Political Party Platforms Research Articles

Foreign Policy Approaches in the US Political Parties Platforms in the XXI Century: Similarities and Differences

The article examines such a phenomenon of American politics as the party platform. The article reflects its features in comparison with European interpretations of the concept of “party program”. The author’s definition of the concept “party platform” is given, which is based on a consideration of the definitions of domestic and foreign policy researchers of the concept “party program”. The article focuses on the foreign policy parts of the platforms of the main US political parties. The ideological approaches and conditions that influence the formation of the foreign policy part of the party platform are considered (from factors such as political expediency to the personal views of US presidential candidates). An example of a comparative analysis of the foreign policy parts of the platforms of the US Republican and Democratic parties is given. Based on a comparative analysis of the foreign policy parts of the platforms of the main US political parties, the author proposes his own methodology for determining the similarities and differences of party platforms. This methodology allowed the author of the article to plot the similarities and differences in the foreign policy approaches of the US Republican and Democratic parties from 2000 to 2020. The comparative analysis carried out by the author allows us to say that the platforms of the main US political parties can be used to analyze the foreign policy course of different US administrations and make forecasts on Washington’s foreign policy.

Immigration Clashes, Party Polarization, and Republican Radicalization: Tracking Shifts in State and National Party Platforms since 1980

Abstract Studies of U.S. politics increasingly aim to make sense of two key trends: party polarization and Republican Party radicalization. Surprisingly, however, party divergences on immigration have been largely overlooked. Drawing on state and national political party platforms since 1980, we document the rise of attention to immigration, the polarization of substantive party positions, and the sharp GOP turn toward restrictive measures. After pinpointing the timing and relative trajectories of national and state-level agenda shifts, we explore potential drivers and establish two sets of flashpoint events worth further study: highly visible and mostly deadlocked congressional battles over immigration grand bargains, and bottom-up reverberations from the widespread 2006 immigrant rights protests and post-2008 Tea Party organizing. We find that grassroots Tea Party efforts were intervening accelerators rather than original causes of the Republican embrace of tough immigration restrictions. The article concludes by stressing the chronological layering of successive party polarizations—from 1960s divergences around civil rights, through clashes about abortion and LGBTQ rights from the late 1970s to the 1990s, and followed by immigration polarization in the 2000s. This process of layering polarizations on top of one another may have supercharged recent GOP turns toward ethnonationalism and tolerance for threats of violence.

Tuition Fees for International Students in Norway: A Policy-Debate

Abstract The provision of equitable chances for students from all socioeconomic backgrounds to pursue higher education is a fundamental principle in Norway’s egalitarian educational system. Providing free higher education to domestic and international students, has long been praised. In accordance with this, the Norwegian government has long sought to internationalize higher education, to enhance the quality of higher education. Statistics reveal a rapid increase in the number of international students enrolled during the past decade, indicating that international student mobility, both inbound and outbound, has expanded significantly in Norway. However, the Norwegian government announced the imposition of tuition fees for foreign students attending higher education outside of the European Economic Area (eea) and Switzerland from August 2023. The fundamental free principle in Norwegian higher education has been viewed as being broken by this action, along with the government’s own political platform and party platforms. In relation to international higher education literature and tuition fee policies in other Nordic contexts and beyond, this article addresses the government’s justifications for enacting tuition fees for foreign students in Norway. Additionally, it investigates internationalization of the Higher Education system in Norway by shedding light on the status of internationalization as well as how the Norwegian society has responded to the imposition of tuition fees for international students. By considering elements like revenue generation, academic diversity, global competitiveness, and social inclusion, the article further emphasizes the potential implications for the landscape of Norwegian higher education and its position in the worldwide arena. With this policy debate, we aim to contribute to the continuing discussion about international students’ tuition fees and offer insightful information to policymakers, practitioners, and scholars working in international higher education.

