Unionist Party Research Articles

Populism's Challenges to Political Parties and Democracy - Taking the United States as an Example

In recent years, with the rise of populism around the world, the traditional party system and democratic system have encountered very serious challenges. This article mainly takes the United States as an example to explore in depth how populism affects American political parties and democratic governance. First, the development history of populism in the United States since the 20th century is analyzed and introduced, focusing on the impact of Trumpism in American politics. Secondly, it mainly explores the impact of populism on the internal structure and policy orientation of the two major political parties, the Republican Party and the Democratic Party, and deeply explores the role of populism in splitting party unity and reshaping party ideology. In addition, it also focuses on the role of populism in democracy from both positive and negative aspects. Finally, this article examines the challenges of American populism to the development of American democratic systems and political parties, including challenges to the electoral process, judicial independence, media freedom and public trust. This article believes that strengthening civic education and promoting party reform can better cope with the impact of populism and enable the healthy development of the democratic system.

Transnational labour governance: Crafting the authority and regulatory effectiveness of global agreements

The development of cross-border social dialogue to improve conditions for global workers includes transnational company agreements. These private governance agreements, inter alia, encourage company and union parties to share responsibility for protecting labour rights and standards throughout their operations. In particular, the Global Framework Agreement (GFA), with declared global reach inclusive of suppliers and robust joint measures for regulatory compliance, contributes a significant resource of potentiality for actor utility and local application. This article shows that concrete asymmetries of political-economy power in multinational companies are affected by attribution and expression of moral-political authority engendered by the GFA, and diverse actor responses to that authority. Generation and distribution of that authority among parties facilitates action toward more responsible and effective multilevel transnational labour governance.

Constructing Disraeli in Twentieth-Century Conservatism

Abstract Since the 1960s, when historians first dethroned the dominant view of Benjamin Disraeli as a Tory democrat and social reformer, his association with an interventionist, socially inclusive Conservatism has largely been considered an exercise in political myth-making. This focus on the Disraeli ‘myth’ has tended to obscure the myriad and substantive ways in which Disraeli’s life and works were interpreted and put to work in Conservative ideological debates and political practice in the twentieth century, reducing them to social policy and state intervention in the economy and overlooking the lineages of his political career in Conservative political economy debates, conceptions of the nation and the constitution, and imperial and foreign policy thinking. This article examines interpretations of Disraeli, and how his legacy was constructed, by conservative biographers, historians and public intellectuals from the decades after his death until the historiography of the 1960s. It traces how Disraeli was memorialised and celebrated in the Conservative movement and popular culture; how his life and works were interpreted for popular audiences by an important group of conservative historians in the inter-war period; and how Disraeli was mobilised in Conservative and Unionist Party debates on tariff reform, social reform, the nation and empire, concluding in the aftermath of the Second World War, when his legacy and statecraft were consistently evoked in Conservative debates on post-war Britain. It demonstrates that Disraeli was interpreted in much more diverse ways, and with more diverse political objectives, than the standard readings of the Disraelian tradition have hitherto appreciated.

Frustrated marriage? The ideological distance of members of congress from their parties in Latin America

Are legislators ideologically close to their co-partisans? And, when not, what policies drive the lack of party unity? To address these questions, we propose two measures of intra-party ideological cohesion: dissonance and frustration. Based on a survey of legislators across 18 Latin American countries, we show that half of the region’s representatives self-identify as substantially far from the mean of their parties (dissonance) and almost 40% perceive large differences (frustration). Relying on a series of statistical tests, we find that these patterns are distinct for left-wing and right-wing legislators. The right is more dissonant than frustrated, and they are also more dissonant than the left. In terms of policy, we show that moral issues drive dissonance and frustration on both sides of the ideological spectrum, but disagreements on economic topics are more correlated with ideological distance for the left than the right. In presenting new measurements of intra-party disagreements, our paper proposes new pathways for the study of party cohesion.

