Italian Political Science Review-Rivista Italiana di Scienza Politica最新文献

{"title":"Regression discontinuity designs: a hands-on guide for practice","authors":"Vicente Valentim, Ana Ruipérez Núñez, Elias Dinas","doi":"10.1017/ipo.2021.27","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1017/ipo.2021.27","url":null,"abstract":"Abstract Regression discontinuity (RD) designs have become increasingly popular in political science, due to their ability to showcase causal effects under weak assumptions. This paper provides an intuition-based guide for the use of the RD in applied research. After an intuitive explanation of how the method works, we provide a checklist that can help researchers understand the main robustness checks they should run, and a quick introduction to software implementing the design. We also provide a list of classic designs and examples of their application in political science. We hope this article can constitute a stepping stone from which researchers interested in RD can jump to more advanced literature; and which makes researchers not interested in implementing RDs better consumers of research employing this design.","PeriodicalId":43368,"journal":{"name":"Italian Political Science Review-Rivista Italiana di Scienza Politica","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":1.0,"publicationDate":"2021-07-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://sci-hub-pdf.com/10.1017/ipo.2021.27","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"49403238","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"The behaviour of populist parties in parliament. The policy agendas of populist and other political parties in the Italian question time","authors":"A. Cavalieri, Caterina Froio","doi":"10.1017/ipo.2021.25","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1017/ipo.2021.25","url":null,"abstract":"Abstract This article addresses the question of whether populist parties behave differently from other political parties in parliament. Building on the attention-based perspective of the study of policy agendas, we map issue emphasis in parliamentary questions in Italy over more than two decades (1996–2019). The paper is innovative as it compares populist and non-populist parties in government and in opposition. Using data from the Italian Policy Agendas Project and The PopuList, we find mixed evidence. Specifically, we show that populist parties behave differently from other parties only when they are in opposition (signalling that they are different from ‘elite’ ones) but not when in government (signalling that they are ‘competent’ policymakers). While the results are exploratory and drawn from the Italian context, this study contributes to deflate the myth of populists' exceptionalism, at least in terms of their behaviour in parliament. As such, it holds broader implications for the scholarly understanding of party government and the so-called ‘normalization’ of populism in contemporary democracies.","PeriodicalId":43368,"journal":{"name":"Italian Political Science Review-Rivista Italiana di Scienza Politica","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":1.0,"publicationDate":"2021-06-22","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://sci-hub-pdf.com/10.1017/ipo.2021.25","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"45856690","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Brexit. Tra diritto e politica Federico Fabbrini. Società editrice il Mulino, 2021, 144 p., €13, ISBN: 978-88-15-29129-5","authors":"Andrea Volpe","doi":"10.1017/ipo.2021.18","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1017/ipo.2021.18","url":null,"abstract":"Brexit has represented one of the most debated and controversial events in the history of European integration. For the first time, a member state decided to withdraw from the EU, questioning the vision of a linear development of the integration process and certifying the crisis of the ideal of supranationality in comparison with a revival of nationalist and sovereign thrusts. Since the outcome of the June 2016 Referendum made apparent the will of the majority of the British people to leave the EU, scholars throughout the world have proposed various analysis and interpretation in order to deepen this unprecedented phenomenon, but the considerable complexity that has characterized the Brexit process since its early stages has often produced frustration and created a general lack of comprehension of this event from the audience. Federico Fabbrini, Full Professor of European Law at the School of Law & Government of Dublin City University (DCU) and Principal of the Brexit Institute, tries to dispel the frequent doubts on this topic publishing a pocket-sized volume entitled ‘Brexit. Tra diritto e politica’ in which he offers a concise, extremely complete and exhaustive account of the main steps that characterized the process of the UK’s exit from the EU. The originality of this work lies in the multidisciplinary methodological approach that Fabbrini chose for the drafting of the book, combining both political and institutional elements with considerations relating to Law and Economics. In fact, as the author explains in the introduction of the text, a multidisciplinary analysis results the most appropriate in order to fully capture the dynamics that have influenced a complex process such as Brexit (p. 14). According to Fabbrini, while the economic elements were proving marginal in the definition of Brexit, this last was being mostly influenced by an intersection of juridical and political mechanisms. In fact, although Brexit was primarily a political act, animated by the sovereign and populist aspiration to ‘take back control’ of the country, rejecting the dynamics of transnational interdependence, the modalities with which the UK left the EU, and the terms of the withdrawal