The moral economy of land: from land reform to ownership society, 1880–2018

Abstract This article offers a comparative-historical perspective on the moral economy of land. We reconstruct the moral economy of the popular land reform movement that opposed the illegitimate income streams of rentiers and speculators in the early 20th century, tracing the movement’s legacy through a long-run analysis of political party platforms since 1880 in the USA, the UK, Germany and Sweden. We find that the land reformers’ conceptualization of land as a moral good was a key topic in early 20th-century party politics. Parties across the political spectrum called for wide-ranging interventions in unregulated land markets. But despite the movement’s relative success, the new ideal of the ownership society soon gained ground as an alternative to the more radical politics of land decommodification. We find growing multipartisan support for small property owners over time, culminating in the rise of a new moral conceptualization of land as capital. With the recent comeback of the land question, both rural and urban, we conclude that an understanding of historical land reform debates should inform future research toward a much-needed sociology of land.

Do Women Make More Protectionist Trade Policy?

Women have more protectionist trade preferences than men do. We assess whether this well-documented relationship between gender and protectionism in the mass public carries over into a relationship between women’s political representation and (a) party platforms, and (b) governments’ trade policy choices. Looking across countries and over time, we demonstrate that with an increase in women’s representation, political party trade policy positions become more protectionist. For government trade policy choices, we identify more nuanced results. The protectionist effect of women’s representation is limited to the most visible products: consumption goods. Women’s representation has no effect on intermediate inputs, where firm demands for trade liberalization are more pronounced and policy makers are thus constrained in implementing a protectionist agenda. These findings contribute to scholarship on the descriptive–substantive representation link, add a new dimension to our understanding of trade politics, and demonstrate the importance of applying a gendered lens to international political economy research.

Political discourse on immigration in the UK and the USA from the 1950s to the 1980s

Despite having vastly different historical and geographical experiences with immigration, both the United Kingdom and the United States of America now have political parties that express similar anti-immigrant political rhetoric and have implemented or attempted to implement comparable policy responses to immigration in recent years. The purpose of this article will be to explore and compare historical political discourse to provide a better understanding of British and American immigration. The focus will be on the post-World War II era up to the 1980s, with political party manifestos and party platforms from late 1970s and 1980s elections, as well as speeches, interviews, and press conferences by national leaders. Claims that the borders are broken and out of control, as well as recent criticisms of immigration by political parties and leaders in both the United Kingdom and the United States, while often fiercer than before, are simply a continuation of decades of anti-immigrant hostility, with periods of openness and restrictionism in both.

Comparative Analysis of Ideological Platforms of Political Parties (on the Example of the West vs. East Germans in the Cold War)

The paper considers the problem of the ideological platforms (ideologies) of political parties as a key factor in the political struggle in the confrontation’s example between the Federal Republic of Germany (FRG) and the German Democratic Republic (GDR) in the cold war period. The author characterizes ideology in the most general form and political ideology as its variety, presents a classification of the latter depending on socio-political paradigms and methods for achieving political goals, and identifies the grounds for dividing political ideologies into right, left and centrist, and also refers to the functions and features political ideologies. Further, the paper shows a list of political parties of the FRG and the GDR that were active during the cold war. Also, the research reveals their ideological and theoretical foundations. In conclusion, the author concludes that the common ideological currents for both West and East Germans were Christian democracy and German nationalism, although de facto these views in the GDR were not implemented in the course of practical politics.

Housing affordability, market interventions, and policy platforms in the 2022 Ontario provincial election

AbstractSince the Great Recession, many cities around the world have undergone extreme demographic changes as people and capital resettle into urban areas. This has resulted in issues of gentrification and displacement forcing many governments to address growing concerns of housing insecurity. Housing policy is a function of political ideologies and social conditions drawing from market‐based housing supply (MBHS) solutions or demand‐side interventions (DSI) to alleviate housing cost burdens. Yet, debates on their effectiveness have often undermined their ability to grow to scale leaving many households in precarious housing situations. This paper focuses on the 2022 Ontario provincial election to uncover how Canadian political parties frame housing insecurity and their policy platforms. This paper finds all political parties promote the MBHS framework, yet various degrees of the DSI framework. Embedded within this variation are questions of federalism with responsibility shifting between provincial and municipal governments. The findings reveal while different forms of neoliberal ideology inform the policy platforms of political parties, federalism plays a significant role in framing the level and scale of government involvement.

