Partisanship and Autocratization: Polarization, Power Asymmetry, and Partisan Social Identities in Turkey

Although theories of partisanship were developed for the democratic context, partisanship can be important in electoral autocracies as well. We use survey data to analyze partisanship in an electoral autocracy, Turkey, and find that partisanship is pervasive, strong, and consequential. Using the Partisan Identity Scale to measure partisanship, we show that, like in democracies, partisanship strength is associated with political attitudes and action. Unlike in democracies, however, the ruling party’s superior ability to mobilize supporters through clientelistic linkages makes the association between partisanship and political action weaker for ruling party partisans. We find that partisan identities are tightly connected to the perception that other parties may threaten one’s well-being, and that such fears are widespread on both sides of the political divide. We interpret our findings in light of the autocratization process Turkey went through. Our contribution highlights the potential of integrating regime dynamics in studies of partisanship.

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Political corruption in Zimbabwe: News media, audiences and deliberative democracy

Crime Media Culture An International Journal ◽

10.1177/17416590211022416 ◽

2021 ◽

pp. 174165902110224

Author(s):

Mthokozisi Phathisani Ndhlovu ◽

Phillip Santos

Keyword(s):

Deliberative Democracy ◽

News Media ◽

Political Action ◽

Qualitative Content Analysis ◽

Political Corruption ◽

Political Elite ◽

The Political ◽

Media Audiences ◽

Mainstream Media ◽

Ruling Party

Even though corruption by politicians and in politics is widespread worldwide, it is more pronounced in developing countries, such as Zimbabwe, where members of the political elite overtly abuse power for personal accumulation of wealth. Ideally, the news media, as watchdogs, are expected to investigate and report such abuses of power. However, previous studies in Zimbabwe highlight the news media’s polarised and normative inefficacies. Informed by the theoretical notion of deliberative democracy developed via Habermas and Dahlgren’s work and Hall’s Encoding, Decoding Model, this article uses qualitative content analysis to examine how online readers of Zimbabwe’s two leading daily publications, The Herald and NewsDay, interpreted and evaluated allegations of corruption leveled against ministers and deputy ministers during the height of factionalism in the ruling party (ZANU PF). The article argues that interaction between mainstream media and their audiences online shows the latter’s resourcefulness and, at least, discursive agency in their engagement with narratives about political corruption, itself an imperative premise for future political action.

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The Political is Personal: Daily Politics as a Chronic Stressor

10.31234/osf.io/hdz97 ◽

2020 ◽

Author(s):

Matthew Feinberg ◽

Brett Quaid Ford ◽

Sabrina Thai ◽

Arasteh Gatchpazian ◽

Bethany Lassetter

Keyword(s):

Political Action ◽

Cognitive Strategies ◽

Well Being ◽

The Political ◽

Daily Lives ◽

Trade Off ◽

Political Events ◽

People’S Daily ◽

Chronic Stressor ◽

People's Daily

Politics and its controversies have permeated everyday life, but the daily impact of politics is largely unknown. Here, we conceptualize politics as a chronic stressor with important consequences for people’s daily lives. We used longitudinal, daily-diary methods to track U.S. participants as they experienced daily political events across two weeks (Study 1: N=198, observations=2,167) and, separately, across three weeks (Study 2: N=811, observations=12,790) to explore how daily political events permeate people’s lives and how they cope with this influence of politics. In both studies, daily political events consistently evoked negative emotions, which corresponded to worse psychological and physical well-being, but also increased motivation to take political action (e.g., volunteer, protest) aimed at changing the political system that evoked these emotions in the first place. Understandably, people frequently tried to regulate their politics-induced emotions; and successfully regulating these emotions using cognitive strategies (reappraisal and distraction) predicted greater well-being, but also weaker motivation to take action. Although people can protect themselves from the emotional impact of politics, frequently-used regulation strategies appear to come with a trade-off between well being and action. To examine whether an alternative approach to one’s emotions could avoid this trade-off, we measured emotional acceptance in Study 2 (i.e., accepting one’s emotions without trying to change them) and found that successful acceptance predicted greater daily well-being but no impairment to political action. Overall, this research highlights how politics can be a chronic stressor in people’s daily lives, underscoring the far-reaching influence politicians have beyond the formal powers endowed unto them.

