Policy Elites Research Articles

The Republic of Türkiye and Ukraine: Using the Crimean Tatar Question in Foreign Policy after 2014

In historical retrospect, the use of national issues and contradictions has repeatedly become the weakening mechanisms for some great powers in regard to others. In this case, various technologies to construct national myths and ideologies based on tribalism and national exclusiveness and superiority were applied. After the “Crimean spring” in 2014, the Crimean Tatar issue gained a new level of relevance. The Republic of Türkiye and Ukraine are actively using the Crimean Tatar factor to oppose the reintegration of Crimea into the Russian Federation and, consequently, to weaken Russia’s positions in the Black Sea and Mediterranean region. In the article the authors analyze the peculiarities of the influence of the Republic of Türkiye on the Crimean Tatars, as well as the Ukrainian initiatives in relation to the Crimean Tatars and joint Turkish-Ukrainian projects, with the target group consisting of the Crimean Tatars. The methodological basis of the research is system-based, geopolitical, civilizational and institutional approaches, which are implemented both directly and by using a number of general scientific and political science methods. The current policy of Türkiye and Ukraine on the Crimean Tatar issue has common features. Firstly, it is currently topical for the policy elites of these states, both at the domestic and international political levels. Under these circumstances, if the Crimean Tatar issue is an opportunity for Kiev to re-establish its jurisdiction over Crimea, then for Ankara the Crimean Tatar population helps to enlist the electoral support, as well as to consider Crimea and the Black Sea region as a Turkish sphere of influence. Secondly, the conditional Turkish-Ukrainian alliance presents itself as a “protector” of the Crimean Tatars from “Russian aggression.” Thirdly, Türkiye and Ukraine are projecting a positive state image by demonstrating protection of interests and observance of the Crimean Tatars rights on the territory of Russia. Fourthly, the actions of Türkiye and Ukraine in terms of the Crimean Tatar can be characterized as a double standard policy. This thesis is confirmed by the national policy of the Republic of Türkiye, and the approaches of Ukraine to the solution of the Crimean Tatar issue before the reunification of Crimea with Russia.

Navigating international order transition in the Indo Pacific

The world is in crisis. The Covid pandemic and the ongoing Russia-Ukraine war signify a potential order transition in the international system. The Indo Pacific is at the center of gravity of great power competition between the US and China. How have policy elites in the region perceived the potential order transition against the background of US-China strategic competition? How have states, including both great and secondary powers, chosen different strategies to cope with security and economic turbulence in the Indo Pacific? This special issue intends to shed some light on these questions by critically examining the diverse perceptions and policy choices of the United States, China, South Korea, India, Japan, Indonesia, and the UK during the period of potential order transition in the Indo Pacific. It provides an academic platform for scholars to engage in this ‘order transition’ topic from different theoretical perspectives as well as from respective national angles in the Indo Pacific. It suggests that the complexity of the international order itself has made the ‘order transition’ more complicated and difficult than before. It is the best of times, it is the worst of times, and it is the most challenging time for state leaders and scholars alike.

Beyond political will: unpacking the drivers of (non) health reforms in sub-Saharan Africa

BackgroundLack of political will is frequently invoked as a rhetorical tool to explain the gap between commitment and action for health reforms in sub-Saharan Africa (SSA). However, the concept remains...

Citizen policy entrepreneurship in UK local government climate emergency declarations

AbstractPolicy entrepreneurship theory seeks to explain how actors, institutions, actions and interactions influence policy makers and policy outcomes; however, the role of citizens in this process remains largely unarticulated. Adopting a conception of policy entrepreneurship as a (distributed) pattern of agency rather than the actions of an individual, we analyse the development of local government climate emergency declarations (CEDs) (many of which visibly involved citizen advocacy). This analysis expands on the role of citizens in policy change and provides evidence of how citizen entrepreneurs interact collaboratively with more traditional forms of policy elites, in this case local elected representatives. Since 2018 hundreds of local governments in the United Kingdom (UK) have issued CEDs in a surge of expressions of local climate ambition. Whilst CEDs have attracted attention from scholars, the underlying dynamics and politics which drove the adoption of these policies, including the role played by citizens, remain unexplored in the literature. Interviews with councillors, council officers, and citizens reveal that citizens carry out a range of activities related to policy entrepreneurship, including problem framing, identifying solutions, networking and building coalitions, and seeking attention and opportunities. We find that they carry out these activities collectively with other citizens and collaboratively with elected representatives; whilst precise coalition‐internal dynamics vary, citizens frequently exploit opportunities to demonstrate the strength and breadth of public support for their cause.

