Democratic Political Systems Research Articles

Procedural Justice, Representation, and Institutional Trust in Mexico

Both theoretical and empirical studies suggest that confidence in institutions is crucial for the functioning of democratic political systems and is an important element of the citizen–state relationship. Trust in institutions has been mainly explained in terms of institutional performance or as an extension of interpersonal trust. Using data from the 2020 National Survey of Civic Culture (Encuesta Nacional de Cultura Cívica), we examined the determinants of Mexicans’ trust in two institutions elected via popular vote: Congress and the Presidency. We focus on procedural justice and representation to account for trust in both institutions. We found positive relationships (of different magnitudes) between citizens’ trust in both Congress and the Presidency and the indicators of perceived representation, procedural justice, institutional performance, and interpersonal trust. In addition, we found different and significant effects of party identification on trust levels in both institutions.

Government short-termism and the management of global challenges

Crises and global challenges are pervasive in contemporary politics and societies worldwide. Climate change, economic recessions, humanitarian crises, health emergencies, wars and international conflicts put tremendous pressure on the functioning of democratic political systems and other government models. This study is located in the special issue for the 25th anniversary of the British Journal of Politics and International Relations. Leveraging an original longitudinal dataset covering more than 700 governments and 400 elections in 21 democracies dating back to the 1940s, we show that completing the constitutionally mandated term is increasingly difficult for ruling parties in Western Europe. Short-termism raises serious questions about democratic governments’ ability to manage global challenges effectively. Considering the potentially detrimental consequences of short-termism, we contribute to the scientific examination of the politics of global challenges, shedding light on effective and ineffective management strategies.

Tanah tak Bertuan: Volatilitas dan Stabilitas Elektoral di Jawa Barat Pasca Ode Baru

The changing power of political parties is one of the most important phenomena studied in democratic political systems. It can shed light on the extent to which political parties are connected to voters, the strengthening or weakening of party institutionalisation, the influence of personalities in politics, the influence of electoral and party institutional design, and so on. Studies on political party change (electoral volatility and stability) have been conducted comparatively, and some studies are conducted by looking at the national context of Indonesia. However, while studies have been conducted on these issues at the local level, they remain overlooked. This article fills this gap by presenting a description and analysis of electoral volatility and stability in West Java in the post-New Order era. Using the theoretical framework of electoral volatility and stability as well as the theory of party system institutionalisation (PSI), this study proposes three findings: high party turnover; higher electoral volatility in West Java compared to national electoral volatility; more competitive political party competition at the district/city level in West Java. The findings on electoral volatility, stability and competition are influenced by the restrictions of political party regulations, which have an impact on the decreasing number of political parties in elections, the personalisation of politics and the presidentialisation of politics, as well as the historical roots of the old-established parties that have been entrenched since the New Order era.

Power and space in a rentier state: The case of mega mall boom in Tehran, Iran

Space is intertwined with the exercise of power. While exertion of power in the production of space has been frequently studied in democratic political systems, little attention has been paid to non-democratic systems. This study aims to address this gap by focusing on the mega mall development process in Tehran. The study applies a four-dimensional view of power, including over, covert, latent, and disciplinary power, to investigate the exercise of power in the development of mega malls in Tehran. Using a constructivist grounded theory approach; data is collected through 48 semi-structured in-depth interviews and nine documents. The process of mega mall development in Tehran illustrates two levels of power dynamics. Firstly, powerful institutions emerge as winners while citizens lose out. This overt conflict involves monopolized decision-making and the rationalization and legitimization of ‘exceptions’, representing the covert and latent dimensions of power respectively. Secondly, the mega mall itself functions as a Panopticon by exerting disciplinary power. While power dynamics may share similarities across different systems, the distinctive aspect of mega mall development in Tehran lies in the monopolized process and pervasive perception manipulation as the key means of power exertion.

Political competence of Croatian secondary school students 2010–2021

Political knowledge and democratic attitudes are recognized in contemporary studies as important dimensions of democratic political culture. Furthermore, knowledge and attitudes can be seen as integral parts of political competence. Unlike other dimensions of political culture such as, for example, political participation, political interest, etc., research on political knowledge and democratic attitudes are more an exception than a rule. This assessment is especially true for Croatia. In this paper, we attempt to address some of these gaps by focusing on the exploration of political competences of Croatian final-year secondary school students. The paper is divided into two major sections. In the first part, we discuss the meaning and importance of political competence for the functioning of democratic political systems. The second part consists of a presentation and discussion of the research results on political knowledge and democratic attitudes of Croatian final-year secondary school students conducted in three time points - 2010, 2015 and 2021. By doing so, we want to detect the levels of political knowledge and democratic attitudes, as well as the possible changes that occurred in these levels during the research period. Finally, we are also interested in the relationship between these two dimensions of political competence.

