Left-wing Parties Research Articles

What makes the difference? Social media platforms and party characteristics as contextual factors for political parties’ use of populist political communication

Abstract Social media has contributed to the spread of populist political communication, yet we still lack systematic knowledge of the contextual factors affecting its use. In this study, we investigated how and to what degree platforms (Facebook, Instagram, Twitter) and party characteristics (populist vs. non-populist parties; political ideology) affected the use of populist communication by Norwegian political parties on social media during the 2021 national election campaign. Based on a tripartite conceptualisation of populist communication consisting of people-centrism, anti-elitism, and the exclusion of out-groups, we conducted a standardised content analysis of the official social media accounts of nine parties and their party leaders. Populist communication was overall rather rare, being most widespread on Facebook and least widespread on Twitter. Which parties used populist communication the most depended on the platform, and it was not always the populist Progress Party [Fremskrittspartiet] that communicated in the most populist manner. Parties located towards the fringes of the political party spectrum used more populist communication. Anti-elitism was more widespread among left-wing parties, and almost exclusively the right-wing Progress Party excluded out-groups.

The impact of energy security on energy innovation: a non-linear analysis

ABSTRACT Energy security is an important guarantor of national development, while energy innovation is an endogenous driver of sustainable development. This paper examines the impact of energy security on energy innovation, which has important strategic implications. Using original data from 66 countries for 1996–2019, we construct two-way fixed effects models for empirical analysis. The results show that there is a potential non-linear effect of energy security on energy innovation, and this non-linear effect shows a U-shape. In terms of influence mechanisms, the U-shaped effect of energy security on energy innovation is propagated through energy policy as a mediating mechanism. Furthermore, left-wing parties in power have stronger impact effects, and increasing government stability and decreasing financial risk have a stronger impact on the correlation between energy security and energy innovation. This paper provides new insights into understanding the influence of energy security on energy innovation and offers targeted policy recommendations.

Political Business Cycles in Türkiye: A Chaotic Perspective

AbstractThis paper has the goal of analyzing the chaotic structure of political business cycles in Türkiye for the period from 1986 March to 2020 January. To investigate the existence of uncertainty, the chaotic dynamics of the analyzed variables was examined using the Lyapunov exponent, Shannon entropy, and Hurst entropy. The Fourier VAR model was applied to determine the effects of unemployment, inflation, economic growth, and the minimum wage on voting behavior in Türkiye. The Granger Causality approach was also used to assess the direction of the causal relationship between macroeconomic factors and political party groups. Granger causality analysis findings of this paper reveal a bi-directional Granger causality link between the center-right party and economic growth, inflation, unemployment, and the minimum wage. Furthermore, there is also a uni-directional causality relation from inflation, unemployment, and economic growth to the center-left party and a bi-directional causality relation between the minimum wage and the center-left party. In this regard, one of the most remarkable evaluations of this paper is that the sensitivity findings of party groups to macroeconomic factors in Türkiye do not align with the core assumptions of the Partisan Theory concerning the right-left party division. Therefore, contrary to the related theory, the analysis results indicate that it is not eligible to make a sharp and distinct distinction between right-wing and left-wing parties in Türkiye. Additionally, Lyapunov exponent, Shannon entropy, and Hurst entropy findings point to the existence of chaotic structure and uncertainty in political cyclical fluctuations in Türkiye. Accordingly, it is figured out that the existence of chaotic structure and uncertainty in party groups and analyzed variables allows only short-term and not long-term forecasting.

External Factors’ Influence on Course of the April 25, 1974 Revolution in Portugal

The article examines the Portuguese Revolution of 1974 from 1974 to 1976, focusing on the influence of external forces. The analysis extensively utilizes documentary materials published by the U.S. State Department during the period under consideration, as well as memoirs by Portuguese and foreign authors. The study explores the process of shaping the United States' new foreign policy towards Portugal after the revolution, comparing American and European approaches to the events in Portugal. The role of the USSR and other socialist countries is also examined. The research findings indicate that the revolution caught the American leadership off guard. Initially, the U.S. response was restrained, but their attitude changed after members of the Communist Party joined the government. The U.S. adopted a policy of exerting political and economic pressure on the Portuguese leadership to exclude communists from the government, supporting all opposition left-wing parties, and exploiting divisions within left-wing forces. The Soviet Union provided relatively modest support to Portuguese communists, while socialist bloc countries showed significantly greater involvement and enthusiasm. U.S. allies in Europe took more moderate positions. European diplomacy made significant efforts to avoid direct confrontation between the U.S. and the USSR, with the greatest challenge being to prevent the U.S. from demonstrating its power on the European continent.

