Political Opinion Research Articles

Discrimination Based on Political or Other Opinions: Impact on the Labor Rights of Probationary Employees and Interns

Abstract The probation (trial) period employment contract and the internship are characterized by certain specificity in Georgian law. The issue of protecting the labor rights of probationary employees and interns, especially the termination of the contract, is even more specific. Moreover, the issue of political or other views, as one of the types of freedom of expression and the form of discrimination is interesting in the internship and trial period labor relationship. Based on the specificity of the Georgian case law, due to the simple termination of the probation period (trial period) employment contract, it is possible that the employer may abuse his right and thus violate the rights of the employee and/or intern. The following article mainly focuses on the research of these issues. The article also analyses the recent approaches of the Georgian courts’ practice and several cases of the International Court of Justice, which are the most well-known and often cited cases in foreign legal literature.

Field of study, political attitudes, and support for the radical right in Sweden and Europe

This study uses three different surveys to investigate the links between various educational fields, radical right support, and political opinions. Logit regressions and KHB mediation analysis of 41,770 observations from the Swedish SOM survey (2011–2019) reveal that graduates from technical and agricultural fields are approximately twice as likely to support the radical right as graduates from sociocultural fields. Fields such as natural sciences, business, and health demonstrate medium to medium-high support. These differences are partially mediated by horizontal, but not vertical, labor market allocation. Replication using the European Social Survey (ESS) indicates that these patterns are generalizable to Western, but not Eastern, Europe. Additional analyses show that radical right support and refugee intake skepticism decrease with years spent in sociocultural, but not technical, fields in upper-secondary school. Moreover, panel data from the Swedish Level of Living Survey (LNU) show that progressive attitude shifts occur predominantly following education in sociocultural fields.

The Psychological and Social Underpinnings of Political Belief Development

In this study we will, examine the complicated psychological and social forces that produce political attitudes. The paper reveals the twofold nature of the cognitive processes; how emotive and cognitive biases influence reasoning about politics. The findings reveal that one of the common types of directional motivated reasoning is one in which the pre-held belief impacts the treatment of political information, which in turn results in biased assessment of political personalities and issues. Other than that, this research discusses the role of conversation and deliberation in the promotion of reflective political opinions. Discussion with others persuades a person to express an opinion and to listen to others that develop one's thinking of political matters. The paper also discusses the emotions, such as anxiety and anger, associated with political judgment, maintaining that such emotions distort and occlude any lucid judgment about political performance. It also reveals that scientific curiosity acts to offset such one-sidedness: "The more scientifically curious anyone is, the more open they will be to information that runs counter to pre-existing points of view, allowing them to reason more impartially." Findings underpin views that a critical thinking-open discussion environment will be highly instrumental in raising political awareness and understanding. The present study bequeaths an important understanding of the psychological mechanisms underlying the construction of political opinion and the social processes that can help consolidate or contest these opinions. Controlling these factors sets up a better ability to confront polarization and misinformation in modern political discourses

Book Review Sair, A. (2024). Dramaturgi Politik Elektoral: Memahami Perilaku, Wacana, dan Motif Politik di Aras Lokal. Intrans Publishing. 148 pp.

This book offers a thorough investigation of political dramaturgy within the context of the 2010 Regional Head Elections in Surabaya. It spans six chapters, exploring the historical and theoretical foundations of political dramaturgy and providing a detailed case study of its application in Surabaya's electoral politics. Drawing on Erving Goffman's concepts of dramaturgy, the book illustrates how political interactions resemble theatrical performances, encompassing both "frontstage" and "backstage" elements. The backstage arena includes all the necessary preparations for the actors' performances on the front stage, ranging from research to logistical and technical requirements. In contrast, the front stage focuses on the actors' skills in impression management, which involve face-to-face interactions and the use of technology to effectively communicate political messages and influence public opinion. Overall, this book highlights the importance of dramaturgical elements in shaping electoral strategies and provides valuable insights into the complex interplay of cultural, social, and political factors that affect the dynamics of electoral politics at the local level.Keywords: political dramaturgy; regional elections; electoral politics

AI versus AI for democracy: exploring the potential of adversarial machine learning to enhance privacy and deliberative decision-making in elections

