Institutional Power Research Articles

The Structural and Temporal Curb of Populism: A Cross-Country Analysis of Authoritarian Populist Influences on Journalism

ABSTRACT As right-wing authoritarian-populism becomes a defining feature of world politics, scholars increasingly acknowledge its challenging impacts on journalism. Focusing largely on the populist rhetoric, this interest leaves the structural influences of authoritarian-populism on the journalistic field across diverse contexts largely unexplored. By drawing on in-depth interviews (n = 83) with journalists in Austria, Slovenia, Hungary, and Turkey, and combining political-economic, institutional and temporal analysis of authoritarian-populism, we develop a structural approach towards authoritarian-populist influences on journalism. We discuss three structural forces that authoritarian-populists in power implement or instrumentalise to influence journalism in respective countries: the discriminatory use of institutional power to deepen the polarisation, the populist intervention into ownership structures of the news media, and the strategic use of digitalisation in journalism. We argue that authoritarian-populism is a process whereby the curb of populist structural forces increases over time as authoritarian-populist politics mature in power.

Following the leaders: Asymmetric party messaging in the U.S. Congress

AbstractToday, rank‐and‐file members are increasingly removed from the legislative process and often rely on congressional leaders for information to discuss major legislative decisions with constituents. As a result, preparing constituent communication materials has become an institutionalized responsibility for party and committee leaders, leading to a partisan discussion of legislation. Using a mixed‐methods approach of computational text analysis and elite interviews, I demonstrate how members of Congress use leader‐led, partisan messages for constituent communication. Echoing prior work on asymmetric partisanship, I find that Republican leaders are more likely to encourage party‐centric messaging, and rank‐and‐file Republicans, particularly in the House, are more likely to adopt party messaging. The findings illustrate the institutional power of party leaders in a centralized Congress, as well as the role that constituent communication plays in encouraging and maintaining asymmetric polarization.

Right to information: legal positions of the Constitutional Court of Ukraine

The article reveals the legal positions of the Constitutional Court of Ukraine regarding everyone’s right to information. Attention is focused on information that is collected by state authorities, local self-government bodies, institutions and organizations, and which is not a state or other secret protected by the Law of Ukraine «On Information» and which every person has the right to familiarize himself with. Separate attention is focused on confidential information (information with limited access). One of the types of confidential information is medical information, which, on the one hand, in special cases provided for by the Fundamentals of the Health Care Legislation of Ukraine, can be disclosed to family members or a legal representative of the patient, and on the other hand, in accordance with the decision of the European Court of Human Rights person in the case of «M.K. against Ukraine» confirmation by a doctor of a patient’s illness to a member of his family, even if he learned about it from the patient himself, is an interference by the state in a person’s right to private life, and in the case of infectious diseases, it is qualified as not carried out «in accordance with the law». Attention is focused on the fact that such situations arise more and more when military personnel undergo medical examinations and that there are prohibitive norms of a special law that forbid the disclosure of medical information regarding a certain list of diseases of a military personnel to his employer (military unit), commander, family members of the military personnel. Regarding the confidentiality of information and about a person who holds a position related to the performance of the functions of the state, local self-government bodies, and about members of his family, the legal positions of the Constitutional Court of Ukraine are established: absolutely in each specific case it is determined whether information about a person belongs to confidential; there are guarantees of protection of the rights of the above-mentioned persons, and additional legal burdens, and therefore the state is called upon to ensure a balance of public and private interest. The article also draws attention to the fact that even under martial law conditions, control (direct; indirect) by institutions of public power is prohibited both in terms of content and dissemination of information, even if the state pursues such a goal as protecting the information space from what is considered harmful by the state information that is not necessary for society. The practice of the Constitutional Court of Ukraine on this issue is established. Attention is focused on the fact that censorship cannot be used in Ukraine to protect the information field of the state even in war conditions - it is prohibited in part 3 of Art. 15 of the Constitution of Ukraine.

