Ideological Divisions Research Articles

Media Trust and the COVID-19 Pandemic: An Analysis of Short-Term Trust Changes, Their Ideological Drivers and Consequences in Switzerland.

We analyze short-term media trust changes during the COVID-19 pandemic, their ideological drivers and consequences based on panel data in German-speaking Switzerland. We thereby differentiate trust in political information from different types of traditional and non-traditional media. COVID-19 serves as a natural experiment, in which citizens' media trust at the outbreak of the crisis is compared with the same variables after the severe lockdown measures were lifted. Our data reveal that (1) media trust is consequential as it is associated with people's willingness to follow Covid-19 regulations; (2) media trust changes during the pandemic, with trust levels for most media decreasing, with the exception of public service broadcasting; (3) trust losses are hardly connected to ideological divides in Switzerland. Our findings highlight that public service broadcasting plays an exceptional role in the fight against a pandemic and that contrary to the US, no partisan trust divide occurs.

The struggle for marital equality beyond Cold War political divides: transnational relationships between Polish and Spanish women lawyers in the 1960s and 1970s

ABSTRACT This article discusses the transnational relationships between women lawyers from Poland and Spain that developed within the International Federation of Women in Legal Careers (Fédération Internationale des Femmes des Carrières Juridiques, FIFCJ) from the mid-1960s to the mid-1970s. Drawing on archival material and published sources, it traces the history of relations between the Spanish lawyer María Telo Núñez and the Spanish Association of Women Lawyers, and Zofia Wasilkowska and Maria Stypułkowska from the Section of Women Lawyers (Sekcja Kobiet Prawników, SKP) of the League of Women (Liga Kobiet) in Poland. Women lawyers from both countries joined the Federation at the turn of the 1950s and 1960s, and met at international meetings, two of which were held in Warsaw and Madrid. This analysis focuses on the forms and meanings of exchange between these women and their influence on legal changes in civil and family legislation in Poland and Spain during the mid-1970s. Developing a mutual interest in the family law of both countries, these women strategically framed their activity as apolitical. Transnational relationships between lawyers and activists from two contrasting dictatorships reveal the importance of professional networking in overcoming political and ideological divides in the struggle for women’s rights in Cold War Europe.

Cooperation and conflict across ideological and strategic divides: Sumud Freedom Camp coalition in the occupied West Bank

AbstractThe literature on social movement coalitions highlights the tremendous challenges posed to coalitions by ideology. Yet, coalitions do occasionally form across contrasting ideological lines. This study investigates how the Palestinian‐led Sumud Freedom Camp coalition in the occupied West Bank was able to reach agreement across ideological divides, thereby enabling an ambitious collective action that actively sought to reestablish a Palestinian village depopulated by Israeli colonial policies and settler violence. Based on interviews with coalition activists, this study principally highlights, though, the tremendous challenges the coalition faced sustaining agreement among all the partners and the circumstances that led the coalition to splinter. Ultimately, it argues that differences in strategy need to be addressed, particularly in environments where the differences are salient. Otherwise, interactions with media and prospective members, along with the authorities, are likely to expose the differences and trigger conflict, particularly as it relates to representation and expression of the coalition's collective identity (i.e., who “we” are collectively).

Independence and Constitution: The Spanish Nationalization of Personal Experience During the Peninsular War and its Aftermath

The deconstruction of the ‘War of Independence’ (1808–1814) as a Spanish nationalist myth was a necessary step in advancing our knowledge of the history of the Age of Revolutions in Spain and of Spanish nation-building itself. However, it set aside those who had in fact experienced those events through a genuine Spanish nationalized lens. Using a corpus of autobiographical sources written between the 1780s and the 1830s, this paper argues that political concepts of Spanish nationhood were already available before the liberal revolution unleashed by the French invasion, that anti-liberals used the language of nationhood in their ego-documents too, and that ideas of independence and constitution pervaded social cleavages and ideological divides. Arguably, then, the War of Independence had both mythical and real dimensions in terms of the history of national identities. Therefore, the great issue in nineteenth-century Spanish nation-building would have not been a congenital ‘lack’ or ‘weakness’ of nationhood but an intense cultural war for its definition along political lines.

