Political Science Research Articles

Can Social Assistance Strengthen the Social Contract in Somalia?

In a country still experiencing localised conflict, massive chronic poverty, widespread food insecurity, and the recurrent risk of famine, with a fragile government competing for legitimacy and highly dependent on donor finance, is it reasonable to expect social assistance to contribute to social contract formation? This article explores political economy analyses of what other contracts or bargains might be more important to the government and asks whether particular features or elements of social assistance programmes might contribute to improved state–society relations.

THE CONTRIBUTION OF THE OIF IN POLITICAL MATTERS IN THE REPUBLIC OF CONGO FROM 1981 TO 2021

The Organization Internationale de la Francophonie (OIF) has played an important role in shaping the political landscape of the Republic of Congo over the four-decade timeframe. The study employed a historical and qualitative research approach, focusing on the analysis of political cooperation between the OIF and the Congo from 1981 to 2021. The research used a literature review to explore historical events, political reforms, and the impact of OIF's involvement in Congo's political landscape. The data were analyzed through thematic analysis, identifying key themes related to the political evolution of Congo, the organization's role in fostering democracy, peace, and human rights, and its outcomes of their collaboration. The analysis concludes that OIF has played a significant role in the promotion of democracy and peace in Congo through various initiatives.

Bridging the Atlantic: The case of EU–US parliamentary diplomacy

With the rise of non-executive forms of diplomacy, political scientists have increasingly focused on the role of parliaments as diplomatic actors. This article aims to deepen the study of European parliamentary diplomacy through an extensive case study of transatlantic parliamentary diplomacy (TPD) between the European Parliament and the US Congress during the Obama and Trump administrations (2009–21). It is hypothesised that the decrease in EU–US political alignment under the Trump administration resulted in a corresponding decrease in both the salience and positivity of TPD. Counter-intuitively, the data shows that the decrease in political alignment correlated with a higher quantity of TPD. However, a content analysis of the joint reports of the Transatlantic Legislators’ Dialogue indicates that the attitude of this TPD is found to have become increasingly negative.

Ambient citizenship and noise in the service economy: young people and the everyday politics of work

ABSTRACT This paper explores the informal citizenship practices of young service workers, and develops concepts of lived citizenship, ambient citizenship and political ‘noise’ into an analysis of the everyday politics of service labour. Drawing on interviews with young people working in retail, hospitality and call centres the paper examines the embodied interactions and relations of mutual reciprocity through which they experience and contest the power relations and gender inequalities of low-wage precarious work. The paper suggests ways of conceptualising the citizenship practices of young workers beyond the limited formal protections offered by the state, instead developing an analysis of the informal relationalities and political ‘noise’ of the service labour process.

The Concept of “Patriotism” in Legal Regulation in the Republic of Latvia: Current Situation and Challenges

Several recent events in Latvian society, especially after 24 February 2022, raised issues related to patriotism. These include the discussions about the National Defense Service and the National Defense Training, about the possibility of losing (revoking) Latvian citizenship, if the naturalized citizen violates his promise of loyalty to the Republic of Latvia, about the loyalty of Latvian citizens and readiness to defend their country. Patriotism, in this context, is one of those concepts that is very widely used by politicians of opposite ideological views, other publicly recognised personalities, justifying their position on one issue or another. Patriotism is a multifaceted concept that draws insights from psychology, sociology, history, political and law science. It shapes national identity, influences civic engagement, and plays a role in international relations. The authors of the article will present their perspective on the concept of patriotism in legal regulation in the Republic of Latvia, analysing in depth the understanding and regulation of patriotism in Latvian regulatory acts.

