Party Line Research Articles

How cross-pressured local politicians choose government loyalty over local voters’ preferences. Lessons from a survey experiment in Norway

ABSTRACT This study explores how local politicians act when they are torn between local voters’ views and their own views or the party line. Against the background of a recent municipal amalgamation reform in Norway that reduced the number of municipalities from 428 to 356, we conducted a survey experiment where the local representatives (N = 2,013) were treated with different outcomes from a hypothetical municipal referendum about a potential amalgamation. The results show that local officials representing the government parties are less likely to change their voting behaviour if the voters have view different position on the merger than the representative. They have strong incentives to show loyalty to government reform based on both an individual career prospect and from a multilevel governance framework. Unsurprisingly, we find that if voters and representatives share their views on the reform, the representatives will vote in line with the voters.

To Toe the Party Line? The Impact of Firm and CEO Partisanship on Corporate Mass-Media Normative Legitimacy

Corporate political activity (CPA) research has traditionally focused on instrumental and strategic value, explicitly ignoring how external stakeholders, specifically the public, view the legitimacy implications of CPA, in particular with regard to partisan forms of CPA. Yet, recent research has begun introducing normative considerations into CPA, highlighting the impact of public evaluations on CPA, and partisan CPA, in particular. Focusing on normative affective legitimacy, as proxied by the tone of mass-media reporting rhetoric, this study explores the effect of firm and CEO partisan political contributions on corporate affective legitimacy. Utilizing three types of dynamic panel data analyses on S&P 500 firms over 20 years, the study provides consistent evidence that both firm-level and CEO-level partisan political action committee contributions are negatively associated with affective-based corporate legitimacy. Post hoc analyses reveal that in response to affective-legitimacy evaluations, firms reduce firm-level partisan political contributions and lobbying expenditures, but not other forms of CPA or partisan CPA. The study also finds that state-level public political polarization moderates the association between CEO partisan contributions and firms’ affective-legitimacy evaluations. This study is the first to systematically document the negative normative impact of CPA and partisan CPA. It strongly informs CPA theory and has practical implications for executives’ use of partisan CPA.

The politics of COVID-19: analysis of government strategies and public perception in Nigeria

The study examined the politics of the management of the COVID-19 pandemic in Nigeria with a particular focus on government strategic responses and measures that curtailed the spread of the virus and the citizen's perception of the implementation of these strategies across the Nations. The federal government adopted measures to curtail the spread of the disease through the establishment of the Presidential Task Force on COVID-19 and the Multi-sectored Pandemic Response Plan. The measures include economic and social welfare interventions, and healthcare strategies such as the closure of schools, and borders, the use of face masks, social distancing, lockdowns, and restrictions of travel, testing and contact tracing. The study adopted the historical method of data collection to elicit information and relevant data for the study. It was found that the efforts of the government to slow down and mitigate the rapid spread of COVID-19 were greatly hindered by public negative reactions. The study observed from the findings that corruption and stiff opposition from the opposition Party against the ruling party posed severe challenges to the effective implementation of the strategies and measures put in place by the government at the Centre. On the strength of these findings, the author recommended that in future, national challenges must be viewed and tackled evenly across all the levels of government and parties not along party lines for the benefit of all. In addition, the federal must leverage public sensitization and effective communication strategy for policy achievement and management of public opinion.

“God's Mighty Arm Makes the French Victorious”

Abstract The deists have commonly been characterized as irreligious thinkers who believed in a distant and inactive deity. This characterization of deism is undermined by the large number of French Revolutionary deists who believed that God worked miracles. Some French Revolutionary deists claimed that God continually led the French armies to victory, while others said that God worked a single miracle. After eliminating the French Revolutionaries who were following the party line when Maximilien Robespierre was in power, there were 72 French Revolutionary deists who believed God worked miracles to help the French Revolution. The French Revolutionary deists shared a common theology with the earlier deists, and many earlier deists also believed that God worked miracles. The Enlightenment deists were much more religious than commonly thought.

