate.

‘The Wind of Change’: a rhetorical political analysis of Harold Macmillan’s 1960 ‘decolonization’ speech

This article contributes to the literature on Conservative Party politics through an exploration of the political rhetoric of former Prime Minister and Conservative Party leader, Harold Macmillan in relation to decolonization and the end of empire. Macmillan’s Wind of Change speech has been analysed in the existing literature as purely a historical moment in relation to imperial decline. This article contends that Macmillan’s arguments for and defence of decolonisation in fact remain relevant for modern understandings of contemporary Conservative Party politics because residual affections for imperialism remain within some conservative audiences, as well as the ongoing processes of decolonisation. He sought to address such sentiments at the time of delivery, yet they remain today amongst similar audiences who remain committed to imperial notions. As such, simply considering the speech as a historic moment is inadequate given its value as an enduring argument relevant to contemporary conservative debates. Because of the language and justification used, I re-evaluate the speech through the process of ‘Rhetorical Political Analysis’ (ethos, pathos, logos). By doing so, I will demonstrate how Macmillan’s historical speech remains relevant as a living argument for scholars and practitioners of Conservative Party politics, which is a perspective presently absent in the scholarship. This methodological approach is also augmented by an analysis of archival materials helping to shed light on the embeddedness of the speech within the broader context of the tumultuous South African politics of the time, and by doing so show why a speech delivered in the 1960s remains relevant to UK domestic policy, foreign policy, and conservative studies in the 2020s.

Varieties of Illiberal Backlash in Central Europe

ABSTRACT Abortion, same-sex marriage, gender equality, and LGBTQ rights have become hotly contested topics in Central Europe over the past two decades. Abortion rights have been rolled back, and the expansion of LGBTQ rights has been stalled or reversed. What explains the varieties of illiberal backlash in Central Europe? We argue that the extent of backlash reflects the strength of an alliance between socially conservative advocacy groups and political parties. However, we also show two factors curbing illiberal backlash: public opinion and a pluralistic moderate confessional political party. Both factors constrain illiberal politicians and dampen the radicalization of parties in power.

Inequalities in the geographical distribution and workload of obstetrics and gynaecology specialists by gender in Turkey.

Women often have a preference for female obstetrics and gynaecology specialists (ob/gyns). Following the policy allowing physician selection by patients in Turkey, distribution of ob/gyns by gender across provinces has been an important indicator of access to healthcare. To analyse ob/gyns distribution by gender across provinces in Turkey, with emphasis on the relationship with conservativeness of the province and resulting physician workload. We measured the number of male and female ob/gyns by province in 2016 and the number of outpatient visits and deliveries performed by male and female ob/gyns in 2015. Pearson and Spearman correlation of the female ratio with votes for conservative parties was used to assess the distribution of ob/gyns. We then analysed the correlation with resulting workload of female ob/gyns and ran linear regressions of these variables controlling the number of ob/gyns in a province. More conservative provinces, measured by the vote share for conservative political parties, have a higher ratio of female ob/gyns. Linear regression showed that a 1 percentage point (pp) increase in the vote share corresponded to a 0.69 pp increase in female ratio. For workload, a 1 pp higher female ratio resulted in a decrease in workload, measured as outpatient visits per female ob/gyn divided by that per male ob/gyn, by 0.014. Conservative provinces have more female ob/gyns, but other provinces compensate for that with higher female ob/gyn workload. High workload may have adverse health effects and result in lower quality of care.

Petro-Security State Power and the Imaginaries of Extremism: An Analysis of U.S. Critical Infrastructure Trespass Bills Targeting Anti-Pipeline Advocacy Movements

Petrochemical pipelines have taken center stage in public debates about the impacts of resource extraction dependencies and calls for greater participation in environmental governance. However, these concerns can run counter to the interests of the petrochemical industry and state security imaginaries that frame critics as threats. These imaginaries are evident in a suite of critical infrastructure (CI) trespass bills introduced by U.S. state legislatures implicating the activities of anti-pipeline protest movements. In a comparative analysis of 51 CI trespass bills, we find significant patterns in how criminal activities are defined across bills, as well as how individuals, aiding organizations, and the tactical practices of activists are positioned as threats. Additional findings show that CI trespass bills are more likely to emerge from states with heavy investments in pipeline infrastructure, states with contested pipelines, and states dominated by conservative political parties. Finally, we illustrate how major components of bills are authored by the American Legislative Exchange Council, a group that supports the interests of petrochemical companies. We argue that, by broadly designating those who resist pipelines as threats, trespass bills serve to strengthen petro-security state powers, thus transforming sites of resistance to petrochemical development into sites of acceptable risk for the externalities of free market industrialism under the pretense of protecting national security. We suggest that these developments may have multiple negative effects, including eroding the public's right to question pipelines and exacerbating patterns of social injustice, as well as unintended positive effects in strengthening organized resistance.

