Support For Regime Research Articles

Potholes, pensions, and public opinion: the politics of blame in Putin's power vertical

What are the risks and rewards of power centralization in competitive authoritarian regimes, and who in the regime bears those risks and enjoys the rewards? The elimination of gubernatorial elections in Russia in late 2004 provides a unique opportunity to study public reaction to policies that replaced democratically elected regional leaders with Kremlin appointees, thereby further concentrating power in the hands of the central state while simultaneously reducing the level of democratic accountability in Russian politics. Using a 2007 survey of 1500 Russians, it is possible to observe how key measures of public opinion and regime support were influenced by the elimination of gubernatorial elections. Because the timeline of gubernatorial appointments was determined exogenously based on the expiration of elected incumbent governors' terms, by 2007 some regions had governors who still held electoral mandates, while others had Kremlin appointees with no electoral mandate. This quasi experiment allows us to draw surprising conclusions about whom Russians blame – and do not blame – when power becomes increasingly centralized in the hands of the president.

Understanding Regime Support in New and Old Democracies: The Role of Performance and Democratic Experience

This paper develops a comprehensive theory of support for democracy. Building on instrumental and culturalist approaches, the theory argues that experience with democracy conditions the extent to which economic and political performance inform support. Specifically, it argues that the extent to which economic performance informs support should decline as a democracy grows older, while the opposite should be true about political performance. These arguments are evaluated using multilevel models to analyse cross-national survey data for 21 Latin American countries. The evidence indicates that both economic and political performance inform support for democracy and that the extent to which economic performance informs support declines as a democracy grows older. Although the importance of political performance does not seem to be conditioned by democratic experience, its importance in relation to economic performance does increase as a democracy matures. The evidence also indicates that experience with democracy, and not level of economic development, is what conditions the importance of economic performance. Altogether, these results suggest that support for democracy and a civic culture that values the political goods that democracy can deliver are more likely to be a consequence of, rather than a prerequisite for, the survival and eventual consolidation of democracy.

Sovereign Debt and Governance Failures

International economic crises are critical periods for any political regime. The 2008 global financial crisis brought to the surface several weak spots in the institutional performance of various southern European democracies. Portugal was no exception. Government attempts to tackle its negative externalities through a series of austerity measures did not prove successful on various grounds. Poor scoring in the economy generated social unrest. This article tries to assess the reaction of the Portuguese citizenry to the symptoms of failure in economic governance, particularly in what concerns their attitudes vis-à-vis the political realm by using different survey data sets. The analysis reveals that the decline in economic performance and in quality of governance is clearly reflected in citizens’ rising discontent with the performance of democracy and suggests even negative spillover effects for regime support. The available data also suggest that any expectations that the economic crisis might have ignited in citizens’ engagement in political issues seem only partially fulfilled.

Highway to Hitler

Can infrastructure investment win hearts and minds? We analyze a famous case in the early stages of dictatorship - the building of the motorway network in Nazi Germany. The Autobahn was one of the most important projects of the Hitler government. It was intended to reduce unemployment, and was widely used for propaganda purposes. We examine its role in increasing support for the NS regime by analyzing new data on motorway construction and the 1934 plebiscite, which gave Hitler great powers as head of state. Our results suggest that road building was highly effective, reducing opposition to the nascent Nazi regime.

Highway to Hitler

Can infrastructure investment win "hearts and minds"? We analyze a famous case in the early stages of dictatorship - the building of the motorway network in Nazi Germany. The Autobahn was one of the most important projects of the Hitler government. It was intended to reduce unemployment, and was widely used for propaganda purposes. We examine its role in increasing support for the NS regime by analyzing new data on motorway construction and the 1934 plebiscite, which gave Hitler great powers as head of state. Our results suggest that road building was highly effective, reducing opposition to the nascent Nazi regime.

Happy Medium, Happy Citizens

Institutional and behavioral theories of democracy abound but rarely intersect. Do executive lawmaking power and prowess condition democratic regime support in presidential democracies? We develop theoretical expectations linking the lawmaking powers of the president and mass regime support and test them by analyzing survey data from eighteen Latin American countries over ten years. As hypothesized, results indicate that preference for, and satisfaction with, democracy is highest where presidents have moderate legislative powers and success and lowest where presidents either dominate policymaking or face gridlock. Hence, a “happy medium” of presidential power promotes the attitudinal foundations of democracy.

Social Policy and Regime Legitimacy: The Effects of Education Reform in China

Elites often use social policies to garner political support and ensure regime survival, but social policies are not a silver bullet. Using two waves of Chinese national surveys, I find that a recent policy of abolishing school fees has significantly increased citizens’ demand for greater government responsibility in financing compulsory education. I argue that policy awareness, rather than policy benefits, drives citizens’ demand. Finally, I show that policy awareness has enhanced citizens’ trust in China's central government, but not in local governments. This asymmetry in regime support has two sources—the decentralization of education provision and biased media reporting—which induce citizens to credit the central government for good policy outcomes. Given that citizens’ responses are primarily influenced by policy awareness that is promoted by the state media, this study casts doubt on the use of social policies to sustain long-term political support.