Towards Fostering Patriotism and Instilling Moral Values in Ghana Through Faith: The Role of The Church of Pentecost in National Development

The Church’s place in modern life has gone a lot beyond its original purpose of giving spiritual advice through religious groups. Through participant observation and a review of the literature, this paper examined how the Church, especially The Church of Pentecost (CoP), has changed over time in modern Ghana to promote patriotism and instil moral values in modern Ghana through its two flagship programmes—“National Development Conference 2023” and the “All Ministers Conference 2023”. The findings of the research revealed that morals, unity, and national growth were emphasised at these conferences. There were teachings, prayers, workshops, and the raising of the Ghanaian flag as a symbol of how important it is to work together across party lines for national growth. The study highlighted key recommendations, including employing a holistic approach, promoting patriotic songs, fostering collaboration, upholding moral values, emphasizing the national flag, and transcending partisanship. The study concluded that media influence, equality, punctuality, and unity are essential in fostering patriotism and moral values for Ghana’s growth and development. The paper contributes to the proactive role of the church in nurturing patriotism and moral values, providing valuable insights into nation-building and societal cohesion. Keywords: The Church of Pentecost, Religion, Patriotism, Moral Values, National Development

How Affective Polarization Deepens the Partisan Divide in US Cable News Use

Abstract: Currently, not only are partisans’ feelings toward Democrats and Republicans sharply divided along party lines, but so too are their choices regarding news media. Regarding this polarization, most studies have considered partisans’ selective use of news outlets as a crucial factor in widening affective polarization. However, insufficient attention has been directed to the potential role of affective polarization in selective exposure. Accordingly, this study seeks to fill this gap by verifying the effect of affective polarization on selective exposure and examining a potential mechanism using two-wave panel data. Our findings demonstrate that the degree of affective polarization is positively related to partisan bias in the credibility judgment of pro-party and counter-party cable news channels. In turn, favorable in-group bias in the credibility judgment of cable news channels has a significant effect on selective exposure to cable news outlets, mediating the effect of individual-level affective polarization on selective exposure. Lastly, we discuss the theoretical implications of our findings.

Women Representatives and Politics of Image Construct in Pakistan: A Study of Parliamentary Debates on Selected Issues (2013-2018)

Politics and political process across the world has generated a debate that how to create an inclusive democracy in which vulnerable segments of the society has to be provided a sense of equality and justice. Pakistan since 1947 and onward has undergone a systemic change to address multiple issue and problems that needed to refurbish its social and political system to accommodate the justified concerns of the subjected parts of the polity. Women quota was increased in political representation which helped them to break the glass ceiling effect and gave a sense of self-construction. In the parliament, they automated the concept ‘personal is political’ to dispel the social taboos which were working under the auspices of patriarchy and religiosity. In the above given time span of the government, women parliamentarians raised their voices over all kinds of issues and abridged the gulf between public and private. Despite toeing party lines of which they are nominee, they were successful in creating niche for them in the domain of politics. They developed their own caucus to make their identity meaningful in the politics of Pakistan. Parliamentary debates from archives of the parliament were consulted for this research.

Grigory Zinoviev: the torments and tosses of the oppositionist (1927-1934)

The subject of the article is the political behavior of one of Stalin's greatest opponents, Grigory Yevseevich Zinoviev, in the period between his first expulsion from the party at the end of 1927 and his arrest on charges of Kirov's murder in December 1934. Zinoviev's letters, speeches and statements to the party leadership are analyzed, through which he tried to achieve the main goal of returning to the party and to political activity. It is established that Zinoviev has an internal struggle between public speaking and maintaining his own political attitudes. These "torments" and "tosses" caused distrust of Zinoviev from the party leaders and led the hero first to a psychological breakdown, and then to political death. The materialistic concept (in particular, historical determinism) is used as a tool. The method of psychohistory is also used to analyze the inner world of a politician and the motivation of his actions. An analysis of Zinoviev's activities as a vivid example of the political behavior of a communist oppositionist allows us to draw the following conclusions: 1) Zinoviev's behavior during the period under review was determined by his return to the party, preferably to a leadership job. The basis for achieving the goal was the recognition of the impossibility of further opposition struggle, which could lead to a split of the CPSU(b), as well as general agreement with the policy of collectivization and industrialization that had begun; 2) The content of Zinoviev's appeals to various governing bodies, including I. V. Stalin, changed according to the situation inside the party leadership. 3) The calculation was not just to return to the party and to the leadership, but to take part on Stalin's side in the fight against Bukharin. The party leadership saw this and used it for psychological breakdown. 4) It is incorrect to consider Zinoviev's political behavior as a classic "double-dealing". He did not conduct anti-party work and did not reject the foundations of the party line. But his behavior led at the end of 1932 to a psychological breakdown and a rejection of his own political self. Finally, Zinoviev's "torments" and "throwing" stopped at the end of 1934. He died as a politician. The scientific novelty of the article lies in the very formulation of the question, the introduction of unpublished Zinoviev documents into scientific circulation, consideration through one of the leaders of the party and the oppositionist of the mechanism of strengthening Stalin's personality.

