Symbolic Policy Research Articles

Policy implications of climate change denial: Content analysis of Russian national and regional news media

This article investigates the policy implications of national and regional climate change denial in Russia. While in general Russia has lagged behind in its climate mitigation policy, its key fossil-fuel regions are actively responding to external initiatives and pressures. As the country generally lacks substantial climate policy initiatives, the focus of this study is on the symbolic policy reactions operationalized as the media coverage of climate change at the national and regional levels in Russia during 2017–2018. Following the theoretical perspective of disproportionate policy response, the analysis elaborates on one of the suggested causes of policy over and underreactions, namely, the level of public demand for policy action. The findings indicate potential for disproportionate policy response research to conceive of public demand in broader terms, distinguishing between local, national and international domains.

Symbolic Regression Methods for Reinforcement Learning

Reinforcement learning algorithms can solve dynamic decision-making and optimal control problems. With continuous-valued state and input variables, reinforcement learning algorithms must rely on function approximators to represent the value function and policy mappings. Commonly used numerical approximators, such as neural networks or basis function expansions, have two main drawbacks: they are black-box models offering little insight into the mappings learned, and they require extensive trial and error tuning of their hyper-parameters. In this paper, we propose a new approach to constructing smooth value functions in the form of analytic expressions by using symbolic regression. We introduce three off-line methods for finding value functions based on a state-transition model: symbolic value iteration, symbolic policy iteration, and a direct solution of the Bellman equation. The methods are illustrated on four nonlinear control problems: velocity control under friction, one-link and two-link pendulum swing-up, and magnetic manipulation. The results show that the value functions yield well-performing policies and are compact, mathematically tractable, and easy to plug into other algorithms. This makes them potentially suitable for further analysis of the closed-loop system. A comparison with an alternative approach using neural networks shows that our method outperforms the neural network-based one.

Symbolic Politics of Georgia and Azerbaijan in Russia: Two Research Cases

One of the most actively discussed topics in modern political science is symbolic politics. This topic looks especially relevant in relation to the former Soviet republics, which are actively operating within the framework of the symbolic component of politics. Based on an interdisciplinary approach to the study of symbolic politics, the article analyzes two cases related to the symbolic politics of the two republics of the post-Soviet space - Georgia and Azerbaijan, respectively. The first case refers to an attempt by the leadership of the Georgian Orthodox Church to obtain permission from the Russian Orthodox Church and the Russian authorities to transfer the ashes of Georgian kings Vakhtang VI and Teymuraz II from Astrakhan to Tbilisi. The second case studies the circumstances of the construction of a monument in Dagestan near Agachaul to Turkish soldiers who died here in 1918 during the Civil war. The two cases presented in the article are interesting primarily because they allow us to see the methods of symbolic politics using concrete examples. In both cases, the actors were not state structures, but religious, social, and scientific organizations. The main method of the actors was to organize a commemorative campaign, around which an information campaign was then built, with the aim of replicating a certain interpretation of historical events. At the same time, cases differ from each other in the degree of openness and scale of actions of actors. In the first case regarding the transfer of the ashes of Georgian tsars, the Georgian side directly addressed both the leadership of the Russian Orthodox Church and the leadership of Russia. At the same time, the actions undertaken by the Georgian side were not successful. In the second case, the Azerbaijani side actively used the local commemorative campaign, initiated by local communities in Dagestan, to launch an appropriate wide information campaign. A comparison of cases leads to the conclusion that the success of a symbolic policy does not depend on the scale of the actions taken.

Концептуальные проблемы современной российской символической политики в сохранении исторической памяти о Великой Отечественной войне

The article attempts to explain the problems faced by modern Russian politics of memory in connection with falsifications of the history of World War II. Attention is drawn to the reasons for the spread in the public mind of the opinion of the equal responsibility of Germany and the USSR in starting a war. It is shown that the reason for the difficulties of the Russian symbolic policy is the lack of a coherent theoretical construct that allows a logically consistent interpretation of the events of the political history of the first half of the twentieth century. It points to the uncritical acceptance by the Russian political science of the theory of totalitarianism and insufficient attention to the laws of the formation of fascist regimes in Western Europe. It is concluded that inclusion in the world economic system under the conditions of the A historical and comparative approach, comparing the features of using various conceptual foundations of events at the beginning of World War II, depending on the interests and goals of political actors. West inevitably turns out to be supplemented by the loss of sovereignty in the scientific and theoretical sphere.