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Activism as political action in Uganda: The role of social media

Journal of African Media Studies ◽

10.1386/jams_00025_1 ◽

2020 ◽

Vol 12 (3) ◽

pp. 283-300 ◽

Cited By ~ 1

Author(s):

Florence Namasinga Selnes ◽

Kristin Skare Orgeret

Keyword(s):

Social Media ◽

Presidential Election ◽

Political Action ◽

Freedom Of Expression ◽

Political Activism ◽

The Political ◽

Media Freedom ◽

The Media ◽

Political Divide

The article discusses political activism in Uganda and the role of social media. It focuses on two specific cases, the 2011 ‘Walk-to-Work’ and the 2017 ‘Pads4Girls’ campaigns in order to contribute to better understanding of the ever-evolving dynamic between political activism and the media in such campaigns. A disputed presidential election in 2011 in Uganda prompted opposition politicians to call nationwide protests. The architects of the protests hoped this would eventually lead to the downfall of Museveni’s newly elected government. The ‘Pads4Girls’ campaign on the other hand, was spearheaded by a female academic activist and provoked unprecedented response from politicians across the political divide, activists and unaffiliated individuals who added weight to the campaign. The article’s discussions feed into a broader conversation on the interaction of media and politics in semi-democratic contexts such as Uganda, where attempts to curtail media freedom and freedom of expression are frequent.

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Persons Together

10.23943/princeton/9780691176277.003.0005 ◽

2018 ◽

Author(s):

Alan L. Mittleman

Keyword(s):

Human Nature ◽

Well Being ◽

Image Of God ◽

Jewish Tradition ◽

The Political ◽

Human Beings ◽

Human Flourishing ◽

Political Dimensions ◽

Market Relations ◽

The Image Of God

This chapter moves into the political and economic aspects of human nature. Given scarcity and interdependence, what sense has Judaism made of the material well-being necessary for human flourishing? What are Jewish attitudes toward prosperity, market relations, labor, and leisure? What has Judaism had to say about the political dimensions of human nature? If all humans are made in the image of God, what does that original equality imply for political order, authority, and justice? In what kinds of systems can human beings best flourish? It argues that Jewish tradition shows that we act in conformity with our nature when we elevate, improve, and sanctify it. As co-creators of the world with God, we are not just the sport of our biochemistry. We are persons who can select and choose among the traits that comprise our very own natures, cultivating some and weeding out others.

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Hastings Donnan and Pnina Werbner (eds). Economy and Culture in Pakistan: Migrants and Cities in a Muslim Society. London: Macmillan. 1991. 268 pp.

The Pakistan Development Review ◽

10.30541/v31i3pp.325-328 ◽

1992 ◽

Vol 31 (3) ◽

pp. 325-328

Author(s):

Ziaul Haque

Keyword(s):

Urban Areas ◽

Political System ◽

Direct Result ◽

The Political ◽

Economic Factors ◽

Population Movements ◽

Social Fabric ◽

History Of ◽

Political Divide ◽

Different Parts

Modem economic factors and forces are rapidly transforming the world into a single society and economy in which the migration of people at the national and international levels plays an important role. Pakistan, as a modem nation, has characteristically been deeply influenced by such migrations, both national and international. The first great exodus occurred in 1947 when over eight million Indian Muslims migrated from different parts of India to Pakistan. Thus, from the very beginning mass population movements and migrations have been woven into Pakistan's social fabric through its history, culture and religion. These migrations have greatly influenced the form and substance of the national economy, the contours of the political system, patterns of urbanisation and the physiognomy of the overall culture and history of the country. The recent political divide of Sindh on rural/Sindhi, and urban/non-Sindhi, ethnic and linguistic lines is the direct result of these earlier settlements of these migrants in the urban areas of Sindh.

