Government Research Articles

Internet Control and Disinformation Across Regime Types During and After the Covid‐19 Crisis

The unprecedented scale of mitigation measures taken by governments during the Covid-19 pandemic raised concerns about if and to what extent democracy would be affected. Empirical accounts show that media freedom was the most vulnerable. This article concentrates on interference in digital media, as attacks on the digital realm during the pandemic were particularly harmful given that media activity moved from print to online all over the world. This large-n study makes various important contributions. Firstly, it uncovers whether regime types differ in their reactions to the Covid-19 pandemic regarding the digital media sector. Secondly, it takes a diachronic approach and examines the period before 2020, during the pandemic in 2020 and 2021, and after the pandemic (2022–2023). This longitudinal exploration enables us to make nuanced statements about the post-Covid-19 developments in digital media. Thirdly, the analyses take into account different degrees of measures: less and more repressive as well as disinformation strategies. The results add value to the debate because they demonstrate that all regime types, including democracies, resorted to control mechanisms during the Covid-19 pandemic. Equally relevant is the behavior of these regimes after the pandemic: While democracies by no means cut back on all measures, autocracies did not strengthen all measures. Most remarkably, full democracies are the only regime type where governments increasingly engaged in disinformation after the pandemic. Thus, an important finding is that the pandemic did not constitute a catalyzing event for all regime types to the same extent. But the most worrisome effects are associated with the democracies.

How Do Immigration Policies Affect Voter Support for Low-Skilled Immigrants? Evidence from a Survey Experiment

Countries depend on both high- and low-skilled immigration to meet economic needs. But most voters prefer high-skilled immigrants, despite the fact that multiple economic sectors structurally depend on low-skilled immigrants. In this paper, we examine voter preferences toward low-skilled immigrants as one barrier to effective immigration policy, even in political regimes where immigration is the consequence of highly coordinated or “planned” policies. Specifically, we consider whether government communication around the benefits of low-skilled immigration can increase favorability of such policies. We are particularly interested in the ways in which government communicates immigration messages and whether the scope or concentration of the proposed benefits will move individual preferences. In an online survey experiment, we present Canadians ( N=2,023) with a policy brief that manipulates immigrant skill level (high vs. low), economic outcomes of migration (positive vs. mixed), and the geographic scope of benefits (concentrated vs. sociotropic). Employing two measures of policy support, we find some evidence that positive framing can increase overall support for low-skill migrants. We also find that manipulating framing around high-skilled workers has little effect on support for low-skill workers, even when that framing presents countervailing evidence as to the benefit of high-skilled labor. In sum, our findings suggest that elite level communication around the benefits of low-skill labor may have the ability to disrupt longstanding antipathy for low-skilled labor, even in regimes with longstanding support for high-skilled labor.

The mechanisms of personalization

ABSTRACT This article draws on Max Weber’s account of legitimate authority to argue that there are three key mechanisms that drive the personalization of power in political regimes: the mobilization of charisma, the mobilization of legality or formal authority, and the mobilization of informal authority. The mobilization of charisma involves leaders using emotional connections with followers to undermine formal institutional constraints. The mobilization of legality refers to using legal discourses and procedures to expand formal executive powers. The mobilization of informal authority relies on leaders occupying strategic positions in patronage networks to undermine or expand formal authority. Each mechanism allows leaders to escape elite accountability through different means. The article illustrates these mechanisms through historical and contemporary examples. It argues that understanding these distinct mechanisms can help explain variation in trajectories and consequences of personalization across regimes. The framework advances theories of personalization by highlighting how personal power relies not just on disrupting elite coordination but on deploying different forms of authority.

True Crime Podcasting as Participatory Journalism: A Digital Ethnography of Collaborative Case Solving

True crime podcasts invite their listeners to crowdsource investigations online, solving cases that have fallen through the cracks of the criminal justice system. Through a cultural criminologist lens, this digital ethnography examines The Vanished podcast as a case study of how true crime listeners engage with solving cases in digital community spaces. Previous studies have dismissed true crime fans as pseudo police acting as digital vigilantes. Podcasting communities provide an important public service, working as participatory journalists to investigate the story and report the truth. Rather than depending on law enforcement permission to organize, online crime-investigation communities leverage the Internet’s function as an organizing agent for mobilization beyond the parameters of conventional social structures and formal government agencies. Findings reveal a six-step process of case collaboration between podcast producers, active listeners, and family and friends of missing persons. Other communities can apply this unique system to successfully investigate crime, suggesting implications for individuals within marginalized groups less likely to find justice through the formal legal system.

