Elite Research Articles

English Nationalism and the Study of the History of Anglo-Saxon England

The author in the presented article analyses the features and directions of development of English academic historiography, focused on the history of England before 1066, as a form of political memory. It is assumed that UK political elites do not pursue memorial politics in its classical forms. Therefore, the author notes that the role of a similar historical policy in Europe and in England is played by academic historiography.The purpose of the study is to analyse the role, place and significance of research focused on the history of Anglo-Saxon England in the context of the development of memory policy and memorial culture. The novelty of the research lies in the study of academic historiography as a form of historical policy in a society where there are institutions of memory and memorial laws.The article shows that 1) Anglo-Saxon narratives in modern memorial culture have become a form of nationalist historical interaction, 2) actors and agents of English politics are both historians and the intellectual community in general, since the ruling elites distance themselves from participation in the politics of collective historical memory, 3) Anglo-Saxon narratives in the historical general began to show interest in English cultural nationalism, since its political forms and dimensions are undeveloped.It is suggested that academic historians in modern England have become both important and forced participants in the politics of history, nationalizing history before 1066, drawing attention to the significance of the past in modern identity.The article shows that modern English historiography in the field of memory and memorial culture actually plays the role of a political expert and agent who shapes and promotes ideas about the past, instrumentalizing history as a political resource.

Where Did the Global Elite Go to School? Hierarchy, Harvard, Home and Hegemony

ABSTRACTWe examine the educational backgrounds of the global elite, using new data on a diversity of organizational leadership roles as well as the population of the super‐rich across the world. Four trends emerge when examining the university education of the global elite. First, we find a small number of globally prestigious universities to take on super prominent roles, suggesting a strongly hierarchical distribution of credentials among the global elite. Second, we find a consistent and unique place for Harvard University within this system. Third, we find evidence for a significant yet variable ‘home‐bias’ in the education of the global elite. This is moderated by the fourth regularity, the hegemony of Anglo‐American credentials. These four global regularities can enhance ongoing research on global elite populations. Our findings are robust to both the removal of all American elites in the sample, to dynamic stratified sampling of the network boundary and to disaggregating the sample into different elite roles. The analysis of this article is the first of its kind to offer a large‐scale descriptive mapping of central tendencies in global elite university education.

Partisan (A) Symmetries in Hardball: Mass Level Support of Hardball Equivalent Across Party and Race

Constitutional hardball is when partisan actors engage in legal tactics that violate democratic norms for political advantage. The Republican Party seems to have engaged in hardball more than the Democratic Party in recent years, which is surprising as both parties should be similarly incentivized to use hardball. This asymmetry in elite behavior could reflect differences in what each parties’ coalitions tolerate. For example, non-white voters might oppose hardball tactics more than white voters for reasons such as hardball historically being used to enforce racial hierarchies. If true, that could constrain on Democratic elites’ actions more Republican elites due to Democrats’ more racially diverse base. I draw on a long line of research on partisanship and group interest to argue instead that both white and non-white voters of both parties should be similarly disposed towards hardball. This article then marshals data from the American National Election Survey (ANES) and original surveys to test that argument. In support of my hypotheses, I find white and non-white members of both parties have similar levels of support and similar motivations for hardball. Political elites are likely free to engage in undemocratic acts such as hardball with little fear of backlash from their supporters.

Political identity and risk politics: Evidence from a pandemic.

The way political identity serves as a foundation for political polarization in the United States permits elites to extend conflict rapidly to new issue areas. Further, the types of cognitive mechanisms and shortcuts used in the politically polarized information environment are similar to some of those used in risk perception. Consequently, political elites may easily create partisan risk positions, largely through politically focused social amplification of risk. The COVID-19 pandemic provided a natural experiment for testing predictions about such risk politics. We asked questions about pandemic-related views, behaviors, and policies at the outset of the pandemic in April 2020 and again in September 2020 via public opinion surveys. Our data and analyses focus primarily on a single state, with some analysis extended to four states. We begin by demonstrating strong linkages between political partisan identification on the one hand and support for co-partisan elites, use of partisan information sources, and support for co-partisan policies on the other hand. We then find evidence that pandemic risk positions correspond with partisan information sources and find support for a mechanism involving partisan-tinted evaluation of elite cues. Partisan risk positions quickly became part of the larger polarized structure of political support and views. Finally, our evidence shows on the balance that partisan risk positions related to the pandemic coalesced and strengthened over time. Overall, while self-identified Democrats consistently viewed the coronavirus as the primary threat, self-identified Republicans quickly pivoted toward threats to their freedoms and to the economy.