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Political Inclusion Reduces Political Prejudice

10.31234/osf.io/dxwpu ◽

2019 ◽

Cited By ~ 1

Author(s):

Jan G. Voelkel ◽

Dongning Ren ◽

Mark John Brandt

Keyword(s):

The Political ◽

Political Discussion ◽

Total N ◽

Cohen’S D ◽

Promising Strategy ◽

Political Inclusion ◽

Cohen's D ◽

Political Divide ◽

Scenario Study ◽

Fair Chance

The political divide is characterized by liberals and conservatives who hold strong prejudice against each other. Here we introduce one possible strategy for reducing political prejudice: political inclusion. We define political inclusion as receiving a fair chance to voice one’s opinions in a discussion of political topics with political outgroup members. This strategy may reduce political prejudice by inducing perceptions of the political outgroup as fair and respectful; however, such a strategy may also highlight conflicting attitudes and worldviews, thereby further exacerbating prejudice. In three preregistered studies (total N = 799), we test if political inclusion reduces or increases prejudice toward the political outgroup. Specifically, political inclusion was manipulated with either an imagined scenario (Study 1) or a concurrent experience in an ostensible online political discussion (Studies 2 & 3). Across all studies, participants who were politically included by political outgroup members reported reduced prejudice toward their outgroup compared to participants in a neutral control condition (Cohen’s d [-0.27, -0.50]). This effect was mediated by perceptions of the political outgroup as fairer and less dissimilar in their worldviews. Our results indicate that political discussions that are politically inclusive do not cause additional prejudice via worldview conflict, but instead give others a feeling of being heard. It is a promising strategy to reduce political prejudice.

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Between the Social and the Political

Democratic Theory ◽

10.3167/dt.2018.050207 ◽

2018 ◽

Vol 5 (2) ◽

pp. 90-98

Author(s):

Pia Rowe ◽

David Marsh

Keyword(s):

Political Participation ◽

Political Science ◽

Political Action ◽

The Political ◽

Conventional Theory ◽

Important Relationship ◽

The Social ◽

Action Language

While Wood and Flinders’ work to broaden the scope of what counts as “politics” in political science is a needed adjustment to conventional theory, it skirts an important relationship between society, the protopolitical sphere, and arena politics. We contend, in particular, that the language of everyday people articulates tensions in society, that such tensions are particularly observable online, and that this language can constitute the beginning of political action. Language can be protopolitical and should, therefore, be included in the authors’ revised theory of what counts as political participation.

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Monetäre Bewertung von Ökosystemleistungen: eine kritische Sicht auf einige Kritiken (Essay)

Schweizerische Zeitschrift fur Forstwesen ◽

10.3188/szf.2017.0014 ◽

2017 ◽

Vol 168 (1) ◽

pp. 14-20 ◽

Cited By ~ 1

Author(s):

Peter Elsasser

Keyword(s):

Ecosystem Services ◽

Scientific Literature ◽

Well Being ◽

The Political ◽

Political Decision ◽

Monetary Valuation ◽

Intrinsic Values ◽

Ethical Norms ◽

Valuation Of Ecosystem Services ◽

Environmental Valuations

Monetary valuation of ecosystem services: a critical view of some critiques (essay) Diverse objections against the monetary valuation of ecosystem services are being raised in transdisciplinary discussions as well as in the scientific literature. The monetary valuation is said to overlook nature's intrinsic values, to infringe ethical norms, to narrow down perspectives to economic welfare alone, or even to nothing but material well-being, to stimulate the commercialisation of nature – conversely, others criticize that it fails exactly in this respect –, to favour social inequality, and to rely upon undependable methods. This essay questions the cogency of these criticisms and highlights some prejudices and misconceptions, often rooted in an erroneous understanding of the function of environmental valuations in the political decision process.

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