Political Parties Research Articles

The Role of Misogyny in the 2022 Korean Presidential Election: Understanding the Backlash against Feminism in Industrialized Democracies

Abstract Despite increasing scholarly attention to backlash against feminism, little is known about anti-feminist movements in East Asia. This study examines the 2022 South Korean presidential election campaign, in which the political parties sought to capitalize on political resistance to the perceived advance of feminism. This embrace of male grievance as a political force was arguably led by former People Power Party (PPP) chairman Lee Jun-seok, leading commenters to argue that support for Lee is rooted in misogyny. We examine this claim empirically by drawing on a novel survey to estimate the association between misogynistic attitudes, measured through devaluation, perception of women as manipulative, and distrust, and support for Lee. We find that misogynistic attitudes are positively correlated with support for Lee, but not with presidential vote choice. We interpret this as suggesting that the association between misogyny and support for Lee is a manifestation of the desire for symbolic representation. We discuss the implications of how this association can further influence the gender divide, both in Korea and beyond, and conclude with recommendations for further research.

How Politics Shapes State Identities in the US

Abstract The increasing nationalization of state and local politics alongside polarization and gridlock at the federal level have led states to become sites where policymaking on national hot button issues occurs. This political climate calls for a reconsideration of existing accounts of state identities, which posit that state identities are generally weak and apolitical in their content. This study considers the following questions: To what extent do respondents identify with their state? How does their state identity compare with other politically salient groups, like national identity, partisanship, race, and gender? To what extent and under what conditions are political considerations associated with state identities? How do results compare across different measures of state identification? Results show that a majority of respondents say that being from their state is an important part of their identity and the proportion saying so is similar to the proportion saying their race, class, and political party are important. Although politics may not come to mind first when respondents consider why their state is important, it relates to general feelings of connectedness, particularly for people in the political majority in their state, and being in the political majority is associated with increased levels of state identification. Results are similar across different measures of state identity. Closed- and open-ended questions show politics emerges most clearly when people explain why their state is not important to their identity. I discuss the implications of these findings and offer thoughts for future research.

Political contexts and new electorates: The case of women in Norway

AbstractExtension of voting rights is basic to political representation, but getting the newly eligible to the polls is also essential to representative politics. What are the factors that contribute to the mobilization of new voters? Study of the entry of women in electoral politics remains limited due to lack of appropriate data. However, in the case of Norway, as in several other countries, separate records were kept on women's eligibility and voting turnout. This paper examines how social factors may condition the influence of a major determinant of women's turnout, political party competition, in parliamentary elections immediately following their enfranchisement in the case of Norway. The study is conducted at the commune level and uses spatial tools of analysis. It takes place across (a) regions with different socio‐cultural and political attributes, (b) different franchise extensions to women by socioeconomic status, and (c) genders. Findings suggest that social context, that is, women's location in different socio‐cultural/political settings and socio‐economic status may condition the effects of political party competition on women's turnout.

Institutions or ideology? Cross-party and cross-country analysis of factors contributing to the election of women to the European Parliament

Abstract The article examines the key factors influencing women’s electoral success in European Parliament (EP) elections. We present a new conceptual approach and a novel model that simultaneously incorporates trends in party characteristics, institutional and socio-economic factors and cross-country trends in women’s representation. The model provides a comprehensive analysis of the relationships between party-level and Member State-level factors and the election of women to the EP. The study is based on an original dataset of 450 observations on national political parties from all Member States, spanning four European elections from 2004 to 2019. Our results show that party characteristics such as incumbency rates, party size and ideological orientations (i.e. the party’s position on the GAL-TAN scale or its attitude towards European integration) play a key role in shaping women’s representation. This article provides novel insights into the unique features of Central and Eastern Europe, elucidating divergent patterns of women’s electoral prospects in conservative and progressive parties in Western democracies and Central and Eastern European post-communist EU Member States.

Is ‘Revive’ a ‘game changer’ or more of the same? Whose needs are addressed in Australia’s new cultural policy and what will change?

ABSTRACT This paper addresses the new Australian cultural policy, Revive, released in January 2023 by the Labor Federal Government. The background to the policy development, the policy’s content, and the likely impact of the policy in the longer term, are all explored. This discussion is framed within theoretical understandings of cultural policies, as well as expectations of national cultural policies in other contexts . Consideration is then given to the role partisan politics play in Australia in relation to culture and the arts. In addition, there is an examination of the historical cultural and political framing of Australia in relation to issues around race, culture, and identity, which include referring to the the results of a recent national referendum. Further, the position of the arts sector in a national context is discussed, with particular reference to the funding decline that has afflicted the sector over the past 20 years. Conclusions are then drawn about the place of Revive in contributing to these different conversations.