Work Readiness Reviewed From Proactive Personality And Psychological Capital

Several factors, including proactive personality and psychological capital, influence work readiness. This study examines the influence of proactive personality and psychological capital on work readiness with a quantitative approach. The subjects of the study are final-year students from the Faculty of Social and Political Sciences at Mulawarman University, consisting of cohorts from 2016-2021, selected using a random sampling technique. The data are collected through scales of work readiness, proactive personality, and psychological capital. The data analysis technique used is multiple linear regression. The collected data were analyzed using the Statistical Package for Social Science (S.P.S.S.) program version 26.0 for Windows. This study's results indicate a significant influence of proactive personality and psychological capital on work readiness, as shown by the major hypothesis results: F = 21.291, R² = 0.428, and p = 0.000. This study concludes that there is a significant influence between proactive personality and psychological capital on work readiness.

Racial Governance in Postwar Chicago: A Multiple Orders Perspective

Much theorizing about patterns of urban governance portrays urban governing arrangements as unified political orders of some kind, be they progressive, neoliberal, or defined by power structures such as urban regimes or growth machines. In this study of racial governance in postwar Chicago, I borrow from literature on American political development to advance a multiple orders perspective in which racial governance is conceptualized as combinations of overlapping elements, at times in conflict with one another. Examining three distinct periods during the postwar era, I show how intersections among multiple political orders resulted in change at certain times and stability, or the appearance of stability, in others. Against arguments that portray urban political development as long periods of equilibrium punctuated at times by brief episodes of change, I find seemingly stable arrangements to be more precarious than they appear, as multiple orders impinge on one another and create frictions that can be key sources of change.

Israel: Political Developments and Data in 2023

AbstractIn 2023, Israel experienced a year marked by profound civic and security turmoil. The government's proposed judicial reform triggered widespread protests, highlighting deep divisions within the nation. Concurrently, escalating security threats emerged, with Hamas launching an unprecedented attack from the Gaza Strip and Hezbollah targeting Israel's northern border. These events led to the formation of an emergency government and a special war Cabinet. Despite the challenging circumstances, Israel's economic performance remained relatively stable until the onset of conflict, which led to negative economic impacts. The year saw significant amendments to the Israeli Basic Laws, aimed at reducing judicial oversight over government actions, which further intensified civic unrest. This article provides an overview of the political, security, and economic developments of 2023.

A Metamorphosis: From HGW XX/7 to a Good Man

This paper explores the transformative power of music on psychological and political ideologies through the lens of the film The Lives of Others. It examines the character of Hauptmann Gerd Wiesler, a Stasi agent whose life undergoes profound changes after encountering the piece Sonata for a Good Man. Integrating insights from musicology, psychology, Sufism, and political science, the paper delves into how music transcends ideological boundaries, enabling deep personal introspection and connection. Unlike prior studies that focus broadly on art, this paper focuses specifically on music as a transformative force, offering a deeper exploration of how music incites psychological and ideological change. The analysis argues that music creates a liminal space where conventional boundaries dissolve, fostering a critical re-evaluation of one’s beliefs and perceptions. This transformation is evident in Wiesler’s shift from a loyal ideologue to a compassionate individual, impacting his emotional and cognitive states as well as his actions and ideologies. The paper highlights the capacity of music to challenge and alter both political and personal landscapes, emphasizing its role in facilitating ideological and emotional liberation. The paper contributes to a broader understanding of art’s impact on human behaviour and societal structures by examining the intersection of music and transformation within the context of East Germany. Through Wiesler’s story, the paper illustrates how art, particularly music, can be a potent force in challenging and reshaping ideological confines and nurturing human connection and empathy.

