Political Science Research Articles

A conflict of visions: Ideas shaping wildlife trade policy toward African megafauna

Abstract Among factors that threaten wild populations of African megafauna, wildlife trade has gained prominence as a global policy issue, with concerted international campaigns aiming to influence the trade of species such as elephants, rhinos and lions. Trade policy is strongly contested, confounding attempts to develop coherent approaches across jurisdictions and through international mechanisms such as the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora (CITES). This undermines conservation efforts. Understanding the drivers of such conflict may help to address this problem. Scholars of political science increasingly recognise the power of ideas as drivers within policy processes. Guided by this literature, we developed an analytical framework and conducted a thematic analysis to examine the ideas driving wildlife trade policy conflict. Our nested case study approach examined debates over trade policy toward African elephants, rhinos and lions at two levels: the international policy arena of CITES and within a single country, South Africa. Informed by earlier literature, we tracked the evolution of international trade policy debates over a 4‐year period (2016–2019) and analysed submissions to a national policy review process in South Africa that took place during 2020. During the study period, state and non‐state actors contributed to vigorous trade policy debates within seven key thematic issues across the case study species. Arguments were driven by both cognitive ideas, which specify cause‐and‐effect relationships, and normative ideas, which are values‐based and especially salient elements of anti‐trade stances. Fusing these cognitive and normative ideational elements, we identified three distinct overarching narratives relating to wildlife trade policy. These three narratives align with broader environmental policy and political narratives and elucidate inherent tensions within the CITES arena. They also reveal differing ethical interpretations and perceptions of risk and precaution. Policy implications. Wildlife trade policy conflict is driven at least in part by competing ideological visions, which may be entrenched by the CITES Appendix listing system. The structural role of CITES in perpetuating this polarisation—and the consequences thereof—warrants further research. Read the free Plain Language Summary for this article on the Journal blog.

Regionalisation and Political Development in Southeast Asia: Towards new modernism

Political development in Southeast Asia is re-written by regional elites. In the context of the Southeast Asia, a series of interrelated ideological systems, including the formation of elite political consensus is involved. The article argues that there are still long-term challenges in the construction of narrative-discourse systems for forming one's own identity, and defining development space. This paper makes the case that the political spectrum in Southeast Asia does not simply reflect the liberal, conservative, political thought found in Europe, but rather represents a narrative system of civilizational integration based on the region's demands of the contemporary world.

Using Prediction Markets as a Tool for Classroom and Civic Engagement

Keeping students actively engaged in their courses and seeking ways to help them understand how to apply course content to real-world scenarios remains a central focus of political science education. In an effort to address this enduring challenge, we implement a prediction market focused on the 2022 congressional midterm elections in our introductory and upper-level political science courses. Using original survey data, obtained through the administration of pre and post surveys, we find statistically significant increases in feelings of pride, hope, trust, and efficacy among market participants. More broadly, we discuss the ways in which this semester-long project, using both the prediction market and classroom assignments, fosters increases in the desire for civic participation and the possibility of sustained civic engagement that extends beyond the classroom. Throughout the paper we seek to provide a useful guide for anyone seeking alternative methods of classroom and civic engagement and different ways by which to achieve it in a variety of courses.

The political economy of electricity market coupling: Comparing experiences from Europe and the United States

Advancing the integration of neighbouring power markets is widely identified in the literature as a key enabler of power system efficiency, flexibility, and variable renewable energy integration. Nonetheless, the existing economic literature offers only partial explanations of why greater market integration is difficult to achieve in the real world despite its evident advantages in terms of overall welfare, supply security, and competitiveness. It is argued that power market coupling is an inherently political process involving significant institutional contestation and adaptation, and hence requires a more nuanced political analysis to be fully understood. This paper adds to the existing literature by conducting a comparative political economy analysis of electricity market coupling processes in Britain, Italy, and California, spanning from 2013 to 2021. It seeks to unpack how differences in the political economy contexts of these jurisdictions influenced the electricity market coupling process with their respective neighbouring systems. The analysis draws on 86 key policy documents, and 53 in-depth interviews with senior power system stakeholders in the three jurisdictions. Results widely align with claims in the political economy literature that market coupling outcomes do not simply reflect the most efficient solution. While all three jurisdictions have shown a commitment to enhance regional integration of short-term wholesale energy markets, there is considerable variation in policy outcomes, particularly the extent to which different segments of the market have been coupled. These differences can largely be attributed to variations in the political economy contexts of the three jurisdictions, including multi-level governance structures, diplomatic relations with neighbouring countries, and interactions with national political priorities and contexts. The main implications for the governance of electricity market coupling are discussed in the conclusion.

