Political Institutions Research Articles

Abortion access, public opinion, direct democracy, and state political institutions in the United States

AbstractAlthough numerous states have enacted policies banning or limiting abortion since the Dobbs decision in 2022, public opinion in most states remains solidly in favor of abortion access. However, whether public opinion is reflected in the public policy of individual states depends on how political institutions mediate between opinion and policy. Activists on both sides of the abortion issue, therefore, have attempted to locate policymaking regarding abortion access in state institutional systems most congenial to their desired outcomes. In states with direct democracy, even where legislatures and governorships are dominated by conservative Republicans, activists have been successful in harnessing public opinion to protect abortion rights by winning public referenda. In response, Republicans have attempted to curtail the power of these referenda, shifting power back to legislatures more likely to be held by actors opposed to abortion rights. This venue shopping for policymaking advantage ultimately raises vital, difficult, and often uncomfortable questions about how political institutions and citizens negotiate the boundaries of democratic legitimacy in policymaking.

Formation of political institutions and processes using digital technologies and artificial intelligence

The article describes the basic principles of formation of political institutions and processes with the help of digital technologies. The main principles of digitalization in politics and its impact on modern political institutions are revealed. In addition, the author paid attention to the essence of political institutions, as well as their formation under the influence of digital technologies. The relevance of this research topic is determined by the significance of the effectiveness of the formation of processes in politics and the direct impact that digitalization and digital technologies have on them. The paper examines different views of modern scholars on the problem of formation of political institutions under the influence of digital technologies. By assessing the different ways and methods used by political actors and countries to adopt digital technologies, it is possible to trace changes in relevant social relations and to investigate how digital technologies affect political discourse. In this way, three areas are defined: digital democracy, digital bureaucracy and digital diplomacy. Finally, the author analyzes concepts, models and scenarios of digitalization, and describes the basic principles of “social intelligence” in artificial machines that collect and analyze the digital footprints of the target audience. Special attention is paid to Russia, on its path to digital transformation.

ადამიანური კაპიტალის მართვა ისტორიული თეორიის ჭრილში

The historical role of human resource management and its importance in effective organizational performance and continuous development is discussed. To understand the historical role of the human resource management, the article reviews the corresponding literature and analyzes management approach based on human capital theory in relation to effective performance of contemporary organizations. At an early stage of scientific research in economic development a human’s role was evaluated as a special resource (human resource) and as a subject of social development. At a later stage a human was considered as a subject of economic development. This gave origin to terms like an “individual” and a “person”. In this case a human is considered as a subject of social and labor relations. Currently, key elements of the social-economic reform, such as stabilization of social-economic and political environment, invention and establishment of new manufacturing and management technologies, rationalization of the finance and banking systems and improvement of social welfare and quality of lifestyle are still critical challenges facing our country. These challenges can only be addressed by implementation of consistent policy in social and labor relations. Establishment of social market economy in the country and its well-organized functioning is possible with integration into global production. This primarily refers to adaptation of domestic labor relations with the internationally recognized social and labor relation system. This goal can be achieved by continuous organizational development efforts. For this reason, it is essential for each organization to develop and periodically renew its human resource management strategy and action plan that will ensure alignment of its personnel conduct and behavior and entire progress with its organizational needs. For organizational development it is essential to develop and periodically renew employee performance evaluation, motivation, personnel development policy and procedures. Staff motivation policy shall define both monetary and non-monetary incentives and be targeted at maintaining best human capital crucial for the long-term success of any organization. Personnel development policy should reflect the correlation between the results of performance evaluation and personnel development plan. The policy should prescribe rules for developing an individual development plan and setting career development criteria. In addition, a personnel career development policy and procedures should prescribe organizational training needs identification methodology, priority trainings, training opportunities and respective actions. Knowledge gained at the trainings should be expanded throughout the organization. Concentrating on above processes will turn an organization into an attractive employer with desirable working environment and organizational culture.

Diplomacy and MNE strategy: how international relations can influence international business

PurposeThis study, a perspective piece, aims to argue that one particular slice of political institutional operations – the conduct of international relations – offers a clue to the possible risks that businesses face from geopolitics.Design/methodology/approachThe authors examine the various facets of international relations and diplomacy, including the processes and arenas, to show the relevance of statecraft for firms looking to minimize political risk.FindingsBy understanding the role of diplomacy and statecraft as a process, firms can better prepare themselves for events that have far-reaching ramifications. This is very different than minimizing risk from inherent geopolitical tensions and allows for a more flexible approach to understanding risk levels in the global arena.Originality/valueInternational business scholarship has focused on institutions and their effects on firms and has recently begun to re-examine the role of geopolitics and political risk on firm performance and decisions. However, the current literature continues to have a superficial understanding of institutional processes and their impact on business, especially when it comes to the daily workings of political institutions.