Class differences in precarity and welfare priorities within Europe’s center-left coalitions

Mainstream European left-wing parties have seen their traditional class base evolve in postindustrial economies. In response, these parties have adjusted their platforms to adopt policies that aim to secure positions for workers in a more volatile labor market through education and training. But how does the electoral appeal of this “social investment” paradigm compare to that of the older welfare paradigm that passively distributes benefits to the poor and inactive? Using cross-country data from two surveys, I find that the policy preferences of industrial workers respond differently to labor market precarity than do those of service sector workers, particularly sociocultural professionals. Further, industrial workers who prefer traditional welfare policies are less likely to vote for the center-left than professionals, even if those professionals hold similar policy priorities. These results help explain the center-left’s recent electoral trends while also highlighting current limitations on building cross-class political coalitions in postindustrial economies.

«Союз Сары Вагенкнехт – благоразумие и справедливость» и раскол левой партийной оппозиции в ФРГ: кризис или обновление?

The paper is devoted to the emergence of a new German political party “Sarah Wagenknecht Union – Reason and Justice” (party “SWU”). The relevance of the study lies in the fact that the stated scientific problematic is of particular interest in the context of the current geopolitical situation, which dictates the need to take into account the positions of new groups through the prism of Russian national and foreign policy interests. The object of this study is the political party “SWU”. The aim of the research is to view the new party and the political consequences of its emergence for the left-wing party opposition. To attain the goal comparative and structural-genetic methods were used, allowing us to trace the dynamics of formation and development of left-wing groups in united Germany. The research tasks include the analysis of the political and ideological prerequisites for the SWA emergence; a study of the organizational and structural features of its formation; the identification of the political consequences of a new grouping both for the left-wing party opposition and the party system as a whole. The research results embrace the reasons for the emergence of the party “SWU”; the origins of the internal conflict in the Left party which led to the formation of a new political grouping; the program settings of the SWA and its electoral prospects; the consequences of the formation of a new party both for left-wing political forces and the party system as a whole. The research conclusions underline the following ideas. The emergence of a new party on the German political scene such as the party “SWU” marks a new stage in the development of both the left movement and its party system as a whole. For the Left, this means that the phase of their consolidation has been replaced by a phase of disintegration, which has taken the form of a party split. For the German party system, the creation of the party “SWU” can have two consequences. On the one hand, the emergence of a new left-wing party indicates further fragmentation and pluralization of the political system. On the other hand, it is becoming obvious that the impact of existing parties, primarily the “Alternative for Germany” and the “Left” is decreasing. For the “Left”, the activity of the party “SWU” is an existential threat and may lead to its disappearance as a pan-German parliamentary grouping. The prospects for the influence of the party “SWU” is related to the relevance of the political agenda that the new party will offer to voters as well as to its organizational stability.

Parties and Movements A Roundtable on Left Politics

ABSTRACT: For many socialists, the classic political model comes from the left-wing parties grounded in workers' movements that formed in Europe over a hundred years ago. Today, many of the left's broadest goals, and its primary antagonists, remain the same. But the conditions under which socialists pursue those goals have changed drastically. And the social and political climate varies greatly across our unequal planet. This conversation, held in October, brings together scholars who focus on different regions in order to help us understand the challenges that left political formations and popular movements face around the world. What do they hold in common? Where do their perspectives diverge? What brought them to this point—and where are they headed?

Parties and Movements: A Roundtable on Left Politics

ABSTRACT: For many socialists, the classic political model comes from the left-wing parties grounded in workers’ movements that formed in Europe over a hundred years ago. Today, many of the left’s broadest goals, and its primary antagonists, remain the same. But the conditions under which socialists pursue those goals have changed drastically. And the social and political climate varies greatly across our unequal planet. This conversation, held in October, brings together scholars who focus on different regions in order to help us understand the challenges that left political formations and popular movements face around the world. What do they hold in common? Where do their perspectives diverge? What brought them to this point—and where are they headed?