AbstractOur democratic systems have been challenged by the proliferation of artificial intelligence (AI) and its pervasive usage in our society. For instance, by analyzing individuals’ social media data, AI algorithms may develop detailed user profiles that capture individuals’ specific interests and susceptibilities. These profiles are leveraged to derive personalized propaganda, with the aim of influencing individuals toward specific political opinions. To address this challenge, the value of privacy can serve as a bridge, as having a sense of privacy can create space for people to reflect on their own political stance prior to making critical decisions, such as voting for an election. In this paper, we explore a novel approach by harnessing the potential of AI to enhance the privacy of social-media data. By leveraging adversarial machine learning, i.e., “AI versus AI,” we aim to fool AI-generated user profiles to help users hold a stake in resisting political profiling and preserve the deliberative nature of their political choices. More specifically, our approach probes the conceptual possibility of infusing people’s social media data with minor alterations that can disturb user profiling, thereby reducing the efficacy of the personalized influences generated by political actors. Our study delineates the boundary of ethical and practical implications associated with this ‘AI versus AI’ approach, highlighting the factors for the AI and ethics community to consider in facilitating deliberative decision-making toward democratic elections.

A COMPUTATIONAL ANALYSIS OF IDEOLOGICAL POSITIONS, EMOTIONAL STANCE, AND SUPPORT FOR PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATES IN TURKEY

Using artificial intelligence, this article explores the intricate dynamics between ideologies, emotions, and political preferences of the electorate in Turkey. Utilizing a dataset of one billion posts from X (formerly Twitter), the study maps out political opinions, focusing on support for presidential candidates, ideological stances, and collective emotions around the pivotal 2023 Turkish presidential elections. We discuss the limitations of conventional survey techniques and introduce an ERC‐funded Politus project that processes digital trace data to offer timely insights into social and political trends. The study's findings, particularly around the “prayer rug (seccade) crisis,” underscore the complexity of electoral politics and the potential of digital trace data in capturing the evolving sentiments and ideological orientations of voters. Through this computational approach, the research provides a granular depiction of Turkey's ideological map and electoral behavior, contributing significantly to the discourse on political analysis in the digital era.

Online Political Participation of Refugees in Germany: Analysis of a Survey in Bavaria

New media are an important resource for the political participation of marginalized groups. However, there is still a lack of knowledge about the factors that influence whether this opportunity is used. Influencing factors emerge from both the Civic Voluntarism Model and previous research on migrants’ political activity. Using data collected in 2019/2020 from 486 refugees living in Bavaria, we estimate linear probability models to investigate facilitating factors for the use of new media for political participation. The analysis shows that refugees in Germany who inform themselves about politics online tend to be predominantly male, higher educated, and politically involved. Language skills and the duration of stay also appear to be important. For the expression of one’s political opinion online, gender and language skills have an impact, but informing oneself about German politics, political interest, and offline political activity in Germany are the most relevant factors. This indicates that there is a close link between on- und offline activity. However, using the internet requires particular resources, so that people with lower language skills, for example, are particularly disadvantaged.

Advancing SDG 16 through political participation on social media: A Comparative Study of Social Capital between South Korea and the United States

The United Nations' Sustainable Development Goal 16 (SDG 16) aims to promote peaceful, inclusive societies and build effective, accountable institutions. Despite the growing influence of online media on political activities in the digital age and the increasing importance of achieving SDG 16 through political participation, there has been a lack of empirical research on this topic. This cross-cultural comparative study investigates the relationships among online communication, social capital, and political participation in South Korea and the United States. Online surveys were conducted in both countries, focusing on people's interest and trust in online communication, types of online social capital (bonding and bridging), and engagement in conventional and unconventional forms of political participation. Our findings underscore the pivotal role of social media as a platform for citizens to voice their political opinions and partake in democratic processes. We discovered a significant correlation between heightened interest and trust in online communication and increased political participation in both countries. This correlation is instrumental in achieving SDG 16.7, which advocates for inclusive and participatory decision-making. This study also highlights the nuanced differences in the relationship between online social capital and political participation. In South Korea, bridging online social capital is associated with unconventional political activities, whereas in the United States, bonding online social capital is linked to these forms of engagement. However, in both countries, participation in presidential elections is associated with bridging online social capital, providing a deeper understanding of the complex dynamics at play. The potential of social media to expand opportunities for citizens to participate in the political process and hold their governments accountable contributes to achieving SDG 16.6, which aims to develop effective, accountable, and transparent institutions. However, the study also serves as a reminder of the challenges posed by online polarization and misinformation. To fully realize the benefits of social media in promoting inclusive and sustainable social development, addressing these issues and fostering healthy online communities are essential.In conclusion, this study underscores the importance of promoting online communication and building robust online communities as key strategies for achieving SDG 16, engaging a wide range of stakeholders in the process of building a more equitable and sustainable future.