The effect of public tolerance towards corruptive behaviour on healthcare efficiency and equity – The case of the UK's COVID-19 vaccination programme

Over the past four years, the COVID-19 pandemic has caused significant uncertainty, suffering, and economic disruption on a global scale. In response, governments have been under pressure to ensure equitable vaccine access while meeting vaccination targets quickly. These challenging circumstances created opportunities for nepotism and bribery, increasing attention to corruption risks associated with the pandemic response. This study investigates the relationship between public attitudes towards corruptive behaviour and the efficiency and equity of the UK's COVID-19 vaccination programme. It integrates primary data on public tolerance towards corruptive behaviour with secondary data on the efficiency of the vaccination program at the local authority level in England and Scotland. Employing a survival analysis approach, we estimate Cox Proportional Hazards Models to examine the time required to reach vaccination targets. Our findings suggest moderate tolerance towards corruptive behaviour among the British public, with 28% of survey participants considering monetary bribery and 34% considering nepotism/favouritism as acceptable means to secure early vaccination access. Notably, while public tolerance towards corruptive behaviour generally had a negative impact on the efficiency of the local rollout of the vaccination programme, it appeared to have accelerated its rollout in politically aligned local authorities governed by the Conservative and Unionist Party. However, this increase in efficiency seems to have come at the cost of reduced equity in vaccine distribution. These findings suggest a trade-off between efficiency and equity in vaccine distribution during public health crises, emphasising the need for balanced health policies that ensure fair and effective distribution of vaccines in the future.

Democracy and defections

Abstract Within comparative constitutional law, there is an emerging consensus that political fragmentation has weakened political parties and hindered the functioning of legislative bodies. This article examines legal efforts to curb fragmentation in parliamentary systems by prohibiting floor crossing, or “defections”—a constitutional approach that concentrates power within party leaders. It conducts a detailed case study of India, exploring what is arguably the most extensive experiment in anti-defection law and its impact on accountability and representation. The article goes on to analyze similar laws in Israel and South Africa, highlighting the challenges of self-regulation. After evaluating the limitations of narrow anti-defection laws—such as the one in Pakistan—it proposes that the drawbacks of legislating party unity through formal defection regulation may prompt a reconsideration not only of legislatures but also political parties and political polarization. While some scholars have viewed attempts to stem fragmentation as a solution for limiting polarization, this article suggests the opposite: sharpening polarization, when coupled with norm-based internal party controls, may well tame the excesses of fragmentation, especially in non-programmatic multiparty systems. Although there are difficult tradeoffs here, as polarization can have independent (adverse) effects, the broader lessons of anti-defection laws deserve to be reckoned with. Ultimately, however, what the widespread adoption of anti-defection laws might primarily reveal is the nature of our faith—or lack thereof—in the promise of a certain form of parliamentary politics.

Political accountability and legislative behavior in Africa: evidence from the 2019 Kenyan Sugar Bill in the context of the political economy of sectoral policy

ABSTRACT Recent research on African legislatures, once considered rarely autonomous, has found that some broad-scale mass movements, including pro-poor campaigns, hold legislators accountable. This article meanwhile examines the conditions under which narrow local constituency issues, shaping partisan differences, can hold relevant representatives and parties accountable while prioritizing over executive pressures and clientelist personal gains. I argue that this sort of political accountability in legislatures can be observed concerning sectoral policy interests, which, in Africa, are often geographically concentrated along ethnicity and party support lines. Drawing on a combination of qualitative and quantitative approaches including interviews, news coverage reviews, and a statistical analysis of legislative debates on the 2019 Sugar Bill in Kenya, I show that the growing and collective efforts of sugar farmers to influence their local representatives and parties to support the legislation, tying them to the same electoral fate, prompt legislators to speak in favor of their local interests. This implies that sector-based policy concerns, when addressed by organized policy backers, are used as an effective mechanism for maintaining party unity and accountability in the legislature.

