Political Entrepreneurs Research Articles

Israel is too expensive for us? Political consumerism, public policy and entrepreneurship: the case of the cottage cheese boycott

All over the world, political consumerism is on the rise and so is the number of studies. Until the summer of 2011, the use of consumer power in Israel was very limited and political scientists did not focus on it enough. But the social protest and the cottage cheese boycott during that summer were a different experience. Analysing this boycott as a case study, the paper examines the question “Why do political entrepreneurs, the boycott organizers, choose to adopt political consumerism as their main political strategy in order to create a social and political change?” Based on the neo-institutional theory and on the principles of the rational choice theory, the study offers the “triangle of political consumerism’s model” which explains the interaction between the entrepreneur, the “Israel is too expensive for us” (Israel Yekara Lanu) consumer movement, the food corporations, citizens as consumers and the state.

Political Entrepreneurship, Emergent Dynamics, and Constitutional Politics

Since ancient times, scholars have recognized the paradox of political power: power is necessary to enforce principles of just conduct, but power also renders favoritism and arbitrary action likely. Quis Custodiet Ipsos Custodes? Almost universally, this question has been pursued within a closed-system scheme of analysis. In contrast, we address this question within an open-system scheme of analysis, and explore some of the analytical differences that arise. In short, no resolution of the paradox is possible, for neither political entrepreneurship nor the crooked timber of humanity will allow it. Within open systems of creative and entrepreneurial action, freshness is continually injected into society, including new forms and uses of power. The challenge that the paradox of power presents for political economy is not to subdue it, which is impossible, but is to learn to live with it in a generally productive manner.

International solidarity and ethnic boundaries: using the Israeli–Palestinian conflict to strengthen ethno‐national claims in Northern Ireland

AbstractWhile scholars have described vertical nation‐building narratives that genealogically anchor a specific group to a specific territory (Smith 1981; Eriksen 2002), I argue that, in addition to vertical strategies, expressions of international solidarity constitute horizontal nation‐building strategies. Expressions of international solidarity can be used to maintain local ethnic boundaries and reinforce local divisions. By adopting an ally, expressions of international solidarity also designate an adversary, making the boundary between the two a possible incentive for solidarity. In Northern Ireland, some Unionist and Nationalist political entrepreneurs rely on expressions of international solidarity with Israelis or Palestinians, respectively, to make adversarial ethno‐national claims to the nation‐state. This study examines flags, graffiti, murals and political speech on display in Northern Ireland that advocate for either Israelis or Palestinians. Through the concept of ‘borrowed legitimacy’, I acknowledge the strategic use of the ethnic boundary in expressions of international solidarity.

Does ethnofederalism explain the success of Indian federalism?

ABSTRACTEthnofederalism has been contested as a solution for diverse societies as seen recently in Nepal (where federalism has been accepted, but the design and number of units remains heavily contested) and Myanmar (where ethnic minority demands for increasing federalization have had to take a back seat to the demands for increasing democracy). It remains a heavily contested subject in Sri Lanka. Concerns are expressed that ethnofederalism will increase pressures for secession and/or lead to increased violence through increasing a sense of separateness of the people living within that territory, providing resources for political entrepreneurs to mobilize groups against the center and will lead to the persecution of minorities within the ethnofederal units. India is an example of a federation that appears to demonstrate that ethnofederalism decreases rather than increases conflict through its successful reorganization of states along linguistic lines. However, a group-level analysis reveals a more diverse picture. India has simultaneously been both a success and a failure at conflict management.

“C’est comme ça que cela pourrait recommencer” : L’épineuse question foncière au Burundi

In recent years, research on land conflicts in war-affected countries has seen a significant increase in the literature on conflict resolution. Land grabbing coupled with the return and repatriation of thousands of refugees and internally displaced persons (IDPs) after the end of civil wars constitute major challenges for peace and reconciliation in many African countries. Drawing on a case study of Burundi, one of Africa’s most densely populated countries, this article analyses the complex issues related to land conflicts. Burundi is currently facing thousands of land disputes following the return of refugees and IDPs stemming from the different politico-ethnic crises that this Great Lakes country has endured since independence. The current instrumentalization of the land issue by political entrepreneurs highlights the risks for the fragile peace and reconciliation process that Burundi has known in recent years if the land conflicts are not addressed in a sensitive and equitable manner.

