Ideological Positions Research Articles

Co-constructing identities and ideological positions in conversational storytelling among friends

Research has shown that identities and ideologies result from a complex interplay between various social, cultural and psychological factors, such as socialisation, shared experiences, cultural backgrounds and institutional practices in media, education and family. However, due to this tendency to focus on macro identity categories and macro-level ideological processes, more research is needed on how these categories and ideologies are co-constructed and operationalised within micro contexts, such as between friends. In doing so, we can explore the malleability of ideologies and identities as individuals (re)negotiate their beliefs and affiliations over time, often within micro, everyday activities. Using ethnographic methods and a practice approach to narrative, this paper shows how the analysis of conversational practices, specifically storytelling, can provide a window into the granular semiotic and discursive processes through which group identities and ideologies are (re)negotiated in mundane everyday discourse. The analyses of naturally occurring conversations between friends in Cape Town, South Africa, show that, through the use of constructed dialogue and other evaluative devices, interlocutors jointly negotiate complex alignments and positions in relation to a variety of social issues and ordinary occurrences, simultaneously and implicitly (re)establishing or (re)defining their group positionalities and ideologies.

Going Digital … But What For? Parties' Ideological Positions and Divides on Platform Societies in Western Europe

Going Digital … But What For? Parties' Ideological Positions and Divides on Platform Societies in Western Europe

The function of humor and ideological discourse in Turkish Islamist humor magazines: the case of Misvak

ABSTRACT This article focuses on the ideological discourse of Misvak, one of Turkey's most popular Islamist humor magazines in the 2000s. By analyzing the magazine’s cartoons, it first attempts to reveal the general characteristics and function of humor in Misvak. It then discusses how Islamism is presented as the primary ideological position in the magazine. In order to uncover absences and silences in the discourse, the purpose of the study is also to investigate whether there is discursive parallelism between the magazine and the AKP government by analyzing visual texts while positioning the magazine within debates over hegemony.

Political polarization, legitimacy and democratic education

ABSTRACT Political polarization is often argued to be a major threat to democracy. This article examines whether the two different forms of polarization, ideological and affective, may risk some of the core assumptions of democratic legitimacy. The paper argues that ideological polarization is linked with increasingly radical ideological positions being accepted as legitimate contributions to democratic processes, which may lead to the erosion of the democratic culture of society. Affective polarization, in turn, presents a risk to the type of political collaboration that characterizes legitimate democratic processes. The article presents some remarks on how these forms of polarization could be pre-emptively addressed in education: first, by demonstrating to students the practical consequences of neglecting the core democratic principles of toleration (Forst) and reciprocity (Rawls) in society; and second, through forms of political action that engage students’ political emotions in support of democratic principles and way of life in a nonpartisan way.

CHES Canada

Abstract The ideological and issue positions of parties are known to shape citizens’ political attitudes and voting behaviour. One important way to obtain estimates of parties’ positions is to ask experts to place parties on salient ideological dimensions. The Chapel Hill Expert Survey (CHES) has been collecting such estimates for democracies in Europe and elsewhere. CHES Canada adds to this project by providing estimates of party positions and characteristics of Canadian federal parties and provincial parties in Ontario and Quebec. This note introduces this new data source, clarifies how the data were collected and illustrates how the data can be used to (comparatively) study party politics in Canada.

“I desire to live and live... thousands of other lives”: multimythologism in I. A. Bunin’s onomastic code