THE PROSPECTS OF NORTHERN IRELAND POLITICAL STABILISATION

The article deals with the reasons of two years political crisis in Northern Ireland. According to the author, it became possible due to Belfast Agreement power-sharing system which means joint government on a cross-community basis between representatives of protestant and catholic traditions. If one of the side ceased to hold office by any reason, the other shall cease to function immediately. The main reason for political crises in February 2022 was the demand of the Democratic unionist party to reconsider the Northern Ireland protocol – part of the Brexit Agreement, and their refusal to hold office. The absence of the Executive led to economic destabilisation, have a negative impact on social situation. Lengthy negotiations between DUP, British, Irish governments and EU resulted in step-by-step changes in protocol and resumption of work in Stormont in February 2024. To avoid further crises it’s required to reform the political institutions.

The BJP's Drive for Hegemony

ABSTRACT: In 2014, the Hindu-nationalist Bharatiya Janata Party captured national power in the world's largest democracy. Under its controversial new leader, Narendra Modi, the BJP established India's first single-party majority government since 1984 and became the only party besides the Indian National Congress to accomplish this feat since the country won independence, in 1947. In the 2019 general election, despite a disappointing economic record, growing communal strife, and disruptive policy decisions, the BJP increased its vote share and seats in Parliament. The victory emboldened the party to further its longstanding agenda to transform India's secular constitutional democracy into a de facto Hindu nation. Modi remained popular throughout India's terrible pandemic. Now, with a return of high economic growth and the unity of opposition parties in question, most observers expect him to win the 2024 general election, which concludes in June.

By their friends shall ye know them: Donald Trump and the Democratic Unionist Party’s populist revival

ABSTRACT The Democratic Unionist Party (DUP) was home to some of the most vocal and steadfast supporters of the Presidency of Donald J. Trump. Drawing on a diverse range of sources, including interviews with those supporters, this paper accounts for the good relations between the DUP and Trump. That account highlights several commonalities, including their ‘Orangeism’, their stance on Brexit, their illiberalism, and their populism. As well as its nature, we also assess Trump’s impact on the behaviour and development of the DUP. We show how the Trump presidency fuelled a populist revival within the party, providing in the process an important update to existing accounts of its modernisation journey. That revival, we conclude, encourages greater cognisance of the DUP’s populist credentials and ongoing scrutiny of the factional tensions within it, tied as those are to the prospects of political unionism.

What Explains Party Unity? Evidence from U.S. State Legislatures

Party unity is central to studying legislative politics and explaining the organization of legislative chambers, passage of policy, and even electoral outcomes. Its effect has been shown at the subnational, national, and international levels. While party unity has been used to explain many phenomena in legislative politics, there is much less known about the determinants of party unity, especially at the subnational level. We leverage a dataset of party unity in 95 U.S. state legislative chambers from 2002 to 2014, to test the impact of party structures, institutional rules, and contextual factors on the level of party unity. We find that majority status, party seat share, and the other party's unity impact party unity similarly for both parties, but the effect of inter‐party heterogeneity differs by party. These findings offer a new and unique insight to how partisan theories operate differently within state legislative versus Congressional parties.

Election results can decrease intergroup threat and through that positively affect intergroup relations

AbstractPrevious research has established that intergroup threat is pivotal to intergroup relations in divided societies. We used the Northern Ireland Assembly Elections in 2022 as a unique chance to investigate how elections can affect feelings of threat and intergroup relations between communities with a history of violent intergroup conflict. We argued that because of their conflicting goals, if Sinn Féin (i.e., a Republican party that promotes a united Ireland) gains more votes than the Democratic Unionist Party (DUP, i.e., a party promoting Northern Ireland's union with the United Kingdom), it would threaten DUP supporters and vice versa. We assessed whether participants supported Sinn Féin or DUP relatively to each other, intergroup threat, and intergroup bias before and after the elections (N = 285). Following an election outcome where Sinn Féin gained more votes than DUP, Sinn Féin supporters showed decreased feelings of threat which in turn decreased their intergroup bias. DUP supporters, the party that received fewer votes, showed no changes in their feelings of threat or intergroup bias. This research highlights how electoral results affect intergroup relations in postconflict societies.

