Political Science Research Articles

On the role of values in judgements on conflicting planning processes – prospects for agonistic planning? Basic considerations from Germany

ABSTRACT Adapting political science’s model of agonistic pluralism, literature in spatial planning reinterprets conflicts as constructive elements. The impact of stakeholders and their management of conflicting values remains uncertain. However, planning requires continual validation of its values. The article delves into the role of values in judgments on conflicting planning processes. An explorative German study reveals that courts prioritise procedural over substantive values, although they acknowledge the latter, such as environmental protection. We argue in favour of considering values in research on agonistic planning but acknowledge that the influence of courts is limited due to institutional constraints.

The Development of Video Game Representations of the Middle East

This article critically explores the historical representation of the Middle East in video games until 2002 and following the 9/11 event. Using thematic analysis, we identify four main themes and discuss how this representation shifts with time, offering a brief overview of the broader context. I argue that there is a clear association between political developments and this western representation, for we can clearly observe changes from the romantic, exotic, and orientalist views of the region and Arab and Muslim figure shown within the realms of the Arabian Nights theme to a more militant figure and dangerous place due to featuring armed conflict in the Middle East such as the first Gulf War. Though not included in the discussion, 9/11 introduced a more negative and Islamophobic representation that is associated with Islamist terrorism, and it marks the latest development in these themes.

Finding the needle in the haystack: archival research in European political science

AbstractThis short article offers a practical introduction to archival research for political scientists working on European politics. Archival documents are increasingly recognized as a relevant data source for process tracing analyses in small-N or mixed methods studies. Previously classified archival documents are exceptionally trustworthy due to their original confidentiality. Their rich and detailed content facilitates the understanding of causal mechanisms. Still, the hurdles for working with archival sources are high for political scientists. Lack of experience, no special training in handling historic documents, and a shortage of textbooks meeting their demands are a few of the problems political scientists planning archival research face. In the article, I highlight the opportunities of archival research and demonstrate how challenges can be overcome. I emphasize that the archival field trip should only be planned once researchers have gained substantive context knowledge. In their preparation, researchers should use all the resources archives offer and develop measurable expectations from theories.

A Case Study for Teaching Urban Politics: Examining Residential Racial Segregation through Historic Significance of Black Neighborhood

Moving students out of the classroom and into the community provides promising outcomes for teaching residential racial segregation and understanding of historical context of preservation. This class provides an exploratory case study of students in political science and art studio who worked in teams to develop digital stories for an historically black neighborhood in a large urban city. Through examination of archival data, conducting interviews, and experiencing places within the neighborhood, students gained insight into the politics that work to promote some history over others. Students became more aware of the importance of neighborhoods and gained an understanding of the importance of history to the lives of people living in particular communities. Students learned to work as a team, to overcome challenges of working in a community, and gained an understanding of political processes that work to hide or bury significant history of marginalized groups and neighborhoods.

Ask a Political Scientist: A Conversation with Jacqueline Anne Braveboy-Wagner on Small States, the Global South, and Being a Trailblazer

Ask a Political Scientist: A Conversation with Jacqueline Anne Braveboy-Wagner on Small States, the Global South, and Being a Trailblazer

From Laughter to Learning: Teaching Methods through Engaging Narrative Workshops

Can we increase students’ grasp and integration of research methods in political science, and do so in a fun way? We believe the answer is yes. In this article, we introduce the workshop-based narrative framework “The Tale of Folke Folkesson,” where students role-play as the methods expert group Linnaeus Opinion Laboratory (LOL). Through an interactive engagement with the story, students are exposed to the combined utility of various qualitative and quantitative techniques such as content analysis, survey research, experiments, and interviews. This methodological exercise enables students to recognize not only the individual strengths and weaknesses of each method, but also how one method can offset the limitations and/or amplify the benefits of another. Importantly for student learning, it does so in a fun and engaging way. Beyond introducing the narrative framework, we describe how educators can adapt the “Tale of Folke Folkesson” to meet their specific educational needs.

