Ministerial Candidates Research Articles

Orderly principles of state administration in selecting ministers

One of the advantages of the presidential system is the president's authority to appoint ministers without the intervention of others. The President's authority has been confirmed in Article 17 paragraph (4) of the Constitution 1945 which states that the President appoints and dismisses ministers. This regulation is also emphasized by the existence of Law Number 39 of 2008 concerning the Ministry of the State which states that ministers are assistants to the president in leading Ministry. The State Ministry Law does not set limits on how persons can be elected by the president to become ministers, whether from political parties, professionals, academics, practitioners; it is all purely the authority of the president. Limitations on ministerial candidates are only regulated in the Constitutional Court Decision Number 79/PUU-IX/2011asserting that the positions of ministers and ministries may not be sold as a political gift to a person or a group. On that basis, the question regarding what legal principles in the state administrative law can be referred to by the president in forming a competent cabinet is raised. With normative-juridical methods, the purpose of this paper is to find out the principles in state administrative law in the implementation of government, especially in cabinet elections. The results of the study show that the principle of the orderly administration of the state must serve as a reference in the implementation of government, especially in cabinet elections. This principle involves the basis of order, harmony, and balance in state control and administration. Besides, the ministers appointed by the president must avoid and be aware of the occurrence of maladministration that leads to liability personal, not job responsibilities. To strengthen the principle of orderly state administration, The Ministry of State must include this principle in one of its articles.

“If you follow me, I might (mis)lead you”

Abstract This study investigates the effects of the two leading prime ministerial candidates’ personal Facebook and Twitter accounts and the effects of exposure to the general social media and web discourse in Hebrew on voters’ agendas during Israel’s April 2019 election. All the posts that appeared on the contenders’ accounts at a point in time in each of the four pre-election campaign weeks were analyzed to identify prominent issues. Social media and web content in Hebrew were also analysed over the same period. The data was compared with 2,217 responses to questionnaires completed on the four dates. The questionnaires also surveyed voters’ political orientations and the likelihood of their following the candidates’ accounts. The results revealed a significant correlation between contenders’ and voters’ agendas. However, significant differences were identified in agendas between those respondents who followed both leading candidates, those who followed a single candidate, and those who followed neither.

Instagram and Political Storytelling among Malaysian Politicians during the 14th General Election

The popularity of Instagram as a political tool has world leaders adopting it as an integral part of their communications. Over the recent years, governments and world leaders have flocked to the mobile photo and video sharing social network to share their official as well as personal pictures with a worldwide audience. Malaysian politicians are jumping on the Instagram bandwagon as well. Almost all the prominent politicians have an Instagram account and a significant number of followers. As such, this study explores Instagram’s affordance for visual imageries and political storytelling and its subsequent impact on political communication during election campaign. Methodologically, image analysis was conducted for two months on three Prime Ministerial candidates’ Instagram accounts running up to the historic Malaysian 14th General Election that happened on May 9th, 2018. The result showed that the candidates were actively using Instagram and were uniquely authoring their own stories by switching between narratives that were personal and political. These narratives were presented through six image types that included 1) fieldwork, 2) professionally-produced campaign materials, 3) politician-at-work, 4) family, 5) personal activities and 6) throwbacks. In addition, this analysis offers a crucial look into the mediatization and personalization of politics and contributes to the academic literature on social media, election campaign, as well as political communication in Malaysia . Keywords: Instagram, elections, personalization, political storytelling, visual imageries.

Pressure without Pain: What Politicians (Don’t) Tell You about Welfare State Change

AbstractHow do political leaders politicise welfare state “reform pressures”, e.g. unemployment, ageing or globalisation, in election campaigns? Competing expectations range from no politicization at all to a clear and unbiased coupling between pressures and intended policy responses. Eighteen speeches held by prime ministerial candidates at election-year party congresses in Germany, Norway and Sweden (2000–2010) reveal an unfinished and biased problem-solution coupling. On the one hand, even in these affluent countries pressures are frequently politicised. On the other hand, leaders either cherry-pick less painful policy solutions, or refrain altogether from debating them. So, while citizens learn that the welfare state is pressured, they are not exposed to the full range of policies they increasingly have reason to expect after elections.