The article considers the manifestation of multimythologism as a characteristic feature of I. A. Bunin’s artistic worldview at the level of the individual author’s poetic mythonymicon. The paper identifies lexical units referring to the characters (gods, wizards, heroes, fantastic birds and animals), places, magic objects of the mythologies of the ancient Greeks and Romans, Sumerians and Akkadians, Indians and Iranians, as well as Egyptians, Scandinavians and. It is noted that the organization of the sound system of I. A. Bunin’s poetic speech is provided by regular graphic-phonetic transformations of mythonyms, and the uniqueness of the onomastic code of his lyrical texts is created by the inclusion of special mythonyms-bilexemes, onymized appellatives and mythological names with a low level of precedent and occasional units. It is established that for explication of philosophical and symbolic subtexts, representation of key motives and binary oppositions I. A. Bunin subordinates traditional sacral genealogies to the author’s individual picture of the world, matches and simultaneously uses mythonyms belonging to different national mythological onomasticons. The author comes to the conclusion that all the lexical units of Bunin’s poetic mythonymicon are connected by a single ideological attitude, aimed, on the one hand, at overcoming the autonomy of cultural worlds, and on the other hand, at preserving cultural pluralism.

ОППОЗИЦИЯ «ВЕРХ – НИЗ» В РАННЕЙ ЛИРИКЕ К. Д. БАЛЬМОНТА

The article is devoted to the study of the specifics of the artistic world of K. D. Balmont as a secondary reality that projects the author’s worldview and value system. In the course of the study, the implementation of the mental opposition “top — bottom” is considered as the construction of an axiological vertical that determines the nature of the artistic space in general and its main varieties (real, astronomical, oneiric, mythological, folklore and syncretic) in particular. The symbolism of the “top” appears in the early lyrics of K. D. Balmont not only as a spatial, but also as a value guideline, reflecting the lyrical subject’s desire for higher truths and understanding of the integrity of the universe. “Bottom” is associated with a gloomy “wordlessness” and generates a desire to change space. At the same time, the author’s model of the world, which includes “upper” and “lower” spaces, is a dynamic system within which their confrontation occurs. The intentions of the “bottom” tend to spread to the world of the “top,” however, the axiological comprehensiveness of the latter, overcoming the opposition “temporary — eternal,” makes it possible to draw a conclusion about the author’s ideological attitudes. The spatial vertical is explicated through images of human habitation, plains, forests, swamps, on the one hand, and the sky, mountain and tree peaks, moon and sun, on the other, as well as solar and lunar rays connecting the “poles” of the poet’s artistic world.

A world of Palantir – ontological politics in the Danish police’s POL-INTEL

ABSTRACT When Palantir Technologies customized the Gotham platform into POL-INTEL, a data integration and analysis platform purchased and used by the Danish police, it also enforced a new ontology that simultaneously shaped the police organization and policing practices. In this context, the concept of ontology should be understood in a twofold, albeit interconnected, way: it stands for its usual philosophical burden, but also refers to a centralized concept repository. In Computer Science, ontology refers to the basic concepts for how data is structured. Based on a series of interviews with Palantir engineers and police-officer users of POL-INTEL, this paper investigates what kind of politics, concepts, and bias in the form of data are inserted, processed and materialized in and by POL-INTEL’s ontology. We argue that POL-INTEL’s ontology is inherently political, as it is articulated by an assemblage of data, ideological positions, and economic concerns that are translated into the Danish context. POL-INTEL as a vector of platformization of police work also implies ideological choices with important consequences for the organizational life and accountability of law enforcement, establishing new distributions of skills between the platform and police officers.

The Foreign Policy of the Russian Federation in the 1990s in the assessments of domestic social Democratic parties

The article is devoted to the consideration of assessments of the foreign policy of the Russian Federation in the 1990s by domestic social democratic parties. The subject of the study is the publications of representatives of Russian Social Democrats, which reflect their views on the foreign policy of the Russian Federation during the period of Boris Yeltsin. The Social Democratic parties in the world and in Russia at that time influenced both the domestic and foreign policies of their states. The assessments of the social democratic parties in their programs and press reflect a wide range of views on the foreign policy of our state in the 1990s. Depending on the directions of the Social Democrats - left and right, their contradictions in views are displayed, which shows the breadth of social democratic thought at that time. The study uses a historical and comparative method, a civilizational approach in analyzing the assessments of the positions of the right-wing social Democrats and a world-system analysis in analyzing the assessments of the positions of the left-wing social Democrats. The scientific novelty of the study consists in identifying the positions of the social democratic parties of the 1990s on the foreign policy course of the Russian Federation, and the different assessments of the country's foreign policy by left and right social Democrats. The study reveals differences in the assessments of social democratic parties and their priorities in the foreign policy of the Russian Federation, depending on their directions - the left social Democrats and the right social Democrats. The article evaluates the attitude of the parties to the official course of the authorities of the Russian Federation at that time, who advocated the country's close integration into the Western world. The conclusion is made about the role of social Democrats of different directions in constructing a new understanding of Russia's foreign policy, based on the ideological positions of the parties.