New Political Entrepreneurs in Poland

Parties launched by political entrepreneurs are usually newcomers into more or less established party systems. Their ‘founding fathers’ act without specific external group support and the literature on new parties predicts that there is a low survival rate for entrepreneurial parties. In the case of Poland, the party system had been relatively stable from the 2001 until the 2011 parliamentary elections and subsequently some new parties entered into politics, tried to gain electoral support as well as political relevance. The most recent groupings in the Polish political system which are closest to the theoretical concept of entrepreneurial parties are the Palikot’s Movement (Ruch Palikota), Kukiz’15 and the Modern Party (Nowoczesna). The aim of the paper is to examine to what extent the leaders of these parties can be seen as political entrepreneurs and the parties as ‘entrepreneurial parties’. Another point we discuss is in which aspects the leaders of the parties examined are similar in their role of political entrepreneurs and in which they differ. In order to answer these questions, the previous careers of the leaders, the ways they entered politics and the strategies they used to achieve their goals will also be analyzed.

Political Entrepreneurs as a Challenge for the Party System in Slovakia

This paper deals with the emergence and relevance of entrepreneurial parties in Slovakia. Its aim is to identify if the business-firm party model is an isolated phenomenon within the party system of the Slovak Republic, specific only for a certain segment of political parties, or if the business-firm practices are present also in the wider spectrum of parties, including those ‘program-based’ with the presence of the mechanisms of intraparty democracy. The main indicators followed by the article are the role of the party founders (leaders) after the parties enter the parliament, the organizational development of the parties and the role of party programs in the shaping of party identities. The paper brings an analysis of the penetration of business practices in Slovakia’s political parties, and brings a detailed analysis of particular entrepreneur parties, such as the Civic Understanding Party (SOP), Alliance of the New Citizen (ANO), Freedom and Solidarity (SaS), Ordinary People and Independent Personalities (OĽaNO) and We Are Family – Boris Kollár. Increasing support to parties which fall under the business-firm model, as well as the penetration of entrepreneurial practices into the functioning of other political parties, provoked new political conflicts in Slovakia. These are interpreted by some politicians as a conflict between so called ‘standard’ and ‘non-standard’ parties. The business-firm party model and practices are increasingly attractive for many newly emerging parties, but also for the older political ones. Successful parliamentary elections, and even participation in the government, doesn’t force the parties to establish territorial structures or to improve internal democratic mechanisms.

Bridging language barriers, bonding against immigrants: A visual case study of transnational network publics created by far-right activists in Europe

With the growing importance of digital and social media, visual images represent an increasingly attractive medium for far-right political entrepreneurs to mobilize supporters and mainstream voters in the context of increasing polarization and widespread fears of immigrants and refugees. This article investigates how far-right activists use cartoon images poking fun at immigrants to construct a shared ethno-nationalist bond of solidarity across multilingual and transnational networks and publics. Focusing on right-wing activists as political entrepreneurs, I will explore the visual and discursive translation of nationalist symbols and cartoons within different national political contexts and across linguistic and cultural boundaries. Combining the discourse historical approach (DHA) with multimodal analysis, I will trace the cross-cultural translation and sharing of an anti-immigrant poster created by the Swiss People’s Party (SVP), a right-wing political party in Switzerland, in its controversial ‘black sheep’ campaign. Second, I will show how far-right sympathizers in Italy and Germany, inspired by the SVP, created their own ‘black sheep’ cartoons in which they imagine a racist bond of transnational solidarity through the use of images depicting immigrants as Europe’s other. This article contributes to the study of transnational network publics by showing the relevance of non-verbal and visual translation strategies used by radical right-wing political entrepreneurs to forge stronger alliances cross-nationally and cross-linguistically.

