Veto Points Revisited: The Role of Party System Institutionalization in Welfare State Change

2021 ◽  
pp. 1-22
Author(s):  
Tamara Popic

Abstract This article argues that the impact of veto points on a government's policy outcomes depends crucially on the degree of institutionalization of the party system. Specifically, the article claims that two dimensions of party system institutionalization – stability of relations between parties and between parties and voters – condition the ability of the opposition to block governments' policy plans through veto points. It showcases this argument by applying the method of causal process tracing to a comparative analysis of health policy reforms in Slovakia (2002–2004) and Hungary (2006–2008).

2014 ◽  
Vol 7 (4) ◽  
pp. 525-546 ◽  
Author(s):  
Bertjan Verbeek ◽  
Andrej Zaslove

Despite the populist radical right’s (PRR) popularity among political scientists, little scholarship has focused on its influence on foreign policy. This lack of study is due, in part, to a general lack of attention to the role of political parties in foreign policy, both in comparative politics and international relations (IR). This is unfortunate because, due to Europeanization and globalization, the domain of foreign policy has expanded, making foreign policy increasingly a domestic concern and, most importantly, touching on major themes of PRR parties. Combining insights from comparative politics and IR, we theorize the mechanisms, which may facilitate the impact of such parties on foreign policy. Subsequently, we examine whether the Italian Northern League (LN), as a prime example of a PRR party participating in a coalition government, has had an impact on Italy’s foreign policy and, if so, what accounts for this (lack of) influence. This paper concludes that, unlike common understanding, the PRR is not persistently anti-internationalist/anti-EU; rather, its position depends on the extent to which international politics helps or hinders the promotion of ‘the people’. Second, despite the LN’s strong coalition position, it pursued an effective foreign policy mainly regarding immigration policy. Third, IR theories of junior coalition partners and foreign policy should address the nature of the party system and how inter-party electoral competition affects the strength of a junior coalition partner. Fourth, these theories need to acknowledge that party preferences are sometimes trumped by national concerns, as suggested by more systemic IR theories.


2006 ◽  
Vol 33 (3) ◽  
pp. 621-659 ◽  
Author(s):  
STEVEN GILLIS ◽  
DORIT RAVID

This study investigates the role of phonological and morphological information in children's developing orthographies in two languages with different linguistic typologies: Hebrew, a Semitic language with a highly synthetic morphology, and Dutch, a Germanic language with a sparse morphology.192 Israeli and 192 Belgian monolingual schoolchildren in grades 1–6 (aged 6;0–12;0) were administered respective dictation tasks in which homophonous segments were the targets. In each language, these phonologically distinct segments are neutralized phonetically but are nevertheless represented orthographically. In both languages the target segments in the test words differed along two dimensions: (1) their morphological function as part of a stem or root versus as part of an affix; and (2) their morphophonological recoverability. The spelling tests in both languages consisted of four conditions which differed in the number and type of cues for retrieving the correct spelling of homophonous graphemes. The cues were of two types: morphological cues, which offer spellers clues to the correct spelling through consistent orthography/morphology mapping regularities; and morphophonological cues, which offer spellers clues to the correct spelling through the manipulation of orthography/morphophonology conversion procedures.A central finding of this study is the differential treatment of morphological cues by Dutch and Hebrew spelling learners. When faced with neutralized segments with and without morphological function, Hebrew-speaking children find morphology an enormously helpful tool. Dutch-speaking children, in contrast, do not find morphology a good cue provider. The impact of typology on the interface between spoken and written language is invoked as an explanation of the main findings.


Author(s):  
Mehmet Asutay ◽  
Greget Kalla Buana ◽  
Alija Avdukic

AbstractResearch into spirituality and its impact on the work environment has been bourgeoning. In an attempt to explore the role of Islamic spirituality in the workplace, this study examines the influence of Islamic spirituality on job satisfaction and organisational commitment through work ethics. Data are obtained by an online Likert-scaled questionnaire survey based on one thousand Muslim employees from various economic sectors in Indonesia and analysed through structural equation modelling (SEM). The findings demonstrate that Islamic spirituality positively influences job satisfaction and organisational commitment as two dimensions of work attitudes and that work ethics mediate that influence. There is also evidence that job satisfaction positively influences organisational commitment, but work ethics does not moderate that influence. The findings related to the role of work ethics, which mediates the effect of Islamic spirituality on job satisfaction and organisational commitment, can be considered the contribution of this study.


2020 ◽  
pp. 088832541989799
Author(s):  
Ivan Stefanovski

This article belongs to a forthcoming special cluster, “Contention Politics and International Statebuilding in Southeast Europe” guest-edited by Nemanja Džuverovic, Julia Rone and Tom Junes. This article looks at the impact of one of the recent waves of mobilization in the Republic of Macedonia, the “Citizens for Macedonia” platform, over policy outcomes that originally derived from the movement actor. Furthermore, the text highlights the crucial role of the international community in shaping and implementing the policy outcomes, playing the role of international statebuilders in the process of reintroducing of democracy in the captured Macedonian state. The theoretical framework and the literature review present an attempt to bridge contemporary works on social movement studies with those on democratization and international state building. A lot of emphasis is also put on the peculiar political opportunity structure, and the difficult and movement-unfriendly conditions in which the citizens’ platform operated. On the other hand, the article tries to show the gains and losses of a coalition between an established political party, and a loose horizontal network of citizens and citizens’ organizations that advocate for rule of law and protection of human rights. The central conclusions that can be extrapolated from this work are the strong and committed claims by the movement, articulated through various repertoires of action, but also the active role of the international community, which presented a conditio sine qua non, bringing down the regime led by former PM Nikola Gruevski and freeing the state institutions previously occupied by the political parties in power.


