Political Parties Research Articles

Semiotics and framing of Ukrainian refugees in Spanish political discourse: a linguistic and cognitive analysis

ABSTRACT This study analyzes how four major Spanish political parties use semiotic resources on Twitter to portray Ukrainian refugees, employing corpus linguistics and cognitive framing. Drawing on Saussure’s semiology, Van Dijk’s discourse theory, Fairclough’s critical discourse analysis, and Lakoff’s framing theory, we examine how words function as signs that frame ideological positions. Partido Popular (PP) emphasizes individual liberty and national identity, PSOE highlights diplomacy and humanitarianism, Unidas Podemos (UP) assigns blame to specific countries while showing solidarity with Ukraine, and VOX advocates strict refugee policies with an anti-communist stance. This detailed linguistic and semiotic analysis reveals how the parties’ language choices, informed by cognitive and semiotic frames, reflect underlying power structures and ideological biases, offering important insights into the dynamics of political discourse around refugees, and how language shapes public perception.

PAN Political Communication Strategy (Celebrities As Political Party Vote Getters In Legislative General Elections)

The freedom of the people to participate in the democratic party is almost limitless. Likewise, political party cadres who run for the legislature, where almost all groups can run as legislative candidates. Not apart from celebrities, approaching the political year there are many celebrities who plunge into the world of politics. Regardless of the lack of jobs or just a sensation behind. Here researchers try to find the problem of celebrity trends entering into the cadres of the National Mandate Party. The author speculates that the participation of celebrities is one of the political communication strategies carried out by the National Mandate Party.celebrities is one of the political communication strategies carried out by PAN. In finding the results of this study, researchers used a qualitative approach by prioritizing literature studies sourced from articles, journals, and other media. Researchers in this case tried to find the problem of political communication strategies in one of the parties in Indonesia. And it was found that celebrity involvement is one of the strategies owned by PAN in increasing public participation in the upcoming elections.upcoming elections. Against the background of the declining level of vote acquisition each year of PAN.

Democratic innovation without political parties should be unthinkable

Democratic innovation without political parties should be unthinkable

Beyond the game: Panathinaikos’ fandom and the political arena

ABSTRACT This research delves into the intersection of sports fandom and political activism through the lens of Panathinaikos’ supporters, particularly Gate 13. It investigates how the club’s fan base engages in political expression, solidarity actions, and even political mobilization, against the backdrop of Greece’s socio-political upheavals. The study reveals the formation of a political party, PANKI, by the fans, highlighting their proactive stance on national issues. By combining ethnographic methods and thematic analysis, it uncovers the politicization of fan identities amidst economic and political crises, showcasing the unique role sports fandom can play in broader social and political discourse.

Victimhood, partisan identities, and media consumption in the US

ABSTRACT Political partisanship is typically understood as a social identity. Partisans vary in the strength of their identity – some are deeply attached to their partisanship, while for others it is not highly salient. Media is often highlighted as a causal factor in polarization. We explain how social groups – particularly those that are large, geographically diffuse, and share no obvious common interests – require collective narratives to engender a sense of shared experience and intensify group identity. We suggest that narratives about victimization provide this sense of shared experience. Using survey data, we explore how perceptions of victimization relate to partisanship, media consumption, and social media use. Republicans and Democrats perceive that their respective partisan groups experience victimization, but victimhood perceptions appear to be more entrenched for Republicans. Conservative media is associated with perceptions of Republican victimization and Republicans with a strong partisan identity are more likely to state that Republicans experience victimization.

The effects of anti-gender activism on Latin American democracies: a comparison of Brazil and Peru

ABSTRACT In Latin America, anti-gender activism has flourished in recent decades, with consequences for feminist and LGBTQ+ movements and the political representation of their agenda. We compare two countries, Brazil and Peru, where these campaigns have reshaped public debates. They entered the field of electoral competition, congress dynamics and government policymaking in the 2010s. However, the political processes preceding the rise of this activism in both countries are significantly different. Through a process-tracing comparative analysis, we explore the factors that account for the variation in the effects of anti-gender activism on previously achieved gains in women’s and sexual minorities’ rights. We consider the disputes over gender and sexuality as they were embedded in local political processes and focus our empirical analysis on the mechanisms that characterize antigender actions in three contentious issues: abortion, same-sex marriage and sex education. We show that the two countries saw a backlash against gender perspectives in policy and reproductive and sexual rights. However, the effects varied according to institutional factors and local contexts of opportunities for opposing actors to be involved in party politics and access state resources.