A Novel Class of Unfolding Models for Binary Preference Data

Abstract We develop a new class of spatial voting models for binary preference data that can accommodate both monotonic and non-monotonic response functions, and are more flexible than alternative “unfolding” models previously introduced in the literature. We then use these models to estimate revealed preferences for legislators in the U.S. House of Representatives and justices on the U.S. Supreme Court. The results from these applications indicate that the new models provide superior complexity-adjusted performance to various alternatives and that the additional flexibility leads to preferences’ estimates that more closely match the perceived ideological positions of legislators and justices.

A Pertinence Score for Political Discourse Analysis: The Case of 2018 Colombian Elections

This study proposes a quantitative method to assess the pertinence of political language on national issues, addressing the complexity of analyzing political discourse and its relevance to citizens’ concerns. Using word embeddings and linguistic models trained on Wikipedia, a “pertinence score” was developed to measure the relevance of political discourse in contexts such as the economy and health. The method was applied to the 2018 Colombian presidential election, revealing significant differences in thematic pertinence between candidates. Survey validation confirmed the correlation between automatic and human scores, highlighting the model’s ability to discriminate ideological positions through lexical analysis.

Мир объективного знания и социально-экономическая реальность (К. Поппер & К. Маркс)

The growing specialization and formalization of economic knowledge threatens to break away from the general scientific base that forms the worldview of the researcher. An urgent task is presented in the reintegration of basic methodological principles and categories of science into modern social science and economic theory. The article conducts a comparative analysis of the works of K. Marx and K. Popper, who made revolutionary changes in the methodology and ideological attitudes (conceptual frameworks) of scientific knowledge. Marx’s contribution focuses on dialectical and historical materialism, the doctrine of the economic basis of society and the change of socio-economic formations; Popper’s contribution focuses on his trial and error method with falsifying interpretation of results and the concept of successive three worlds of the universe. Popper’s criticisms of Marxist doctrine (essentialism, elements of mythology, teleologism) and the counterarguments of consistent Marxists are evaluated. The paper characterizes Popper’s positions on the realism of scientific knowledge, the world of predispositions, flexible management in animate and inanimate nature, the world of mental states of consciousness and the world of the objective content of thinking. Their commonality with the provisions of dialectical and historical materialism (the material nature of objective reality, the theory of reflection, the role of objective mental forms and ideological social relations) in the formation of the ‘world of objective knowledge’ is shown. The insufficiency of Popper’s epistemology for the study of the economic basis of social life is revealed. Based on a structural and logical analysis of the methodological principles and theoretical positions of Marx and Popper, the paper outlines the paths to the development of a system of concepts that brings together the complementary results of their apparently opposing research programs. Also presented are sources showing the relevance of the ideas of Marx and Popper in modern methodological and socio-economic literature. It is concluded that the world of objective knowledge (the key category of Popper’s social science) is part of the socio-economic life of society (in its Marxist interpretation), which, in turn, is incomplete without taking into account the realities of this world and needs additional study from the appropriate angle.