How China’s Online Nationalists Constrain Policymaking – the Case of Foreigners’ Permanent Residency Reform

ABSTRACT Popular nationalism increasingly dominates public debate in mainland China. This article examines the impact of this trend on Chinese policymaking by looking at the public consultation procedure for new regulations on foreigners’ permanent residency in February 2020. Following an unexpectedly large online outcry of anti-immigrant sentiment in response to the draft regulations, government actors shelved the proposal, which constituted a long-delayed step towards a more comprehensive immigration framework. Drawing on textual analysis, expert interviews, and survey data, the article analyzes elite-public interactions before, during, and after the controversy, asking what factors contributed to this miscalculation of public sentiment, and what the P.R. debate can tell us about the role of public opinion in Chinese policymaking today. It argues that popular nationalists can play a bottom-up politicizing role on previously marginal policy issues such as immigration, surprising and constraining the state. Such politicisation further limits both public and elite policy debate, impairing state information gathering and exacerbating the tension between Chinese policy actors’ desire to both control and understand public sentiment. In addition, the permanent residency debate demonstrates the relevance of public opinion to China’s non-democratic immigration policymaking, which displays a trajectory of gradual politicisation similar to other early-stage immigrant-reception contexts.

Who Dislikes Whom? Affective Polarization between Pairs of Parties in Western Democracies

AbstractWhile dislike of opposing parties, that is, affective polarization, is a defining feature of contemporary politics, research on this topic largely centers on the United States. We introduce an approach that analyzes affective polarization between pairs of parties, bridging the US two-party system and multiparty systems in other democracies. Analyzing survey data from twenty Western democracies since the mid-1990s, first, we show that partisans' dislike of out-parties is linked to elite policy disagreements on economic issues and, increasingly over time, also to cultural issues. Secondly, we argue and empirically demonstrate that governing coalition partners in parliamentary democracies display much warmer feelings toward each other than we would expect based on elite policy (dis)agreements. Third, we show that radical right parties are disliked much more intensely than we would expect based on policy disputes and coalition arrangements. These findings highlight the policy-based and institutional underpinnings of affective polarization.

Внешнеполитическая элита Европейского союза в контексте миграционного процесса: кейс украинские беженцы

The article provides an analysis of the long-term difficult migration situation in the European Union in the era of a pandemic around the world. The main factors influencing the growth of migration flows are substantiated, namely, such reasons as the military-political situation, the example of the conflict between Russia and Ukraine, which contributed to the growth of Ukrainian refugees in European countries, destructive migration policy, shortcomings in the foreign policy of the European Union, economic problems of neighboring states. The article indicates the positions and decisions of the EU foreign policy elite on the issue of complex migration. Based on the analysis of the decisions made by the EU foreign policy elite, it can be argued that the migration situation at this stage is only the beginning of further reforms that should and will take place both in the migration system of the European Union and in the sphere of international relations

Styles of decarbonization

ABSTRACT What characterizes the relations amongst actors engaged in decarbonization? I posit that no single characteristic can satisfactorily explain the heterogeneous politics of reducing emissions and propose the concept of styles as the patterned ways in which actors relate to each other to decarbonize. Based on qualitative fieldwork, I compare two projects for a national policy mandating the use of low-carbon technologies – India’s Smart Cities Mission – and find variation in their styles. In Rajkot, local state, business, and policy elites with a variety of interests converged to impose decarbonization on a site used by herders as pasture. In Davanagere, local industry, workers, state bureaucrats, and experts independently bargained over a plan that accommodated livelihoods in a puffed rice manufacturing district. I theorize styles as a systematic heuristic to capture variation in the politics of reducing emissions and identify surprising coalitions for decarbonization.

