Right-wing Government Research Articles

Navigating Admissibility Before the European Court of Human Rights for Lesbian and Gay Human Rights Defenders

Abstract In recent years the rise of populist right-wing governments across Europe has led to concerns about infringements to lesbian and gay rights. Brave individuals bring cases against their states to the European Court of Human Rights (ECtHR) to test state compliance with the European Convention on Human Rights. It is argued in this article that strict admissibility criteria before the ECtHR poses particular difficulties for lesbian and gay applicants. Specifically, the admissibility requirements of being (1) an individual victim, (2) to disallow anonymous applications and (3) to have suffered a ‘significant disadvantage’ are more challenging for lesbian and gay applicants to fulfil. It is concluded that enabling Representative Actions would provide greater possibilities for such individuals.

Big bang in the middle of a storm: Lessons from implementing health system reform in Finland

Abstract Introduction Finland is often defined as a Nordic welfare state, characterised by universal access to healthcare and an emphasis on national and local politics in the governance of the system. In 2023, the Finnish health system was reformed by centralising organisation (purchasing and service delivery) to regional entities, as well as funding and overall governance to the state from 200 local organisations. The aims of the reform were to improve accessibility, decrease inequities, promote population health and curb growing costs. In the Finnish health system, as in other fields of society, we “find a huge number of very small changes, and a very small number of huge changes” (Cairney 2016). This makes the Finnish health system reform a rare opportunity to use a large-scale reform as a context for a study on reform implementation. Methods This research is based on document analysis and interview data collected from top regional managers. The data was analysed using a political determinants of health framework and thematic analysis. Findings The Finnish reforms were introduced by a left-centre government but implemented by a right-wing government with strong opposition to the reforms, which made full implementation challenging. The results highlight the importance of political commitment to implementation, demonstrate that reforms shape power relations at all levels of the health system and highlight how health system reforms are essentially about redistributions of power between different actors. The results also highlight the importance of contextual factors and suggest that large-scale reform should be treated as a system shock for which health systems need to prepare. Conclusions Understanding the political determinants of health and political commitment to reform is essential to implementation, as is the importance of resilience and preparedness to unexpected circumstances either due to reform-related factors or to external and contextual factors.

Translation policy vis-à-vis national politics: change and continuity in the ©Poland translation program

ABSTRACT This article discusses to what extent the change of political power in Poland affected ©Poland Translation Program, the largest public funding framework for translations from Polish, which is operated by the Book Institute, a governmental agency subject to the Ministry of Culture. The research is based on a comparative quantitative analysis of 2,410 bibliographic records – published books that received funding in 2008–2015 and in 2016–2022, i.e., under different managements appointed by different Polish governments – and supplemented by selected qualitative close-ups. The statistics do not confirm the common public sentiment that in the latter period, under the right-wing government of the Law and Justice party, ©Poland took a political turn, promoting historical writing that glorifies Polish past. Authors opposing the government were not discriminated against, and funding was allocated for translations into the same target languages as before. However, there was a noticeable trend in promoting contemporary right-wing non-fiction with an anti-liberal agenda (politically engaged journalistic reportage and socio-philosophical essay) in Central and Eastern Europe, especially Hungary. The results are discussed in terms of soft power, linking translation flows with international political relations, and the limits of quantitative analysis are problematized.

Disentangling the binomial change/inertia to the Chilean educational policy in the post-dictatorship era (1990–2022). A normative policy instrument perspective

ABSTRACT Chile is a paradigmatic case of market-oriented educational policies. This has led to a prolific research agenda aimed at understanding the trajectory and trends during the country’s dictatorial period and after the return to democracy. Generally, these studies have focused on comparing the main educational policies across different governments. In contrast, this article employs a normative policy instrument perspective to analyse the trajectory of Chilean educational policies from 1990 to 2022. The focus is on disentangling the inertia/change binomial in the implementation of educational policies, considering policy development within and between governments. Thus, the article seeks to understand when, how, and why subjects of educational policies, financial priorities, and ideological orientations change or persist over more than 30 years. The findings challenge the belief that educational policies are coherent and consistent within governments, identifying grey areas in each period. Additionally, the paper provides evidence of historical inertia in educational policies that transcends the ideologies of the governing parties. Finally, it is observed that changes in market-oriented educational policies have been more pronounced in the last decade, particularly during periods of political alternation between left- and right-wing governments.

