Key Values for Democratic Governance Innovation: Two Traditions and a Synthesis

The concluding chapter surveys the prospects for more democratic governance of national economies and more equitable outcomes in the global economy. The backdrop for the chapter is the marriage of shadow finance with the conservative governments that have achieved electoral success on the basis of popular dissatisfaction with the response of neoliberal governments to the global economic crisis. The conservative movement and its governments are incoherent and unwilling to address, even in terms of modest reform, the power of finance and its responsibility for inequality and crisis. Effective reform could emerge from the union of professional expertise, whose commitment to technocratic aspects of the neoliberal project may have weakened, with democratic social movements.

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Political Vigilante Groups in Ghana: Violence or Democracy?

Africa Spectrum ◽

10.1177/0002039720970957 ◽

2020 ◽

Vol 55 (3) ◽

pp. 321-338

Author(s):

Justice Richard Kwabena Owusu Kyei ◽

Lidewyde H. Berckmoes

Keyword(s):

Democratic Governance ◽

Focus Group Discussions ◽

Group Discussions ◽

Political Field ◽

Political Actors ◽

Electoral Campaigns ◽

The Social ◽

Group Members ◽

Organisational Structures ◽

Depth Interviews

Literature on political vigilante groups has centred on the violence and conflict that emanate from their activities. This article approaches political vigilante groups as political actors who engage in political mobilisation and participation and therewith also contribute to nation state building. It explores how such groups participate in Ghana’s democratic governance and asks whether violence is an inevitable characteristic. The article builds on individual in-depth interviews and focus group discussions with political vigilante group members in Kumasi and Tamale in 2019. Findings show that political vigilante “youth” appeared to refer primarily to the social position attributed to non-elite groups in the political field. Political vigilante groups are multi-faceted in their organisational structures, membership, and activities both during electoral campaigns and during governing periods. While some groups revert to violence occasionally, the study concludes that political vigilante groups, in enabling different voices to be heard, are also contributing to democratic governance.

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Diasporic Foreign Policy Interest Groups in the United States: Democracy, Conflict, and Political Entrepreneurship

Perspectives on Politics ◽

10.1017/s1537592721000979 ◽

2021 ◽

pp. 1-18

Author(s):

Shubha Kamala Prasad ◽

Filip Savatic

Keyword(s):

United States ◽

Foreign Policy ◽

Interest Groups ◽

The United States ◽

Democratic Governance ◽

Indian American ◽

Two Factors ◽

Political Entrepreneurs ◽

Do So ◽

Policy Interest

Why do some immigrant diasporas in the United States (U.S.) establish foreign policy interest groups while others do not? While scholars have demonstrated that diasporic interest groups often successfully influence U.S. foreign policy, we take a step back to ask why only certain diasporas attempt to do so in the first place. We argue that two factors increase the likelihood of diaspora mobilization: a community’s experience with democratic governance and conflict in its country of origin. We posit that these conditions make it more likely that political entrepreneurs emerge to serve as catalysts for top-down mobilization. To test our hypotheses, we collect and analyze novel data on diasporic interest groups as well as the characteristics of their respective countries of origin. In turn, we conduct the first in-depth case studies of the historical and contemporary Indian-American lobbies, using original archival and interview evidence.

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Educative Interventions to Combat Misinformation: Evidence from a Field Experiment in India

American Political Science Review ◽

10.1017/s0003055421000459 ◽

2021 ◽

pp. 1-17

Author(s):

SUMITRA BADRINATHAN

Keyword(s):

Field Experiment ◽

Media Literacy ◽

Party System ◽

The United States ◽

Democratic Governance ◽

Literacy Intervention ◽

Pedagogical Intervention ◽

Learning Module ◽

Low Education ◽

Ruling Party

Misinformation makes democratic governance harder, especially in developing countries. Despite its real-world import, little is known about how to combat misinformation outside of the United States, particularly in places with low education, accelerating Internet access, and encrypted information sharing. This study uses a field experiment in India to test the efficacy of a pedagogical intervention on respondents’ ability to identify misinformation during the 2019 elections (N = 1,224). Treated respondents received hour-long in-person media literacy training in which enumerators discussed inoculation strategies, corrections, and the importance of verifying misinformation, all in a coherent learning module. Receiving this hour-long media literacy intervention did not significantly increase respondents’ ability to identify misinformation on average. However, treated respondents who support the ruling party became significantly less able to identify pro-attitudinal stories. These findings point to the resilience of misinformation in India and the presence of motivated reasoning in a traditionally nonideological party system.

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