2021 ◽  
pp. 241-261
Author(s):  
Fernando Casal Bértoa ◽  
Zsolt Enyedi

The final chapter examines the impact of party system closure on the survival as well as the quality of democracy. We consider the question of whether closure is a necessary or sufficient precondition for the survival of democracy, and whether the other often proposed measures of party system stability, especially electoral volatility and parliamentary fragmentation, have a similarly important role. We use various indices to tap the quality of democracy, and we measure the relationship between these indices and closure by considering the intervening role of economic development. We find a special pattern in post-Communist Eastern Europe, indicating that closure can have pernicious consequences under certain conditions.


Modern Italy ◽  
2009 ◽  
Vol 14 (2) ◽  
pp. 203-216 ◽  
Author(s):  
Nicolò Conti

Italian political parties have been involved for almost three decades in a multi-level electoral game encompassing the election of national, supranational and local institutions. The content of the electoral competition has also changed to include not only nationwide, but also sub-national and supranational issues. This article analyses the interaction between Italian parties and the theme of European integration. The aim is to explore the role of contentious European Union matters in domestic electoral competition, specifically at the time of European elections. Such a role is important to understand to what extent the Italian parties politicise the EU issues during EP elections, and to determine the impact of such issues on the Italian party system and on its patterns of policy competition. In particular, the article will explore whether Europe as an issue has been internalised along the main patterns of party competition or has produced a disruptive effect and forms of realignment.


2021 ◽  
Vol 13 (11) ◽  
pp. 6361
Author(s):  
Wojciech Trzebiński ◽  
Radosław Baran ◽  
Beata Marciniak

The paper aims to assess the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic and possible future global epidemic events on shopping behavioral patterns. Specifically, the paper investigates consumer pandemic-related isolation behavior (which manifests itself via preference for shopping without leaving home, and avoiding contact with other people while shopping offline) as a consequence of consumer interdependent self-construal, with the mediating role of consumer pandemic-related emotions of disgust, fear for oneself, fear for others, and sadness. The results of two surveys conducted in different stages of the COVID-19 pandemic in Poland (October 2020, and January 2021, respectively) suggest two opposing indirect effects of interdependent self-construal on isolation behavior: a positive effect through disgust, and a negative effect through sadness. Additionally, a positive indirect effect through fear was visible in the second study. Moreover, two dimensions of interdependent self-construal (i.e., vertical and horizontal) are demonstrated to have opposing effects (a positive effect and a negative one, respectively) on pandemic-related disgust, and in turn on isolation behavior. The above results indicate that, in the context of the pandemic, consumer self-construal influences pandemic-related emotions, and in turn consumers’ tendency to isolate themselves. Implications for marketers and society were discussed from the perspective of economic and sustainability goals.


Author(s):  
Rohani Mohd ◽  
Badrul Hisham Kamaruddin ◽  
Salwana Hassan ◽  
Mazzini Muda ◽  
Khulida Kirana Yahya

The purpose of the study is to understand the role of self-efficacy in influencing entrepreneurial orientations of small scale Malay entrepreneurs. Entrepreneurial orientations are consistently found to influence performance quite positively. Therefore, the understanding of how strong self-efficacy influences entrepreneurial orientations would also help in identifying ways to improve the performance of small scale businesses. There was a lack of research to see what drives business owners to choose among the entrepreneurial orientations, while there were so many researches conducted to see the impact of entrepreneurial orientations on performance. Thus, finding what influences entrepreneurial orientations would be a significant contribution to the field of entrepreneurship. The samples comprised of 162 small scale Malay SMEs in the manufacturing industry in all the states of Malaysia. The Rasch Measurement Model was used for the purpose of construct reliability and validity. In order to identify the influence of self-efficacy on entrepreneurial orientations and its two dimensions (proactivity and innovativeness), a simple linear regression and independent-t test were undertaken by using the SPSS as a tool. The findings indicated that self-efficacy was significantly related to entrepreneurial orientation and self-efficacy of the Malay entrepreneurs has affected innovativeness more strongly than the proactive dimension of entrepreneurial orientations. The independent-t test also was able to identify that Malay entrepreneurs withwith low self-efficacy. The findings give important implications to management consultants whose clients are SMEs to design training modules that specifically focus on developing self-efficacy among average performing SMEs because self-efficacy was found to improve the entrepreneurial orientations of entrepreneurs.   Keywords: Self-efficacy, entrepreneurial orientations, innovativeness and proactivity.


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