Limited Congruence: Citizens’ Attitudes and Party Rhetoric About Referendums and Deliberative Practices

Both citizens and political parties refer to novel participatory practices in the contemporary crisis of representative democracy. Survey data indicate a growing demand for such practices within the electorate, while political parties have also begun discussing them more frequently. However, previous studies on citizens’ attitudes and parties’ discourse on democratic innovations rarely speak to each other. It remains unclear whether citizens’ attitudes and parties’ discourse are congruent. This article seeks to address this gap in the literature and analyses the extent to which political parties reflect citizens’ attitudes towards referendums and citizens’ deliberation in their manifestos. We cover 15 political parties in Germany and the UK. Our analysis uses party manifesto data between 2010 and 2024, and data from surveys conducted on national representative samples. Our findings reveal that political parties and citizens rarely have congruent approaches towards referendums and deliberative practices. People’s enthusiasm about referendums is hardly reflected in parties’ rhetoric, but the latter reacts gradually to the public appetite for deliberation. There are visible differences between opposition parties and those in government.

The Declining Role of Islamic Politics and The Jokowi’s Factors in the 2024 Presidential Election: A Study of Contemporary Political Policies and Dynamics in Indonesia

Research Problem: This abstract discusses the complex challenges faced by Islamic parties in the 2024 presidential election related to Jokowi's role as president. This report focuses on the dynamics of constellation formation between candidates competing in the 2024 presidential election. Research purposes: The main aim of this abstract is to examine the complexity of the problems faced by Islamic parties in the 2024 presidential election. This report aims to explain why Islamic parties cannot unite, but instead try to defeat each other in the election, due to the existence of forces outside of them who are capable of determine political dynamics in a presidential system. Research methods: Methodologically, this abstract refers to a case study of the experience of Islamic parties in contesting the 2024 presidential election in Indonesia. This report uses a qualitative analysis approach to investigate the political dynamics of the 2024 presidential election which also involves the influence of President Jokowi. Results and Discussion: This abstract discusses the challenges faced by political parties in Indonesia, especially Islamic political parties, in the 2024 presidential election which will be held simultaneously with the legislative elections. President Jokowi's influence is important in popularizing political parties that support the presidential candidates he supports, so that it also influences the results of the legislative elections for each Islamic party. Research Implications and Contributions: This abstract provides a comprehensive overview of the challenges faced by Islamic parties, both those that already exist and those that are just emerging in the 2024 elections. This report invites further research and discussion regarding important external (influence of the President in power) and internal aspects of Islamic parties. (institutional power and their consolidation).

The platformisation of party politics?

Political parties have gone digital. Political scientists in countries around the world have diagnosed the rise of the digital party and traced parties’ adoption of digital technology. Existing attempts to understand parties’ digital practices have focused on the adoption of different tools, with scholars empirically studying and theorizing how and why digital technology is used. What has received less attention is the technical architecture and origins of these tools, questions that have been more directly examined by political communication scholarship. In this paper we entwine insights from these two disciplines, interrogating the idea of ‘platformization’ in the context of political technology. Presenting a unique, longitudinal dataset that captures the technological development of political party websites in 66 parties in 16 countries, we provide unprecedented insight into the evolution of party websites and show evidence of increasing platform dependency. Our findings have important implications for our understanding of parties’ relationship with technology, showing how technological developments and monopolies can lead to increasingly homogenized practice internationally.

Democracy and freedom from the point of view of karls poper

This study deals with the philosophy of freedom and democracy by Karl Popper. Popper discusses the causes of the emergence of establishing a government from the perspective of democracy and freedom of elections. The main issue of the study is whether the emergence of government depends of man’s ability, and freedom and security of society. Popper believes that all the individuals are equal in front of the law because the legal states do not differentiate among the individuals who are equal in origin, language, culture, and gender. The state should also defend the land and control the military and economic sources. The democracy which is a political system depending on using rationality in politics or any other field needs an open society as political parties are tools for establishing governments. Popper believes that the wider the freedom is, it will be better for the government. Popper talks about democracy that no government is established without freedom and democracy. A dictator is a person who can be a president and calls for democracy and freedom of expression, but he rejects the other types of democracy because democracy has been known for rejecting dictatorship. In noocracy system, authority is given to a person, not for all, thus a president isn’t selected. To achieve secure and stable society, the government uses two types of elections, they are in the society and in the parliament. However, parliamentary elections are the most important ones topple the dictatorship without blood shedding.

