When Can Political Parties Lead Public Opinion? Evidence from a Natural Experiment

2010 ◽  
Vol 27 (2) ◽  
pp. 158-177 ◽  
Author(s):  
Rune Slothuus
Author(s):  
Dennis C. Spies

The chapter summarizes the New Progressive Dilemma (NPD) debate, identifying three arguments from comparative welfare state and party research likely to be relevant to the relationship between immigration and welfare state retrenchment: public opinion, welfare institutions, and political parties. Alignment of anti-immigrant sentiments and welfare support varies considerably between countries, especially between the US and Europe, leading to different party incentives vis-à-vis welfare state retrenchment. The chapter introduces insights from comparative welfare state and party research to the debate, discussing inter alia, political parties in terms of welfare retrenchment, immigrants as a voter group, and cross-national variation of existing welfare institutions. It addresses the complex debates around attitudinal change caused by immigration, levels of welfare support, voting behavior, and social expenditures. Combining these strands of literature, a common theoretical framework is developed that is subsequently applied to both the US and Western European context.


2021 ◽  
pp. 003232172199363
Author(s):  
Raimondas Ibenskas ◽  
Jonathan Polk

Are political parties in young democracies responsive to the policy preferences of the public? Compared to extensive scholarship on party responsiveness in established democracies, research on party responsiveness in young democracies is limited. We argue that weaker programmatic party–voter linkages in post-communist democracies create incentives for parties to respond to their supporters rather than the more general electorate. Such responsiveness occurs in two ways. First, parties follow shifts in the mean position of their supporters. Second, drawing on the research on party–voter congruence, we argue that parties adjust their policy positions to eliminate previous incongruence between themselves and their supporters. Analyses based on a comprehensive dataset that uses expert surveys, parties’ manifestoes and election surveys to measure parties’ positions, and several cross-national and national surveys to measure voters’ preferences provide strong support for this argument.


2018 ◽  
Vol 14 (3) ◽  
pp. 55
Author(s):  
Rami Saleh Abdelrazeq Musleh ◽  
Mahmoud Ismail ◽  
Dala Mahmoud

The study focused on the Palestinian state as depicted in the Israeli political discourse. It showed that the Israeli strategy is based on denying the establishment of a Palestinian state alongside the Israeli one. Israel's main concern is to protect its national security at all costs. The study showed the Israeli political factions' opposition to the formation of an independent Palestinian state in addition to their refusal to give up certain parts of the West Bank due to religious and geopolitical reasons. To discuss this topic and achieve the required results, the analytical descriptive approach is adopted by the researcher. The study concluded that the Israeli leadership and its projects to solve the Palestinian issue do not amount to the establishment of a Palestinian state. This leadership simply aims to impress the international public opinion that Israel wants peace. In contrast, the Israeli public has shown that it cannot accept a Palestinian state, and the public opinion of the Palestinian state is not different from that of the political parties and leaders in Israel.


2005 ◽  
Vol 26 (2) ◽  
pp. 35-52 ◽  
Author(s):  
Raivo Palmaru

Abstract Although numerous studies over the past 20 years have revealed a clear connection between content analysis statistics and the results of public opinion surveys, the media’s “minimal effects” hypothesis still remains the overwhelmingly prevailing view. Among other things, it is not clear which of the two influences the other: Do people’s political preferences influence the media or do the media influence people’s preferences? In order to test this, the results of the 1999 and 2003 general elections and the 2002 local elections in Estonia, as well as the results of current public opinion surveys, were compared to the coverage given to the campaigning parties in the largest Estonian newspapers. The analysis showed that the coverage of political parties in the print media, as determined by the frequency of valuative notations, described the election results to a great extent. It is noteworthy that a change in media content was followed by a change in public opinion. At the same time, an accumulation effect became obvious: The voters’ preferences for political parties accumulated diachronically during the course of several weeks based on the information that was available to them.


Author(s):  
Philip J. Cook ◽  
Kristin A. Goss

Do Americans Want Stricter Gun Laws? Public opinion experts have long observed that the United States has a gun control paradox: Most Americans favor all sorts of firearms regulations—sometimes overwhelmingly so—yet these regulations are not enacted into law. Four decades ago, one scholar noted...


2020 ◽  
Vol 35 (1) ◽  
pp. 25-54
Author(s):  
Jeffrey von Arx

In the course of his long career (1865–1892) as Archbishop of Westminster and head of England’s Catholic Church, Henry Edward Manning articulated a position on the engagement of voluntary religious organizations like the Church with the liberal state, now understood, at least in the British context, as religiously neutral and responsive to public opinion through increasingly democratic forms of government and mediated through political parties. The greatest test and illustration of this position was his involvement in Irish Home Rule, where he deferred to the Irish hierarchy in their support of Charles Stuart Parnell’s Irish Parliamentary Party against his own inclinations and the immediate interests of the Catholic population in England. Manning’s position was in sharp contrast to that of Pope Leo XIII, who negotiated directly with Otto von Bismarck, and over the heads of the hierarchy and Germany’s Catholic Centre Party, to end the Kulturkampf. Thus Manning worked out a modus vivendi for the Church in relation to the liberal, democratic state that anticipates in many ways the practice of the Church in politics today.


Slavic Review ◽  
1993 ◽  
Vol 52 (1) ◽  
pp. 1-12 ◽  
Author(s):  
Robert J. Brym ◽  
Andrei Degtyarev

Public opinion polls show that between 1988 and 1991 some three percent of adult Russians donated money to various political movements, four percent took part in strikes and just over six percent participated in mass rallies and demonstrations. Fewer than one percent of Russians j o i n ed new political parties, still nascent organizations that attract elites, not masses. At the same time, membership in the Communist Party dropped from ten percent to four percent of the adult population of Russia.


2015 ◽  
Vol 8 (2) ◽  
Author(s):  
Dr Atnu Mohapatra ◽  
K G Suresh

Media and politics have a symbiotic relationship. Politicians need media to get the oxygen of publicity and the exposure they need to woo electorate and mould public opinion. With many a media house turning indifferent to their needs an ever increasing number of political parties and leaders are setting up their own small and big media shops to propagate their views, cover up their shortcomings, or to settle scores with their rivals. The Entertainment and Media (E&M) industry broadly consists of four segments i.e. Television, Print, Radio and other media platforms (such as Internets, Film, Out of Home Advertising (OOH), Music, Gaming and Internet Advertising).In today‘s technologically fast moving environment, media plays a significant role. Its inherent ability to reach the masses implies that it has a crucial role in building public opinion and creating awareness among the masses. It also plays a very important role in delineating the economic, political, social and cultural characteristics of a country. Thus, media pluralism is a cornerstone of democracy and this fact should be reflected in the plurality of an independent and autonomous media and in diversity of media content. Print, television, radio and new media such as Internet are the most popular media. The Indian media landscape is witnessing several changes that may have far reaching consequences. Major players are looking for expansion of their business interests in various segments of the print and broadcasting sectors. Many of the Indian media houses are either owned or controlled by political leaders or parties. This paper is an attempt to highlight and understand the political ownership of media in India, its implications for the readers. viewers, listeners and other media users as also the society and polity at large.


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