The EU policy discourse on EdTech and constructing the image of an excellent teacher

ABSTRACT This article presents a discourse analysis of European Union (EU) policy documents on educational uses of digital technology (EdTech) from 2015 to 2022. It explores the ideological dimensions of language use and power relations, particularly concerning the teacher's role. Despite increasing critical scrutiny, the policy discourse in this period remains predominantly unidimensional, framing EdTech as a transformative solution. The study combines corpus-assisted analysis with critical discourse analysis and linguistic pragmatics to reveal how EU policy constructs a normative image of an ‘excellent' teacher inexorably linked to digital competencies. It shows how this discourse implicitly denies teachers' autonomy in technology adoption, reinforcing institutional power dynamics. The paper offers a critical perspective on the ideological underpinnings of language use in EdTech policy, challenging prevailing normative discourses and emphasising the need for a nuanced understanding of the socio-political implications and power dynamics inherent in the discourse surrounding teachers’ engagement with digital technology.

MODEL OF CORRELATION BETWEEN ANTI-CORRUPTION INSTITUTIONS OF INTERNATIONAL AND NATIONAL LAW

The subject of the article is a model of correlation between anti-corruption institutions of international and national law. The research methodology involved the use of formal and dialectical logic, historical and legal, comparative legal, anthropological and legal, economic and legal, hermeneutical, synergetic, systemic, and statistical methods. The purpose of the article is to reveal the model of correlation between anti-corruption institutions of international and national law. It is determined that anti-corruption policy becomes a value when it is implemented on an institutional basis. Such a basis means its independence from the acquisition of public power by any person. The sustainability and completeness of the manifestation of virtues in legal relations are ontologically determined by the processes of nation-building, which, in turn, are based on the values of law inherent in human nature. The anti-corruption model is influenced by historical, spiritual, cultural, external conditions, climatic, geographical and other living conditions. Such a model becomes effective when all these factors and their conditions form the best basis for the development of the nation, compared to others, through the full use of the energy potential of the virtues of all its members. Any delay, irresponsibility and/or unjustified loss of vigilance regarding the components of this model leads to decline. It is emphasised that the national anti-corruption model is ternary, since it is based on three main elements, namely, anthropospatial legislation, the practice of its application within the framework of administrative and jurisdictional procedures. The configuration of both elements of the model and their parts is determined by its uniqueness. The most superficial classification of these models is based on the system of criminal justice components. The fundamental classifications of national anti-corruption models are based on the anthropological dimension of legislation and practices of its application outside the criminal process. This is the strategy of anti-corruption work. The role of a person in the strategy process is not to remain in office as long as possible, but to remain in office as useful and effective as possible. Corruption distortions in legal relations disappear where the individual nourishes the institutions of law and power rather than replaces them. The author establishes that the correlation between national and international anti-corruption models is conditional, since the international model has not yet been formed and largely reflects the worldview of the Western legal tradition. It is also precocious to discuss an international anti-corruption model because the international community has not reached a sincere agreement on a universal set of human rights and freedoms and their scope. However, such a substantive understanding is the essence of anti-corruption policy, where its rules and practices reveal the nature of human virtues in legal relations. Currently, there is no complete description of the counterbalance to this tradition of law. Eastern, Muslim, Hindu and other non-Western cultures have adopted legal institutions for the declaration of assets and interests of public officials, conflicts of interest, financial audits of public procurement and anti-corruption criminal justice systems. The Republics of Singapore, Japan and Hong Kong have been the most successful in this anti-corruption legislative reception. The implementation of these institutions by other nations requires their adaptation to unique existential conditions, so that the potential for the liberation of human virtues by the force of legislative requirements is organically strengthened by the conditions of the nation's development. This will manifest the features of both innovation and anthropo-dimensionality of law.

