The Provision of Constituency Service

2019 ◽  
pp. 71-92
Author(s):  
Jennifer Bussell
Keyword(s):  
Field Experiment ◽  
Strong Evidence ◽  
The State ◽  
Preferential Treatment ◽  
Individual Level ◽  
Political Preferences ◽  
Indian State ◽  
Constituency Service ◽  
High Level ◽  
Electoral Preferences

Chapter 3 draws on a field experimental audit of politicians with a near census of Indian state and national legislators to show that, on the whole, politicians do not take indicators of partisanship into account when responding to individual-level requests. Specifically, this national field experiment shows that for India’s high-level politicians, information on electoral preferences does not affect the willingness of representatives to respond to an individual’s request for assistance. In addition, indications of shared ethnicity, e.g., caste, which may be closely tied to political preferences, do not result in preferential treatment. Overall, these findings offer strong evidence that the aid high-level politicians offer to individuals requiring assistance navigating the state is often noncontingent in nature, taking the form of constituency service.

Which Politicians Respond?

2019 ◽  
pp. 243-264
Author(s):  
Jennifer Bussell
Keyword(s):  
Field Experiment ◽  
Electoral Politics ◽  
Theoretical Discussion ◽  
Individual Level ◽  
Constituency Service

Chapter 9 expands on analyses of the field experiment to explore additional variation in the characteristics of politicians’ responsiveness. First, it investigates the degree to which politicians’ responses reflect state- and individual-level characteristics that may be associated with incentives to cultivate a personal vote. These analyses highlight, in particular, that—consistent with the theoretical discussion in Chapter 4 and existing work on the personal vote—electoral politics play a key role in affecting the degree to which politicians attempt to build their individual reputations via provision of assistance to individual constituents. Chapters 8 and 9 therefore collectively explore the conditions under which constituency service does and does not occur.

scholarly journals Ideological and Political Preferences of the Russians: Changing of the Discourse

2020 ◽  
Vol 8 (4) ◽  
pp. 25-43
Author(s):  
Vladimir Petukhov
Keyword(s):  
The State ◽  
Value Orientations ◽  
Economic Consequences ◽  
Political Life ◽  
Political Preferences ◽  
The Social ◽  
Positive Assessment ◽  
High Level ◽  
Person Concept ◽  
Individual Self

The author applies to the sociological data of the Institute of Sociology of FCTAS RAS to study the ideological and political preferences of the contemporary Russians and their ideas about value orientations in the 21st century. Stressing rather high level of depolitization of the state contemporary socio-political life to identify the citizens’ preferences the author used the method of associative reflection of the words and phrases that are mostly often using in contemporary Russia’s ideological discourse. So, the author outlined a circle of the concepts, that are significant for the contemporary Russia’s socio-political base and the state development. The author identified three basic dispositions, that are using by the respondents to evaluate politically loaded concepts and the ideologies, that are close to them. The first is almost complete neutrality to the most concepts proposed for assessment. The second one is predominantly positive assessment of the most of them. And thirdly it is clear division of concepts into positively and negatively assessed. The first two dispositions correspond towards 60% of all respondents, these are ideologically undecided respondents. The last disposition characterizes two roughly comparable value attitudes (the “traditionalistic” and the “liberal” ones) and include the respondents with clear ideological political attitudes (40% among all respondents). The author also analyses the main value orientations and social and demographical characteristics of the social groups with different ideological and political preferences. Its not-ed that the “Soviet” discourse is gradually shifting from the sphere of ideological confrontation into the sphere of morality. One can also see the idealization by the Russia’s public opinion of a “Soviet person” concept and attributing to it of the special qualities that, according to most respondents, are absent in the current Russians. The author notes that the project based on the ideas of justice and democracy is the most prospective variant of the future Russia’s value orientations. Such a project meets the expectations of many Russians, especially of young people, for changes that involve not only improving of the material living conditions, but also could minimize various inequalities and expand the opportunities for individual self-realization and political participation. Although the COVID-19 pandemic and its socio-economic consequences could rise a new wave of authoritarian sentiments based on the ideas of state greatness, the return totraditional values and the need for a “strong hand”. As the sociological data demonstrates these ideas are supported not only by the traditionalistically oriented citizens but also by about the third part of the ideologically undecided respondents.

