{"title":"Political change and administrative turnover in meritocratic systems","authors":"Jostein Askim, Tobias Bach, J. Christensen","doi":"10.1080/01402382.2022.2148195","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1080/01402382.2022.2148195","url":null,"abstract":"Abstract A change of government or minister constitutes a stress test for the relationship between ministers and bureaucrats. The new political masters may question the loyalty of incumbent bureaucrats and seek to replace them. However, the relationship between political changes and administrative turnover is poorly understood in meritocratic systems. This article analyses how changes of either government or minister affect the turnover of permanent secretaries in Denmark and Norway (1970–2020). Whereas ministers are completely reliant on career bureaucrats in pure meritocratic systems, they are supported by political appointees in hybrid meritocratic systems. The article investigates whether the effect of political changes on administrative turnover is mediated by the presence or absence of political appointees. Changes of government increase the risk of administrative turnover in Norway (hybrid system), but there are no such effects in Denmark (pure system), suggesting that political appointees potentially undermine the permanence of career bureaucrats.","PeriodicalId":48213,"journal":{"name":"West European Politics","volume":" ","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":4.2,"publicationDate":"2022-12-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"47485305","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":1,"RegionCategory":"社会学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Neither religious nor rational: heterodoxy and institutional trust","authors":"Stratos Patrikios, Narisong Huhe","doi":"10.1080/01402382.2022.2145101","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1080/01402382.2022.2145101","url":null,"abstract":"Abstract According to the optimistic reading of the trust deficit in contemporary democracies, an increasingly non-religious and presumably more rational citizenry is naturally inclined to distrust public institutions. This modern shift is viewed as a positive check that can supposedly improve representative government. This article proposes a more nuanced understanding of the influence of supernatural beliefs on institutional trust. Specifically, the article moves beyond the popular analytical dichotomy between the religious and the non-religious by separating the non-religious into a non-believer segment and a segment hitherto overlooked by studies of political trust: unconventional or heterodox believers (e.g. in astrology and lucky charms, but not in conventional religion). Using comparative data from the International Social Survey Programme, the study finds that heterodox believers, similarly to non-believers, tend to distrust institutions, albeit for very different reasons. The previously ignored role of heterodox beliefs points to grave implications regarding the current trust deficit.","PeriodicalId":48213,"journal":{"name":"West European Politics","volume":" ","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":4.2,"publicationDate":"2022-11-28","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"44228156","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":1,"RegionCategory":"社会学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Gordon Smith and Vincent Wright Memorial Prizes 2022","authors":"","doi":"10.1080/01402382.2023.2151218","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1080/01402382.2023.2151218","url":null,"abstract":"","PeriodicalId":48213,"journal":{"name":"West European Politics","volume":"46 1","pages":"841 - 841"},"PeriodicalIF":4.2,"publicationDate":"2022-11-28","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"49122763","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":1,"RegionCategory":"社会学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Who benefits from the retrospective vote? Bringing in new parties","authors":"D. Bochsler, Miriam Hänni","doi":"10.1080/01402382.2022.2145743","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1080/01402382.2022.2145743","url":null,"abstract":"Abstract Democracies across the world have experienced the rise of new political parties. The dominant view of the model of (retrospective) economic voting implicitly assumes that the main beneficiary of electoral change is the established opposition. However, the rise of new political parties affects how we think of retrospective (economic) voting. This article presents a more nuanced picture of electoral change and considers when electoral turnover benefits established opposition parties, and when new political parties. The theoretical model introduces different macro-economic and macro-political motives for electoral turnover. Using a novel dataset on electoral change, covering 59 democracies worldwide, it is found that high levels of corruption discredit the entire political establishment, and promote the rise of new parties. The effect of economic hardship is more nuanced. Low economic growth mainly benefits the established opposition because voters look for an established alternative within the political system. Rising unemployment, by contrast, promotes the rise of new parties.","PeriodicalId":48213,"journal":{"name":"West European Politics","volume":" ","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":4.2,"publicationDate":"2022-11-28","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"44843360","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":1,"RegionCategory":"社会学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"The Italian parliamentary election of 2022: the populist radical right takes charge","authors":"Diego Garzia","doi":"10.1080/01402382.2022.2148603","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1080/01402382.2022.2148603","url":null,"abstract":"Abstract The Italian parliamentary election of 2022 was called following Mario Draghi’s resignation in June. The campaign took place – for the first time in Italian history – over the summer. Yet, its crucial moments occurred in the very first days, when parties had to present the respective coalition strategies. In a matter of weeks, Italy’s political system moved from the embryonic tripolarism inaugurated in 2013 to a full-fledged quadripolarism. The election saw less than two thirds of the eligible voting population participate – a new all-time low for Italian general elections. The result awarded a clear victory to the center-right coalition, due to its successes in most FPTP constituencies. Given the clear indications which emerged from the election results, the process of government formation took less than a month overall. This election can be considered historical in at least two ways. The first is the formation of a government led for the first time by a female politician, Giorgia Meloni. The second is the political composition of her government, with two populist radical right parties in control of about 80 percent of the votes cast in favour of the governing coalition.","PeriodicalId":48213,"journal":{"name":"West European Politics","volume":"46 1","pages":"1038 - 1048"},"PeriodicalIF":4.2,"publicationDate":"2022-11-24","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"43821323","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":1,"RegionCategory":"社会学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Rebordering Europe in the Ukraine War: community building without capacity building","authors":"C. Freudlsperger, F. Schimmelfennig","doi":"10.1080/01402382.2022.2145542","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1080/01402382.2022.2145542","url":null,"abstract":"Abstract How has the European Union (EU) developed in reaction to the Russo-Ukrainian war, its most severe military