Co-creating the future: participatory cities and digital governance.

The digital revolution, fuelled by advancements in social media, Big Data, the Internet of Things and Artificial Intelligence, is reshaping our urban landscapes into 'participatory cities'. These cities leverage digital technologies to foster citizen engagement, collaborative decision-making and community-driven urban development, thus unlocking new potentials while confronting emerging threats. Such technologies are empowering individuals and organizations in ways that were unimaginable just a few years ago. They do, however, introduce new risks and vulnerabilities that must be carefully managed. Hence, socio-technical innovation is urgently needed. In this connection, open-source technologies, participatory approaches and new forms of governance are becoming more popular and relevant. This theme issue looks into the tangible impacts of these technological advancements, with a focus on participatory cities. It aims to explain how digital tools are used in cities to tackle urban challenges, improve governance and promote sustainability. Through a collection of in-depth analyses, case studies and real-world examples, this issue seeks to offer a comprehensive understanding of the digital governance frameworks underpinning participatory cities. By offering a platform for multidisciplinary discourse, this theme issue endeavours to contribute to the broader narrative of shaping a more resilient, sustainable and democratic urban future in the digital age.This article is part of the theme issue 'Co-creating the future: participatory cities and digital governance'.

Large language models (LLMs) as agents for augmented democracy.

We explore an augmented democracy system built on off-the-shelf large language models (LLMs) fine-tuned to augment data on citizens' preferences elicited over policies extracted from the government programmes of the two main candidates of Brazil's 2022 presidential election. We use a train-test cross-validation set-up to estimate the accuracy with which the LLMs predict both: a subject's individual political choices and the aggregate preferences of the full sample of participants. At the individual level, we find that LLMs predict out of sample preferences more accurately than a 'bundle rule', which would assume that citizens always vote for the proposals of the candidate aligned with their self-reported political orientation. At the population level, we show that a probabilistic sample augmented by an LLM provides a more accurate estimate of the aggregate preferences of a population than the non-augmented probabilistic sample alone. Together, these results indicate that policy preference data augmented using LLMs can capture nuances that transcend party lines and represents a promising avenue of research for data augmentation. This article is part of the theme issue 'Co-creating the future: participatory cities and digital governance'.

Structural Characteristics of Expressway Carbon Emission Correlation Network and Its Influencing Factors: A Case Study in Guangdong Province

Understanding the spatial correlation of transportation carbon emissions and their influencing factors is significant in achieving an overall regional carbon emission reduction. This study analyzed the structure characteristics of the expressway carbon emission correlation network in Guangdong Province and examined its influencing factors with intercity expressway traffic flow data using social network analysis (SNA). The findings indicate that the correlation network of expressway carbon emissions in Guangdong Province exhibited a “core-edge” spatial pattern. The overall network demonstrated strong cohesion and stability, and a significant difference existed between the passenger vehicle and freight vehicle carbon emission networks. The positions and roles of different cities varied within the carbon emission network, with the Pearl River Delta (PRD) cities being in a dominant position in the carbon network. Cities such as Guangzhou, Foshan, and Dongguan play the role of “bridges” in the carbon network. The expansion of differences in GDP per capita, industrial structure, technological level, and transportation intensity facilitates the formation of a carbon emission network. At the same time, geographical distance between cities and policy factors inhibit them. This study provides references for developing regional collaborative carbon emission governance programs.

From the Belly of the Beast, the Monsters We Can Create from the Zombies and the Hyenas amongst us!