When Inmigration is a New Issue: Evidence from Chile 2003 and 2017

In countries where parties have not adopted strong policy positions on immigration–and where the immigrant population is not large–popular perceptions of immigrants might not reflect the ideological divides reported in the literature for countries where immigration is a politically salient issue. We assess the association of ideological identification with the perceptions of immigrants in Chile using two comparable national polls, one from 2003, before the recent immigration wave, and one from 2017, in the middle of an immigration wave, but before parties formally adopted policy positions on immigration. With OLS estimations, we find that, as expected, leftists had more positive views than the rest, but contrary to expectations, those on the right also had more positive views, especially in 2017. Views were more prominent in 2017 than in 2003, with those in the extreme left and extreme right displaying positive views.

Graph Youth and the Japanese Communist Party Youth Movement circa 1960: The Image of ‘Democracy’

In 1950, Cominform (the Information Bureau of the Communist and Workers’ Parties) criticised the Japanese Communist Party (JCP) for promoting ‘peaceful revolution’ under the Allied Occupation. The critique led to the so-called ‘1950 issue’, a period beset by ideological divisions, in which the JCP split, with one faction continuing to support ‘peaceful revolution’ and the other siding with Cominform’s views. Nuyama Hiroshi founded the magazine Gurafu wakamono (Graph Youth) in 1958 after a temporary respite to the 1950 issue. The magazine was aimed at the young people of Japan, and ran until 1971. Nuyama was regarded as an authority on cultural issues within the JCP and, in addition to being the first editor-in-chief of Gurafu wakamono, he led the ‘Dance for Dance’s Sake’ movement, sometimes referred to as the ‘Singing and Dancing Communist Party’. In 1966, during the lifetime of the magazine, Nuyama’s ideological differences regarding the Cultural Revolution in China led to his excommunication from the Communist Party. Drawing on material from the magazine itself, this article examines the democratic ideology promulgated by Gurafu wakamono and its successor magazine, also edited by Nuyama, with particular emphasis on editions published in the late 1950s and early 1960s.

Voice of the Tribes: A History of the National Tribal Chairman's Association by Thomas A. Britten (review)