A Socio-Cognitive Analysis of the Self/other Representation in Bush’s Speech

It is known that political speeches are important as a communicative tool for politicians to maintain the power, which is essential to express political opinions and views as well as ideologies, though not always explicitly. Ideology is regarded as one of the primary objectives of text analysis in linguistic studies, particularly critical discourse analysis(henceforth CDA) , which consists of shared values, beliefs and attitudes within a group .In this way, discourse reflects the values of these ideological held by those groups who create it. The present study focuses on investigating the discursive ideological strategies of the self/other in Bush’s speech after September 11 attacks based on Van Dijk's (2006) model of ideological square. The data are collected qualitatively and a mixed method is used to analyze the results of this study. The major findings show that Bush used more ideological strategies to represent the image of “US” (selves) positively, than the image of “THEM” (others) negatively. In particular, the lexicalization is the most common strategy used by Bush’s speech, which showed that Bush emphasized on reflecting that Americans are (good, innocent, peaceful, victims, targeted, respectful, strong, great, powerful and sympathetic), while Arabs, particularly Muslims are (bad, terrorists, evil, violent, peace- haters, spiteful, murderers, vengeful, dangerous, destructive, violence and enemy). It is hoped that this study can improve the understanding of EFL learners about the importance of clarifying the hidden ideologies in politician’s speech and all kinds of discourse.

Book Review: Visual citizenship: Communicating political opinions and emotions on social media

Book Review: Visual citizenship: Communicating political opinions and emotions on social media

Is There a Need to Expand the Refugee Definition?

This article examines the urgency of protecting against displacement caused by climate change under international law and questions why Rohingya displacement has not been resolved even though it has been protected by international law, whether the harmonization of human rights approaches, national law, and international law towards refugees and climate refugees. This paper uses a literature review method and a normative legal approach by reviewing national and international human rights law. The findings of this paper suggest that many Rohingya continue to flee to safer countries, often taking enormous risks, including dangerous ocean crossings. The impacts of climate change can be categorized as persecution; the Refugee Convention requires that such persecution be due to race, religion, nationality, political opinion, or membership of a particular social group. Persecution alone is not enough. The difficulty is that the impacts of climate change are largely indiscriminate and not related to specific characteristics such as a person's background or beliefs. The Rohingya people have experienced violence, discrimination, and persecution for decades, and the international community has failed to protect them effectively. The international community has allowed Myanmar to carry out genocide against the Rohingya without taking any action, even though United Nations member states are obliged to protect their population from genocide, war crimes, ethnic cleansing, and crimes against humanity. National, international, and human rights laws play an important role in determining the legal status and rights of refugees in a country. All three must be embedded and integrated, starting from international law and its derivatives to national law, which contains humanitarian rights.

William Paulet Carey and Irish Caricature, 1780–92

Though best known for his involvement with the United Irishmen and his brief career as a newspaper editor, William Paulet Carey (1768–1848) was one of the first, and most interesting practitioners of graphic satire in Ireland during its inaugural phase. Having demonstrated his potential with an artistically indifferent caricature of the Gordon Riots in 1780, he acquired a fuller knowledge of the craft engraving copy plates for William Allen, then Dublin’s primary print seller. Subsequently, Carey sought, unsuccessfully, to make his mark in London in 1783–84, though he did produce a number of distinctive engravings in the Whig cause. Back in Dublin, he resumed his relationship with William Allen, in the course of which he produced a series of superior copies of William Bunbury’s single sheets and smaller engravings for a Dublin edition of the Geoffrey Gambado’s Annals of Horsemanship . Carey possessed strong political opinions, and having manifested his unease at the energizing of Irish conservativism with caricatures critical of the advocates of ‘Protestant Ascendancy’ in 1786–87, he prioritized literary satire until the early 1790s when he joined the United Irishmen and established a radical newspaper. However, his failure, other than on one occasion, to use his artistic skills in the radical cause deprived Irish radicalism of a potentially important means of promoting their cause.