Using Critical Policy Historiography in Education Policy Analysis: A South African Case Study

This article foregrounds the value of using “critical policy historiography” as an analytical/methodological tool in undertaking policy formulation research, highlighting the importance of taking a long-term historical perspective. Using school-funding policies in South Africa as a case study, it argues that while there was wide consultation with stakeholders, power dynamics within the policymaking process underscore the influence of policy elites, such as experts and powerful lobby groups, in shaping policy outcomes. In particular, it critiques the foundational moment of school-funding policymaking in the democratic era, that is, the South African Schools Act of 1996, focusing on key actors that shaped the Act, and whose interests were ultimately served. The article then reviews changes made to school-funding policies to date, and, building on the work of Salim Vally and others, argues for a policymaking framework that strengthens the influence of poor and marginalised communities on policy outcomes if the education social justice project in South Africa is to be advanced.

Coercion and consent for the U.S. education market: community engagement policy under racialized fiscal surveillance

ABSTRACT In response to growing pushback to decades of privatization and disinvestment in high-poverty communities of color, elected officials and business leaders in the United States have turned to ‘community-engaged strategies’ to advance education reform. This qualitative case study of a California school district, the Oakland Unified School District, from 1989 to 2019 uses a Gramscian analysis of hegemony to illuminate the shift from coercive practices of financial audits to building consent through the district’s formal engagement strategies as tools to manage public dissent around divisive decisions. Findings reveal that a manufacturedscrisis facilitated the 2003 state takeover of OUSD to further advancesausterity measures and audit processes that served as racialized formssof fiscal surveillance. When local resistance to these measures intensified, district actors shifted tactics to ‘engage’ community members through a portfolio strategy to manage school choice options and other public-private partnerships. Oakland public schools are a prime case of how democratic mechanisms serve as the vehicle to manufacture public consent for district redesign by way of marketization. This paper contributes new insights into local and global debates on educational privatization by critically examining the role of parastatal audit agencies in shaping community support for public-privateeducation governance along with tracing the shifting tactics of elite policy actors.

Conversations with fellow leaders: Privacy framing in congressional hearings after Cambridge Analytica

• An empirical investigation of privacy discourse by policy and technological elites. • Vertical privacy framing dominated the Cambridge-Analytica hearings. • Congresspeople emphasized vertical privacy; Mr. Zuckerberg focused on horizontal. • Congresspeople were more likely to emphasize conflict. • Privacy framing is multidimensional, ideological, and strategic.

Iran Cultural Policy toward Kurds in the Light of its Constitution, Laws and Formal Records

The Contemporary Iran government is the result of the post-mashrutyat movement (as an enlightenment movement). It has been sealed off by the coup of Sayd Zyaddin and Raza Shah. Starting from those days until the present Islamic Republic of Iran, the government has used history, formal state records (historians, political elite and academic institutions) and education to make allegiance among the Kurdish intellectuals. This has been adopted in accordance with the military, security and general policy of the state. It has shaped the Kurdish history and memory to reflect and underpin the formal narrative the state discourse sponsors; it does not reflect the facts and arguments residing in the memory, history and manuscripts of the Kurdish people. This research uses a historically descriptive-analysis and depends on evidence from the written records; it tries to answer these questions: what is Iran’s cultural policy (the state and the elite policy) toward the Kurds? How is the Kurdish Identity imagined in the formal records, the education and the state, what position does that image have? What are the ways it has been used for political, nation-building and state-building ends?

Applying a Commercial Determinants of Health Lens to Understand, Expose and Counter Industry Co-option, Appeasement and Partnership Comment on "'Part of the Solution': Food Corporation Strategies for Regulatory Capture and Legitimacy".

Lacy-Nichols and Williams' examination of the food industry illustrates how it altered its approach from mostly oppositional to regulation to one of appeasement and co-option. This reflection builds upon this by using a commercial determinants of health (CDoH) lens to understand, expose and counter industry co-option, appeasement and partnership strategies that impact public health. Lessons learned from tobacco reveal how tobacco companies maintained public credibility by recruiting scientists to produce industry biased data, co-opting public health groups, gaining access to policy elites and sitting on important government regulatory bodies. Potential counter solutions to food industry appeasement and co-option include (i) understanding corporate actions of health harming industries, (ii) applying mechanisms to minimize industry engagement, (iii) dissecting industry relationship building, and (iv) exposing the negative effects of public private partnerships (PPPs). Such counter-solutions might help to neutralise harmful industry practices, products and policies which currently threaten to undermine healthy food policies.