Reviewed by: Voice of the Tribes: A History of the National Tribal Chairman's Association by Thomas A. Britten Paul McKenzie-Jones (bio) Voice of the Tribes: A History of the National Tribal Chairman's Association by Thomas A. Britten University of Oklahoma Press, 2020 THOMAS A. BRITTEN has produced a meticulously researched history of the short-lived and often-forgotten American Indian advocacy group, the National Tribal Chairman's Association (NTCA). Founded in 1973 and ended in 1987, the NTCA sought (often unsuccessfully) to present itself to the U.S. federal government and Indigenous people within the lower forty-nine U.S. states as the sole "bona-[fide representative of] federally recognized Indians" (104) when lobbying the government for Indigenous rights. Britten tracks the genesis of the organization—as a perceived antidote to the "wrong Indian voices" (42) of urban Indian activism and the structural uncertainties that beset the National Congress of American Indians (NCAI) in the late 1960s and early 1970s. Britten argues that the elected tribal leaders who sought to chart a more conservative approach to American Indian rights reform saw an opportunity to fill a vacuum and seize control of the narrative and direction of the self-determination movement. The text is preceded by a foreword from founding member of the American Indian Press Association and former NCAI director Charles Trimble, who hints at the still-lingering resentment felt over the ideological divisions between American Indian rights advocates from that era. In the current climate of Indigenous rights activism, the foreword can best be described as tone deaf in the way Trimble excoriates and seeks to invalidate the youth movements of the NCAI and the American Indian Movement as being rude, divisive, disrespectful, radical, and violent. Fortunately, while the book exposes the tensions that existed between the various groups fighting for American Indian rights during the 1960s and 1970s, Britten takes a much more measured and diplomatic tone than Trimble when discussing these divisions. As Britten shows, there was a certain amount of lateral violence and prejudice behind the decision to create an organization of elected tribal chairman and attempt to position themselves as the sole voice of American Indians within the United States. This prejudice included resentment at the NCAI opening its membership to include urban Indians. The charter [End Page 187] members of the NTCA saw urban Indians as inauthentic, illegitimate, and undeserving of either a voice in the Indian rights movement or government funding. In their eyes, the only "real" Indians were reservation-based Indians. As such, they determined that their organizational membership was exclusively limited to democratically elected tribal leaders. Fundamental to this exclusivity was the NTCA founders' determination to take a more measured and conservative approach to fighting for reform by using official channels of diplomacy and more politically "traditional" practices of lobbying, rather than protests, blockades, or occupations. The strength of Britten's history of the NTCA is his honest evaluations of the success of the organization in shifting or directing government policies toward American Indian communities and people. He offers a measured judgment that reflects the ambiguity with which the NTCA was viewed within Indian Country. Some saw NTCA as de facto mouthpieces for the federal Bureau of Indian Affairs (BIA) while others resented their disdain for nonreservation based American Indians. Connecting the mistrust from both sides of this argument was a collective distrust of NTCA insistence on conservative approaches to federal policy reform and insistence on framing themselves as the exclusive authentic voice of American Indians and tribal nations. As Britten points out, many more tribal chairmen were members of the NCAI than were members of the NTCA. Somewhat ironically, the downfall of the NTCA was a result of the very factionalism and aggressive activism that the organization was created to counter. "Radicalized" (181) by the stringent budget cuts of the Reagan administration, NTCA leaders became much more vocal in their criticism of the government and government policies. Ultimately, this more vocal approach resulted in the government pulling away funding that the organization relied on. Unsurprisingly, the demise of the organization went largely un-mourned in Indian Country, except for those members involved. Britten shows how some former...

We’re All Political Animals: Insights on Navigating Ideological Divisions at Work and in Daily Life

Whether explicitly or implicitly, organizations often convey that taboo topics, like politics, should be avoided. But politics inevitably seeps into the workplace because ideological views are difficult to suppress and easy to infer. Quite notably, partisanship is one of the strongest identity markers that unites—or polarizes—people today. People tend to self-segregate into ideological echo chambers in their personal lives. But the workplace constitutes one conspicuous context that still requires people with diverse ideological views to regularly communicate and collaborate. And while people are reluctant to admit prejudice based on social-category differences, they freely report and exhibit out-party dislike and hostility. We contend that political (just like demographic) differences can be problematic if organizations do not learn to understand and embrace them, and that ignoring or suppressing such differences is a misguided strategy. The presentations in this symposium build on the reality of affective (political) polarization that increasingly characterizes today’s society but is largely overlooked in management research. Examining a range of a micro-level, dyadic phenomena, this body of empirical research aims to spotlight the interpersonal—especially relatable—side of political ideology among ordinary people at work and in daily life. Together, the four presentations illuminate the theoretical and practical importance of conducting research on a range of political topics despite—and perhaps especially in light of—their controversial nature. We’re All Political Animals: Insights on Navigating Ideological Divisions at Work and in Daily Life Presenter: Brittany Solomon; U. of Notre Dame Presenter: Juliana Schroeder; U. of California, Berkeley Presenter: Michael Rosenblum; NYU Stern School of Business Presenter: Jeffrey Martin Lees; Princeton U. Presenter: Haley Todd; Clemson U. Presenter: Maxwell Barranti; York U.

The Legitimacy of Private Schooling: Education Preferences in Nine European Contexts

ABSTRACT Motivated by empirical reality of differences in the scope and meaning of school choice and private schooling this article focuses on the public demand for increasing diversity of educational options In Europe and the division of public and private provision in it. We aim to test self-interest and ideology-driven logics of education policy preferences in different educational contexts. We operationalize this variety of contexts by the share of private education spending and between-school inequality. We show that, on average, more resourceful individuals are less pro-private-education and those that are ideologically right-leaning are more so. At the system level, private schooling feeds back positively, and this does not differ across educational or ideological divides. Educational inequality, at the same time, de-legitimizes the support for private schooling and its effect differs – higher educated and ideologically right-leaning turn to prefer more public schooling the higher the educational inequality. Thus, the more equal the educational provision, independent of public-private mix, the more entrenched pro-private school preferences will become.