Pay equity through collective bargaining: when voluntary state feminism meets selective business practice

The article traces the story of equal pay policy formation from the early 1980s to the present, from agenda-setting to policy adoption through to implementation, evaluation and outcomes. Until 2010, equal pay policy was implemented through collective bargaining at company and sector levels within a legal framework that failed to establish penalties for non-compliance. Persistent mobilization of feminist actors inside and outside of government contributed to breaking with this symbolic policy. A financial penalty for non-compliant companies was established. The article shows that the strengthening of the existing framework was not sufficient to counter the reluctance of companies to make a solid commitment to closing the gender pay gap, and the outcome appears to be a clear case of “gender accommodation” in GEPP terms. However, recent feminist mobilization around more effective implementation on equal pay suggests that the struggle for more authoritative equal pay policies in the firm is still on the policy agenda.

САКРАЛЬНЫЕ ЛАНДШАФТЫ В КОЛЛЕКТИВНОМ СОЗНАНИИ СЕЛЬСКИХ ЖИТЕЛЕЙ ЛЕНИНГРАДСКОЙ ОБЛАСТИ

The paper introduces the results of sociocultural studies conducted in rural areas of the Leningrad region (2015–1018). The purpose of the field study was to explore the attitudes of collective consciousness of respondents in respect of the revered landscape objects of their small homeland. This implied detecting perceptions of rural residents of Volosovsky, Kingisepp, Gatchina, Luga districts of the Leningrad region, focused on the maintenance of historical memory. Therefore, as an object of research, we chose the views (meanings) that our respondents associated with the revered landscape objects (cult stones, sacred groves, trees, springs, etc.). These very objects are the markers of sacred landscape of the territories. The research has resulted in dividing all of our respondents (N=179), with whom we have worked with a method of narrative interviews into three groups: of “Connoisseurs”, i.e. people who are able to answer our questions, “Improvisers” — people who gave visionary fantasy and vague answers and “Profanes” — who proved unable to give answers to our questions. The majority of respondents, both men and women were in the group of “Profanes” (59%), the number of “Improvisers” — 29%, and “Experts” — 12%. The prevalence of people who were not interested in the history of their small homeland in our society is alarming. The fading of this interest shows: the failure of symbolic policy of the state, the urgent need to create positive attitudes to the sacred landscapes of the North-West of Russia as a whole, as a source of spiritual, ethno-cultural, socio-cultural identification of the population. That said the study revealed prospects for the use of this spiritual and historical resource in scientific, educational and educational-pragmatic (cognitive, pilgrimage tourism) purposes.

Promoting Gender Equality through Party Funding: Symbolic Policies at Work in Italy

AbstractGiven the growing importance of state subsidies as a source of party income, several countries have introduced policies that link the provision of party funding to the promotion of gender equality in political representation. Variations in the assignment of public funding—that is, financial incentives and cuts—are increasingly employed to promote equal gender participation in intraparty politics and in public office. However, we know little about why and how these equality promotion policies have been adopted in different countries, how they work in practice, and, most importantly, what effects they have on women's representation. To contribute to this debate, after embedding gender-targeted public funding regulations in the broader set of political representation policies and presenting a comparative overview of existing rules in the European Union, the article concentrates on the Italian case. We examine the evolution of Italian regulation of gender electoral financing and the extent to which the Italian parties have complied with the rules over time. The results show that this set of policy instruments, when poorly designed, is nothing more than symbolic policy. The lack of appropriate mechanisms for sanctions and rewards, which can induce parties to change their behavior, has hampered the effectiveness of these policy measures.

