Party In Power Research Articles

Defending enlightenment philosophy of the rule of law. (the image of the concept of usurping democracy in Poland Post-2015 created by independent media)

The main political party in power in Poland arouses much controversy, which is caused, among other things, by omnipresent propaganda and manipulation of content. This article results from a meta-analysis of framing media messages in Poland's leading independent media. The ruling party's reign of power, the reduction of opponents and the swearing in of (also illegitimate) allies in the most strategic positions, or the abuse of immunity and attempts to subjugate institutions such as the courts and the prosecutor's office are clearly discernible. Such acts have also directly affected citizens who have chosen to take to the streets and defend their rights, which has entailed, for example, court proceedings being brought against them. The declaration and actions of the ruling party, which invokes Catholic values, are contradictory - even mutually exclusive. The Polish free independent media show how many abnormalities and abuses have occurred during the reign of the current government. Consequently, various measures are also being taken against the fourth estate to restrict its freedom, influence its content, obstruct its journalistic integrity, and there have even been attempts to seize such media and drag them to the "right" side.

New Rightists or Simply Opportunists? The New Right Parties in Power in Latin America and Europe between 2010 and 2019: An Analysis of Their Ideological Dimensions

AbstractThere is a boom in the power of right-wing parties that are becoming government parties in Latin America and Europe. It has been pointed out that these are distinguished from traditional right-wing parties by their common ideology that transcends national contexts, which is why they have been grouped as New Right-wing parties. This article questions whether these parties share ideological themes or whether they are heterogeneous and obey national interests. This study systemizes the New Right-wing parties’ programs and classifies them to answer the question. This corpus is then studied through frequency, network, and principal component analysis. Two conclusions are reached from this. First, these parties agree on issues such as provider States and nationalist claims, and, second, their programs have diverse themes that do not show the formation of an identifiable transnational ideological agenda in their programs. Consequently, grouping these parties as an ideologically homogeneous phenomenon can make invisible the fact that they are parties that adjust to particular demands of their political environment, in a logic that obeys more catch-all parties than ideological and dogmatic parties.

When strength is a weakness.

In general, individuals with low levels of coercive power are at greater risk of victimization than those who are more powerful. However, in some circumstances, superior coercive power increases an individual's vulnerability. In this paper, I show how coercive power can increase vulnerability (offsetting its protective effect) by its effects on targeting and tactics. Individuals with greater coercive power can increase their risk of getting targeted because they tend to be less vigilant and more likely to behave in ways that provoke others. They generate more grievances and have more enemies because they are less compliant and more verbally aggressive and confrontational. Powerful parties are also at greater risk of being targeted by adversaries seeking to gain status. An attack on a strong adversary is more likely to enhance status than an attack on a weaker adversary since it is a greater achievement. Individuals with coercive power are also at greater risk because of the tactics used by their weaker adversaries. Weaker parties are more likely to engage in pre-emptive attack and use weapons. They are better able to attract and rely on allies because of the norm of social responsibility, that is, the tendency to protect those in need. Finally, they are more likely to attempt to kill more power adversaries in order to incapacitate them and, thereby, avoid retaliation.

Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP)

Abstract This article situates the largest political party in the world, the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) in India, within the literature on the populist radical right. After providing a brief overview of Hindutva ideology and organizations, with a particular focus on the BJP, it analyzes how nativism, populism, and authoritarianism are key defining elements in both theory and practice for the BJP. It further examines two important ideological tenets that go beyond these three defining attributes of the (European) populist radical right – anti-colonialism and neoliberalism – which lend towards the success of the BJP. Since holding a majority in national government under Prime Minister Narendra Modi, the BJP has been able to implement its vision of creating a Hindustan, or Hindu ethnostate. Like other populist radical right parties in power, the BJP is more radical in deeds than in words, but the future of the party without Modi’s leadership is uncertain.