The Resurgence and Spread of Populism?

The concept of populism has been used to define many political and economic phenomena without precision. This paper presents an analytical synthesis that in our view helps to understand populism in a generalizable way. We define populism as a political strategy aimed to achieve power. Drawing inductively from historical case studies, secondary literature and multinational public opinion surveys, we identify three distinct conditions necessary for a populist episode to occur: a) a political entrepreneur, b) an opportunity structure, and c) favorable public appeal. We further elaborate on these three conditions in this paper. We then examine our model in respect to specific historical and prospective cases.

The House of Federation to Approve an Emergency Regime in Ethiopia: Peeking through the Preamble

The charismatic leadership of Emperor Menelik has not only earned Ethiopia numerous nations, nationalities and peoples but also convinced the European colonialists to recognize the boundaries and existence of Ethiopia as a sovereign state. Following the glorious years of Emperor Menelik, bounded by political intrigues around the throne, deftly organized hectic negotiations to firmly land Ethiopia in the international political and legal space, and solidifying the accomplishment of Menelikian expansionism, Teferi Mekonnen was finally crowned the Emperor of Ethiopia in 1930. Questioning the existing political status of nations, nationalities and peoples came into the forefront during the reign of Haile Selassie although doomed to failure. The military government that assumed power in the footsteps of Haile Selassie was unsuccessful in the attainment of the request of ethno-nationalist political entrepreneurs who at the end brought down the government. The Federal constitution, in addition to making the right of the nations, nationalities and peoples’ non-derogable, has established the House of Federation to be composed of representatives of nations, nationalities and peoples. Above all, sovereignty is vested in the nations, nationalities, and peoples. Conversant to any imagination, the House that represents these groups is denied the authority to decide on issues of public emergency—a situation that threatens the life of the State. In consequence, this paper argues that power should be returned to the legitimate holders—the nations, nationalities, and peoples—a power to be exercised by the House of the Federation.

The Entrepreneurial Engine of Institutional Change [ACERE 2017 Conference Paper

In this paper, I take a closer look at how very talented people read the institutional framework – and what choices they make inside of this framework. My aim is to develop a theory of institutional change based on the work of North, and especially his 1993 paper in which he called for the development of a theory of institutional change and provided a set of definitions and a framework to start with. His initiative has since been joined by the new institutional economics and parts of his framework have been developed, but there is one side that has not been much researched: how the entrepreneurs impact institutions. The question seems nonetheless a crucial one to me, since, to North, the institutional change is an endogenous process in which the entrepreneur is the agent of change. To my knowledge, only two publications dived into this question: Lopez and Leighton (2012) and Tarko (2015) that both focus on political entrepreneurs and the impact of ideas and intellectual innovations on institutions. Hence this is my attempt of a theory of endogenous institutional change centered on the entrepreneur’s choice – and how the interactions of institutions and entrepreneurs affect the development of the economy. The framework, theory and model that I develop here can be applied on any country with any level of development. It is to be used to assess the quality of the institutions and how they encourage entrepreneurs towards innovation, which ultimately leads to economic development.

Hate Spin: The Twin Political Strategies of Religious Incitement and Offense-Taking

Religious intolerance manifests itself periodically in ways that test democracies' commitment to freedom of expression. Responding to this challenge requires a conceptual clarity that is often lacking. This article proposes a corrective lens in the form of a new concept, hate spin. Hate spin absorbs the familiar concept of hate speech, or incitement, and combines it with the less understood strategy of offense-taking or manufactured indignation. The two sides of hate spin—incitement and offense-taking—are used by political entrepreneurs to mobilize supporters and coerce targeted groups. Incitement may warrant legal intervention, but censorship is a counterproductive response to offense. The article explicates the concept of hate spin, identifies its key characteristics, and suggests directions for further research.

