Popular Support Research Articles

The Illiberal Experience in Venezuela: The Transition from Representative Democracy to Authoritarianism

At the end of the 20th century, Venezuela transitioned from being a representative liberal democracy to becoming a form of electoral authoritarian state through a hybrid regime based on illiberal democracy. The crisis of the representative democracy paved the way for a coalition formed by groups close to the radical left and the military establishment headed by Hugo Chávez Frías, who took the electoral route, after having first tried and failed to lead a coup, to reach the presidency with popular support due to widespread social unrest, to take power in 1999. This transition was carried out, at the local level, progressively by the actions of an illiberal and revolutionary regime, as a deliberate reaction against representative liberal democracy. The paper examines the illiberal experience in Venezuela between 1999 and 2007 and its background. While it is true that illiberalism does not always create the conditions that lead to the inevitable transition to an authoritarian regime, the Venezuelan case is an example of its use in the continual dismantling of the rule of law, an increasingly common phenomenon in various countries with a democratic tradition.

Military and Patriotic Mobilisation in Prussia During the Liberations Wars of 1813–1815

The author focuses on the first mass mobilisation in Prussia carried out by the Prussian government during the Liberation Wars of 1813–1815. He aims to answer the question of how successful this mobilisation was and whether the Prussian political elite managed to obtain the popular support for the war against Napoleonic France. Methodologically, the study is based on the theory of modernisation, according to which, during the Napoleonic Wars, universal conscription was introduced in the countries of Europe and modern mass warfare emerged. The introduction deals with the general causes prompting the government of the Prussian King Frederick William III to introduce the universal conscription in Prussia in the spring of 1813. The author pays attention is paid to the military reforms conducted by Gerhard von Scharnhorst, Hermann von Boyen and other reformers. He focuses on legislative acts of March and April 1813 which laid the foundation for the mass mobilisation in Prussia, namely. royal decrees abolishing all exemptions from the military service and establishing voluntary detachments or the Prussian National Militia (Landwehr and Landsturm). The author also analyses the social and provincial origin of those who were mobilised in the Prussian army. In the second part of the article, he considers the organisation of the patriotic propaganda which was indispensable for the mass mobilisation. To this end, he examines official governmental proclamations, newspaper articles, pamphlets, leaflets, brochures, political lyrics, and sermons. He emphasises that not only men were supposed to be mobilised for the needs of war but women as well. He concludes that the first mass mobilisation in Prussia in 1813–1815 turned out to be highly successful and effective. The Prussian government managed to mobilise large groups of people within a very short period of time. The universal conscription became law in 1814, and the pantheon of national heroes who died for the freedom of the Fatherland was created. The massive public support for the war against Napoleon significantly contributed to Prussia's rapid rise to the leading power among all German states.

Imperial Russia as a Failed State: The Role of Orthodox Church

The purpose of this article is to assess the role of the Orthodox Church during the prelude to the February Revolution. Recent historiography on the Great War in Western scholarship has foregrounded the role of the Churches, Protestant and Catholic, in sustaining popular support for a war that entailed unprecedented death, suffering, and hardship. That new research, seeking to explain the “endurance problem” (Durchhaltsproblem), point to the Churches in the West as the pillar of the existing regimes right to the very end of the war and as an effective instrument in mobilizing support and patriotism to defend each country’s “civilization”. Hence, no less important than brilliant military plans and effective governance, the Churches provided critical support and raised morale of both troops and civilians. Such was not the case in Russia. With few resources at its disposal, the Orthodox Church provided initial but ephemeral support. As is shown here, the Church was not only unable but unwilling to embrace the ancient regime: against a background of general war weariness, the Church elites, parish clergy, and ordinary parishioners were increasingly determined to pursue their own interests, not those of the state. By February 1917 the Church did not condemn but welcomed the overthrow of the monarchy that ultimately led to the Bolshevik seizure of power and years of brutal civil war. The monograph by I. V. Potkina “On the eve of the catastrophe. The state and the economy in Russia in 1914–1917” has many positive elements, but it is important — given recent historiography, which foregrounds the role of Churches and religion in sustaining society’s willingness to endure the Great War — to pay attention to the role of the Russian Orthodox Church.