The Role of Educational Institutions in Countering Political Polarization: Building Inclusive Communities and Civic Engagement

Political polarization has become increasingly prevalent worldwide, posing significant challenges to social cohesion, democratic governance, and civic participation. Various factors, including ideological divisions, socio-economic disparities, and the rise of digital echo chambers, have exacerbated this phenomenon. Amidst this backdrop, educational institutions have emerged as pivotal actors in addressing political polarization by fostering inclusive communities and promoting civic engagement among students and faculty members. This study aims to identify the key challenges and opportunities faced by educational institutions in addressing political polarization, examine the effectiveness of existing interventions and programs, and propose evidence-based recommendations for enhancing the role of educational institutions in building inclusive communities. This study employs a qualitative research design utilizing a literature review as the primary methodological approach. The data for this research are obtained from various scholarly sources, including academic journals, books, reports, and policy documents, accessed through academic databases, institutional repositories, and online libraries. In conclusion, this research sheds light on the crucial role that educational institutions play in combating political polarization by fostering inclusive communities and promoting civic engagement among students. Through an analysis of the various mechanisms and strategies employed, it becomes evident that educational institutions are vital platforms for bridging ideological divides and nurturing a culture of tolerance and respect for diverse perspectives.

El Congreso de los Estados Unidos. Un largo predominio demócrata: 1933-1981

For nearly 50 years, from 1933 to 1981, Democrats held a majority of seats in Congress. One could argue whether that period of time should be regarded as one or several, but the fact remains that, during that time, American society experienced some profound transformations that established the foundations for that society as it is today. Until the 1930s, despite internal, partisan and ideological divides, the U.S. were profoundly conservative. All political power was in the hands of a white, male, Protestant majority, while women and ethnic and religious minorities had a very small participation. By the early 1980s, that situation had substantially changed, and Congress did not escape those changes. Also, over those 50 years, the U.S. Congress –like many other legislatures- had to deal with the unstoppable onslaught of the administrative state, boosted by the 1930s crisis –even though it had started before that date, as a result of new doctrines that demanded more state intervention in the economy. None of those circumstances, however, caused the U.S. Congress to lose continuity or institutional relevance.

Between Transnational Cooperation and Nationalism

Focusing on the involvement of feminist activist women from Czechoslovakia in the Little Entente of Women (LEW), this article examines the ideological and political limits of transnational cooperation within such an international organization, one that aimed to promote women’s rights and pacifism in Central and Eastern Europe. The case of Czechoslovakia suggests that deep, ideological divisions between liberal feminist and conservative nationalist threads within the LEW’s national branch seriously undermined eff orts at unity and “global sisterhood” on the international level. It became possible to overcome ideological and political differences in the 1920s without questioning the very existence of the LEW. However, the antirevisionist political agenda of states involved in the LEW was a decisive factor in its reorganization. This article characterizes the rather limited impact of the LEW’s activities in Czechoslovakia and presents new details on its reorganization in the 1930s.

At Penpoint: African Literatures, Postcolonial Studies, and the Cold War

At Penpoint: African Literatures, Postcolonial Studies, and the Cold War

From the Eternal Grand Coalition to the Traffic Light Alliance

The first German election without Angela Merkel as a candidate in over one and a half decades would turn out to be one of the most unpredictable in the history of the Federal Republic. For most of the election year, a conservative Green alliance appeared the most likely outcome, potentially even with a Green chancellor at its head. However, the final months of campaigning showcased the volatility of the increasingly fragmented party system and the relevance that candidate selection and external events can have on political majorities. Having been stuck in third place for about three years, the spd’s well-organized campaign managed to complete a remarkable victory, allowing the Social Democrats to come in first for just the third time in close to half a century. Transcending traditional ideological divides, Olaf Scholz’s subsequent three-party “traffic light” alliance serves to perfectly reflect the changes that Germany’s party system has undergone since reunification.