Religious references in political campaigning: a comparative analysis of Latin America and Western Europe on social media

The relationship between religion and politics is receiving increasing attention in political science, although the focus is often on voter attitudes. Despite secularization trends, scholars expect a resurgence of religion in Western European party politics, where Christianity as a native identity is opposed to non-native Islam by populist radical right parties. In this context, it is primarily hostility toward other religious groups that structures religious elements in political communication. In most Latin American societies, religiosity plays a much greater role for individuals, which is reflected in the discourses of political elites who use genuine religious references to appeal to religious voters (“sacralization of politics”). Using data from my own recent research on content analysis of parties’ and candidates’ Facebook profiles, this article compares how political actors in Latin America and Western Europe use religious references in electoral campaigns and how salient these discourses are. The results help to explain the different prominence of religious discourses in different democratic regions and religious markets. The article contributes to the ongoing debate on the role of religion in 21st century politics.

Globaloney: Extended Party Networks and the Dissemination of Anti-Globalization Insults

From where does discontent against globalization originate? Current explanations emphasize material conditions and the emergence of globalization-skeptical parties. We argue that party-affiliated factions play a critical but underappreciated role. Such factions provide foundational support for elite appeals, acting entrepreneurially to construct new narratives that are later invoked by elites. We test this by studying a unique case: the “globalist” insult on Twitter. We find that “globalist” mentions co-occur with hashtags and terms associated with right-wing conspiracies, “alt-right” media figures, and Donald Trump. We further find that the most consistent correlate of the “globalist” insult is its use by the alt-right media organization Breitbart, not by traditional political elites or in response to changes in economic conditions. The results suggest that a conceptualization of political parties as organizers of political conflict, specifically ones that incorporate factions and non-elite entities like partisan media, helps make sense of anti-globalization political movements.

Strategic voting in two-round elections: confirming the learning hypothesis in the Czech presidential elections of 2013–2023?

ABSTRACT This paper explores whether strategic voting can also be identified in two-round electoral systems. We use aggregate data at the level of Czechia’s 206 microregions to assess the incidence of strategic voting in the Czech presidential elections using two-round elections between 2013 and 2023. We find the following evidence of a considerable rise of strategic voting in the 2023 presidential election: (1) rise of support for the two strongest candidates nationally, as well as at the level of individual microregions; (2) decline of strategic failure and sincere voting indicated by shifting values of the second-first loser ratio; (3) increased electoral competition approaching strong competitive two-party dominance as shown by Nagayama diagrams. These results point to the importance of the ‘learning hypothesis’ that strategic voting in new democracies tends to increase as voters (but also political elites) become more experienced with the electoral process. Furthermore, while we present a case study of a Czech presidential election, we also make an important contribution to the literature on strategic voting. Therefore, a theoretical contribution of this study also lies in its effort to apply the Duvergerian logic to a very different context of presidential elections in which electoral competition is highly personalised.

Do CEO Connections to the Chinese Politburo Pay Off and How?