Government Trust and COVID-19 Vaccination: The Role of Supply Disruptions and Political Allegiances in Sierra Leone

We use data on the universe of COVID-19 vaccines in Sierra Leone to examine the relationship between COVID-19 vaccination take-up and support for the party in power and whether interruptions to vaccine supply reduced take-up of second doses. We find that COVID-19 vaccine take-up is higher in areas that support the ruling party, but this mirrors long-term vaccination patterns and not the politicization of COVID-19 vaccines. People whose second dose was due just before and after a vaccine stockout had similar second take-up rates (around 50 percent)–that is, delayed access to second doses did not deter eventual take-up.

PENETRASI TANPA LABEL: PENDEKATAN BARU INTERNALISASI IDEOLOGI PANCASILA PADA GENERASI MILENIAL

This article describes millennial Pancasila discourse. Discourse on Pancasila is often combined with discourse on The New Order, ideology politicization, partisan ideology, practical political objectives, and other political discourses. The Pancasila animates citizenship discourse on life, ideology, and state. The discourse on Pancasila has a discursive dynamic that suggests discussion, from power parties using it for political propaganda to its alienation in social life, especially among the millennial age. The article uses Critical Discourse Analysis (CDA) method to analyze big data from Twitter, Facebook, YouTube, and Instagram hashtags for #Pancasila and #Millennial, scientific discourse in journals, and informants. MediaToolKit was used to mine besides informants from Java, Kalimantan, Sumatra, Bali, Nusa Tenggara, and Papua provided discourses and narratives. This research explores the Pancasila discourse among the millennial age and a novel technique of ideological penetration called "penetration without a label (Pental)" to internalize Pancasila philosophy.

INTERNATIONAL RELATIONS AND GLOBAL POLITICS: GERMANY’S CULTURAL DIPLOMACY: A POLITICAL-LOGICAL CASE STUDY OF FRIEDRICH-EBERT-STIFTUNG IN VIETNAM

The trend of cultural diplomacy extends beyond the jurisdiction of the state and encompasses the promotion of "national culture" and interactive international cultural exchange, particularly the functions of non-governmental organizations (NGOs) financed by the government, the paper selects the case study of Friedrich-Ebert-Stiftung (FES) as a non-government organization where the German government finances FES to accomplish some missions of the foreign policies of Germany to have global influence in Vietnam and other countries. The paper argues that the cultural diplomacy of FES has not fully complied with their missions and values of the German government as follows. First, there is the political value conflict between German democratic system where the German political values of civil society, human rights and multi-party system are considered as the threats to the current political system of Vietnam. Second, VCP considers cultural diplomacy as Soviet-style propaganda, where they tend to use the funding of FES as the propaganda tool to disseminate their values and their success, to consolidate the power of Vietnam Communist Party(VCP). Third, as the Western and the Sinic culture conflict emerged, when China uses the sharp power to implicitly counter against the cultural diplomacy of FES (NED, 2017). Thus, FES is not allowed directly to cooperate with civil society in Vietnam. The paper proposes that FES needs to restructure its strategies to partner with civil society sector, rather than only VCP and its partners to strengthen German soft and smart power in Vietnam.The paper has also, relying on a cognitive-logical model, argued that cultural diplomacy is a function that attempts to transform Germany’s (and Vietnam’s) values into Vietnam’s (and German’s) values in order to construct a collaborative mutual understanding of the world for them. The cultural diplomacy function is a developer of the phenomena of ‘meaning’ and ‘development’ for both Germany and Vietnam in the context of their interactions and communications.