Perceived Policy Illegitimacy Leads to Acceptance of Political Violence: Evidence from a Nationally Representative Survey Experiment in Denmark

ABSTRACT Unfortunately, the question of which factors that might drive citizens to accept and engage in violence remains pivotal. When answering it, scholars have been preoccupied with psychological and psychopathological factors, often in interplay with social networks, recruitment and intergroup dynamics. They seldom mention the importance of citizens’ perceptions of policy illegitimacy despite it being central to the stated rationale for political violence in many instances. This shortcoming along with a lack of experimental studies limits our evidence of policy illegitimacy’s role in relation to acceptance of political violence. By using a novel experimental survey design with more than 1,500 respondents, this article tests whether policy illegitimacy increases acceptance of political violence and (if so) under which circumstances. In a nationally representative sample, treated respondents interacted with a fictional policy designed to induce policy illegitimacy. Treated respondents reported a significantly higher willingness to accept violence compared to those in the control condition. The effect was stable across ideological divides and other prevalent explanations in the literature. This study offers a promising starting point for “bringing policy back” as a potential explanation for acceptance of political violence along with pushing the still neglected experimental research agenda in this research area.

YOUTH OF UZBEKISTAN AGAINST DESTRUCTIVE IDEAS

The article gives the concept of an idea, ideology, ideological mechanism. The division of ideology into creative and destructive ideology. Examples of constructive and destructive ideology are given. The ideological policy of Uzbekistan is described. The means for the formation of immunity from destructive ideas, the work done and the successes in Uzbekistan are briefly described. The article briefly covered topics such as religion and terrorism. Also, suggestions were made from the author of the articlе.

Російська імперія в боротьбі з османським спадком: упокорення корінних народів Північного Причорномор’я

The article examines the establishment and maintenance of control by the Russian Empire over the territories of the annexed Crimean Khanate. Based on a comprehensive analysis of documents stored in Russian archives, travel notes and research by Ukrainian, Russian, German and British authors, it was found that the first important step in achieving this goal was the formation of a puppet government of Shagin Giray. With his help, the Russian Empire legitimized the presence of its own troops and the occupation administration in the region. As a result of the annexation of the Crimean peninsula, there were changes in the economic and political status of the indigenous peoples of the Northern Black Sea region, which consisted of depriving them of their rights and numerical restrictions. This led to the deployment of an anti-Russian national movement, which in turn prompted imperial government circles to develop a set of measures to maintain control over the region. Special attention is paid to the methods of subjugation of indigenous peoples, in particular the Crimean Tatars, Nogais, Greeks, Armenians. In the course of the research it was found that in order to solve the set tasks Russia managed to establish control over the local elites, physically destroy the Crimean Tatars and Nogais, deprive them of property, and push them out of the empire. At the same time, the tsar introduced various measures of assimilation, in particular: resettlement, the use of some ethnic groups in the struggle against others (the principle of “divide and rule”), religious pressure. All this led to the destruction of the traditional culture and way of life of the indigenous peoples of the Northern Black Sea coast. During the 19th century, the Russian Empire began to impose its own political, economic and mental traditions. By creating mythologemes and ideologemes, and enshrining them in the mass consciousness, the tsar formed a new reality and distorted the collective historical memory. The means of rooting imperial myths were the transformation of Orthodox churches into places of honor of the ruling dynasty, military victories and the Russian army, the construction of pantheons for the heroes of wars of aggression, and so on. The Church, carrying out the tasks set by the state, formed intolerance towards the Islamic population, consolidated the ideological division into “Orthodox” and “Busurman”, “liberators” and “enslavers”.