Assessment of Projection Pursuit Index for Classifying High Dimension Low Sample Size Data in R

Analyzing “large p small n” data is becoming increasingly paramount in a wide range of application fields. As a projection pursuit index, the Penalized Discriminant Analysis ($\mathrm{PDA}$) index, built upon the Linear Discriminant Analysis ($\mathrm{LDA}$) index, is devised in Lee and Cook (2010) to classify high-dimensional data with promising results. Yet, there is little information available about its performance compared with the popular Support Vector Machine ($\mathrm{SVM}$). This paper conducts extensive numerical studies to compare the performance of the $\mathrm{PDA}$ index with the $\mathrm{LDA}$ index and $\mathrm{SVM}$, demonstrating that the $\mathrm{PDA}$ index is robust to outliers and able to handle high-dimensional datasets with extremely small sample sizes, few important variables, and multiple classes. Analyses of several motivating real-world datasets reveal the practical advantages and limitations of individual methods, suggesting that the $\mathrm{PDA}$ index provides a useful alternative tool for classifying complex high-dimensional data. These new insights, along with the hands-on implementation of the $\mathrm{PDA}$ index functions in the R package classPP, facilitate statisticians and data scientists to make effective use of both sets of classification tools.

Contribution of education in freedom moment of India

Education was essential to the success of the independence movement in India because it acted as a driving force behind social transformation and a wellspring of individual agency. Education, at its foundation, produced a feeling of national awareness and togetherness among a variety of groups, overcoming boundaries of geographical distinction and language barrier. Education's ability to cultivate moral and ethical values, which were essential for a successful struggle for independence, was recognised by visionaries such as Mahatma Gandhi, who recognised the power of education in mobilising the masses. Gandhi emphasised the role that education played in cultivating these values. Universities and other more traditional educational institutions, such schools and schools, have evolved into hubs of intellectual conversation and political action. They made it possible for influential people like Jawaharlal Nehru and Subhas Chandra Bose to communicate their aspirations for a free India and rally popular support by providing forums on which they could do so. Education also educated citizens with critical thinking abilities, which enabled them to challenge oppressive colonial laws and argue for their rights. Education also enabled individuals to advocate for their rights. Women, who had been marginalised for a long time, were given the power via education to participate in the independence struggle in important ways. Leaders such as Sarojini Naidu and Annie Besant were not only educated in their own right, but they also advocated for the education of women and encouraged other women to play an active part in the fight for independence.

The Ways and Prospects of America's Decoupling from China's Science and Technology

United States has adopted the following four ways to realize its strategy of decoupling. Firstly, it has established an anti-China science and technology alliance to suppress the mass science and technology in China; Secondly, launch a technology competition with China to strengthen the leading position of American science and technology; Thirdly, promote the ideological battlefield and strengthen the psychological foundation of decoupling; Fourthly, strengthen the anti-China process of law, and promote the formation of a decoupling strategy. Considering the comprehensive analysis of the economic data, the law of scientific development of China, the United States and the whole world in recent five years, and the popular support of the world, this paper holds that in the short term, the decoupling of science and technology between China and the United States will cause both losses, and the world will become the victim passively. In the medium term, China's science and technology will find its own way, and steadily push forward its self-reliance and self-improvement; In the long run, the decoupling does not conform to the laws of science and will not be implemented for a long time after all.

Legitimacy Crises in Pakistan; A Study of Imran Khan Regime

Legitimacy is a public belief about the authority or government is just fair and valid accordance with established rules & regulations. It has popular support to implement its binding decisions. This paper explains the legality of democratic regimes in Pakistan and explains how they come into power, why they lose public trust, and cannot complete their tenure. There are three primary factors behind the legitimacy crises of the government in Pakistan; economic & political instability, rift with state’s institutions and weak government performance. Further, Foreign conspiracy, religious sentiments, corruption, unemployment also play a significant role in it. This paper has critically analyzed those factors which are leading to the legitimacy crises of the Pakistan Tahreek Insaf (PTI) government. An analytical approach has been used in the present study.