China’s ‘Liquid’ Warfighting Shift and Its Implications for Possible Future Conflict

Some suggest that remote, precision strike warfare is a Western phenomenon motivated by aversion to high troop casualties among democratic leaders subject to re-election. Others contend that it is the result of a global transition in the way of modern war towards ‘liquid warfare’, centred around the disruption of adversary networks in the increasingly integrated and high-tech battlespace. This article advances the debate by applying the liquid warfare hypothesis to China’s post-1993 military reforms. It finds (a) that China’s development and embrace of its prevailing ‘systems destruction warfare’ concept constitutes a liquid shift in its warfighting approach, dispelling the contention that such transformations are necessarily linked with democratic political systems; and (b) that the liquidification of China’s warfighting approach has immediate implications for possible regional conflict scenarios, particularly those involving the United States, making them mutually costlier and susceptible to rapid escalation.

Introduction to Part 1 of the Themed Issue, ‘Racism and Colonialism in Hegel's Philosophy’: Rationale and Topics

It is increasingly realized today that Western modernity has not only promoted progressive ideals such as scientific thought, human rights and democratic political systems. Its history is also marked by a much darker side, one of brutal conquest, biological and cultural destruction, enslavement and exploitation of non-European peoples in the context of European colonialism. This dark side of Western modernity was legitimized by pro-colonial ideologies of property, war, civilization, progress and race. Such ideologies emerged in areas like jurisprudence and philosophy since the 16th century, often building on views from classical antiquity (Pagden 1995). They shaped academic paradigms such as ‘scientific racism’, colonial anthropology and Orientalism in the 19th and early 20th centuries, and in many ways continue to influence contemporary societies and their academic practices.

Shared concerns versus ideological preferences: The New York Times’ coverage of two Olympics games held in the global health crisis

The Olympic Games are often framed by the U.S. media as political events, with the media’s preference for democratic political systems, while global health crises are often framed in a similar way, demonstrating shared concerns about human interests. When the Olympics occur during a global health crisis, a tension emerges between the ideological framing of the Olympics and the shared concern for human interests in media coverage. By analyzing New York Times coverage of the Tokyo 2020 Summer Olympics and the Beijing 2022 Winter Olympics, this study aims to show how ideological preferences in Olympic coverage interact with shared concerns about health crises. Furthermore, the analysis of this interaction leads to a rethinking of traditional journalistic norms that view journalists as detached observers.

What Explains Interest Group Prominence in Parliamentary Speech? Policy Agenda, Partisanship, or Conflict Expansion

Gaining the attention of legislators in a crowded advocacy landscape is a key dilemma for organized interests. Yet, there has not been a great deal of direct analysis of whether groups are indeed recognized as important by politicians in the context of them advancing political arguments. In this article, we examine under what conditions interest groups achieve prominence among political elites. Drawing on a supervised machine learning approach to code prominence from legislative speech, we exploit variations in levels of prominence for the entire Australian interest groups system. We find that prominence is highly concentrated and that it covaries with the need to align with prevailing policy agendas and the logic of conflict expansion. Conversely, we do not find evidence of a strong partisan or ideological dimension of prominence. This contributes to our understanding of the responsiveness and representativeness of democratic political systems in which the interest group sector is expected to funnel public preferences into policymaking.

Rational Dialogues and Its Constructive Social-Cultural Functions

One of the tools that human civilizations use today to understand each other and resolve misunderstandings is dialogue. Dialogue can reduce social distances and bridge human and cultural gaps. In this research, the social and path-opening functions of dialogue as a bridge between social, political and cultural groups have been discussed. Dialogue is a dynamic process, which has two aspects of collective and social nature. Also, with the logic of dialogue and the method of conversation, it is possible to create a bridge over social, political and ethnic gaps and connect people and groups together. The purpose of writing this article is to explain and describe the functions of dialogue, whether it is possible to fill the social, gender, cultural and cognitive gaps in a society with this method. Today's democratic political systems use dialogue as a communication and cognitive bridge between themselves and the nations. Because there are many similarities between bridge and dialogue, which are also discussed in this article. Due to the fact that dialogue has a collective nature and gathering character, this research with a survey method seeks to know the importance, position and role of dialogue in reducing conflicts in social and cultural relationships. The question is, can this collective character and collection of dialogue prevent the separation and division of people and social groups and reduce misunderstandings towards each other. In addition to the theoretical part of this article, a descriptive-analytical method has been used by distributing the questionnaire. The statistical population of Badakhshan University is considered. The findings of this research indicate that dialogue is one of the appropriate ways to connect social division in a society. Based on the findings, dialogue is like a bridge, which can fill and connect social, linguistic, cultural, ethnic and political gaps. (80%) of the sample population considered the role and importance of dialogue in reducing social misunderstandings, preventing violent social, linguistic and ethnic conflicts.