Psychosocial Factors Influencing Voting Behavior

This study delves into the voting behaviour in the context of Indian electorate, shedding light on understanding it in the relatively new dimension, where the focus is primarily on psychological factors and social factors (demography) influencing the voting behaviour, which further sheds light on understanding the broader issues, like low voter turnout in India compared to other democracies worldwide, understanding of opinion polls and exit surveys and other evolving unethical Influences which are centred around mental process of voters cognition, which could create a new dimension of understanding the need for neuro rights of the voters, where the motive of free and fair elections can be achieved. This pioneering attempt to comprehend the psycho - social factors influencing voting behaviour in the Indian electoral system is groundbreaking as it has never been attempted before. In an election scenario, voters are exposed to a myriad of stimuli related to political candidates, parties, promises, and discussions, prompting selective exposure, perception, and integration processes to form the basis for their voting decisions. The study also draws on the voter turnout theory, highlighting the role of social reference groups and their impact on voter behaviour. Furthermore, it emphasizes the under explored domain of psychological and social factors in explaining political attitudes and voting behaviour among the mass public from relative unexplored dimensions, asserting that psychological traits directly influence the voting behaviour. With the Indian electoral system becoming increasingly dynamic due to diverse societal participation and steadily growing influential factors the need for study arises strongly, This research attempt is being carried forward by examining personality through the DISC personality assessment tool and quantifying the voting behaviour through the theory of planned behaviour questionnaire, the study seeks to discern the connections between demographic variables, personality traits and voting behaviour (intention). The components of voting behaviour were formed on the pivotals of theory of planned behaviour (TBH) such as behaviour beliefs, control beliefs and normative beliefs which more precisely create assessment area of voting behaviour intention. The study employs questionnaire with a five - point Likert scale to measure respondents' agreement with statements related to voting behaviour. The research's objectives include exploring the influence of a voter's personality and demographic variables on their voting behaviour and the influence of specific personality types on various facets of voting behaviour. The study's hypotheses posit that voting behaviour is influenced by psycho - social factors, particularly personality and demographic variables, and that different personality types may alternatively influence the voting behaviour intention. In conclusion, this study aims to elevate our comprehension of this context to a higher standard.

Hungarian Political Parties and Addressing the Issue of national Minorities in 1989

Hungarian Political Parties and Addressing the Issue of national Minorities in 1989

Political Clientelism in Rural Areas: Understanding the Impact on Regional Head Elections in Indonesia

Political clientelism is a strategy often used by candidates or political parties to gain electoral support by offering goods, money, or services in exchange for votes. In the rural context, this patron-client relationship develops more strongly due to the high economic and social dependency between communities and political actors. This research focuses on the phenomenon of political clientelism in rural areas and its impact on regional head elections in Indonesia. This research uses a qualitative approach with a descriptive approach. Research findings show that political clientelism in rural Indonesia, especially in agrarian areas, strengthens patron-client relationships in which political elites exploit the economic dependence of communities to gain support through material promises. This causes voters to vote based on short-term favors rather than the quality of the candidate, thereby exacerbating transactional politics and undermining the integrity of the election. Factors such as low political education, limited access to information, and economic instability reinforce citizens’ dependence on local patrons, including village heads, who have access to favors. As a result, the democratic process in rural areas is distorted, focusing more on the distribution of resources than on the vision of candidates, making systemic change difficult to achieve .

The Brazilian Network of Higher Education Institutions for Sustainable Development (Rede UniSustentável)

The Brazilian Network of Higher Education Institutions for Sustainable Development – colloquially known as UniSustentável – is a program of education, research, extension, entrepreneurship, and innovation implemented at the Federal University of Mato Grosso do Sul (UFMS). The Network aims to carry on an environment of cooperation, collaboration, exchange, and communication among member Higher Education Institutions (HEIs) with the purpose of building a more sustainable society, educating people and fostering good practice in sustainability adoption. The Network will be preferably composed of Brazilian HEIs and operates on a non-profit basis, without affiliations to political parties or religious connotations. The coordination of the Network is carried out by an elected Coordinator and Coordinator-adjunct on a biennial basis, with administrative support provided by an administrative committee and a general assembly. UniSustentável is affiliated to the Alliance of Ibero-American Networks of Universities for Sustainability and the Environment (ARIUSA). Founded in September 2023 with 3 member HEIs, as of April 2024, it has expanded to include 20 HEIs located in all 5 Brazilian regions. The network's activities are organized into working groups, each overseen by a responsible HEI and comprised of staff, faculty, and students from member HEIs, as well as the potential involvement of invited experts. Despite its short existence, UniSustentável has already demonstrated that it is possible to work towards sustainability through the collaboration of HEIs.