‘Willing’ ethnic-nationalists, diffusion, and resentment in India: A micro-foundational account

AbstractUsing evidence regarding the consolidation of Hindu nationalism in India we put forward new ethnographic data about the variety of popular support for a Hindutva project and a new framework that proposes an interactive theory of social identity. This framework helps us understand how Hindu nationalism becomes embedded in society. We assert that Hindu nationalism in India could be fruitfully analysed by focusing on the processes through which ideas of exclusive nationalism spread among ordinary middle-class people and are expressed in micro-level psychological changes at the individual level. The consolidation of Hindu nationalism in India is being authored not only by parties or the state, but also by societal actors, specifically, ordinary middle-class Indians. Hindu nationalism has been spreading in micro-public spheres in a time of apparent peace and between elections, and with the participation of willing supporters. Building on our fieldwork and research in psychology and history, our conversations have also helped us to identify profiles of different types of nationalists, which we categorize as willing ethnic-nationalists, hardliners, bystanders, and moderates. Further, we suggest the need to focus on inter-linked micro-level mechanisms such as diffusion and emulation of Hindu-centric beliefs and ideas, mobilization by hardliners and organizations, and impunity resulting from protection by state agencies, which helps to create willing ethnic-nationalists and sustains Hindu nationalism. Evidence regarding social interactions from a variety of survey organizations concurs with our findings and our ethnographic material allows us to delve deeper into varieties of Hindu nationalist support across diverse ordinary people.

FASCISM IN THE WORKS OF THE AMERICAN HISTORIAN GEORGE MOSSE (1918-1999)

The author examines the assessments of fascism presented in the works of the famous American historian G. Mosse. G. Mosse was one of the first to consider fascism as a pan-European phenomenon, emphasizing both the diversity and similarity of various fascist movements. Among the common features that should be considered in national contexts, he singled out: the concept of revolution as a "spiritual revolution", nationalist or racist mysticism, the search for a "third way", revolutionary dynamism and the problem of "taming the revolution", the myth of the new man, the fusion of bourgeois morality and respectability with the ethics of fascism, represented by militant and traditionalist models of courageous men. G. Mosse was one of the first to turn to anthropology to reconstruct the belief system of people who lived in the late XIX and early XX centuries to explain how the Third Reich could become a political reality. G. Mosse pays great attention to the ideological factor, considering the prerequisites of fascism, at a time when the fascist ideology was perceived by historians as complete nonsense. G. Mosse characterizes fascism as a secular religion and turns to the study of the "liturgical elements" of fascism, symbols and myths as means to understand how modern mass movements received popular support. His numerous publications contributed to a paradigm shift in fascist studies. In this sense, he anticipated the cultural orientation of later authors, such famous historians of fascism as S. Payne, R. Griffin and E. Gentile.

Hidradenitis Suppurativa Reddit Support Group: Finding New Meaning in Social Media During the COVID-19 Pandemic.

Hidradenitis suppurativa (HS) can significantly impact quality of life. Reddit allows users with common interests, like HS, to form a community and share information. This has become increasingly important with pandemic-related social isolation. We administered a survey from May 2021 to July 2021 to characterize patients with HS use of Reddit and social media more broadly before and during the COVID-19 pandemic. An analysis of a popular HS support page on Reddit from January 2019 to August 2021 was also conducted, analyzing subscribers over time. The rate of subscriber increase was higher before the pandemic. Of 42 patients contacted, 20 patients enrolled (90% female, mean age of 32.4 years) and 18 of the 20 fully completed the survey that was administered. Participants were stratified into two groups: online support group users (n = 8) and nonusers (n = 12). There were no differences in sex, age, education level, antidepressant usage, and overall social media usage between these groups. However, there was a difference in Hurley staging, with more than four times as many users reporting a Hurley III staging compared to nonusers (p = .003). Nonusers ranked the following as desired features of a social media group more frequently than current users: bandaging/dressing boils, living with HS, medical advice from professionals, causes of HS, and diet (P = .047, P = .043, P = .043, P = .047, and P = .013, respectively). This study demonstrates that online support group use is associated with HS of higher clinical severity. Based on the needs/expectations identified in this study, recommendations can be made to providers to help fill any lacunae in clinical care.

