Political Science Research Articles

Abbesses and Their Fighting Men

The position of male ecclesiastical princes – bishops and abbots – as integral elements of Carolingian military organisation is well established. Less investigated is the corresponding role of female ecclesiastical princes, the abbesses. This article demonstrates that the function of abbesses was not materially different to that of their male colleagues-in-office, tracks the legal and political development into the High Middle Ages and considers some ramifications of our findings. In particular, we conclude that convents were politically powerful and integrated into the secular military organisation, but within the context of the secular polity played a power-neutralising and stabilising role.

Multi-level political change: Assessing electoral volatility in 58 European regions (1993-2022)

In recent years, increasing attention has been devoted to electoral turmoil associated with the emergence of new political actors or the crisis of established parties at national level. However, in multi-level systems, transformations have also affected sub-national politics. This article seeks to understand some hitherto unexplored aspects of political change in regional party systems. Change is linked to the concept of instability and operationalized in terms of electoral volatility. To account for the fact that instability may be driven by distinct regional and national pressures coexisting in regional elections, a new measure of volatility has been developed. It is disaggregated into two territorial components: ‘Region-specific volatility’ (RSV) and ‘Region-transcending volatility’ (RTV). RSV refers to changes in electoral support for political parties competing exclusively in one region, while RTV is calculated for parties that ‘transcend’ regional boundaries – i.e. they are electorally active in several/all regions of a country or are part of institutionalized inter-regional networks. By applying this new measure to 385 elections in 58 European regions, this article shows that levels and types of instability have varied significantly over time, across regions and across countries. This may also account for different developments in territorial politics observed in Western Europe.

Agents of (un)sustainability: democratising universities for the planetary crisis

As producers and gatekeepers of knowledge, and as providers of education and training, our universities play a key role in the reproduction of unsustainability. This article finds that they are, as currently organised, therefore complicit in frustrating and delaying action to address the planetary crisis. However, as highly resourced and influential institutions, they have an inherently transformative potential, should their resources and activities be redirected towards progressive social and ecological ends, which challenge rather than support the unsustainable status quo. This means that, as workers within these institutions, academics and researchers are faced with a choice: to be agents of this reproduction or to be advocates and activists for change. We argue for the latter. In doing so, we seek to build on the analysis and demands of emergent movements such as Fossil Free Research, Faculty for a Future and Scientist Rebellion in making the case for universities to show leadership on listening to the very science they produce on the planetary emergency, and act accordingly. Employing a green political economy critical analysis, the article suggests that, if they are to contribute to societal transformation, universities themselves must undergo transformations that explicitly and systematically reorient academic practices around social and ecological protection and priorities. Building on these findings, it lays out a series of normative and practical arguments for a broad programme of democratisation around three pillars of academic practise: (1) Research, (2) Education and (3) Outreach and engagement. However, any such processes will of course be difficult, especially given the wider neoliberal political and political economy context within which universities operate, as well as a conservative institutional culture which disincentivises dissent from “business as usual”. In the discussion that follows, we therefore anticipate and argue that advancing such transformative and innovative changes will initially involve individuals or small groups of academics willing to go beyond “academia as usual”.

Sri Lanka’s political-economic crisis; corruption, abuse of power and economic crime

PurposeThis paper aims to examine the present Sri Lankan political-economic crisis and its connection to corruption. The paper will discuss the autocratic rule, elite domination of state extractive systems, which have been moulded and configured by Sri Lanka’s political environment over decades. Elite capture has become a significant factor. Sri Lanka’s authoritarian model exercised by Gotabaya Rajapaksa reduced competitive mode and shifted towards a monopolistic corruption structure, centralising on the first family and military rule where powerful elites supported the model. The paper attempts to find the connection between dysfunctional political model and economic crimes committed through several case studies.Design/methodology/approachThe paper discusses five case studies using qualitative analysis using secondary data. The insider trading case study is discussed with quantitative data. Several political and social analyses were carried out with primary data captured from field research by the author.FindingsSri Lankan economic crisis was triggered because of high-level corruption. The autocratic model introduced by the political authority failed to fight corruption. Transnational mechanisms will fail if there is no credibility and commitment in their own respective nations such as in the USA. External factors such as China in Sri Lanka did have an impact for elite capture.Research limitations/implicationsThis study is limited only to five case studies. Transnational mechanism and recommendations require a lengthy study. Only one external factor was assessed because of its significance; there could be other external factors for elite capture.Practical implicationsThis study has limited access to capture primary data because of sensitivity during a heavy autocratic regime. Because of state and self-censorship, secondary data had to be tested.Social implicationsEconomic crisis in Sri Lanka is an example to many developing nations fighting corruption. The autocratic family rule supported by external forces crippled the state anti-corruption processes. Economic crime is a key driver for poverty and economic crisis.Originality/valueThis is a unique paper that examines Sri Lanka’s present economic crisis and its political model and economic crime. The paper will discuss transnational mechanisms for anti-corruption and attempt to apply to the Sri Lankan crisis.

