A Theoretical Framework of the Partisan Politics of Law and Order

2020 ◽  
pp. 33-56
Author(s):  
Georg Wenzelburger
Keyword(s):  
Decision Making ◽  
Agenda Setting ◽  
Theoretical Framework ◽  
Partisan Politics ◽  
Theoretical Argument ◽  
Policy Feedback ◽  
Law And Order ◽  
Public Policy Analysis ◽  
Future Policy ◽  
Issue Competition

Chapter 2 develops a theoretical framework for the analysis of law and order policies from a partisan politics perspective. It argues that understanding law and order policy making involves two main steps that can be conceptually distinguished: agenda-setting and decision-making. For the agenda-setting phase, the chapter builds on the assumption that issues related to law and order are valence-loaden and generate issue competition between political parties. Therefore, issue owners are particularly likely to get tough on law and order. For decision-making, the theoretical argument relates to theories of comparative public policy analysis, according to which the preferences do translate into public policies, but only if the institutional context allows. Finally, this theoretical chapter discusses how law and order turns may shape the future policy path through positive policy feedback. All expectations are summarized in seven hypotheses to guide the empirical analysis.

scholarly journals Foreign Policy: Public Opinion and Political Legacy

2015 ◽  
Vol 15 (3) ◽  
pp. 202-220
Author(s):  
Aaron T. Walter
Keyword(s):  
Decision Making ◽  
Foreign Policy ◽  
Public Opinion ◽  
Agenda Setting ◽  
Foreign Affairs ◽  
Policy Position ◽  
Theoretical Argument ◽  
Mutual Support ◽  
Political Leaders ◽  
Opinion Polling

Abstract To the degree that public opinion, as domestic variable, influences a leaders decision-making in the area of foreign affairs is significant. Political leaders use public opinion polling to support government position or in attempts to mold policy position(s) in the affirmative. The following article investigates how public opinion affects U.S. presidential foreign policy decisions and to the degree those decisions are the base for political legacy. The theoretical argument is that domestic variables and leaders decisions often act in mutual support of each others in complementary interests and when not the case, it is the leader whose agenda setting or creating a frame impacts public opinion.

towards a new approach of the elections-to-policy nexus

2021 ◽  
pp. 1-12
Author(s):  
Emiliano Grossman ◽  
Isabelle Guinaudeau
Keyword(s):  
Empirical Evidence ◽  
Agenda Setting ◽  
Theoretical Framework ◽  
European Countries ◽  
Election Campaigns ◽  
New Approach ◽  
Policy Relevance ◽  
Alternative Approach ◽  
Core Requirements ◽  
Issue Competition

This introduction briefly presents the central debates, challenges and puzzles addressed in the book. The focus is on the policy relevance of election campaigns, approached through the lens of two core requirements, i.e. differentiation in the electoral supply and mandate responsiveness. The chapter describes the climate of scepticism that prevails as to how contemporary democracies meet these principles. It points to current approaches limitations’ in conceptual and empirical terms. It then delineates the main arguments of the book’s alternative approach. Based on an agenda-setting perspective, our theoretical framework bridges studies of policy and issue competition, relying on unique empirical evidence covering five West European countries since the 1980s. Finally, the chapter provides an outline of the remaining chapters.

The Veil of Bureaucracy: How Officials Evade Partisan Politics in Participatory Settings

2021 ◽  
pp. 232949652110288
Author(s):  
Meaghan Stiman
Keyword(s):  
Decision Making ◽  
Political Ideology ◽  
Partisan Politics ◽  
Community Voice ◽  
Political Debates ◽  
Local Decision ◽  
Decision Making Processes ◽  
The Veil ◽  
Local Decision Making ◽  
Do So

In theory, participatory democracies are thought to empower citizens in local decision-making processes. However, in practice, community voice is rarely representative, and even in cases of equal representation, citizens are often disempowered through bureaucratic processes. Drawing on the case of a firearm discharge debate from a rural county’s municipal meetings in Virginia, I extend research about how power operates in participatory settings. Partisan political ideology fueled the debate amongst constituents in expected ways, wherein citizens engaged collectivist and individualist frames to sway the county municipal board ( Celinska 2007 ). However, it was a third frame that ultimately explains the ordinance’s repeal: the bureaucratic frame, an ideological orientation to participatory processes that defers decision-making to disembodied abstract rules and procedures. This frame derives its power from its depoliticization potential, allowing bureaucrats to evade contentious political debates. Whoever is best able to wield this frame not only depoliticizes the debate to gain rationalized legitimacy but can do so in such a way to favor a partisan agenda. This study advances gun research and participatory democracy research by analyzing how the bureaucratic frame, which veils partisanship, offers an alternative political possibility for elected officials, community leaders, and citizens to adjudicate partisan debates.