Electoral Laws and Monitoring of Campaign Financing during the 2015 Presidential Election in Nigeria

AbstractThe emergence of politicians with overwhelming financial muscle in Nigeria since 1990s has complicated the relationship between money and politics in the country. This has been intensified by lack of clear legislation on how political parties should seek funding for their campaigns. Although effective supervision of political parties’ finance is critical to the survival and consolidation of any democracy, the relevant electoral laws in Nigeria have not been effectively enforced. This is evident in the unbridled deployment of financial and other material resources by moneyed politicians and corporations during party campaign fundraising and electioneering. Among other things, this paper investigated the interface between the electoral laws and monitoring of campaign financing during the 2015 Presidential Election in Nigeria. The study is a documentary research and data were analyzed using a qualitative descriptive method. Utilizing the Marxist theory of the post-colonial state, the paper established that the electoral laws are generally couched ambiguously by politicians with vested interests in order to weaken the enforcement capacity of the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), as well as facilitate the advancement of the electoral interests of the ‘political entrepreneurs’. Thus, the unbundling of the Commission is recommended as a sine qua non for effective monitoring and supervision of political parties in the country.

Senegal’s Arabic literates: from transnational education to national linguistic and political activism

This article studies the role of the Arabophone community in postcolonial social and political transformations. More specifically, it focuses on the case of the Arabisants in Senegal. Forged through the mobility between the two shores of the Sahara, they are willing to emerge as a more visible political force since the 2000s. This article sheds light on Arabisants’ endeavours to participate in various forms of political advocacy. It demonstrates that they intend to stand as the political entrepreneurs of the Muslim community, to challenge the hegemony of Sufi Brotherhoods, and consequently, to challenge the state’s alliance with the Sufi orders. In so doing, Arabisants emerge as counter-elite in the public and political debate in Senegal.

The emergence of an environmental governance network: the case of the Arizona borderlands

Across the country, government agencies increasingly collaborate with non-governmental actors on environmental dilemmas to gain access to resources, expertise, and local knowledge; to mitigate conflict; and to share risks in a changing environmental context. Collectively, these often overlapping collaborations form a complex and dynamic governance network (GNet). This paper examines the establishment and growth of an environmental GNet over a period of 15 years in conflict-ridden southeastern Arizona, USA. Using social network analysis, we detect the emergence of several influential organizations acting as political entrepreneurs and observe an overall change in network composition. We describe three phases: (1) a newly emerged network, (2) a network dominated by national non-governmental organizations, and finally (3) a shift toward local non-governmental organization involvement. Using institutional analysis, we explore how conflict over natural resource use, decreasing public and private monies for management, and increasing tensions over border security, leads to the establishment of new collaborations and new network participants. While this research focuses on environmental governance in southeastern Arizona, this methodological approach—and insights into the key role of organizations acting as political entrepreneurs—provides a useful starting place for analyzing networks of collaborative governance in other geographic and political contexts. Organizations’ perceptions of risk and trust are keys to understanding the dynamics of collaboration within a GNet.

Partisan defections in contemporary Uganda: the micro-dynamics of hegemonic party-building

ABSTRACTParty defections have increasingly become a major trend of Ugandan multiparty politics, not only for individual elites at the national level and in the parties’ leadership but at the grassroots level by local party members too. These shifts of allegiance are now systematically part of the staging and imagery of President Museveni’s electoral campaigns. A common explanation of this phenomenon points at the inconsistency of partisan loyalties and ideologies. It is often taken for granted that defections are expressions of clientelism, political opportunism and above all democratic immaturity and a misunderstanding of multipartyism. This paper argues on the contrary that mass defections reflect the social technology of the National Resistance Movement hegemonic rule at the local level, and the constraints for opposition parties whose structures it co-opts. They are part of the monopolisation of organisational initiatives at the grassroots level by the regime. Defections are not simply a symbol of electoral opportunism but part of a routine economic posture in a context of straddling lines between the economic and political spheres. Following up the trajectories of two specific groups of defectors from Teso over several years, this paper seeks to give precise insights on the local presence and rooting of political parties, their modes of mobilisation, recruitment, their repertoires of action, and more generally on the transformation of identities, partisan practices and political activism but also on the hegemonic ruling party’s mode of governance at the local level. This micro-sociologic approach opens windows on how hegemony is built in a dialogic way with local political entrepreneurs and vote brokers. Hegemonic rule therefore also contains its own limits as it requires a permanent renegotiation with individual actors embedded in a set of local power relationships.