U. S. Political Economy on Migrants-Citizens Relations: State-Raids Vs. Church-Sanctuaries (Charity Re-Privatization)

Abstract This is a Political Economy study on migrants-citizens relations management in the United States of America, with special attention to the religious factor and the pendulum effect. There is a model switch, from integration policies (open doors and melting pot agenda, with expropriation of charity by Public Sector) to official persecution (state-raids and deportations, with re-privatization of charity), under a high social opportunity cost. Also, there is a split between the State and civil society (including the church), causing civil disobedience and sanctuary network across the country. The paper focuses on the development of the Sanctuary Movement, as a case of popular action against to the power elite policies and their sanctions. There was a revival of this movement during the values crisis or 2008 recession, but at the same time there was a critical division into the movement, with higher tension for the migrants.

Entangled Histories of Reforms: Scottish Radicalism of Joseph and Allen Octavian Hume and Indian Education

Thus wrote a retired officer about his opposition to the British elitist policies. This was no anomaly. Hume, like most of the Scottish officers in India, defended Indian interests before the colonial administration since his arrival in 1849. In 1854, as a young officer of Etawah district in North India, Hume countered the Orientalist idea that the people of Etawah were uncivilised. He established schools and interacted with Indians very closely. Unable to tolerate his reformist endeavours, he was transferred out of the district, and his schools were destroyed. His father, Joseph Hume, too had defended Indians on more than one occasion in the House of Commons and attempted to empower them by giving direct representation. This paper looks at the Scottish radicalism carried forward by the father and son duo, which dispels the conventional historical narratives that place all colonial officials as instruments of imperialist oppression.

Between defeating “the warlord” and defending “the blue homeland”: a discourse of legitimacy and security in Turkey’s Libya policy

This article seeks to explain Turkey’s critical engagement in the partially internationalised conflict in Libya by relying on a discourse analysis of Turkish political elites. Drawing on thematic discourse analysis, the authors argue that these elites utilise, in the way in which they communicate to the external audience (the international community), a discourse of legitimacy by which they lend political support for the UN-recognised government, and declare the General Khalifa Haftar-led forces, its opponents, as illegitimate. Secondly, Turkish foreign policy elites express their commitment to preserving national security interests in the Mediterranean, thereby justifying Turkish involvement in the conflict via a security-laden discourse addressed to the internal audience (the local constituents). Legal disputes, regarding the delimitation of maritime boundaries has served as the basis for Turkey’s rapprochement with the Government of the National Accord (GNA), led by Fayez al-Sarraj, and its staunch opposition to the Libyan National Army (LNA), commanded by Haftar since the web of intricate relations in the region relevant to such disputes requires the conclusion of bilateral agreements between the governments.

Inequality and legitimacy in global governance: an empirical study

This article undertakes an empirical investigation of the relationship between structural inequalities and legitimacy beliefs in global governance. Normative theory often emphasises inequality as a major source of injustice in global politics, but we lack empirical research that examines the implications of inequality for legitimacy in concrete situations of global governance. This paper draws on large mixed-method survey evidence regarding inequality perceptions and legitimacy beliefs at the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN), a key site of global Internet governance that has given particular priority to issues of diversity and inclusion. Our analysis arrives at four main findings. First, participants in ICANN do perceive substantial structural power asymmetries and often find them to be problematic. Second, persons on the perceived subordinate side of these power stratifications tend to observe larger inequalities and to find them more problematic than persons on the perceived dominant side. However, third, these perceptions and concerns about inequality almost never associate with legitimacy beliefs towards ICANN, even among people in structurally subordinated positions and among people who express the greatest worries regarding power inequalities. Fourth, in forming legitimacy perceptions, participants at ICANN generally prioritise other aspects of institutional purpose, procedure and performance, unconnected with inequality. This lack of a relationship between perceptions of inequality and legitimacy beliefs suggests that, however sympathetic policy elites at ICANN might be towards greater equality in principle, they are unlikely to give it precedence in practice.