Internet Exposure and Political Beliefs among Educated Youth in China

Using a survey of 1,280 Chinese college students, this article explores the impact of Internet use in China on political beliefs. By controlling for overall Internet exposure and differentiating between visits to government websites and to non-government on-line sources, I find that the more students browse ‘vertically’, the more supportive they are of the regime and the less they endorse democratic norms, and that the more they browse ‘horizontally’, the more likely they are to agree with democratic norms but are not significantly less willing to support the regime. I also find that Party membership raises support for the regime, and that family income exerts a U-shaped impact on regime support, but neither has an independent and significant effect on agreement with democratic values. Analyses of other individual characteristics further refine the finding that regime support and democratic orientation do not necessarily contradict each other. Students who do not strongly support the current regime are not necessarily democracy seekers.

Democracy between Ethnos and Demos

Much of the political science literature suggests that a cohesive political community is advantageous—if not a precondition—for a stable democracy. Forging a cohesive community is obviously a more complex matter in a multi-ethnic setting. This article will consider the prospects of building political communities in the Baltic countries—three countries that, to various extents, struggle to balance ethnic pluralism, nation building, and democracy. The article examines the relationship between political community and democracy from a theoretical perspective, followed by an outline of the nation-building strategies taken by Estonia, Latvia, and Lithuania after re-establishing independence in the early 1990s. Drawing on survey data, we use territorial attachment to tap the sense of political community in the three countries. Notably, our figures disclose that most of the Russian-speaking minorities in Estonia and Latvia identify themselves as “Russians,” and not at all with the country they reside in. This suggests that the contested issue of citizenship rights in the two countries has not been particularly conducive for creating cohesive political communities. We then move to the political regime and set out to examine the character of regime support in the three countries. Can we envisage solid support for democracy and its institutions in the absence of a cohesive political community? As it appears, regime support is not contingent on territorial identity. Our data disclose that many Baltic inhabitants draw a clear distinction between their own experiences with different political systems and what they perceive as relevant regime options today.

The Arab Spring: last episode of the Cold War

Using the Regional Security Complex Theory and developing its regime-related dimension, this article analyses the involvement of external powers in Arab Spring conflicts. Libya, Syria and Bahrain are used as case studies showing that Western support for the incumbent regime or for its adversaries was not based on a choice between democracy and authoritarianism. Rather, it was motivated by a pattern of amity and enmity inherited from the Cold War period. The surprising survival of this pattern was due to the three authoritarian regimes’ inability to reform; to the ensuing preservation of their Cold War era perception in the West; and to Russia's new availability as an external patron. Consequently, the article argues that the Arab Spring can be perceived as the last, belated episode of the Cold War. However, its political consequences put an end to the last features inherited from the pre-1989 period and open a new Middle Eastern era.

Césaire at the Crossroads in Haiti: Correspondence with Henri Seyrig

Césaire at the Crossroads in Haiti: Correspondence with Henri Seyrig

Perceived Election (Un)fairness and Support for Electoral Protest: Reactions to the Russian State Duma Election in 2011

Recent research focuses on electoral authoritarian regimes, which use limited political competition and manipulated elections to enhance legitimacy and maintain incumbent rule. But to what extent and under what conditions do unfair elections enhance or erode support for regime? More specifically, when do unfair elections increase support for electoral protest? To address these questions, I use evidence from the New Russia Barometer nationwide survey, conducted shortly after the 2011 State Duma election that triggered electoral protests. This evidence is complemented by surveys of Muscovites and Moscow protesters. I test the effects of several conditions on support for electoral protest: direct experience of procedural unfairness, perceived decisiveness of procedural violations for election outcomes (substantive unfairness), knowledge of the election observers’ critical assessments, and voting for winners or losers. I conclude with a discussion of implications of perceived election unfairness for protest attitudes. NOTE: Earlier versions of this paper were presented at the Midwest Political Science Association annual convention, April 11th-14th, 2013, Chicago, IL and at the pre-APSA Workshop on Electoral Integrity, August 28th, 2013, Chicago, IL.