Коррупция как явление и понятие: политологический анализ

The article, based on international documents and Russian regulatory legal acts on corruption, explains and substantiates the political nature and nature of corruption. To this end, three dimensions of corruption are revealed: criminological, sociological and political science. At the same time, it is emphasized that the political science dimension is integrative: it contains both criminogenic and social dimensions. Corruption can and should be studied in economic, moral, legal, and other contexts. However, it is crucial to start from the premise that any manifestations of corruption always unfold within the coordinates of the political realm. Corruption is a political phenomenon. The article defines and characterizes the political features of corruption, offering an original perspective on corruption as a phenomenon and concept. Overall, the article attempts to elucidate the relationship between the phenomenon and concept of corruption, and how corruption impacts the institution of state power and governance.

Accounting for informalization in Africa's extractive industry: Evidence from Ghana's small‐scale gold mining sector during the colonial period

AbstractIn this paper, we draw on the accountability and institutional theories to explicate the informalized state of Ghana's small‐scale gold mining sector as an exemplar of informalization of the extractive industry in Africa during the colonial period. We present a critical and historical perspective on the role of colonial subjugation that took the form of discriminatory policies and lack of accountability, in laying the foundations for the current challenges of continuous informalization of the indigenous gold mining sector and its implications on livelihoods, the economy and the environment in Ghana. We analyzed archival data on the mining industry in Ghana, consisting of official correspondences between colonial bureaucrats in Britain and Ghana, as well as colonial policies on mining, interpreted through the lenses of institutional theory. Specifically, we used records comprising letters, mineral policies, mineral output, and labor relations in the Gold Coast during the colonial period as well as minutes of meetings held by those governing mining enterprises that operated in Ghana before 1957. We also drew on periodic reports of the Ghana Chamber of Mines and their member enterprises, Government of Ghana white papers, parliamentary records among others. We found that the colonial authority, as the new institutional power with vested interest in the extractive industry, adopted discriminatory policies that banned small‐scale gold mining by indigenous population in Ghana, marginalizing the sector's operation to the advantage of foreign large‐scale gold miners. We demonstrate that the control of mineral resources by the colonial authority under new ownership structures disenfranchised the indigenous population and their right to the mineral resources of the Gold Coast. We argue that this institutionalized discriminatory policy, and the resulting lack of accountability is largely responsible for the ongoing informalization of Ghana's small‐scale gold mining sector. This paper contributes to the corpus of critical and historical scholarship that investigates the role of racialization and accountability during colonial period, but with notable distinction that departs from specific professional or disciplinary perspectives. Instead, it focuses on the colonial subjugation and exploitation of the small‐scale gold mining sector and its ongoing informalization that traces its roots to the era of British colonial rule in Ghana. It reiterates the need for accountability for these historical inequalities affecting the small‐scale mining operators, to facilitate the sector's formalization and to effectively control and manage the myriads of negative impacts associated with it.

Evaluating the Dear MD to Be Podcast as an Equity, Diversity and Inclusion resource: a cross-sectional survey analysis

Background: Equity-deserving groups are communities marginalized from institutional power by oppressive forces (e.g., racism, sexism, homophobia, ableism). Dear MD to Be is a medical-student-led podcast created to interview physicians of intersectional backgrounds about their institutional experience. This study aims to evaluate the podcast as a tool for knowledge, mentorship, and psychological safety for equity-deserving listeners. Methods: Between February and March 2022, we recruited medical students across all levels of training from English-speaking Canadian medical schools using email listservs and social media. We disseminated a cross-sectional questionnaire assessing demographics, knowledge gained from podcast engagement, attitudes towards podcasts as a tool for mentorship, and psychological/emotional gains from the podcast content. We conducted descriptive and frequency analyses of quantitative data and applied thematic analysis to qualitative data. Results: Thirty-eight individuals completed the entire survey from all levels of training, with 97% self-identifying with at least one equity-deserving group. 100% agreed that the Dear MD to Be podcast was an accessible form of mentorship; participants appreciated self-pacing mentorship and interacting with many narratives. Listeners gleaned lessons about wellness, advocacy work, allyship, cultural imposter syndrome, and navigating discrimination. Furthermore, most listeners felt represented, empowered, and legitimized by podcast content. Conclusions: Podcasts can serve as a medium for accessible equity-centred mentorship. By disseminating multiple underrepresented narratives in medicine, the Dear MD to Be podcast serves as a source of EDI knowledge while contributing to learner safety.