Intra-party determinants of the allocation of legislative speeches

ABSTRACT Parliamentary speech is an important and highly visible feature of legislatures in democracies. Time in parliament is scarce and the allocation of floor time is characterised by largely incompatible preferences between party leaders, aiming to preserve a unified party label, and individual members of parliament (MPs), facing incentives to differentiate themselves and take alternative stances to maximise their personal reelection prospects. This paper investigates the role of MP policy positions in the allocation of parliamentary speeches in different institutional settings. Measuring positions using a novel dataset containing tweets by MPs in three European countries, we find that MPs with positions diverging from the party line get allocated less time on the parliamentary floor when floor time is exclusively controlled by parties, but not when parliamentary rules allow individual access to the floor.

Deklarasi Anies - Muhaimin dan Konflik Ideologi NU Versus PKS di Pentas Politik Nasional

The conflict between NU and PKS is an ideological battle rooted in political competition, notably surrounding the 2024 presidential election. Escalating tensions involve Nasdem's support for Anies Baswedan and PKS's selection of Muhaimin Iskandar as vice-presidential candidate. NU figures derisively depict the Anies-Muhaimin pair, backed by PKS, as Wahhabi groups associated with the Muslim Brotherhood. Utilizing power cube theory and Gramsci's hegemony, this research analyzes the conflict, revealing internal disputes within PKB across various power layers. The conflict extends nationally and internationally, involving key figures and transnational issues. However, attacks on the Anies-Muhaimin coalition rely on outdated narratives. NU's actions, stemming from Gus Dur's legacy, are influenced by political factors and personal interests. Hidden conflicts between NU and Muhammadiyah are also pivotal. The author suggests NU cadre unity, resolving longstanding conflicts, and Islamic party unity to confront perceived nepotism, secularism, and oligarchic favoritism in the regime.

Deklarasi Anies - Muhaimin dan Konflik Ideologi NU Versus PKS di Pentas Politik Nasional

The conflict between NU and PKS is an ideological battle rooted in political competition, notably surrounding the 2024 presidential election. Escalating tensions involve Nasdem's support for Anies Baswedan and PKS's selection of Muhaimin Iskandar as vice-presidential candidate. NU figures derisively depict the Anies-Muhaimin pair, backed by PKS, as Wahhabi groups associated with the Muslim Brotherhood. Utilizing power cube theory and Gramsci's hegemony, this research analyzes the conflict, revealing internal disputes within PKB across various power layers. The conflict extends nationally and internationally, involving key figures and transnational issues. However, attacks on the Anies-Muhaimin coalition rely on outdated narratives. NU's actions, stemming from Gus Dur's legacy, are influenced by political factors and personal interests. Hidden conflicts between NU and Muhammadiyah are also pivotal. The author suggests NU cadre unity, resolving longstanding conflicts, and Islamic party unity to confront perceived nepotism, secularism, and oligarchic favoritism in the regime.

Is fair representation good for children? effects of electoral partisan bias in state legislatures on policies affecting children's health and well-being

Increasing evidence suggests that state policies impact constituents' health, but political determinants of health and health inequities remain understudied. Using state and year fixed-effects models, we determined the extent to which changes in electoral partisan bias in lower chambers of U.S. state legislatures (i.e., discrepancy between statewide vote share and seat share) were followed by changes in five state policies affecting children and families (1980–2019) and a composite of safety net programs (1999–2018). We examined effects on each policy and whether the effect was modified when bias was accompanied by unified party control. Next, we determined whether the effect differed depending on which party it favored. Less bias resulted only in higher AFDC/TANF benefits. Both pro-Democratic and pro-Republican bias was followed by decreased AFDC/TANF benefits and increased Medicaid benefits. AFDC/TANF recipients, unemployment benefits, minimum wage, and pre-K-12 education spending increased following pro-Democratic bias and decreased following pro-Republican bias. Estimated effects on the composite measure of safety net policies were all close to null. Some effects were modulated by unified party control. Results demonstrate that increasing fairness in elections is not a panacea by itself for increasing generosity of programs affecting children's well-being. Indeed, bias can be somewhat beneficial for the expansiveness of some policies. Furthermore, with the exception of unemployment benefits and AFDC/TANF recipients, Democrats have not been using the additional power that comes with electoral bias to spend more on major programs that benefit children. Finally, after decades in which electoral bias was in Democrats' favor, bias has started to shift toward Republicans in the last decade. This trend forecasts more cuts in almost all the policies in this study, especially education and AFDC/TANF recipients. There is a need for more research and advocacy emphasis on the political determinants of social determinants of health, especially at the state level.

