Political Budgetary Cycles in Autocratic Redistribution

2021 ◽  
pp. 001041402110360
Author(s):  
Kangwook Han
Keyword(s):  
Survey Data ◽  
Authoritarian Regimes ◽  
Redistributive Policy ◽  
The Past ◽  
Redistributive Policies ◽  
Electoral Cycle ◽  
Micro Level ◽  
Election Results ◽  
Electoral Calendar ◽  
Cross National

While political budgetary cycles in democracies have been rigorously studied for the past several decades, surprisingly little is known about electorally motivated policy manipulation in authoritarian regimes. This study analyzes how dictators strategically change the priorities of autocratic policies to cultivate electoral dominance even when election results are predetermined. I argue that dictators spend more money on redistributive policies in election periods. Using budgetary spending data from 63 autocratic countries between 1972 and 2015, this paper presents cross-national evidence of the existence of an electoral cycle in autocratic redistribution. Analyzing Afrobarometer survey data from 18 African autocracies between 2008 and 2015, this study also finds that citizens’ evaluations of redistributive policy fluctuate according to the electoral calendar. These findings contribute to the literature on authoritarian politics by exploring macro- and micro-level mechanisms through which authoritarian rulers improvise policy manipulation to cultivate electoral dominance.

scholarly journals MIXED INDEPENDENT ELECTORAL SYSTEM AND ELECTORAL AUTHORITARISM

2021 ◽  
Vol 15 (1) ◽  
pp. 19-34
Author(s):  
V. А. Usova ◽  
Keyword(s):  
Electoral Systems ◽  
Electoral System ◽  
Research Literature ◽  
Authoritarian Regimes ◽  
Mixed System ◽  
The Past ◽  
Electoral Authoritarianism ◽  
National Legislatures ◽  
Mixed Systems ◽  
Cross National

Over the past decade, the mixed system became the fastest growing variety of electoral systems used in elections for national legislatures. Opinions about the reasons for the popularity of mixed systems in the research literature still vary. There are no cross-national studies in political science that would link the use of a mixed independent electoral system with the consolidation of an authoritarian order. Under authoritarianism, elections perform three functions: imitation, control and signaling. These functions set the structure of incentives for choosing an electoral formula. The purpose of my study is to determine the structure of incentives for the employment of mixed independent electoral systems under conditions of electoral authoritarianism. One of the main results of the study is that, in comparison with democracies, mixed independent electoral systems are more often used in authoritarian regimes. This is due to the fact that mixed independent electoral system provides an opportunity to effectively realize the imitation, control and signaling functions of elections under electoral authoritarianism.

A Review of the Electoral Process under Ghana's Fourth Republic

2020 ◽  
Vol 28 (3) ◽  
pp. 355-377
Author(s):  
Lydia A. Nkansah ◽  
Delali A. Gawu
Keyword(s):  
Rule Of Law ◽  
Electoral Process ◽  
The Rule Of Law ◽  
Members Of Parliament ◽  
Electoral Cycle ◽  
Fourth Republic ◽  
General Elections ◽  
Election Results

There have been seven general elections, under Ghana's Fourth Republic, to elect presidents and members of parliament. There are laws regulating the electoral process and election results have generally been accepted and, in a few cases, challenged through the laid-down process. Elections in Ghana are nonetheless reportedly flawed with irregularities tainting the outcome and creating tensions and sometimes pockets of violence. This article examines the electoral process under Ghana's Fourth Republic, namely the adoption of regulations for each electoral cycle, voters’ registration and the voters’ register, nomination of aspirants, voting, counting of votes and declaration of the results. To ensure the integrity of the electoral process, the laws regulating elections should comply with the dictates of the procedural requirements of the rule of law and the Electoral Commission's actions must be consistent with these laws.

Meddling in the Ballot Box

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Dov H. Levin
Keyword(s):  
Statistical Analysis ◽  
Theoretical Model ◽  
Preliminary Analysis ◽  
Great Powers ◽  
Archival Research ◽  
Micro Level ◽  
Election Results ◽  
Level Analysis ◽  
The U.S ◽  
Scholarly Attention

This book examines why partisan electoral interventions occur as well as their effects on the election results in countries in which the great powers intervened. A new dataset shows that the U.S. and the USSR/Russia have intervened in one out of every nine elections between 1946 and 2000 in other countries in order to help or hinder one of the candidates or parties; the Russian intervention in the 2016 U.S. elections is just the latest example. Nevertheless, electoral interventions receive scant scholarly attention. This book develops a new theoretical model to answer both questions. It argues that electoral interventions are usually “inside jobs,” occurring only if a significant domestic actor within the target wants it. Likewise, electoral interventions won’t happen unless the intervening country fears its interests are endangered by another significant party or candidate with very different and inflexible preferences. As for the effects it argues that such meddling usually gives a significant boost to the preferred side, with overt interventions being more effective than covert ones in this regard. However, unlike in later elections, electoral interventions in founding elections usually harm the aided side. A multi-method framework is used in order to study these questions, including in-depth archival research into six cases in which the U.S. seriously considered intervening, the statistical analysis of the aforementioned dataset (PEIG), and a micro-level analysis of election surveys from three intervention cases. It also includes a preliminary analysis of the Russian intervention in the 2016 U.S. elections and the cyber-future of such meddling in general.