STIpolicy conventions in Uruguay. An analysis of political party platforms 2004–2019

AbstractScience, Technology, and Innovation (STI) have been considered as critical tools in development processes, gaining growing importance in the public policy agenda. We assert that an intersubjective agreement about STI policy has emerged in Latin America from the beginning of the twenty‐first century. This operates as a developmental convention which is based on a hybrid theoretical rationale from neoclassical economics and the innovation systems approach. This process has been analyzed from different perspectives of innovation and political economy studies. However, as far as we know, the role of political parties in the construction and reproduction of STI conventions has not been studied. After illustrating the general assertion with stylized facts from the whole Latin American region, we study the platforms that Uruguayan political parties presented in the national elections between 2004 and 2019. Text analysis techniques show that platforms of both left‐ and right‐wing political parties were embedded in the current STI policy convention. However, critical discrepancies emerge in relation to policy implementation—the positive and negative agendas—which show that there has been political competition regarding the role of the state and of markets. This leads us to conclude that even though one can observe a shared set of building blocks on STI policy and development, there is competition within the current convention, suggesting that any agreement is illusory.

The party road to representation: Unequal responsiveness in party platforms

AbstractThis paper explores a major road to substantive representation in democracies, by clarifying whether demands of rich and poor citizens are taken up in the electoral platforms of political parties. Doing so constitutes a substantial broadening and deepening of our understanding of substantive representation – broadening the countries, issue‐areas and years that form the empirical basis for judging whether democracies manifest unequal representation; and deepening the process of representation by clarifying a key pathway connecting societal demands to policy outcomes. The paper hypothesises that party systems in general will respond more strongly to wealthy than to poor segments of a polity. It also hypothesises that left parties will more faithfully represent poorer and less significantly represent richer citizens than do right parties. We find substantial support for these expectations in a new dataset that combines multi‐country, multi‐issue‐area, multi‐wave survey data with data on party platforms for 39 democracies.

The influence of local political trends on childhood vaccine completion in North Carolina.

In North Carolina (NC), a political swing state that permits both medical and religious exemptions to school vaccination, rapid changes in the electorate have coincided with a vigorous political debate over vaccine laws and an increase in the number of exemptions claimed from vaccine requirements. We aimed to determine whether county-level changes in political affiliation, determined from publicly available voting records, were associated with changes in the rate of vaccine exemptions reported at kindergarten entry in NC. We analyzed data from the 2009-2010 to the 2016-2017 school years for each of 100 NC counties. We used NC State Board of Elections and Ethics Enforcement data to track voter registration trends at the county level, comparing the percent of voters registered as Republican, Democrat, or other (mostly unaffiliated). Vaccination exemption rates were obtained via the NC DHHS and represented a percentage of the cohort entering kindergarten in that year. Statewide, the rate of religious vaccine exemptions increased from 0.68% in 2009-2010 to 1.10% in 2016-2017. On multivariable analysis including 800 county-years, a 1% increase in voters with neither Republican nor Democratic affiliation was associated with 0.04% increase in the county's vaccine exemption rate. In NC, the increase in vaccine exemption rates was primarily associated with an increasing share of voters affiliating with neither major party. This finding suggests mistrust in social institutions, including both government and medicine, extends beyond the platforms of traditional political parties.