The gender politics of executive candidate selection and reselection

AbstractThis research provides new theoretical and empirical insights into the gender politics of the springboards to chief executive office. The extremely masculinised composition of the relatively few top national executive positions has posed a serious impediment to empirically assessing the conditions that may facilitate women's under‐representation and men's over‐representation. To overcome this constraint, this study looks at the top regional executive office across four West European countries that present a multilevel state structure – namely Austria, Germany, Spain and the United Kingdom. Using two original datasets, the article examines the ways in which the selection and reselection of regional prime ministerial candidates is shaped by individual, organisational and institutional factors that produce heterogeneous experiences and career opportunities across sex. The results show that women have not shattered the glass ceiling at the regional level and pinpoint the fact that they are held to higher standards, benefit less from the political resources they possess and are more dependent on the decision environment in which parties select executive candidates. The conclusion is that the rules of the game guiding selection and reselection processes are strongly biased towards men.

A Content Analysis of YouTube Political Advertisements: Evidence from Indian Parliamentary Elections

YouTube, a popular video-sharing platform, is being used by political parties to influence voter behavior. The present exploratory study analyses the use of YouTube as a promotional tool during the Indian Parliamentary Elections 2014—the first social media based elections in India. This study examines 92 advertisements of Indian National Congress (INC) and 55 advertisements of Bharatiya Janta Party (BJP) on YouTube for the following parameters: general characteristics of each video, types of message appeal used and the dominant content of the advertisements. The findings revealed that INC emphasized more on the identity of their party while BJP stressed on their candidate. Furthermore, the YouTube advertisements were dominated by positive campaigning. The parties appealed to the voters through logic and strongly addressed various national and developmental issues. Both the parties strategically expressed the optimistic future of the country under the dynamic leadership of their respective prime ministerial candidates. The findings of the study have important implications for political parties, political marketers and lawmakers as social media has occupied a significant place among young and educated voters and acts as a stimulant to voter engagement. The article adds value to the existing studies of political advertising and communication literature by theoretically adhering to Kaid and Johnston’s (2001) concept of ‘videostyle’, integrating the functional theory of political discourse, and appending the visual culture concept to political domain.

Language as a barrier to ministry of the Word with special reference to sign language in ministry: Human dignity perspective

This article is born out of my participation in the General Synod Ministerial Formation for theological training of Uniting Reformed Church in Southern Africa (URCSA), when a decision was taken to license a student with a disability to be a minister of the Word in URCSA. Furthermore, my experience and observation of the licensing of the two candidates with hearing impairments to the ministry of the Word and Sacrament in URCSA and Dutch Reformed Church in South Africa (DRCSA) has encouraged me to conduct this research. This article is made up of four important parts: Firstly, the researcher will discuss Belhar Confession as the confession that emphasises unity (inclusivity), reconciliation and justice. Secondly, Belhar Confession and disability from the human dignity perspective will be discussed. Thirdly, the ecclesiological practices and shortcomings from the human dignity perspective will be highlighted. Fourthly, pastoral care as the affirmation of human dignity will be discussed.Interdisciplinary and/or interdisciplinary implications: The fields involved in this article are Systematic Theology, Sociology and Psychology. The author challenges classification of people with a disability under the category of limited competence by the Dutch Reformed Church when they license the ministerial candidates. The future results will reveal the inclusivity in terms of licensing and calling of ministers in the Dutch Reformed Church Family. This research calls for the change in the traditional discourse within ecclesiological, sociological and psychological fields, which exclude the people with a disability from the ministry of the Word and Sacraments.

Presidentas Rise: Consequences for Women in Cabinets?

AbstractSince 1999, women have democratically won the presidency eight times in Latin America and have named hundreds of ministers. This study argues that under certain conditions,presidentasare more likely than male presidents to improve women's cabinet representation. Two mechanisms,presidentamandates and gendered networks, appear to drive the relationship. Furthermore, because the pool of ministerial candidates is shallower for women than for men,presidentasare most likely to advance women's representation in cabinets at the beginning of their term and for “feminine” ministries. A case study of Michelle Bachelet's 2006 ministerial appointments reveals initial evidence for the argument. Empirical implications are then tested with an original dataset of 1,908 ministers of all democratically elected Latin American presidents since 1999. Model results are consistent with the theory thatpresidentasare most likely to “make a difference” when they are least constrained by the supply of female ministerial candidates.