Concepts in Context: Ontological Coherence in Political Science Research

Political methodologists have long sought to develop standards that can guide political scientists in the process of concept formation. Yet, the methodology literature has struggled to provide satisfactory solutions to the fundamental problem of conceptualization: for any given concept, there are a large number of attributes one could postulate as its defining characteristics, and it is unclear how to adjudicate between different possible definitions. We leverage the fact that the theory within which a concept appears places important restrictions on concept formation: conceptualizations entail ontological claims that need to be consistent with those of the theories in which they appear.

NonRandom Tweet Mortality and Data Access Restrictions: Compromising the Replication of Sensitive Twitter Studies

Abstract Used by politicians, journalists, and citizens, Twitter has been the most important social media platform to investigate political phenomena such as hate speech, polarization, or terrorism for over a decade. A high proportion of Twitter studies of emotionally charged or controversial content limit their ability to replicate findings due to incomplete Twitter-related replication data and the inability to recrawl their datasets entirely. This paper shows that these Twitter studies and their findings are considerably affected by nonrandom tweet mortality and data access restrictions imposed by the platform. While sensitive datasets suffer a notably higher removal rate than nonsensitive datasets, attempting to replicate key findings of Kim’s (2023, Political Science Research and Methods 11, 673–695) influential study on the content of violent tweets leads to significantly different results. The results highlight that access to complete replication data is particularly important in light of dynamically changing social media research conditions. Thus, the study raises concerns and potential solutions about the broader implications of nonrandom tweet mortality for future social media research on Twitter and similar platforms.

Differently Imagined: Minorities and Majoritarian Politics in India

The rise of the BJP is usually credited for the shift towards the Hindutva politics in India, but other political parties are also not immune to using confession for electoral purposes. This article discusses how, despite living together for years, a large number of Hindus differently imagine the citizens belonging to the minority religious communities and vice versa. The article then examines the political events of the 1980s and analyses how they are linked with the contemporary social and political developments in India.

Kartini, Online Media, and the Politics of the Jokowi Era: A Critical Discourse Analysis

ABSTRACT The indigenous education activist and feminist of the late Dutch colonial era, R.A. Kartini, has remained an enduring public icon for more than a century. While celebrated as a national hero in Indonesia, like many iconic women of the Global South, Kartini’s symbolic force has been readily appropriated for political ends. As a ‘floating signifier’, her image absorbs fluctuating meanings and ideologies, making the analysis of her representation at a given point in time a valuable approach to political analysis. This article focuses on Kartini’s portrayal in the second term of the Jokowi presidency in mainstream Indonesian online media discourse. Recognising the dialectical relationship between the online news media and dominant political discourse, we use critical discourse analysis to identify and examine the mainstream ideologies embedded in the news media’s representations of Kartini. Our analysis provides a snapshot of dominant Indonesian political discourse, revealing a set of intersecting ideologies: conservative feminism, neoliberalism, softened Islamic piety, and perfunctory nationalism.

Political economy analysis of health: a scoping review protocol.

The objective of this scoping review is to identify and map the literature on concepts, definitions, frameworks, outcomes, and applications of political economic analysis of health. The political economy of health approach seeks to understand how political and economic domains interact and shape individual and population health outcomes. A political economic analysis can provide insights into health problems and inequalities; however, there needs to be more clarity on how the political economy framework is defined and the methods adopted for conducting political economy analysis concerning health. Studies focusing on the political economy analysis addressing specific health problems will be included. The study population is not limited to any sociodemographic characteristics, and there will be no restrictions on language or the source of evidence (primary studies or secondary data studies). Both qualitative and quantitative methodologies will included, but narrative and systematic reviews will be excluded, as will conference abstracts and editorials. Studies involving sector- or country-level analysis will be included. The review will follow the JBI methodology for scoping reviews. Databases to be searched include MEDLINE, Scopus, Web of Science, Cochrane CENTRAL, CINAHL, Embase, ProQuest, DynaMed, and gray literature via Google Scholar and OAIster. Two reviewers will perform study screening and data extraction using a customized data extraction form. The concepts, definitions, frameworks, outcomes, and applications of the political economy of health will be summarized and discussed. The health problems addressed using political economy analysis will be enumerated. Stakeholder engagement will guide all steps of the study. Results will be presented in tabular and graphical formats accompanied by a narrative summary. Open Science Framework https://osf.io/4qaxr/.