The purpose of this article is to address what has always been discussed as the three main elements of the social world. That is, the structure, culture and agency in the management, leadership and governance systems in university education. Such elements, as analytically distinct, arise from the assumptions that their roles, respectively, are values free exercise, asocial, apolitical and, therefore, neutral. Citing a particular case that has been a subject of deep debates and extensive conversations in previous ECMLG 2021, ECMLG 2022 and as part one of ECMLG 2024, this paper subjects, as an immanent critique, the claims that the management of organisations’ resources, which generally make for the interface between senior management and the formal governance of the organisation, with all things being equal, can make for forms of efficiency and effectiveness in organisational and management systems. With the title of the paper, From the belly of the beast, the monsters we can create from the zombies and the hyenas amongst us, the paper thus adopts a disruptive and transgressive stance about what can always appear as the structural and cultural norms. As such, the paper will argue, by drawing from the post-modernist theories, for example, the social realist theory as anchored on the critical realist philosophy, that it takes the properties and powers both of the knowledge and knower structures for the ideal of university education as the public good, as the case will illustrate, to be a realist reality. By means of a social realist methodology, research data was drawn from organizational records, which was then subjected to critical discourse analysis for identifying the structural mechanisms that could generate the crisis events and processes, and further to how the latter could be experienced and observed over time. Such a methodology therefore foregrounds the value of morphogenesis/morphostasis in a social realist oriented project. Based on what ought to be the theory-methodology-practical program chain, the value of the article is, in itself, and for generalised contexts, thus related to what ought to lie behind the shine of leadership practices, of the management systems, and of the governance structures. That refers to the case of what can be the three headed monstrous situations, and further to the value of the practices as the nexus of research and development, of policy and implementation, and of strategy and leadership.

Authoritarian Surveillance and Public Support for Digital Governance Solutions

This study investigates factors influencing support for digital governance solutions and compares this support between autocracies and democracies. We conduct survey experiments in Russia, Germany, Turkey, the United States, and Estonia, and find that awareness of potential misuse of digital governance tools by the government reduces support. Importantly, while this effect has previously been documented for China, we find it irrespective of regime type for an autocracy, a hybrid regime and three democracies. Individuals relying on government-controlled information sources are more likely to endorse digital governance tools. Our study challenges prior findings by indicating that gaps in public service quality do not boost support. Instead, satisfaction with government services correlates with trust in the government’s capacity to implement digital governance solutions.

Ethical considerations in researching marginalised voices: a focus on women and gender-diverse individuals in Central American prison

ABSTRACT This paper explores the ethical complexities inherent in researching marginalised voices within Central American prisons, specifically focusing on women and gender-diverse individuals presumed to be affiliated with armed groups. Drawing on extensive fieldwork conducted across Central America, the paper explores the challenges researchers face when navigating carceral spaces dominated by gang violence and informal governance. It highlights the need for addressing the ethical dilemmas that arise when engaging with incarcerated individuals. By highlighting the importance of reflexivity, recognition of gatekeepers, ensuring the safety of incarcerated individuals, sensitivity to vulnerabilities and diversity, and fostering empathy, the authors contribute to the broader discourse on research ethics and methodology in high-risk environments. This study casts a spotlight on the ethics of researching prisons in Central America, underscoring the urgency of ethical research practices that prioritise the dignity, agency, and humanity of research subjects.

Can Autocracy Handle Climate Change?

ABSTRACT Existing literature on climate politics predominantly concentrates on democracies. However, there is a pressing need to examine how authoritarian regimes respond to climate change, given their growing impact on global carbon emissions and their populations’ acute climate vulnerability. Extant research often assumes that authoritarian regimes have inherent advantages in addressing climate change, leading to overly optimistic perspectives on their capabilities. This study highlights the necessity of qualifying those assumptions and evaluates the comparative advantages and disadvantages of autocracies relative to democracies throughout the policy process: policy formulation (or outputs), implementation, and outcomes. I argue that whereas climate-conscious autocracies may efficiently produce policy outputs based on scientific evidence, they often face more challenges related to information about local enforcement during implementation. This may result in greater hurdles than democracies, even with adequate state capacity and monitoring infrastructure. Furthermore, this analysis contends that a country’s developmental stage, rather than its regime type, is related more directly to the effectiveness of translating implementation efforts into tangible policy outcomes. Therefore, this article posits that the political science discourse, which often juxtaposes democracies with autocracies, should expand its scope to better understand how a country’s developmental level influences the success of its climate strategies.