Peranan Partai Politik Islam Dalam Pelaksanaan Pemilihan Kepala Daerah Serentak di Indonesia

The Islamic Political Parties in support of simultaneous Regional Head Elections in Indonesia have proven to contribute significantly to a very pluralistic national political system. Increasing the capacity and performance of Islamic political parties directly influences the quality of democracy and the performance of the political system in Indonesia, so that the role of Islamic Political Parties needs to be improved, both in capacity, quality and performance in order to realize the quality of democracy in Indonesia. The birth of Islamic parties in Indonesia today has added to the treasures of democracy in Indonesia, this birth phenomenon is thought to be a manifestation of the re-presence of Islamic political power. The quality of democracy can be influenced one of them through the implementation of simultaneous regional head elections in 2018 which are carried out in a constitutional, peaceful, honest and fair manner. The quality of democracy is also determined by the existence of democratic institutions, actors of democracy, actors' relations with institutions, public issues, and the capacity and strategy of democratic actors in linking between political party platforms that carry candidates with issues of public interest. The success of the substance of the implementation of the Regional Head Election simultaneously can be measured from the effectiveness of the system

Measuring the Rise of Economic Nationalism

Since the mid-2000s, the platforms of major political parties in both advanced and emerging-market economies have increasingly emphasized policies that stress national sovereignty, reject multilateralism, and seek to advance national interests through measures that come at the expense of foreign interests. This paper documents this shift by evaluating the policy platforms of the largest political parties (about 55 in total) in the Group of Twenty (G-20) countries with regard to trade policy, foreign direct investment (FDI), immigration, and multilateral organizations. Preference shifts with respect to industrial policy, competition policy, and macroeconomic populism are also examined. In advanced economies, the biggest shifts were toward restrictions on immigration and trade and toward macroeconomic populism. In emerging-market economies, the largest preference shifts were toward industrial policies favoring specific sectors, macroeconomic populism, and industrial concentration. Trade protectionism and skepticism toward multilateral organizations and agreements have increased in both advanced and emerging-market economies. As of 2018, economic policy preferences in emerging-market economies were more nationalist and less liberal than in advanced countries, but the gap has narrowed. Right-wing parties tend to be more nationalist than left-wing parties in the areas of immigration restrictions, FDI restrictions, and antimultilateralism, but there is no significant difference with respect to trade protectionism.

How Right Wing is Right Wing Populism? Evidence from the Manifesto Corpus

Right wing populist parties in Europe are clearly different from other right wing parties in their rhetoric and electoral appeal. Some observers see substantive differences between right wing populists and other right wing parties, with populists supporting the welfare state and gender equality more than other right wing parties, often as part of an anti-immigration and anti-Muslim agenda. We test this claim using novel data produced by a multilingual convolutional neural net on political party platforms for the years 1990 to 2015 from the Manifesto Corpus. We find no systematic differences between right wing populists and non-populists on support for welfare and gender equality, though there is some evidence that more successful populists are more centrist.

Politologia jako dyscyplina naukowa świadoma swoich postaw (stronniczy przyczynek do debaty z czterema uwagami)

The text presents remarks on four issues political scientists often take into consideration when reflecting on the borders of their research. The first issue concerns the call to scrutinize the course of legislative procedures, the second one – the need to recognize and note various traditions of political thought in the platforms of political parties and the statements uttered by politicians; the third – the fundamental question of whether political topics are grasped in the structure of sensual perceptions reflected in language; and, finally, the disputable postulate that the philosophy of politics, approached as an element of reflection on political science, clarifies exclusively the notions and concepts applied in the political sciences. These considerations pose problems rather than solve them, and they are completed by a warning that political science should not be developed towards common knowledge, and it should not become increasingly indeterminate and blurred.

Political Elites, Crime, and Trust in the Police in Latin America

This article examines the effect of crime on support for criminal justice systems in Latin America. Scholars empirically demonstrate a strong negative effect of crime on support for institutions and satisfaction with democracy. Others provide thick descriptions of the prevalence of creeping authoritarianism in response to crime—the infamous “mano dura” or “iron fist.” I test the effectiveness of elite political messaging across different countries. In other words, do politicians that promote “iron-fist” policies reassure their intended audience and shore up support for the police and the criminal justice system? Analyzing survey data from the Latin American Public Opinion Project and Wiesehomeier and Benoit’s expert survey of Latin American political party platforms, I find that elite political opinion about insecurity conditions the effect of crime victimization and fear of crime on mass support for the police and the justice system as well as on perceptions of police and justice system effectiveness. When political elites emphasize mano dura (“iron fist”) solutions, fearful citizens and victims are less critical of the police and the justice system in general.