Micro Meets Macro Meets Political Science: Political Ideology, Partisanship, and Organizations

Micro Meets Macro Meets Political Science: Political Ideology, Partisanship, and Organizations

On the usefulness of turning to the experience of the Warsaw Pact Organization

At the beginning of the 2020s, the formation of a new world order became obvious. In parallel, there are two large-scale processes. One of them is a partial reformatting of connections within camps of Western democracies, the other is the emergence of a community of a number of states outside the West. The emergence of this commonality presupposes a noticeable increase in cooperation of the armed forces between interested players. Here it becomes necessary to use experience of functioning of specialized structures without the participation of Western countries. Studying the experience allows us to take into account a number of schemes that have proved their effectiveness and usefulness, primarily developed under the auspices of the Warsaw Pact Organization. Their wasps thinking is becoming especially in demand in the context of a noticeable tightening of the Western approach to contain opponents – Russia, China, Iran. The article points out the limited attention to the internal affairs of domestic historiography and political science, despite the obvious value of the experience of functioning of this organization. The author notes that a significant part of the gaps in the study of the strategy and practice of internal affairs can be filled by the fundamental work “Organization of the Warsaw Pact. 1955–1991. Story. Strategy. Policy”, prepared by a team of authors under the leadership of V.A. Zolotarev.

Liberals and Conservatives Rely on Very Similar Sets of Foundations When Comparing Moral Violations

Applications of moral foundations theory in political science have revealed differences in the degree to which liberals and conservatives explicitly endorse five core moral foundations of care, fairness, authority, loyalty, and sanctity. We argue that differences between liberals and conservatives in their explicit ratings of abstract and generalized moral principles do not imply that citizens with different political orientations have fundamentally different moral intuitions. We introduce a new approach for measuring the importance of the five moral foundations by asking U.K. and U.S. survey respondents to compare pairs of vignettes describing violations relevant to each foundation. We analyze responses to these comparisons using a hierarchical Bradley–Terry model which allows us to evaluate the relative importance of each foundation to individuals with different political perspectives. Our results suggest that, despite prominent claims to the contrary, voters on the left and the right of politics share broadly similar moral intuitions.

The Use of Machine Learning Methods in Political Science: An In-Depth Literature Review

In the past decade, applying machine learning methods in political science has grown in popularity. The increase in data volume and sources motivated researchers to turn to these data-driven methods as an alternative to classical statistics. Several review papers have proposed theoretical typologies for applying machine learning in social sciences. We present an overview of how and why machine learning methods are actually implemented in the field of political science. The aim of this study is to conduct an empirical analysis of the political science literature that uses machine learning as a research method. We applied the PRISMA (Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic reviews and Meta-Analyses) framework for systematic review studies to systematically select 339 articles (1990–2022) from Web of Science and Scopus, evaluated their relevance based on a set of inclusion criteria, and created a database with the key characteristics. Overall, we observed that political scientists have embraced machine learning as empirical method based on the increased use in the past 10 years. We found that the use of machine learning is the most prevalent in political communication and conflict and peace studies, and that topic modeling, support vector machine, and random forest are the most used methods. Our results indicate that reporting on optimizing machine learning models through hyperparameter tuning could be more transparent, and researchers should conduct their own benchmarking when choosing the most suitable model.

