Political StudiesPub Date : 2023-12-29DOI: 10.1177/00323217231220127
Mads Thau
{"title":"The Group Appeal Strategy: Beyond the Policy Perspective on Party Electoral Success","authors":"Mads Thau","doi":"10.1177/00323217231220127","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1177/00323217231220127","url":null,"abstract":"Political parties use policy appeals to change their policy images and increase electoral support. Building on the idea that parties’ group images also matter to voters, this article shows that group appeals can benefit parties as well. Combining manifesto data on policy and group appeals covering 50 years, we revisit the shift from class to catch-all politics in Britain and present three findings. First, a vote share analysis shows that the Labour Party benefited from using not just policy but also group appeals to downplay its class image. Second, consistent with a catch-all strategy, survey evidence shows that this boost in Labour support was most prominent outside the traditional base. Third, while group appeals had independent effects, we show how group and policy appeals also interact and reinforce each other. This suggests that non-policy strategies matter to parties’ electoral success on their own but also in combination with policy strategies.","PeriodicalId":51379,"journal":{"name":"Political Studies","volume":" 3","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":3.1,"publicationDate":"2023-12-29","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"139142972","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"社会学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Political StudiesPub Date : 2023-12-29DOI: 10.1177/00323217231219393
Carolyn M Hendriks, Richard Reid
{"title":"Citizen-Led Democratic Change: How Australia’s Community Independents Movement Is Reshaping Representative Democracy","authors":"Carolyn M Hendriks, Richard Reid","doi":"10.1177/00323217231219393","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1177/00323217231219393","url":null,"abstract":"Many citizens are frustrated with their democracy, particularly with elected representatives and political parties. In some contexts, citizens have taken steps to disrupt the status quo and push forward their own novel democratic reforms. Research on these ‘citizen-led democratic innovations’ has focused primarily on how political crises mobilise citizens to form social movements that then go on to devise or co-produce novel participatory institutions. This article expands these existing understandings in two novel directions. First, it challenges the assumption that for citizens to lead democratic reform they first need to mobilise a large protest movement. Second, it expands procedural understandings of ‘democratic innovation’ by considering how citizens are innovating in and around the core institutions of representative democracy. The article draws empirical insights from extensive qualitative research into Australia’s Community Independents Movement, which reveals a place-based, locally led political movement pursuing democratic change to improve local representation in national politics.","PeriodicalId":51379,"journal":{"name":"Political Studies","volume":"135 3","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":3.1,"publicationDate":"2023-12-29","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"139145700","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"社会学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Political StudiesPub Date : 2023-12-28DOI: 10.1177/00323217231216305
Hilma Lindskog, Stefan Dahlberg, Richard Öhrvall, Henrik Oscarsson
{"title":"The Voter Next Door: Stigma Effects on Advance Voting for Radical Right Parties","authors":"Hilma Lindskog, Stefan Dahlberg, Richard Öhrvall, Henrik Oscarsson","doi":"10.1177/00323217231216305","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1177/00323217231216305","url":null,"abstract":"Despite the influence of stigmatization on vote choices, little attention has been given to the impact of social stigma on voters’ selection of voting procedures. To bridge this gap, our study focuses on Sweden, where the open-display ballot system at polling stations potentially compromises vote secrecy. Using survey data from the Swedish National Election Studies in 2014 and 2018, we examine the relationship between citizens’ voting procedure choices and their support for a highly stigmatized radical right party, the Sweden Democrats. Our findings reveal that voters of the Sweden Democrats are more inclined to vote in advance, particularly in districts with low general party support, indicating a high level of stigma. We argue that advance voting can be seen as a strategy to safeguard vote secrecy when voting for stigmatized parties within an institutional context featuring public displays of ballots. In addition, our research sheds light on the importance of electoral integrity in maintaining the confidentiality of voters’ choices.","PeriodicalId":51379,"journal":{"name":"Political Studies","volume":"321 11","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":3.1,"publicationDate":"2023-12-28","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"139152526","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"社会学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Political StudiesPub Date : 2023-11-21DOI: 10.1177/00323217231210129
J. Pilet, Leonardo Puleo, Davide Vittori