Do political parties always prefer loyalists? Evidence from South Korea.

This paper examines the relationship between ideological polarization and party disloyalty, focusing on the moderating role of the status of a political party in the legislature, i.e., the ruling party or the opposition party. It hypothesizes that the ruling party is willing to endorse disloyal candidates whose issue positions are not close to their own party's platform, whereas the opposition party is likely to punish disloyal candidates to demonstrate party unity in the nomination process. The present study tests this hypothesis, using data from South Korea, where the nomination process for the parliamentary election is dominated by party leaders. The results are by and large consistent with the hypotheses. In line with previous studies, our results suggest that party loyalty is one of the driving forces of polarization in politics. In order to fully understand party polarization at the level of political elites, it is necessary to consider heterogeneous effects of party members' behavior on candidate selection, varying across the party's status, either the ruling party or the opposition party.

Legacy of the Troubles: crisis of power in Northern Ireland

The political crisis in Northern Ireland, which has been continuing since 2022, threatens its stable development. It undermines the Belfast Agreement, which ended the bloody conflict between Catholics and Protestants and allowed devolution in the region. The catalyst for inter-party disagreements was the Northern Ireland Protocol – it introduced a special customs regulation regime that did not suit the Democratic Unionist Party (DUP). The actions of London (the approval of the Windsor Framework and The Northern Ireland Troubles (Legacy and Reconciliation) Act), as well as the Sinn Féin’s winning Northern Ireland Assembly and local elections, only intensified the contradictions that had previously arisen. DUP has promised to restore devolved government in Northern Ireland if key provisions of the Windsor Framework are changed. London has no plans to renegotiate the new deal with the EU, but it will be impossible to overcome the political crisis without the cooperation of the unionists. In this article, the author examined the reasons for the ineffectiveness of the consociational democracy in Northern Ireland, the features of different mechanisms of customs regulation in the region, and the key differences between the DUP and Sinn Féin on issues of its further development. According to the author, the new crisis of power-sharing executive in Northern Ireland is associated with the prevalence of narrow interests of unionists over the collective task of the political establishment to achieve inter-party consensus and compliance with the Belfast Agreement, which remains the legal basis for maintaining civil peace in the region.

How ballot access laws increase primary competition and decrease party unity

How do electoral institutions affect primary competition and legislative behavior? This paper examines the understudied electoral rule known as ballot access laws, advancing the novel theory that denying ballot access to minor candidates forces these outsiders into major parties. I find that in American states that adopt high ballot access thresholds experience higher rates of ideological heterogeneity and primary competition, and those that reduce their thresholds experience a reduction in heterogeneity and competition. Using an original dataset on state-level changes to ballot access thresholds from 1990 to 2018, I find that an increase in the number and type of primary competition leads to an increase in heterogeneity within both party caucuses. This paper adds to the literature on legislative behavior and electoral institutions, demonstrating institutions role in shaping electoral competition and the ideology of those represented in office.

Партийная конкуренция и партийная иерархия: от классических интерпретаций до современных российских кейсов

The article is devoted to understanding such important processes of partogenesis as party competition and party hierarchy, based on the theoretical and methodological ideas of M. Duverger and R. Dahl. The phenomenological and institutional resources of competition and hierarchy are considered, both in terms of general objective circumstances and in terms of environmental factors. The alignment of the hierarchy of modern parliamentary parties of the Russian Federation is traced. A political analysis of three party-competitive cases, which are carried out in modern party competition and party hierarchy, is carried out. «Party patriotism» is nominated as an ideological and program complex of the unity of political parties in support of the state and power. The problematic aspects of party competition and party hierarchy and factors of their possible transformation are revealed.