agreement itself, have been strongly influenced by legal considerations, mainly related to the specificity of the constitutional system in force in the UK and the peculiarities of the European Law. The 10 chapters of the book can be divided into three parts: in the first (ch.1-3), the author tries to identify the political reasons for the alleged Euroscepticism of the UK by briefly retracing the historical relationship between the UK and the EU, from the early stages of the process of European integration to the fateful 2016 Referendum. In the second section (ch. 4-6), Fabbrini analyzes the negotiation processes and the UK’s withdrawal agreement from the EU, identifying the elements that determined a sharp contrast between the political aspirations of the supporters of Brexit to s","PeriodicalId":43368,"journal":{"name":"Italian Political Science Review-Rivista Italiana di Scienza Politica","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":1.0,"publicationDate":"2021-06-22","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://sci-hub-pdf.com/10.1017/ipo.2021.18","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"46183506","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Capitalism and democracy in the twenty-first century: does it still take two to tango?","authors":"Matteo Marenco","doi":"10.1017/ipo.2021.23","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1017/ipo.2021.23","url":null,"abstract":"Abstract This article reviews three books that offer thought-provoking insights on a central political science question, namely the relationship between capitalism and democracy in the twenty-first century. First, ‘Democracy and Prosperity’ by Iversen and Soskice posits a symbiotic relationship between capitalism and democracy. Advanced capital thrives on nationally rooted institutions, hence it needs democratic politics. A majority of voters ask for pro-advanced-capital reforms, hence democratic politics needs advanced capital. Second, ‘Capitalism, Alone’ by Milanovic depicts a troubled coexistence between capitalism and democracy. The former's tendency to concentrate economic and political power in the hands of the few is the main reason why democratic politics is under pressure. Third, ‘The Age of Surveillance Capitalism’ by Zuboff suggests a negative relationship between digital capitalism and democracy. Surveillance capitalism increasingly acts as a control means of individuals' behaviour, which undermines democracy at its roots. The last section brings the three contributions together. It maintains that a mutually beneficial coexistence between capitalism and democracy currently faces both internal (from within) and external (from without) challenges. In line with Milanovic and Zuboff, it argues that the concentration of economic and political power in the hands of the few is the most apparent from-within challenge. Drawing on Milanovic, it contends that rise of China as a global power combining capitalism with non-democracy challenges the relationship between capitalism and democracy from without. Finally, it contends that the environmental question and the pandemic represent two windows of opportunity for democracy to recover lost ground and re-establish a more balanced relationship with capitalism.","PeriodicalId":43368,"journal":{"name":"Italian Political Science Review-Rivista Italiana di Scienza Politica","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":1.0,"publicationDate":"2021-06-21","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://sci-hub-pdf.com/10.1017/ipo.2021.23","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"45988916","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Renderli simili o inoffensivi. L'ordine liberale, gli Stati Uniti e il dilemma della democrazia By Gabriele Natalizia, Carocci editore, 2021, Rome, Italy, 168 pp., £ 20,00","authors":"P. Baldelli","doi":"10.1017/ipo.2021.24","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1017/ipo.2021.24","url":null,"abstract":"The 4 years of the Trump administration have represented a litmus test as dynamics that have already been underway over the past few years have manifested blatantly. In fact, during the Trump tenure, there has been a definitive reorientation of the American strategic posture which has embarked into the renewed great power competition against revisionist powers. These revisionist powers such as the Russian Federation (RF) and the People’s Republic of China (PRC) are willing to disarticulate the so-called Liberal International Order (LIO). Moreover, the authoritarian challenge they pose has thus been linked with a gradual decrease of the overall number of democratic regimes throughout the world. This trend has been defined as a crucial challenge towards one of the main pillars of the LIO led by the US, which is the high quota of democratic countries that populate the international arena. On the other hand, the global democratic footprint has allegedly suffered an even more serious challenge from within the LIO, namely the foreign policy carried out after the Trump presidential election win in 2016. Terms like nationalism, isolationism and economic protectionism have crowded Trump administration’s international stance. It is due to this fact that many commentators hailed the Trump tenure as the final blow to the LIO which was already in decline given that its main sponsor, the US, claimed to no longer be willing to sustain it. The expected outcome was thus the overall decrease of the global democratic grip that was fatally destined to end because of the two abovementioned reasons. Firstly, the rise of authoritarian revisionist great powers in the international stage and secondly, the withdrawal of the US from its pivotal role in spreading democratic values worldwide. Conversely, the newly elected democratic administration of President Joseph