Democracy Promotion Research Articles

Federalism and Confidence in Australian Governments During the COVID-19 Pandemic

Abstract The COVID-19 pandemic was the most severe global health crisis for a century. Most advanced democracies introduced restrictions on social interaction to reduce community infection. This article examines how public confidence in Australia’s federal system of government was affected by these restrictions. We use a longitudinal dataset collected nationally between 2020 and 2022 to evaluate how public confidence in both federal and state governments varied with the level of government-imposed COVID-19 restrictions. The results show that confidence in both levels of government surged in the initial stages of the pandemic and remained high for the first year, gradually declining thereafter. Variations in the level of restrictions had a significant longitudinal association with confidence, with a negative relationship with confidence in state governments and a positive relationship with confidence in the federal government. The public clearly distinguished between the responsibilities of the different levels of government in managing the health crisis.

Ready but irresponsible? Analysis of the Government Artificial Intelligence Readiness Index

AbstractMany are the promises of artificial intelligence (AI) and algorithms. Governments around the world are increasingly investing in AI and multiple voices have touted this seemingly unmatched revolution. Better performance, cost reduction, efficient management, crime prediction, and prevention are but a few of the pledges of the AI era. While such promises are recognized, research shows that AI benefits could be overstated. Issues of equity, ethics, justice, and fairness have raised concerns and have been seen as potentially threatening democratic principles. As countries get ready to tap into the AI power, researchers are asking whether preparedness is followed by responsibility checks. In this article, we use the Oxford Insights AI Readiness Index to explore why innovation and readiness in artificial intelligence are not always accompanied by accountability, even for some of the most advanced democracies around the world. Using the Fuzzy‐Set Qualitative Comparative Analysis (fsQCA) approach, we show that advancement in AI is not enough: privacy, transparency, inclusion, and accountability principles are key to ensuring governments tackle the AI challenge responsibly.

Turning off the base: Social democracy's neoliberal turn, income inequality, and turnout

AbstractGreater party system polarization has recently been shown to influence voter turnout under conditions of higher income inequality. This article builds on these findings by introducing into the framework the policy positions of social democratic parties. It does so through multilevel regression on a sample of 30 advanced democracies in 111 elections, from 1996 to 2019. In doing so, it contributes to the identification of party policy offerings as a mechanism moderating inequality and turnout. It finds that income inequality significantly reduces voter turnout, which is substantially magnified when social democratic parties adopt rightward welfare state positions. It also finds that social democratic parties can largely mitigate the negative effects of inequality on turnout for low‐income individuals by offering leftist welfare state positions. The findings carry important implications for understanding the electoral consequences of both party positioning and rising inequality in advanced democracies.Related ArticlesSimon, Christopher A., and Raymond Tatalovich. 2022. “The Turnout Myth and Referendum Voting in the United States.” Politics & Policy 50(3): 472–86. https://doi.org/10.1111/polp.12483.Stockemer, Daniel, and Stephanie Parent. 2013. “The Inequality Turnout Nexus: New Evidence from Presidential Elections.” Politics & Policy 42(2): 221–45. https://doi.org/10.1111/polp.12067.Wilford, Allan M. 2020. “Understanding the Competing Effects of Economic Hardship and Income Inequality on Voter Turnout.” Politics & Policy 48(2): 314–38. https://doi.org/10.1111/polp.12344.

What If Leader Was (Not) One of Us?

Abstract By differentiating the dynamics of leader democracy from those of populist leadership, this paper provides a political-sociological theoretical framework that can identify the ideal-types of the personalisation of leadership in advanced democracies. In the first part, the article develops the main features of leader democracy from the perspective of democratic elitism, highlighting how process does not entail a partyless democracy. The second part focuses on the disintermediation process in populist leadership, which is presented as a particular form of plebiscitary politics. The proposed theoretical framework diverges from the stream of the literature on populism, which tends to equate populist leadership with charismatic leadership. Furthermore, the article points out the substantial differences between the personalisation of the populist and charismatic leadership styles by comparing the key issues of populism and charisma in the processes of personalisation thus proposing an interpretative framework to resolve the contradictions among the dominant interpretative frameworks.

