Electoral Politics Research Articles

Tradition and Modernity: The Interface of Clan Structures and Electoral Politics in Naga Society

This paper delves into the intricate relationship between clan structures and electoral politics within Naga society, focusing on the interface between tradition and modernity. Challenging the perception of traditional institutions as static entities, the study highlights how clan structures are not timeless but rather modern constructs, subject to reinvention and adaptation. Drawing on the works of Hobsbawm and Ranger (1983), the research explores how clan members navigate power dynamics and political influences, particularly in the context of emerging political elites. By employing a social construction approach, the author investigates how traditional clan systems influence modern electoral contestation and vice versa. Through fieldwork conducted in Phaibung Khullen village, the author, an insider researcher, examines the interplay between traditional practices and contemporary electoral processes. The findings underscore the mutual reconfiguration of clan structures and electoral politics, emphasizing the enduring influence of tradition on modern political mobilization. This study contributes to a nuanced understanding of how traditional institutions shape and are shaped by the evolving landscape of electoral contestation in Naga society, highlighting the complex interface between tradition and modernity in clan-based communities.

Godfatherism and Democratic Reconstruction in Nigeria: A Review of Nigeria’s Fourth Republic

Much of the contemporary discourse on Nigeria's democracy and politics from 1999 till date has at its centre, the phenomenon of 'godfatherism' in the leadership of political parties, and in running the affairs of our multi-nation-state. As a result of the corruption of the electoral and political processes, governmental structures, electoral politics and state power are skewed towards satisfying the self- regarding interests of the dominant political mentors otherwise known as 'political godfathers'. Relying on their wealth and their political machines, they secure party nomination for candidates of their choice by any means, sponsor their election, including manipulating the electoral process. This paper is intended to examine critically the crisis of political godfatherism in Nigeria and its implications for the future of the nation's democracy. It suggests ways the gods of Nigerian democracy and politics can be checked and confronted if the country is to deepen democracy and strengthen democratic institutions.

Exploring political topics that connect to antisemitism on Twitter: U.S. midterm Pennsylvania gubernatorial race 2022

Online antisemitism rears its head during times of political instability, especially during contentious elections. This paper uses the 2022 Pennsylvania Gubernational governor race as a case study to examine what political topics spur antisemitic expression on Twitter. Both rich political and antisemitism discourses are offered by this election that featured a Jewish Democrat candidate Josh Shapiro and far-right Republican candidate Doug Mastriano. Over 800 tweets were qualitatively analyzed through critical discourse analysis to understand both Shapiro’s political tweets and the antisemitic reply tweets. This study addresses the gap of what online political contexts leads to instances of antisemitism on Twitter during political elections. Grounded in antisemitism and political propaganda literature, this study shows that particularly controversial topics of abortion rights and extremism in politics led to the highest amount of antisemitic expression. Dominantly, Jewish political control conspiracies were used as simple explanations for particularly turbulent political topics.

Courts and Populist Electoral Politics – the Case of Hungary

Elections are devices, through which the abstract concept of representation gains its specified institutional form, therefore they are highly relevant for populists. The paper examines the illiberal-populist project of redesigning the legal framework of elections in Hungary after 2010, focusing on the role of the Hungarian Constitutional Court (HCC) in reviewing electoral law as well as interacting with the ordinary courts through electoral adjudication. It is argued that although a distinct ‘populist imagination’ (Müller) of elections is discernible, there is no special populist electoral politics, rather the ‘inherent authoritarianism of democracy’ (Pildes) is exacerbated. In Hungary the electoral legislation was shrewdly tailored to the governmental parties’ needs, and electoral politics is constantly subjected to instrumental changes. It is argued that although apex courts could be key players in checking electoral manipulation, the HCC did not protect effectively the integrity of electoral law, and at a later stage it even intervened in an arbitrary and arguably politically biased manner. The paper argues that the Hungarian example underscores the need for enhanced court activism in terms of electoral law, especially when populists already came to power.

Overview of the Twitter conversation around #14F 2021 Catalonia regional election: an analysis of echo chambers and presence of social bots

The omnipresence of the digital ecosystem makes it increasingly important in our societies, which implies that the analysis and study of the digital battlefield in political elections is also becoming more necessary to protect our democracies. Previous literature showed the existence of information operations around the world, designed to manipulate the political perception of citizens, and therefore, the electoral results. This paper examines the Twitter conversation around #14F 2021 Catalonia regional elections, which had special significance due to the pandemic situation and the highly polarized scenario around Catalonia and Spain, using tools and techniques from Big Data Analytics and Artificial Intelligence. The results obtained show that the conversation existed inside robust echo chambers within each political party community, which became even more powerful if parties are unified into political affinity blocks. Also, focusing on the analysis related to the social bot presence, a significant quantity of results showed a higher presence of social bots in VOX party community compared to the rest of communities. This study corroborates other existing studies regarding the Catalan and Spanish scenario on the presence of echo chambers and on the existence of social bots with their tendency to basically amplify content; it also uncovers the lack of existence of cross-conversation between the independentist and unionist political block claimed in other studies.

