scholarly journals Populist radical right parties, welfare policy and population health in Europe

2019 ◽  
Vol 29 (Supplement_4) ◽  
Author(s):  
C Rinaldi ◽  
M P M Bekker

Abstract Background The political system is an important influencing factor for population health but is often neglected in the public health literature. This scoping review uses insights from political science to explore the possible public health consequences of the rise of populist radical right (PRR) parties in Europe, with welfare state policy as a proxy. The aim is to generate hypotheses about the relationship between the PRR, political systems and public health. Methods A literature search on PubMed, ScienceDirect and Google Scholar resulted in 110 original research articles addressing 1) the relationship between the political system and welfare state policy/population health outcomes or 2) the relationship between PRR parties and welfare state policy/population health outcomes in Europe. Results The influence of political parties on population health seems to be mediated by welfare state policies. Early symptoms point towards possible negative effects of the PRR on public health, by taking a welfare chauvinist position. Despite limited literature, there are preliminary indications that the effect of PRR parties on health and welfare policy depends on vote-seeking or office-seeking strategies and may be mediated by the political system in which they act. Compromises with coalition partners, electoral institutions and the type of healthcare system can either restrain or exacerbate the effects of the PRR policy agenda. EU laws and regulations can to some extent restrict the nativist policy agenda of PRR parties. Conclusions The relationship between the PRR and welfare state policy seems to be mediated by the political system, meaning that the public health consequences will differ by country. Considering the increased popularity of populist parties in Europe and the possibly harmful consequences for public health, there is a need for further research on the link between the PRR and public health.

Author(s):  
Chiara Rinaldi ◽  
Marleen P.M. Bekker

Background: In light of worrying public health developments such as declining life expectancy gains and increasing health inequalities, there is a heightened interest in the relationship between politics and health. This scoping review explores the possible welfare policy consequences of populist radical right (PRR) parties in Europe and the implications for population health. The aim is to map the available empirical evidence regarding the influence of PRR parties on welfare policy reforms and to understand how this relationship is mediated by political system characteristics in different countries. Methods and Analysis: A scoping review of peer-reviewed empirical literature addressing the relationship between PRR parties, political systems and welfare policy in Europe was performed using the methodology by the Joanna Briggs Institute. Data was charted on main study characteristics, concepts and relevant results, after which a qualitative content analysis was performed. The data was categorised according to the political system characteristics: constitution, political economy, interest representation and partisanship. Five expert interviews were conducted for validation purposes. Early evidence from 15 peer-reviewed articles suggests that exclusionary welfare chauvinistic positions of PRR parties are likely to have negative effects on the access to welfare provisions and health of vulnerable population groups. Differences in implementation of welfare chauvinistic policy reforms are partly explained by mediation of the constitutional order (judicial institutions at national and European Union [EU] level), political economy (healthcare system funding and European single market) and partisanship (vote-seeking strategies by PRR and mainstream parties). No clear evidence was found regarding the influence of interest representation on welfare chauvinistic policies. Discussion: While early evidence suggests that the welfare chauvinistic ideology of PRR parties is harmful for public health, the possible mediating role of political system characteristics on PRR welfare policy influence offers risk and protective factors explaining why the PRR ideology plays out differently across Europe.


Author(s):  
Leonida Tedoldi

This article rethinks the political and institutional causes of the rapid debt growth and its exploitation in the italian “blocked” political system (so-called “First Republic”). Italian State has always lived above its means, with a constant imbalance between income and expenditure and at the same time expanding its distance with respect to society (but the debt was paid by social groups that took advantage of it). This process triggered off a perennial crisis of representation and strengthened the instability of relations between political institutions and society. Therefore, sovereign debt downturns are always crises of institutional legitimization and require a redefinition of the ways in which sovereignty and power are exercised. Thus, the article investigates the impact of the “political use” of the public debt by governments on the relationship between the State and society.


Author(s):  
Dmitry Valuev ◽  

The article covers the issue of consistency of manifesto texts with a political system underpinned by publicness principles. The ever-increasing production of manifestos witnesses a crisis in the political system which necessitates the investigation of how such texts influence both their readers and public sphere as a whole. The public sphere concept by J. Habermas, perception of policies by J. Ranciere, and dialogue-based approaches of M. Buber and A. Pyatigorsky constitute the basis for analysing structural elements of a manifesto text, and highlighting their core traits shedding light on the relationship between a manifesto text and the public sphere. Through highlighting the three main elements of a manifesto text, i.e. ‘speaking I’, ‘Object’, and ‘Other’, and by clarifying the configuration of interrelations between the elements, the militant message of a manifesto is asserted as the opposite to the dialogue-based foundation of the public sphere. Such texts postulate the necessity both to eliminate the ‘Other’ and to immediately achieve a set objective by way of taking on an active participative position. The latter to be implemented via the ‘speaking I’ replication mechanism, which is expressed through a call for readers to take on the image of the person speaking through the manifesto. Thus, the manifesto becomes both a tool for getting rid of an existing system incapable of satisfying the needs of an actor, and a tool for leveling political space. Manifesto texts demonstrate the monological basis expressed in the postulation of the necessity for action to uncompromisingly transform the world.