ABSTRACTResearch Question/IssueThis study investigates the effect of connections to the Politburo, the top 25 members of the Chinese Communist Party (CCP), on CEO compensation, pay‐for‐performance sensitivity, and turnover decisions using a comprehensive dataset of 3764 Chinese listed firms from 2007 to 2019.Research Findings/InsightsOur findings reveal that CEOs of privately owned listed firms who have connections to the Politburo via shared educational backgrounds receive significantly higher compensation (up to 20% more). However, such connections do not significantly affect CEO compensation in state‐owned enterprises (SOEs). CEOs who have connections to the Politburo also exhibit lower turnover rates, and their compensation is less sensitive to performance outcomes. Our measure of connections excludes reverse causality, as we leverage an exogenous shock—the promotion to the Politburo of an individual with whom the CEO is already connected—to investigate the gain associated with a political connection in the absence of CEO turnover in private firms. This event allows us to observe that CEO pay increases significantly in such cases. We also find that elite connections serve as a mechanism for resource allocation, as politically connected CEOs in private firms benefit from higher subsidies and lower tax rates, and politically connected CEOs in SOEs benefit by being appointed to larger SOEs. Additionally, we find that the positive relationship between CEO pay and elite connections is even stronger when the connection is stronger but is negative when the CEO is a CCP member.Theoretical/Academic ImplicationsThis study enriches the literature on political connections by introducing a novel proxy for elite connections based on past educational ties to members of the political elite. It disentangles the influence of personal educational connections to the political elite from that of a more generic political membership of the CCP, offering a clearer understanding of their distinct impacts.Practitioner/Policy ImplicationsOur study underscores the necessity of differentiating between private and SOEs in China due to their distinct characteristics and goals. Furthermore, it highlights the critical role of elite political connections in emerging economies such as China in resource allocation, labor market dynamics, and corporate governance.

Colonialism, Weaponisation of Ethnicity & Intermittent Political Violence

Ethnic conflicts have increased across the globe, and especially after the Cold war; and indeed affected various countries in Europe, Africa, Asia and America. In most of these cases, it has been triggered by struggles for the meagre resources and domination of political power. In Africa, studies on ethnic conflicts have indicated a strong interplay between ethnicity and the colonial phenomenon. This article endeavours to connect the intermittent political violence in Uasin Gishu, Kenya, within the purview of the colonial phenomenon particularly, when the violence was viewed historically as a process and not an event. It hypothesizes that the violent subterfuge of ethnic communities in Uasin Gishu and other portions of the rift valley were the result of the despair and fear perceived by native communities as a result of presumed economic and political setbacks during the colonial era. To this end, the initial research study was guided by three theories, namely: Primordialism, instrumentalism and relative deprivation theories which reinforced each other as the lens through which to make sense of the connection between colonialism and the said intermittent political violence. The study is based on a research project that employed the historical method from the dual perspectives of interpretivism philosophical outlook and qualitative approach. The main submission, in this research article, is that the coming and settlement of the colonialists led to the growth of toxic ethnic relations within the Rift valley region that were initially non-existent. This situation was further exacerbated after independence (1963), as the political elites became the new drivers of the vice

Conspiratorial Narratives and Ideological Constructs in the Russia–Ukraine Conflict: From the New World Order to the Golden Billion Theories

This article explores the pervasive influence of conspiracy theories, specifically the New World Order (NWO) and Golden Billion theories, within the context of the ongoing conflict between Russia and Ukraine. These theories form key narrative frameworks in Russian state media and global conspiracy communities, shaping perceptions of geopolitical events. This study dissects four pivotal episodes within the Russia–Ukraine conflict to illustrate how conspiracy theories shape public perception and policy direction, further entrenching ideological divides. In the first episode of the 2022 full-scale invasion, narratives of the Golden Billion were utilised to justify the attack, presenting Russia as a bastion against the Western elite’s plans to dominate the global economy and resources. The second episode examines the attack on Mariupol in 2022, framed by Russian propaganda as a necessary act to thwart the supposed expansion of NATO and the EU, underpinned by the NWO agenda aiming to dilute Russian influence in Eastern Europe. The third episode analyses the Nord Stream pipeline sabotage in 2022, interpreted by some conspiracy theorists as an act by the NWO to destabilise Europe’s energy security, thus consolidating control over energy routes and resources. The fourth episode delves into the 2024 Moscow terrorist attacks, which were seen by some as either a false flag operation conducted by Western powers or as a legitimate repercussion of Western encroachment orchestrated to weaken Russia’s resolve and international standing. Each episode is contextualised within a broader conspiratorial framework, highlighting the dualistic nature of the NWO and Golden Billion theories that paint the conflict not merely as territorial disputes but as a clash between fundamentally opposing worldviews and global orders. This narrative analysis not only underscores the role of conspiracy theories in shaping geopolitical discourse but also demonstrates their utility in mobilising domestic support, framing international criticism, and justifying military actions. Our findings suggest that these conspiratorial narratives provide a resilient, albeit misleading, lens through which supporters of the Kremlin’s policies can rationalise the war, attributing complex sociopolitical dynamics to the malevolent machinations of a global elite. This study contributes to understanding how modern conflicts are interpreted through ancient conspiratorial lenses, impacting national and international policy and public opinion.