The best at the top? Candidate ranking strategies under closed list proportional representation

Abstract Under closed-list proportional representation, a party's electoral list determines the order in which legislative seats are allocated to candidates. When candidates differ in their ability, parties face a trade-off between competence and incentives. Ranking candidates in decreasing order of competence ensures that elected politicians are most competent. Yet, party lists create incentives for candidates that may lead parties not to place their best candidates at the top of the list. We examine this trade-off in a game-theoretical model in which parties rank their candidates on a list, candidates choose their campaign effort, and the election is a team contest for multiple prizes. We analyze how the candidates’ objectives, voters’ attention and media coverage, incumbency, the number of parties competing in the election, and the electoral environment influence how parties rank candidates.

The Overdose Crisis in the 2024 Election—Political Fights and Practical Problems

This Viewpoint discusses the 2024 presidential election in the context of the addiction and overdose crisis in the US, which has been a unifying challenge and a source of major ideological division in US politics.

Representation of british social and political life in audiovisual content

Representation of british social and political life in audiovisual content

Hydropower Politics in Northeast India: Dam Development Contestations, Electoral Politics and Power Reconfigurations in Sikkim

Around the world, the development of large dams has been increasingly contested. India is no exception and has seen the mobilisation of powerful domestic and transnational socio-environmental movements against dams over more than four decades. In this context, the State of Sikkim in northeast India has been entangled in prolonged hydropower development conflicts since the late 1990s. This article analyses these conflictive entanglements between the Government of India, the State Government of Sikkim, power companies and Sikkim’s autochthonous tribe, the Lepchas. It zooms in on the period of 2011–2017, which saw an abrupt escalation of the conflicts to analyse the messy, deeply political and often unpredictable and contradictory world of dam construction and its contestations. Our analysis is informed by the power cube framework developed by John Gaventa. Our analysis shows how hydropower development is deeply intertwined with local patronage relationships. We show how local elections bring out dam conflict and the operation of power into the open, sometimes leading to abrupt and unexpected switches in positions in relation to hydropower development. We show that these switches should be seen not only as “strategic electoral tactics” but also and importantly as contentious political struggles that (re)configure power in the region. We show how in this process, powerful political actors continuously seek to stabilise power relations among the governing and the governed, choreographing a specific socio-hydraulic order that stretches way beyond simple pro- and anti-dam actors and coalitions as it is embedded in deep hydro(-electro) politics and power plays.

Political Bondage (Ijon) and Democracy: How do Natural Resources Build High Electoral Political Financing Orders?

The practice of political bondage (ijon) in electoral political events is a threat to democracy, which to this day is still relatively limitedly studied. This creates minimal gaps in how to view the phenomenon of high electoral political financing from the perspective of natural resource politics. So far, natural resources have always been viewed as inanimate objects. However, in the study of natural resource politics, this object is not neutral. The presence of the political bondage system which is a small part of the form of transactional politics in the informal democratic space has actually become the identity and characteristic of electoral politics in Indonesia. In the context of political bondage, the exchange of roles between patron becoming client and, vice versa, client becoming patron will continue to recur. This research uses a qualitative approach with library research methodology. Researchers collect data through secondary data, namely various relevant literature, starting from media, books, journals, news reports, formal institutional data, and other data which is sorted according to research needs. The results show that the practice of political bondage still fulfils and always colors electoral politics in Indonesia. This informal democratic practice leads to high levels of financing of electoral politics. Interestingly, the involvement of corporations in funding general elections outside of political party funds also has an impact on reciprocation for the management of natural resources. The development of transactional political practices in informal spaces will create challenges for the quality of democracy: the birth of corrupt behavior, the weakening of the government structure, dynastic-oligarchic politics, and the increase in electoral political financing. The conclusion is that the practice of political bondage will always grow in the space of informal democracy. The relationship between the public sector, elites and the private sector will always exchange roles as patron and client according to the conditions and electoral political map in the field.

Political participation among deaf youth in Great Britain.