Political Parties and Civility in Parliament: The Case of Australia from 1901 to 2020

Abstract Incivility in parliaments is always prominently displayed in media reports, often with the implicit or explicit commentary that the situation is getting worse. This paper processes and analyses the records of verbal interactions in the Australian Parliament for over 100 years to provide a first approximation on the evolution of civility. It provides a framework for understanding the multidimensional nature of civility that examines both ‘politeness’ and ‘argumentation’, with the latter grounded in notions of public-mindedness. The analysis focuses on the interactions between parties of the orators and the party in power, the chamber of utterance, and the year. The results indicate that instances of impoliteness have increased since the 1970s but only modestly and remain highly infrequent. Minor parties, particularly those representing right-wing and Green politics are more likely to use dismissive or offensive language than the dominant centre-left and centre-right parties, although direct insults and swearwords are the particular remits of right-wing ‘system-wrecker’ parties. All these minor parties, nonetheless, also display higher levels of argumentation in their interventions. This combination of aggressive language and increased argumentation highlights the pressures on minor parties to convey their points in a forceful way, a challenge that is particularly pressing in two-party systems like the Australian one.

Narratives of Success and Failure in Ressentiment: Assuming Victimhood and Transmuting Frustration among Young Korean Men

In this article, we examine toxic masculinity, anti-feminist, anti-globalisation, and anti-military conscription positions in the narratives of what constitutes success and failure among young South Korean men during the COVID-19 pandemic. Misogynistic accounts attributed to the globalised effects of neoliberalism and its evolution through South Korean meritocratic competition, compounded by the social isolation of the pandemic, remain a puzzle psychologically, despite their toxic emotionality. We use the analytical framework of ressentiment to consolidate references to moral victimhood, indignation, a sense of destiny, powerlessness, and transvaluation, as components of a single emotional mechanism responsible for misogynistic accounts. In an empirical plausibility probe, we analyse qualitative surveys with young South Korean men and examine the content of the far-right social sharing site Ilbe (일베) which hosts conversations of young men about success and self-improvement. Our findings show envy, shame, and inefficacious anger transvaluated into to moral victimhood, misogynistic hatred, vindictiveness against women and feminists, and anti-globalisation stances. We discuss how the content of these narratives of success and failure in ressentiment relates to the electoral win of the right-wing People Power party in March 2022 which capitalised on anti-feminist grievances. We also consider the socio-political consequences of ressentiment narratives in the highly gendered and polarised South Korean society and expand the study of ressentiment outside the context of Western democracies where it has been most extensively elaborated.

American Influence on Youth Culture: Representation Analysis on Punk Subculture in Indonesia

As globally sprung up, punk subculture is an evidence how American influence has been penetrated in many life facets, including through youth culture. Indonesia becomes one of many countries that accept and practice the subculture. The discussion of punk subculture in Indonesia can reveal the relation between both countries, in which America becomes the powerful party while Indonesia is the submissive ones. To find out American influence in the spread of punk subculture in Indonesia, Representation theory by Stuart Hall is applied in the research. The theory is used in observing punk community both of Indonesia and America in Instagram platforms, particularly some posts that containing of punk elements. By using qualitative method, the result of the research uncovers that Indonesia absorbs American punk elements in two ways: By assimilating it without adding other elements outside of punk and by integrating it to Indonesian context. Both ways show the submissiveness of Indonesia in absorbing the foreign subculture. Yet, especially for the latter, it shows how Indonesia still has a power of resistance in accepting punk subculture by still maintaining mother cultural elements in practicing it, and in the end, it adds a new different color in the global punk scene.

The executive lawmaking agenda: Political parties, prime ministers, and policy change in Australia

AbstractIn Westminster systems, governments enjoy a privileged position in the lawmaking process that they can use to deliver on their campaign promises and achieve their policy goals. What policy areas do governments seek to affect through lawmaking? How stable is the executive lawmaking agenda? How responsive is that agenda to changes triggered by elections or by transitions in prime minister? This study uses a dataset of 3982 Australian bills introduced between 2000 and 2017 to answer these questions. While it finds considerable stability in the policy content of executive lawmaking agendas, the analysis also indicates that Australia's executive lawmaking agenda is more responsive to changes in prime minister than to changes in the party in power. As the first application of the comparative policy agendas approaches to government bills in Australia, this article offers new insights into executive lawmaking priorities during an especially turbulent period in Australian politics.