Why the Public Supports the Human Rights of Prisoners and Asylum Seekers: An Experimental Approach

What factors shape support for the human rights of prisoners and asylum seekers at the individual level? Although the human rights literature has expanded greatly in the last 30 years, comparatively little attention has been paid to (a) the many human rights outside of a very small set of physical or bodily integrity rights and (b) the role of public opinion. We build a theoretical model of various human rights as public opinion-related policy choices, developing the micro-foundations of public support for the human rights of vulnerable subpopulations. Drawing on the broader literature on public policy and international norms, we use experimental methods to test whether calls to rational effectiveness or international norm cascades improve support for the rights of prisoners and asylum seekers. Although we find baseline support for these rights in the United States and Canada, our findings also imply that rhetoric on the potential costs of human rights policy could reduce popular support, even when such policy is consistent with international norms.

Winning hearts and minds in conflict-ridden areas: Development as a signal of benevolence

We examine the role of development in signalling governmental benevolence, thereby helping governments combat insurgency in conflict-ridden areas. While there is some literature on the role of development in mitigating conflict, very few studies examine the channel which is our focus, namely popular perception. With popular support being a core ingredient of any successful counter-insurgency program in conflict-ridden areas, investing in development becomes a vital tool in winning hearts and minds of the people, and consequently in controlling insurgency. Using a signalling game setup, we find that allowing for this possibility leads to higher investment in development relative to the socially efficient outcome. Finally, developmental projects that have greater effect on popular perception, e.g. those that are likely to get greater media coverage, or those with quick returns, get prioritized. • We examine the role of development in signalling governmental benevolence. • It helps win hearts and minds in conflict-ridden areas thus controlling insurgency. • There is higher investment in development relative to the socially efficient level. • The higher investment in development reduces military and rebel expenditure. • Developmental projects that have greater effect on popular perception get priority.

Twilight of Democracy: The Seductive Lure of Authoritarianism

Twilight of Democracy: The Seductive Lure of Authoritarianism

Democratic backsliding in the Philippines: Are voters becoming illiberal?

Democratic backsliding by incumbents is one of the most prevalent forms of backsliding in recent global trends of democratic erosion. Understanding the attitude of voters toward backsliding incumbents is crucial because popular support is the basis of legitimacy for these incumbents. This article studies voter attitudes in the Philippines, where democracy was subverted by the incumbent president, Rodrigo Duterte, who served from 2016 to 2022. Specifically, we examine the validity of the claim that Filipino voters are acquiring a “taste for illiberal rule” made by some scholars. First, we analyzed the survey data regarding the support for various types of political systems, where part of the data comes from our originally commissioned survey at the Social Weather Stations. Second, we explored Pulse Asia's longitudinal survey data on martial-rule support. Our investigation of these survey data did not find substantive support for the “taste for illiberal rule” proposition. Further, we argue that Filipino voters are contingent supporters of illiberal politics while supporting the procedural principles of democracy at the baseline.

The pandemic in the North Atlantic: How COVID-19 has united a polarized micronation – and how well-known conflicts are still smouldering

The COVID-19 pandemic has illustrated the significance of popular support for – or resistance against – scientific and political authorities in a declared state of emergency. Based on quantitative and comparative surveys, the article examines popular attitudes to COVID-19-related issues in a democratic micronation within the Danish kingdom, the Faroe Islands. Furthermore, the article examines what demographic factors can explain popular support for the way public authorities have managed the pandemic as well as the willingness to be vaccinated. The article concludes that the COVID-19 pandemic has united the Faroese population across partisan, ideological and other demographic cleavages. However, the survey also finds that public opinion is a changeable phenomenon and that well-known cleavages such as political ideology, religion and age might still explain popular disagreements on COVID-19-related issues.

Francis O'Connor. Understanding Insurgency. Popular Support for The PKK in Turkey. Cambridge University Press, Cambridge [etc.] 2021. xv, 280 pp. Maps. £75.00. (E-book: $80.00.)