TikTok Videos, Carnivalesque Provocations for Teachers: Political Responses to Populism’s Right-Wing

Abstract This article explores how TikTok videos, situated in a postdigital space and means of engagement, visibilise divergent responses to right-wing, populist political governments with anti-liberal, anti-socialist policies, offering video-based provocations for teachers. Even traditionally left-wing havens are shifting to right-wing populism, seemingly exemplified by the Aotearoa Coalition Government, implicating the prevalence of this phenomena. Due to education being an ideological battlefield, teachers are heavily implicated by such shifts, encouraging a visibilising of spaces and strategies for their responses. In this article, Mikhail Bakhtin’s dialogic philosophy, with special attention to his concept of carnivalesque, is brought into conversation with TikTok videos, facilitating a means to conceptualise and analyse this postdigital, divergent underground as a mirthing means of speaking back. These mocking, visual responses to right-wing governments are then signalled as provocations for teachers experiencing a rise of populist policies. This article concludes by suggesting how teachers may utilise TikTok videos to politically speak back in divergent ways to right-wing governments, encouraging creative and diverse engagements in this postdigital platform.

Online Prosumers and Penal Policy Formation in an Age of Digital Polarization and Populism: An Exploratory Study

This article explores the influence of right-wing social media users on penal policy formation processes. Through a passive digital ethnography approach, the study examines online debates preceding and following recent legislative interventions adopted in Italy by the new right-wing government in power since late 2022, namely the criminalization of unauthorized rave parties and the punitive approach to migration management. The article discusses the role of social media users as prosumers, who both consume and produce content, and shows how social media platforms amplify political polarization by promoting selective exposure to like-minded viewpoints and facilitating the spread of divisive content. It also showcases how prosumers contribute to the propagation of punitive narratives and engage in direct interactions with populist leaders through social media platforms. Conversely, political leaders—specifically Italy’s Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni in this case study—use these platforms to disseminate their narratives and create support for their penal policies, employing fear-mongering tactics and simplistic messaging. Our findings suggest that, while social media platforms have transformed political discourse, in the Italian scenario their direct influence on penal policy making from the ground-up remains limited. Instead, traditional top-down channels continue to dominate the process of penal policy formation.

이스라엘-하마스 전쟁의 배경과 주요 쟁점

This study examines the background of the Israel-Hamas war, which erupted following Hamas’s unprecedented large-scale attack on Israel in October 2023, and the key issues related to the post-war political order in the Middle East. The background of the war highlights, from a historical perspective, the escalation of military tensions and conflicts between the two sides after the failure of the Oslo peace process and Hamas’s control of the Gaza Strip since 2007. It also seeks to address the impact of leadership changes, including the shift to hardliners within Hamas in 2017 and the formation of the most hardline right-wing government in Israel’s history in 2022, against the backdrop of these accumulated conflicts. The study analyzes various debates currently being discussed in the international community, focusing on scenarios for ending the conflict and the future of the Gaza Strip, the potential for the United States to maintain its hegemony in the Middle East, and the future direction of Hamas. Through this analysis, the study aims to contribute to a better understanding of the Israel-Hamas war, which has emerged as a central issue in contemporary international politics.

Why right-wing governments restrict market competition: a demographic theory

Abstract Recent scholarship on the evolution of neoliberalism points out that, despite free market discourse, right-wing rule has often resulted in re-regulation and further market concentration, to the advantage of large corporations. This article argues that such an outcome is not an inevitable result of right-wing incumbency. Instead, I identify an exogenous, demographic, change that prompts right-wing governments to increasingly embrace market concentration: the aging of the workforce, which has intensified the substitution of capital for labor, and as a result, somewhat paradoxically, reduced the amount of pure profits that can be distributed to wealthy households. In response, right-wing governments restrict competition to shore up pure profits. Drawing on data from 14 to 20 OECD countries, I show that as workforce aging intensifies, right partisanship becomes increasingly associated with more regulatory restrictions on competition, greater market concentration, and a greater pure profit share of income.

Partisan Politics in Portugal

Abstract This paper reviews the literature on partisan politics in Portugal at the national and sub-national levels. Starting with a description of the institutional setting, main parties and electoral results, the paper then delves into how partisanship matters for the policies implemented by incumbent governments. The available evidence indicates clear differences in several policy areas, such as the labour market, welfare, health, education, and gender issues, with Portuguese left- and right-wing governments acting in line with their ideological agendas. Voter behaviour and the emergence of the populist far-right in the Portuguese parliament are also analysed. (JEL codes: D04, D7, H4, and H7)

Israel's civil society 2023 from protest to aid provision - a serving elite perspective.

