In defense of a divided opposition: programmatic distribution and ethnic minor party support

2020 ◽  
pp. 1-15
Author(s):  
Elizabeth Carlson
Keyword(s):  
Observational Evidence ◽  
Positive Outcomes ◽  
African Countries ◽  
Minor Parties ◽  
Ethnic Parties ◽  
Party Support ◽  
A Minor ◽  
Cost Of Voting ◽  
Do So ◽  
Cross National

Abstract Why do so many voters in African countries vote for minor ethnic parties instead of unifying into a powerful multi-ethnic opposition coalition? I present a model that demonstrates that as the incumbent devotes more resources to programmatic goods, which voters can access regardless of how they voted, the opportunity cost of voting for a sincerely preferred, but losing, candidate decreases. I provide experimental and cross-national observational evidence that voters are more likely to support a minor party as they perceive more or more valuable goods being distributed programmatically. Those who perceive poor distribution, or only clientelist distribution, instead vote strategically for a major opposition party. In general, support for minor parties increases along with positive outcomes and approval of the incumbent.

scholarly journals Hope, Disillusion and Coincidence in Migratory Decisions by Senegalese Migrants in Brazil

2021 ◽  
Vol 9 (1) ◽  
pp. 268-277
Author(s):  
Philipp Roman Jung
Keyword(s):  
Minor Role ◽  
Positive Outcomes ◽  
Essential Characteristic ◽  
New Destinations ◽  
Onward Migration ◽  
Decisions To Leave ◽  
Restricted Mobility ◽  
A Minor ◽  
The Impact ◽  
Do So

Uncertainty is an essential characteristic of our lives. However, by moving from one country to another, from a familiar context to an unfamiliar one, uncertainty becomes a key element of migrants’ decisions. In times of restricted mobility regimes, migrants often do not know if they will be able to reach the desired destination. Even if they manage to do so, it is still uncertain if they will be able to fulfil their aspirations. However, uncertainty also leaves room for hope. Departing from the conceptualisation of hope as the simultaneity of both potentiality and uncertainty and from the concept of circumstantial migration, this article analyses (1) retrospectively the decision of Senegalese migrants to move to Brazil and (2) the intentions of onward migration. Based on empirical data collected through ethnographic fieldwork in four Brazilian cities, this article shows how migration as a form of social hope is redirected to new destinations and that this redirection is a consequence of circumstances and coincidences, which enable or prevent movement. Potential positive outcomes of migration outweighed negative ones, which play a minor role and hardly affect decisions to leave Senegal. However, decisions to emigrate are often based on incomplete information and ill-informed expectations regarding the circumstances at the destination and can lead to feelings of disillusion. The impact of uncertainties shows a more differentiated picture in the context of onward migration intentions. While some migrants are willing to take big risks in onward migration, others try to minimize uncertainties.

African Attitudes Toward Same-Sex Relationships, 1982–2018

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Kim Yi Dionne ◽  
Boniface Dulani
Keyword(s):  
Sexual Minority ◽  
Minority Rights ◽  
Same Sex ◽  
African Countries ◽  
Negative Attitudes ◽  
Attitudes Toward Homosexuality ◽  
Sao Tome And Principe ◽  
Recent Policy ◽  
Do So ◽  
Cross National

One significant barrier to sexual minority rights in Africa is the generally negative attitudes ordinary Africans have toward same-sex relationships. Yet since 1998, there has been notable progress in terms of legalizing same-sex relationships on the continent, with Botswana the most recent African country to do so, in 2019. Botswana joins Angola, Cape Verde, Guinea Bissau, Lesotho, Mozambique, São Tomé and Príncipe, Seychelles, and South Africa, among countries that have decriminalized same-sex relationships. Publicly available cross-national survey data measuring citizen’s attitudes toward homosexuality in 41 African countries from 1982 to 2018 shows that, on average, Africans hold negative attitudes toward same-sex relationships, which is consistent with previous reports. However, there is variation in these attitudes, suggesting greater tolerance of sexual minorities among women, people who use the Internet more frequently, and urban residents. One key finding is that homophobia is not universal in Africa. In light of recent policy and legal developments advancing sexual minority rights, and given findings in existing scholarship highlighting the influence politicians have in politicizing homophobia, the literature questioning the generalized notion of a “homophobic Africa” is growing, and there are calls for more research on the factors influencing decriminalization.