Историческая социология сельско-городского развития Дж. К. Скотта: против упрощений

This article is a critical analysis of the historical and sociological works of the American political anthropologist J. S. Scott (1936–2024). His works were largely related to the study of the contradictions of social development between the city and the village. This topic is presented especially deeply and comprehensively in Scott's monographs of his late intellectual period: ‘From the Point of View of the State’ (1998), ‘The Art of Being Ungovernable’ (2006), and ‘Against the Grain’ (2016). In these works, Scott analyzed—practically in retrospective order—several key rural-urban contradictions and paradoxes of social development from the era of high modernism of the 19th–20th centuries to the era of the emergence of the first city-states in the 6th millennium BC. Scott based his analysis on extensive regional comparative studies and interdisciplinary research at the intersection of history, sociology, anthropology, cultural studies, ecology, and political science. The problem of the formation, development, and expansion of state power in matters of regulating relations between city and countryside are core themes of these works. On the other hand—in matters of state-controlled relations between city and countryside—Scott highlights the influence of a third force, a third party: the so-called stateless, unsettled barbarism and anarchy that wedges itself into the regulation of rural-urban contradictions.

Evaluation of influential factors on energy system optimisation

Energy system analysis is gaining more importance in political decisions, science, and society, thus, the basis of interpreting the results is increasingly being questioned. Different approaches have been used in energy system models: Scenario variations, changing base assumptions or sensitivity analyses. A direct comparison of these approaches aims to show that the influence on the results is comparable for all and thus needs to be considered alongside each other. Therefore, this paper uses energy system optimisation within a case study on Germany. It confirms that all approaches greatly influence the results and are thus suitable for discussing uncertainties. Among other things, the sole change of the reference weather year can have a comparable influence on the emissions just like the specification of an entirely different mobility scenario (+44% and +56% respectively). However, the target function (total costs) is significantly more influenced by scenarios. Among the evaluated parameters, the investment costs of renewable technologies and the potential of renewable feedstock affect the system the most. In summary, all three methods provide important insights into the optimisation model and should therefore be used together for validation, discussion and design of energy system models.

FEATURES OF STATE ADMINISTRATION IN THE CONDITIONS OF GLOBALIZATION

The article reveals the concept and content of globalization. It is emphasized that in modern conditions, the concept of «globalization» has entered scientific circulation along with the key categories of modern science and has become the subject of wide discussions. The article is devoted to the peculiarities of state administration under the conditions of globalization. It is indicated that the sphere of public administration is affected by several processes at once – adaptation, transformation and modernization. Adaptation is a forced process of adjustment, adaptation and arrangement of the state administration system of the national state to the qualitatively new processes of globalization. Transformation is a mechanism for reflecting the radical changes that the world and each national system of public administration are undergoing in the context of globalization. Modernization is one of the options for social development, which simultaneously improves and accumulates quantitative and qualitative changes in the state administration system in the context of globalization. These processes are the main basic factors of the transformation of the modern world, according to them the national state and its system of public administration are changing. It is emphasized that the factor of public administration is an indicator of the extent to which the modern national state is able to resist or adapt to the processes of globalization. The main problems of globalization in modern conditions and their impact on the sphere of public administration are revealed. It is emphasized that globalization puts forward new requirements, which should become effective and efficient means of solving complex contradictions that arise in the course of the joint functioning of national states in the world space. The influence of governmental and non-governmental organizations on management processes is shown. It is indicated that the main mechanism of activity of international non-governmental organizations in the period of globalization is the mobilization of the opinion of the world community. It has been proven that at the current stage, globalization leads to a kind of «updating» of the structure of the world, and as a result – corrects national systems of state administration. In addition, it changes the strategies of economic, political and cultural development, creating a complete interdependence of the world, which is the basis of its functioning. The growing rates of interdependence unify and standardize the conditions and factors of the development of individual states, acting as peculiar indicators of determining the level of sustainability of the development of national states.

Registering Theory-Based Predictions in Political Science

ABSTRACT How can political scientists rigorously evaluate the predictive power of theories? Many peer-reviewed political science articles include predictions about future outcomes, and scholars make predictions on social media and other public forums. The prevalence of predictions suggests that scholars recognize the utility of leveraging theories for this purpose; however, the predictions often are not made in a manner that allows for rigorously evaluating their accuracy. Building on the increasing popularity of study preregistration in the social sciences, this article proposes “prediction registration” as a means for scholars to publish falsifiable, systematic, and verifiable theory-based predictions. Increasing the rigor of predictive theory testing can advance often-circular debates about accuracy and presents a “win-win” for scholars who aim to test the predictive power of theories. With a more rigorous approach, correct predictions would better demonstrate a theory’s ability to forecast outcomes, and missed predictions would reveal information that can be used to calibrate the theory.