Exploring the power of informal institutions: How does social trust affect corporate's greenwashing strategy

AbstractCorporate greenwashing seriously impedes global sustainable development. Despite the discussion on the factors influencing corporate greenwashing strategy, the impact of informal institutions, particularly social trust, remains underexplored. Based on institutional theory and the attention‐based view, this study examines the effect of social trust on corporate greenwashing strategy. Additionally, it also explores the mediating roles of managers' environmental attention and firms' green open innovation, as well as the moderating roles of government environmental regulation and market competition. Using a sample of 3,143 heavily polluting companies listed on China's A‐share market, the results show that social trust negatively impacts corporate greenwashing strategy. Managers' environmental attention and firms' green open innovation are the chain mediators through which social trust constrains firms' greenwashing strategy. Moreover, government environmental regulation strengthens the effect of social trust on corporate greenwashing, while market competition weakens the effect. The obtained conclusions provide an important guidance for curbing corporate greenwashing strategy and highlight the role of social trust.

“It’s a Battle You Can’t Win”: Domination and Class Differences in Real-World Trust among Black Families

How does class affect one’s propensity to trust? Previous research finds higher-status actors express less trust than lower-status actors in interpersonal and institutional contexts. Scholars explain this finding as an outcome of structural dependence—when people have few alternative means for accessing valuable resources. In contrast, I find dependence inadequate to explain the relationship I observe between class and institutional trust among black families whose children were recommended for special education and other remedial program placement in an affluent, predominantly white school district. Drawing on retrospective interviews from a community ethnography, findings show that real-world trust decision processes also involve domination. Empirical studies of trust have overlooked the ways trustees—those being given trust—exercise power to achieve deference in trust exchanges, and how trustors—those placing trust in others—deploy their power to withstand trustees’ influence. I argue that trust might best be conceptualized as a two-part decision process, because class and other status resources affect trustors’ freedom to choose at two key junctures: (1) in weighing options and costs of trust errors, and (2) in communicating distrust in face-to-face interactions, where the potential for domination is high. Focusing on intersecting systems of power in authentic trust exchanges, this study shows how middle-class black trustors use symbolic resources to “go up against” the institutional power of educational experts and refuse placement, whereas working-class trustors consent to placement.

The politics of beneficiary selection: A case study of Ghana’s Livelihood Empowerment Against Poverty (LEAP) cash transfer programme

In communities of Sub-Saharan Africa, where local elites participate in the selection of households for cash transfers, there is a tendency to deviate from laid down rules for various reasons. Using qualitative data from selected districts where Ghana’s Livelihood Empowerment Against Poverty (LEAP) programme is implemented, this study investigates the reasons why district and community elites deviate from prescribed selection processes of the LEAP programme. Drawing on the concept of competitive clientelism, the findings suggest that elites are deeply guided by political patronage to fulfil one primary goal, protecting their role in office. Such ambition is facilitated by the discretionary power accorded to elites by the local government system and socio-cultural values deeply rooted in Ghanaian society. In conclusion, the study draws out key lessons from the analysis and suggests a design of beneficiary selection frameworks that acknowledges the nature of domestic politics, institutions of power and powerful actors at the subnational level. The article also highlights the implications of the findings for the broad politics of social protection literature.