Roads to the Radical Right

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Koen Damhuis
Keyword(s):  
Radical Right ◽  
Right Wing ◽  
Political Forces ◽  
Unique Material ◽  
Marine Le Pen ◽  
To Come ◽  
National Perspective ◽  
Western Democracies ◽  
Do So ◽  
Cross National

Trump, Wilders, Salvini, Le Pen—during the last decades, radical right-wing leaders and their parties have become important political forces in most Western democracies. Their growing appeal raises an increasingly relevant question: who are the voters that support them and why do they do so? Numerous and variegated answers have been given to this question, inside as well as outside academia. Yet, curiously, despite their quantity and diversity, these existing explanations are often based on a similar assumption: that of homogeneous electorates. Consequently, the idea that different subgroups with different profiles and preferences might coexist within the constituencies of radical right-wing parties has thus far remained underdeveloped, both theoretically and empirically. This ground-breaking book is the first one that systematically investigates the heterogeneity of radical right-wing voters. Theoretically, it introduces the concept of electoral equifinality to come to grips with this diversity. Empirically, it relies on innovative statistical analyses and no less than 125 life-history interviews with voters in France and the Netherlands. Based on this unique material, the study identifies different roads to the radical right and compares them within a cross-national perspective. In addition, through an analysis of almost 1,400 tweets posted by Geert Wilders and Marine Le Pen, the book shows how the latter are able to appeal to different groups of voters. Taken together, the book thus provides a host of ground-breaking insights into the heterogeneous phenomenon of radical right support.

African Female Circumcision and the Missionary Mentality

1997 ◽  
Vol 25 (1) ◽  
pp. 54-57
Author(s):  
Joyce Russell-Robinson
Keyword(s):  
African American ◽  
African American Women ◽  
American Culture ◽  
Female Circumcision ◽  
Alice Walker ◽  
African Countries ◽  
African American Culture ◽  
American Women ◽  
Do So

Alice Walker and former Democratic Congresswoman Pat Schroeder of Colorado have something in common. Both advocate the cessation of female circumcision in African countries, and both tout themselves as feminists, though Walker, borrowing from African American culture, prefers to be labeled as a womanist. What the elders had in mind when they described young African American women as “womanish,” or as “omanish,” the eclipsed form of that same word, was that such girls were too fast, or that they obtruded upon areas that were not their business. While Schroeder cannot properly be called a womanist (to do so would be to misapply the term), one can say that, similar to Alice Walker, Schroeder is putting herself into other people’s business, specifically the business of female circumcision in African communities.

Who do the people want to govern?

2021 ◽  
pp. 135406882110500
Author(s):  
John R Hibbing ◽  
Elizabeth Theiss-Morse ◽  
Matthew V Hibbing ◽  
David Fortunato
Keyword(s):  
Real World ◽  
Process Research ◽  
Alternative Theory ◽  
The People ◽  
Deep Appreciation ◽  
Political Decisions ◽  
Policy Solutions ◽  
Do So ◽  
Real World Problems ◽  
Cross National

Relative to the well-developed theory and extensive survey batteries on people’s preferences for substantive policy solutions, scholarly understanding of people’s preferences for the mechanisms by which policies should be adopted is disappointing. Theory rarely goes beyond the assumption that people would prefer to rule themselves rather than leave decisions up to elites and measurement rests largely on four items that are not up to the task. In this article, we seek to provide a firmer footing for “process” research by 1) offering an alternative theory holding that people actually want elites to continue to make important political decisions but want them to do so only after acquiring a deep appreciation for the real-world problems facing regular people, and 2) developing and testing a battery of over 50 survey items, appropriate for cross-national research, that extend understanding of how the people want political decisions to be made.