The path dependency of power‐sharing: Bosnia and Herzegovina's, Cyprus', and Lebanon's first experiences with popular representation

AbstractThe political systems of Bosnia and Herzegovina, Cyprus, and Lebanon are defined by ethnic or religious divides that have historical roots in their Ottoman and European colonial past. This paper aims to investigate the impact of these historical legacies on popular representation and institutional structures. The Ottomans and European colonizers created institutions that allowed subjects to elect their representatives, shaping these countries' initial experiences with modernity. This paper employs historical institutionalism as a theoretical approach, and path dependency as a methodology to explore how historical legacies have shaped the political institutions and power‐sharing arrangements in Bosnia and Herzegovina, Cyprus, and Lebanon.

Does the gender dissimilarity of female mayors with their political government team affect municipalities’ budgets? Evidence from Spain

ABSTRACT Recent research has considered whether the growing presence of women in political institutions has affected public budgets. This study takes a different gender perspective. The aim is to assess how gender dissimilarity between female mayors and their government teams can affect municipal budgetary policies. We use data from Spanish municipalities with more than 20,000 inhabitants in the period from 2004 to 2018, a dynamic regression model and take into account the possible moderating effect of ideology. Our main findings are that gender dissimilarity of female mayors increased current social spending and reduced nonsocial spending in line with female gender preferences, while it decreased tax revenues. However, when we analyze only the years of economic growth, we observe that the gender dissimilarity of female mayors increased tax revenue in accordance with their gender preferences. We also see that the interaction between right-wing ideology and the dissimilarity of female mayors substantially and significantly accentuated the decrease in nonsocial spending. We confirm our findings in different population segments.

Ibn Khaldūn and Kınalızāde’s Concept of Dāʾirat al-Siyāsah: A Rethinking of Modern Politics from A Civilisational Perspective

This paper demonstrates that Islamic civilisation is characterised by a unique circular model of political and administrative system as articulated by Ibn Khaldūn and his Ottoman successor, Kınalızāde, in the concept of the circle of politics (dāʾirat al-siyāsah). It offers a new perspective to the current quest for good governance from a Khaldunian perspective by presenting an alternative way of restructuring contemporary politics and society in a circular order for a more effective and egalitarian system open to citizen participation. The pyramidal governance structure, having no roots in Islamic political theory and practice, positions the subjects at the bottom of the political hierarchy and the ruler at its pinnacle, which leads to significant disparities. Conversely, the circular system espouses an egalitarian and participatory political order rooted in the sunnah of Prophet Muḥammad. This model, embraced by Muslims for centuries until the era of colonisation, engenders a more inclusive and engaging approach to governance. Furthermore, this study contends that the circular model of governance is applicable beyond political institutions to a larger range of social entities as a method of reforming and improving them.

Measuring online political activity: introducing the digital society project dataset

ABSTRACT Political engagement is deeply enmeshed with online activity. However, there has been a lack of publicly available cross-country datasets enabling researchers and policymakers to understand how politics and digital space intersect. This paper introduces the Digital Society Project (DSP), which aims to provide systematic, cross-country measurement of political institutions and behavior that manifest online or are affected by online activity. Using the Varieties of Democracy Project infrastructure, DSP provides annual global data from 2000 to 2021. The dataset features 35 indicators measuring online censorship, politicization of social media, coordinated information operations, foreign influence, monitoring of domestic politics, and regime cyber capacity. This article introduces the DSP data collection effort, overviews the resulting dataset, and validates key indicators by conducting a series of diagnostic tests. We demonstrate that the DSP dataset aligns with extant datasets measuring internet freedom and offers expanded coverage across countries and over time. We analyze two case studies, walking through how the DSP data can be used to extend existing work on China to generalize this case to other contexts, and examining in depth the case of Ethiopia, which differs the most between DSP and Freedom House’s Freedom on the Net.