Развитие российского федерализма в 1990-х гг. (на примере Омской области)

In the framework of the presented article, the author analyzes the process of management transformation in the Omsk region in the 1990s as the formation of federalism in the Russian Federation. Later, the author of the article plans to carry out similar work in relation to the Altai Territory and the Tyumen region. Based on the available scientific developments and introducing into circulation a wide range of sources, the author of the work identifies the features of the development of federalism in the Omsk region within the framework of the system of socio-political and economic relations. Omsk region had serious industrial and agricultural potential, but also raw materials problems, exacerbated by the transition to market relations. The local leadership put forward the idea of regionalization of economic reform, which required the presence of a strong authoritarian business executive in power. But the active privatization carried out by external forces led to rapid bankruptcy, which did not suit the local leadership, and the population is not satisfied with the decline in living standards. In the Omsk region, this situation leads to increased support for left-wing parties. As part of the national administrative construction, the Azov German National District was created in the Omsk region. The idea of creating the territorial autonomy of the Siberian Tatars, triggered by the process of privatization of the oil industry, was stopped by transferring it to owners living outside the Omsk region.

정부당파성에 따른 교육시장화 비교 분석 연구 : 유럽 및 북미 국가의 민간교육 투자와 사립학교 등록 비율을 중심으로

This paper purposed to analyze the marketization of education according to education policy determined by political factors by presenting changes in private education investment and private school enrollment rates in European and North American countries according to government partisanship. As with other policies, it was derived that fundamental changes occur in educational policies because of political factors rather than fragmentary educational considerations.
 Based on the main support of the high-income class, the right-wing party revitalizes the education market. It lowers education regulations to increase the effectiveness of private investment in education. As a result, there is a high possibility that education marketization will intensify. On the contrary, the left-wing party supported by the low-income class tries to reduce the effect of private investment. Rather than segmentation according to the special separation of secondary education, integration and education regulation are strengthened to reorganize the system to lower the marketization of education.
 This article, I looked at education marketization according to government partisanship and analyzed changes in education policy. Regarding education marketization, the ratio of private education expenditure and the ratio of private school student enrollment were used as dependent variables, and the cabinet composition ratio of left-wing and right-wing parties was used as independent variables. Through panel statistical analysis, this article obtained significant results on the changes in education marketization that differ depending on the left and right-wing government partisanship.
 In conclusion, it can be seen that the partisanship of the governments of the left and right has changed the education policies to realize the policies of their constituencies.

The politics of redistribution and sovereign default

This paper studies how distributional and electoral concerns shape sovereign default incentives within a quantitative model of sovereign debt with heterogeneous agents and non-linear income taxation. The small open economy is characterized by a two-party system in which the left-wing party has a larger preference for redistribution than the right-wing party. Political turnover is the endogenous outcome of the electoral process. Fiscal policy faces a tradeoff: On the one hand, the government has incentives to finance its spending via external debt to avoid distortionary income taxation. On the other hand, the accumulation of external debt raises the cost of borrowing. Quantitative findings suggest that the left-wing party implements a more progressive income tax, is more prone to default, and has a lower electoral support than the right-wing party due to worse borrowing conditions and the distortionary effects of income taxation. In equilibrium, electoral uncertainty raises sovereign default risk.

Perceived technological threat and vote choice: evidence from 15 European democracies

The political consequences of workplace technological adoption have become a focus of recent party politics research. This article contributes to this literature by directly examining how the perceived threat of technological change relates to support for populist and non-populist left and right parties. It does so in two ways: first, by examining subjective rather than objective automation exposure, and second by distinguishing between personal and collective threat perceptions. Using vote choice data from 15 European countries, this article shows that subjective perception of personal automation exposure relates to increased support for left parties and decreased support for populist-right parties, while concern over collective risk relates to increased support for the populist right. These patterns suggest that fear of workplace technological change elicits both material and status concerns. The article concludes with counterfactual analyses demonstrating that both non-populist and populist left-wing parties could benefit by mobilizing voters who feel personally threatened by automation.