VISUALIZATION OF POLITICAL RELATIONS BY THE MEANS OF ARCHITECTURE

Problem setting. The architecture has the powerful potential of impact on political consciousness of citizens. This role is reinforced due to the development of high technologies, growing data streams, etc. The policy of national memory in Ukraine is the testimony of this phenomenon.Recent research and publications analysis. The researches, devoted to the relations between the architecture and politics, including the problem of human rights, are spread recently. The studying of architecture impact on formation of symbolic policy, are spread within Urban Studies. O. Hatherley, S. Low et al. study the impact of city squares on political communications. The significant contribution into study on impact of architecture on social relations was made by neuropsychologist C. Ellard. Some researchers have analyzed the political the political aspects of the government institutions architecture. N. Khoma develops the theoretical principles for political Urban Studies in Ukraine. However, there are the contradictions in national researches; they often pay attention only to reflection of tendencies for political development in architecture.Paper objective. The paper objective is to analyze the mutual impact of architecture and social political relations, in particular, architecture ability not only to reflect the tendencies in social political development but to impact on them.Paper main body. A symbol not only represents the social actuality, it is such actuality and it forms it within dynamic aspect. This stipulates not only the propagandist but social organizing functions of architecture. Hereby, the architectural objects produce the senses, which their creators have not anticipated. Moreover, they can change the symbolic load with time. The mechanism to form the actuality through symbolization is the embodiment of new sense into symbolic object by its consumer, and the discrepancies in perception relate to different social positioning of consumers. The theoretical substantiation of these phenomena is the concept by M. McLuhan, in particular, his principle according to which the medium is the message the medium is amputated from its creator. As a result of this, the architecture can refer to other actuality, namely to society with its range of persuasions, emotions, etc.The history of president’s residencies in Turkey is analyzed in the paper as the example for impact of form on development of political relations. Moving of the President to the new residence was preceded to constitutional implementation of president’s government. Place de la Concorde and Vendome Column in Paris were chosen as the example for change in information content of architectural objects. The authors explain the discrepancies in shapes for T. Shevchenko monuments in Ukraine with discrepancies in concepts of nation, which are defended by different regional communities in Ukraine.Conclusions of the research. The authors refer the perspectives for researches on role of architecture in formation ofpolitical relations to accumulation of actual material both as to symbolization of certain architectural elements and mechanisms to form the senses of architectural spaces.

Women's Movements Institutionalization and Impact on Policy. The Case of the Bolivian Movement of Domestic Workers

Several authors have analysed how institutionalized women's movements impact policy, but research has devoted little attention to the differentiated impact of institutionalized movements on the substantive and symbolic dimensions of the same policy. I investigate this issue by focusing on the Bolivian movement of domestic workers, a paradigmatic case of an institutionalized women's movement that had a sound impact on the symbolic dimension of the policy on domestic workers' rights but a much weaker impact on its substantive dimension. The research is based on qualitative content analysis of documents produced by the movement and the government, and semi-structured interviews with key actors. I have reached three main findings. First, institutionalization facilitates the achievement of symbolic policy outcomes, but does not necessarily allow the achievement of substantive policy outcomes. Second, the inclusion of movements in deliberative processes that imply the joint elaboration of policy seems to be the form of institutionalization that allows the strongest impact on the substantive dimension of policy, while the appointment of movement members to official positions is less effective. Third, a form of institutionalization that was not included in existent typologies has been identified: the recognition of the importance of a movement by the government.

The Images of Childhood and Children in the Symbolic Politics

The study was supported by the Russian Science Foundation, grant 18-18-00233 “Cinema images of Soviet and American enemies in the symbolic policy of the Cold War: Comparative Analysis” and the Russian Foundation for Basic Research, grant 19-011-00748 “Russian Bear” in modern symbolic politics: Russian and Western contexts.