Managing Diversity in Nigeria’s Fourth Republic National Assembly: Integrated Parties versus Ethno-Regional Balancing

Abstract Since independence, Nigeria has adopted federalism to manage the country’s deep ethno-regional divisions, but federalism has not averted instability and return to military rule in the past. This highlights the need for additional factors and mechanisms to secure and stabilize civilian rule in Nigeria. The country’s ethnic party ban ensures that parties in power have a broad basis across the territory. Theoretically, these “integrated” parties are often argued to foster intergroup compromise and political stability. Yet in our case study of intergroup relations in Nigeria’s National Assembly, we demonstrate that the country’s broad-based parties do not play a strong role in organizing intergroup cooperation. Despite this, the Assembly has not experienced substantial policy gridlock. We argue that instead of integrated parties, ethno-regional balancing (i.e., a practice whereby key positions in parliament are allocated to different groupings) is a much more important stabilizing factor in Nigeria’s federal parliament.

Beyond Gerrymandering: A Structural Crisis of the American Electoral System

Two key threats facing American democracy today are gerrymandering and voter suppression. In this article, I argue that both of these threats are a direct consequence of the US using a single-member district (SMD) electoral system. This is because SMD creates significant asymmetrical disproportionality, which is a type of electoral bias that can benefit larger parties over smaller parties. This bias leads to the two largest parties in the US winning more seats than their popular vote, which in turn leads to these parties gaining significant resource advantages over smaller parties. This sets off a self-reinforcing system that keeps these larger parties in power and squeezes out the smaller parties, a process that is especially potent when this dynamic is not offset by public funding of electoral campaigns. The resource advantages that result from such bias include control over government policy, which makes it easier for the larger parties to manipulate election laws to their advantage, including through gerrymandering and voter suppression.

Immigration and Immigrant Policies, Health, and Health Equity in the United States.

Policy Points There is growing attention to the role of immigration and immigrant policies in shaping the health and well-being of immigrants of color. The early 21st century in the United States has seen several important achievements in inclusionary policies, practices, and ideologies toward immigrants, largely at subnational levels (e.g., states, counties, cities/towns). National policies or practices that are inclusionary toward immigrants are often at the discretion of the political parties in power. Early in the 21st century, the United States has implemented several exclusionary immigration and immigrant policies, contributing to record deportations and detentions and worsening inequities in the social drivers of health.

Impact of ideology on public policy and governance :

India's public policy has been strongly conditioned by political ideology. While dirigisme was the preferred ideology when India became independent, the early 90s witnessed a sharp U-turn toward a freemarket economy and the dismantling of LPQ (License, Permit, Quota) raj. This paper tries to analyze the impact of changed economic ideology on structural transformation and high GDP growth coupled with a dissonance between growth and development parameters such asMYS (mean years of schooling), malnutrition, IMR (Infant Mortality Rate), and MMR (Maternal Mortality Rate). The paper also brings out how parties in power with different political ideologies (Congress and BJP) have shown remarkable congruence in terms of economic ideology and pursuing the free market philosophy of the Washington consensus. It brings out how autonomy for bureaucracy is critical for quality governance (Fukuyama) and looks back into India's professional approach to perspective planning, policy design, and program evaluation under the erstwhile Planning commission. It also brings out the importance of RCT (Random Control Trials) before undertaking developing programs and not putting the cart before the horse. The paper makes a strong recommendation for institutional independence, capacity build-up, and proper regulation of the free market. Liberal democracy, without inclusive development and shared prosperity, and public policy without empathy for the most disadvantaged sections of the society, can lead to social disharmony and disruption.