STATE AND PROSPECTS OF THE DEVELOPMENT OF PUBLIC DIPLOMACY IN UKRAINE DURING THE LARGE-SCALE RUSSIAN-UKRAINIAN WAR

The article examines approaches to understanding public diplomacy and the potential of «soft power». A brief overview of modern types of public diplomacy, in particular cultural and digital, is given, and the peculiarities of cultural diplomacy are revealed. The article highlights that in modern political science, several approaches to the study of public diplomacy and its components can be distinguished. They are due to the emergence of the concepts of «soft power», «smart power», «national branding», as well as the close interdisciplinary interaction of public diplomacy, political science, sociology, marketing, public relations and information technologies.It is noted that currently a lot of attention is paid to the use of public diplomacy in the implementation of foreign policy programs of the countries of the world, which is connected with the strengthening of the role of civil society: residents of different countries receive more tools to influence the institutions of power both in their country and abroad. Communication channels (both new and traditional) are gaining more and more importance, changing the formats and methods of working with the population of foreign countries. The increase in the number of military conflicts inevitably forces interested states to look for new forms of influence on the foreign public and to review current programs in the field of diplomacy.The problems of public diplomacy of Ukraine, the relationship between the concepts of «public diplomacy» and «propaganda» are considered.The current state of public diplomacy, as well as the peculiarities of its implementation during the Russian-Ukrainian war, are studied. Emphasis is placed on the conditions under which public diplomacy in Ukraine has to be implemented at the present time. It was noted that in the conditions of Russian aggression, public diplomacy of Ukraine became a profitable direction of conducting foreign policy thanks to the third wave of globalization, as a result of which the society finally moved from an industrial to an informational state. The main vectors of the development of public diplomacy of Ukraine are considered.

Thinking solidarity and translation together: Towards a new definition of solidarity

In a cross-disciplinary roundtable discussion on the feminist politics of translation,Judith Butler (Nagar et al., 2017, p. 113)aptly notes that “there can be no solidarity without translation, and certainly no global solidarity”. This article is the first dedicated attempt to definesolidarity from within translation studies: it redefines the concept to foreground the role of translation, understood as a hermeneutic, interpersonal and semiotic process, in solidarity development. The article is also the first to bring together scholarship on solidarity from philosophy, political science and sociology, on the one hand, and translation studies, on the other. I show that insights from translation studies supplement scholarship on solidarity in the other disciplines, where translation is largely overlooked. I also apply analytical categories from those disciplines to discussions of solidarity in translation studies and demonstrate the de factodifferent understandings of solidarity behind translation scholars’ use of the term, thus initiating a discipline-wide theoretical conversation on the concept. Moreover, upon noticing that the roleof translation in generating solidarity is not captured in any existing definition, I redefine solidarity as a sense of interconnection and commonality in difference –developed through caring, careful and inherently incomplete translation –that pursues inclusion and impels action towards common good. Finally, I signal how the definition can inform our understanding of the interlingual human translator as an active agent, adept at forging and facilitating solidarity.

“Political engineering”: Continuity and novelty in political theory

This article discusses the development of the study of “political engineering” and the theoretical discourse used to formulate the continuity and novelty of future studies. It begins by identifying previous studies that serve as the theoretical foundation, and a literature review method is employed to identify the similarities and differences among existing studies, which are then used to formulate new conceptions. The findings indicate that the perspective of “political engineering” has a strong basis and foundation to be developed as a major field of study in Political Science. This is not only due to the variety and development of studies in recent decades, but also because the needs for political science to transform into applicable, practical knowledge capable of addressing contemporary challenges are increasingly urgent. The conception of “new political engineering” focuses on behavior engineering, using psychological mechanisms referred to as hope and fear, directly targeting actors (with or through institutions) and no longer making political institutions the main object of study. Instead, it extends to campaign messages, marketing management, system functions, political institutions, policy products, and policymakers to explain and direct voter behavior.

Critical Evaluation Of Judicial Independence Question In The International Court Of Justice

In view of developments in world politics in recent years, such as an upsurge in nationalism, doubts about multilateralism, the Covid pandemic and the Russia-Ukraine war, an inquiry concerning the peaceful resolution of international disputes is in order. How capable are international dispute resolution mechanisms of satisfying demands and preserving their reputations at such a critical time? The fundamentally political entities involved are likely to remain very disparate, a fact that can only worsen their widely acknowledged poor image in this respect without instituting any remedial measures. As a judicial body, however, the ICJ would hardly be allowed such latitude. Concerns about the impartiality of ICJ judges have already been expressed on the grounds of their perceived allegiance to their home countries, an issue that the existing political zeitgeist only makes more controversial. No solutions are readily available to alleviate all concerns. The current article takes several normative assessments into consideration, arguing that these can devalue the authority of the ICJ’s judgments. It then provides insight into how to recognise and deal with the persistent problem of judicial independence within the ICJ.