Exploring Twitter discourse with BERTopic: topic modeling of tweets related to the major German parties during the 2021 German federal election

AbstractWe present a study in the context of computational social science that explores the topics debated in the context of the 2021 German Federal Election by using the topic modeling technique BERTopic. The corpus consists of German language tweets posted by political party accounts of the major German parties, as well as tweets by the general public mentioning the party accounts. We examined the textual content of the tweets but also included the text in images that were posted into the analysis by extracting the text using optical character recognition (OCR). Our results show that the most frequently discussed topics are party-oriented policies (including call-to-action content), climate policy and financial policy, with these topics being discussed in tweets by both, the political party accounts and tweets by accounts mentioning them. In addition, we observed that some topics were discussed consistently throughout the year, such as the COVID-19 pandemic, climate policy or digitization, while other topics, such as the return to power of the Taliban in Afghanistan or Israel were debated to a greater extent at limited time frames during the election year.

The party in the flats: Relationships between housing movements and the political party form in the 1970s Irish rent strikes

The complex relationships between housing movements and the political party form have not been theorised or explored in depth. This article investigates the potential role of political parties in both politicising housing struggles as well as in undermining the autonomy and militancy of grassroots housing action. It draws on theories of the relationship between political parties and mass movements using the concept of the ‘party as articulator’, which identifies the party’s key functions as unifying social forces, politicising mass movements and providing continuity and stability over time. These perspectives are applied to the mass rent strikes which took place in Ireland in the early 1970s. We highlight the failure of any single party to fully carry out the role of articulator which arises from the fact that none possessed both organic roots in the tenants’ movement while simultaneously articulating radical demands and politicising the rent strikes. The article also investigates the tension between grassroots housing movements and parties oriented towards electoral politics. It demonstrates that, in the case study, the weakness of the institutional left in Ireland meant that it was not possible to fully co-opt and demobilise the rent strikes by redirecting them towards electoralism. The article’s overall contribution is the development of a framework to understand the specific activities through which political parties might contribute to generalising and politicising housing movements.

The Prosecutor’s Evolution

Abstract It is axiomatic that American prosecutors possess significant discretion. What varies among prosecutors is how they use their discretion. How they use their discretion derives from how prosecutors perceive their role. Different prosecutors perceive their role differently. Some see themselves as representing the victim and others see themselves as ensuring just outcomes. These differences emerge from the American prosecutor’s distinct evolution. Over 200 years, the American prosecutor has transformed through various stages. The private prosecutor, an attorney the victim hired, originated from the British system. With the expansion of democratic institutions, the prosecutor became political, representing a particular political party’s interests. Abuses led to prosecutors becoming more professional, representing the state. This disconnected prosecutors from their community. Proactive prosecutors emerged to reconnect prosecutors to their community. Then, in 2016, a new wave of prosecutors emerged. These prosecutors saw themselves protecting defendants from a punitive criminal justice process. This article explores these different perspectives, looking for commonalities that can define the American prosecutor’s identity. Three emerge. First, prosecutors are public servants. Though they may serve different publics and do so in different ways, all seek to serve public interests. Second, they represent the community. Prosecutorial policies and case selection derive from community values and priorities. Finally, prosecutors are opportunistic. When given the opportunity to expand their discretion

Reform of the Irish health system towards Universal Health Coverage and the role of the private sector

Abstract Introduction Ireland stands as a compelling case study of a High Income Country setting out on Universal Health Coverage (UHC) reforms. The Irish health system has historically been a two-tier system with a large private sector and a high proportion of the population holding private health insurance (48% in 2023). The reform programme Sláintecare, adopted as a policy direction by all political parties, aims to introduce UHC, strengthen primary care capacity, address inequitable access and decentralise decision-making. The overall aim of this study is to chart the progress of the Sláintecare reforms, from their introduction in May 2017 up to December 2023, and to explore how they have changed throughout implementation. Methods A document analysis was undertaken using the READ approach. Department of Health publications, Budget reports, Service Plans, National Development plans, minutes of Health Service Executive committee meetings and transcripts of the Joint Committee of Health sessions in the Irish parliament were uploaded to NVivo and a content analysis was conducted, utilising predetermined themes. Results Areas that have made the most significant progress include the expansion of community care and lowering of some out-of-pocket costs. Since implementation began, one approach the government has taken has been to use the private sector to fill capacity gaps in the public system. For example, strategies for reducing waiting lists and using community diagnostics have largely used the private sector. However, through using the private sector, money is taken away from building capacity in the public system, which was the original goal of Sláintecare. Conclusions The private sector plays a significant role in providing care in Ireland and leveraging this for the benefit of public patients could play a positive role towards UHC, provided that funding for a purchaser-providers type model for some services from the government could be guaranteed into the future.