The Senate: From White Supremacy to Governmental Gridlock

It is no exaggeration to say that American politics has become characterized by excessive partisanship and policy gridlock, leading many to question if the political institutions that were created in the eighteenth century are up to the task of governing in the modern era. In his provocative new book, The Senate: From White Supremacy to Governmental Gridlock, Daniel Wirls argues that the U.S. Senate is at the heart of much of this conflict and dysfunction. He marshals considerable historical evidence to dispel a wide variety of myths about the Senate while also highlighting many of the most serious problems and limitations of the “greatest deliberative body in the world” (3). Unlike the vast majority of contemporary political science scholarship, Wirls presents a unique approach in discussing the Senate. “Distinct from the volumes of work that analyze various aspects of the Senate from a purely historical or empirical perspective—that is to say, from an explicitly or implicitly value-neutral perspective—this book is a normative evaluation of the Senate” (5). As such, this is less a book about the role that the Senate has played in history and more of a discussion about how the institution and the senators who have been elected to that body have contributed to the current crises we face in this country.

Importing Religion into Post-Communist Albania: Between Rights and Obligations

After the communist regime seized power in Albania in 1944, the vilification, humiliation, persecution and execution of clergy of all faiths, including Muslim, Roman Catholic and Eastern Orthodox, were conducted publicly. Religious estates were nationalized in 1946, and around the same time, religious institutions were closed or converted into warehouses, gymnasiums, workshops or cultural centers. In the communist constitution of 1976, Albania became the first constitutional atheist state in the world. In Article 37 of the Constitution was stated “the state does not recognize any religion”. Albanians were forced to deny their religion, change their belief system and adopt the new socialist way of life that praised secular gods such as the Communist Party and its leaders. The image of the party leader replaced religious icons. Young people were encouraged to follow worldly pursuits, including offering their life for communist deities. With the fall of communism, Albanian clerics and foreign missionaries encouraged the revival of religiosity in the country. Because in Albania, religious institutions and clergy did not exist for more than 3 decades, foreign actors played a major role in the return of religion to social life and among young people. Post-communist Albania represents a quintessential case study of importing religion into a formerly atheistic country that lacked qualified clergy, religious institutions and strong religious beliefs. In the permissive post-communist Albania, people, especially young people, attributed different meanings to religion and religiosity. Mere investigations and surveys of faith communities along traditional lines would fail to provide useful insights into the significant transformations that have impacted the religious field in Albania after the fall of the communist regime and the current challenges faced by new and “traditional” denominations. The post-communist religious context is dominated by two opposing currents: The first trend is marked by the legal organization of religious practice in the public space, which grants freedoms and equality to the “traditional” religions recognized by the state, but autonomous and independent from it. The other trend is shaped by the rituals and practices of believers from abroad who are pushing for the creation of new autonomous religious communities. This paper is not investigating religious “communitarianism” along traditional lines but rather examines salient religious identification and societal relationships and discusses their implications. This analysis rests on survey data and free-flowing and open-ended interviews conducted mainly with students of the Political Science Department of the University of Tirana and of the European University of Tirana, as well as research of different social networks. The article is divided into three parts, which present the following: literature insights, the historical background of Albania’s secularization and current religious trends and practices.

Everyday non-partisan fake news: Sharing behavior, platform specificity, and detection.