Computer Analysis of Scientific Texts to Identify Ideological Narratives

This article is devoted to the problem of identifying hidden ideological attitudes in scientific articles on economics, as well as defining methods for analyzing the ideological landscape of Russian economic science. The problem of this review article lies in the absence of a developed generally accepted approach to the textual analysis of scientific publications. Thus, there is an extremely wide list of methods that can be used in this case. Nevertheless, the development of the most effective methodology requires a comprehensive analysis of existing approaches individually and a comparison of each of them with the others. The authors associate the solution of the problem of choice in the presence of several approaches and a variety of methods with the definition of such a basis that would allow the formation of a methodology that includes ideological classification within the framework of economic scientific literature, the use of computational linguistics tools, in particular natural language processing, in addition to classical narrative analysis tools to identify "ideological narratives". In this regard, the methods of identifying implicit meanings in economic texts are considered in detail. The proposed tools can be used in further research on this or related topics.

«Историк по наклонностям» и «Зощенко в философии»: скандальная карьера писателя Х. Г. Аджемяна

In the 1940s and 1950s, the writer H. G. Ajemyan actively participated in a number of important scientific discussions on history and philosophy: a meeting of historians in 1944, a discussion about the movement of Caucasian mountaineers, a philosophical discussion in 1947, a discussion of a report on the nature of nations in 1957, at which he was the main “troublemaker”. His bold ideas about the monistic unity of the state and the people, the harm of class struggle and national liberation movements to strengthen the power of the Russian state, the use of Orthodoxy to fight the Vatican, and the priority of cultural factors over economic factors in the formation of nations were criticized by academic science and party ideologists. At the same time, Ajemyan’s speeches were used by the authorities to identify ideological positions in the professional scientific community, and his interpretation of the reactionary essence of Muridism and Imamate Shamil became official after a while. In 1943, he appealed to Stalin with an absurd plan to end the war.

Russia as an Object of Scientific Studies in Kyrgyzstan

The object of the study is scientific social and humanitarian publications devoted to Russia of Kyrgyzstan scientists. These are works in five disciplines: “Russian language and literature”, “political science”, “history”, “economics” and “law”. The purpose of the work is to identify the degree of study and the specificity of research on Russia in Kyrgyzstan in studies on Russian philology, history and political science, and analysis of expert-analytical and scientific-educational materials on economic and legal aspects of research.Of greatest interest to Kyrgyz researchers is Russian language, which is explained by the status and role of the Russian language in the Kyrgyz Republic and its dominant position in the capital, Bishkek, where all major universities of the republic dealing with Russian topics are located. In the sphere of the other four disciplines, the interests of researchers are limited to historical, political and economic relationships between the two states. The study showed that, in general, the ideological positions of local experts are manifested in a positive or neutral attitude towards Russia, despite individual (single) works that contain a negative interpretation of Kyrgyz-Russian relations.

Voting on the flag of the Weimar Republic

We describe and analyze the voting process leading to the compromise achieved in the Weimar Flag Controversy. We also offer a simple theoretical model that attempts to capture the main forces at work. These forces are: (1) the addition of a compromise alternative that is located between the main ideological positions on the left and on the right; (2) the interdependence of preferences that makes the compromise salient; and (3) a voting process that gradually reveals and aggregates information. Finally, we compare the theoretical insights with the observed outcome.

#FrauenSagenNein - bridging the divide: analyzing the affective network of gender-critical alliances

ABSTRACT The influence of anti-gender movements is on the rise globally as they seek to prevent the expansion of transgender rights. In Germany, the anti-gender debate has gained renewed intensity in the wake of the publication of the draft Self-Determination Act in June 2022. Within this discourse, two prominent groups of actors emerged: gender-critical feminists and right-wing populists. Despite their divergent ideological and political positions, the affordances of social media provide them with a platform for collaborative interactions. Thus, under issue-related hashtags, the boundaries between these actors are becoming increasingly blurred. This research utilizes affect theory and analysis of hashtag activism to investigate the collective protest on Twitter against the proposed Self-Determination Act. Employing social network analysis (SNA), the study identifies pivotal structures and actors within the #FrauenSagenNein (#WomenSayNo) network. Additionally, qualitative content analysis delves into the narratives and sentiments employed in constructing hostile portrayals of transgender individuals. The findings illustrate that #FrauenSagenNein served as a bridging tool that connects gender-critical feminists and right-wing populist actors, leading to their intersection. Based on these findings, it is vital to critically monitor such alliances to counter the spread of binary gender norms and heteronormative beliefs.