Do political elite endorsements influence online mobilization? A study of Twitter behavior in Narendra Modi’s 2019 election campaigns

ABSTRACT Modern campaigns increasingly rely on social media to influence voters, with Twitter offering affordances that enable direct communication between politicians and the public. However, scholars remain divided over the effectiveness of engaging ordinary Twitter users for mobilizing support online. This article seeks to address this issue by examining whether endorsements from political elites influence the tweeting behavior of ordinary users. Using a quasi-experimental design, we analyze an original dataset of tweets made by users who were mentioned (N = 27,634; 36.62 million tweets) and not mentioned (N = 27,672; 16.30 million tweets) by Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi on 16th March 2019, during his national election campaign. Our analysis reveals that, on average, users mentioned by Modi exhibited a greater increase in tweet activity compared to those not mentioned. However, this surge in activity proved to be only temporary, suggesting that mentions by political elites facilitate immediate mobilization but are not necessarily self-sustaining. Furthermore, no evidence was found of a differential effect based on users’ pre-existing engagement levels. Our findings offer important insights into political leaders’ strategic use of Twitter in campaigns and contribute to the theoretical understanding of Twitter's role in mobilization and interactivity by bringing in diverse perspectives from the Global South.

Constitutional Court Decision No.60/Puu-XXII/2024 Protects the Constitutional Rights of Citizens and Political Parties in Simultaneous Regional Elections in the Regions

Since Indonesia's establishment and independence, the process of filling the seats or positions of Regional Heads has changed many times, starting from the Old Order era, the New Order, and the reform period. These changes are actually in accordance with the needs of the times and not motivated by the interests of maintaining power. The decision of the Constitutional Court (MK) Number 60/PUU-XXII/2024 is right for now. At least it saves democracy from the cartel politics being played by the political elites in the country. The Constitutional Court's decision, which changed the threshold to resemble or almost the same as the requirements for individual candidates, opened the faucet for competition to become even more alive. This includes guaranteeing the constitutional rights of non-parliamentary political parties (without seats) to be able to nominate candidates for Regional Heads who were originally unable to as specified in Article 40 of Law 10 of 2016 concerning Pilkada. However, for the sustainability of democracy in the future, the author views that this decision is not optimal or still leaves problems. In the future, the implementation or application of a threshold or minimum requirement of support for the nomination of candidates for Regional Heads and even the President is no longer appropriate. In the future, an open nomination system should be applied, in which all political parties participating in the elections that pass the KPU verification are automatically entitled to propose candidates for Regional Heads. Some countries that adhere to the Presidential system do not recognize the term threshold. America, Brazil, Peru, Mexico, Colombia, and Kyrgyzstan.

Effects of Armed Conflicts on The National Security of Post Conflicts States, A Case Study of Juba County in Central Equatorial State, South Sudan

This paper assessed the nature of existing armed conflicts and their effect on security management, established the influence of the local and regional dynamics of conflicts on security management and finally examined the effect of the emerging security threats on security management strategies in Juba County, South Sudan. The study was guided by two theories; Conflict Transformation and National Security theories. The study used descriptive survey research design and Purposive sampling technique to enlist 210 respondents for this study. The main method of data collection was the interview. Content analysis was used to analyze qualitative data and reported in narrative form. The study established a dichotomy of existing armed conflicts; external and internal conflicts in Central Equatorial State, South Sudan that had serious implication on both Security Management and National security. The second objective established the influence of local and regional dynamics that affected security management that included; Interlocking political and tribal division aspects of conflict, the influence of insurgents and armed cross border militia groups; greed for livestock by political elites that saw them arm their tribal militia with modern guns and military hardware for ease of livestock theft, amongst others. The third objective established the effect of several emerging security threats on Security Management strategies in Juba County, which included migrant migration for domestic and international child soldiering recruitment in the context of the on-going civil war and also for soldiering elsewhere outside the country. This paper establishes a regional policy concern that South Sudan is largely unsafe, and by implication the whole region is unlikely to be safe. This calls for an immediate action by all security stakeholders, UN agencies, Non State Actors, security pundits and think tanks to brainstorm and chart a way forward for South Sudan and the entire region.