Concern over the impact of fake news on major socio-political events is growing. The use of deliberate misinformation is thought to have played a role in the outcome of the UK EU referendum, the 2016 US presidential election, and in the effectiveness of COVID-19 public health messaging. As a result, recent research has tended to focus on hyper-partisan (e.g., US politics; Democrat/Republican), person specific (e.g., Hillary Clinton/Donald Trump) content that incorporates emotive and hyperbolic language. However, in this study, we focus on an alternative form of fake news, across a variety of topics (e.g., Crime, Immigration, and Health), that avoids these characteristics, and which may therefore be more pervasive and difficult to detect. In a three-part study, we examined participants sharing intentions for fake news (including platform preference; Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, and WhatsApp), their ability to explicitly detect fake news, and whether individual differences on psychological measures of critical thinking ability, rational thinking, and emotional stability predict sharing behavior and detection ability. The results show that even our well-informed sample (political science students) were not immune to the effects of fake news, some issues (e.g., health and crime) were more likely to be shared than others (e.g., immigration), and on specific platforms (e.g., Twitter, Facebook). In addition, we show that individual differences in emotional stability appears to be a key factor in sharing behavior, while rational thinking aptitude was key to fake news detection. Taken together, this study provides novel data that can be used to support targeted fake news interventions, suggesting possible news topic, sharing behavior, and platform specific insights. Such interventions, and implications for government policy, education, and social media companies are discussed.

Transparent and the optics of gender(ed) identity

ABSTRACT Using ‘the transparent’ as its lens, this article discusses three scenes from Joey Soloway’s Transparent, aiming to trace how it invites reflection on the advantages and risks of visibilisation as well as on the plights and recompenses of invisibility. When scholars from political science, social science or economics discuss transparency, many share an overwhelmingly positive understanding of it, which has, lately, come under pressure. Adding to this critique, I argue that Transparent draws attention to the fact that transparency, particularly for the queer subject is deeply ambivalent. To back up this claim, I offer close readings: i) of the establishing shot, which breaks the 180°-rule to warn against trusting what is offered to be seen; ii) of a scene in which Maura describes withstanding pressure from the heteronormative gaze, and iii) a scene in which Ali begins to interrogate her own practices of in_visibilisation. Through its mise-en-scène, this last example offers ‘the translucent’ as an alternative term, a middle ground between a potentially oppressive, isolating and thus silencing invisibility and a potentially exposing, objectifying and thus threatening visibility.

Europeanisation and Its Impact on Candidate Countries for EU Membership: A View from Ukraine

Background: The nature of the European Union (EU) as a global actor has long been the subject of diverse academic debates. Proponents of an understanding of the EU as a normative force believe that its greatest transformative power lies not in coercion but in a policy of enlargement that allows the EU to stimulate reforms in the candidate countries of the Central and Eastern European region, despite the crisis of enlargement. The aim of the article is to study the impact of the Europeanisation process on the legal systems of member states and candidate countries, in particular Ukraine, as well as the formulation of proposals for national institutions regarding the perception of the ‘Europeanisation’ impact of EU law on the legal system of Ukraine. Methods: The methodological basis of the work is interdisciplinary and comprehensive approaches. The interdisciplinary approach is based on the application of theoretical developments in jurisprudence, philosophy, political science, and the theory of international relations, which make it possible to study the process of Europeanisation in relation to member states and candidate countries as fully and comprehensively as possible. The comprehensive approach is aimed at identifying the multifaceted and multifactorial ontological determinants of the Europeanisation process of legal systems. These approaches determined the choice of appropriate general theoretical and special scientific methods: hermeneutic, dialectical, analysis, synthesis, etc. Results and Conclusions: As a result of the study of the political will, capacity, and legitimacy of the EU to defend the values proclaimed in the founding treaties, in cases of violations of the regulations of the EU law by the member states, the authors come to the conclusion that the EU may face negative consequences due to the display of democratic reformist coalitions in individual member states (Poland and Hungary ), as well as due to favouring (authoritarian) stability over uncertain (democratic) change. Concession to candidate countries for EU accession in terms of the fulfilment of the Copenhagen criteria in exchange for satisfying the interests of leading member states may undermine the credibility of the project of building a European identity based on the common values of the EU, as well as the loss of the reputation of the normative power of the European Union. Accelerating the process of Ukraine’s accession to the EU, which is connected with Ukraine’s acquisition of the status of a candidate for accession to the EU, requires the Europeanisation of the domestic legal culture as a prerequisite for the modernisation of all other elements of the legal system. This, in turn, implies the completion of the process of de-Russification of legal science and education, the development and approval of the Legal Education Development Program, and the modernisation of legal terminology.