Symbolic Policy and Ideational Path Dependency : Institutional Change and Ideational Continuity in the Korean Developmental Model

Symbolic Policy and Ideational Path Dependency : Institutional Change and Ideational Continuity in the Korean Developmental Model

Driven by politics: agenda setting and policy-making in Hungary 2010–2014

ABSTRACTStudies on media and politics generally find an effect of the media on the symbolic policy agenda. Analysing data from the Hungarian Comparative Agendas Project, we demonstrate that this effect is extremely weak in the Hungarian policy-making process. We identified those issues that received greater than average coverage in the media. However, we found that in the majority of cases governmental initiatives or decisions preceded the media coverage – that is, instead of the media agenda pulling the policy agenda, the general logic is the opposite: the media are talking about the policy initiatives of the government. The ambition of the paper is twofold. First, our findings reinforce those claims in the literature that point to the many institutional and political factors affecting the media-politics nexus. This suggests that policy-making might be very different in new(er) democracies. Second, our research analyses the policy-making side of Viktor Orbán’s governance. Changes in the polity, democratic backlash and illiberal tendencies are usually the focus concerning the political changes in Hungary since 2010, but no attention has been devoted to how this type of governance is reflected in policy-making. Our paper seeks to make a contribution also in this respect.

Why symbolise control? Irregular migration to the UK and symbolic policy-making in the 1960s

ABSTRACTIt has frequently been observed that irregular migration is a common object of symbolic policy-making: the use of cosmetic adjustments to signal action, rather than substantive measures that achieve stated goals. Yet there is little research analysing the considerations driving policy actors to adopt such approaches. Drawing on existing literature, we distinguish three theoretical accounts of symbolic policy-making: manipulation, compensation, and adaptation. We explore these accounts through examining the emergence of symbolic policies in UK immigration control in the 1960s. Through detailed archival research, we reconstruct the deliberations leading to a series of Home Office decisions to crack down on irregular entry – decisions which officials felt were not operationally sensible, but which were based on popular political narratives of the problem. We conclude that the UK’s adoption of symbolic policy was a clear case of adaptation: a series of concessions to simplistic notions of control that did not chime with official views of what would work, and which were reluctantly embraced for reasons of political expediency. In conclusion, we suggest the need for more fine-grained analysis of the deliberations underpinning decision-making in bureaucracies, in order to produce more nuanced accounts of political rationalities in the area of immigration policy.

Bridging the gap: How the National Core Arts Standards forge the divide between the arts and assessment-based learning

ABSTRACTThis article is a review and thematic analysis of the 2014 National Core Arts Standards (NCAS). Historically, there exists a gap between the arts and assessment-based educational practices. Thematic analysis of the NCAS reveals a policy striving to bridge the gap between the way arts educators envision arts in schools, and the current reality of assessment-based schooling in the United States. This policy could become the foundation for the recognition of the arts as academically rigorous subject matter, capable of existing and thriving in an assessment-oriented world; it remains to be seen as to how and if arts educators will use and adapt NCAS. Is the NCAS merely a symbolic policy or does it have the support behind it to be a material policy that truly creates change in the educational system?

Deep religion: policy as faith in Kinnock’s Labour Party

Shorn of a coherent theoretical basis for the party’s socialism, some of the Labour Party’s policies become emblematic of the party’s worldview. While Labour’s commitment to public ownership has long been considered in this way, comprehension of how the party’s ‘nostalgia’ or ‘traditions’ affect the party’s trajectory could be aided by a better understanding of why certain policies become so deeply rooted. This article contributes to the existing literature on this topic in two ways. First, in expanding upon Henry Drucker’s concept of ethos, it seeks to establish a framework for understanding why some policies become tantamount to faith in the Labour Party. Second, using this frame, it analyses how Kinnock successfully changed a symbolic policy, working within and through Labour’s ethos. This article explores policy characteristics that combine to make a policy emblematic of Labour’s ideology: a strong socialist heritage; a stark contrast with the Conservative opposition; an adhesive quality which can bind Labour people together and relevance to internal factionalism. As the current Labour leadership consolidates its power, this article also suggests that, while long-dormant, policies such as unilateralism retain their potency and may once again form a part of Labour’s platform.