The year 2023 in Israel started with illiberal constitutional change efforts by the new right-wing government and concluded with a brutal attack by Hamas terrorists and the subsequent war. Both occurrences galvanized two massive surges of civil society activism. The first was a mass protest that impeded the government's undemocratic legislation. The second was a large-scale mobilization to support a variety of populations affected by the war, providing services and goods that supplanted the failed governmental crisis response. Using a Serving Elite perspective and elaborating on this concept in the Israeli context, the paper analyzes the organizations that transitioned overnight from protest to service delivery. While these are two known roles played by civil society in general, such a transition from protest to support within the same organization is unusual, if at all existent. The paper analyses nineteen (19) in-depth interviews with leaders of 10 prominent organizations active in the protest and the aid phases. It explores their participants, forms of organizing, activities, ideologies, and interconnections, particularly emphasizing the transition. Thematic analysis of the interviews revealed the emergence of a new Serving Elite in the making, liberal in orientation, and developed during the crises. This perspective provides an opportunity to highlight processes deeply embedded in Israel's social, political, and cultural landscapes, changing elites and power relations, and Israel's culture of entrepreneurship. It also provides a framework for analyses of serving elites in other countries.

A New Right-Wing Government Takes Shape in Panama

A New Right-Wing Government Takes Shape in Panama

Transnational student activism during the Latin American Cold War: the case of the Organización Continental Latinoamericana de Estudiantes (OCLAE) (1966–1980)*

ABSTRACT This article examines the case of the Organización Continental Latinoamericana de Estudiantes (OCLAE – Latin American Continental Students Organization), considering it an example of transnational student activism. It analyses the OCLAE’s ideological positions and actions during the Cold War, considering the shift in left-wing activism between 1960 and 1980 in the Americas. A clear anti-imperialist and revolutionary commitment during the long sixties in Third World countries seemed to dilute partially with the emergence of dictatorial right-wing regimes between the mid-seventies and the late eighties in South American countries. Since 1973, human rights activism in countries under dictatorial governments was presented by the OCLAE as another means of Latin American and internationalist – and even anti-imperialist – solidarity. Finally, this article proposes a transnational periodisation of student activism. In this regard, analysing the actions and positions of a Latin American organisation with links to local geographies allows us to think of cycles and substages without resorting to the sum of national cases.

Policy brief: Addressing Poland’s teacher shortage: Are wage increases enough?

Teachers in Poland have experienced a great deal of adversity over the last 10 years, from the overturning of evidence informed reforms, low wages, and an influx of non-Polish speaking Ukrainian students. As such, the teaching profession has struggled to attract new staff and retain current staff, contributing to a growing teacher shortage. This paper highlights most attempts to mitigate teacher shortages are isolated on wage growth. Analysis shows whilst wage growth is essential to staff satisfaction and professional status, failing to address other contributing factors, such as increasing workloads, limits success. As such, two recommendations are offered as a starting point to combat the growing shortages; however, their success is questionable because of decisions made by the then ruling right-wing government (2015-23). This poses a serious matter that the recently sworn in coalition government must address.

Policy diffusion across political ideologies: explaining Denmark’s desire to externalise asylum

In 2021, the Danish Social Democratic government tabled a bill allowing asylum seekers to be transferred to another country to process claims and provide protection. Witnessing a Social Democratic government embracing this highly controversial idea, even though less than a handful of right-wing governments outside Europe had previously outsourced asylum, is puzzling. Policy diffusion theory is used to explain the underlying mechanism and analyse the justification strategies. In the face of public attention focused on the refugee protection crisis between 2014 and 2016, the Social Democrats embraced the idea of externalising asylum in order to be recognised as responsive problem solvers. Essentially, they employed three strategies to justify the policy and to mask its origin and its inconsistency with the party’s ideology: (1) referring to policy advisors as the original source of the idea; (2) reframing externalisation as a humanitarian project; and (3) shifting the narrative about Social Democratic identity.

Democratic backsliding and the constitutional blitz

ABSTRACT The aim of this paper is to analyze the acceleration of the democratic backsliding Israel experienced between January 2023 and April 2023 during the first session of the 25th Knesset and the 37th government in Israel. We explore the factors that contributed to this process. Our goal is to determine whether there are any elements that are unique to Israel in this regard that distinguish it from other countries that have experienced such backsliding in recent years. To do so, we utilize an event history analysis based on a timeline of the actions of the members of the 37th government. The analysis shows that the four incentives that aligned together before the election of the 25th Knesset and the creation of an extreme right-wing government accelerated the backsliding of Israeli democracy. The unique factor that distinguishes Israel from other countries is the indictments of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. The conclusions offer several insights for Western democracies from the Israeli case.