Intelligence Theory and Democratic Governance: An Epistemological Approach from Political Science

The contemporary concept of national and state security is currently undergoing a significant change with regard to its scope and structure. In the light of the risks that threaten present-day societies and their democratic political systems, the viability of the old paradigm of intelligence is being called into question. The increase in the Intelligence Community calls on a plurality of actors from different epistemological fields inside social sciences to contribute to the strengthening of a new paradigm of intelligence suitable to promote and strengthen peacebuilding and democratic governance capabilities. Exploring the changes that underlie proposals for a new approach to intelligence, this article formulates a proactive and preventive approach from the conceptual, methodological, professional, and academic perspective of political science.

Corruption and trust in the European Parliament: Quasi‐experimental evidence from the Qatargate scandal

AbstractCitizens' ability to hold corrupt politicians accountable is a key feature of democratic political systems. Particularly in the European Union (EU), such accountability mechanisms are often argued to malfunction due to the EU's complicated and opaque institutional structure, which could compromise voters' basic abilities to detect political malpractice in Brussels. Putting EU voters' attentiveness to the test, we provide quasi‐experimental evidence of the causal effect of a recent corruption scandal in the European Parliament. Leveraging an ‘Unexpected Event during Survey Design’ identification strategy in France and Germany, we document a sizeable negative effect of the so‐called Qatargate scandal on public trust in the European Parliament. This provides causal evidence on the presence of attentiveness to EU politics within these electorates. Given the EU's complex institutional structure, we derive two alternative implications from this finding.

Solidarity

The natural human virtue of solidarity, in the thought of St. John Paul II, is one of the means by which human persons, citizens in democratic political systems, can act politically to advance the common good of their societies. Solidarity is closely connected to Christian charity. It should not lead to conflict, but to respectful dialogue, when there are differences. Dialogue has to be based on truth, not ideologies. There can be no genuine and lasting solidarity in the service of a human ideology, which only puts forth a partial understanding of the human good.

How Does a Military Create a Tradition in a New Democracy?

After the collapse of the Soviet Union, former Soviet republics became sovereign states and faced a challenge of building new political systems. While some of the countries have become authoritarian, democratic political systems were successfully built in a number of post-Soviet countries. In this study the focus is on these new democracies and their armed forces, as such states face questions related to the armed forces’ monopoly over the means of violence, their subservience to civilian politicians, the core values around which soldiers coalesce, and their legitimacy in the eyes of publics. How then does a military create a tradition in a new democracy? The term “military tradition” is used to refer to public events (ceremonies and performances), symbols (flags and adornments), and narratives (stories and lore) produced and reproduced in and around the armed forces. Accordingly, the article turns to the study of public events in order to further the study of military traditions in new democracies. As empirical focus, the authors propose to look at a key state-centered, national public event, the military parade through an exploratory case study of Estonia, a relatively young democracy of 30 years. The results of the study show that the form and practices of Estonia’s military parade simultaneously signal its subservience to elected officials, its role as defender of a democratic polity and its fate, its closeness and openness to society, and they reflect the wider societal developments centered on individualization, digitization, and marketization.

Social participation in Chile's healthcare system: Reflective contributions from bioethics.

Social participation in health is related to the ability of collectives to intervene in the healthcare system. From a bioethical perspective, the relevance of social participation in health has been emphasized due to its positive effects at the level of social groups, the healthcare structure, and democratic political systems. To ensure social participation in health, bioethics advocates for the incorporation of deliberation as a tool for making binding decisions. The aim of this essay is to reflect on social participation in the history of Chile's healthcare system from a bioethical perspective. The main reflections indicate that participation is consultative in nature, lacking deliberation and, therefore, the distribution of power. Additionally, social participation has been redefined under the label of "citizen," promoting an instrumental, individual, and client-oriented character in healthcare. To subvert this situation, it is necessary to incorporate bioethical reflections into the healthcare structure to enable communities to consistently influence the healthcare system.