Climate skepticism decreases when the planet gets hotter and conservative support wanes

Identifying historical patterns of fluctuation in climate change skepticism guides researchers, policy makers, and science communicators in efforts to catalyze change in the future. We analyzed data from 25 nationally representative polls collected in Australia from 2009 to 2019 (N = 20,655). Although it remains concerningly high, climate skepticism trended down in that 10-year period, particularly among conservatives. Multilevel analyses identified two variables that stood out as being relevant in explaining that trajectory. First, climate change skepticism was positively associated with support for conservative political parties in national polls. Second, climate change skepticism was negatively associated with the annual global temperatures the previous year. There was little evidence that climate change beliefs were associated with economic variables or with seasonal variations in temperature. Furthermore, there was only weak evidence that climate change beliefs were associated with national temperatures. This suggests that global temperatures in the previous year are impactful because of their informational value (as a communication heuristic for the urgency and immediacy of climate change) more so than for their experiential value (in the sense of people actually experiencing warmer weather). Importantly, the effect of previous global temperature was particularly pronounced among those with the strongest levels of skepticism: political conservatives. This suggests that rising global annual temperatures have the power to update beliefs among those most in need of converting to the climate cause.

Профили политической идентичности россиян: роль моральных оснований, оправдания системы и сопротивления изменениям

Objectives. To extract profiles of Russian political identity in terms of attitude to the conservative agenda, main ideologies, political parties, and institutions among Russians, as well as to identify the connections of these profiles with moral foundations and motivation for system justification and resistance to change. Subsequent analysis showing what is consolidating and what is divisive among the participants, as well as the key dimensions along which this split takes place.Background. A simple analysis of attitudes towards individual politicians and political parties and other subjects of politics does not allow to understand the relatively stable political views of Russians. At the same time, ideological closeness or disagreement is not psychologically accidental, even among those who are poorly versed in politics. There are always some pre-political psychological variables that reflect the predisposition of people to accept certain explicit ideological preferences that are reflected in specific profiles of political identity.Study design. Cross-sectional one-sample correlation design using data from socio-psychological survey. A person-centered approach was applied in the form of latent profile analysis.Participants. There were 224 participants in study 1 and 125 participants in study 2.Measurements. Moral foundations (Graham et al., 2011), attitude toward conservative agenda (Everett, 2013), system justification (Jost, 2015), resistance to change (White et al., 2020), feelings thermometer (Converse et al., 1980).Results. The greatest differences between the profiles of the Russian political identity were observed in the positive attitude toward capitalism, free market, and freedom of speech, as well as toward the president, patriotism, monarchy, military and national security. These differences were related to support for the current Russian political course and the manifestation of loyalty to it. The differences between the profiles were more related to the binding moral foundations, while the idea of fairness was equally important for Russians with any of the profiles found.Conclusions. Authoritarian submission can be considered a key psychological foundation of the Russian political identity. On the other hand, political views are differentiated by the choice between the demand for security (stabil’nost’) or development (i.e., accepting the risks of changes for the future development, or abandoning them in favor of security, stability, predictability of the current political course).

Reducing Ableism and the Social Exclusion of People With Disabilities: Positive Impacts of Openness and Education

Research has shown that people with disabilities (PWD) face ableism, which is associated with their social exclusion. Based on the existing literature regarding the social exclusion of PWD, we hypothesized for the current study that higher education levels, personal experiences with PWD, and openness would reduce ableism and negative attitudes of PWD and increase the social inclusion of PWD. Additionally, we hypothesized that a negative correlation would exist between social inclusion of PWD and ableism and negative attitudes of PWD, moderated by the personality trait openness. Participants consisted of adults (N = 364) who identified as mostly White, female, and nondisabled, and were asked to complete an electronic survey consisting of 4 pre-existing scales measuring ableism, negative attitudes of PWD, social inclusion, and openness. The data were analyzed using regression analyses, t tests, ANOVAs, and moderation analyses. The results showed that higher education levels (R2 = .02) and personal experiences with PWD (d = –0.35) predicted lower ableism. Additionally, more openness predicted more social inclusion (R2 = .03), less ableism (R2 = .14), and higher completed levels of education (R2 = .06). Further, voting for conservative political party candidates predicted higher levels of ableism (R2 = .11), and voting for liberal political party candidates predicted lower levels of ableism (R2 = .13). Although this study had some limitations, it highlights the importance of education and openness in reducing ableism and increasing the social inclusion of PWD.