Mapping the global election landscape on social media in 2024.

In 2024, a significant portion of the global population will participate in elections, creating an opportunity to analyze how information spreads and how users behave on social media. This study examines the media landscape on Facebook by analyzing posts from political parties and major news outlets in Europe, Mexico, and India. By identifying key topics and measuring public engagement, we uncover patterns in political discourse. Using Principal Component Analysis, we explore how these topics are related and distinguish trends in audience interaction. Our findings show how certain topics resonate differently across political groups, providing insights into the relationship between media content, political ideology, and user engagement during elections.

MANIFESTO, RHETORIC, AND ELECTION IN GHANA, 2008-2024

This study looks at the effectiveness of manifestos in the Ghanaian political climate. The policies of successive governments have failed in developing the country and its people because of partisanship, and manifesto-based politicking. Party manifestos are drafted with fancy words towards winning elections and discarded afterwards. This has a detrimental effect on the common person in the form of poor healthcare provision, social inclusion, poverty, unemployment, the emergence of schools of shame (schools without classroom buildings and having lessons under trees), development, etc. This study was carried out through a meticulous assessment of the manifestos of the two leading political parties in Ghana, the NDC and NPP, between 2008 and 2024. The parties make nearly similar promises to the electorate, and they include, inter alia, areas such as governance, infrastructure, poverty reduction strategies, security, economy, and education. Yet, instead of completing projects that are already in motion to meet the needs of the people, they start new projects only to cast them aside when power changes hands. Also, a questionnaire was administered to test how manifestos beguile citizens to consistently go to the polls to vote during elections. The study put forward that by adopting a national development policy outlook, the perils of the ever-perdurable manifesto-based politics, regarding underdevelopment and political insecurities, would be overcome towards socioeconomic continuity and human development. The paper uses qualitative structured interviews, secondary sources, and manifestos through the lenses of CDA and (political) rhetorics to study the role of manifestos in Ghanaian politics.

Intermediary Political Analysis: The Role of Political Parties in Single-Candidate Elections

Political parties play a central role in nominating regional head candidates to ensure voter representation in elections. The broader the representation in the electoral process, the higher the level of democracy and legitimacy achieved. However, in the 2024 Regional Elections (Pilkada), despite the relaxation of nomination requirements, the number of competing candidate pairs remains limited. According to the Constitutional Court (MK) ruling, each region should ideally have at least five candidate pairs, yet in reality, more than half of the regions were contested by only two or three pairs, with 37 regions having a single candidate running unopposed. This study aims to map the coalition of political parties in regions with single candidates and analyze the extent of political party involvement in the nomination process. The research employs representation analysis, examining the number of political parties supporting candidate pairs, the origin of candidate pairs' parties, and the nomination threshold. The findings indicate that, in many cases, political parties tend to form broad coalitions supporting a single candidate rather than fostering greater competition. This phenomenon reduces voter choices and weakens electoral competition at the regional level. As an implication, this study provides insights for policymakers to reevaluate nomination regulations to encourage healthier and more democratic political competition in regional elections.

What constitutes a new party? The lack of a standard operationalization and the way forward

This mini-review examines scholars' responses to the question, “What constitutes a new party?” It proposes a path out of a situation in which there is no one standard answer to this question, or even a dominant answer. The absence of a standard or dominant answer creates an interesting setting for theoretical and methodological creativity. At the same time, the situation is problematic: with no agreed answer, large n studies that differ in how they define and operationalize party newness are not comparable. And because political parties are central actors in democratic politics, this situation negatively affects comparative politics research. An agreed answer (or answers) is especially critical for studies that analyze stability, continuity, and change of party organizations, party systems, and the political system as a whole. This article reviews the approaches to party newness and identifies their main features. No one approach seems to be substantially preferable to the others. Thus, the way forward is to establish a database that will include the data already produced on party newness. Such a database will enable comparison of the different codifications and measurements and systematically examine their similarities and differences.

