Political Competition Research Articles

‘Claim no easy victories:’ on the political and ideational content of liberation

‘Claim no easy victories:’ on the political and ideational content of liberation

Unveiling the Story of Chinese Ceramics: Ideological and Political Education Reform and Exploration in the Course of History of Chinese and Foreign Ceramics

In order to implement the fundamental task of ideological and political education in the course of cultivating virtue and shaping people, and leading values, this paper focuses on "Unveiling the Story of Chinese Ceramics" to clarify the inevitability and necessity of teaching the history of Chinese and foreign ceramics, and to design the ideological and political education content of the course "History of Chinese and Foreign Ceramics". Based on the key points of teaching and the practice of Chinese and foreign ceramics, we systematically search for the "story of China" in the history of Chinese and foreign ceramics, and deeply explore the ideological and political elements contained in ceramic stories. By improving the curriculum system, strengthening the construction of the curriculum team, and enhancing the evaluation system of the course, we can realize the practical path of ideological and political education in the course "History of Chinese and Foreign Ceramics" and exert the "silent nurturing" effect of education.

Elections and policies: Evidence from the Covid pandemic

AbstractThis paper explores the impact of political elections on public policies during the Covid pandemic, distinguishing between economic (supportive) and noneconomic (restrictive) policies in a panel of countries that held political elections during 3 years of pandemic, 2020–2022. An event study, controlling for the evolution of the pandemic in terms of Covid cases and deaths, as well as country and time fixed effects, reveals significant adjustments in the Covid‐related restrictive, lockdown‐type, policies but not in the Covid‐related economic support policies before political elections during the first half of the pandemic. The pre‐election policy adjustments included a gradual easing of the restrictions before elections and were driven by the changes in the restrictions that were more likely to directly affect the electorate, such as the restrictions on workplace closing, gatherings, and public events. The presence of the pre‐election restrictions adjustment is conditional on the economic and political characteristics of the country, such as the state of democracy, the degree of political competition, the overall restrictions stringency, and the income level.

Who says what? Social networks and digital inequalities in online political expression and content creation

Political expression has flourished online, especially on social media platforms, but there are also participation gaps associated with long-standing social and digital inequalities including socio-demographics, political capital, and internet practices. In this study, we examine how network characteristics such as size and diversity contribute to gaps in online political expression and content creation, as well as whether they mediate the stratificational effects of antecedent factors. We test these possibilities using data from a two-wave panel survey of adult internet users in the United States collected just before and after the 2018 U.S. midterm elections. Our findings show relatively wide participation gaps associated with network diversity, which also mediates the influence of political interest and digital news use. We argue that more attention should be paid to network inequalities in online participation, particularly whether they arise from fundamentally unfair social conditions.

Laughing at Hypocrisy: The Turncoats (1711), Visual Culture and Dissent in Early Eighteenth-Century England

This article considers The Turncoats (1711), an anti-Dissent graphic satire published after the Tory victory in the 1710 General Election. The print ridiculed the hypocrisy of those Dissenters who abandoned their principles and conformed to the Church of England after that election, and pointed to the pervasiveness of religious hypocrisy in early eighteenth-century England more generally. This article contextualizes the print within the tense religious and political rivalries that developed after the 1688 Revolution and the trial of Henry Sacheverell. The Turncoats’ ridicule resonated because it built on older traditions of stereotypes in anti-popery and anti-puritanism, which used mockery to attack those perceived to be hypocrites. Mockery is analyzed by considering how early modern culture understood laughter. It is argued that ridicule in The Turncoats expressed superiority over hypocrites by subjecting them to contempt and provided relief from anxieties about the prevalence of hypocrisy during the rage of parties.

Global Insights on Public Perceptions and Engagement based on TikTok politics

In the digital era, social media platforms like TikTok are increasingly used for political campaigns. This study examines the PAN party's use of the viral TikTok song "PAN 12" to engage students, using Davidoff’s public perception theory. Employing a qualitative descriptive method with six student informants from Sidoarjo, the research reveals mixed perceptions: some find the content engaging, while others criticize it for lacking substantive political content. The findings highlight that while TikTok can reach a wider audience and enable direct interaction with voters, it risks prioritizing popularity over political substance. Therefore, the PAN party should address criticisms with transparency and substantial communication to enhance understanding of their political goals. Highlights: TikTok engages a wider audience for political campaigns. "PAN 12" song evokes mixed reactions from students. Balance popularity with substantive communication to address criticisms. Keywords: Social Media, TikTok, Political Campaigns, Public Perception, Student Engagement