The Political and Mental Aspects of Ukraine Integration with Europe

This research paper examines Ukraine’s path towards European integration. From the 10th to the 12th centuries, Ukraine – then known as Kyivan Rus’ – was a strong independent state, but due to internal conflicts and conquests, it became weakened and fell under the influence of other state entities. From the 17th century onwards, as a result of the Pereyaslav agreements (1654 and 1659) between the Cossacks and Moscow, Ukraine found itself increasingly under the sway of Russia, a situation that persisted until the collapse of the “prison of the peoples”, the Soviet Union. Despite Russian propaganda portraying Ukraine as an integral part of Russia for a long time due to shared history and culture, in reality, modern Ukraine and Russia are two different countries with distinct political systems, development trajectories, identities, mentalities, fundamental values, and traditions. Ukrainian society, though subjected to Sovietization during communist times and later targeted by political and propaganda actions from the Russian Federation, stands fundamentally opposed to the authoritarian Russian society and closer to the democratic European community. For centuries, Russian authorities sought to colonize and exploit Ukraine for their own interests, attempting to erase Ukrainian identity, language, traditions, and rewriting Ukrainian history, yet they failed to fully assimilate the Ukrainian people despite numerous manipulations and crimes against them. The European, Western development trajectory of Ukraine and its desire to break away from Russia’s sphere of influence is one of the main reasons for the current full-scale war. The greatest similarities between Ukraine and European states at the level of mentality include Ukrainian love for freedom, individualism, and desire for democracy, in contrast to Russian despotism and authoritarianism. These distinct features of the Ukrainian mentality have historically preserved and revived the Ukrainian nation, aiding in its further development and providing hope for its future not only geographically and economically but also mentally and spiritually.

Navigating complexity: integrating political realities into energy system modelling for effective policy in Sub-Saharan Africa

The imperative for rapid low-carbon transformations in social and economic systems has heightened reliance on systems modelling to inform decisions. Energy models are pivotal in shaping viable pathways and guiding interventions, thereby influencing policy agendas and public discourse. However, in sub-Saharan Africa, the utilization of model-based analysis for energy planning and policy remains limited, largely due to deficiencies in existing models. Research indicates that many of these models are ill-equipped to capture the context-specific challenges prevalent in African countries. Despite offering valuable insights, most models lack representation of uncertainties associated with political and governance dynamics. These findings underscore the urgent need to enhance domestic institutions’ modelling capabilities. While technical expertise is crucial, this paper contends that, given the inherently political nature of energy policy decisions, modelers must be cognizant of the political landscape in which problems are modelled and solutions are sought. We assert that energy modellers aiming to influence policies must endeavour to comprehend the underlying political economy at the intersection of energy planning and policymaking. Expanding on this premise, we delineate practical steps that modelling teams can adopt to conduct political economy analysis and grasp the factors influencing energy policymaking. By adhering to these steps, we posit that modelling teams could enhance the relevance, realism, and applicability of policy options proposed through modelling efforts.

IMPACT OF POLITICAL CULTURE ON THE POLICY-MAKING PROCESS: COMPARATIVE ANALYSIS OF THE UNITED KINGDOM AND TÜRKIYE

Questioning the codes, sociological tendencies, fields of social conflict/ harmony of a country’s political culture is essential in identifying the problems of that country’s political, social, and human life. All these parameters, such as determining values, symbols, and tendencies in political culture, directly or indirectly affect the policy-making process of countries. This study focuses on the effects of political culture on policy making in the United Kingdom (UK) and Türkiye, trying to understand the differences and similarities in this area and includes extensive comparative analysis. The main problem of this research is whether phenomena can be transferred from the UK to Türkiye in terms of political culture to solve political and social issues in Türkiye. The hypothesis derived from this research question is that Türkiye’s political culture and institutions have been politicized as a historical tradition, especially in recent years. In this context, the study aims to contribute to an under-researched area of comparative political science and literature by providing insights into the political dynamics of Türkiye and the UK. The study’s methodology and explanations of the literature on political culture, integrated with analyses of selected cases, provide a framework for understanding and comparing Türkiye’s political culture with that of the UK. These efforts can be seen as an insufficient but essential step towards solving the problems of Türkiye’s political culture.