Jüdische Stadtdeputierte in der Zweiten Polnischen Republik: Projekte – Strategien – Dynamiken[The Jewish city councilors in the Second Polish Republic: Plans, strategies, dynamic

Jüdische Stadtdeputierte in der Zweiten Polnischen Republik: Projekte – Strategien – Dynamiken[The Jewish city councilors in the Second Polish Republic: Plans, strategies, dynamic

The Golden Age of Pragmatic Socialism: Wisconsin Socialists at the State Level, 1919–37

AbstractThroughout the 1920s and early 1930s, Socialists in Wisconsin experienced a “golden age” of political successes in the state legislature. Whereas the 1920s are commonly seen as a period of socialist decline, Wisconsin Socialists entered the decade with a renewed sense of optimism. Following World War I, the Wisconsin Democratic Party collapsed as a viable political option and the Wisconsin Socialist Party found itself the second most powerful party behind the Republican Party. Wisconsin Socialists took a pragmatic approach to legislative debates and allied with progressive Republicans to defeat conservative opposition. Socialists were vital to progressive reform prior to World War I; however, the Socialist-Progressive alliance reached its full potential in the 1920s. From 1919–31, the Wisconsin legislature passed 295 Socialist-authored pieces of legislation ranging from labor demands, public utilities, and criminal justice reform. Many of the proposals resulted from negotiations between the Socialist and Progressive caucuses. The success of the Wisconsin Socialists—and their alliance with progressive Republicans—suggests that at least in some places the Progressive Era extended into the 1920s.

On Coming Home

On Coming Home

MEDIA COVERAGE AND PAK-US RELATIONS: ANALYSIS OF TV NEWS FRAMING DURING PTI’S REGIME

Foreign relations of Pakistan (Pak) with the United State of America (US) have a very long history of Ups and Downs and remain central to the politics of Pakistan. Pak-US relations also remain part of political and public discourse during elections and during the tenures of different political parties in the Government. Political parties in power or in the opposition are discussed with reference to their approach to foreign policy towards the US. The current study aims at examining how Pak-USA Relations were seen through the lens of media coverage, during PTI Government, taking into account the issues of Military Cooperation; Afghanistan Situation; Regional Disputes; War on Terror; and CPEC. The study is based on the news coverage of Pak-US relations in primetime TV news bulletins of two eminent Pakistani news channels GEO and ARY. The Descriptive Content Analysis method is used as a tool of analysis. Data was collected by watching the news bulletin of GEO and ARY news from August 18th, 2018 to January 18th, 2018. Agenda Setting and Framing approaches have been employed to analyze the news bulletins. All hypotheses are proven statistically by using the “t” test. The finding of this study is that both news channels Geo and ARY give positive coverage related to Pak-USA relations. These news channels have almost the same frames used regarding Pakistan and USA relationships in their 9 pm news bulletin headlines. In these frames, GEO and ARY news channels show that the relationships between Pakistan and the USA were very good during PTI’s regime. Both countries were working bilaterally during this selecting time period. Keywords: Framing, PAK-USA Relations, News Channels, PTI, GEO, ARY

Are Firms Stronger than Employees in Terms of Salary Bargaining Power? Evidence from China

This paper aimed to analyze the salary bargaining power of employees and firms. Based on two-tier stochastic frontier model, this paper constructed a model to measure the bargaining power of employees and firms in the salary formation process. Taking Chinese A-share listed companies from 2017 to 2021 in the China Stock Market & Accounting Research Database (CSMAR) of GTA as samples, this paper conducted an empirical measurement of the bargaining power of both parties and the impact on employee salary. The results showed that: (1) The bargaining power of both employees and firms had a very important impact on the final salary, and employees had stronger bargaining power compared with firms; (2) About 75% employees made their salary higher than “Benchmark” salary through bargaining. The employee salary was 8.46% higher than "Benchmark" salary on average. With the increase of salary level, employees had stronger bargaining power in the process of salary formation. (3) The bargaining power of employees and firms was heterogeneous in firms with different ownership in different years, but the bargaining power of employees was generally stronger than that of firms.