Unfulfilled Future Perfect? Comics as a Site of Liberty in Post-Mao China

ABSTRACT This study examines the changing ideological landscape of post-Mao China through the prism of the science fiction work, The Three Courts, published in the late 1970s. This work and its comic adaptations are not landmark works of literary history and popular culture but rather a utopian fable addressing the profound issues of the reform. We demonstrate how the comic version received a temporary ideological license to support the popular liberty movement, which reflects the cooperation of officials and civil society in the face of the socialist faith crisis and how such collaboration broke down in 1979. By analyzing the two revisions made to this work, we argue that the comic can be seen as a site of liberty that contains radical political content, but its visual output has not been censored. Thus, before the new myth of post-socialism took shape, this text reveals the unfulfilled expectations of democratized reforms by pro-democratic knowledge elites and cultural bureaucrats standing among the ruins of Mao-era China.

Adivasi Text as an Assertion and a Lament: A Feminist Perspective and a Critique of Religious Conversion and Reservations

This article explores the ways in which Kocharethi: The Araya Woman by Adivasi writer Narayan is a significant work in Adivasi literature in the way that it opens the life-world of a community, family and individuals. Kocharethi is a story about the intimate ways in which the Malayaraya Adivasi community of Kerala relates to their land and its ownership. Kocharethi is about their exploitation, impoverishment, displacement and erasure and their interaction and negotiation with modernity. It is not an overtly political piece of writing in the sense that it does not incorporate political consciousness, language, form and content, but by centring the Adivasi life-world, it attains a political feat within a literary industry that focuses primarily on the upper-caste Hindus. In a way, Kocharethi is an assertion of the autonomous identity of the Adivasi communities in general and the Malayaraya people in particular. This article therefore engages with complex insights into the relationship between the Adivasi identity, Christianity and Hinduism and how these religions have dehumanized and accepted the people within the fold only on their own terms. The article looks into the important arguments about affirmative action, such as the policy of reservation for Dalits and Adivasis, and one of the transformations that the Malayaraya community underwent, that of conversion to Christianity. When it comes to the women of this community, it is even more complex. Hence, this article is also an attempt to reread the text by Kerala’s first Adivasi novelist, Narayan, from a feminist perspective without undermining the unique and significant position that it holds in Adivasi literature. It further looks at the issues of Adivasi women, specifically the Malayaraya women, and also analyses the patriarchal structure that is depicted in the text. The transition that the community makes due to modernity is placed subsequently.

Neutralizing the sacred space: pre-election messages in a typical Indonesian city

AbstractDespite frequent claims that religion serves as a motivator of political behavior in Muslim-majority contexts, empirical evidence of political messaging in sacred spaces is scant. Building on earlier studies on political messaging in both churches and mosques, we examine the presence and nature of political messages across Muslim and Christian religious contexts in a typical Indonesian city, Yogyakarta. Through an analysis of 71 sermons that took place in mosques and churches prior to elections in 2017 and 2019, we analyze the frequency, style, tone, and consistency of political content. We find that political messages within individual houses of worship were often inconsistent from week to week, reducing their potential as a mobilizing force for political action. We also find that houses of worship frequently sought to present themselves as politically neutral spaces in an electoral context in which religious themes are politicized.

Great Power Competition, Clientelism, and De Facto States: Transnistria and Taiwan Compared

Abstract To what extent can de facto states act autonomously vis-à-vis their patron states and domestic societies? This article draws on theories of clientelism in international relations to develop a novel argument explaining the agency of de facto states. Examining two strategic triangles—Russia–Transnistria–Moldova and US–Taiwan–China—it demonstrates that interrelated domestic factors such as robust political competition, democratic pluralism, reimagined national identities, and big business shape the autonomy of de facto states in Eastern Europe and East Asia. Furthermore, the structured focused comparison of Transnistria and Taiwan indicates that the agency of de facto states declines when rising parent states and dissatisfied patron states challenge the status quo, engaging in great power competition. Their autonomy varies across areas of low and high politics, as patron states prioritize military-security issues and interfere less in the economic and cultural affairs of the de facto states.