Эффекты символической политики в отношении каталонцев в Испании (на примере визуального образа)

The paper analyzes the effects of symbolic policy towards Catalans in Spain. The main goal of the study is to identify (stereotyped) symbolic elements constructing the image of a Catalan as a member of the ethnic group used in Spanish media and cinema. Photos from three Spanish newspapers and one film, in which the Catalan national identity is represented, were under analysis. Based on these sources, the authors conclude that Catalans have a strong ethnic and regional identity. They constitute a modern and advanced group and prefer to identify themselves with Europe rather than with Spain. DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.17072/2218-1067-2018-2-61-76

Policy changes resulting in power changes? Quantitative evidence from 25 years of forest policy development in Bangladesh

A remarkable research program exists conceptualizing policy change as dependent variable, and inquiring on factors causing it. A question so far neglected by political science is: to which extent does policy change as independent variable also lead to power changes among key policy actors so they can facilitate and flank those changes? Before this background this study aims to analyze the consequences of 25 years of policy changes on the power of the main bureaucratic actors in a particular policy field. Conceptually we draw on bureaucratic politics, power and relative gains theories and the concept of substantial vs. symbolic policy change. Empirically we focus on all substantive as well as symbolic policy changes within the forest policy sector in Bangladesh between 1989 and 2014. Our finding suggest that over 25 years both, substantive as well as symbolic policy changes bring about power gains for (i) subject-specific sectoral administrations, including multi-sectoral district authorities, who gain power to the largest extent, (ii) cross-cutting general bureaucracies on finance and planning, and (iii) foreign donor administrations. We conclude that esp. sectoral bureaucracies are very sensitive and knowledgeable about the power implications of policy changes specific to their fields of expertise and, hence, are able to follow a more efficient power strategy than their cross-cutting counterparts.

Choosing the Right Policy Tools to Encourage Watershed Stewardship through the Study of Attitude

ABSTRACTRecently, a number of “Payment for Watershed Services” programs have aimed to engage private landowners in watershed stewardship initiatives by offering financial incentives for adopting watershed best management practices. However, a growing field of research suggests that financial incentives alone may be of limited utility to encourage widespread and long-standing behavior change, and other policy tools may be required. This research examines how attitudes may influence enrollment in watershed stewardship programs to shed light the application of incentive, capacity building, and symbolic policy tools. We distributed a questionnaire to rural landowners in the Clackamas River watershed, OR, and received 281 valid responses (29% response rate). We found that attitudes associated with trust, ecological understanding, and technical capacity played more fundamental roles compared with financial considerations. We interpret these findings by evaluating the likely efficacy of various policy tools, and stress the importance of engaging landowners by building capacity and trust.

Optimal Control via Reinforcement Learning with Symbolic Policy Approximation

Model-based reinforcement learning (RL) algorithms can be used to derive optimal control laws for nonlinear dynamic systems. With continuous-valued state and input variables, RL algorithms have to rely on function approximators to represent the value function and policy mappings. This paper addresses the problem of finding a smooth policy based on the value function represented by means of a basis-function approximator. We first show that policies derived directly from the value function or represented explicitly by the same type of approximator lead to inferior control performance, manifested by non-smooth control signals and steady-state errors. We then propose a novel method to construct a smooth policy represented by an analytic equation, obtained by means of symbolic regression. The proposed method is illustrated on a reference-tracking problem of a 1-DOF robot arm operating under the influence of gravity. The results show that the analytic control law performs at least equally well as the original numerically approximated policy, while it leads to much smoother control signals. In addition, the analytic function is readable (as opposed to black-box approximators) and can be used in further analysis and synthesis of the closed loop.

Symbolic policing: situating targeted police operations/‘crackdowns’ on street-level drug markets

ABSTRACTThe policing of local drug markets in England often takes the form of specific, high-profile, crackdown operations which themselves are mostly a generic, periodic response to particular criminality. Drawing on Innes’ (2004) concept of ‘control signals’ and Edelman’s (1985) notion of ‘symbolic policy’, we argue that ‘symbolic policing’ relates to activity that is principally about achieving symbolic aims – ‘being seen to be doing something’ rather than preventing or solving crime. This article, focusing on police crackdown operations on heroin and crack cocaine ‘dealers’ in three English urban areas, considers the meanings of such operations, how they work, and in relation to local suppliers suggests they may in fact have counterproductive enforcement outcomes whilst still achieving symbolic objectives. It is concluded that generic crackdown operations at the level of local drug markets are unhelpfully insensitive to local conditions and that, in certain circumstances, they can be antithetical to more considered enforcement and public health aims.