If Immigrants Could Vote in the UK: A Thought Experiment with Data from the 2015 General Election

AbstractThe distribution of voting rights in the UK is an artefact of history rather than a product of clear legal or philosophical principles. Consequently, some resident aliens (i.e. immigrants) have the right to vote in all UK elections; others can vote in local elections but are excluded from national elections; still others are excluded from all elections. In England and Wales alone, roughly 2.3 million immigrants are excluded from voting in national elections. This exclusion is inconsistent with the founding principle of democracy and distorts political discourse. What if all immigrants could vote in national elections? We estimate that up to ninety‐five parliamentary seats could have been won by a different party in the 2015 general election. More substantially, enfranchising all immigrants would require re‐drawing UK constituency boundaries. The new electoral map would increase the relative power of urban constituencies and would incentivise some political entrepreneurs and parties to temper anti‐immigration rhetoric.

Work Culture in Political Entrepreneurship: An Exploratory Study

This research study is an exploratory study on political entrepreneurship. The researcher has used grounded theory and used participant observation and in-depth interviews as a part of qualitative study. The researcher identified a political party, which is emerging and growing. This party has emerged recently and therefore it is spreading its organization. The researcher studied the work culture and tried to identify key elements based on grounded theory methodology. The researcher has presented propositions based on the study for further studies. The main propositions are that the members of the political organization try to spread ideology among people, openly welcome new members, show optimism and aggression in their approach to spread the organization and use innovative media to spread their thoughts and connect with each other. They have frequent meetings to give shape to the organization.

Political entrepreneurship and the Ko-P phenomenon in Taiwan’s democratization

ABSTRACTTaiwan’s economic modernization and political democratization after World War II have been praised as good examples for emerging countries. As of 2014, Taiwan has successfully gone through four direct presidential elections and two rounds of peaceful transfer of power. However, continuing sectarian quarrels between the ruling Kuomintang and the opposition Democratic Progressive Party cast doubt on the suitability of democracy for a Confucian society. This pessimism is challenged by the emergence of a new political star. A political novice, Ko Wen-je (aka Ko-P), won a landslide victory in the 2014 Taipei mayoral election, which is seen as a phenomenon. It has significant political implications and has so far inspired changes in the political landscape. The adoption of entrepreneurial strategies, such as identifying problems, leading by example, and team creation, are unprecedented in Taiwan’s political campaign. The Ko-P phenomenon demonstrates a self-correcting mechanism in Taiwan’s political system and bodes well for the future of new democracies, particularly for the Greater China Region.

“I’m Paying, So I Decide”

Business-firm parties founded on the initiative of a political entrepreneur are a phenomenon of growing importance in contemporary party politics. In practice, these are either commercial companies, whose structure is used for a political project, or new and separate organisations constructed on business principles. This article examines the case of Czech party ANO (“YES”), established by the owner of the Agrofert holding company Andrej Babiš. The party achieved remarkable success in the 2013 Czech general election. The opportunity for ANO’s success was provided by strong voter dissatisfaction, reinforced by the scandalous circumstances of the centre-right government’s fall. This context created a fertile ground for the introduction of a new entity espousing anti-party, anti-corruption, and anti-political sentiments. In ANO’s organisation and functioning, a strengthening of certain traits characteristic of this type of parties is apparent. A robust system for screening party members and representatives has been gradually put into place, and human resources–style techniques of psychological testing were employed at the party’s inception. Furthermore, the power in the party has been wholly centralised around the leader, and the party’s territorial structures assigned merely service tasks. ANO has also maximised its electoral-professional orientation. The strengthening of the typical traits of a business-firm party can be explained by reference to the party’s origin in the business environment and the notions entertained by its leader. In many respects, Babiš’s party has brought the organisational model of a business-firm party to its limits.