More than news! Mapping the deliberative potential of a political online ecosystem with digital trace data

Does the internet facilitate everyday public deliberation? Previous research on this question has largely focused on specific aspects, such as online news media diets or political discussions on social media. However, increasingly complex media environments are composed of different arenas with different respective potential for democracy. While previous work extensively dealt with the quality of political discussion online, it is a necessary but overlooked step, to consider the upstream features of digital infrastructure and usage. Using digital trace data from Germany, this study maps out which websites are relevant for online public discourse, introduces a measure of deliberative potential along six dimensions (information, communication, participation, connectivity, inclusivity and heterogeneity), and explores different types of websites alongside high level usage patterns. Besides a class of mainstream informational hubs, a class of quality information providers that includes most established public broadcasting sites was found. A third class of niche online forums hosts political discussions among more tightly-knit online communities, supporting previous findings of incidental exposure to political content online. While the mainstream information hubs in the sample attract a much larger volume of clicks, users spend relatively more time consuming political information on quality information sites as well as on niche online forums to engage with politics online. This project takes a more holistic perspective of the diverse ecosystem of online deliberation, while presenting a first quantitative exploration of a deliberative system.

Anti-corruption campaign and economic growth in Chinese cities: The dichotomous mechanism of network-based political competition

I study how economic growth in Chinese cities responds to the recent anti-corruption campaign, focusing on a novel mechanism of network-based political competition, whereby the removal of investigated officials creates job vacancies and triggers promotion competition within the social network of the investigated officials for the vacancies. Such a network-based competition hinges on the premise that (1) some positions are persistently occupied by certain networks, and (2) high-ranked officials help low-ranked ones to achieve promotion within the network, two facts that are well supported by the evidence. Using a difference-in-differences and an instrumental variable approach, I find that cities’ GDP growth rate registers a 2.5-percentage-point increase following the investigation of the city leader’s connected officials. City leaders create a healthier business environment, attract investments, and increase government spending, while some long-term issues, including innovation, education, and environmental protection, are compromised, indicating the dichotomous nature of political competition.

Political competition and representation in municipal councils

ABSTRACT I study whether the numbers of high- and low-social status-individuals in French municipal councils are affected by the level of political competition. I argue that because the most-eligible positions within lists of candidates are obtained by high-social-status persons, political competition increases the number of high-status municipal councilors and is thus detrimental to the election of low-social-status candidates. Using the elections of 2008 and 2014, I provide suggestive evidence that the socioeconomic status of individuals is indeed correlated with their position within lists of candidates. Moreover, I show that the presence of an additional competing list during an election is associated with 0.2 additional high-social-status individuals within the municipal councils. I also observe that those additional municipal councilors are males, which is a result that might have been caused by the gender quota policy implemented in French local elections.

Elections, governance, and polarization in Indonesian villages

ABSTRACT This article explores the deepening of affective polarization in rural Indonesia after the Village Law. The 2014 Village Law was envisioned as an essential way for promoting rural decentralization to fostering collaborative governance. Nevertheless, this article finds that there has been a deepening of polarization in rural communities after Village Law. Through an everyday political approach, the study employs qualitative research to provide a more tangible picture of the depth of polarization. This article examines three ways of affective polarization in rural communities: intense political competition, disaggregated voting patterns, and selective handing out of government benefits. We conclude that the dynamics of the village head election, built on ethnic and religious lines, generate an intense political competition and segregated voting patterns. Furthermore, affective polarization ultimately affects the selective distribution of government benefits. This article offers new insights into the aftermath of the Village Law dynamics from village head elections to village governance, focusing on how polarization in rural Indonesia is deepening.

Building of Brazilian Party System

The main objective of this paper is to analyze the phenomenon of the formation and success of new parties in the period of redemocratization and the return of Brazilian multipartyism (1979-2018). Although the phenomenon is recurrent in Brazil, few studies have looked more directly at the subject in Brazil. What are the determinants of the ongoing formation of new parties? Our hypotheses are that the permissiveness of the electoral system loses effect when actors adapt to it and that factors endogenous to political competition increase the likelihood of new parties emerging. We use previous methodologies and conceptualize new parties as those that are organizationally new (obtain a new registration) and win at least one seat in the Chamber of Deputies. We divided the parties into contestation or coaptation parties to assess the impact of institutional and economic variables on them. Our results indicate that parties that are totally "outside the system" (those of contestation) have more difficulty in becoming competitive, demonstrating that the phenomenon of the appearance of new acronyms is more linked to a strategic reorganization of the elites than to a demand from voters.