Policy growth, implementation capacities, and the effect on policy performance

AbstractDemocratic governments have constantly added new policies to existing policy stocks to confront societal, economic, and environmental challenges. This development has the potential to overburden public administrations in charge of policy implementation. To address this issue, we theorize and analyze how the relationship between the size of sectoral policy portfolios and implementation capacities affects sectoral policy performance. Our Bayesian analysis of the environmental policies of 21 Organisation for Economic Co‐operation and Development countries from 1976 to 2020 reveals a widening “gap” between the policies up for implementation and the implementation capacities available and shows that this gap negatively affects environmental policy performance. Qualitative insights from 47 in‐depth interviews with implementers validate these findings and shed light on the underlying causal processes. Our findings suggest that in advanced democracies transforming additional policies into effective problem‐solving crucially hinges on the deliberate expansion of implementation capacities.

The education and income voting divides in Canada and their consequences for redistributive politics

Profound changes in the nature of class cleavages in advanced capitalist economies have been documented in recent years. Some have posited that the increasingly educated nature of left electorates has weakened impulses for redistribution. In contrast to most advanced democracies, class voting has largely been neglected in Canada, as it has traditionally been viewed as being comparatively weak in the face of strong linguistic, regional, and religious identities. Using the entire series of the Canadian Election Study (1965–2019) we examine the education and income political divides in Canada. We find strong support for a divergence between the effect that income and education have on party voting, as people with high incomes continue to vote for the right, while people with higher levels of education have shifted significantly to the left. However, we also find a strengthening income cleavage, whereby lower-income individuals are increasingly supporting the social democratic New Democratic Party, with redistribution a key driver. The findings reveal that Canada, despite a strengthening class cleavage, largely fits the mould of a multi-elite party system. However, it does so in a distinct fashion from the party systems previously examined in the cleavage literature.

‘Sovereign Democracy’: Russian Response to Western Democracy Promotion in the Post-Soviet Space

Russia became apprehensive after the outbreak of Colour Revolutions in three former Soviet republics. Post-revolution, Russia’s foreign policy in general and its outlook toward the West in particular transformed significantly. Russian response to Western democracy promotion became more pronounced. Against this backdrop, the concept of Sovereign Democracy has to be understood. It aims to not only defend the Russian regime from Western meddling but also undertake a vigorous international campaign to assert its great power status. This article deals with the meaning and rationale of Sovereign Democracy as a response to Western democracy promotion in a nuanced way. The study attempts to deal with the following research questions: How does Russia perceive and react to Colour Revolutions? How Sovereign Democracy enables Russia to restructure its foreign policy to challenge the Western democracy-promotion agenda in the post-Soviet space? How do the political institutions and historical narratives of anti-Westernism allow Russia to respond to Colour Revolutions? Lastly, whether Putin is able to reshape public opinion in Russia not only in favor of having an alternative model of democracy against the dominant Western one but also a favorable public opinion to justify Russian actions in Georgia, Ukraine, and Syria.

Traditional Institutions and Good Governance in Nigeria

Traditional institutions as custodian of cultures and traditions have continued to play a very significant role before and during colonial independence of many African societies. In Nigeria they provide a system of administration with an utmost aim of maintaining a stable governance through tradition, customs, and law and order. But with the advent of democracy, the role of traditional institutions became less recognized in the democratic system of government. The paper examined the role and relevance of indigenous traditional institutions to good governance. The paper was a quantitative research. Data was obtained from secondary sources including journals, articles and publications. The paper revealed that traditional institutions play a very significant role of sustaining culture and traditions, informally managing of conflict, maintaining peace, custodian of oral traditional history of the people etc. before and during colonial era. But with the advent of democracy, their power and duties became less recognized in the democratic system of government because traditional institutions were negated to the back door and politicized. Functionalism theory of Emile Durkheim (1858 – 1917) was employed to explain how society is an integrated whole, where all parts are interconnected and traditional institutions as part of the society, play a vital function of maintaining stability and contributing to the wellbeing of its members in terms of law, order and governance. The paper concluded that if the goal of government at all levels is to provide good governance to the people, rapid in social wealth and economic development, traditional institutions need to be integrated and assigned greater responsibilities in Nigerian’s contemporary democratic system of government because they have the ability to promote grassroots governance and facilitate access of rural communities to public services.