Biden has been hailed by many analysts as the return of the US to a more orthodox approach in international affairs; the same role prevalently played since World War II. According to this interpretation, the Biden presidency will likely feature a return to a more traditional liberal internationalist course. Hence, unlike President Trump, the new American administration is thought to be committed to the global struggle against the rise of revisionist challengers by reinforcing a values-oriented agenda that aims to reverse the democracy decreasing trend. Following this explanation, the US’s swinging commitment to their global duties as the main architect of the LIO should be examined according to the individual preferences of each American president, affected by his own political and cultural background and the related constituency which elected him. Gabriele Natalizia’s volume has the merit to innovatively challenge this belief by presenting a theory-rooted and empirically tested work that takes into consideration both the alternative phases of democracy promotion and retreat, sponsored by the hegemonic and main ","PeriodicalId":43368,"journal":{"name":"Italian Political Science Review-Rivista Italiana di Scienza Politica","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":1.0,"publicationDate":"2021-06-17","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://sci-hub-pdf.com/10.1017/ipo.2021.24","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"42938775","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Discrimination against Muslims, the role of networks and terrorist attacks in Western Europe: the cases of United Kingdom, France, and Italy","authors":"Davide Dell'Isola","doi":"10.1017/ipo.2021.22","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1017/ipo.2021.22","url":null,"abstract":"Abstract In the last few years, a wave of Islamist-related terrorist attacks took place in Western Europe, mainly in France and Belgium but with relevant episodes also in the United Kingdom whereas so far Italy did not suffer any attack of this kind. Each of these countries hosts a large number of Muslim immigrants and communities, participated in military missions in the Middle East, and has been repeatedly threatened by ISIS (Islamic State of Iraq and Syria) or other Islamist-related radical groups. What then explains the difference in the number and intensity of Islamist-related terrorist attacks in Western European countries? Using qualitative cross-case comparison case studies and relying on the Global Terrorism Database (GTD) and the Association of Religion Data Archive (ARDA), I argue that countries directly discriminating toward Islamic communities are more likely to suffer these kinds of attacks because this discrimination causes grievances against the host state within the discriminated minority. This effect is higher in the presence of religious and cultural networks where these grievances can be brought at the center of the public debate and be connected together because of the presence of large audiences, resulting in the possible development of more radicalized positions of small portions of the discriminated community. This is particularly true for highly secular states like France, where the interpretation of secularism makes accommodation for religious minorities extremely challenging, also resulting in laws that regulate religious behavior of minorities, therefore increasing outrage and frustration of the minority group.","PeriodicalId":43368,"journal":{"name":"Italian Political Science Review-Rivista Italiana di Scienza Politica","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":1.0,"publicationDate":"2021-06-17","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://sci-hub-pdf.com/10.1017/ipo.2021.22","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"44625074","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"From the lab to the poll: The use of survey experiments in political research","authors":"Sergio Martini, Francesco Olmastroni","doi":"10.1017/ipo.2021.20","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1017/ipo.2021.20","url":null,"abstract":"Abstract The article offers an overview of the use of survey experiments in political research by relying on available examples, bibliographic data and a content analysis of experimental manuscripts published in leading academic journals over the last two decades. After a short primer to the experimental approach, we discuss the development, applications and potential problems to internal and external validity in survey experimentation. The article also provides original examples, contrasting a traditional factorial and a more innovative conjoint design, to show how survey experiments can be used to test theory on relevant political topics. The main challenges and possibilities encountered in envisaging, planning and implementing survey experiments are examined. The article outlines the merits, limits and implications of the use of the experimental method in political research.","PeriodicalId":43368,"journal":{"name":"Italian Political Science Review-Rivista Italiana di Scienza Politica","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":1.0,"publicationDate":"2021-05-28","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://sci-hub-pdf.com/10.1017/ipo.2021.20","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"48282614","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Religious and conspiracist? An analysis of the relationship between the dimensions of individual religiosity and belief in a big pharma conspiracy theory","authors":"Riccardo Ladini","doi":"10.1017/ipo.2021.15","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1017/ipo.2021.15","url":null,"abstract":"Abstract In the increasing scholars' attention to factors associated with conspiracy beliefs, religiosity