To Ordain or not to Ordain? A Self-Determination Theory Perspective on How Ministerial Candidates and Dioceses Use Psychological Assessment in Ordination Process

Psychological assessments are nowadays often used when recruiting new pastors in churches. However, no studies have yet examined how the results from these assessments are used when deciding on ordination. It is not known how the candidates evaluate their result and how it impacts their career process, or how bishops use the assessment results in their evaluation of a candidate. The present study inspected these aspects in the context of the Evangelical Lutheran Church of Finland. A quantitative survey was sent to those who had participated in the psychological assessment during 2006-2010, and bishops and diocesan chapter members received an electronic survey containing open-ended questions. Both parties considered the assessments important, although they did not use the results themselves. According to Self-Determination Theory, this reluctance to use standardised selection practices can be explained as lack of perceived autonomy.

Twittering Public Sentiments: a Predictive Analysis of Pre-Poll Twitter Popularity of Prime Ministerial Candidates for the Indian Elections 2014

Twitter is a useful tool for predicting election outcomes, effectively complementing traditional opinion polling. This study undertakes a volume, sentiment and engagement analysis for predicting the popularity of Prime Ministerial candidates on Twitter as a run-up to the Indian Elections 2014. The results from a survey of 2,37,639 pre-poll tweets finds tweet volume as a significant predictor of candidate vote share, and volume and sentiments as predictors for candidate engagement levels. Higher engagement rates evolve from the horizontality of conversations about the candidate, therefore indicating a high degree of interactivity, but do not translate into a higher vote share.

Twittering Public Sentiments: A Predictive Analysis of Pre-Poll Twitter Popularity of Prime Ministerial Candidates for the Indian Elections 2014

Twittering Public Sentiments: A Predictive Analysis of Pre-Poll Twitter Popularity of Prime Ministerial Candidates for the Indian Elections 2014

Never-ending Modi

This article proposes a non conventional analysis of the most significant phenomenon that has marked Indian political life in the past decade. The electoral competition for the 2014 general election is played around two main elements, namely, the selection of convincing prime ministerial candidates and the definition of electoral coalitions. In this perspective, the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), the main party of the right-wing coalition (National Democratic Alliance, NDA), has taken a decisive step by selecting Narendra Modi as its front man for the electoral campaign, and thus the “natural” candidate for the post of prime minister in case of success. A highly controversial figure, Modi polarized the public debate for over a decade: he is either considered a fascist politician or he is praised for the high economic growth rates achieved by the state under his government. This article proposes to move beyond such a dichotomy to highlight Modi's complexity and success in promoting a political culture that merged religious traditionalism and neoliberal economic arguments. Whether his coalition will win the election or not, and whether he will become the next prime minister or not, is greatly significant to the future of India and to the possibility of the many contradictions and diversities that underpin the Indian democracy being conciliated.

Power through ‘Us’: Leaders’ Use of We-Referencing Language Predicts Election Victory

Leaders have been observed to use distinct rhetorical strategies, but it is unclear to what extent such strategies are effective. To address this issue we analyzed the official election campaign speeches of successful and unsuccessful Prime Ministerial candidates in all 43 Australian Federal elections since independence from Britain in 1901 and measured candidates' use of personal (‘I’, ‘me’) and collective pronouns (‘we’, ‘us’). Victors used more collective pronouns than their unsuccessful opponents in 80% of all elections. Across all elections, victors made 61% more references to ‘we’ and ‘us’ and used these once every 79 words (vs. every 136 words for losers). Extending social identity theorizing, this research suggests that electoral endorsement is associated with leaders' capacity to engage with, and speak on behalf of, a collective identity that is shared with followers whose support and energies they seek to mobilize.

Under Pressure: Argumentative Patterns of Pressures and Opportunities for Welfare State Reforms in Three Affluent Welfare States

Do political leaders actively put welfare state “reform pressures,” such as mass unemployment or population ageing, on the public agenda at the outset of election campaigns? Do politicians publicly couple these pressures with related policy solutions, such as retrenchment, cost containment, social investment or a defence of the status quo? We analyse 18 speeches held by prime ministerial candidates at the party congresses before national elections in Germany, Norway and Sweden (2000-2010). Even in these three affluent and comparatively sustainable, welfare states, reform pressures are frequently put on the public agenda. Party leaders either concentrate on more popular, less painful, policy solutions and aspects of ongoing welfare state reform. Or, they refrain altogether from connecting pressures with policy. While citizens are exposed to the basic idea that the welfare state is under pressure, they are not exposed to the full range of policies to expect after elections.