Contentious Institutionalization of Protests under Democracy: The Evidence from Taiwan, 1986–2016

AbstractWhile many scholarly works are concerned with how social protests promote democratization, this article addresses the causally reverse question: how democratization shapes the landscape of street protests. We use a unique database of 31 years of protest events in Taiwan, a smooth and successful case of authoritarianism-to-democracy transition, to engage in a dialogue with political transition theory, the institutionalization thesis and networked movement theory. The logistic regression analysis indicates that protest violence persists under consolidated democracy, but it is marginalized. We find an indirect effect from the growth of social movement organizations that foster the adaptation of festive and performative tactics, which are less confrontational in nature. Politicians' involvement, however, remains a constant source of disruptiveness. Our conclusion of contentious institutionalization finds that late-democratizing countries also gravitate towards becoming a ‘social movement society’ as advanced democracies do, but in a highly compressed period of time.

Peculiarities of the US Policy of “Democracy Promotion” Under George W. Bush

After the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001, the United States launched a global campaign against terrorism characterized by nation-building beyond its borders through "hard power" and an attempt was taken to reshape the regional order through democracy promotion. 2001 թվականի սեպտեմբերի 11-ի ահաբեկչությունից հետո ԱՄՆ-ը նախաձեռնեց ահաբեկչության դեմ համաշխարհային արշավ, որին բնորոշ էր «կոշտ ուժի» կիրառմամբ սեփական սահմաններից դուրս ազգաշինությունը, ինչպես նաև տարածաշրջանային կարգի վերաձևակերպման փորձը՝ ժողովրդավարության ներդրմամբ և խթանմամբ: После терактов 11 сентября 2001 г. Соединенные Штаты начали глобальную кампанию против терроризма, характеризующуюся формированием нации за пределами своих границ с помощью «жесткой силы» и попыткой изменить региональный порядок путем продвижения демократии.

Marketing Democracy: The Political Economy of Democracy Aid in the Middle East by Erin A. Snider

Marketing Democracy: The Political Economy of Democracy Aid in the Middle East <i>by Erin A. Snider</i>

Conceptualizing and measuring “punitiveness” in contemporary advanced democracies

AbstractThis article addresses a key political question regarding the relationship between states and their citizens: how harsh are judicial systems in their punishment of those who deviate from the law? Punitiveness is a fraught concept in the existing literature and robust measurement methods maximizing conceptual complexity are lacking. Here I develop a functional approach to punitiveness through a revised conceptualization and operationalization of this key variable while cautioning against the solitary use of incarceration rates to measure state intention. Punitiveness is conceptually disaggregated into three main components: (1) a commitment to punishment over rehabilitation, (2) the degree of harshness of response to crime (i.e., a longer sentence in prison), and (3) the lack of a logical progression of punishment based on the severity of crime committed or intent of the offender. These axes are further disaggregated into measurable indicators to build a novel index of punitiveness (P‐Index) from the legal codes of 26 countries. Ultimately, this rules‐as‐data measure offers researchers purchase on the puzzling variation in punitiveness across contexts, which persists regardless of current and historical crime levels, offering particular utility for supply‐side political‐economic explanations.

The determinants of growing economic inequality within advanced democracies

Beginning with the premise that rising economic inequality is an urgent problem burdening some industrialized democratic societies more than others, this paper seeks to examine the primary factors responsible. The purpose is not to provide novel empirical analysis but rather to unite siloed academic discussions and debates under a common theme, to address a problem of mutual concern. The first section frames the puzzle of economic inequality within advanced democracies. Subsequent sections review seminal contributions in five issue areas suggested as likely determinants of growing economic inequality in advanced democracies: technology, globalization, labor institutions, taxes and transfers, and the concentration of markets. I conclude by suggesting that these factors may, in fact, be separate branches of the same tree in that they are deeply intertwined with the economic systems in which they exist. Future work on economic inequality should therefore embrace the Varieties of Capitalism framework as a useful tool for understanding economic inequality.

Revisiting the notion of the public library as a meeting place: challenges to the mission of promoting democracy in times of political turmoil

PurposeThis article explores how public librarians understand and perform the democratic mission of public libraries in times of political and social turbulence and critically discusses the idea of public libraries as meeting places.Design/methodology/approachFive group interviews conducted with public librarians in southern Sweden are analyzed using a typology of four perspectives on democracy.Findings Two perspectives on democracy are commonly represented: social-liberal democracy, focusing on libraries as promoters of equality and deliberative democracy, focusing on the library as a place for rational deliberation. Two professional dilemmas in particular present challenges to librarians: how to handle undemocratic voices and how to be a library for all.Originality/valueThe analysis points to a need for rethinking the idea of the meeting place and offers a rare example of an empirically based argument for the benefits of plural agonistics for analyzing and strengthening the democratic role of public libraries.