Party digitalization and members’ empowerment: A comparison of four Italian parties

ABSTRACT The digitalization of political parties has often been approached from the perspective of political parties. Previous studies discuss the potential impact of technology on empowerment, but the users’ attitudes to this are largely unknown. To address this gap in the literature, our article analyses how party members view the empowerment potential of digital tools in their party. We use data from semi-structured interviews conducted in November and December 2023 with members of four Italian political parties: Brothers of Italy, Democratic Party, Five Star Movement, and Forza Italia. Employing an inductive approach, the coding process was data-driven, and identified four forms of empowerment. The analysis revealed significant, and in some cases counter-intuitive, similarities and differences between the parties examined.

Making the other side mad: How out‐group distaste benefits less competent candidates

AbstractI present a formal model of candidate evaluation in a context where voters within some group or political party learn information about to what extent various in‐group candidates (such as a slate of primary candidates) are disliked by an out‐group or opposing party. Thus, a voter's candidate evaluation is based in part on how they process information about which of their own candidates provoke particularly strong distaste from the out‐group. I show that exposure to information about out‐group distaste can cause voters to make misleading inferences about candidate characteristics, causing them to sometimes systematically prefer lower competence candidates. These effects are stronger for certain kinds of low‐information voters, and for more ideologically motivated voters. The model can thus explain under what conditions voters will support politicians who particularly aggrieve the opposition. This can also create secondary incentives for politicians to signal incompetence.

Leadership of democratic communities: Municipal politicians’ motivation to take responsibility

Given that political party membership continues to decrease, it is relevant to investigate what motivates people to engage in political leadership of democratic communities. There is a lack of research-based knowledge on how sense of community responsibility (SOC-R) relates to political leadership behavior among politicians. Using survey data from all Danish municipal politicians in 2019 and 2023, we examine the longitudinal associations between SOC-R and two elements of democratic leadership: consensus building and visionary leadership. We employ both fixed and random effects panel regressions. The main finding is that SOC-R is positively associated with visionary leadership behavior, while findings are less certain for consensus building. This underscores the importance of continuing research into the conditions for leading democratic communities to prevent the erosion of political engagement.

Golkar Party's Political Communication Strategy in Winning the 2024 Garut Regency DPRD Legislative Elections

The purpose of this study is to see (1) how the Golkar Party's political communication strategy is to maintain its victory in the 2024 Garut Regency DPRD legislative election (2) what obstacles the Golkar Party faces in facing the 2024 Garut Regency DPRD legislative election (3) what solutions the Golkar Party has implemented in facing obstacles in the 2024 Garut Regency legislative election. The type of research used is qualitative with observation, interview and documentation methods. The results of this study indicate that (1) the Golkar Party's political communication strategy in winning the 2024 Garut Regency legislative election is to optimize all of the political party's own communication strategies, such as strengthening and selectively selecting a communicator, creating integrated and collaborative communication messages with all teams of each candidate for the council, having various communication media such as approaching community leaders to optimizing online media, and efficiency of audiences/communicants (2) the obstacles faced by the Golkar Party in maintaining its election victory are the industrialization of the party which presents new political parties to the limited freedom of civil servants to speak (3) the solution sought by the Golkar Party in facing obstacles is to continue to strengthen the party coalition and optimize communication media as a real manifestation of adding to the party's vote bank.

DEVELOPMENT OF POLITICAL PARTIES BY THE STATE: FROM OLIGARCHY TO DEMOCRATIZATION IN INDONESIA

The urgency of fostering political parties by the state is increasingly felt, especially in the context of ensuring that political parties do not only function as political machines for the benefit of a few. This research discusses the problems of democratization of political parties in Indonesia and the practice of fostering political parties in various countries as well as the constitutional idea of fostering political parties by the state in Indonesia. This research was compiled using the library research method, namely research with library studies as the main reference material in research with a statue, conceptual and comparative approach. This research aims to find out the problems of democratization of political parties in Indonesia, the practice of fostering political parties in various countries, as well as constitutional ideas regarding the development of political parties by the state in Indonesia.

Political Parties as “Great Schools” of Civic Education

Current attempts to improve civic education through higher education should be supplemented by a focus on political parties, which have traditionally served as the “great schools” of civic education. America’s nineteenth-century parties drew voters out of their private concerns, engaged them in social life, and taught them to tolerate and bargain with each other. Legal changes over the past century have deprived them of the tools needed to fulfill this role. Policymakers should reconsider campaign finance laws that cripple parties, especially state and local organizations. Moreover, parties themselves should dedicate more time and resources to building a permanent presence in local communities and engaging citizens on the ground.