Colonial Genealogies of Pluralism: Consociation as Disavowal in Contemporary Democratic Theory

This article reframes understandings of pluralism in democratic theory by showing that the management of late and post-colonial identitarian conflict was integral to its incorporation into twentieth-century political science. It does so by reconstructing the central but underexamined place of theories of consociational democracy in efforts to reform South Africa’s apartheid constitution in the 1970s and 80s. Consociational democratic theory offered such promising resources for apartheid reform, it contends, because it entwined (a) a conception of social pluralism that redescribed apartheid’s racial hierarchy as identitarian difference with (b) a conception of institutional pluralism that curtailed the most transformative possibilities of decolonization through universal suffrage. Recovering pluralism’s colonial genealogies clarifies the conditions under which the recognition of identitarian diversity can function as a disavowal of racial domination, positioning democratic theory as an adjunct to projects of neo-colonial order.

Gender inequality in the public sphere as perceived by Muslim female graduate students at a Pakistani higher education institution – a critical grounded theory perspective

Purpose The subject of gender inequality has been approached by academics of various fields – psychologists, political scientists, developmental economists, feminists, sociologists, among others. Although there is a considerable amount of evidence indicating the presence of gender bias in various aspects of educational and work life in Muslim countries, not many studies have attempted to understand the female perspective during extra- and co-curricular activities in higher education institutions (HEIs) and their coping strategies. Design/methodology/approach A critical grounded theory approach was used. Findings The findings indicate that the role of female “religio-socio-cultural” stereotypes mutually reinforces each other to perpetuate an uneven playing field. Females have evolved many strategies to cope, including creation of sub-private spheres within larger public spheres and restricting their interactions to specific strata within the public sphere. Originality/value The study provides a female perspective regarding participation during extra- and co-curricular activities in a HEI in a Muslim majority context using critical grounded theory.

Precision game engineering through reshaping strategic payoffs

Nash equilibrium is a key concept in game theory fundamental for elucidating the equilibrium state of strategic interactions, with applications in diverse fields such as economics, political science, and biology. However, the Nash equilibrium may not always align with desired outcomes within the broader system. This article introduces a novel game engineering framework that tweaks strategic payoffs within a game to achieve a pre-defined desired Nash equilibrium while averting undesired ones. Leveraging mixed-integer linear programming, this framework identifies intricate combinations of players and strategies and optimal perturbations to their payoffs that enable the shift from undesirable Nash equilibria to more favorable ones. We demonstrate the effectiveness and scalability of our approach on games of varying complexity, ranging from simple prototype games such as the Prisoner’s Dilemma and Snowdrift games with two or more players to complex game configurations with up to 106\\documentclass[12pt]{minimal} \\usepackage{amsmath} \\usepackage{wasysym} \\usepackage{amsfonts} \\usepackage{amssymb} \\usepackage{amsbsy} \\usepackage{mathrsfs} \\usepackage{upgreek} \\setlength{\\oddsidemargin}{-69pt} \\begin{document}$${10}^{6}$$\\end{document} entries in the payoff matrix. These studies showcase the capability of this framework in efficiently identifying the alternative ways of reshaping strategic payoffs to secure desired Nash equilibria and preclude undesired equilibrium states. Our game engineering framework offers a versatile toolkit for precision strategic decision-making with far-reaching implications across diverse domains.