Citizen liabilities for state-perpetrated injustices in non-democracies: toward a new authorisation account

ABSTRACT When states perpetrate injustices, do their individual citizens develop liabilities to repair such wrongdoings? Most existing accounts of citizens’ liabilities for state-perpetrated injustices, whilst applicable across certain democratic contexts, struggle to provide robust accounts of the grounds and nature of liabilities for citizens in non-democratic contexts. This problematically leaves a lacuna when it comes to the responsibilities and appropriate responses of citizens in these states. This article advances a distinctive two-pronged authorisation-based account applicable to non-democracies. Objective authorisers are individuals who derive presumptive benefits, are comparably better-off under, and can reliably influence the decision-making processes over the injustice perpetrated by the state. Subjective authorisers are citizens who autonomously endorse their state as credible interpreters and upholders of their aims in relation to the injustices in question. Both objective and subjective authorisers of the state in relation to particular injustices perpetrated, are liable to compensate, actively oppose, and commemorate the victims of state-perpetrated injustices. This account will be shown to be empirically applicable to a large number of minimally decent non-democratic states, where the political elite enjoy moderate popular support over their incorporation and reflection of citizen interests and preferences in their governance, despite the absence of formal democratic electoral mechanisms. This authorisation-based view differs from existing accounts oriented around complicity and participatory intentions, in better accounting for non-participants who are nevertheless intuitively liable for the actions of their authorised state, as well as circumventing structural shortcomings affecting complicity-centric accounts.

Democratic Equality and the Elected Avatars of the People

Abstract I argue that the use of elected political representatives undermines the political equality of citizens. Having elected representatives politically stand-in for individual constituents makes ordinary citizens the political inferiors of their representatives. This in turn creates democratically problematic social inequality between elected politicians and their constituents. I then offer an alternative to representative politicians that does not face the avatar of the people problem: representative mini-publics. Through these bodies, we can achieve a representative system without a class of political elites, where citizens share the responsibilities and powers of government as equals.

Critical Discourse Analysis of Aravind Adiga’s The White Tiger

Critical Discourse Analysis (CDA) is part of Discourse Analysis which deals with the way meaning is further explored beyond the realm of sentences. Its use in literature takes the exploration further by making critical inquiry in to the source of the problem or the conflict. By critically looking at conversations and writings that are being used in the society, Critical Discourse Analysis aims to attach the source of all problems in a story to a systemic failure of socio-political powers. In so doing, it tries to take an active role to correct the wrongs in the society by highlighting the conversational and textual rhetoric of the state or related entities. This article investigates the ways and methods in which Aravind Adiga has used discourse in his novel, White Tiger to highlight the plight of the millions of poor Indians who were living under the shadows of the few economically affluent political elites in postcolonial India. His novel, crafted in the form of a series of letters addressed to the Chinese premier, utilizes the ordinary discourse of the people in the lower strata of the society. Techniques of satire and dark humor have predominantly been used to narrate the individual story of the protagonist in a way that represents the wider society which was struggling to break the ‘rooster coop’ and survive with economic and political liberty.

The Ideological Factor Strengthens Political Identity for Increasing Vote in General Elections in Indonesia