Constituency Service in Comparative Perspective

2019 ◽  
pp. 295-314
Author(s):  
Jennifer Bussell
Keyword(s):  
Distributive Politics ◽  
Individual Level ◽  
Public Benefits ◽  
Common Trend ◽  
The World ◽  
Contextual Characteristics ◽  
Constituency Service ◽  
High Level ◽  
Local Levels

Chapter 11 considers the extent to which we should expect to observe similar dynamics of distributive politics in other parts of the world. It draws on a range of cross-national data to show that the contextual characteristics supporting constituency service—the dynamics of patronage democracy, difficulty in access to public benefits, and partisan allocation of benefits at local levels, accompanied by the presence of high-level representatives with little ability to monitor individual electoral behavior—coexist across a range of democracies around the world. It offers evidence to suggest that high-level politicians in countries across Africa, Asia, and Latin America also engage in individual-level distribution to build a personal vote, rather than support for their party, and that highly partisan distribution by local operatives may ironically heighten their incentives to assist constituents in a nonpartisan manner. Thus, India is an exemplar of a common trend, rather than a global outlier.

Conclusion

2019 ◽  
pp. 315-334
Author(s):  
Jennifer Bussell
Keyword(s):  
The State ◽  
Representative Democracy ◽  
The World ◽  
Potential Resource ◽  
Constituency Service ◽  
High Level

Chapter 12 addresses the broader implications of the book’s findings for our view of representative democracy in many parts of the world. It posits that the form of representation present in these contexts is characterized by “constrained accountability.” High-level politicians in patronage democracies are substantially more accountable to their individual constituents than posited in existing literature. However, this accountability remains limited, in multiple ways outlined in the chapter. In providing this form of limited accountability, constituency service also serves to support the functioning of democracy in patronage contexts. While the targeted nature of clientelist and partisan distribution excludes a large portion of voters from the significant resources of the state, constituency service by high-level politicians offers those same voters a potential resource for accessing benefits. This responsiveness makes the state’s resources available to a much wider swath of voters than would otherwise be the case and, in doing so, contributes to the functioning, and persistence, of patronage democracy.

Multidimensional analysis of the state of Russian studies on the education issues over 1993–2016

2018 ◽  
pp. 50-62
Author(s):  
Дмитрий Рубвальтер ◽  
Dmitry Rubvalter ◽  
Александр Либкинд ◽  
Alexander Libkind ◽  
Валентина Маркусова ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Web Of Science ◽  
The State ◽  
Multidimensional Analysis ◽  
Russian Regions ◽  
Global Flow ◽  
Educational Issues ◽  
Foreign Countries ◽  
High Level ◽  
The Web ◽  
Made In

A multidimensional analysis of the state of Russian studies on the education issues over 1993–2016 was carried out based on the materials of the data contained in the Web of Science (SSCI, A & HCI and SCI-E databases). There were determined the dynamics and trends of a number of relevant indicators, such as the number of Russian publications by year, the share of these publications in the global flow of publications on education issues, the dynamics of the share of publications made in co-authorship with foreign colleagues, etc. A number of distributions of Russian publications on educational issues was compiled and analyzed: by journals, by Russian regions and cities, by organizations and authors of the publications. It was found that most of these distributions were characterized by a high level of non-uniformity. A list of journals (125 titles) in which Russian works on education issues had been published was compiled. Russian organizations (308) and domestic researchers (about two thousand) engaged in studying the issues of education were identified. It was discovered that more than 200 organizations and about 400 academicians from 60 foreign countries had participated in Russian studies on the education issues.

Political and Economic History of Land-Grabs in India

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Peer Ghulam Nabi Suhail
Keyword(s):  
Economic History ◽  
The State ◽  
Developmental Approach ◽  
Land Grabs ◽  
Indian State ◽  
History Of ◽  
The Media

This chapter begins with tracing the roots of colonialism in India, followed by understanding its various structures and processes of resource-grabbing. It argues, that India has largely followed the colonial approach towards land appropriation. After independence, although the Indian state followed a nationalistic path of development, the developmental approach of the state was far from being pro-peasant and/or pro-ecology. In a similar fashion, hydroelectricity projects in Kashmir, developed by NHPC from 1970s, have been displacing thousands of peasants from their lands and houses. Despite this, they are yet to become a major debate in the media, in the policy circles, or in academia in India.

scholarly journals Courage and Cowardice in the North African Campaign: The Eighth Army and Defeat in the Summer of 1942

2013 ◽  
Vol 20 (1) ◽  
pp. 99-122 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jonathan Fennell
Keyword(s):  
North Africa ◽  
The State ◽  
The Other ◽  
Human Dimension ◽  
North African ◽  
The North ◽  
High Level ◽  
Eighth Army