The racial politics of Afropolitanism and Zukiswa Wanner’s London, Cape Town, Joburg

ABSTRACT While scholars have long taken Afropolitanism to task for its classism, its racial politics have largely been praised. Pushing against this (un)critical consensus, this article offers the first sustained analysis of the racial politics informing Achille Mbembe’s theory of Afropolitanism alongside Zukiswa Wanner’s novel London, Cape Town, Joburg (2014). Making visible how institutional racism continues to define the post-apartheid present, it shows that both authors differentially single out race for scrutiny and collude in mystifying white dominance in South Africa. Just as Mbembe’s works on Afropolitanism are preoccupied with race but obfuscate racism, Wanner’s novel uses racialized drama as an important plot device yet stigmatizes the denunciation of white supremacy, while sharply critiquing homophobia, sexism, and xenophobia. In invoking race as central while relieving white people of responsibility for the racist status quo, these works display paradoxes that reveal an investment in silencing racism, paradoxes which this article lays bare.

Political Skill of B to B Sales Team as a Dynamic Capability: A Strategic Resource Perspective

ABSTRACT Purpose To identify the key internal and external collective conditions and determinants for sales managers in the B to B context, which would allow the articulation of Team Political Skill as a firm’s dynamic capability at organizational and strategical level. Methodology/approach This study employs qualitative methods based on grounded theory, with an exploratory discovery, which jointly used in-depth interviews and online focus groups targeting sales management positions (Sales managers, sales supervisors) and CEOs of 24 B to B different firms in Chile and Peru. Findings The study reports that the political skill of B to B sales teams is articulated as a dynamic capacity when it is capable of generating organizational co-creation routines and an identification culture based on innovation, which translates into intrafirm collaborative organizational learning, strengthening its strategic intelligence, customer orientation and providing a distinctive and differentiating seal in the market at organizational level. Research implications This research suggests from the perspective of resource-based theory that B to B salespeople team political skills not only is a tactical resource to achieve sales results but also becomes an active differentiator of high strategic value for B to B firms in their organizational performance. Therefore, the sales team acts as a key predictor of higher social effectiveness and work performance. Additionally, this study highlights the pivotal role of the sales supervision role and competitive environment in the evolution of individual salespersons’ political skills toward group consolidation. Practical implications The current work offers initial strategies regarding for B to B sales managers can establish political skill development plans in their salespeople and to incorporate innovative supervision and supporting mechanisms that bolster the B to B sales team as a strategic resource in an ever-increasing competitive and complex environment, as seen in the recent post pandemic environment. Originality/value/contribution of the paper To identify unexplored dimensions and collaborative processes in B to B salespersons’ individual and collective team political skills and how these potentially consolidate themselves as a distinctive firm’s dynamic capability in their sales performance.

Politics Rules Everything Around Me? A Review of Pandemic Politics

Politics Rules Everything Around Me? A Review of <i>Pandemic Politics</i>

Can Credibility Overcome Elite Polarization?

Can Credibility Overcome Elite Polarization?

Apologies, Remorse, and Amends: Empirical Legal Studies Across Domains and Disciplines

The role of apologies in law is offered as an example of a topic that cuts across legal fields, and one that is quintessentially interdisciplinary. Because apologies are an often-desired response in the wake of a wrongful act, they can be significant in many legal settings. Apologies or the lack thereof affect attributions of responsibility and blame, provide information, and alter relationships. Apologies play a role in motivating or forestalling legal action, shape settlement in civilcases, influence punishment in criminal cases, provide alternate or complementary means of accountability, and impact relations among parties to conflict from the interpersonal to the geopolitical. An understanding of apologies is enriched by research conducted by legal scholars, sociologists and psychologists, economists and political scientists, historians and linguists, and criminologists, using methods drawn from each of these fields. This range of empirical research is necessary to successfully develop a better understanding of the desire for, effects of, and limits of apologies across varied legal contexts and the implications for client counseling and legal strategy, for legal reform and systems design, for political decision making, and for procedural, restorative, and transitional justice.