Do Culture and Institutions Matter? Explaining the Sources of Cross‐National Regime Support

What determines the level of popular support for regimes? There are two approaches to answering this question: one that emphasizes the role of culture in conditioning individuals' evaluations of political objects and another that emphasizes the importance of institutional arrangements in constraining and channeling individual behavior. I hypothesize that cross‐national variation in regime support is, in part, a consequence of an interaction between cultural values and institutional arrangements. The results indicate that the impact of culture on regime support is mediated by the institutional context. It is this insight that can help us to better understand where regime support originates.Related Articles Hiroi, Taeko, and Sawa Omori. 2013. “.” Politics & Policy 41 (): 39‐64. http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/polp.12001/abstract Legler, Thomas. 2012. “.” Politics & Policy 40 (): 848‐870. http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/j.1747‐1346.2012.00382.x/abstract Boehmer, Charles. 2007. “.” Politics & Policy 35 (): 774‐809. http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/j.1747‐1346.2007.00084.x/abstract Related Media . 2013. http://www.worldvaluessurvey.org/index_html . 2013. http://www.vanderbilt.edu/lapop/ Applebaum, Binyamin, and Robert Gebeloff. 2012. “.” New York Times. February 11. http://www.nytimes.com/2012/02/12/us/even‐critics‐of‐safety‐net‐increasingly‐depend‐on‐it.html?pagewanted=all&_r=0

The United States and the Arab Spring

This article reveals, by studying correlative relationships between US regime support and regime properties, that the US foreign policy in the Middle East has traditionally helped governments to limit the political participation of Islamists, communists, enemies of Israel and populations that could be hostile to the US oil interests. This way the US economic and strategic security interests have contributed to human insecurity in the region. With the exception of the last interest, the US has relaxed its support for repression of the above-mentioned groups. This seems to be one of the international factors that made the Arab Spring possible.

Regime Support in Urban China

Why has the Chinese regime been resilient in the most populous country in the world? Based on survey data collected from five large Chinese cities, this study finds that a majority of Chinese urban residents show a certain degree of support for the current political regime and do not favor fundamental regime change. This diffuse regime support is largely determined by satisfaction with government performance in a number of policy areas that affect people’s daily lives.

Southeast Asia: Sources of Regime Support

The authors’ empirical analysis shows both commonalities and variations in the sources of regime support in Southeast Asian countries. Most regimes in the region draw political legitimacy from perceptions that their governance is effective and marked by integrity. These findings lend support to the argument that regime legitimacy—when it is won and when it is lost—is rooted in the output side of the political system. Yet delivering economic prosperity alone will not suffice. In order for political regimes in Southeast Asia to win over their people, they must control corruption, respect the rule of law, treat all citizens fairly and equally, expand public services, and be responsive to what the people need. The region’s young democracies are not exempt from these requirements.

Elites and Classes in the Transformation of State Socialism. By David Lane. Edison, NJ: Transaction, 2011. 222p. $49.95. - Popular Support for an Undemocratic Regime: The Changing Views of Russians. By Richard Rose, William Mishler, and Neil Munro. New York: Cambridge University Press, 2011. 214p. $88.00 cloth, $30.99 paper.

Elites and Classes in the Transformation of State Socialism. By David Lane. Edison, NJ: Transaction, 2011. 222p. $49.95. - Popular Support for an Undemocratic Regime: The Changing Views of Russians. By Richard Rose, William Mishler, and Neil Munro. New York: Cambridge University Press, 2011. 214p. $88.00 cloth, $30.99 paper.

Discurso del poder y voluntad de verdad en los artículos políticos anticarlistas de Mariano José de Larra

This article analyzes the politicization of Mariano Jose de Larra’s journalistic discourse after the end of the absolutist regime of the Fernando VII and the establishment of constitutional liberalism in Spain in 1833. His support for the new political regime, along with his visible opposition to the Carlist insurrection, can relate Larra to the large group of writers who publicly took part in favor of liberalism during those years. However, the existence of two different groups of anti-Carlist articles will prove how, unlike many other intellectuals of that time, his writings evolved from a clear institutionalization of literary discourse to a much more rebellious stance. What was at first unconditional support to the propaganda sponsored by different liberal governments became a constant criticism towards what Larra considered a tremendous government nonsense. This evolution shows an interesting dialectic between the politicization of the intellectual and the will to truth, a concept defined in M. Foucault’s The Order of Discourse, the analysis of which outlines the intricate aspects of the writer’s personality.

RT (Zimbabwe) v Secretary for State for the Home Department (United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees intervening): [2012] UKSC 38: Supreme Court (England and Wales): Lord Hope of Craighead DPSC, Baroness Hale of Richmond, Lord Kerr of Tonaghmore, Lord Clarke of Stone-cum-Ebony, Lord Dyson, Lord Wilson, Lord Reed JJSC

Immigration – Asylum – Fear of persecution – Claimants having no political beliefs – Asylum claims refused on ground that claimants able to feign support for persecutory regime in country of nationality – Whether reasonable to expect claimants to lie about lack of political beliefs to avoid persecution – Convention and Protocol relating to the Status of Refugees (1951) (Cmd 9171) and (1967) (Cmnd 3906), art 1A(2)

Rose, R., Muishler, W. and Munro, N. Popular Support for an Undemocratic Regime: The Changing Views of Russians 2011 Cambridge University Press 214 pp. £18.99 (paperback)

Rose, R., Muishler, W. and Munro, N. Popular Support for an Undemocratic Regime: The Changing Views of Russians 2011 Cambridge University Press 214 pp. £18.99 (paperback)