Qualitative Inquiry in the Making: A Minor Pedagogy

2019 ◽  
Vol 26 (1) ◽  
pp. 99-108
Author(s):  
Lisa A. Mazzei ◽  
Laura E. Smithers
Keyword(s):  
Qualitative Research ◽  
Doctoral Program ◽  
Qualitative Inquiry ◽  
Inquiry Instruction ◽  
Poststructural Theory ◽  
The Everyday ◽  
Ontological Turn ◽  
A Minor ◽  
Minor Inquiry ◽  
Do So

This article builds on Mazzei’s concept of minor inquiry to advance the concept of a minor pedagogy. We do so by folding poststructural theory into the evidence of experience, spotlighting a collective enunciation of the pedagogical event among individuated concepts, speakers, and moments. These pedagogical events are at once quotidian and more than one. In this spacetime individuation falls away, and the production of qualitative research expertise becomes a function of the entanglement of human and more-than-human pedagogues. At the level of the everyday, we recount our experiences in a doctoral program as professor and advisor (Lisa) and student and advisee (Laura). These experiences are selections from our (continuing) joint encounters with qualitative inquiry instruction. Enfolding these everyday pedagogical-theoretical practices of qualitative inquiry produces minor pedagogy, and minor pedagogy produces these folds. As such, minor pedagogy is a pedagogy of the ontological turn.

When the Fighting Has to Stop: The Arguments About Escalation

1967 ◽  
Vol 19 (4) ◽  
pp. 692-707
Author(s):  
Fred Charles Iklé
Keyword(s):  
Middle Ages ◽  
A Minor ◽  
Do So ◽  
The Middle Ages

In a great many wars—perhaps in most wars since the Middle Ages—one or both of the belligerents could have done significantly more to fight his enemy but chose not to do so. Whether we want to call all these wars “limited,” or only those in which both sides hobbled their military effort, is perhaps a minor matter of terminology.

Canadian Investment Treaties with African Countries: What Do They Tell Us About Investment Treaty Making in Africa?

2017 ◽  
Vol 18 (3) ◽  
pp. 556-584 ◽  
Author(s):  
J. Anthony VanDuzer
Keyword(s):  
Sustainable Development ◽  
International Investment ◽  
Economic Power ◽  
African Countries ◽  
Investment Policies ◽  
Investment Treaty ◽  
Investment Treaties ◽  
Work Done ◽  
Made In ◽  
Do So

Between 2013 and 2015, Canada signed nine bilateral investment treaties (BITs) with countries in Africa. Canada was remarkably successful in imposing its model investment treaty on its African partners. Canada’s success might be considered surprising. Investor-state arbitration cases have shown the strong binding character of BITs and the corresponding need for host states to ensure that treaties reflect their distinctive priorities. In seeking to do so, African countries could have looked to African regional initiatives for expressions of made in African investment policies. African negotiators could have benefited from the substantial work done by UNCTAD and others to provide new forms of international investment rules that make BITS more supportive of sustainable development. Despite stronger incentives for African countries to assert themselves in BIT negotiations and resources for them to draw on, however, Canada’s recent BITs suggest that political and economic power continue to define the outcome of negotiations.

scholarly journals The Limits of Liberal-Democracy Promotion

2009 ◽  
Vol 34 (4) ◽  
pp. 383-405 ◽  
Author(s):  
Christopher Hobson
Keyword(s):  
Case Studies ◽  
Liberal Democracy ◽  
Democracy Promotion ◽  
Positive Outcomes ◽  
Conceptual Frameworks ◽  
Per Se ◽  
State Of Affairs ◽  
Empirical Case Studies ◽  
Do So ◽  
The Way

One of the few unambiguously positive outcomes of the George W. Bush years is a greater interest in the practice of democracy promotion. However, the expansion of scholarship in this area has not been matched by an equal expansion in its scope. There continues to be an overwhelming tendency to focus exclusively on empirical case studies and policy prescriptions, usually informed by a set of unstated liberal assumptions. Nothing is necessarily wrong with this per se. The problem stems from the lack of attention directed toward the larger theoretical and conceptual frameworks that inform and shape these practices. Responding to this state of affairs, this article examines the way certain theoretical tendencies and commitments have helped give rise to many problematic aspects of liberal democracy promotion. It is necessary to challenge the restrictive framework that currently dominates. It is argued that to do so entails rethinking, extending, and pluralizing the way democracy itself is conceived.

Sign in / Sign up

Export Citation Format

Share Document