”It Looks Like a Spell…”: Acceptance of Crime Commission as Power Strategy in Confessional Statements in Police–Suspect Interactions in Ibadan, Southwestern Nigeria

ABSTRACT Studies on police-suspect interactions (PSIs) have largely foregrounded the institutional power exhibited by investigating police officers (IPOs) in the interactions, with most studies constructing suspects as powerless. This study, through a critical engagement of five purposively sampled cases (including rape, incest, attempted murder and being in possession of contraband) from the over 50 interactions and cases observed at the State Criminal Investigation Department, Iyaganku, Oyo State, Nigeria, reveals suspects orient towards aspects of shared socio-cultural norms among the Yoruba, in attempts to manipulate IPOs. In particular suspects allude to certain aspects of the Yoruba socio-cultural life and belief system, largely connected to the people’s socio-cultural understanding around peer and alcohol influence, spell casting, working one’s way to greatness and admit your ‘fault’ to shorten your punishment in order to overwhelm the socio-cognitive reasoning of IPOs.

Exploring commoning in the anthropocene. Introducing the concept of the election commons as a response to socio-ecological crisis. The case of Skouries, Greece

The Anthropocene epoch challenges our planet’s ecological sustainability and its relationship with democratic processes. The prioritization of economic growth and capital accumulation within most democratic organizations and institutions encourages limitless economic expansion while ignoring or disregarding the earth’s ecological vulnerability in multiple crises (economic, social, ecological). Commoning presents an alternative political strategy to respond to these crises, particularly when it is based on transformative practices of collective care. In this paper, we investigate how an anti-mining community in Skouries, Greece, opposes the imposition of a large-scale mining project by forming a commons initiative. We introduce the concept of election commons, which was designed to allow the anti-mining community to claim institutional power at a local level. This concept is argued to provide valuable insights into how collective care sets the foundations for the renewal of democracy, allowing an alternative relation to the environment and playing a strategic role in connecting different geographical scales of politics. We claim that commoning can enable a more fitting political strategy for the Anthropocene while highlighting the case of decision-making at a national and international level benefiting from local politics.

China-Taiwan Issues in the Security Climate of East and Southeast Asia

Abstract The security architecture of East and Southeast Asia is in a process of extensive change, driven by the rising Chinese state, but also by the US, which, with its military and institutional power here, is a pillar of stability that seeks to preserve American supremacy and the liberal international system. Current developments show that some of China’s neighbors are no longer inclined simply to fall in line with Beijing’s policy, but rather are determined to challenge its inclination towards regional hegemony, and are arming themselves to do so, diversifying its security relations and forging strong ties with the US, denouncing China’s attempts to create a sino-centric system based on building an ‘Asian’ security and economic architecture, translated into institutional arrangements based on cooperation mechanisms centered on (and for the benefit of) the Chinese state.

Anti-Black Racism and Soccer in Canada: Is It Because I’m Black, Ref?

This study critically examines the experiences of members of a sub-Saharan African men’s recreational soccer club with anti-Black racism in a Western Canadian city. Drawing from extensive ethnographic fieldwork, and working at the intersections of Critical Race Theory and Physical Cultural Studies, our analysis focuses on how team members navigate a racial hierarchy that privileges Whiteness and cements their status as outsiders through both overt and subtle forms of racism on the pitch, and the laborious, retraumatizing challenges of “proving” these racist incidents to those in positions of institutional power. We underline the need for anti-racist and anti-oppressive policies and training, and independent judiciaries to monitor and address racist incidents and systemic racism—and its intersections with other forms of oppression—in Canadian sport cultures.

Bodies Never Forget: The Case of Lived Bodily Experiences of Iranian Women

This qualitative research examines the lived experiences of Iranian women under the mandatory hijab law, utilizing a sophisticated theoretical framework that merges Foucault’s concept of bio-power with Merleau-Ponty’s embodiment theory. It further enriches this perspective by incorporating feminist theories of embodiment, providing a comprehensive lens to understand the multifaceted dynamics of these experiences. The research explores how women’s bodies have historically been a battleground for both oppression and resistance in Iran. By examining women’s socio-political circumstances, the study sheds light on the primary mechanisms and strategies the political power employs to regulate and control women’s bodies. Utilizing heartfelt narratives from in-depth interviews with eight Iranian women aged 25 to 45 focusing on bodily experiences, this research weaves together the experiences and resistances of these women in the face of compulsory hijab laws. This research uncovers the profound implications of disciplining and politicizing bodies on individuals’ daily lives. It delves into the nuanced effects ranging from societal pressures and institutional power exerted by the educational system to the emotional repercussions and unfulfilled pleasures resulting from such suppression. It highlights how Iranian women navigate, perceive, and push back against socio-political structures that attempt to regulate their bodies and expressions.