Iceland: Political Developments and Data in 2022

AbstractIn 2022, Icelandic politics returned to normal. In the two previous years, Covid‐19 had dominated the political agenda—ideology and politics as normal were largely absent. In the 2021 parliamentary elections, the three‐way coalition of the Left Greens, Independence Party, and Progressive Party (PP) kept its majority in Althingi—the first majority government to do so since the bank crash of 2008. This victory was clearly the result of a successful fight against the epidemic, and the government parties decided to continue their coalition cooperation. In 2022, support for the government and for the government parties went down, just as had been the case for all governments since the financial crisis of 2008. One of the opposition parties, the Social Democratic Alliance, made huge gains in the opinion polls—under a new leadership. Increasing ideological tensions could be observed within the government coalition, which includes both the parliamentary party furthest to the left and furthest to the right.

Securing white democracy: Guns and the politics of whiteness

What does the open-carried gun tell us about the contemporary political structure of whiteness, and how do such objects operate to reinforce this structure? To work through these questions, this article brings together political theories of racialized democracy and political theoretical analyses of gun-rights debates with insights from interdisciplinary scholarship on guns to generate a political theoretical account of the relationship between guns and white democracy. To do so, we analyze two open-carry spectacles: recurring Second Amendment protests featuring the prominent display of open-carried weapons, and open-carrying protestors in Michigan demonstrating against stay-at-home orders in response to COVID-19 in 2020. Our analysis of these two cases illuminates our central arguments about guns and white democracy. We argue that guns operate to politically align white bodies amid the ongoing constitution of political whiteness: open-carried firearms work to reinforce and reproduce white democracy. We further claim that the force of open-carried guns in sustaining white democracy works through two linked dynamics: first, guns extend, generate, and secure the wages of whiteness; second, they protect and assert white dominion. Taken together, these dynamics explain how guns uphold white democracy, but also illuminate, we argue, the contingency of that political power. It is that contingency which suggests that the open-carried firearm might also help contest it in turn, a point illustrated by turning to scholarship on the relation of firearms to the civil rights movement.

Power through trees. State territorialization by means of privatization and ‘agrobizforestry’ in Côte d'Ivoire

Power through trees. State territorialization by means of privatization and ‘agrobizforestry’ in Côte d'Ivoire

Why does political representation of the marginalised matter? Teaching classic literature using intersectional and decolonial approaches

Political theorists and scientists have published extensive scholarship on the political representation of the marginalised. Some notable and widely cited scholars include Jane Mansbridge, Anne Phillips, Iris M. Young, Suzanne Dovi, and Melissa Williams. They have mostly focused on the importance of representation of women and argue that such representation enhances the functioning of representative democracies. This strand of literature has made significant contributions to contemporary research, especially on studies showing how and why political representation matters. Underdiscussed, nonetheless, is how such classic studies should be taught in a classroom in the context of global movements, namely #BlackLivesMatter, #StopAsianHate, and #MeToo, where various marginalised identities intersect when subjected to oppression. We contest and strengthen some of these ideas in extant scholarship promoting diversity politics by taking intersectional and decolonial approaches. We advocate for prioritising intersectionality over diversity and for decolonising teaching political representation by centring the feminist works of BIPOC and Global South scholars. By challenging both the absence of minoritised women as political actors as well as scholars—as a matter of the production of knowledge and as political activism—we create an inclusive learning environment. We enable both the educators and students to reflect on their positionalities and furthermore achieve the long-term goal of equality in the classrooms, political institutions, and beyond.

Sorcery or Science? Contesting Knowledge and Practice in West African Sufi Texts By Ariela Marcus-Sells

In late eighteenth-century West Africa, cycles of increasing violence and slave raiding sparked a desire for new modes of political organization. In the Sahel and savannah lands, there was a wave of military campaigns to establish Muslim-ruled states. In the western Sahara Desert, however, the Sufi Muslim theologians Sīdī al-Mukhtār (d. 1811) and his son and successor Sīdī Muḥammad al-Kuntī (d. 1826)—founders of the Kunta scholarly network—adopted a different model. Drawing on material and social capital acquired through trans-Saharan trade and pedagogical networks, they consolidated their position as socioreligious leaders, playing a pivotal role in the political developments of the late eighteenth and early nineteenth century. In Sorcery or Science? Ariela Marcus-Sells tells the story of Sīdī al-Mukhtār and Sīdī Muḥammad al-Kuntī through the prism of their writings on ‘the sciences of the unseen’ (ʿulūm al-ghayb). Through close analysis of these texts, Marcus-Sells looks at how the Kunta scholars defined and limited access to legitimate knowledge and practice, thus responding to—and shaping—the social authority under which they lived.