Daedalus ◽  
2012 ◽  
Vol 141 (4) ◽  
pp. 69-82
Author(s):  
Linda Greenhouse

The relationship between the Supreme Court and public opinion remains ambiguous, despite efforts over many years by scholars both of the Court and of mass behavior to decipher it. Certainly Supreme Court Justices live in the world, and are propelled by the political system to their life-tenured positions. And certainly the Court, over time, appears to align itself with the broadly defined public mood. But the mechanism by which this occurs–the process by which the Court and the public engage one another in a highly attenuated dialogue–remains obscure. The Court's 1973 abortion decision, Roe v. Wade, offers a case in point. As the country began to reconsider the wisdom of the nineteenth-century criminalization of abortion, which voices did the Justices hear and to which did they respond? Probing beneath the surface of the public response to Roe serves to highlight rather than solve the puzzle.


Author(s):  
Tomasz Słomka

This article is concerned with the relationship between more than 30 years of universal direct election to the post of President of the Republic of Poland and the essence of the roles associated with that position. The hypothesis put forward for testing has been that elections of the above kind give rise to distortions in the systemic model associated with the Polish Presidency. The legitimisation of the President at the ballot box reinforces the efforts of many holders of the office to introduce ruling-related elements of the Presidency in practice, in the context of the political system. Elections also strengthen relations between the President and his political camp, in this way undermining the presidential arbitration function. In essence, an election campaign is subject to mechanisms of “Prime Minister-isation”, whereby a candidate for President usually presents (feels obliged to present) a programme appropriate for an organ truly engaged in the pursuit of state policy.


2021 ◽  
Vol 63 (10) ◽  
pp. 3-35
Author(s):  
Cristina Pratas Cruzeiro

This article analyzes the relationship between Portuguese artists and bodies of power and the popular masses after the Revolution of 25 April 1974 and until 1977. The analysis of this period in Portugal will consider the dynamics surrounding socially engaged artistic practices integrated in the public space, within its historic and social framework. The article argues that the Portuguese artistic context under consideration arose from the politicians and artists motivation to bring art and the popular masses closer to the ongoing revolutionary process. In this approach, I identify collaboration as the most frequent attitude used by artists in relation to the political system and population. This approach decreased since 1976, at which time there was an increase in conflict with the political power structures. Regarding the relationship with the population, from that moment on there was also a decrease in the use of collaborative tools and an intensification of transgressive and provocative tools in artisticpractices. These changes will be articulated in the article based on the country’s objective political and social conditions, and their influence on attitudinal nuances identified in the socially engaged artistic practices under analysis.


2017 ◽  
Vol 3 (2) ◽  
pp. 240
Author(s):  
Syaiful Arif

ABSTRACT: Religious radicalism (Islam) developed the theological thought to counter-Pancasila and the Republic of Indonesia (NKRI), it can be fought and softened with Pancasila itself. This is due to the fact that the cause of such radicalism is a misunderstanding to the Pancasila and its political system. Pancasila is regarded as a secular political ideology, whereas it actually cared pattern for the relationship between religion and state that upholds the values of divinity on the one side, and the public virtue on the other side. Deradizalisation of religion based on Pancasila can be applied with two strategies. First, proving the existence of religious dimension of Pancasila and Republic of Indonesia to undermine the secular claims from the radical groups. Second, learning the nature of politics which contained in Pancasila. These nature of politics are more in line with the political ideals of Islam, rather than the ideology of Islamism which tends to the violent. KEYWORDS: Islam, radicalism, deradicalization, Pancasila.


Author(s):  
Leonida Tedoldi

This article rethinks the political and institutional causes of the rapid debt growth and its exploitation in the italian “blocked” political system (so-called “First Republic”). Italian State has always lived above its means, with a constant imbalance between income and expenditure and at the same time expanding its distance with respect to society (but the debt was paid by social groups that took advantage of it). This process triggered off a perennial crisis of representation and strengthened the instability of relations between political institutions and society. Therefore, sovereign debt downturns are always crises of institutional legitimization and require a redefinition of the ways in which sovereignty and power are exercised. Thus, the article investigates the impact of the “political use” of the public debt by governments on the relationship between the State and society.


2019 ◽  
Vol 12 (4) ◽  
pp. 83-103
Author(s):  
Mai Mogib Mosad

This paper maps the basic opposition groups that influenced the Egyptian political system in the last years of Hosni Mubarak’s rule. It approaches the nature of the relationship between the system and the opposition through use of the concept of “semi-opposition.” An examination and evaluation of the opposition groups shows the extent to which the regime—in order to appear that it was opening the public sphere to the opposition—had channels of communication with the Muslim Brotherhood. The paper also shows the system’s relations with other groups, such as “Kifaya” and “April 6”; it then explains the reasons behind the success of the Muslim Brotherhood at seizing power after the ousting of President Mubarak.


2017 ◽  
Vol 11 (1) ◽  
pp. 35-63
Author(s):  
Ruth Roded

Beginning in the early 1970s, Jewish and Muslim feminists, tackled “oral law”—Mishna and Talmud, in Judaism, and the parallel Hadith and Fiqh in Islam, and several analogous methodologies were devised. A parallel case study of maintenance and rebellion of wives —mezonoteha, moredet al ba?ala; nafaqa al-mar?a and nush?z—in classical Jewish and Islamic oral law demonstrates similarities in content and discourse. Differences between the two, however, were found in the application of oral law to daily life, as reflected in “responsa”—piskei halacha and fatwas. In modern times, as the state became more involved in regulating maintenance and disobedience, and Jewish law was backed for the first time in history by a state, state policy and implementation were influenced by the political system and socioeconomic circumstances of the country. Despite their similar origin in oral law, maintenance and rebellion have divergent relevance to modern Jews and Muslims.


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