The Point of No Return: A Review Essay

Abstract Thomas Byrne Edsall is one of America's finest political journalists and a foremost amplifier of the work of political scientists and other scholars. Academic research bolsters his argument in virtually every chapter of The Point of No Return. The book is a collection of his New York Times columns, bookended by a new introduction and conclusion, spanning the period from Donald Trump's rise in the 2016 election to his attempt to overturn the presidential election four years later. A remarkable feature of Edsall's columns is how quickly he diagnosed emerging developments that would come to define our politics, including the Republican Establishment's rapid descent, Trump's unwavering and cult-like following, the pernicious effects of disinformation, the Democratic Party's inept response to social and cultural change, and the likelihood that Trump would not surrender power peacefully if he lost the 2020 election. A running theme throughout the book is the danger that Trump poses to the nation's democracy. The Point of No Return is the latest book in the four-decade career of a journalist who regularly has enlarged our understanding of American politics.

Political-RAG: using generative AI to extract political information from media content

ABSTRACT In the digital era, media content is crucial for political analysis, providing valuable insights through news articles, social media posts, speeches, and reports. Natural Language Processing (NLP) has transformed Political Information Extraction (IE), automating tasks such as event extraction and sentiment analysis. Traditional NLP methods, while effective, are often task-specific and require specialized expertise. In contrast, Large Language Models (LLMs) powered by Generative Artificial Intelligence (GenAI) offer a more integrated solution. However, domain-specific challenges persist, which led to the development of the Retrieval-Augmented Generation (RAG) framework. RAG enhances LLMs by incorporating external data retrieval, addressing issues related to data availability. To demonstrate RAG’s capabilities, we introduce the Political-RAG system, designed to extract political event information from media content, including Twitter data and news articles. Initially developed for event extraction, the Political-RAG system lays the foundation for developing various complex Political IE tasks. These include detecting hate speech, analyzing conflicts, assessing political bias, and evaluating social trends, sentiment, and opinions.

It’s Not Just Trump: Americans of Both Parties Support Liberal Democratic Norm Violations More Under Their Own President

Abstract There is a growing worry about the health of American democracy, and political scientists and pundits alike are looking for possible explanations. Surveys conducted during the Trump presidency showed considerable citizen support for liberal democratic norm erosions, especially among Republicans. However, recent experimental research also shows that voters of both parties are more tolerant of norm erosion committed by politicians of the party they prefer. In this note, we aim to reconcile these contradictory findings by analyzing surveys spanning from 2006 to 2021 on the public’s tolerance of executive concentration of power. We also collect original data under both the Trump and Biden administrations gauging support for a broad array of liberal democratic norm erosions. Support for such erosions, in fact, has been relatively similar across Democrats and Republicans once we account for the party of the president. Support for executive aggrandizement has been prevalent among supporters of the president’s party at least since the second term of the Bush administration. Increased checks and balances on the executive, through divided government, amplifies this effect further. Taken together, these findings suggest that universal support for the liberal democratic status quo has been weaker among those who support the president’s party, well before and since the Trump presidency.

Три уровня международного политико-экономического анализа: новая перспектива для исследования международных проблем в эпоху многополярности

One of the key issues in current international relations studies is the structure of knowledge. The epistemological foundations of political and economic theories of international development are losing their relevance as the influence of theory on the practice of international relations wanes. The declining ability of international analysis to predict the future of world politics and economics emphasizes the need for a broader, interdisciplinary approach to the study of international relations. This study aims to explore the possibility of creating a new, practical and interdisciplinary model of analysis to address the problems of the modern international system. This approach to the systemic analysis of international relations involves broadening the scope of the study by integrating international political and economic (IPE) analysis and including three analytical levels: explanatory, normative and critical. The article defines the terminology, structure, principles and criteria of such an analysis based on the problems of modern political science. The author also points out the main difficulties in the formation of theoretical and methodological basis of the three-level analysis. Examples of analyzing problems, namely the impact of trade barriers on the instability of global supply chains and the international dimension of the energy crisis of the Federal Republic of Germany (2022 – present) are given, demonstrating the quality and consistency of the results of such analysis.