Eco-fascism: an oxymoron? Far-right nationalism, history, and the climate emergency

Can we conceive of a continuity in the way right-wing nationalisms address environmental issues from the origins of fascism to the currently ongoing global “polycrisis”? This article explores the use of the term “eco-fascism” in connection with the climate crisis and considers the political relationship between ecologism and the contemporary far right through a historical perspective, seeking to determine persisting patterns in the relationship between the far right and the environment. Section 1 travels back to the historical origins of this relationship between nationalism, fascism and the environment, arguing that the conceptions of nature adopted and nourished by fascism had scarcely anything to do with ecology in its contemporary meaning. Section 2 explores the most well-known and consolidated studies on the relationship between the far right and climate change denialism, identifying a broad consensus that unites scholars from various disciplines on the density, intensity and persistence of this political relationship in the current millennium. The article concludes by underlining the irreality, falsifiability and internal contradictions of the notion of “eco-fascism” at a time when right-wing regimes have seized power in many countries through the use of vocabularies and sentiments in defense of the territory and its resources, but with a substantial refusal to tackle global environmental problems.

Secular Spaces in Israel and Turkey

Abstract This article offers a comparative analysis of Tel Aviv and Izmir based on their urban identities grounded on a secular modernist ideological outlook and a Mediterranean way of life based on egalitarian and democratic norms. These criteria will be operationalized by analyzing the ideological preferences as well possibilities for alternative lifestyles for the residents of both cities. Due to the policies of right-wing governments in both countries, there has been an increasingly overbearing impact of religion in the daily lives of the people and have been undergoing a redefinition of their national identities at the expense of the secular aspects of their national attributes. While a significant number of citizens in both countries have been leaning towards an ethnoreligious worldview, Tel Aviv in Israel and Izmir in Turkey resist such attempts and remain bastions of secularism with their Mediterranean way of life. This study purports to present the similarities and differences between the two cities within their larger conservative setting.

Government ideology and the implementation of civil war peace agreements

ABSTRACT How does government ideology, measured by the ideology of the chief executive and the ideology of the largest government party, influence the implementation of civil war peace agreements? In this study, I address this research question by analysing the Peace Accords Matrix (PAM) dataset that covers 34 comprehensive peace agreements of 31 countries from 1989 to 2015. The results of feasible generalised least squares (FGLS) regressions demonstrate that the likelihood of implementing peace agreements increases when chief executives and the largest government parties of the left-wing are in office. In contrast, the likelihood of implementing peace agreements decreases when chief executives and the largest government parties of the right-wing stay in power. Consistent with the party-policy literature and the hawkish-dovish assumptions, I find that left-wing governments positively impact the implementation of peace agreements more than right-wing governments, indicating the statistically significant relationship between the government ideology and the implementation of peace agreements.

Evaluation of the “Street and Abroad” Strategy Implemented by Political Opposition in Poland under the Rule of Law and Justice

After the 2015 parliamentary elections in Poland, the parties that moved to the opposition declared themselves the “total opposition” and adopted the “Street and Abroad” strategy, the aim of which was to organize anti-government protests in the country and to use foreign fora, including above all EU mechanisms, to fight the new right-wing government, criticize its actions and eventually remove it from power. The paper aims to assess the effectiveness of the strategy adopted by the Polish opposition after seven years of right-wing rule. The subject of particular interest is, on the one hand, the evaluation of the “Street” strategy on the example of mass protests concerning courts, abortion, and the media. On the other hand, the “Abroad” strategy was analyzed through the impact of the European Parliament’s resolution on social mobilization, electoral preferences, and the level of support for the ruling party. For this purpose, the leading indicators of support for opposition parties published by opinion polling centers were used in the examples analyzed.

Impact of prolonged social crisis on resilience and coping indicators.

The current study examines, longitudinally, (i.e., on the same sample), to what extent an acute political/social crisis in Israel affected the resilience, distress, and additional psychological indicators of the Jewish population, along with three repeated measurements: The first was conducted shortly before the last elections (in October 2022), the second in February 2023, about two and a half months after the elections, following the formation of a right-wing government, and the third measurement about nine months after the election (August 7-10, 2023). The main results indicated the following: (a) the mean societal resilience among coalition voters increased significantly throughout the three measurements, while it declined significantly among opposition voters. (b) significant differences were identified between coalition and opposition voters, mostly at T2 and T3: opposition supporters reported significantly lower levels of societal resilience and hope, and higher levels of distress symptoms and sense of danger, compared to those of coalition supporters. We concluded that the continued social/political conflict in Israel is multidimensional and impacts diverse areas such as values, perspectives, and supporting as well as suppressing coping indicators. The differences between the two voter groups may be primarily the result of political radicalization and polarization processes, that aim to widen gaps to achieve political power. As many countries are currently facing acute political crises and similar radicalization, similar studies should be conducted in varied societies to investigate the generalizability of the findings.