{"title":"Exploring the Causes of Technocratic Minister Appointments in Europe","authors":"J. Pilet, Leonardo Puleo, Davide Vittori","doi":"10.1177/00323217231210129","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1177/00323217231210129","url":null,"abstract":"In the last decade, the appointment of technocratic ministers has become more common than ever before in Europe. Yet, scholarly attention has mostly focused on the economic determinants that lead to the appointment of such political outsiders in governments. In contrast, political determinants have not been fully examined. This article aims to investigate the role of economic determinants, as well as institutional factors (e.g. electoral system), party-system characteristics (e.g. volatility, polarization) and cabinet-related factors (e.g. intra-cabinet heterogeneity, the strength of populist parties within the government). Using a novel data set comprising data for more than 7000 ministers, including around 900 technocrats, our analysis shows that the share of populist parties within the cabinets has the strongest effect on the likelihood of appointing technocrats in national government. However, institutional-level variables appear to have no effect on the levels of technocratic appointments.","PeriodicalId":51379,"journal":{"name":"Political Studies","volume":"124 13","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":3.1,"publicationDate":"2023-11-21","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"139251413","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"社会学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Political StudiesPub Date : 2023-10-30DOI: 10.1177/00323217231204849
Eelco Harteveld, Wouter van der Brug
{"title":"Keeping Up With the Joneses? Neighbourhood Effects on the Vote","authors":"Eelco Harteveld, Wouter van der Brug","doi":"10.1177/00323217231204849","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1177/00323217231204849","url":null,"abstract":"Voters are affected by cues from their immediate social environment. One of these cues consists of the political opinions available and accepted in people’s neighbourhoods, which are theoretically expected to affect vote choices through direct or indirect forms of communication. We test this assertion by employing a longitudinal design combining fine-grained geo-coded panel data with election results on a uniquely local level in the Netherlands. We assess the effect of the level of support for parties in a neighbourhood (consisting of just 624 households on average) on the vote choices of individuals 5 years later, while controlling for their previous vote choice. We find that the political preferences of neighbours indeed affect respondents’ subsequent vote choice, but only for those voters who feel strongly embedded in the local community. We conclude that, even in the highly fragmented Dutch context, the political choices of citizens can be influenced by neighbourhood effects.","PeriodicalId":51379,"journal":{"name":"Political Studies","volume":"30 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2023-10-30","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"136104601","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"社会学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Party–Interest Group Ties and Patterns of Political Influence","authors":"Maiken Røed, Elin Haugsgjerd Allern, Vibeke Wøien Hansen","doi":"10.1177/00323217231202596","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1177/00323217231202596","url":null,"abstract":"Organizational ties between political parties and interest groups are common in contemporary democracies, but little is known about the political effects of such ties. This article examines whether the strength of organizational ties between parties and interest groups affects the probability of (1) interest group influence on parties, (2) party influence on interest groups, and (3) mutual party–interest group influence in decision-making. Using novel interest group survey data from six democracies, we are the first to systematically examine the relationship between organizational ties and perceived and attributed influence across multiple policy areas. The findings indicate that one-sided influence is more likely when the actors have stronger ties but that such ties also increase the likelihood of influence going both ways. Close party–interest group relationships hence likely involve give-and-take across policy issues. These findings shed important new light on the role of parties and interest groups as intermediaries in democracies.","PeriodicalId":51379,"journal":{"name":"Political Studies","volume":"42 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2023-10-12","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"136012797","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"社会学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Political StudiesPub Date : 2023-10-03DOI: 10.1177/00323217231199556
Paul Bou-Habib, Serena Olsaretti
{"title":"Children or Migrants as Public Goods?","authors":"Paul Bou-Habib, Serena Olsaretti","doi":"10.1177/00323217231199556","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1177/00323217231199556","url":null,"abstract":"Why, and to what extent, must taxpayers share the costs of raising children with parents? The most influential argument over this question has been the public goods argument: Taxpayers must share costs with parents because and to the extent that child-rearing contributes toward public goods by helping to develop valuable human capital. However, political theorists have not examined the public goods argument in a context in which replacement migration is available: If replacement migration can provide valuable human capital more efficiently than child-rearing, can the public goods argument still justify a taxpayer obligation to share the costs of child-rearing? This article argues that there are importantly different versions of the public goods argument, and that on a plausible version of that argument, it can withstand the replacement migration challenge under most circumstances.","PeriodicalId":51379,"journal":{"name":"Political Studies","volume":"13 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2023-10-03","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"135648457","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"社会学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Political StudiesPub Date : 2023-09-26DOI: 10.1177/00323217231194820