Populism and Memory: Legislation of the Past in Poland, Ukraine, and Russia

2021 ◽  
pp. 088832542095080
Author(s):  
Nikolay Koposov
Keyword(s):  
Soft Power ◽  
Historical Memory ◽  
Authoritarian Regimes ◽  
Crimes Against Humanity ◽  
National Narratives ◽  
Politics Of Memory ◽  
Democratic Culture ◽  
The Past ◽  
Initial Stage ◽  
The Holocaust

This article belongs to the special cluster “Here to Stay: The Politics of History in Eastern Europe”, guest-edited by Félix Krawatzek & George Soroka. The rise of historical memory, which began in the 1970s and 1980s, has made the past an increasingly important soft-power resource. At its initial stage, the rise of memory contributed to the decay of self-congratulatory national narratives and to the formation of a “cosmopolitan” memory centered on the Holocaust and other crimes against humanity and informed by the notion of state repentance for the wrongdoings of the past. Laws criminalizing the denial of these crimes, which were adopted in “old” continental democracies in the 1980s and 1990s, were a characteristic expression of this democratic culture of memory. However, with the rise of national populism and the formation of the authoritarian or semi-authoritarian regimes in Russia, Turkey, Hungary, and Poland in the 2000s and 2010s, the politics of memory has taken a significantly different turn. National populists are remarkably persistent in whitewashing their countries’ history and using it to promote nationalist mobilization. This process has manifested itself in the formation of new types of memory laws, which shift the blame for historical injustices to other countries (the 1998 Polish, the 2000 Czech, the 2010 Lithuanian, the June 2010 Hungarian, and the 2014 Latvian statutes) and, in some cases, openly protect the memory of the perpetrators of crimes against humanity (the 2005 Turkish, the 2014 Russian, the 2015 Ukrainian, the 2006 and the 2018 Polish enactments). The article examines Russian, Polish, and Ukrainian legislation regarding the past that demonstrates the current linkage between populism and memory.

Performance Assessment Study of Indian Railways – Case of Low Efficiencies in Large Government Monopoly

2021 ◽  
pp. 036119812110255
Author(s):  
Sabyasachi S. Roy ◽  
Mukul Kulshrestha
Keyword(s):  
Scientific Basis ◽  
Data Envelopment ◽  
Policy Reforms ◽  
Management Planning ◽  
Rail Network ◽  
The Past ◽  
Assessment Study ◽  
Micro Level ◽  
Global Population ◽  
Financial Losses

Indian Railways is the world’s largest government-owned monopoly, annually carrying passenger numbers that surpass the global population. It is world’s fourth largest rail network after the U.S.A., China, and Russia, and is managed by a separate Ministry of Railways. The operating ratios have consistently been around 90% in the past several years, indicating that that the capability to generate operational surplus is low. Further, its expenditure on staff and their pensions has been increasing. Consequently, capacity growth is increasingly being funded through borrowings, which threatens to further worsen the financial situation. Thus, railway services in India are often perceived as being inefficient and unsatisfactory. However, this perception of inefficient services has no scientific basis as mid- and micro-level efficiency analyses of Indian Railways have never been carried out. This paper adopts a data envelopment analysis (DEA)-based approach to evaluate the performance efficiencies of the 69 divisions of Indian Railways. Six models that deploy a range of performance indicators like operating expenditures, numbers of staff employed or passengers carried, freight carried, rail network length, and revenues generated have been employed to assess efficiencies. The results demonstrate the existence of significant inefficiencies that may possibly be attributed to lack of proper management, planning policies, and mis-governance, resulting in significant financial losses. The paper discusses these issues and the policy reforms needed in the developing country context, while suggesting some reforms that may lead to improved sector performances.

scholarly journals Cognitive load reduction strategies in questionnaire design

2021 ◽  
pp. 147078532098679
Author(s):  
Kylie Brosnan ◽  
Bettina Grün ◽  
Sara Dolnicar
Keyword(s):  
Cognitive Load ◽  
Data Quality ◽  
Survey Data ◽  
Task Difficulty ◽  
Questionnaire Design ◽  
Load Reduction ◽  
The Past ◽  
Load Theory ◽  
Learning Tasks ◽  
Reduction Strategies

Survey data quality suffers when respondents have difficulty completing complex tasks in questionnaires. Cognitive load theory informed the development of strategies for educators to reduce the cognitive load of learning tasks. We investigate whether these cognitive load reduction strategies can be used in questionnaire design to reduce task difficulty and, in so doing, improve survey data quality. We find that this is not the case and conclude that some of the traditional survey answer formats, such as grid questions, which have been criticized in the past lead to equally good data and do not frustrate respondents more than alternative formats.