Intra-party determinants of the allocation of legislative speeches

ABSTRACT Parliamentary speech is an important and highly visible feature of legislatures in democracies. Time in parliament is scarce and the allocation of floor time is characterised by largely incompatible preferences between party leaders, aiming to preserve a unified party label, and individual members of parliament (MPs), facing incentives to differentiate themselves and take alternative stances to maximise their personal reelection prospects. This paper investigates the role of MP policy positions in the allocation of parliamentary speeches in different institutional settings. Measuring positions using a novel dataset containing tweets by MPs in three European countries, we find that MPs with positions diverging from the party line get allocated less time on the parliamentary floor when floor time is exclusively controlled by parties, but not when parliamentary rules allow individual access to the floor.

Twitter and divides in the Dutch parliament: social and political segregation in the following, @-mentions and retweets networks

ABSTRACT MPs communication on Twitter with other MPs may facilitate forming cross-party solidarity networks and provide public micro deliberation but may also be segregated leading to information bubbles and political polarization. That party-based division lines are running through the online communication networks of politicians is a well-established finding in social media studies; however important knowledge gaps have remained on the complexity of Twitter’s multilayered network developments and their interrelatedness with socio-demographic segregation. Here, we integrate the online-network literature with that on the political consequences of the digital architecture of social media platforms to theorize and scrutinize the extent to which and why Twitter following, @-mentioning and retweeting networks among MPs are segregated along party lines and sex, age and ethnicity. Our unique dynamic take allows us to rigorously study network segregation, including feedback mechanisms between Twitter layers, based on descriptive network statistics and SIENA analyses for Dutch MPs at three time points. The findings show that political segregation patterns are strongest within the retweet layer and weakest for @-mentions. The interrelations between the Twitter network layers aggravate party-based segregation over time. MP Twitter networks are not consistently segregated along social dimensions.

The Party System in Ethiopia

Abstract Political parties and their internal working policy and pattern of interactions have a profound impact on the operation of federations and the character of intergovernmental relations (IGR). By using the Ethiopian party system as a case study, this article aims to explore the impacts of party ideology, structure and style of functioning on the overall operation of a federation and the (de)institutionalisation of intergovernmental relations. It shows that the party structure, internal practices and ideological conviction of two parties—the Ethiopian People’s Revolutionary Democratic Front (EPRDF) and the Prosperity Party (PP)—have shaped and reshaped the functioning of the Ethiopian federation and the dynamics of vertical and horizontal relations. At the same time, constitutional and IGR principles have been sidelined. There is a need to entrench stable and formal IGR frameworks for negotiation, the exchange of information and co-operation between federal and sub-state institutions. Reducing excessive reliance on the party line is essential to optimise the regularity, continuity and effectiveness of the interactions.

Inequalities in out-of-home care rates in England: Does local party politics matter?