Tweeting for Influence: Analysing France and China’s Cultural Diplomacy on Social Media, a Mixed Methods Approach

Abstract How are states using cultural diplomacy on social media to expand their power? This research analyses over 67,000 tweets from the French and Chinese Ministries of Foreign Affairs (mfa s) as well as their respective state-sponsored cultural networks including Institut Français, Alliance Française, and the Confucius Institutes. Stephen Lukes’ three-dimensional power framework, where cultural authority legitimizes power over others, provides the study’s theoretical basis. In analysing the tweets, I employ a mixed methods approach including vader sentiment analysis, word frequency analysis, and thematic analysis. While both states aim to present their cultures as high-value cultures, the similarities end there. As a liberal democracy, France encourages open expression through its cultural institutions, including discourse critical of France. In contrast, China’s cultural diplomatic messaging is precisely controlled and speaks about China in invariably exalting terms. This study offers evidence that regime type has a powerful effect on cultural diplomatic messaging on social media.

The Biopolitics of Liberal War: Humanity, Temporality and Cosmology

What is the relationship between war and liberalism? Over the last two decades, an extensive and influential literature inspired by Michel Foucault’s conception of biopolitics has argued that the ‘war on terror’ is defined by distinctly liberal forms of government. Underpinning this approach is an assumption of the primacy of contingency to the contemporary biopolitical imaginary. Through this governing cosmology, the ‘war on terror’ is said to be motivated by a politics of fear and uncertainty. This article contests this account of liberal war by demonstrating the biopolitical significance of potentiality. By illustrating how a specific configuration of potentiality informs contemporary governing understandings of humanity and temporality, this article argues that liberal war is also waged according to a politics of hope and certainty. Adopting a cosmological approach allows this article to develop the case for a pluriversal conception of biopolitics which better reflects the complex and contradictory character of liberal war in the 21st century. Such a perspective invites us to see how the ‘war on terror’ is not only a reflection of our darkest fears but also of our highest hopes.

Agricultural Absentee Land Ownership Rules: Problem or Solution for Farmers on Food Resilience Program?

Abstract: Food resilience is a critical aspect of national sustainability programs. with large and diverse population, Indonesia needs to prioritize food resilience as a primary focus of government programs. Empowering Indonesia's predominantly farming population is one way to achieve food resilience. In this regard, the government can utilize absentee land to achieve food resilience goals and improve the welfare of farmers. However, regulations restricting land ownership to civil servants under Article 3 of Government Regulation No. 224 of 1961 hinder the utilization of absentee land. These regulations pose a significant obstacle to farmers who seek to engage in or expand agricultural endeavors. The conflicts arising from these regulations constitute the most substantial barrier to farmers' efforts to realize food resilience programs in Indonesia. This research uses a normative legal research method, focusing on the absent land through statutory and case approaches. The results of this research suggest that absentee land regulations are no longer relevant given the current state of affairs, as they impede the maximization of food resilience, particularly for farmers in the agricultural sector. Keywords: Absentee Land, Farm Land, Food Resilience

The causal effect of economic sanctions on political stability: A two‐stage difference‐in‐differences analysis

AbstractThis study employs the two‐stage difference‐in‐differences (2sDiD) estimator to investigate the causal effect of economic sanctions on political stability. It contributes to existing research by (1) re‐evaluating sanctions' impacts on political stability using newly introduced causal inference methods, and (2) distinguishing the effects of sanctions across various political regimes and economic globalisation levels. The article argues that economic sanctions create economic hardships for the target population, leading to public frustration toward their governments, which stimulates political mobilisation and thereby decreases the country's political stability. However, sanctions hurt democracies more than autocracies because autocratic regimes can suppress public dissent through repression and citizens face higher costs for opposition. Moreover, economic globalisation offers targets alternatives to sanctioned products and services, potentially weakening sanctions thus damaging political stability more in low‐globalised than in high‐globalised countries. Empirical findings from 9230 country‐year observations between 1949 and 2022 largely align with the theoretical predictions, showing that economic sanctions undermine the target's political stability, with these destabilising effects contingent upon its political regime and economic globalisation levels.