scholarly journals A Fast and Effective Method to Identify Relevant Sets of Variables in Complex Systems

Mathematics ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 9 (9) ◽  
pp. 1022
Author(s):  
Gianluca D’Addese ◽  
Martina Casari ◽  
Roberto Serra ◽  
Marco Villani
Keyword(s):  
Complex Systems ◽  
Gene Regulatory Networks ◽  
Regulatory Networks ◽  
Computational Cost ◽  
Graph Analysis ◽  
The Past ◽  
Medium Level ◽  
Micro Level ◽  
Gene Regulatory ◽  
High Level

In many complex systems one observes the formation of medium-level structures, whose detection could allow a high-level description of the dynamical organization of the system itself, and thus to its better understanding. We have developed in the past a powerful method to achieve this goal, which however requires a heavy computational cost in several real-world cases. In this work we introduce a modified version of our approach, which reduces the computational burden. The design of the new algorithm allowed the realization of an original suite of methods able to work simultaneously at the micro level (that of the binary relationships of the single variables) and at meso level (the identification of dynamically relevant groups). We apply this suite to a particularly relevant case, in which we look for the dynamic organization of a gene regulatory network when it is subject to knock-outs. The approach combines information theory, graph analysis, and an iterated sieving algorithm in order to describe rather complex situations. Its application allowed to derive some general observations on the dynamical organization of gene regulatory networks, and to observe interesting characteristics in an experimental case.

Marrying out: Exploring Dimensions of Cross-National Marriages among Qataris

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Sanaa Taha Alharahsheh ◽  
◽  
Feras Al Meer ◽  
Ahmed Aref ◽  
Gilla Camden
Keyword(s):  
Social Transformation ◽  
Social Changes ◽  
Daily Lives ◽  
Marriage Patterns ◽  
The Past ◽  
The World ◽  
Petroleum Resources ◽  
National Boundaries ◽  
And Migration ◽  
Cross National

In an age of social transformation characterized by globalization, wireless communication, and ease of travel and migration, more and more people around the world are marrying across national boundaries. This has occurred worldwide with the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) as no exception to this trend. As with the rest of the GCC, Qatar has witnessed remarkable social changes because of the discovery of petroleum resources that have affected the daily lives of people within Qatar in myriad ways. This includes marriage patterns, whereby cross-national marriages (marriages with non-Qataris) have shown a marked increase during the past few years, reaching 21% of total Qatari marriages in 2015 compared with only 16.5% in 1985.

scholarly journals Trust in the European Union: Effects of the information environment

2018 ◽  
Vol 34 (1) ◽  
pp. 57-73 ◽  
Author(s):  
Anna Brosius ◽  
Erika J van Elsas ◽  
Claes H de Vreese
Keyword(s):  
European Union ◽  
Content Analysis ◽  
Survey Data ◽  
News Media ◽  
Information Environment ◽  
Direct Effects ◽  
The European Union ◽  
The Past ◽  
The Media

Over the past decade, the European Union has lost the trust of many citizens. This article investigates whether and how media information, in particular visibility and tonality, impact trust in the European Union among citizens. Combining content analysis and Eurobarometer survey data from 10 countries between 2004 and 2015, we study both direct and moderating media effects. Media tone and visibility have limited direct effects on trust in the European Union, but they moderate the relation between trust in national institutions and trust in the European Union. This relation is amplified when the European Union is more visible in the media and when media tone is more positive towards the European Union, whereas it is dampened when media tone is more negative. The findings highlight the role of news media in the crisis of trust in the European Union.

scholarly journals Developing Asia – Dynamic but fractured

2021 ◽  
pp. 211-229
Author(s):  
Robert Wihtol
Keyword(s):  
Economic Transition ◽  
Regional Cooperation ◽  
The United States ◽  
Authoritarian Regimes ◽  
Territorial Disputes ◽  
Socialist Market Economy ◽  
The Past ◽  
Governance Systems ◽  
The World ◽  
Socialist Market

In the past seventy–five years, developing Asia has transformed more rapidly than any other region. What is behind this success? Will Asia go on to lead the world, or will its rise encounter obstacles? Asia is politically diverse, with democracies, hybrid governments and numerous authoritarian regimes. Several are unstable. Paths to prosperity have varied, including the East Asian model, China’s “socialist market economy”, Indian self–reliance, and economic transition in Central Asia. Regional cooperation is chronically weak, due to the youthfulness, dispersion and diversity of Asia’s sovereign states. China’s rise threatens to fracture the region further. As the region emerges from the Covid–19 crisis, East Asia is well positioned to lead an economic recovery. However, many challenges remain. Political and governance systems are weak. Territorial disputes could escalate into open conflict, including Taiwan. Human capital is poorly developed, and populations are aging. Finally, the region could be polarized between the United States and China.

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