Humanitarian Diplomacy as a Tool of International Relations: the Position of the Kazakhstani Foreign Policy Elite and the Experience of Foreign Countries

The article provides an analysis of the development of humanitarian diplomacy in terms of current and new challenges, such as pandemic, armed conflicts. The potential for conflict will always exist in relations between states. The role of diplomacy is to anticipate and resolve problems before they escalate into conflicts. When conflicts are inevitable, diplomats work to resolve differences peacefully to avoid violent clashes. The protection of human rights is a critical area of international conflict resolution, in which diplomats play a key role. Countries with more human rights violations are more prone to fast-spreading and violent conflict. Diplomats work to prevent human rights violations and promote respect for the political, civil, economic and social rights of people in countries around the world. In recent decades, human rights issues, once considered the internal affairs of individual states, have become the subject of humanitarian interventions, often led by the UN and the world’s superpowers. As a result, military intervention can be accompanied by humanitarian intervention, which is sometimes perceived as a violation of the sovereignty of the affected countries. It is in these conflict situations that diplomacy and human rights are directly linked. Humanitarian diplomacy tries to resolve potential problems through negotiations, while at the same time finding ways to help those affected by the crisis. Humanitarian diplomacy emphasizes the importance of stable political relationships to help and support vulnerable people or groups whose rights and interests are threatened and whose voices are silenced in the midst of more serious socio-political conflicts. The concept of human rights is more important now than at any time since the Cold War, as global forces shift and regional divisions flare up in response to the political, economic and social upheaval caused by the COVID-19 pandemic. Consideration of foreign experience in the humanitarian sphere can identify the role of humanitarian diplomacy in the implementation of the country’s foreign policy. The article examines the models of the humanitarian policy of France as the main vector of the foreign policy of the country, Russia and the United States in the context of humanitarian assistance to Syria, which have conflicting interests in relation to the Middle Eastern country. It also examines the experience of Kazakhstan in the field of humanitarian diplomacy, as well as the position of the foreign policy elite and prospects in this area. Key words: Humanitarian diplomacy, pandemic, Kazakhstan, foreign countries, international humanitarian law.

Transit Stigma: Transit Administrators’ Views of the Role of Policy Elites in Perpetuating Stigma

Public transportation use is heavily stigmatized in the United States. As a result, those who depend on public transportation services for mobility are marginalized and subject to unjust social assumptions about their character, work ethic, and overall place in society. Prior research documents that public transit administrators are actively working to combat transit stigma in their service area; however, questions remain regarding how public transit administrators view the role of policy elites (elected or appointed political figures) in perpetuating transit stigma. Through a series of in-depth interviews with 20 transit administrators from across the United States, this research finds that policy elites maintain transit stigma through both formal and informal roles by devaluing the role of transit in society, focusing on short-term political goals, and restricting funding opportunities for public transportation agencies.

Whose proxy war? The competition among Iranian foreign policy elites in Iraq

ABSTRACT How do state sponsors of proxy groups in civil wars balance their support of non-state militias with the need for political transition towards stability? This article explores the inconsistencies in Iran’s priorities and proxy strategy that at times limited Iranian influence, and complicated Iraq’s transition from war to peace. It expands on current theories on proxy warfare by focusing on the impact of diverging interests among foreign policy elites in a sponsor state. Three policy dilemmas illustrate the difference among on the one side the Revolutionary Guard and on the other side the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Ministry of Intelligence. First, whether the pro-Iranian proxies should maintain their influence after the war or Iran should strengthen its link to the representatives of the formal state. Second, whether repression by Shia militias or political reconciliation should prevent Sunni Arabs from (re)joining Islamic State. Third, whether Iraq should be part of a sectarian, transnational alliance or an inclusive state that might become an arbiter to deescalate regional tension. The study contributes to the literature on Iranian proxy warfare in the Middle East and proxy warfare literature in general, by considering the consequences of differences among foreign policy elites.