Citizens’ Political Knowledge and Participation in Monitoring Local Government Programs in Two Districts of Uganda

Broad political knowledge better equips citizens to discharge the responsibilities of good citizenship, such as monitoring local government programs. Empirical studies show a connection between citizens’ political knowledge and their participation in monitoring activities in contexts other than a decentralized local government system in a developing country. Thus, in this paper, we set out to provide new empirical evidence by assessing the link between citizens’ political knowledge and their participation in monitoring local government programs in Buliisa and Kampala districts of Uganda. We employed a convergent parallel research design. We gathered data using survey questionnaire, key informant interviews, and focus group discussions. We analyzed quantitative data using STATA and performed thematic analysis for the qualitative data. Generally, results showed that the level of political participation of citizens in monitoring local government programs was significantly and positively associated with their level of knowledge of local political affairs. This was especially marked in Kampala compared to Buliisa district. Conclusively, the nature of the association between the aforesaid variables could differ depending on the form of local political knowledge and/or the nature of political participation being measured.

Conviction or Consent? Tracing the Influence of Coalition Partners on Family Policy under Centre-Right Ministers

Abstract Many studies have analysed what could motivate centre-right governments to develop progressive family policies, given their historically traditionalist ideology. Updating classic institutionalist accounts, this article expands the focus beyond centre-right parties formally in charge. It argues that in coalition and minority governments, partisan veto players may act as agenda-setters, design policy reforms and successfully exert pressure to approve them through three mechanisms: agreements for government formation, conditions for government survival and bureaucratic continuity. Drawing on novel empirical data from interviews and document analysis, this article applies deductive process tracing to analyse the German parental allowance reform of 2006 and the Spanish 2017 paternity leave extension. The findings complement existing studies that focus on the agency of centre-right parties as ‘protagonists’ of these reforms, arguing that in some cases they have instead ‘consented’ to reforms proposed and supported by other parties.

Democracy and Crime in Latin America

Abstract Do firm stances against crime, up to a level at which they disregard Human Rights, overflow the sphere of crime control and associate with a preference against democracy? This study determines whether victimization of crime encourages support for the death penalty, the desire to own a firearm, and broader authoritarian political attitudes. The hypothesis is tested in Latin America using the LAPOP (2018/2019) database in 17 countries. Three sets of indicators are observed in the logistic models: a) dependent variables (desire to own a firearm, support for the death penalty, perception of democracy as the best form of government, support for a coup in the case of high crime, satisfaction with democracy, and trust in institutions); b) independent variables (victimization by crime); and c) control variables (waiting time for police response, and sociodemographic factors). Although no significant effects were found on democracy as the best form of government, victimization increases the likelihood of wanting a firearm, favoring the death penalty, and supporting coups, while it reduces the satisfaction with democracy and trust in institutions. Therefore, the results confirm that crime not only favors public support for harsh measures to control it but also weakens democracy and its institutions.

From Neopatrimonial Science to Consumption of Academic Degrees: The Case of Political Science in Ukraine

Abstract This paper is devoted to the transformation of the practices of obtaining academic degrees in Ukraine by applicants from outside the Academy. My hypothesis is that neopatrimonial science, political regime, and credentialism have led to consumption of academic degrees in Ukraine. It is a socially and politically selective process, where the initial pattern is established by the reference groups of top officials. This pattern is subsequently copied and reproduced by lower ranks. It is related to (economically) favorable conditions contributing to the transfer of academic regalia from the category of luxury goods to objects of mass consumption. This process has its own specific features for different groups of applicants from outside the Academy, where the significant factors are the applicant’s position and its rank, regional structure of the political regime, and gender. The empirical basis of the work was: (a) career patterns of 642 former and current governors and/or heads of Regional Councils during 1992–2024; (b) 1,735 candidate (PhD) theses in political science defended during 1999–2024.

The Historical Roots behind the Libyan State Failure

Abstract This paper discusses the phenomenon of state failure in general and uses the current Libyan state as a case study by tracing the historical path of the formation of the modern Libyan state, specifically the impact of the legacy left by the Gaddafi regime on three main variables: authority, legitimacy, and institutional capacity. It addresses the following question: How did the historical legacy of the Gaddafi regime contribute to the crisis of the Libyan state after 2011? The study is based on the hypothesis that personal authoritarian regimes, such as Gaddafi’s, have the most detrimental impact on institutions in relation to the monopoly of violence, legitimacy, and capacity. This is because the ruling elites in personalistic authoritarian regimes are often unable to restrain the decisions and actions of the head of the regime, who often seeks to dismantle institutions that could limit their power. This contrasts with other types of authoritarian regimes (monarchy, military, one-party) that may, to some extent, maintain institutional rules for governance and the transfer of power.