Variations in political participation are linked to demographic factors, socioeconomic disparities, and cultural-ethnic diversity. Existing research has primarily explored reduced political involvement among individuals with disabilities, particularly in electoral politics. However, little research has attended the involvement of deaf people specifically. This is of interest because deaf youth are at an intersection of disability, language and cultural identity with their language affiliations and rejection or acceptance of disability evolving through childhood. This study draws from original data collected via an online survey, comprising 163 deaf young respondents aged 16-19 in Great Britain. We compare their levels of political participation with those of general population peers to explore how sociodemographic factors, alongside variations in self-identification as deaf, and meaningful interactions with other deaf people contribute to explain their political engagement. The results challenge conventional wisdom by demonstrating that deaf youth participate more actively in politics than their hearing peers in various forms of political involvement, including collective, contact, and institutional activism. We also recognize differences among deaf youth and propose that social aspects of identity formation, particularly embracing a deaf identity and having deaf friends, can boost certain forms of political engagement. In summary, this study underscores the importance of acknowledging the diversity of deaf youth in terms of affiliation with various forms of deaf identity, rendering their experience different from both disabled and hearing youth. By identifying the factors driving heightened political participation, policymakers and advocates can develop strategies to enhance political engagement among all young people, regardless of their hearing status.

Unveiling the silent majority: stance detection and characterization of passive users on social media using collaborative filtering and graph convolutional networks

Social Media (SM) has become a popular medium for individuals to share their opinions on various topics, including politics, social issues, and daily affairs. During controversial events such as political elections, active users often proclaim their stance and try to persuade others to support them. However, disparities in participation levels can lead to misperceptions and cause analysts to misjudge the support for each side. For example, current models usually rely on content production and overlook a vast majority of civically engaged users who passively consume information. These “silent users” can significantly impact the democratic process despite being less vocal. Accounting for the stances of this silent majority is critical to improving our reliance on SM to understand and measure social phenomena. Thus, this study proposes and evaluates a new approach for silent users’ stance prediction based on collaborative filtering and Graph Convolutional Networks, which exploits multiple relationships between users and topics. Furthermore, our method allows us to describe users with different stances and online behaviors. We demonstrate its validity using real-world datasets from two related political events. Specifically, we examine user attitudes leading to the Chilean constitutional referendums in 2020 and 2022 through extensive Twitter datasets. In both datasets, our model outperforms the baselines by over 9% at the edge- and the user level. Thus, our method offers an improvement in effectively quantifying the support and creating a multidimensional understanding of social discussions on SM platforms, especially during polarizing events.

Uniform as Assertion: The Politics of Caste Reservation in Colonial and Post-colonial Armed Forces of India (1930–2020)

Recruitment of lower and middle castes remained a much-debated topic in Indian electoral politics till now. On the one hand, there was intense political debate between various castes, and on the other, there was judicial and administrative debate about social justice. Even though Ambedkar tried to use it as a method of social justice and state-sponsored social alleviation, because of its connection to identity politics, it quickly became a matter of electoral mobilization. Various parties that were attempting to win over various communities with their call for military recruitment eventually strayed from the real motivation behind that Ambedkarian demand. Lastly, since the turn of the twentieth century, the new political rhetoric of Hindutva has intriguingly transformed this call for military recruitment into a different cause. This article discusses how the demand for the Chamar Regiment and the Ahir Regiment in particular became the focal point of this debate for nearly a century.

PANDANGAN HUKUM PIDANA TERHADAP KASUS POLITIK UANG DALAM PEMILU TAHUN 2024

Political corruption is a prominent phenomenon in modern politics, influencing political processes in various countries, including Indonesia. This article delves into the evolution of politics in Indonesia post-reform, with a focus on the role of political parties and the practice of money politics in elections. The main discussion explores the phenomenon of money politics, highlighting its correlation with political corruption and the role of political parties in society. Additionally, the article examines factors influencing the practice of money politics, such as the lack of closeness between political parties and the public, individual education levels, and low welfare standards. This analysis provides deep insights into the dynamics of money politics.By summarizing findings and implications from the analysis, this article suggests that money politics poses a serious challenge to the integrity of democracy and political justice. Therefore, efforts to prevent money politics should be a priority in strengthening a cleaner, fairer, and more transparent political system. Thus, this article makes a significant contribution to understanding money politics and efforts to address it for the sake of a healthy and sustainable democracy.