Identity politics is a threat to democracy in many countries, including Indonesia. At the same time, in Indonesia, the number of Muslim voters reached 80%. Muslim voters are the majority group and are vulnerable to identity politics, given their character that is easily influenced to follow certain behaviors. This research has an urgency to reveal how big the threat of identity politics is to Muslim voters, especially in Malang Regency, East Java. The choice of Malang Regency, East Java, as the object of the research is attributed to the fact that the majority of the population in that location are traditional Muslims, and Muslim educational institutions, such as Islamic boarding schools and Muslim schools, are the most numerous in East Java. This research uses a qualitative analytical approach to reveal the phenomenon of identity politics among Muslim voters carried out by political parties. The findings of this research revealed that identity politics is strengthening among Muslim voters, driven by three factors: political elites, mass media, and institutions. This is relevant to the theory put forward by Theresia Kuhn. However, there are other factors that strengthen identity politics that are not put forward by Kuhn, namely, ideological factors. The ideology of the party is the same as the ideology of the majority of voters. This is a novelty in this study, which differs from Kuhn’s research and other studies. Keywords: Muslim voters, identity politics in Indonesia, political parties

Discursive Practices during an Electoral Cycle: Public Opinion and Political Disillusionment on Twitter

Electoral cycles are highly charged, politically intense moments that influence public discourse. Political elites, citizens, and the traditional news media seek to generate opinions and interactions on social networks. This research is motivated by the following questions: What are the communicative and deliberative practices used in these spaces? Is it possible to identify the characteristics that –through deliberative conversations– potentially foster or undermine democratic debate, particularly when using populist and polarizing discourse? Using a mixed methods approach, we apply a social network analysis tool to track conversations and identify the volume of political discourse (N=346,000). Using selective and staged filtering, we identified posts from nine Peruvian Twitter accounts during the September 2022 electoral campaign in Lima: three candidates, three media outlets, and three accounts with high levels of engagement. Our data comprised the comments from these nine accounts and was extracted using an Application Programming Interface (API). Subsequently, we carried out ethnographic content analysis on publications with more than 30 comments. In this phase, we analyzed Twitter comments using a codebook to identify deliberative practices and user responses. Our findings underscore the significant role of principal media outlets in shaping political conversation on Twitter. We also discovered that attempts to interact and deliberate were often overshadowed by heated comments attempting to impose opinions on others. Most importantly, our research reveals a widespread disillusionment with politics, political institutions, and even the political preferences of fellow citizens in Peru, highlighting a key challenge for democratic discourse on social media.

Value model of political communications of the Russian elite in conflictual and deviant polysubject environment

The article, based on the results of a comprehensive political analysis, substantiates that in the modern socio-political reality, the formation of a multipolar world, the problem of the effectiveness of political communications are closely related to the potential of political and administrative power elites. The communicative qualities of a modern politician are enhanced by value-civilizational and moral parameters, the ability of strategic vision and the ability to maintain civilizational and value discourse in the political and economic system and direct it towards sustainable advanced development of society. This, in turn, involves the analysis and development of parameters for diagnosing the quality of modern Russian political and administrative elites, their moral and professional adequacy and aptitude; so is the actualization and solution of the problem of deviations at the elite level of political power. In order to form a value model of political communications of the Russian elite, it is necessary to comprehensively consider management systems based on specific values (including management of public values), identify and position public values as determinants of socio-political development, develop mechanisms to counteract the value degradation and marginalization of national elites, take into account the propensity of the Russian government to identify internal and external enemies in the previous stages of development, and also to the uncritical borrowing of the models of democracy alien to the Russian cultural and civilizational code, and the image imitation of elite qualities.

Mobilized Resilience and Development under Sanctions in Iran

ABSTRACTHow do states maintain economic development in the face of sanctions? Recent studies have examined economic resilience as a property of a system preceding a shock, leaving unanswered questions about how sanctioned states discipline employers and limit predatory behaviour. Using the case of Iran, this article aims to fill this gap by presenting a model of mobilized resilience, describing how bottom‐up and top‐down mobilizations can create demand for institutional capacity. Integrating unique qualitative and quantitative material, the author argues that Iran's political elites responded to sanctions by launching top‐down campaigns that appealed to workers, promoted capital–labour unity, and demanded state commitment to development. These campaigns facilitated widespread labour protests that further empowered the state to block capital flight and steer firms onto more profitable, growth‐oriented routes. Labour ‘resistance’ thus unexpectedly helped to realize the Supreme Leader's calls for a ‘resistance economy’. These findings suggest that political support for worker mobilization in the context of sanctions can result in economic benefits, with significant consequences for our understanding of economic statecraft, development and labour movements.