Autocracies and policy accumulation: the case of Singapore

AbstractThe tendency of vote-seeking politicians to produce ever-more policies in response to the citizens’ demands has been identified as a central driver of the process of “policy accumulation.” If we accept this premise, policy accumulation should be a central feature of modern democracies but overall be less pronounced in autocracies. Due to its highly ambivalent nature, policy accumulation and its implications may thus constitute an important but so far neglected facets of the new system competition between democracies and autocracies. In this article, we test this argument in the context of the authoritarian regime of Singapore. Singapore is one of the very few autocracies that display elements of political competition and has a level of socio-economic development that is comparable to advanced democracies. Singapore thus constitutes a least-likely case for low levels of policy accumulation. By studying changes in Singapore’s environmental policy over a period of more than four decades (1976 to 2020) and by contrasting the patterns observed with the policy developments in 21 OECD democracies, we find that autocratic regimes do indeed tend to accumulate less than democratic regimes. More precisely, we find that Singapore (1) has only produced about one-fourth of the environmental policy measures of an “average” democracy and (2) is constantly the country with the lowest level of policy accumulation in our sample. These findings hold even when controlling for alternative explanations, such as the effectiveness of the administration and the government’s ability to opt for stricter and more hierarchical forms of intervention.

Freedom on the offensive: human rights, democracy promotion, and US interventionism in the late Cold War

Freedom on the offensive: human rights, democracy promotion, and US interventionism in the late Cold War

International Competitive Involvement During Democratic Transitions and State Repression

The end of the Cold War brought increasing attention to the role of the international environment in undermining or strengthening authoritarian rule. While high levels of linkages to the West and international pressures facilitated transitions and liberalization in many cases, certain scholars have examined the role of Western powers in "democracy prevention" in various regions. More recently and with the increasing role of Russia, China, Iran, and Saudi Arabia in propping up dictators and undermining transitions, studies on the international dimension have further shifted from "democracy promotion" to "autocracy promotion" and "authoritarian diffusion." International "Black Knights" have used various forms of economic, military, and political assistance to bolster their authoritarian allies. Such international linkages have been found to significantly enhance autocrats' repressive capacity and undermine political transitions.

Bangladesh’s Role in a Free and Open Indo-Pacific

Bangladesh has recently promulgated its Indo-Pacific Outlook amid the growing U.S.-China rivalry. This article aims to critically analyze the Indo-Pacific Outlook to find the limitations and inherent ambiguities and, finally, provide policy recommendations by proposing a comprehensive strategy that Bangladesh must adopt for a free, open, and rules-based Indo-Pacific region. A thorough literature review has been conducted based on the latest research books and articles on this issue, Indo-Pacific Strategy papers of advanced democracies like theUnited States, and commentaries of renowned International Relations and Security experts. A comprehensive strategy has been proposed as opposed to the Indo-Pacific Outlook, and the proposed strategy has emphasized how Bangladesh can play a more significant role in the Indo-Pacific region to become a key player, given its geo-strategic position. The article proposes a new strategy for Bangladeshthat has a clear modus operandi and isfree from ambiguities.

The Sovereign National Conference and the Long Unfinished Political Transition in the Democratic Republic of Congo (from 1990 to Present)

"For more than sixty years since the DR Congo gained independence, the aftermath has been characterized by the adoption of constitutional texts essentially inspired by the metropolitan model. This led one to believe that the era of democratic stability was now open. Unfortunately, this was a very short-lived moment, as authoritarianism took hold between the end of 1964 and the beginning of the 1990s with the single-party system (MPR). Political liberalization with the return of a multiparty system took place again in the 1990s following the Sovereign National Conference (CNS). After the wars of aggression and liberation of 1996-1998, the Sun-city agreement and other arrangements were signed to end the cycles of violence. These political changes have been analyzed almost exclusively through the prism of democratic transition, as have all the changes since. But in our view, these political transitions do not seem to be fading away into democratic or pluralistic regimes. We sometimes see democratic advances on the one hand, and the non-completion of the transitional process on the other. And it is this reflection that will be the subject of our analysis in this article. Keywords: independence, political transition, Africa, authoritarianism, single parties, pluralist regimes, political changes. "

Freedom on the Offensive: Human Rights, Democracy Promotion, and US Interventionism in the Late Cold War by William Michael Schmidli

<i>Freedom on the Offensive: Human Rights, Democracy Promotion, and US Interventionism in the Late Cold War</i> by William Michael Schmidli