Safeguarding democracy from the outside in: transnational democratic networks against autocratisation in contemporary Brazil

Over the last decade, democracy in Brazil has been under attack. Efforts to protect Brazilian democracy from autocratisation date back to the impeachment of president Dilma Rousseff in 2016 and have come to a (temporary) conclusion after Jair Bolsonaro’s defeat in the October 2022 elections. One of the most striking elements of democratic resistance in Brazil has been the establishment of multiple and overlapping transnational networks. Would democracy in Brazil have resisted without international pressure? We resort to a process-tracing analysis to argue that transnational networking strategies were a necessary condition to protect Brazilian democracy, in tandem with the domestic role played by Brazil’s organised civil society and political institutions. These networks have operated (1) to maintain the Workers’ Party (Partido dos Trabalhadores, PT) as the main partisan alternative to the far right, represented by Jair Bolsonaro; (2) to preserve the civic spaces necessary to criticise and counter Bolsonaro’s moves to undermine fundamental rights, critical policy areas and democratic institutions; and (3) to increase the costs of attempts to overturn the election results in 2022.

Direct elections and trust in state and political institutions: Evidence from Indonesia's election reform

People's trust in state and political institutions is a key foundation of a well-functioning economy. The question of whether direct elections affect trust remains open, especially in developing countries, due to a scarcity of studies with robust identification strategies. We estimate the impact of direct elections on people's trust in state and political institutions, using a major political reform in Indonesia as the source of exogenous variation. Pre-2005, regents, mayors, and governors were elected by the local legislative assembly. Starting in 2005, they must compete in an open election where voters directly choose their preferred leader. The historically and institutionally driven staggered implementation of these local direct elections enables us to identify the causal impact of the reform. We find that direct elections increase trust in all state and political institutions, except for the police and political parties. We find that trust only increased in districts where the elections were held with no or low hostility, implying that trust is strongly influenced by political situations during direct elections. We find that elections did not really improve well-being or satisfaction, implying that the absence of election hostility is a stronger explanation for the higher trust.

Political Institutions in Times of AI, and Ethical Aspects of the Digitalization in Politics

Political Institutions in Times of AI, and Ethical Aspects of the Digitalization in Politics

The Political Socialization of University Students: A Case Study of the University of Dhaka

Political socialization is required in order to develop a civic culture among the citizens and instill into youths a cognitive, affective, and evaluative orientation towards the political objects and leaders of any state. This study aims to explore the nature of the political socialization of students at the University of Dhaka. In order to collect the primary data, 400 students from four faculties of the University of Dhaka were surveyed purposively. The study argues that the students at the University of Dhaka are politically socialized, although their degree of political socialization varies among the students according to whether their educational background is in the arts, social sciences, science, or business. Of all the agents, the media impacts the most on the process of students’ political socialization. The study found that most of the students at this university possess the cognitive, affective, and evaluative capacities to understand political issues and objectives. The media, their family, and the university play prominent roles in developing the students’ attitudes and knowledge about political objects and issues. The findings indicate that the media play the most influential role in generating cognitive, affective, and evaluative attitudes and orientations towards the political leaders and political institutions.

The Batman and the redemption of first responders: The culmination of a rhetoric of rescue during COVID-19, Trump and protest

The timing of Matt Reeves’s The Batman (2022) situated the film as a symbol of and response to the social troubles that resulted from the political unrest in 2020 and 2021, presenting solution-driven rhetoric amidst the numerous public crises in American discourse and identity. Captured and represented in his opening prologue speech in juxtaposition to his rhetorical culmination speech, Batman’s orations mirror his own arc and the politically prescribed reawakening of confidence in political figures and institutions. Paralleling his addresses, the evolution of Batman’s excessive violence when he initially works under the identity of ‘Vengeance’, compared to his subsequent performance as a first responder at the end of the film, serves as a rhetoric of redemption for first responders. Multiple scenes focus on Batman’s learning to recognize humans’ need for compassion as he becomes a student of social progress. Working as a unifying symbol of a diverse leader, Gotham’s newly elected mayor, Bella Reál, simultaneously offers a vision for transitioning away from leaders associated with racist and sexist discourse. With Batman’s rhetorical culmination and transformation into an emergency rescuer, The Batman serves as unifying verbal and visual discourse in response to contemporary political unrest.

Prospects for integration and Obstacles to democracy - EU’s role in the Albanian political crisis

Abstract More than three decades after the totalitarian regime collapse, Albania is still categorized as a hybrid democracy despite having made consistent strides toward becoming a liberal democracy. Most local political leaders have remained antagonistic towards liberal democratic principles. In 2019, relations between the European Union (EU) and Albania were at a special stage of development. After a difficult period and tensions in the EU, the European Council decided to postpone the decision to start membership talks with Albania and North Macedonia. Apart from this issue, Albania had other challenges in 2019, including institutional and political conflict, justice reform, the fight against corruption, and the consolidation of democratic structures. This article examines the intricate connections that Albanian political representatives and institutions maintain with foreign organizations and entities. It specifically highlights the role that the EU Delegation played in mediating the political and institutional crises of 2019. Although the external incentives models provide a useful foundation for understanding Albania’s Europeanization process, other factors that may be relevant and encourage the ongoing democratization and rule adoption are indicated by the country’s low membership credibility.