POLITICAL CULTURE AND INTRA-PARTY SECURITY IN MONGOLIA

In any democratic country, political parties play an important role in the development of society and are a participating institution with a special role in representative democracy. In this context, parties play a major role in supporting fair competition in politics and also have an important influence on ideological and state regulation of politics. Therefore, political parties are obliged to fulfill their obligations to the society strictly within the legal and legal framework, to report on their financial support in accordance with the established procedure and to be able to be accountable to the society. In this context, how will Mongolias political parties influence the formation of the following functional approaches - the will of the people and the formation of public opinion improving citizens political education how to ensure citizens active participation in political life preparing citizens capable of performing public service and taking responsibility participating in elections as a candidate how to harmonize their political goals and agenda with the governments policies and decisions In this article, we have sought to clarify the following functional approaches. The results of the main and additional studies selected and conducted by the authors themselves are used, analyzed and presented.

Public Policy and Governance Issues in Multi-Ethnic Society: The Predicaments of Policy Agenda Setting in Nigeria

It is an indisputable fact that Nigeria is a multi-lingual, multi-ethnic, and multi-religious country. It is also widely recognized that the country has an abundance of material and human resources due to its diverse population. But what was once seen and considered as a blessing has turned into a serious problem for governance and politics in Nigeria. This is because the determination of ethnic entrepreneurs to invoke the common consciousness shared by individuals who identify with a specific ethnic or religious group lies at the heart of a lot of governance and policy challenges in the country. Symbolic ethnic pluralism has been an element in conflictual group relations whenever there is socioeconomic and political competition in the country. The objective of this paper is to examine how public policy agenda-setting and ethnoreligious consciousness intersect in Nigeria. The study used a qualitative approach, collecting data from the author’s observations as well as a comprehensive analysis of the body of existing literature. The findings imply that the overlapping roles of power, perception, potency, and proximity in political mobilization and policy-making in Nigeria have an impact on the intersection of ethnicity and religion as well as the reduction of complex geostrategic and historical conflicts to ethnic strife. The study recommended that the country’s current institutional arrangements and social norms be drastically altered.

Editorial: Policy Framing and Branding in Times of Constant Crisis

This editorial serves as an introduction to <em>Media and Communication</em>’s thematic issue Policy Framing and Branding in Times of Constant Crisis. Crises cast challenges for political actors and concurrently create opportunities for policymaking, public reflections, and political competition. In times of crisis, when it comes to communicating policymaking but also framing the crisis itself, issues close to political communication (including political marketing and political branding) become of paramount relevance. The eight articles of this issue cover a broad array of subjects, expanding the understanding of the relevance of communication when it comes to policymaking in times of crisis, through the lens of policy framing and policy branding.

Strategi Komunikasi Politik melalui Media Sosial oleh Calon Presiden Indonesia 2024

Interactivity is among the powerful characteristic that differ social media with another kind of conventional media. Social media can facilitate any kind of communication practice, including political communication. Political communication highly needs the use of media to obtain their objectives, specifically for politician to persuade voters to choose them on election. This study aim to discover the social media strategy used by Indonesia president candidates 2024. Using internet research dan observation, Instagram feeds posts from three candidates’s account were collected and analyzed, during the start of campaign period – November 28TH 2023, until the article was written. Several aspects were assessed, including communication style, consistency, and four levels of political marketing strategy. Result shows that consistency in scheduling, writing caption, and choosing hashtag didn’t directly affect social media engagement, such as like and comment. All President Candidates manage their social media to communicate and persuade their audience or voters, but didn’t utilize the interactivity to reply the comment or build conversation via Instagram feeds. Another findings show that Instagram comment section were dominated by both fans/followers and political buzzers that interactively building conversation. Further research should be done to assess another platform and another type of political marketing content.

Why and when democracies ban political parties: a classification of democratic state orientations to party bans

Defending democracy requires undemocratic steps; one of the most radical is the prohibition of political parties. The functioning of political parties is fundamental to healthy and pluralistic democracies. Thus, their exclusion from the political process raises a severe dilemma for a democratic society, which has to address sufficiently why and when a political competitor can legitimately be kicked out of the political arena. The latter is crucially important because of the rise of far-right parties and attempts by authoritarians to infiltrate the domestic political competition of democratic countries. The approaches of various national courts in cases concerning the prohibition of political parties are far from uniform. Experiences in Spain, Ukraine, the UK and, eventually, Germany demonstrate significant contrasts regarding the political theory and legal rationale for prohibition. While democracy is a universal value for a pan-European context, the courts set different limits of democratic tolerance for guarding it. The paper offers a new paradigm that explains why and when democracies ban political parties. The classification of democratic state orientation to party bans consists of liberal, institutional and militant models, which illustrate different concepts around finding the balance between personal rights on the one hand and the interests of a democratic society on the other.