Social media symbiosis: Understanding the dynamics of online political persuasion in social media ecologies

Research has noted that political content on social media, both accurate and fake, may lead users to reconsider their political opinions and be persuaded. This study contributes to this topic by examining how political attitude change in social media unfolds according to users’ perceptions. Our findings, based on in-depth interviews with 30 Spanish social media users, show how the centrality of social media in citizens’ everyday life nudges them into a persuasive relationship in these ecologies. We conceptualize this dynamic relationship as social media symbiosis, an analogy that draws on the biological concept of symbiosis, and that explains the characteristics of perceived online persuasion: (1) the primacy of social media persuasion over other information sources, (2) its gradual and evolutionary nature, and (3) the persuasive relationships in which users may engage: mutualism, in which both sender and receiver reciprocally benefit and persuade each other; and parasitism, in which fake news creators harmfully persuade receivers while benefitting. Our study contributes to extant literature by theorizing about the persuasive relationship in which users perceive to engage in social media, and the rationales that facilitate it.

The writing on the wall: Identity, placemaking and territoriality in Karachi's graffiti culture

This article explores the spatiality of political graffiti and urban murals and the role they play in placemaking, territoriality and identity building amongst Karachi's migrant communities. From Independence in 1947 to the present day, the city has been the site of several waves of in-migration, both domestic and international, resulting in a migrant megacity. Through shared migration experiences and cultural heritage, political patronage and spatial clustering, communities have consolidated and reimagined ethnic identities into political ones. These ethno-political entities demarcate territories of dominance and spaces of tension using political graffiti. This tool for placemaking and territory marking is an urban declaration of power on the walls of the city. More recently, political graffiti has been deliberately replaced by civil society actors in the form of murals changing the provocative ethno-political sloganeering to a nationalistic counter narrative. With multiple actors – political and apolitical - sentiments and stories now vying for space through their occupation of the city's walls, these surfaces become spaces of declaration, dialogue and at times, erasure. Through a process of diachronic documentation, this article shows that the walls of the city are a palimpsest of political opinion and identity; each subsequent layer in dialogue with the layer that precedes it. The authors of each layer through a process of placemaking, construct, deconstruct and reconstruct narratives of identity, ownership and belonging.

Fluctuations in Cortisol and Testosterone Map to Fluctuations in Opinion Strength in Healthy Men

PurposeOpinions are often linked to emotions and stress. It is well established that testosterone and cortisol are useful biomarkers of stress and can predict human emotion and behavior. Therefore, the purpose of this work was to explore whether changes in testosterone and cortisol concentration map to shifts in opinions.MethodsWe present three studies with healthy men, where we (1) monitored diurnal changes in testosterone and cortisol alongside political opinion change using a descriptive longitudinal design, (2) assessed testosterone, cortisol and political opinion change in an experimental trial using a physical exercise intervention designed to decrease cortisol concentration and/or increase testosterone concentration, and (3) monitored testosterone and cortisol change with political opinion in a trial with psychosocial intervention designed to increase cortisol concentration/decrease testosterone concentration.ResultsTestosterone concentration and opinion changes were observed across the day (p < 0.05). Furthermore, opinions changed similarly to exercise-induced increases in testosterone (8.6–11.5%), but inversely to exercise-induced reductions in cortisol (p < 0.05). Opinion changes also occurred in similar fashion to testosterone changes following psychosocial intervention (-5.6% to -10.0%), and inversely to cortisol changes (p < 0.05). Finally, opinion change and testosterone change correlated at the within person level (r = 0.17 to 0.33; p < 0.05).ConclusionWe showed natural fluctuations in testosterone and cortisol covaried in parallel with shifts in opinion. Further, given the emergence of relationships for opinion change with hormone change, we contend that physiological stress response (i.e., testosterone and cortisol change) may predict, or even cause, opinion change.

Re-Examining the Impact of Social Media on Political Discourse: An Elaboration of Likelihood Model Analysis of Nigeria’s 2019 Presidential Election

Social media has become an important component of political discourse. In Nigeria, social media has played a critical role in shaping political opinions and voting behaviors, especially during the 2019 presidential election. This research re-examines the influence of social media on political discourse using the Elaboration Likelihood Model as a theoretical framework to scrutinize the level of message elaboration among voters on social media platforms and the factors that impact the central and peripheral routes of persuasion. The study explored the influence of social media on voter’s attitude, behavior and opinion during the election, with the ultimate aim of analyzing how different segments of society may react to persuasive messages. The findings of the study shed light on the level of social media usage during the election, the effect of voter’s attitude and behavior, the role of political propaganda, and the factors influencing social media’s effectiveness in shaping political discourse.