Exploiting Sociocultural Issues in Election Campaign Discourse: The Case of Nyans in Sweden

The Swedish far-right party, the Sweden Democrats (SD), came to power in 2022 and is currently the second-largest party in the Swedish Parliament, the Riksdag. While it has been propagandizing an anti-migrant discourse, another newly founded party has been producing a counter-discourse. The newly created Nyans party claims to represent migrants and minorities in Sweden. However, its discourse uses controversial issues that could potentially misrepresent those communities. Our study aimed to analyze Nyans’ Facebook posts published in the month leading up to the 2022 elections. Through our analysis process, which lasted from January to August 2023, we applied a critical discourse analysis approach to uncover the relationship between sociocultural issues and their social, political, and ideological contexts. The results reveal that Nyans’ discourse focused on opposing left-wing parties and aligned itself with the far-right. The discourse aligned with misinformation campaigns on social media when addressing sociocultural issues. These issues include the childcare law, the burning of the Qur’an, and the veil, which are pertinent to a particular perspective in the Muslim community and do not necessarily represent immigrants or minorities.

Gender, public policy and medical knowledge on the pages of Mulherio feminist journal (1981–1988)

Em 1981 um grupo de trabalhadoras da saúde e pesquisadoras feministas criou um periódico que tinha por objetivo debater pautas de movimentos de mulheres e expor práticas de prevenção e profilaxia da saúde feminina. Muitas de suas organizadoras vinham de partidos de esquerda e partiram de seus saberes e repertórios para defender a equidade de gênero e o fim de discriminações, trazendo para a discussão pesquisas e trabalhos científicos. Pensando nisso, este artigo tem o objetivo de analisar como as pesquisadoras que escreviam o jornal feminista Mulherio (1981–1988) utilizaram-se de seus repertórios socioculturais e científicos para tratar do corpo e da saúde feminina. Metodologicamente, opera-se com a análise do discurso a partir de Michel Foucault, o que possibilita ler as imagens e textos em sua historicidade, pluralidade e tensões que lhe foram constitutivas, contribuindo para a constituição de sujeitos e práticas de poder-saber. Tratando-se, portanto, da análise de um periódico que teve considerável circulação, pode-se percebê-lo como produto dos anseios específicos, reproduzindo ou questionando certas premissas científicas e valores socialmente constituídos e articulados às transformações em curso nas relações de gênero.

The Loser’s Long Curse: How Exposure to Class Conflict Shapes Election Outcomes

Understanding the political consequences of civil war exposure is a challenging task, given the myriad of overlapping and at times divergent mechanisms involved. This article provides evidence of the persistent political legacy stemming from exposure to a violent class conflict. We revisit the Finnish Civil War of 1918 and first trace out the impact of local conflict exposure on electoral outcomes over a quarter-century period between the World Wars. To do so, we combine a difference-in-differences approach with historical data on the geographical distribution of civil war casualties and election outcomes. We document that the local electoral performance of left-wing parties that were associated with the insurgents was persistently and negatively affected by civil war casualties on both sides of the conflict. We also discuss potential mechanisms behind this finding and further show that the civil war had an enduring impact on the Finnish political landscape over a hundred years.

Changes of Polish Democracy and their Impact on Polish Belarusians

Abstract The Belarusian minority in Poland is the second largest national minority, almost entirely concentrated in Podlasie. Qualitative research conducted by our team in 2020 allowed diagnosis of the reasons for the “invisibility” of Belarusians. The Polish state’s policy has always influenced the mood of Belarusians who, despite being passive in creating their own political representation, are often identified as the electorate of left-wing parties. Currently, eight years after the 2015 elections won by the PiS party (Prawo i Sprawiedliwość, Law and Justice), Podlaskie Voivodeship is sometimes referred to as a “bastion of the right”, especially of extreme right-wing forces. The aim of the paper is to determine the impact of the current political situation on the sense of identity of the Belarusian minority by referring to the results of the National Census of 2002 and 2011, as well as the circumstances and results of the 2021 census. The analysis pays attention to factors such as historical policy, religion, and axiology, which determine the “borderland identity”. The research method used is primarily a comparative method, but we also applied the results of interviews based on scenarios, conducted in selected Podlasie municipalities with at least 50% of Polish Belarusians.

