{"title":"Failing to build a network as policy entrepreneurs: Greek politicians negotiating with the EU during the first quarter of SYRIZA in government","authors":"George Dikaios, V. Tsagkroni","doi":"10.1080/13569775.2021.1964183","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1080/13569775.2021.1964183","url":null,"abstract":"ABSTRACT The 2015 elections in Greece signalled a change in the country’s government. SYRIZA, the main party of the new coalition, was elected on the promise of clashing with the European and international institutions to alleviate the burden of foreign control on Greece’s policies and politics. Through a chronicle narrative, this article explains the behaviour of the two main actors for Greece, i.e. Alexis Tsipras and Yanis Varoufakis, during the negotiations with the EU and the rest of the world, highlighting their inability to act as policy entrepreneurs and to form supportive networks with their interlocutors to achieve their goals.","PeriodicalId":51673,"journal":{"name":"Contemporary Politics","volume":"27 1","pages":"611 - 630"},"PeriodicalIF":2.0,"publicationDate":"2021-08-09","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"43518724","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"社会学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Development banks as instruments of Brazilian strategic diplomacy","authors":"Mahrukh Doctor","doi":"10.1080/13569775.2021.1961395","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1080/13569775.2021.1961395","url":null,"abstract":"Abstract The article considers whether Brazil’s foreign policies aimed at reforming the global governance architecture for development finance can be considered the application of ‘strategic diplomacy’, and assesses the conditions for and limitations of implementing strategic diplomacy in new democracies. To do so, the analysis focuses on the Workers’ Party (PT) governments’ policies and actions related to national and multilateral development banks. It examines whether the Brazilian National Bank of Economic and Social Development (BNDES) and the New Development Bank (NDB; or BRICS Bank) exhibited four key features of strategic diplomacy (systemic focus; long-term objectives; dynamic view of national interest; and engaged political leadership) and what its implications were for achieving Brazil’s long-term foreign policy objectives of national development and autonomy.","PeriodicalId":51673,"journal":{"name":"Contemporary Politics","volume":"28 1","pages":"79 - 98"},"PeriodicalIF":2.0,"publicationDate":"2021-07-31","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://sci-hub-pdf.com/10.1080/13569775.2021.1961395","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"48400062","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"社会学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Populism, culture and class: articulation and performance in contemporary British populism","authors":"C. Tindall","doi":"10.1080/13569775.2021.1953766","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1080/13569775.2021.1953766","url":null,"abstract":"ABSTRACT This research examines the role of populism and class within the discourse of three contemporary British political party leaders. It begins by outlining the Essex-School perspective, focusing upon populism’s antagonistic division between ‘the people’ and ‘the elite’ and its relationship with class. Following this, an overview of Pierre Bourdieu’s research upon class helps explore cultural and economic class capital’s complexities and contemporary British relevance. Attention then turns to the role of populism and class in contemporary British political discourse. Analysis of Nigel Farage, Jeremy Corbyn and Nicola Sturgeon’s political articulation exposes an important overlap of populist and class-based appeals. This intersect sees cultural class meaningfully aid the populist toolkit; whilst populism reciprocally broadens class appeals. Cultural class signifiers remedy populism’s empty heart, providing a relatable connection to ‘the people’ through behaviour and symbolism. This indicates a multi-dimensional populist approach; elucidating how populists have successfully engaged broadly with the electorate.","PeriodicalId":51673,"journal":{"name":"Contemporary Politics","volume":"28 1","pages":"121 - 143"},"PeriodicalIF":2.0,"publicationDate":"2021-07-18","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"42122029","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"社会学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Policy-making by tweets: discursive governance, populism, and Trump Presidency","authors":"O. Şahin, Richard W. Johnson, U. Korkut","doi":"10.1080/13569775.2021.1935009","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1080/13569775.2021.1935009","url":null,"abstract":"ABSTRACT Experience in various countries demonstrated that populist leaders enfeeble democracy. Once elected, populist leaders concentrate power in their hands while undermining horizontal checks on their power. By drawing upon the Trump presidency in the U.S., this article reveals one of the dynamics in which populist leaders bypass institutions of horizontal checks in policy-making. It argues that populist leaders use social media platforms to disseminate discourse to convince people that a certain course of action is necessary and thereafter bypass formal institutions in policy-making. Trump used discourse first to discipline the federal bureaucracy, second to roll back Obama-era social and environmental regulations, and third to reorient the US migration policy. His discourse became