BackgroundInequalities in the proportion of children experiencing abuse and neglect or a children's social care intervention have become a research focus in the last decade. One almost unexplored factor of growth in rates of children in out-of-home care is local party politics. ObjectiveWe assessed whether growth in rates of out-of-home care in England varied by local authority party political control. MethodsWe collated administrative data on the 152 local authorities in England between 2015 and 2021. We used Bayesian parallel process latent growth models to assess whether growth in rates of children in care in English local authorities has been equal across Labour, Conservative, No Overall Control, and no political majority councils before and after adjusting for trends in child poverty, household income from employment, and expenditure on preventative services. ResultsPrior to adjusting for trends in child poverty, average household income, and expenditure, we find little evidence for differences in trends; once adjusted, we find that trends in Labour authorities were lower (−1.125 children looked after per 10,000 per year) than in Conservative authorities. Had growth in family and local authority economic factors remained constant, our findings suggested out-of-home care rates would have, on average, been stable or decreasing in Labour local authorities but would have continued to rise elsewhere. ConclusionsThe contribution of local party politics to growing rates of out-of-home care remains under-theorised and under-researched, but there are potentially substantial differences along party lines that are masked by unequal exposure to changes in poverty.

Dethroning the Mao-era Elite, Clearing the Way for Reform

AbstractThe reform era began with the removal of Mao-era elites from leadership positions on a scale theretofore unseen in the People's Republic of China. Rather than depending on incentives to mobilize Mao-era cadres to support Reform and Opening, the new reform leadership brought in younger, better educated pro-reform elites. This article thus proposes a Personnel Model, in which the Communist Party brings in sympathetic cadres to implement major shifts in the Party line. Furthermore, personnel changes were first imposed on the military, then on the civilian apparatus. We show the large scale and rapid implementation of these reforms in 1982–1984 using an original database of over 60,000 cadres drawn from Organizational Histories.

News from Home: How Local Media Shapes Climate Change Attitudes

Abstract Highlighting the local impacts of climate change has the potential to increase the public’s awareness of and engagement with climate change. However, information about local impacts is only effective when delivered by trusted sources such as copartisan political leaders. Is information about climate change conveyed by local media sources similarly beneficial? We argue that local media are well positioned to communicate the local implications of climate change, thereby enhancing the public’s risk perceptions of climate change and willingness to take climate action. We further hypothesize that climate coverage by local media, the media type that is more trusted across party lines, will have a significant influence on Republicans’ climate attitudes. Using the case of Louisiana, we first demonstrate that local and national newspapers cover climate change in substantially different ways, with local media more consistently focused on local impacts. Our survey experiment of Louisiana residents reveals that Republicans viewed the coverage of a hurricane in the region more positively when it came from a local newspaper rather than a national newspaper. Furthermore, local newspapers’ climate coverage increased Republicans’ willingness to take action to mitigate climate change. These results provide insights into the effective communication of climate change to the public and the role of local media in mitigating partisan polarization.

Forming a Military Culture for Learners at the VNU National Defense and Security Training Center

Constructing a noble and healthy culture, a fundamental basis of the socio-political spirit, and the driving force of national development is one of the top priorities of our Party. Given the unique nature of defense activities and the task of safeguarding the Homeland in the new context, the establishment of a military culture plays a significant role and is an objective and essential requirement. The Center for Defense and Security Education at the National University of Hanoi, with its functions and responsibilities encompassing education and training in the Party's line, defense and security work of the Party and State, as well as necessary military knowledge and skills tailored to students based on the Ministry of Defense's classification. With a profound understanding of these issues, the Center consistently integrates leadership and guidance into all educational and training activities in tandem with the establishment of a military culture for students. This has become a continuous directive, with well-organized plans and the maintenance of discipline, resulting in significant achievements that collaborating units have acknowledged and highly evaluated. Nonetheless, during the process of cultivating military culture for students, some limitations have been identified, such as irregular involvement in the establishment of military culture, inadequate grasp of academic progress and training of students among the faculty and instructors, and instances of concealing each other's shortcomings among students, as well as a limited ability to engage in struggle and critique against deviant ideologies and behaviors regarding military culture. These limitations consequently impact the training objectives and requirements. Therefore, the VNU Center for Defense and Security Education must continue researching and innovating to enhance the effectiveness of its efforts to build a military culture among students.

