Engaging with Public Opinion at the Micro-Level: Citizen Dialogue and Participation in German Foreign Policy

2021 ◽  
Vol 18 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Christian Opitz ◽  
Hanna Pfeifer ◽  
Anna Geis
Keyword(s):  
Foreign Policy ◽  
Public Opinion ◽  
German Foreign Policy ◽  
Minor Importance ◽  
Foreign Office ◽  
Micro Level ◽  
Auswärtiges Amt ◽  
Over Time ◽  
Western Democracies

Abstract This article analyzes how and why foreign policy (FP)-makers use dialogue and participation processes (DPPs) with (groups of) individual citizens as a source of public opinion. Taking Germany as a case study and drawing on DPP initiatives by the Federal Foreign Office (Auswärtiges Amt, AA) since 2014, we analyze the officials’ motivation for establishing such processes and find four different sets of motivation: (1) image campaigning, (2) educating citizens, (3) listening to citizens, and (4) changing the citizens’ role in FP. Our article makes three contributions. First, we provide a novel typology of the sources of public opinion upon which FP-makers can draw. Second, our study points to the importance of, and provides a framework for, analyzing how officials engage with public opinion at the micro-level, which has so far been understudied in FP analysis. Finally, our empirical analysis suggests that both carefully assessing and influencing public opinion feature prominently in motivation, whereas PR purposes are of minor importance. Recasting the citizens’ role in FP gains in importance over time and may mirror the increased need to legitimize FP in Western democracies vis-à-vis their publics.

IV. Baron von Holstein, The “Mystery Man” of the German Foreign Office 1890–1906

1923 ◽  
Vol 1 (1) ◽  
pp. 61-84
Author(s):  
G. P. Gooch
Keyword(s):  
Foreign Policy ◽  
German Foreign Policy ◽  
Modern Germany ◽  
Foreign Office

Though historians are still waiting for Holstein's papers, enough material has accumulated since his death in 1909 to attempt a sketch of the man who had the largest share in the control of German foreign policy from the fall of Bismarck in 1890 till his own retirement in 1906. During his lifetime his name was scarcely known even to his countrymen; but the Memoirs of his colleagues Otto Hammann and Baron von Eckardstein, to mention only the two principal witnesses, have thrown a flood of light on the Éminence Grise of modern Germany, who, like Père Joseph, loved to work in the dark and preferred the reality to the pomp of power.

Do semantic modal maps have a role in a constructionalization approach to modals?

2016 ◽  
Vol 8 (1) ◽  
pp. 97-124 ◽  
Author(s):  
Elizabeth Closs Traugott
Keyword(s):  
Construction Grammar ◽  
Levels Of Abstraction ◽  
Semantic Maps ◽  
Micro Level ◽  
Different Levels ◽  
Over Time ◽  
Conceptual Schemas

My aim in this paper is to show that, in modified form, semantic connectivity maps of the kind developed in van der Auwera & Plungian (1998) and van der Auwera (2013) can be useful for showing the development over time of relationships among polysemous constructions. Since these maps pertain primarily to meaning and are intended as contributions to cross-linguistic generalizations rather than to language-specific grammars, their purpose might seem orthogonal to construction grammar, in which form–meaning pairs are the basic units of grammar. I propose that the semantic maps can usefully be rethought as being of two kinds: schema-construction maps that represent relationships between abstract, conceptual schemas linked to underspecified form, and micro-construction maps that represent relationships between specific constructions. These two kinds of maps capture both form and meaning since they represent form–meaning pairings, but at different levels of abstraction. They can also capture direction of changes, as tendencies at the schema level and specific trajectories at the micro-level. My case study is the development of the marginal modals better, rather, sooner (see Denison & Cort 2010, van der Auwera & De Wit 2010). I show that better is significantly different in distribution and meaning from rather and sooner, and that, although they form a family of micro-constructions, they do not form a tight-knit group. This can be captured well by modified semantic maps.

scholarly journals Les élections législatives de mars 1978 et la politique extérieure de la France