Indigenous Sovereignty and Political Science: Building an Indigenous Politics Subfield

Scholarship from the nascent subfield of Indigenous politics illuminates an enduring tension between Indigenous politics and political science. Settler colonialism continues to configure the contemporary politics of the United States, Canada, New Zealand, and Australia in profound ways that political science has been slow to grapple with. In a related concern, political science has little ability to engage in Indigenous knowledge production. This article reviews the structural exclusion of Indigenous knowledge despite increased inclusion of Indigenous scholarship and argues that Indigenous understandings of settler colonialism, sovereignty, and authority hold the potential to reconfigure political science's approach to Indigenous politics in research and teaching. This reconfiguration will not only impact the development of the Indigenous politics subfield but also expand the analytic potential of political science more broadly.

The Politics of Contagion: States, Societies, and the Control and Consequences of Infectious Diseases

The study of contagion offers important but underexplored opportunities to rethink and advance our understanding of key concepts in political science. These include notably state capacity; social policy; state–society relations, especially the role of trust; nationalism and social solidarity; exclusionary dynamics, such as xenophobia, prejudice, and discrimination; and within political psychology, the role of emotions, including disgust. This article reviews studies on contagion and health within and adjacent to political science. While taking note of the surge of studies around COVID-19, this article focuses on work on infectious disease before and beyond the pandemic. It analyzes the scholarship as it sheds light on the control of infectious diseases, on the one hand, and on the consequences of that control, on the other, while also pointing to connections and feedback loops, especially as they open avenues for future research.

The New Education Politics in the United States

During the COVID-19 pandemic, school district politics rose to prominence on the nation's political agenda, as school boards grappled with controversial decisions about reopening schools and implementing mask mandates. A growing number of political scientists are using newly available data and innovative research strategies to examine policy responsiveness, elections, segregation and inequality, state takeovers, interest groups, democratic deliberation, and public opinion—all while focusing on the unique context of education politics. We illuminate the distinctive institutional and policy context of US education politics and review new research in the field, including growing evidence of partisan polarization and the continuing significance of race for influencing power and decision making about schools in the United States. The field has made great strides in the last decade; we highlight the emerging themes from that already rapidly growing literature, while pointing out areas for future research.

The US Presidency: Power and Constraint

How much should we fear that a president will break the law to pursue power—then use their office to avoid legal accountability? Political scientists studying the presidency have often overlooked the risk of what we here call a criminal president. Donald Trump's presidency spotlighted that risk and has begun to shift the field's focus toward not just presidential power but presidential constraints. We believe this shift should continue. In this review, we aim to set an agenda that makes the danger of a criminal president central to understanding the presidency more broadly. Situating the criminal presidency within wider questions about legal and constitutional constraints on presidential power, we emphasize the unique risks to democracy that a president unbound by law can pose. We call for a greater focus on the legal rules governing the executive branch—especially unitary executive ideas—and the policies needed to hold criminal presidents accountable.

Analyzing pro-vax discourse during the pandemic: techno-scientism, elitism, anti-populism

ABSTRACT This article investigates pro-vax discourse during the COVID-19 pandemic. Expert and political discussions about the pandemic are abundant, commonly focusing on anti-vax and science-skeptic politics and further connecting them with post-truth and populism. However, research on pro-vax discourse remains largely overlooked. The article focuses on the case of Cyprus which received little scholarly attention in the context of the pandemic, especially by political science and media and communication scholarship. Applying discourse analysis to 120 media units that connect the articulations of scientific experts, politicians and journalists, empirical findings show that the discursive management of the pandemic takes place in the name of science, reason and responsibility, with key mechanisms of persuasion being the moralistic and fear-mongering narratives that place the responsibility for the return to normality on individual citizens. This highlights that communication about COVID-19 is not merely about healthcare and science. Rather, it is politicized and disciplinary in nature. The examination of the case of Cyprus alongside existing theories and debates reveals the internationally salient character of discursive features and patterns including the hegemony of techno-scientific objectivism, epistemological elitism and anti-populism.