Ebe Ouattara, Eefje Steenvoorden
{"title":"The Elusive Effect of Political Trust on Participation: Participatory Resource or (Dis)incentive?","authors":"Ebe Ouattara, Eefje Steenvoorden","doi":"10.1177/00323217231194820","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1177/00323217231194820","url":null,"abstract":"Although political trust has long been linked to political participation, its effects remain elusive. Trust in political institutions may enhance levels of participation, diminish political engagement, or yield distinct effects depending on the activity. This article examines these diverging effects through a rational choice framework, with which we theorize and test whether political trust functions as a resource or a (dis)incentive to participate. Specifically, we assess the direct effects of political trust on intended participation and its moderating effects on outcome-related motivations and activity type. To this end, we use a factorial survey experiment in the Netherlands and the United Kingdom to isolate the effects of outcome-related motivations and to disentangle participation from the effectiveness of action and the effect of activity type, factors that remain confounded in existing survey measures of participation. Overall, our findings suggest that political trust operates as a (dis)incentive, rather than a resource spurring participation.","PeriodicalId":51379,"journal":{"name":"Political Studies","volume":"45 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2023-09-26","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"134958100","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"社会学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Political StudiesPub Date : 2023-09-11DOI: 10.1177/00323217231194822
Diana Popescu-Sarry
{"title":"Post-Truth is Misplaced Distrust in Testimony, Not Indifference to Facts: Implications for Deliberative Remedies","authors":"Diana Popescu-Sarry","doi":"10.1177/00323217231194822","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1177/00323217231194822","url":null,"abstract":"How should we deliberate with citizens who entertain post-truth beliefs in democratic societies? This is a central question for those interested in wielding the epistemic potential of democratic deliberation against post-truth. Yet, the strength of proposed deliberative solutions depends on the accuracy with which post-truth is diagnosed. Taking seriously the connection between epistemic diagnosis and deliberative remedy, this paper looks at the motivations provided by non-vaccinating parents for their beliefs and argues for an understanding of post-truth as misplaced distrust in testimony, as against a standard view of post-truth as indifference to fact. Second, the paper argues this new diagnosis of post-truth renders ineffective deliberative strategies aiming to harness the power of impersonal reason and accuracy, of the kind recently defended by Simone Chambers. Instead, combating post-truth as the paper defines it is effectively accomplished through employing bridging rhetoric.","PeriodicalId":51379,"journal":{"name":"Political Studies","volume":"86 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2023-09-11","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"135980719","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"社会学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Political StudiesPub Date : 2023-08-22DOI: 10.1177/00323217231191396
C. Burelli
{"title":"No Virtue Like Resilience: Machiavelli’s Realistic Justification of Democracy","authors":"C. Burelli","doi":"10.1177/00323217231191396","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1177/00323217231191396","url":null,"abstract":"Is democracy a realistic political ideal? This article historically recovers and normatively assesses Machiavelli’s intuition that democratic institutions are realistically desirable in virtue of their resilience. The article takes inspiration from Machiavelli’s work in two ways. Methodologically, it argues that there is a distinctive realist normativity based on political virtues, that is, those skills that are instrumentally required to thrive in politics. Substantively, it probes Machiavelli’s idea that the most important political virtue, for both individuals and institutions, is resilience: the ability to continuously adapt to new circumstances. Machiavelli observes that democratic regimes are very resilient because, while individuals cannot change their character to adapt to new circumstances, democracies can just change the individual in charge. The article then refines Machiavelli’s intuition by building on the contemporary distinction between stability and resilience. It claims that authoritarian regimes are more stable, and yet less resilient. Democracies are instead characterised by a continuous flux of political outputs, which makes them seemingly wavering, and yet better equipped to experiment with unconventional adaptations. The two different literatures thus complement each other. The debate on resilience usefully clarifies and systematises Machiavelli’s intuition. Conversely, Machiavelli’s work reveals the salience of resilience in politics, and shows why it counts as a realist political value.","PeriodicalId":51379,"journal":{"name":"Political Studies","volume":" ","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":3.1,"publicationDate":"2023-08-22","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"45707585","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"社会学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}