Developmental Machinery in the Third District of Pangasinan and in Naga, Camarines Sur: An Exploratory Comparison

Abstract This article investigates how political machineries and direct delivery of developmental goods and services to crucial constituencies were being linked and used in two locales in the Philippines: Third Congressional District of Pangasinan and the City of Naga. In the context of the “developmental machinery,” differences in the two areas’ respective contexts create distinct yet similar machinery and outcomes in terms of both political and socioeconomic development. Utilizing archival research and comparative analysis, this article aims to compare the two experiences in running political machines that are based more on direct people’s participation and direct delivery of goods and services. Preliminary evidence shows that the two are most likely unique political structures that were similarly founded on the principles of broad public participation and credible service delivery. More research is needed to flesh out the comparison, as well as the “model” of developmental machinery.

The Dynamics of Sustainable Livelihoods and Agroforestry in Gunungkidul Karst Area, Yogyakarta, Indonesia

The livelihoods of farmers in developing countries are often associated with the existence of forests, especially agroforestry. The dynamics of agroforestry and livelihoods could not be separated from the political context and developments in Indonesia. In this paper, the dynamics of Sustainable Livelihood Assets (SLA) owned by smallholder farmers are explored using three political sequences, namely the New Order Era, the Reform Era, and the Post-Reform Era. The result showed that the development of agroforestry in Gunungkidul had been primarily influenced by political initiatives that have a connection with vegetation coverage, livelihood assets, and species composition in the systems. The livelihoods possessed by farmers have been relatively sustainable during the past five decades; only a slight change could be observed in the ownership of capital. The political initiatives have been an enabling environment for agroforestry development that support sustainable livelihoods. The study recommends that the socio-political culture needs to consider the traditional agroforestry system in order to sustain the livelihoods of the people.

Philippines Political Science Association Officers 2021–2023

Philippines Political Science Association Officers 2021–2023

Effect of International Political Developments on the Vietnamese Stock Exchange

This article examines how international political events have affected the volatility of Vietnam's stock market from 2010 to 2023. Through a statistical comparison of the VN-Index's volatility rate over time after political events, the research results have revealed three main trends. First, the VN-Index to fluctuate more strongly in the short term as it moves further away from the time of the event. Second, the volatility index changes depends on the dependent relationship of the place where the event occurs with the Vietnamese market. Finally, as Vietnam's stock market matures and moves further away from its establishment in the 2000s, the volatility of the VN-Index has decreased Keywords: International Political Events, Stock Market, Stock Market, Market Volatility.

The Political-Economy of Rural Development Through Corporate Social Responsibility: An Assessment of the INs and OUTs

The shift of rural development from the government’s agenda to the CSR units’ agenda is a recent political development. The Companies Act 2013 has made it mandatory for the corporate to play a significant role, sometimes as a supplement to or as a substitution for the State under the neo-liberal economy. In this context, the present study has tried to explore the role of two major industries, i.e., HAL and NALCO, in rural development in the backward district of Koraput, Odisha. The seminal contributions of these two industries in four major areas, i.e., construction of toilets, construction and repair of roads, installation of solar lights and construction and repair of water service infrastructure, have been analysed in this article. The study has relied on both quantitative and qualitative data drawing them from secondary and primary sources. The study concludes that no clear-cut financial investment on different heads is projected by the company’s CSR units, there is overlapping in the company’s inclusion of the heads of rural development, people’s felt needs are hardly reflected in the designing of rural development programmes by the CSR units, and follow-up impact assessments are rarely undertaken. So, the investments are made without a real spirit, and the dividends do not commensurate with the hefty investment. Rural development programmes floated by the CSR units are less people-centric, not sustainable and economically viable, and are more politically motivated and just done to comply with the policy mandates.

Spatio-temporal patterns in the history of colonial botanical exploration in India

Spatio-temporal patterns in the history of colonial botanical exploration in India