From movement to party: Analysis of the tensions between horizontality and oligarchy in Spanish municipalist platforms (2015–2023)

In 2014 and 2015, dozens of ‘municipalist’ candidates gained huge success in the Spanish local elections. These movement parties, intrinsically linked to the intense mobilisations of the previous electoral cycle, adopted a horizontal organisational model in contrast to the traditional oligarchic structure. In the wake of the 2015–2023 electoral cycles, however, there has been little analysis of these experiences and the processes they adopted. This study examines four such experiences in Zaragoza, Valladolid, A Coruña and Castellón through 72 interviews and documentary analysis. The study contributes to the debate on internal democracy in political parties in three ways, demonstrating: (1) a certain inevitable distancing between movement and party with power concentrated in the latter; (2) imposition of the institutional pace and the difficulty of combining it with the logic of direct democracy; and (3) demystification of certain forms of direct democracy and the need to combine vertical and professional logics with horizontal and participatory ones.

Political Dowry in the Indonesian Election Nomination Process

Objectives: In practice, political parties need well-known figures to run as candidates. To get this support, the practice of political dowry arose, in which a certain amount of money had to be deposited with party officials for operational costs. This activity has not been prosecuted legally, even though it should be suspected as a source of high-priced politics. Methods: This study uses a normative juridical approach, in which research data analysis is carried out through qualitative descriptions. Result: The study show that even though interpretation is carried out using an analogy that is rejected by the majority of criminal law experts, the practice of political dowry still cannot qualify as a crime, especially corruption. Conclusion: This conclusion was obtained regarding the subject of corruption as a bribe recipient, namely having to become a civil servant or state administrator. Political party officials are still analogous to civil servants or state administrators. Therefore, considering the adverse effects of the practice of political dowry, it is necessary to criminalize the practice of political dowry as a crime in the election nomination process in Indonesia.

Political Partisanship, Confucian Collectivism, and Public Attitudes toward the Vaccination Policy in Taiwan

Context: Conventional wisdom suggests that people with a collectivist tradition tend to comply more with the government's regulatory and even coercive disease-prevention policies. In addition to this sociocultural element, political partisanship is also an important aspect relating to people's willingness to cooperate with the government. This study aims to examine the relationships between these two factors and three dimensions of vaccination policy attitudes: common responsibility to take the vaccine, the government's vaccine mandate, and indignation over anti-vaxxers. Methods: Using data from a nationally representative cross-sectional survey conducted in 2022 in Taiwan, this study applies multiple linear ordinary least squares regression to examine the relationships between vaccination policy attitudes and Confucian collectivism and political partisanship. Findings: Confucian collectivism and political partisanship aligning with the ruling party are associated with attitudes supporting vaccination policy. For those who do not align with the ruling party, negative attitudes toward the vaccination policy appear in different dimensions according to the party they lean toward. Conclusions: Confucian collectivism is prevalent in Taiwan and is related to public attitudes toward vaccination policy. This association is independent of political partisanship. Public health authorities should consider the sociocultural context and political atmosphere for the effectiveness of disease-prevention measures.

Bills to Restrict Access to and Harm From Indoor Tanning Facilities in US State Legislatures, 1992‒2023.

Objectives. To describe progression, content, and stringency of state legislation regulating indoor tanning and association with state government political party leadership. Methods. Trained research assistants used legal mapping methods to code legislative bills on indoor tanning introduced in US states, the District of Columbia, and Puerto Rico. We calculated composite scores on the stringency of age restrictions and of warnings, operator requirements, and enforcement. We evaluated associations of the political party of the legislative sponsor and legislature majority. Results. Between 1992 and 2023, 184 bills were introduced in 49 of 50 states and DC (56 laws were enacted, and 126 bills failed). An under-18 ban was enacted in 22 states and DC. Party affiliation of the bill sponsor and legislature majority combined to affect bill passage and age restrictions. Conclusions. In many states, it took several years and proposed bills before a law on indoor tanning was enacted. Enacted bills were more stringent than failed bills. Public Health Implications. Increasing support for stringent regulations on indoor tanning is evident and may motivate other states or the federal government to prohibit minors from using indoor tanning facilities. (Am J Public Health. 2025;115(2):191-200. https://doi.org/10.2105/AJPH.2024.307894).