The Political Settlements Dataset: Power Configurations and Political Blocs in the Global South, 1946-2018

Political scientists have long sought to understand power dynamics across the Global South, but efforts to systematically capture political power have been limited, and existing datasets have faced conceptual and measurement challenges. The Political Settlements (PolSett) dataset was developed to address these issues. This original expert survey-based dataset includes over one hundred political economy variables coded for forty two countries from 1946 or independence to 2018 (totalling 2,718 country years). It allows for a detailed mapping of countries’ power configurations, capturing information on the relative size, power and social composition of competing political blocs in society, as well as their internal cohesion, accountability relations and distribution of benefits. The dataset is expected to enable more direct and rigorous analyses of power differentials in the Global South and their impact on political and economic developments. This letter describes the conceptual background of the dataset, how it was constructed, discusses its validity, and highlights some of its key features.

CONTINUITY IN POLITICAL AUTHORITY OF THE PRC: FEATURES OF THE FIRST GENERATION FOREIGN POLICY

The issue of succession to political power in the People's Republic of China is a frequently discussed topic in academic research. The fifth generation of Chinese power, the Xi Jinping administration, without opposing the political views of previous generations, continues its political course adhering to the basic foreign policy principles since the time of Mao Zedong. Therefore, the issue of continuity of China's foreign policy concepts is of particular interest. The main goal of the work is to consider the conceptual foundations of the foreign policy of the first generation of Chinese power and its evolution of development associated with changes in international relations of that time. The novelty of the study lies in the fact that foreign policy concepts formed during the time of Mao Zedong create optimal conditions for rationalizing the foreign policy of today's China. Objectives include assessing certain historical events in Chinese foreign policy and diplomacy and determining how they influenced the subsequent development of Chinese foreign policy. The research topic was considered based on the theory of political realism using methods of historical-comparative, structural, content analysis, and systematization methods. These methods helped to consider the problem and systematize the research results comprehensively. The results of the study provide an opportunity to deeply understand the issues of succession of Chinese political power and China's current foreign policy positions in a historical context. In addition, the results of the study can be widely used in research in the field of international relations, political science, Chinese studies, and history.

Ham Sok Hon: Bridging Spirituality and Politics

This paper aims to offer an interpretation of Ham Sok Hon’s views on the dynamic relationship between religion and politics. While considerable discussion has already taken place in the Korean academic community across various fields, including philosophy, theology, and political science, many of which propose ssial philosophy as the metaphysical foundation of his political thoughts, there still remains a need for a more systematic understanding of their relationship, which I argue is closely linked to his concept of jeonilhwa gwajeong (the process of unification/integration). By exploring Ham’s unique analysis, particularly in relation to the notion of ipcheseong (stereoscopic/multi-dimensional), this paper will underscore their shared roots and objectives across different spheres of life: one pertaining to salim (human affairs) seeking the pursuit of fairness and equality, and the other dealing with spirituality, aspiring to grasp the sublime aspects of human existence. Both religion and politics, as these movements are termed, are mutually dependent, with their culmination promising peace and harmony in historical reality. Through highlighting Ham’s integrated perspective on religion and politics, I will ultimately suggest a specific discourse—civil religion—as a theoretical framework to effectively unravels Ham’s viewpoints.

Far-right parties and the politics of education in Europe

ABSTRACT Formal education shapes the distribution of opportunities and cultural profile of European societies. Political parties, in turn, play a key role in shaping formal education. Focusing largely on the traditional contenders for government in Europe, research on the politics of education shows that parties prioritise redistributive issues and politicise them in line with their electorates’ material interests. It remains unclear to what extent these findings apply to a more recent, but highly successful party family: the far right. This review article and introduction to a special issue integrates existing scholarship from education and political science with findings from six new case studies from across Europe. It argues that far-right parties in Eastern and Western Europe frame education primarily as a means of disseminating (conservative and nativist) culture and values, rather than as a means of redistributing opportunities. In revaluing the cultural dimension of education for far-right partisan politics, the article and the special issue therefore not only provide insight into the educational strategies of an increasingly powerful actor in European politics, but also shed light on the mechanisms and determinants underlying the partisan dynamics that will contribute to shaping the future of European education and societies more generally.