Human Resource Management Process Applied in Conditions for Autonomy at Universities in Vietnam

Human resource management in general, and human resource management at universities in particular, has been the subject of numerous studies both domestically and internationally, with various approaches. Building on the affirmed research outcomes, this paper constructs a theoretical model of the human resource management process at universities. Based on analysis of influencing factors such as strategy, policy, institutional development planning, political institutions, legal frameworks concerning university autonomy, and the influence of the social community within the specific context of Vietnam; the paper proposes a human resource management process to be applied to public universities in Vietnam.

Measuring and Benchmarking Fiscal Health: A Study of Chinese Provincial Governments

ABSTRACT Understanding the fiscal health of local governments is crucial for sound fiscal decision-making processes and prudent fiscal management across the globe. To generate knowledge about fiscal health in an international context, this research establishes a four-dimensional framework to conceptualize and measure the fiscal health of Chinese local governments, considering China’s unique political and fiscal institutions. The study generates an aggregate fiscal health index and finds that its four components are strongly correlated with local socioeconomic conditions. With these measures, local government officials can conduct financial analysis, develop fiscal planning activities, and aid in designing and implementing fiscal resilience strategies.

Nigerian Youth Engagement in Violent Electoral Environments: Political Apathy or ‘Constrained Optimism’?

Abstract How do young citizens engage with politicians and their political environment in contexts where elections are frequently affected by violence? We explore this question through focus group discussions (FGDs) in Nigeria, a country with high rates of election violence. We argue that young voters in violent electoral environments operate with ‘constrained optimism’, where they perceive low government responsiveness but possess high levels of self-efficacy. Participants condemned violence and expressed little faith in political institutions and leaders to curtail violence, but they also felt a determination to elect a better government and a strong sense of a civic duty to vote, participate in politics, and encourage others to do so as well. Many participants also shared that they would continue to support their preferred candidate if they were accused of violence. Some participants raised concerns about the veracity of such allegations while others explained that politicians sometimes use violence for defensive purposes. Still others stated that they would continue to support candidates who expressed remorse for engaging in violence and committed to peaceful campaigning in the future. Taken together, we argue that young voters in violent contexts operate with ‘constrained optimism’ where they remain committed to democracy, but face constraints on who they support and how they participate. Our findings nuance expectations of the effects of electoral violence on political participation and better help us understand the challenges facing voters in contexts where violence is rife.

Royal Supremacy and Its Influence on the Formation of Early British Nation-State

Tudor Dynasty is in the transitional period of modern Europe. On the one hand, it is characterized by the struggle of religious power and kingship. On the other hand, it is featured by the formation and development of the early nation-state. This paper briefly discusses the "royal supremacy" of Tudor Dynasty in England and the development of the early nation-state in British and the concrete manifestation of "royal supremacy" and expounds the influence of it on the formation of British nation-state from the following five aspects: economy, political institutions, law, local administration and national consciousness. By analyzing the definition of "royal supremacy" and its influence on the formation of the British nation-state, it is helpful to grasp the development process of modern countries and the particularity of the formation of different nation-states, so as to better grasp the law of British historical development. In a word, "royal supremacy", as the result of the religious reform, greatly promotes the formation and development of the British nation-state in the early modern times in the specific historical period.

Determinants of Institutionalized Political Participation in Elderly Women

This study explores the factors affecting elderly women's institutional political participation. The inverse relationship between economic status and participation may be attributed to poverty constraining the political engagement capabilities of elderly women, while traditional media, especially television, enhances it by providing easily accessible information resources. In contrast, new media shows minimal influence, hinting at a generational digital divide or preference for traditional information channels. Surprisingly, close social circles, notably neighbors and friends, deter participation, possibly reflecting deep-rooted norms or localized echo chambers. These findings highlight the complex interplay of factors shaping political engagement among elderly women and suggest a need for tailored strategies to promote their active involvement in institutional politics.

Book Review: Yemen: Poverty and Conflict

The book "Yemen: Poverty and Conflict," written by Helen Lackner in 2022, has been published by Routledge. The book focuses on the last century of Yemen. It assess the state-building process, political institutions, actors, and the economic and political reasons behind poverty and conflict in Yemen over the past century, aiming to share insights into the future.