Partisan Politics in Finland

Abstract Traditionally, the Finnish party system has involved a high level of fragmentation yet remarkable stability, consensual decision-making, ideologically broad government coalitions, and mostly modest levels of polarization between parties or voters. These features suggest a limited effect of the party composition of government on economic policy. However, based on studies on close local elections, parliamentary speech, and party manifestos, we argue that the link between party politics and policy outcomes likely plays a role in Finland. Most analyses have examined the extent to which the characteristics of local politicians within the parties affect policy outcomes. These studies show that occupation, education, experience, competence, and residential location of local politicians strongly affect local policies, indicating that, in general, politics matters for policy. We also discuss how consensual national politics may have contributed to the recent success of the populist challenger Finns Party. As a new major player, the party has emphasized the role of sociocultural issues and especially affective polarization, which represents a considerable paradigm shift from the catch-all party policies typical of Finland for many decades. It is thus possible that the link between politics and policy will become more pronounced in the future, motivating further research.

Analyzing Public Discourse on the Affordable Care Act through YouTube Comments

Abstract Introduction Social media’s pervasive role in daily life provides a unique avenue for understanding public sentiments. This study utilizes YouTube comments on an MSNBC video about the Affordable Care Act (ACA) to explore public opinions on the policy and its political implications. Methods A qualitative analysis of YouTube comments on an MSNBC video was conducted. Netlytic, a scraping tool, gathered 1,949 comments. Thematic analysis, based on a coding framework derived from Semetko and Valkenburg’s frames, identified three predominant frames: Responsibility, Human Interest, and Economic Consequences. Results Of the 1949 comments posted in response to the ACA video on YouTube, 488 were analyzed. Three media frames were used to categorize the comments. Among the analyzed comments, 42% fell within the Responsibility Frame, indicating that 205 comments attributed responsibility for ACA-related issues, healthcare access, and costs to political parties, individual politicians, and government entities. The Human-Interest Frame accounted for 11% of the comments, with 53 remarks reflecting individual experiences related to healthcare access and costs. Additionally, 26% of the comments fell within the Economic Consequences Frame, signifying those 125 comments included remarks concerning the economic impacts of the ACA, such as increased healthcare access, taxes, and penalties. The remaining 21% of comments did not align with the three frames. Conclusions This study embarked on a comprehensive exploration of public discourse surrounding the Affordable Care Act (ACA) within the context of the 2024 presidential election, utilizing YouTube comments as a rich source of qualitative data. Through a meticulous methodological approach, which included thematic framing analysis and intercoder reliability assessments, valuable insights into the diverse perspectives and sentiments expressed by social media users regarding this critical healthcare legislation were gained. Key messages • Social media allows for real-time understanding of people’s thoughts, beliefs, opinions, and ideas, as well as serves as a useful tool that fosters broad, unfiltered data/content. • Researchers conducted a qualitative analysis of public discourse on YouTube to explore the range of sentiments regarding the ACA.

Politics and city growth in Italy: Do connections matter?

AbstractIn this paper, I assess the existence of a political connection premium for Italian municipalities during the so-called “Second Republic” (1991–2011). The early 1990s witnessed a seminal event in Italian political history with the “Mani Pulite” (“Clean Hands”) investigation following the fall of the Berlin Wall. Subsequently, major political parties dissolved, culminating in a bipolar political landscape characterized by cyclical alternation between center-right and center-left factions (extending until at least 2011). Exploiting population data on small and medium-sized Italian municipalities between 1991 and 2011, I found that “politically connected” municipalities showed a population premium of about 2.5% compared to “non-politically connected” ones. The results are robust to NUTS-3 fixed effects, to a comprehensive set of controls, and to a full set of robustness checks. The relationship is confirmed using aggregate municipal income data as an additional proxy of local economic growth. Over and above this, social capital and the quality of local institutions seem to play a pivotal role in enabling the political connection. Election-related checks suggest the connection as two-way: using municipal data from the 2013 and 2018 general elections, I found that the treated municipalities depicted a higher turnout and fewer populist votes.