KAJIAN WACANA POLITIK DAN EKONOMI DI KOLOM HARIAN UMUM REPUBLIKA PERIODE JUNI-DESEMBER 2021

The purpose of this study is to analyze and describe the content and meaning of political and economic opinions in the Rubrik's Column of Republika Daily Opinion for the period June – December 2021, the data analyzed are 6 Republika daily opinions. Based on the analysis carried out by the researcher, the results of his research in the general opinion column of the Republika daily for the period June – December 2021 are in line with the critical discourse analysis of Teun AVan Dijk's approach. In the opinion column, the researcher found the results of Van Dijk's version of the three-dimensional AWK analysis, namely macro/thematic structure, Super Structure/ Schematic Analysis and microstructure. Keywords: Discourse Analysis, Economic And Politic, General Opinion HU Republika

The Politics of Eurovision: A Case Study of the United Kingdom’s 2021 and 2022 Participations as Expressed on Social Media

In recent years, the opinion that the Eurovision Song Contest has become highly politicised is prevalent in the media and the popular voice, although not much research exists that can attest to this claim. In this work we conduct a case study that applies sentiment and discourse analysis methodologies to the assessment of political opinions in social media regarding this artistic and social event. The main objective is to explore to what extent and in what form this supposed politicisation has an expression on Twitter, as illustrated by the cases of artists Sam Ryder and James Newman, the United Kingdom’s representatives in the 2022 and 2021 editions of the contest, respectively. We examine references to two historical-political contexts that have had a severe impact on the European society over the last few years, and which have determined, among many other social aspects, the reception of Eurovision results ever since they took place: Brexit and the Russian invasion of Ukraine.

A Socio-Cognitive Account of Ideological Manipulation in Chinese Translation of Political Opinion Articles

ABSTRACT In the realm of politics and media, particularly in situations of conflict, translation plays a critical role in resisting the discourse of news texts towards the socio-political correctness of the target society. Translation researchers have long focused on ideological manipulation and related techniques, notably in the translation of political news, linking ideologically motivated translation techniques to their macro functions (socio-political factors) via critical discursive approaches, but rarely have they examined what mediates these techniques and the social context. The main aim of the present study is to provide a socio-cognitive account of such ideological manipulations based on van Dijk’s notion of Critical Discourse Analysis (CDA). The corpus of the study consists of opinion articles covering the Ukrainian conflict, originally published by American news institutions, and their corresponding Chinese translations in Chinese newspapers. Documented and supported by several examples, the findings suggest that the manipulations are mainly motivated by the polarization of “US” and “THEM”.

Analiza porównawcza zaangażowania parlamentów narodowych w reformę polityki imigracyjnej, azylowej i kontroli granic zewnętrznych UE między 2015 a 2020 r.

COMPARATIVE ANALYSIS OF THE INVOLVEMENT OF NATIONAL PARLIAMENTS IN THE REFORM OF EU MIGRATION, ASYLUM AND EXTERNAL BORDER CONTROL POLICIES IN 2015-2020 The article tries to describe and explain the change in the involvement of national parliaments in the process of reforming the EU’s migration, asylum and bord control policies in the years 2015-2020. The research continues the threads that author have presented in the article entitled The involvement of national parliaments in 2015–2017 in actions to overcome the immigration crisis in the EU published in 2018. However, this analysis was mainly exploratory and descriptive. Therefore, by using a hypothetico-deductive method and drawing from observations about the activity of parliaments in using the treaty and non-treaty tools available to them, as well as from the conclusions about their involvement in the reform of migration, asylum and border control policies in 2015-2016, two hypotheses are tested: H1. The instrument of political dialogue was used more frequently by national parliaments during the 2020 reform than during the 2015-2016 reform; H2. Those parliaments that actively used treaty-based instruments in 2015-2016 were more likely to submit opinions on documents regarding the reform of asylum and migration policy after 2020. The results obtained show a decline in the involvement of parliaments measured by the number of political dialogue opinions sent to the EU institutions and the intensity of discussions in interparliamentary cooperation bodies. Nevertheless, the relatively large number of reasoned opinions under the subsidiarity control procedures, as well as the fact that new parliaments, which were not involved in issuing opinions on solutions regarding migration, asylum and border control policies in 2015-2016, allow us to ask new interesting research questions requiring further analysis.