pervasive thanks to his efficient use of Twitter, which allowed him to achieve political change without going through formal institutional channels.","PeriodicalId":51673,"journal":{"name":"Contemporary Politics","volume":"27 1","pages":"591 - 610"},"PeriodicalIF":2.0,"publicationDate":"2021-06-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://sci-hub-pdf.com/10.1080/13569775.2021.1935009","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"42676970","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"社会学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Re-democratising Nepal: transitional justice and the erosion of judicial independence","authors":"R. Jeffery, Bikram Timilsina","doi":"10.1080/13569775.2021.1932099","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1080/13569775.2021.1932099","url":null,"abstract":"ABSTRACT For more than a decade, Nepal has been undergoing a process of re-democratisation, its third transition to democracy since the 1950s. Among the key pillars of the new democratic regime has been the establishment of constitutionally guaranteed judicial independence. Focusing on the role of the Supreme Court in defining, overseeing, and adjudicating Nepal's transitional justice process, this article considers the extent to which judicial independence and empowerment have been achieved in Nepal's ongoing democratic transition. It argues that despite institutional measures designed to protect judicial independence and efforts by members of the Supreme Court to exercise independence in their judgments, Nepal's re-democratisation process has seen the erosion of judicial independence. In doing so, the article provides new insights into the relationship between institutional judicial independence and judicial empowerment during transitions to democracy, and highlights a significant area of concern for the achievement of democratic consolidation in Nepal.","PeriodicalId":51673,"journal":{"name":"Contemporary Politics","volume":"27 1","pages":"550 - 571"},"PeriodicalIF":2.0,"publicationDate":"2021-05-25","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://sci-hub-pdf.com/10.1080/13569775.2021.1932099","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"45039047","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"社会学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
A. Prikhodchenko, A. Margoev, Alexey Tokarev, Andrey Fedotov
{"title":"Informal networks and influential politicians in China: SNA-study of full CC CCP members","authors":"A. Prikhodchenko, A. Margoev, Alexey Tokarev, Andrey Fedotov","doi":"10.1080/13569775.2021.1932102","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1080/13569775.2021.1932102","url":null,"abstract":"ABSTRACT The article offers a methodology to overcome the shortcomings in the factionalism approach to studying elite politics in China. The authors study professional ties among 204 full members of the Central Committee of the Chinese Communist Party through social network analysis to identify influential members of the elites and detect their communities. Four types of data calculation are used – degree, betweenness, closeness and eigenvector centralities, as well as Louvain method to identify clusters of interconnected members of the network. Xi Jinping has no match per betweenness centrality; once a major contender for becoming China’s leader Vice Premier Hu Chunhua scores the second. Shanghai is a key contributor of elites in spite of Xi promoting loyal cadres from Zhejiang and Fujian. The concentration of power in Xi’s hands is confirmed, the imbalance between centrality scores and real positions of certain officials speaking for a reduced sustainability of the political system.","PeriodicalId":51673,"journal":{"name":"Contemporary Politics","volume":"27 1","pages":"572 - 590"},"PeriodicalIF":2.0,"publicationDate":"2021-05-18","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://sci-hub-pdf.com/10.1080/13569775.2021.1932102","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"42661229","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"社会学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Populism, authoritarianism, and charismatic-plebiscitary leadership in contemporary Asia: a comparative perspective from India and Myanmar","authors":"D. Subedi, Alan Scott","doi":"10.1080/13569775.2021.1917162","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1080/13569775.2021.1917162","url":null,"abstract":"ABSTRACT Much of the revived interest in new – populist and/or authoritarian – styles of leadership has been a response to developments, initially in Europe, from the late1980s on, one aspect of which has been a renewed interest in charisma and in plebiscitary leadership. How applicable are approaches to leadership developed primarily in European political science and sociology to contemporary South and Southeast Asia? Building both on Weber’s classical account of charismatic authority, and on more recent work, we propose a relational conception of charisma as an interaction between leader and followers. This leader-follower dialectic is a key characteristic of contemporary populist politics. In order to investigate the ways in which populist leaders appeal to followers, we apply this relational conception of charisma to two Asian national cases: India under Narendra Modi and Myanmar under Aung San Suu Kyi during the – now arrested – period of transition from military rule. We shall be primarily concerned with one specific form of charisma: plebiscitary leadership.","PeriodicalId":51673,"journal":{"name":"Contemporary Politics","volume":"27 1","pages":"487 - 507"},"PeriodicalIF":2.0,"publicationDate":"2021-05-13","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://sci-hub-pdf.com/10.1080/13569775.2021.1917162","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"43915146","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"社会学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Towards an intersectional approach to populism: comparative perspectives from Finland and India","authors":"Shweta Singh, É. Féron","doi":"10.1080/13569775.2021.1917164","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1080/13569775.2021.1917164","url":null,"abstract":"ABSTRACT Building on a comparison between the Finns Party in Finland, and the BJP in India, we propose to understand populist mobilisation through its core discursive sequences, rather than by relying upon traditional left-right or radical-moderate axes of analysis. Developing an original methodology, we suggest to classify populist radical right (PRR) movements depending on whether they include or exclude individuals on the basis of their religious, ethnic, class, caste, age, or gender identity, or several of these axes at the same time. Our comparative analysis buttresses Laclau's idea that PRR discourses across different cultural contexts center around the concept of the people as the ‘empty signifier’, which can be filled with any specific content. However, our intersectional analysis also reveals PRR discourses to be complex constructs, building on rather similar intersections, but whose meaning and appeal vary across political and cultural settings.","PeriodicalId":51673,"journal":{"name":"Contemporary Politics","volume":"27 1","pages":"528 - 549"},"PeriodicalIF":2.0,"publicationDate":"2021-04-21","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://sci-hub-pdf.com/10.1080/13569775.2021.1917164","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"42578223","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"社会学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Kleptocracy, strategic corruption, and defence policymaking: the impact of Najib Razak’s 1MDB scandal on Malaysia’s defence relationship with China (2015–2017)","authors":"A. Abadi","doi":"10.1080/13569775.2021.1917163","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1080/13569775.2021.1917163","url":null,"abstract":"ABSTRACT The interaction between kleptocracy, strategic corruption, and defence policymaking has not yet been sufficiently explored in the existing literature. Malaysia's turn towards China amidst the 1MDB scandal, despite Chinese claims to Malaysian waters and naval intrusions, provides an opportunity to study such a phenomenon. By examining the pressures exerted by the US and the strategic corruption pull by China upon Prime Minister Najib Razak's kleptocratic interests, this analysis highlighted the kleptocrat's strategies to change Malaysia's pro-Western defence policy. Through extensive interviews and secondary data, this study analyses the manipulation of Public Service Bargains as a critical variable influencing the kleptocrat's defence policymaking. It concludes that Najib's strategies transformed the established trustee-type of bargain in Malaysia's defence decision-making process to a kleptocratic type, enabling a closer relationship with China. This analysis contributes to the debate on kleptocracy's impact on smaller powers' defence relationships amidst the global expansion of China's strategic influence.","PeriodicalId":51673,"journal":{"name":"Contemporary Politics","volume":"27 1","pages":"508 - 527"},"PeriodicalIF":2.0,"publicationDate":"2021-04-21","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://sci-hub-pdf.com/10.1080/13569775.2021.1917163","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"45475080","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"社会学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Party institutionalization, authoritarian regime types and women’s political equality","authors":"Lars Pelke","doi":"10.1080/13569775.2021.1908724","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1080/13569775.2021.1908724","url":null,"abstract":"ABSTRACT This article examines the association between women’s political inclusion and incumbent party strength in authoritarian regimes. It argues that the degree of party institutionalisation is the main determinant of women’s political inclusion under authoritarian rule. Institutionalised party rule determines the incentive and capacity for authoritarian parties to introduce more gender equal political processes and political outputs. Using different measurements of women’s political inclusion and data on 108 countries between 1946 and 2010, this article estimates within- and between-country effects of party institutionalisation, regime types and political inclusion of women. Although previous research stressed the link between authoritarian regime types and gender equality, this study finds regime types to explain little gender equality variation. In contrast, regimes with higher levels of party institutionalisation provide more gender equal politics and policies than regimes in which authoritarian parties are less institutionalised.","PeriodicalId":51673,"journal":{"name":"Contemporary Politics","volume":"27 1","pages":"461 - 486"},"PeriodicalIF":2.0,"publicationDate":"2021-04-04","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://sci-hub-pdf.com/10.1080/13569775.2021.1908724","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"42937466","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"社会学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}