2005 ◽  
Vol 9 (4) ◽  
pp. 467-506 ◽  
Author(s):  
Marcel Merle
Keyword(s):  
Foreign Policy ◽  
Public Opinion ◽  
Comparative Research ◽  
Electoral Campaign ◽  
French Foreign Policy ◽  
Multiple Causes

The international aspect of electoral consultations is too often neglected by researchers. In the specific case of France, observation shows that international stakes have already played an important role in other circumstances (notably in 1973). In 1978, the confrontation opposing the majority in power and the leftist opposition was played out, in part, on international problems. The defeat of the left has certainly multiple causes ; but the rupture which weakened the opposition occurred, initially, because of questions of foreign policy ; as for the incumbent majority, it found in the continuity of foreign policy its best arguments with public opinion. Just as foreign policy was able to contribute, in a certain way, to electoral results, the latter could have a certain influence on the course of French foreign policy. This case study suggests the need for further comparative research in order to draw up a typology of electoral consultations, according to whether or not they involve an external stake, but also to define more precisely the ambiguous concept of foreign policy — which may not be reduced, as the French electoral campaign of 1978 proves, to problems of alliances and defense only.

Uniting the Enemy: Politics and the Convergence of Nationalisms in Slovakia

2004 ◽  
Vol 18 (4) ◽  
pp. 651-696 ◽  
Author(s):  
Kevin Deegan-Krause
Keyword(s):  
Public Opinion ◽  
Political Leadership ◽  
Important Case ◽  
Political Elites ◽  
Large Share ◽  
The West ◽  
Slovak Population ◽  
Working Together ◽  
Over Time

Although aggregate popular support for particular nationalisms in Slovakia showed little change during the 1990s, relationships between nationalisms changed significantly. This article uses categories of nationalism derived from the relational typologies of Brubaker and Hechter to analyze surveys of postcommunist Slovak public opinion and demonstrate that popular nationalisms against Czechs, Hungarians, the West, and nonnationalist Slovaks bore little relationship to one another at the time of Slovakia’s independence but converged over time. With the encouragement of nationalist political elites, a large share of the Slovak population became convinced that Slovakia faced threats from all sides and that the country’s enemies were actually working together to undermine its sovereignty. The example of Slovakia thus provides an important case study for understanding how the complex and interactions between distinct nationalisms creates opportunities for the influence of political leadership.

“PLEASE DENY THESE MANIFESTLY FALSE REPORTS”: OTTOMAN DIPLOMATS AND THE PRESS IN BELGIUM (1850–1914)

2016 ◽  
Vol 48 (2) ◽  
pp. 267-292
Author(s):  
Houssine Alloul ◽  
Roel Markey
Keyword(s):  
Foreign Policy ◽  
Public Opinion ◽  
Policy Making ◽  
Western Europe ◽  
News Coverage ◽  
The Press ◽  
Ruling Elites ◽  
Depth Study ◽  
Image Building

AbstractSimilar to ruling elites in Western Europe, the Ottomans were preoccupied with foreign “public opinion” regarding their state. Historians have devoted attention to Ottoman state efforts at image building abroad and, to a lesser degree, related attempts to influence the European mass press. Yet, an in-depth study of this subject is lacking. This article turns to one of the prime, though largely neglected, actors in Ottoman foreign policy making: the sultan's diplomats. Through a case study of Ottoman envoys to Belgium, it demonstrates how foreign “press management” evolved and was adapted to shifting domestic and international political circumstances. Increasingly systematic attempts to influence Belgian newspapers can be discerned from the reign of Abdülhamid II onward. Brokers between Istanbul and “liberal” Belgium's thriving newspaper business, Ottoman diplomats proved essential to this development. Ultimately, however, Ottoman efforts to counter Belgian (and European) news coverage of the empire had little impact and occasionally even worked counterproductively, generating the very Orientalist images they aimed to combat in the first place.

scholarly journals THE LESSONS OF ABADAN AND SUEZ FOR BRITISH FOREIGN POLICYMAKERS IN THE 1960s

2006 ◽  
Vol 49 (2) ◽  
pp. 525-547 ◽  
Author(s):  
PETER J. BECK
Keyword(s):  
Foreign Policy ◽  
Pilot Project ◽  
Radical Change ◽  
Historical Narrative ◽  
Change Of Direction ◽  
British Foreign Policy ◽  
Foreign Office ◽  
The 1960S