Negotiating Flexibility: External Contracting and Working Time Control in German and Danish Telecommunications Firms

ILR Review ◽  
2017 ◽  
Vol 71 (1) ◽  
pp. 117-142 ◽  
Author(s):  
Virginia Doellgast ◽  
Peter Berg
Keyword(s):  
Decision Making ◽  
Agenda Setting ◽  
Call Center ◽  
Critical Power ◽  
Working Time ◽  
Structured Interviews ◽  
Power Resource ◽  
Time Control ◽  
Flexible Working ◽  
Working Time Models

This study examines how different participation rights and structures affect employee control over working time. The analysis is based on a comparison of matched call center and technician workplaces in two major telecommunications firms in Germany and Denmark. It draws on data from semi-structured interviews with managers, supervisors, and employee representatives between 2010 and 2016. Unions and works councils in both firms agreed to a series of concessions on working time policies in the early 2010s in exchange for agreements to halt or reverse outsourcing. The authors use Lukes’ concepts of decision-making and agenda-setting power to explain these common trends, as well as later divergence in outcomes. Germany’s stronger formal co-determination rights over working time proved a critical power resource for employee representatives as they sought to re-establish employee control in new, more flexible working time models.

scholarly journals Punching above Weight: How the African Union Commission Exercises Agency in Politics

2021 ◽  
pp. 000203972199039
Author(s):  
Thomas Kwasi Tieku
Keyword(s):  
Decision Making ◽  
Agenda Setting ◽  
Policy Development ◽  
International System ◽  
African Union ◽  
African Continent ◽  
International Organisations ◽  
The World ◽  
International Issues ◽  
Decision Making Rule

Conventional narratives suggest that the African Union Commission (AUC), like most international public administrations and international organisations (IOs) housed in the less materially endowed regions of the world, exercises no meaningful agency on international issues. This article however seeks to show that the AUC is neither a glorified messenger and docile follower of orders of governments nor is it an empty vessel that timidly goes where the wind of governments blows. Rather, the AUC exercises significant agency on issues that affect not just the African continent but also the broader international system. The AUC is often at the heart of international agenda-setting, norm development, decision-making, rule creation, policy development, and it sometimes offer strategic leadership. The article demonstrates six pathways through which the AUC acts like a tail wagging a dog.

Making sense of the victim’s role in clemency decision making

2018 ◽  
Vol 26 (1) ◽  
pp. 3-28 ◽  
Author(s):  
Daniel Pascoe ◽  
Marie Manikis
Keyword(s):  
Decision Making ◽  
Best Practice ◽  
Common Law ◽  
Limited Extent ◽  
Practice Recommendations ◽  
Making Sense ◽  
Victim Participation ◽  
Executive Clemency ◽  
Future Policy ◽  
Sound Theoretical Basis

This article discusses victim engagement with the executive clemency process from a normative perspective. The authors’ aim is to explore the existing models of victim participation in clemency decision making in common law jurisdictions, in order to determine whether these possess any sound theoretical basis. The article brings together the academic literatures on victim participation and clemency functionality in order to ground the analysis. In brief, the authors' main finding is that victim involvement in clemency decision making can indeed be supported by the theoretical literature, albeit to a more limited extent than is currently practised in some common law jurisdictions. In light of the theoretical underpinnings of clemency in democratic societies and the literature on victim participation, the authors conclude by making several ‘best practice’ recommendations for future policy-making.

The Political Dynamics of Bureaucratic Turnover

2017 ◽  
Vol 49 (3) ◽  
pp. 823-836 ◽  
Author(s):  
Carl Dahlström ◽  
Mikael Holmgren
Keyword(s):  
Decision Making ◽  
Research Note ◽  
Political Control ◽  
The Political ◽  
Partisan Politics ◽  
Political Dynamics ◽  
Selection Strategies ◽  
Screening Strategies ◽  
Policy Objectives ◽  
Unique Dataset

This Research Note explores the political dynamics of bureaucratic turnover. It argues that changes in a government’s policy objectives can shift both political screening strategies and bureaucratic selection strategies, which produces turnover of agency personnel. To buttress this conjecture, it analyzes a unique dataset tracing the careers of all agency heads in the Swedish executive bureaucracy between 1960 and 2014. It shows that, despite serving on fixed terms and with constitutionally protected decision-making powers, Swedish agency heads are considerably more likely to leave their posts following partisan shifts in government. The note concludes that, even in institutional systems seemingly designed to insulate bureaucratic expertise from political control, partisan politics can shape the composition of agency personnel.

scholarly journals The epistemology of democracy: The epistemic virtues of democracy

2020 ◽  
Vol 31 (1) ◽  
pp. 56-70
Author(s):  
Snjezana Prijic-Samarzija
Keyword(s):  
Decision Making ◽  
Social System ◽  
Epistemic Justification ◽  
Collective Intelligence ◽  
Theoretical Framework ◽  
The Political ◽  
Epistemic Values ◽  
Epistemic Virtues ◽  
Political Justification

The new and vibrant field of the epistemology of democracy, or the inquiry about the epistemic justification of democracy as a social system of procedures, institutions, and practices, as a cross-disciplinary endeavour, necessarily encounters both epistemologists and political philosophers. Despite possible complaints that this kind of discussion is either insufficiently epistemological or insufficiently political, my approach explicitly aims to harmonize the political and epistemic justification of democracy. In this article, I tackle some fundamental issues concerning the nature of the epistemic justification of democracy and the best theoretical framework for harmonizing political and epistemic values. I also inquire whether the proposed division of epistemic labour and the inclusion of experts can indeed improve the epistemic quality of decision-making without jeopardizing political justification. More specifically, I argue in favour of three theses. First, not only democratic procedures but also the outcomes of democracy, as a social system, need to be epistemically virtuous. Second, democracy?s epistemic virtues are more than just a tool for achieving political goals. Third, an appropriate division of epistemic labour has to overcome the limitations of both individual and collective intelligence.

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