Examining the Alignment of Ideological Expression with Behavior or Deception: An Experimental Investigation of Chinese Youth's Political Attitudes Towards America

<i>Background</i> In the context of globalization, as one of the most significant bilateral relations in the world, the dynamics of China-US relations exert a considerable influence on the world. Simultaneously, the accelerated advancement of Internet technology has provided a more expansive array of avenues for acquiring information. Through Social media, news websites, and international forums, Chinese youth groups demonstrate a heightened interest in global affairs. However, the divergence between disparate cultural and political systems has resulted in Chinese youth developing nuanced and multifaceted political dispositions when engaging with the United States and other Western nations. It is therefore imperative to study the political attitudes of Chinese youth, particularly to the United States. <i>Objectives</i> The concept of political attitude expression refers to the external manifestation of an individual's ideological position's usefulness. However, there is a lack of empirical research examining the alignment between an individual's inner motivation and their expression of political attitudes. Based on the aforementioned information, an experimental study was devised and executed with the aim of discerning political attitudes. The study focused on individuals' external expressions of political attitudes and their intrinsic motivations, specifically in relation to the United States. The objective was to examine whether specific factors could potentially influence the external manifestation of individuals' internal ideologies.<i> Main ideas</i> Various factors contribute to the expression of individual ideologies. The ideologies expressed by individuals do not solely reflect their ideological beliefs, but rather arise from a complex interplay of moderating factors influenced by individual rationality regarding economic costs and social circumstances. <i>Conclusions</i> (1) The political attitudes of Chinese youth toward the United States in general demonstrate a left-leaning trend, with low favorability toward the U.S. (2) Economic interests exert an influence on ideological expression, and individuals holding a left-leaning ideological position may elect to accept financial incentives and formally demonstrate high favorability toward the U.S., driven by economic interests. (3) Transformations in the social milieu may precipitate a phenomenon whereby individuals are inclined to "follow the crowd," concealing their authentic political dispositions and eschewing genuine political expression.

Divergent views of party positions: How ideology and own issue position shape party perception through convergence and divergence processes

The current research explores how respondents’ ideology influences their perception of political parties’ stances on various issues. Additionally, we examine how three distinct indicators of ideological strength—congruence between ideology and party affiliation, level of education, and engagement in political activities—affect these perceptions. Our empirical analyses rely on data from the 1968–2012 Cumulative American National Election Study dataset, which captures respondents’ views on the stances of US political parties regarding ten key issues. We find that, after controlling for respondents’ own issue positions, (i) perceptions of the positions held by the opponent party are strongly influenced by respondents’ ideologies, and (ii) this influence is more pronounced among individuals with stronger ideological convictions, as indicated by the three aforementioned indicators. Conversely, when examining perceptions of one’s favored party, ideology demonstrates a weak and inconsistent effect across the three markers of ideological strength. We discuss theoretical frameworks that may elucidate these findings, their implications for understanding political polarization, and we acknowledge limitations related to the dataset’s characteristics.

The Interplay of Language, Ideology, and Power

Language is a powerful vehicle for ideology, serving not only as a means to political ends but also as a fundamental ground for attaining and maintaining positions of power. This article explores the intricate relationship between language, ideology, politics, and power, examining how linguistic devices such as implicature are utilized to influence public perception and shape political discourse. By analyzing specific political statements, the article demonstrates how language can imply more than what is explicitly stated, subtly indoctrinating individuals or groups with certain ideological positions. It delves into the role of language in reinforcing dominant ideologies, highlighting the challenges faced by those who question these ideologies. Through this analysis, the article underscores the critical function of language in both reflecting and propagating power dynamics within society. The study also investigates the concept of linguistic determinism and its potential implications for thought control. By understanding these mechanisms, we gain insight into how language is employed to seek consent, legitimize authority, and perpetuate ideological beliefs, ultimately shaping social, political, and power structures.