Responding positively to the 1957 ‘funding experience’ initiative encouraging Whitehall departments to use history more systematically in their everyday work, the Foreign Office commissioned a pilot project centred upon the 1951 Anglo-Iranian Abadan crisis. The resulting study, completed by Rohan Butler in 1962, included a lengthy section drawing lessons from the historical narrative. During the early 1960s Butler's Abadan history, attracting interest and comment from both ministers and officials, fed into ongoing reviews of British foreign policy and methods stimulated by the 1956 Suez debacle and Britain's initial failure to join the Common Market (1963). Confronting policymakers with the contemporary realities affecting Britain's role in the world, the history prompted serious thinking about the case for a radical change of direction in both foreign policy and methods. Generally speaking, the Foreign Office has made little use of history in the actual policymaking process. From this perspective, this episode, centred upon Butler's Abadan history, offers a useful case study illuminating any appraisal of history's potential as a policy input, most notably concerning the role of historical analogies in the formulation, conduct, and presentation of British foreign policy.

scholarly journals Aspek Pragmatisme Dalam Kebijakan Pintu Terbuka Jerman terhadap Pengungsi Timur Tengah: Solusi Grey Population

2019 ◽  
Vol 12 (1) ◽  
pp. 1
Author(s):  
Nadia Khansa Salsabila
Keyword(s):  
European Union ◽  
Foreign Policy ◽  
Public Opinion ◽  
Middle East ◽  
German Foreign Policy ◽  
Refugee Crisis ◽  
Open Door ◽  
Open Door Policy

In 2015, refugee crisis that occurred in European Union due to the war inthe Middle East formed the background of Germany’s open-door policy.As it is implemented, this open-door policy attracted several controversieswith strong internal criticism and negative public opinion, but the policystill be maintained. This phenomenon raises questions regarding on thebasis of German legitimacy in maintaining an open-door policy whichhas always highlighted the sides and ideas of humanitarianism. Therefore,this study seeks to see other aspects of Germany’s open-door policyas German foreign policy, namely ‘pragmatism’ based on considerationof demographic issues related to greying population which have a negativeimpact on German’s stability and economic prospects. Based on thesethoughts, the author argues that Germany maintained the open-door policyas a solution to help overcome greying population in demographic andeconomic context. The open-door policy can be use as a solution throughthe use of refugees and immigrants as productive workers and tax payersin Germany.

scholarly journals Private-Public Opinion Discrepancy

PLoS ONE ◽  
2020 ◽  
Vol 15 (11) ◽  
pp. e0242148
Author(s):  
Ren Manfredi ◽  
Andrea Guazzini ◽  
Carla Anne Roos ◽  
Tom Postmes ◽  
Namkje Koudenburg
Keyword(s):  
Public Opinion ◽  
Decision Rules ◽  
Good Representation ◽  
Social Psychological ◽  
Agent Based ◽  
Model Simulations ◽  
Different Types ◽  
Good Reputation ◽  
Micro Level ◽  
Over Time

In many Western societies there are rising concerns about increasing polarization in public debate. However, statistics on private attitudes paint a different picture: the average attitudes in societies are more moderate and remain rather stable over time. The present paper presents an agent-based model of how such discrepancies between public opinion and private attitudes develop at the scale of micro-societies. Based on social psychological theorizing, the model distinguishes between two types of agents: a) those seeking to gain or maintain a good reputation and status, and b) those seeking to promote group harmony by reaching consensus. We characterized these different types of agents by different decision rules for either voicing their opinion or remaining silent, based on the behavior of their proximal network. Results of the model simulations show that even when the private attitudes of the agents are held constant, publicly expressed opinions can oscillate and (depending on the reputational concerns of individual actors) situations can occur in which minorities as well as majorities are silenced. We conclude that the macro-level consequences of micro-level decisions to either voice an opinion or remain silent provide a foundation for better understanding how public opinions are shaped. Moreover, we discuss the conditions under which public opinion could be considered a good representation of private attitudes in a society.

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