Francis O'Connor. Understanding Insurgency. Popular Support for The PKK in Turkey. Cambridge University Press, Cambridge [etc.] 2021. xv, 280 pp. Maps. £75.00. (E-book: $80.00.)

Psychosocial characteristics of bullying participants: A person-oriented approach combining self- and peer-report measures

Bullying represents a severe problem with possible short- and long-term consequences for bullying participants. However, the characteristics of these individuals are not entirely known and bullying roles are often ambiguous. Therefore, the present study aimed to identify latent subgroups of bullying participants by latent profile analysis, including both self- and peer-reports and to recognize the differences among the latent subgroups. The sample included 1,905 elementary school students (49.9 % boys, Mage = 12.8, SD = 1.2). The latent profile analysis revealed five profiles according to their degree of victimization and/or bullying behavior: uninvolved students, self-reported uninvolved students, bullies, victims, and bully-victims. Victims and bully-victims reported the lowest peer support; in addition, bully-victims reported the lowest teacher support and the highest level of anger-related problems. Bullies were perceived as the most popular; victims and bully-victims reported the lowest social self-concept among all groups. Uninvolved students and self-reported uninvolved students differed in perceived popularity, anger control, peer- and teacher support. The results highlight the need to tailor interventions according to the subgroup of bullying participants to minimize unwanted behavior or offer additional support for victims.

Ethnic Minorities, Interstate War, and Popular Support for Fiscal Capacity Development

Do ethnic majorities and minorities have diverging preferences for fiscal capacity? Do these preferences converge during national emergencies such as interstate war? In this paper, we provide evidence from a natural experiment to demonstrate that politically salient minority-majority divisions undermine the development of fiscal capacity. In addition, we show that the pressure of interstate war is insufficient to supersede differences in support for the expansion of state’s capacity for taxation between majority and minority groups. More specifically, we employ a regression discontinuity design using a natural border that separates linguistic groups and municipality outcomes of a popular vote on the introduction of direct taxation at federal level in Switzerland during the First World War. The findings suggest that salient minority-majority divisions have a negative effect on the expansion of states’ capacity for taxation even during periods of interstate war.

What drives support for separatism? Exposure to conflict and relative ethnic size in Biafra, Nigeria

AbstractWhat determines support for separatist movements in Africa? The past two decades have seen a rise in separatism across Africa, including renewed Nigeria's Igbo Biafran nationalism. While a large body of work has focused on the behaviour of African separatist movements themselves, less work has examined the correlates of popular support for their claims and goals. This study does so, focusing on two important factors. First, it examines whether exposure to conflict events involving neo‐Biafran movements increases or decreases support for the claims made by the Indigenous Peoples of Biafra (IPOB). The study uses geo‐coded data from the Afrobarometer and ACLED datasets to measure proximate exposure and finds that more exposure correlates positively with support for secession. Second, it argues that the highest levels of support should be associated with members of ethnic groups that would dominate the proposed state. Drawing again from Afrobarometer, the study finds support for this.

Playbook of Subnational Illiberalism: Autocrats Face the Opposition-led Local Governments

Recognizing the growing tensions between autocrats in the center and opposition-led local governments in Hungary, Poland and Turkey since 2018–2019 local elections, the article contributes to existing literature on illiberal democracies with a subnational portion of illiberal playbook. Tactics identified through the detailed study of the European context and brief review of Latin American experience leaves us with the following categories in the playbook: abuse of (existing) supervisory and accountability mechanisms; generating of financial vulnerability; centralization (outright and indirect) and deconcentration. Each of these categories assemble various means evolving through application and reinterpretation of traditional rules pertaining to local government, as well as crisis-induced innovations. While the Polish account carries the optimism still that antecedent robust guarantees and popular support matter even when illiberals rule the center, the playbook proved successful in Hungary and Turkey. Although certain incrementalism stayed as the most vulnerable actors were the first victims of soon-to-be normalized measures, crisis in Hungary and Poland did stretch the limits to the point that ulterior motives of undermining opposition-led local governments became publicly observable. Reflecting on this phenomenon, in the end, the article poses a theoretical question whether such pretextual instrumentalization of law can itself be judicially manageable, at least in situations when clear political opponents are targeted.