Drawing from the bargaining pool

This article expands our current knowledge about ministerial selection in coalition governments and analyses why ministerial candidates succeed in acquiring a cabinet position after general elections. It argues that political parties bargain over potential office-holders during government-formation processes, selecting future cabinet ministers from an emerging ‘bargaining pool’. The article draws upon a new dataset comprising all ministrable candidates discussed by political parties during eight government-formation processes in Germany between 1983 and 2009. The conditional logit regression analysis reveals that temporal dynamics, such as the day she enters the pool, have a significant effect on her success in achieving a cabinet position. Other determinants of ministerial selection discussed in the existing literature, such as party and parliamentary expertise, are less relevant for achieving ministerial office. The article concludes that scholarship on ministerial selection requires a stronger emphasis for its endogenous nature in government-formation as well as the relevance of temporal dynamics in such processes.

Meeting the Challenges of Representation and Accountability in Multi-party Governments

In systems of proportional parliamentarism political parties play a double role. On the one hand they make delegation and accountability work; on the other they add complexity to the delegation regime, as minority situations require inter-party cooperation. Because coalition government usually involves policy compromises, the question arises how the coalition parties can ensure that the ministers stick to the coalition deal. Employing the principal–agent framework, this paper shows that coalitions can use several control mechanisms to pursue this goal. The authors consider ex ante mechanisms such as policy agreements that set the agenda for future policy decisions and coalition screening of ministerial candidates. Next they discuss the effects of ex post mechanisms such as strong committee systems and institutional checks like ‘watchdog’ junior ministers. Employing a simple spatial model, they illustrate how these instruments work. Using control mechanisms is not costless, however, and actors may want to avoid these costs. The article specifies conditions that make the use of control mechanisms likely to occur.

The Social Sources of Late Eighteenth-Century English Radicalism: Bristol in the 1770s and 1780s

The case that religion alone can account for radicalism in the later eighteenth century has been persuasively argued and has received some empirical support. We test it using data from Bristol during the American crisis. Literature from the 1774 election shows that contemporaries assumed commonality of interest of poor voters with other poor voters and with the anti-establishment/radical candidates, and commonality of interest of richer voters with other rich voters and with the establishment candidates. To a lesser extent voters were encouraged to vote as loyal Anglicans or religious Dissenters. To see how this rhetoric translated into action, a poll book (1774), a city directory (1775), and rate and tax returns (1773–7) were combined by nominal record linkage. Using the linked data we found that poorer Bristolians voted preferentially for anti-ministerial candidates and particularly for the radical candidate, while richer Bristolians tended to support the ministerial candidates. The divisions were clear when voting was compared with wealth (using fiscal data), and when compared with occupation provided an appropriate classification was used. To see if radical action was sustained in Bristol, loyal addresses and petitions for conciliation of the Americans were examined. The rhetoric surrounding petitioning/addressing again assumed commonality of interest based on socio-economic circumstance. This carried over into action: petitioners for conciliation tended to be poorer people, whilst addressers, who favoured coercion, tended to be richer. The study refutes the thesis that religion alone accounts for radical behaviour, and suggests the need to examine the totality of people's experience before their political behaviour can be fully understood.

Fastening on Aaron's Breastplate: Formation, Grace and the Ministry in Post-Reformation England

"Vocation" and "Formation" are the normative concepts underlying all contemporary ministerial education. However, they can easily be conflated with the secular tools (such as measures of "learning outcomes"), which are legitimately used to support and enable them. This article hopes to create a useful historical reference point for contemporary reflection, by examining how early reformed English theologians and practitioners framed their discussion of these ideas within a wider understanding of Grace. It seeks to establish that the Protestant tradition from early on strongly affirmed the Divine endowment of Ministerial candidates with a special "Character" conferred, or rather moulded, prior to rather than in the Ordination service. Some attention will also be given to critiquing the narrow application of sociological perspectives, and prosopographical methods, to what are primarily theologically conditioned historical phenomena.