The Truth About Africa's Coups

Abstract: The recent coups in Africa do not portend a return to praetorian politics in the region. They are the outcomes of country-specific historical processes associated with the underdevelopment of state capacity, the decay of political institutions, and the failures of electoral politics to improve citizens' material conditions. At the same time, the coups are an important warning regarding the state of democracy in Africa. Surveys show that majorities of Africans harbor both a deep dissatisfaction with democracy and an openness to military interventions to address civilian political dysfunction. While coup contagion is a remote possibility due to strong norms against military rule in much of the region, popular dissatisfaction with democracy and permissiveness towards military interventions in politics present a real risk of autocratization through elections.

Who Leads? Who Follows? Exploring Agenda Setting by Media, Social Bots and Public in the Discussion of the 2022 South Korean Presidential Election

Social media not only changes the traditional communication environment but also brings new changes to agenda-setting. The main body of agenda-setting has shifted from the traditional media to the politicians, political parties and grassroots people. With the increasing use of social bots in public opinion manipulation and political election interference, whether they can participate in or influence agenda-setting has become an urgent concern. So far, there has been less literature focusing on engagement in agenda-setting for social bots. This paper studies the social media discussion content of the South Korean presidential election, determines the participation of social bots, and explores the connection between media agenda, bot agenda, and public agenda from the perspective of agenda setting. This study finds that while the main agendas of media, social bots, and the public are not the same, their agendas are relevant. In addition, the media agenda is not timely ahead of the bot agenda and the public agenda, and the time order only appears between the social bots and the public.

U-Net-based Recommender Systems for Political Election System using Collaborative Filtering Algorithms

U-Net-based Recommender Systems for Political Election System using Collaborative Filtering Algorithms

Komunikasi dan Partisipasi Perempuan Dalam Politik Elektoral

This research aims to investigate the background of women's participation in general and specifically, women who participate in electoral politics as legislative candidates. Using phenomenological methods, the study states that the backgrounds of women who are involved in electoral politics include following in the footsteps of other people who have already entered the world of politics, wanting women to play more roles, and being encouraged by other people. The participation of women in politics still mostly comes from external sources, rather than being purely driven by a desire to change women's conditions due to patriarchal relations in society. Meanwhile, the most common obstacles experienced by women in politics are the double burden of having to play both domestic and public roles, social and cultural inequality, and being underestimated as women. Regarding the communication strategy used by female legislative candidates, they stated that they communicate more with female prospective voters, explain programs related to women, children, and teenagers, and discuss issues related to women to attract votes. They believe that gender similarity helps them communicate effectively and achieve their political goals.

Problematika Penanganan Politik Uang pada Pemilihan oleh Sentra GAKKUMDU Kabupaten Kendal

Indonesia has a democratic form of government where the government system is from the people, by the people, and for the people (Kristina, 2021). Democracy as a means of people's sovereignty is realized by holding Legislative Elections and Regional Head Elections. Of course, the implementation of elections or regional elections cannot be separated from the violations that occur. These violations are divided into administrative violations, violations of the code of ethics, and violations of electoral crimes. The handling of each violation varies. Administrative violations are forwarded to the KPU, violations of the code of conduct are forwarded to the DKPP, and violations of electoral crimes are forwarded to the Sentra Gakkumdu (Integrated Law Enforcement Center). A concrete example of the violation of electoral crime is money politics regulated in Article 187A of the Regional Head Election Law. The purpose of this paper is to find out the problems in handling money politics in the Regional Head Election by the Sentra Gakkumdu Kabupaten Kendal so as to minimize the occurrence of money political practices in the Regional Head Election and the implementation of handling election violations in accordance with the rules so that the holding of elections is carried out in accordance with applicable regulations. This research is an empirical or non-doctrinal legal research with a qualitative approach. The techniques used in collecting legal materials in this study are observation, interviews, and documentation. The results of the study show that there are still several problems or obstacles faced by Sentra Gakkumdu, including community factors, law enforcement officials, and statutory factors..

Blasphemy in the Electoral Politics of Pakistan

This paper aims to contribute to the existing corpus of literature on the role of religion in Pakistan's politics by taking the issue of blasphemy as a central variable. The research examines how the issue of blasphemy is used in Pakistan's politics by the mainstream political parties across the political spectrum, from far-right to center-left, by analyzing the parties' slogans, manifestos, rhetoric, and mobilization tactics in the 2018 general elections. To make sense of why these parties are utilizing blasphemy as a political tool, the paper also employs a conceptual framework towards the end of the paper. By understanding how blasphemy is instrumentalized in the country’s politics, the paper seeks to provide a fresh perspective on the interplay between religion, and politics in Pakistan.