has been under-investigated, at least in empirical research. This study aims to address the issue by analysing to what extent and in which forms individual religiosity is associated with conspiracy beliefs. Religion and conspiracy theories could show both similarities and dissimilarities. First, as alternative religiosity and conspiracy theories tend to spread knowledge stigmatized by the authorities, we expect that alternative religious beliefs are positively associated with conspiracy beliefs. Second, as religion and conspiracy theories explain events with the agency of invisible forces and detect patterns in nature, also conventional religious beliefs are supposed to be positively associated with conspiracy beliefs. Third, church attendance is hypothesized to discourage conspiracy beliefs, as exposure to religious authorities could deter the adhesion to unofficial narratives. By employing data coming from the Italian joint edition of the European Values Study–World Values Survey 2018, the paper tests the hypotheses by analysing the association between the multiple dimensions of individual religiosity and belief in a conspiracy theory on pharmaceutical companies. Results show that, after controlling for confidence in political and religious institutions and attitudes towards science, only alternative religious beliefs, here measured by belief in the reincarnation, are positively associated with belief in the big pharma conspiracy theory. Empirical evidence suggests taking caution when looking at similarities between conventional religiosity and conspiracy beliefs.","PeriodicalId":43368,"journal":{"name":"Italian Political Science Review-Rivista Italiana di Scienza Politica","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":1.0,"publicationDate":"2021-05-12","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://sci-hub-pdf.com/10.1017/ipo.2021.15","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"46198657","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Spatial analysis for political scientists","authors":"Jessica Di Salvatore, A. Ruggeri","doi":"10.1017/ipo.2021.7","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1017/ipo.2021.7","url":null,"abstract":"Abstract How does space matter in our analyses? How can we evaluate diffusion of phenomena or interdependence among units? How biased can our analysis be if we do not consider spatial relationships? All the above questions are critical theoretical and empirical issues for political scientists belonging to several subfields from Electoral Studies to Comparative Politics, and also for International Relations. In this special issue on methods, our paper introduces political scientists to conceptualizing interdependence between units and how to empirically model these interdependencies using spatial regression. First, the paper presents the building blocks of any feature of spatial data (points, polygons, and raster) and the task of georeferencing. Second, the paper discusses what a spatial matrix (W) is, its varieties and the assumptions we make when choosing one. Third, the paper introduces how to investigate spatial clustering through visualizations (e.g. maps) as well as statistical tests (e.g. Moran's index). Fourth and finally, the paper explains how to model spatial relationships that are of substantive interest to some of our research questions. We conclude by inviting researchers to carefully consider space in their analysis and to reflect on the need, or the lack thereof, to use spatial models.","PeriodicalId":43368,"journal":{"name":"Italian Political Science Review-Rivista Italiana di Scienza Politica","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":1.0,"publicationDate":"2021-05-11","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://sci-hub-pdf.com/10.1017/ipo.2021.7","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"44222305","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Belief in conspiracy theories and attitudes toward political violence","authors":"F. Vegetti, L. Littvay","doi":"10.1017/ipo.2021.17","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1017/ipo.2021.17","url":null,"abstract":"Abstract In the last decade, political protest events have been rising in Western democracies. At the same time, there has been a steady increase in the diffusion of conspiracy theories in political communication, a phenomenon that has captured the interest of scholars for its growing political relevance. However, while most research focuses on the reasons why citizens believe in conspiracies, studies looking at the political-behavioral implications of such beliefs, in particular their connection to political radicalism, have been more limited. In this paper, we investigate the association between people's belief in conspiracies and their propensity to endorse political violence or to legitimate radical political action. Building on pathway theories of radicalization, we argue that conspiracy theories provide narratives that might help people channel their feelings of resentment toward political targets, fueling radical attitudes. We provide some correlational evidence using survey data of US respondents collected on MTurk. We observe attitudes toward political violence using two multi-item batteries, one developed by us. Our results show that people who score higher on a scale of generic conspiracy belief are also more likely to endorse violent political actions.","PeriodicalId":43368,"journal":{"name":"Italian Political Science Review-Rivista Italiana di Scienza Politica","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":1.0,"publicationDate":"2021-05-10","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://sci-hub-pdf.com/10.1017/ipo.2021.17","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"42964255","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}