Complex Areas for Analysis

Man feels confused in a changing world that is experiencing tremendous, unanticipated expansion because he cannot keep up with what is happening. Priorly closed areas are now open for inspection. A new awakening brought outdoors simmering mental worries and infused courage as colonialism proved to be repressive and repulsive, with an increase in the misery of the majority in the society surrounding many countries and elsewhere for many reasons. Women endured long-suffering but did not speak up because they were also victims of incorrect social norms. Social reformers' voices against gender inequality started to bring about apparent changes in the social structure. Even previously uncomfortable male-female sexual relations in socially taboo places have now become commonplace and have won long-lasting acceptance despite much moralizing, vituperation, and protest. Radical transformations were sparked by social and economic equality among humans in various regions of the world. Even totalitarian, dictatorial, monarchical, and democratic political systems were compelled by socialist ideas to establish legislation governing and legalizing equality in social and economic life. Although it was a significant shift likely to be met with resistance, humanity eventually came to accept the realities of future life to a respectable amount.

Ruling in turbulent times: government crises in Italy and Israel during the COVID-19 pandemic

COVID-19 constitutes an unprecedented exogenous shock for democratic political systems across the globe. During this turbulent period, Italy and Israel have also experienced a government crisis. Building upon the “coalition life cycle” and the “critical events” approaches to government stability, this article explores the trajectories of the government crises in Italy and Israel in times of COVID-19. The article examines the impact of the cabinets' structural attributes and the pandemic in relation to the governments' early termination. In both countries, the oversized coalition configuration of the cabinets led to conflicts between the governing parties, which became untenable during the pandemic crisis, thus precipitating the governments' collapse.

War in the practice of functioning of different types of political systems

The purpose of the paper is to explore the relationship between the possibility and necessity of using war and a certain type of political system. The relevance lies in the fact that war is inherently destructive and strongly influences political consciousness. A political system that exercises power and political influence contains state and social institutions with certain values and norms that generate war or, on the contrary, oppose it. During a full-scale war, the issue of war in the practice of functioning of different types of political systems has become particularly important. The main methodological approaches were holistic and systemic analysis. General scientific and philosophical methods were also used. The study achieved its goal by fulfilling the following tasks. Based on the study of literary sources, the definition of the concepts of “war” and “political system” was determined. A table of typology of political systems was developed. The role of war, its goals, and its objectives in the functioning of totalitarian, authoritarian, and democratic political systems are clarified. The features of the political system of Ukraine under martial law are analyzed. The causes and factors of the Russian-Ukrainian war are determined. The regularities of activity and functions of political systems are revealed.

Two Journalisms? Linear and Curvilinear Relationships Between Journalists’ Role Ideals and Degree of Democracy

ABSTRACT If there are authoritarian, transitional, and democratic political and media systems, are there associated authoritarian, transitional, and democratic role profiles for journalists? The relation between countries’ degree of democracy and the importance of journalistic role conceptions among journalists in a country is analyzed based on the World Journalism Study (Wave 2). I find that journalists in democratic political systems generally subscribe to fewer role conceptions than journalists in authoritarian political systems; Journalism-for-Democracy is more defined by what it is not (i.e., journalists reject the typical role conceptions of Journalism-for-Authoritarianism and Journalism-in-Transition) than by what it is. Journalism in transitional political systems (i.e., hybrid regimes and deficient democracies) is characterized by a specific set of role conceptions that are linked to political activism, which journalists in full democracies tend to reject. The study reassesses which role conceptions might be typical for which kind of political systems leading to revised hypotheses regarding the link between democracy and journalistic role conceptions.

Immigration and Public Support for Political Systems in Europe

Immigration and growing diversity have been linked with pathologies such as lower social capital, the rise of authoritarian populists, intergroup conflict, and perhaps the breakdown of democracy itself. At the heart of this complex is a question relating to migration and political culture: whether immigration erodes the attitudes that sustain and legitimize democratic political systems. This paper takes a time-series, cross-sectional approach to this question by analyzing the effects of a comprehensive set of measures of immigration on dynamic estimates of trust in democratic institutions, satisfaction with democracy, and democratic support from 30 European countries. The results show that immigration does not undermine any of these forms of public support for political systems. Indeed, under some circumstances, immigration may increase public trust in democratic institutions.