threat since the end of the Cold War? In a ‘bordering’ analysis of political development, this article studies changes in the closure and control of the EU’s boundaries with Russia and Ukraine as well as its internal boundaries between 2013 and August 2022. It finds that the EU’s response has hitherto consisted in a regulatory process of community building without concomitant capacity building. Whereas the EU has increasingly closed its boundaries with Russia, it has progressively opened its boundaries towards Ukraine. By contrast, the war so far has not had a discernible impact on the EU’s internal boundary configuration and its authority and capacity for boundary control. These preliminary findings are in line with the EU’s developmental path as a ‘regulatory state’. More than half a year into the invasion, they stand in contrast to ‘bellicist’ expectations of centralised capacity building in response to military threats.","PeriodicalId":48213,"journal":{"name":"West European Politics","volume":"46 1","pages":"843 - 871"},"PeriodicalIF":4.2,"publicationDate":"2022-11-23","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"46190502","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":1,"RegionCategory":"社会学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Dynamics and determinants of right-wing populist mobilisation in Germany","authors":"S. Hellmeier, Johannes Vüllers","doi":"10.1080/01402382.2022.2135909","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1080/01402382.2022.2135909","url":null,"abstract":"Abstract Western Europe has recently experienced increasing protest mobilisation by right-wing populist movements. Although these movements are receiving increasing scholarly attention, systematic data on protest activities is limited. In this research note, original data is used to describe the protest activity of Germany’s Pegida movement across space and time and to explore the city-level determinants of protest mobilisation. The protest dataset records 373 events with more than 337,000 participants in major cities between 2014 and 2017. The data documents the involvement of right extremists during the protests and illustrates the movement’s nativist and anti-elitist orientation. The correlational analysis of the determinants of protest activity shows that protests are less likely in cities with a large foreign-born population and lower income levels. Moreover, protests correlate with vote shares for the right-wing populist party AfD, underlining the party-movement linkage and the local entrenchment of right-wing ideology.","PeriodicalId":48213,"journal":{"name":"West European Politics","volume":"46 1","pages":"1024 - 1037"},"PeriodicalIF":4.2,"publicationDate":"2022-11-21","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"44489470","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":1,"RegionCategory":"社会学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Party campaign statements and portfolio allocation in coalition governments","authors":"T. Däubler, M. Debus, Alejandro Ecker","doi":"10.1080/01402382.2022.2140397","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1080/01402382.2022.2140397","url":null,"abstract":"Abstract Which party controls which cabinet posts is an important determinant of how multi-party governments work. Existing research shows that parties’ attention to policy domains in election manifestos is a key predictor of portfolio allocation. However, election manifestos are broad documents and typically published months before an election. This research note argues that policy emphasis in the last few weeks before the election matters for portfolio allocation, because parties can focus their message, react to exogenous events and use campaign communication as a commitment device. A test of this argument makes use of a novel dataset on party representatives’ campaign statements. The findings show that the policy focus of campaign statements, especially those stating positions rather than referring to valence, predicts who will control a ministerial portfolio associated with the respective policy domain.","PeriodicalId":48213,"journal":{"name":"West European Politics","volume":" ","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":4.2,"publicationDate":"2022-11-08","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"46933083","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":1,"RegionCategory":"社会学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Divided by Europe: affective polarisation in the context of European elections","authors":"H. Hahm, David Hilpert, T. König","doi":"10.1080/01402382.2022.2133277","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1080/01402382.2022.2133277","url":null,"abstract":"Abstract As European integration has become politicised over the last several decades, scholars have paid keen attention to the role of identity in shaping political conflicts and contestation in Europe. This article investigates the microfoundation of the political divide over European integration by building on and extending theories of social identity and recent studies on affective polarisation. Large-scale survey experiment data from 25 European Union member states are analysed to explore the extent of divides over European integration. This analysis shows a statistically significant and substantively large magnitude of the divide based on European identity. Moreover, results show that this divide over European integration deserves particular attention as it is largely driven by out-group animosity, rather than in-group favouritism. Lastly, results show that electoral context, such as electoral salience, involvement in elections, elite polarisation, and the strength of Eurosceptic parties, influences the intensity of the European divide.","PeriodicalId":48213,"journal":{"name":"West European Politics","volume":"46 1","pages":"705 - 731"},"PeriodicalIF":4.2,"publicationDate":"2022-11-07","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"41693278","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":1,"RegionCategory":"社会学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Do EU policies constrain government autonomy? Insights from the implementation of EU migration policies","authors":"Asya Zhelyazkova","doi":"10.1080/01402382.2022.2135247","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1080/01402382.2022.2135247","url":null,"abstract":"Abstract Pressures to comply with EU rules have allegedly eroded opportunities for national governments to adopt policies that they support. Conversely, research into differentiated implementation underlines that governments use their discretion to tailor supranational policies to national contexts. This study addresses these competing arguments using unique data on the implementation of EU migration issues. On the one hand, compliance with EU rules is expected to compel governments to transpose liberal migration policies, even when they favour restrictive measures. However, increased politicisation and differentiated integration are likely to increase governments’ autonomy to pursue restrictive policy preferences during transposition. The findings suggest that the constraining effect of EU policies is conditional on the importance that governments place on immigration issues and differentiated participation in the EU. Thus, it is important to consider both domestic and supranational conditions to understand fully the impact of external constraints on government policy implementation.","PeriodicalId":48213,"journal":{"name":"West European Politics","volume":" ","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":4.2,"publicationDate":"2022-11-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"47982186","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":1,"RegionCategory":"社会学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}