Creating A Nationwide Nonpartisan Initiative for Family Caregivers in Political Party Platforms.

Policymakers have been slow to support family caregivers, and political agendas mostly fail to address the cost burdens, impact on employment and productivity, and other challenges in taking on long-term care tasks. This project set out to raise policymakers' awareness of family caregivers through proposals to Republican and Democratic party platforms during the 2016 political season. The Family Caregiver Platform Project (FCPP) reviewed the state party platform submission process for Democratic and Republican parties in all 50 states and the District of Columbia. We built a website to make each process understandable by caregiver advocates. We designed model submissions to help volunteers tailor a proposal and recruited caregiver advocates participating in their state process. Finally, we mobilized a ground operation in many states and followed the progress of submissions in each state, as well as the formation of the national platforms. In 39 states, at least one party, Republican or Democrat, hosted a state party platform process. As of September 2016 FCPP volunteers submitted proposals to 29 state parties in 22 states. Family caregiver language was added to eight state party platforms, one state party resolution, two bipartisan legislative resolutions, and one national party platform. The FCPP generated a non-partisan grassroots effort to educate and motivate policymakers to address caregiving issues and solutions. Democratic party leaders provided more opportunities to connect with political leaders, with seven Democratic parties and one Republican party, addressing family caregiver issues in their party platforms.

THE BALTIC STATES IN THE CONTEXT OF BREXIT: EURO-OPTIMISM VS EUROSCEPTICISM

The article is devoted to a comparative analysis of the attitude of the political establishment and the societies of Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania to the European Union after Brexit. Being the most “obedient” members of the EU, the Baltic countries were dramatically concerned with the results of the eferendum. If NATO is perceived in the Baltic States as a cornerstone of “hard” security, the European Union is traditionally considered as a guarantor of social and economic stability. In this regard, the Baltic countries are trying to assess the future of the EU optimistically, despite the crises of recent years. The article analyzes political platforms of both systemic and marginal political parties, as well as public attitudes towards European integration and specific EU policies. Euroscepticism in the Baltic States is not institutionalized and is rather poorly consolidated within the party system. At the same time, the parliamentary parties use moderately Eurosceptic rhetoric for populist purposes, in practice pursuing state policy of intensifying European and Euro-Atlantic integration. On the contrary, non-parliamentary and marginal parties (both right-wing and left-wing) are distinguished by a more radical Euroscepticism, including appeals to withdraw from the EU and NATO. The grass-root sentiments in the Baltic states can be characterized as unsystematic Euroscepticism. Having a critical stance towards specific EU policies (especially those that threaten the cultural identities of quite conservative Baltic societies), residents of these states actively enjoy freedom of movement and the opportunity to work in any EU country. The Russian and Russian-speaking minorities in Latvia and Estonia is traditionally something specific. Having the opportunity to benefit from the EU membership, they are much more prone to Eurosceptic sentiments, since membership did not justify their hopes to eliminate the “democratic deficit” (restrictions on rights and freedoms related to the use of the Russian language or belonging to a non-title ethnic group).

How Indian Parties Connect Voters to Leaders

How do political parties in developing countries, without access to accurate polling data, understand their voters? I examine the role that various sources of information play in political party platforms, and how the method of data collection affects parties’ policy and political efforts, primarily by using interview data from 2012 and 2013 with workers from four leading parties in Uttar Pradesh, India’s most populous state. I theorize the role of party workers as a key conduit for information between party leaders and the voters they represent.

Comparison of Environmental Policy in American Political Party Platforms between 1972 and 2012

Comparison of Environmental Policy in American Political Party Platforms between 1972 and 2012