Irreversible Investments, Dynamic Inconsistency and Policy Convergence

We study a model where two parties, one from the left and one from the right, compete for position. The election is to be held in the near future and the outcome is uncertain. Prior to the election, the members of both parties nominate their prime ministerial candidates. Investors care about the outcome since they may invest in irreversible domestic production capital. We find that there is political convergence in the nomination process. In some circumstances, it is only the median voter of the left-wing party that elects a more moderate candidate. In other instances, the members of both parties nominate more conservative candidates, but there is still convergence. We also show that a higher probability of the left winning the election increases the degree of convergence, while a more globalised economy (greater capital mobility) reduces it.

The Elections in Israel 1996 (review)

Reviewed by: The Elections in Israel 1996 David H. Goldberg, Ph.D. The Elections in Israel 1996, edited by Asher Arian and Michal Shamir. Albany: State University of New York Press, in conjunction with The Israel Democracy Institute (Jerusalem), 1999. 318 pp. $25.95. Elections in Israel, as in other democratic countries, are normally determined by a complex blend of factors. This point is illustrated in elaborate detail in The Elections in Israel 1996. The editors are doyens of political analysis in Israel, having individually or collaboratively studied the results of the country’s elections since the late 1960s. The current publication is divided into two parts. Part One, entitled “Politics of Identity,” examines the impact on the 1996 Israeli elections of such issues as collective identity, religion, and “old” versus “new” politics, as well as the voting behavior of the Israeli Arab and Russian immigrant communities. Part Two, entitled “Political Reform, Parties, Candidates,” focuses on the reform of Israel’s electoral system, the use by major political parties of U.S.-style primaries for selecting their electoral lists, the Likud [End Page 125] party’s campaign strategy, the electoral performance of Shimon Peres, and media coverage of the 1996 election. The common thread linking many of these topics is the reform in Israel’s electoral system. On March 18, 1992, the Knesset adopted an amended version of the Basic Law: the Government (1968), providing for the direct election of the prime minister, to occur simultaneously with the election of the Knesset. (Heretofore the Prime Minister normally was the leader of the largest Knesset faction, who was invited by the President to form a government.) Although the amended law was passed prior to the election of the 13th Knesset (in June 1992), it did not take effect until the election of the 14th Knesset on May 29, 1996. The first direct election of Israel’s Prime Minister was determined by less than 1% of the popular vote (50.4% went to Benjamin Netanyahu, 49.5% to Shimon Peres). However, among Jewish voters there was an 11% differential in Netanyahu’s favor. This differential was explained by two factors. First, the Hamas terror campaign of late February-early March 1996 caused elements of the “fluid center” of the Jewish electorate to shift away from the “peace candidate” Peres and toward the conservative Netanyahu. Of course, no one could have predicted the Hamas terror spree, the goal of which was to inflict maximum death and destruction among Israelis rather than affect the outcome of the country’s election. Nevertheless, Netanyahu’s political handlers, headed by the American political consultant Arthur Finkelstein, are to be credited with seizing the political moment by launching an advertising campaign that tweaked longstanding popular uncertainty about Peres’s credibility on security matters. Moreover, credit Netanyahu’s team with the strategic decision to temper their candidate’s well-publicized opposition to the Oslo peace accords in favor of his pledge to deliver “peace with security,” thereby tapping into the Jewish electorate’s over whelming desire for a continuation of the peace process but with greater attention to matters of personal security than had seemingly been the case under Peres. The breakdown of the Jewish vote was also explained by the attitude toward the prime ministerial candidates adopted by Israel’s major Orthodox and ultra-Orthodox political parties. The leaders of these parties were uniformly opposed to the candidacy of Shimon Peres because of his perceived association with the “anti-Jewish” agenda promoted by the secularist Meretz party (Labor’s 1992–1996 coalition partner) as well as Peres’s declared readiness to cede additional parts of Eretz Israel. However, taking nothing for granted, Netanyahu struck generous pre-election deals with the religious parties in order to ensure their support for him in the balloting for Prime Minister; the ultra-Orthodox United Torah Jewry party reciprocated by plastering the country with posters declaring “Netanyahu is good for the Jews.” The religious community’s solid turnout for Netanyahu was made all the more significant by the voting behavior of two additional voting blocs: the Russian immigrant community and Israeli Arabs. Of the 400,000 immigrants who voted in 1996...