Public Support for Canals: Lower versus Upper Canada

A false image dominates too many recent surveys of Canadian history: that Lower Canada opposed canals, which Upper Canada supported. This pervasive image is not borne out by an examination of the public support for canals in the two legislatures. Both supported large-scale ventures (Lachine and Welland). French Canadians also supported smaller regional canals as well as canals above Montreal. Upper Canadians were more sharply divided along regional and party lines in support for the Welland Canal than were Lower Canadians over any canal. Legislatures in both the Canadas supported canals that they saw as most beneficial for their supporters whether conceived as a region or a party.

Differentiating the sources of post‐election partisan affect warming

AbstractWhile scholars have closely examined the intensification of negative affect across party lines during elections, less is known about the decline of partisan hostility in the aftermath of election campaigns. Synthesizing insights from research on electoral rules and political psychology, we theorize and empirically test two such mechanisms of post‐election negative affect decline. The first is that of winners' generosity: the expectation that self‐perceived election winners will express warmer feelings towards political opponents. The second is that of co‐governance, which predicts that shared coalition status leads to warmer affective evaluations among governing parties. We provide evidence that these mechanisms operate as pressure valves of negative partisan affect. We also show that while co‐governance reduces negative affect between parties who govern together, it fuels negative affect among supporters of opposition parties. The empirical analyses leverage a uniquely uncertain political period following the 2021 Israeli elections, around which we conducted an original panel study. Our findings advance the comparative polarization literature and connect psychological and institutional accounts of temporal fluctuations in partisan affect.

The politics of evasion: The missing statehood debate in puerto rico

In this research, we explored how foundational issues can become subtext in political discourse by studying how statehood was debated in social media prior to two plebiscites in Puerto Rico. Historically in Puerto Rico, local parties are divided on this issue instead of along the more common conservative versus liberal division that is found in most parts of the United States. We collected the corpus of Twitter communication by members of Puerto Rico’s Legislature for the term of 2017-2021. Using latent topic modeling techniques, we classified the political discussion along party lines. Surprisingly, statehood was not a major topic in our model when using the full corpus of data. However, when we filtered the data to include only those tweets discussing statehood and sub-sampled them by major party, the sub-topics within statehood communication became clear and coherent as was the partisan divide. Ultimately, while there is a clear division about statehood between the parties, the issue has become so intrinsic to the political sphere in Puerto Rico that it no longer commanded significant attention in the political discourse during this period.

Campaign contributions, partisan politics, and environmental polarization in the US Congress

Abstract Prior literature has shown strong and increasing polarization on environmental voting in the US Congress, with Democrats tending to support pro-environmental (“green”) legislation and Republicans opposing it. Employing a regression discontinuity design, we provide a causal estimate of the effect of partisanship on the importance of campaign contributions from brown industries received by US legislators. Electing a Republican rather than a Democrat for the House (Senate) leads to an increase of 96% (70%) in the importance of contributions from anti-environmental (“brown”) groups. We also find that greater dependence on brown groups is associated with less pro-environmental voting for legislators from both parties and the greater the importance of brown contributions the more (less) likely that a legislator breaks the party line when its party favors (opposes) pro-environmental legislation. Finally, we provide an analytical narrative of the rise and pattern of environmental polarization consistent with our empirical findings. (JEL D72, Q58)

Toeing the Party Line: The Asymmetric Influence of Feminism on Partisans' Participation

Abstract What is the relationship between feminism and political participation? How does partisanship moderate this relationship? Prior research shows that gender attitudes, particularly sexism, rather than gender identity per se, increasingly shape vote choice and participation in US elections. However, the role played by feminism in voter behaviour remains scarcely understood. As feminist identification crosses partisanship, we argue that its impact on engagement with campaigns and turnout depends on party ID. Therefore, we expect feminist identity and how it intersects with either aligned or conflicting partisan identity to impact partisans' participation asymmetrically. Using data from the 2016 and 2020 American National Election Studies, our results support these expectations. Holding the mutually reinforcing identities of Democrat and feminist has a significant mobilizing impact, while holding the cross-cutting identities of Republican and feminist tends to lead to a decline in political participation.