African Cosmology, Hierarchies of Power, and Slave Dynamics in the Book of Philemon

Past scholarship on Philemon has reiterated the cultural and institutional power of slavery with particular attention to the acceptance and use of slavery as an important instrument of control and domination. Working within this scholarship, the present work acknowledges the centrality of the preceding thesis, but engages the letter to Philemon from the perspective of the inherent cosmology which accepted the master/slave hierarchical structure within a religious framework in explaining human/divine encounters, and encounters among human beings. Since African cosmology exhibits interesting points of continuity with this projected cosmology, this paper charts a new direction for studies in Philemon by reiterating the critical importance of this hierarchy of power relations in the master/slave model at the heart of the letter. It is this accepted worldview that prevented Paul from advocating for the freedom of Onesimus, and called for the double imprisonments of Onesimus. Consequently, the study interrogates the cosmology of Philemon in connection to African divine/human encounters by problematizing the description of God as Master, and the devotees as the helpless slaves of the deity. This cultural mindset naturally accepts slavery and normalizes human/divine encounters within the rhetoric of this dehumanizing enterprise.

Institutional power and the deinstitutionalization of marriage

AbstractIn this article, I revisit the debate surrounding the deinstitutionalization of marriage. I identify the divergent methodologies used to evaluate deinstitutionalization and argue that institutional power requires greater definition. I develop the concept of institutional power by applying a Lukesian lens to new institutionalist theories of institutional activities. I define deinstitutionalization as the loss of connection between institutions and their sources of institutional power which constitutes their institutionality. Further, I argue that the indicators used to assess deinstitutionalization must recognize (a) the formal and informal aspects of marriage's institutionality and (b) the regulatory, normative, and cultural‐cognitive bases of marriage's institutional power. I argue that discursive processes drive developments in the discursive field of intimacy yet the emphasis on individualization in existing scholarship struggles to adequately explain developments such as same‐sex marriage. I propose that the personal life thesis offers a more cogent explanation of these changes.

Patriotic education in China and students’ affective responses

Patriotic education plays a crucial role in the national policies of many countries, focusing on students as the primary beneficiaries and educational institutions as the main platforms for its implementation. Despite its importance, there is limited research on how students engage with patriotic initiatives. This study explores how patriotic discourse is embedded in institutions and becomes entangled with institutional power and affective forces. It draws on data generated through an ethnography that explores the lived experiences of 21 young Chinese women attending university. Employing Foucauldian notions of discourse, power/knowledge, and subjectivity alongside gender and affect theories, this study investigates patriotic discourse within educational sites and students’ affective responses towards it. This study elucidates the ‘everydayness’ and ubiquitous nature of patriotic discourse in educational institutions. Additionally, it indicates that while students may exhibit positive affective responses, unexpected emotions can arise, shedding light on how students negotiate with patriotic pedagogical discourse.

Seeing culture from below: Counter‐curating, counter‐ethnography, counter‐mapping

AbstractThis paper reflects on our mapping and database project britishmonumentsrelatedtoslavery.net, the first and currently most complete account of British representational public monuments related to British transatlantic slavery. It reproduces our headline findings and presents some new maps of the data. However, our main focus in this paper is on placing our project in a wider context of emergent practices and methods that inspired us. First, we note the exponential historical emergence of three connected critical, grassroots ‘counter’ practices across different institutions: of mapping, curating, and ethnography. We frame their critical commonality in their ‘counter’ approach to the nexus of what Benedict Anderson identified as three key ‘institutions of power … census, map, museum’, which have been central to conceiving and executing policy. Second, we prospectively identify some of the common structural causes that underlie this emergent assembly of instituent knowledge‐making practices from below.