A Root Which Never Grew

Abstract Prior to the Second World War, Malta appeared vulnerable to fascist influence due to the connections between the Italian Fascist regime and Malta’s irredentist political movement, then led by Nerik Mizzi. In part this Fascist influence was present in cultural propaganda promoting irredentist ideas such as the ‘Mare Nostrum’, which Mizzi and his conservative political party, the Partito Nazionalista, helped propagate. However, previously unseen British documents also reveal significant financial support by the Italian government to Mizzi and his political activities. Mizzi never disclosed this, including the financial support he was granted by Mussolini after having met him personally in Rome on 30 November 1936. Mizzi never openly expounded fascist views, although he consistently supported an irredentist vision of Malta and openly campaigned for Malta to fall under Italy’s jurisdiction. Meanwhile, support for domestic fascist organisations was negligible. At the onset of the War, the Imperial Government started to clamp down on the irredentists, eventually exiling Mizzi and most of his collaborators. The author argues that Mizzi’s dalliance with fascism was not just a convenient relationship for a greater cause, but also a direct acceptance of fascist politics given that making Malta part of Italy’s jurisdiction would also have meant accepting fascist rule.

Cultural worldviews consistently explain bundles of ecosystem service prioritisation across rural Germany

AbstractDifferences in ecosystem service (ES) priorities often lead to conflicts between stakeholders. While differences in priorities have often been described, the sociocultural factors, including differences in cultural worldview, which drive them have not. We propose that the cultural theory of risk and its ‘grid‐group’ typology, which classifies people as individualists, hierarchists, egalitarians and fatalists, can provide a conceptual framework for doing this.We examined the relationship between ES prioritisation by stakeholders and underlying cultural (cultural worldviews, and related environmental nature and risk perceptions), sociocultural (region, stakeholder group, political party preference) and socio‐demographic factors. This was achieved by applying multivariate statistics to data from a survey with 321 respondents, conducted across 14 stakeholder groups in three German regions.Results show that most stakeholders prioritised many services but gave the highest priority to services linked to their stakeholder group. We identified four ‘ES priority bundles’: cultural services, open‐land provisioning services, environmental protection services and forest provisioning services.Each ES priority bundle was consistently associated with particular cultural worldviews, perceptions of nature and sociocultural factors, meaning that we could identify ‘cultural types’. Two of these associations were particularly strong: Prioritisation of open‐land provisioning ES was high for the agriculture stakeholder group, associated with individualism, a perception of nature as durable but unpredictable, and support for economic liberal, conservative political parties. In contrast, those who prioritised environmental protection tended to hold egalitarian cultural worldviews and perceive nature as tolerant and sensitive. They also often belonged to the research and nature conservation stakeholder groups, with a mostly left‐leaning political party preference.The identification of cultural types of stakeholder with consistent ES priorities and cultural worldviews may provide a useful construct in the future ES research. Furthermore, it may allow communications regarding ES to be tailored to improve their effectiveness, potentially aiding the promotion of sustainable management strategies.A freePlain Language Summarycan be found within the Supporting Information of this article.

National Projects and Feminism: The Construction of Welfare States through the Analysis of the 8M Manifestos of Progressive and Conservative Political Parties in Spain

This paper studies the national projects defended by Spanish political parties on the basis of the image they project in relation to women’s roles. To do so, we start with a critical review of nations and welfare states as masculinized projects, and from this we design a strategy based on the analysis of the manifestos issued by each political party in 2020 on International Women’s Day. The results obtained reflect the existence of three different ways of understanding the nation from a gender perspective: the first bloc, formed by the two conservative parties, PP and VOX, reproduces the nation by basing their discourse on gender inequalities, with a great weight of care for women; the second, formed by the most progressive parties (IU and Podemos), is situated in a clearly feminist perspective; the third, formed by the PSOE, shows a mixture of ideas that is reflected in considering both sexes as political subjects of feminism, and in presenting a discourse of the liberal and socialist current.

Of pathogens and party lines: Social conservatism positively associates with COVID-19 precautions among U.S. Democrats but not Republicans.

Social liberals tend to be less pathogen-avoidant than social conservatives, a pattern consistent with a model wherein ideological differences stem from differences in threat reactivity. Here we investigate if and how individual responses to a shared threat reflect those patterns of ideological difference. In seeming contradiction to the general association between social conservatism and pathogen avoidance, the more socially conservative political party in the United States has more consistently downplayed the dangers of COVID-19 during the ongoing pandemic. This puzzle offers an opportunity to examine the contributions of multiple factors to disease avoidance. We investigated the relationship between social conservatism and COVID-19 precautionary behavior in light of the partisan landscape of the United States. We explored whether consumption of, and attitudes toward, different sources of information, as well as differential evaluation of various threats caused by the pandemic-such as direct health costs versus indirect harms to the economy and individual liberties-shape partisan differences in responses to the pandemic in ways that overwhelm the contributions of social conservatism. In two pre-registered studies, socially conservative attitudes correlate with self-reported COVID-19 prophylactic behaviors, but only among Democrats. Reflecting larger societal divisions, among Republicans and Independents, the absence of a positive relationship between social conservatism and COVID-19 precautions appears driven by lower trust in scientists, lower trust in liberal and moderate sources, lesser consumption of liberal news media, and greater economic conservatism.