Reflections on Islamisation and the Future of the Women’s Rights Movement in ‘Naya’ Pakistan

This paper examines how the Islamisation of education is likely to impact the future of the women’s rights movement in Pakistan. Recently, the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI, or party for social justice) government introduced the Single National Curriculum (SNC), a reform of the education system that enhances the volume of Islamic Studies and wherein Urdu, the national language, is promoted as a parallel medium of instruction. The central argument of this paper is that such developments are regressive and that they could prove detrimental to the women’s rights movement. Historically, the formation of the Women’s Action Forum (1981) and its rising against Zia’s Islamic dictatorship (1983) remains one of the most memorable moments of the women’s rights movement in contemporary Pakistan’s history. But in the decades that followed, the movement began sagging and stumbling. The recent Women’s Marches are evidence that deep ideological divisions running within the movement are impeding the achievement of tangible goals. This is a critical juncture because the implementation of an Islamic curriculum will set off the process of the bottom-up Islamisation of society. Gradually, when everything shall be sorted out ‘according to Islam and Islamic principles’, a large chunk of women’s demands will be simply chucked away as un-Islamic, thus inadmissible. Pakistani society will likely become less tolerant than it is already and the few freedoms that women still enjoy shall be taken away one after the other. This is a gloomy scenario, but it is avoidable. Now could be the time for the movement to focus on defining attainable goals and pushing for the achievement and consolidation of women’s human rights. While the Islamisation of education appears like a potential threat to the movement now, activists might as well make of it an element that reinvigorates the movement from the inside and gives it a new direction and sense of purpose.

The Ideological Foundations of Eurasian Economic Integration

The article analyzes the significance of Eurasian ideology for modern economic integration, the reasons for its limited use in the Eurasian Economic Union (EAEU), and the possibilities and prospects of adapting Eurasianism for the purposes of economic development and integration. Many international economic integration associations (e.g., the EU, USMCA, ASEAN) have a common or similar ideological and value-based foundation, which ensures stronger integration. The EAEU was initially established without a common, integrating ideological basis, although the first president of Kazakhstan, Nursultan Nazarbayev, suggested using Eurasianism as the ideology of integration. Sergey Glazyev also wrote about the importance of integrative ideology for the development of the EAEU. However, these attempts to introduce Eurasian ideology for a stronger integration were not supported by the rest of the EAEU countries. This was largely because most EAEU members, including Russia, were driven by short-term economic interests, forgetting about more important long-term, strategic goals. Moreover, there are important ideological divisions in society and in the political elites of Russia, Belarus, Kazakhstan, Armenia, and Kyrgyzstan - primarily the division between adherents of the ideology and practices of Western liberalism, oriented toward EU integration, and supporters of an ideology close to Eurasianism and defense of traditional values, oriented toward the development of integration in the Eurasian space. The reproduction of such divisions in the EAEU countries, as well as the absence or weak development of an integrative ideology, largely determines the inconsistent and not always effective integration in the EAEU. Eurasianism can become an integrative ideology, which, if developed and adapted to modern realities, can ensure a stronger economic integration. This requires overcoming illusions about the possibility of integration of Russia and other post-Soviet countries into the EU, pursuing an active information policy in the Eurasian countries, showing the commonality of geopolitical and economic interests of EAEU countries and the opposition of these interests to those of the USA. Eurasianism can effectively counter the threat of ethnic nationalism in the EAEU countries by emphasizing Eurasian integration as a necessary condition for preserving the sovereignty of Eurasian countries, their traditional values, and the combination of tradition and innovation.

Critical Mass Claims and Ideological Divides Among Women in the U.S. House of Representatives

Critical mass theories predict that women in government will sponsor and vote for more women and feminist bills as their numbers increase. Using Voteview.com data of roll-call votes measuring left–right ideology from 1977 to 2019 this paper shows that ideological divides among women in the U.S. House of Representatives have deepened rather than veered in a liberal direction. Republican women have moved rightward over time and more conservative ones are winning elections. Belonging to a politicized generation, older Silent Generation and Boomer women are more ideologically extreme than younger women. Parties are also elevating their more ideological female members. As their numbers increase, female House members are expected to remain ideologically diverse in a polarized legislative environment. Critical mass theories are deficient in failing to place female political actors in a dynamic workplace.