High rates of desertion and surrender during the battles in North Africa in the summer of 1942 were a major factor in Eighth Army’s poor combat performance. At the time, some suggested that these problems were symptomatic of a lack of courage or even of cowardice. There are two broad strands to the conceptualization of courage and cowardice. One focuses on the willingness of the person to fight; the other puts emphasis on how actions express an individual’s ability to cope with fear. Whichever conceptualization is used, high morale motivates the soldier to fight and shields the ordinary recruit from his fear, preventing it from overcoming him in battle. Where morale fails, the soldier is left demotivated and burdened with his terror and, therefore, and is therefore prone to desertion or surrender. Because it is extremely difficult to maintain morale at a continuously high level in an environment governed by chance and managed by humans, all soldiers can find themselves in situations where their actions may be judged as cowardly. Alternatively, if they are properly motivated to fight and prepared by the state and military to deal with the unavoidable fear of combat, all soldiers can be labelled courageous. Accordingly, emotive terms should be avoided when attempting to describe rationally explainable outcomes. The undoubtedly negative connotations attached to cowardice in battle and the positive ones attached to courage are, therefore, arguably unhelpful in understanding Eighth Army’s performance in the summer of 1942 and the human dimension in warfare more generally.

Analysis of the state of the migration process of the ukrainian population in the context of domestic and international levels

2021 ◽  
Vol 72 (5) ◽  
pp. 110-118
Author(s):  
M. Shkurat ◽  
K. Pavlotska
Keyword(s):  
Social Protection ◽  
Negative Impact ◽  
Migration Policy ◽  
Cash Flows ◽  
The State ◽  
Negative Consequences ◽  
Migration Process ◽  
State Of The Economy ◽  
Migration Flows ◽  
High Level

Analysis of the migration process of the Ukrainian population, which takes place within the state and at the international level during 2014–2019 is carried out in this paper. On the basis of scientific works of domestic scientists and institutes the problems which have not been investigated, and also aspects which have been solved partially are defined. The negative consequences of the Ukrainian migration process on the state of the country are identified. The classification of migration flows of the Ukrainian population according to the reasons of movement is carried out. The main regions and countries which, as of the beginning of 2021, are more attractive to compatriots and are characterized by significant influxes of Ukrainians are identified. The main centers of departure – regions and countries – which are characterized by high level of outflow of Ukrainians are determined, the main problems and reasons that motivate the outflow of Ukrainians are highlighted in this paper. The level of growth of the Ukrainian population in terms of migration flows is defined. The investigation of Ukrainian diasporas, territorial location and analysis of their share in comparison is carried out. The main factors that force the Ukrainian population to move, which affects the demographic situation in Ukraine, the level of employment, as well as the amount of cash flows to the country and the state of the economy as a whole are identified. The main regulations and identified solutions to the migration flows of the domestic population, which were approved and implemented in the period from 2001 to 2019 are compared in this paper. On the basis of current and newly introduced strategies, critical analysis of the ways of regulating the migration process of the Ukrainian population is carried out, the main aspects and problems of the implemented migration policy of Ukraine are determined. The results of the work are to identify the main ways to reduce the negative impact of the migration process on the country's economy and related processes, and strategies to benefit from the movement of citizens of Ukraine, namely: introduction of intellectual security, revision of wages by region, stimulating the process of attracting technology in all spheres of activity and formation of the social protection system.

Can Russia Fight Organized Crime and Corruption?

2002 ◽  
Vol 23 (2) ◽  
pp. 37-55
Author(s):  
Louise I. Shelley
Keyword(s):  
Organized Crime ◽  
Local Level ◽  
The State ◽  
The Political ◽  
Political Will ◽  
Structural Problems ◽  
Economic Elite ◽  
High Level ◽  
Personal Interests

The murder of Valentin Tsvetkov, the governor of Magadan in central Moscow in broad day light in October 2002 highlights that organized crime and corruption are still alive and well and highly destructive of life and governance in Russia (Wines, 2002). His murder once again raises the question, “Why has Russia not been able to stop organized crime and high level corruption?” The answer is that Russia docs not have the political will at the national, regional or local level to fight these problems. This is true because the Kremlin and economic elite push their personal interests over those of the state and the society. Structural problems such as low salaries of state personnel and the embedding of organized crime and corruption make reform very difficult.

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