“The Worker's Party sold out the street vendors”: Revanchist populism and the crisis of labor in Belo Horizonte, Brazil

In this paper, I examine the links between revanchist populism and the labor crisis in Brazil, a country with a stratified labor market where informality is prevalent among low-income, racialized groups. I analyze the struggles of street vendors for accessing urban space in Belo Horizonte, Brazil, where the Worker’s Party (PT) played a key role in evicting vendors from public spaces and criminalizing their activity in the early 2000s. I focus on the connections between this initiative and a more recent “revitalization” policy that displaced street vendors from public spaces in the city center. In this context, I explore the political discourses of displaced workers during the 2018 elections that brought Bolsonaro to power. I show how the eviction stimulated antipetismo (anti-PT sentiment) among street vendors by triggering collective memories and rage against the party that “sold them out.” I argue that street vendors strongly identify as workers but are excluded from the unionized waged workingmen notion central to unions and Latin American left-wing parties. By discussing how street vendors reiterate their position as workers and not criminals, I highlight their identification with a moral notion of worker aligned with Bolsonaro’s conservative anti-crime agenda. I thus argue that support for Bolsonaro among street vendors was stimulated by the shortcomings of Brazil’s urban reform as well as the lack of appropriate policy responses to an increasingly heterogeneous and informalized workforce. I conclude by emphasizing the importance of supporting the collective struggles of non-waged workers as a path beyond revanchist populism.

Is Populism reversible? Evidence from Italian local elections during the pandemic

We study the effect of economic insecurity on electoral outcomes using data on municipal elections in Italy. We implement a difference-in-differences approach that exploits exogenous variation across municipalities in the share of inactive workers due to the economic lockdown introduced by the central government to deal with the Covid-19 pandemic. We show that lockdown-induced economic insecurity positively affected the electoral performance of progressive and left-wing parties, while it negatively affected conservative and far-right parties. Conversely, we find no effect for the populist Five Star Movement, local independent parties (i.e., Civic Lists), and electoral turnout. We provide evidence that extraordinary economic measures introduced by the central government to compensate workers for the economic insecurity can explain this shift in partisanship toward the left and the increasing support for pro-EU parties, away from euro-skeptic and populist forces.

The Italian left at a critical juncture: disanchoring the past, embracing the present

ABSTRACT On September 25, 2022, the Italian left faced a significant electoral setback as the centre-right coalition, led by Giorgia Meloni, secured a remarkable electoral win. Historically, the left had been represented by major parties like the Italian Communist Party (P.C.I.) and the Italian Socialist Party (P.S.I.). Their demise in the 1990s, for various reasons, gave rise to new left-leaning ‘umbrella’ entities such as the Ulivo and the Democratic Party (P.D.). Despite some electoral successes by these newer groups, left-wing parties and coalitions have failed to dominate the Italian political scene in recent years. A decline in the definitive meaning of ‘left’ in Italian politics has led to a more fragmented left-wing. As traditional leftist ideologies have waned, some of the emerging left-leaning parties have faced criticism for prioritizing civil rights over socioeconomic issues. Articles in this special issue delve into different facets of the Italian left. Pasquino highlights the stagnation in the left’s political culture since the cold war’s conclusion, while Newell critiques the weakness of the P.D.’s party organization and ideology. Ventura analyses both the P.D.’s organizational challenges and its leadership decisions, whereas Musella emphasizes the P.D.’s shortcomings in updating communication strategies. Pasini, Fasano, and Cerruti dive into the evolving preferences of left-wing voters, while del Palacio touches upon the radical left’s challenges. Mulè and Toso offer insights into the left’s efforts in poverty alleviation. In summary, this special issue underlines the pressing need for the Italian left to refresh its ideologies and strategies to stay relevant and present a competitive alternative to conservative agendas in Italy’s shifting political scene.

How a left-wing political party fails to keep up with the times

ABSTRACT How can a political party, especially a progressive one, fail to understand and embrace the major changes of its time? The article examines the experience of the Italian Partito Democratico (Democratic Party [P.D.]). Since its foundation in 2007, the party has failed to achieve satisfactory results with regard to its explicit objective of creating a ‘new national party’. Although the party has often joined coalition governments, there has been a marked decline in its electoral support and in the active participation of citizens in its activities. The main thesis of the article is that the current crisis of the P.D. is due to a lack of understanding – almost a rejection – of the two main political changes that have occurred in recent decades: the personalization of politics and the digitalization of society. The party’s refusal to embrace possible political innovations in these areas has been very clear. There is an important paradox here: the fact that a political force which, given its position on the political spectrum, should be looking to the future, instead views the present with great suspicion. This is a position that has become typical of many European left-wing parties, which are well rooted in long-standing political traditions, but are finding it increasingly difficult to understand how societies are changing.