Estimating the Effect of Competitiveness on Turnout across Regime Types

2020 ◽  
pp. 003232172091464
Author(s):  
Kristin Eichhorn ◽  
Eric Linhart
Keyword(s):  
Political Participation ◽  
Electoral Systems ◽  
Political Equality ◽  
The Core ◽  
Institutional Settings ◽  
Ex Ante ◽  
Regime Types ◽  
Democratic Performance ◽  
Electoral Turnout ◽  
Suitable Measure

Electoral turnout as an indicator of political participation, political equality and, thus, democratic performance is one of the most important variables in the study of elections. While numerous studies have contributed to the explanation of electoral turnout, the picture is still incomplete. Notably, a variable which pertains to the core of elections, the competitiveness of electoral races, is not fully understood yet. We contribute to filling this gap by accounting for different effects of competitiveness in democracies and autocracies, as well as against the background of varying institutional settings. Our analyses suggest that vote margins are a suitable measure of competitiveness, but only in democracies with plurality or majority electoral systems. Ex ante measures of competitiveness capture the concept of competitiveness more comprehensively and are applicable across electoral systems and regime types.

On Their Own? Women Running as Independent Candidates in the Middle East

2020 ◽  
Vol 12 (3) ◽  
pp. 251-274
Author(s):  
Bozena Welborne
Keyword(s):  
Middle East ◽  
Political Parties ◽  
Political Participation ◽  
Electoral Systems ◽  
National Level ◽  
Political Campaigns ◽  
Political Office ◽  
Global North ◽  
Primary Vector ◽  
North And South

Abstract This paper considers examples of women successfully running as independents at the national level in the Middle East, investigating how existing electoral systems impacted their ability to contest political office. Women in the region face a host of challenges when it comes to launching political campaigns outside of sociocultural norms. Most extant literature on political participation focuses on parties as the primary vector for female participation in the Global North and South. However, women in the Middle East often cannot rely on this mechanism due to the absence of political parties or existing parties’ unwillingness to back women for cultural reasons. Yet, the region hosts many female independents holding office at the national level. Through the cases of Jordan, Egypt, and Oman, I unpack this phenomenon using an institutional argument and assess what the emergence of such candidates bodes for the future of women in the Middle East.

Reflective Responsibility and the Management of Information Systems

2011 ◽  
pp. 152-215
Author(s):  
Bernd Carsten Stahl
Keyword(s):  
Information Technology ◽  
Social Process ◽  
Practical Philosophy ◽  
Stakeholder Approach ◽  
The Public ◽  
Common Features ◽  
The Core ◽  
Institutional Settings ◽  
Subsequent Step ◽  
Central Term

Before we start analysing the details of how reflective responsibility impacts on the use of information technology, we should briefly recapitulate what the purpose of the entire enterprise was and where we stand right now. Responsibility has been identified as a central term that is used in the public discussions about normative problems. It has been demonstrated that the core of responsibility is a social process of ascription. An overview of the literature on responsibility, however, has shown that the term is highly complex, consists of a large number of conditions, dimensions, and aspects, which in many cases are contradictory. In order to render the term useful, we have tried to identify common features that can be found in most if not all responsibility ascriptions and that help give meaning to its use. The three shared characteristics that were found are openness, affinity to action, and consequentialism. In a subsequent step it was asked what would happen if responsibility ascriptions were analysed with regard to these three characteristics. The result was a notion of responsibility that was called “reflective responsibility,” which was then further investigated with the aim of determining what the consequences of this reflective use of the term was. It was shown that reflective responsibility has theoretical and practical consequences that relate back to some of the ethical theories on which responsibility ascriptions might be based. Reflective responsibility requires the classical virtue of prudence as well as a modern reliance on institutional settings. It can be instantiated by following the ideas of other theories of practical philosophy such as discourse ethics or the stakeholder approach.

scholarly journals Populism, participation, and political equality

2019 ◽  
Vol 11 (1) ◽  
pp. 109-124 ◽  
Author(s):  
Eva Anduiza ◽  
Marc Guinjoan ◽  
Guillem Rico
Keyword(s):  
Political Participation ◽  
Survey Data ◽  
European Countries ◽  
Political Equality ◽  
Online Participation ◽  
Socioeconomic Gaps ◽  
The Relationship

AbstractThis article analyses the relationship between populist attitudes and political participation. We argue that populist attitudes can be a motivation for participation through their identity, emotional, and moral components, and that they have the potential to narrow socioeconomic gaps in participation. Using survey data from nine European countries, our results show that populist attitudes are positively related to expressive non-institutionalized modes of participation (petition signing, online participation and, in some contexts, demonstrating), but not to turnout. In addition, populist attitudes are found to reduce education-based gaps and even reverse income-based inequalities in political participation. The implications of these findings are discussed.

Quotas and Political Participation

2017 ◽  
Author(s):  
Francesca R. Jensenius
Keyword(s):  
Political Participation ◽  
Voter Turnout ◽  
The Political ◽  
Key Indicator ◽  
Political Experience ◽  
Percentage Points ◽  
Electoral Turnout

Chapter 6 examines changes in political participation among voters, focusing on a key indicator in the study of democracies: electoral turnout. Data on state election outcomes between 1974 and 2007 show that turnout plummeted in the first election after constituencies became reserved in the 1970s. Gradually, there was a narrowing gap in voter turnout between SC-reserved and nonreserved constituencies, but after more than 30 years there was still a difference of several percentage points. Exploring the reasons, the chapter shows that this variation in political participation it was not mainly due to caste bias, or feelings of being disempowered, but rather because of the weaker networks and mobilizational capacity of SC politicians. As the political experience and mobilizational capacity of SC politicians has increased, so has voter turnout.

On Difference and Equality

Legal Theory ◽  
1997 ◽  
Vol 3 (1) ◽  
pp. 65-99 ◽  
Author(s):  
Cynthia V. Ward
Keyword(s):  
Social Justice ◽  
Social Dominance ◽  
White Male ◽  
Specific Model ◽  
The Self ◽  
Political Equality ◽  
The Core ◽  
Iris Marion Young ◽  
Difference And Equality ◽  
Liberal Individualism

The concept of “difference” forms the core of contemporary attacks on “liberal legalism” and is central to proposals for replacing it. Critics charge that liberal law quashes difference because it grounds political equality and individual rights in the assumption that all persons share certain “samenesses,” such as rationality or autonomy. In the words of the philosopher Iris Marion Young, “liberal individualism denies difference by positing the self as a solid, self-sufficient unity, not defined by or in need of anything or anyone other than itself.” The claim is that this “sameness”-based vision of equality is in fact an exercise of power, reflecting a highly specific model of personhood that was constructed by and for a white male elite and ensures its continued social dominance. Liberalism's critics conclude that the achievement of social justice will be possible only when sameness-based conceptions of equality are rejected.

scholarly journals The Suffrage of Foreigners in the Municipal Elections from 2011 to 2019 in Spain

2021 ◽  
pp. 93-121
Author(s):  
David Moya Malapeira ◽  
Alba Viñas
Keyword(s):  
Political Participation ◽  
Present Model ◽  
Regulatory Framework ◽  
Selective Recognition ◽  
Cumulative Impact ◽  
Municipal Elections ◽  
Universal Suffrage ◽  
Electoral Turnout ◽  
Right To Vote ◽  
The Right

The current study takes stock of the accumulated experience in political participation at municipal elections of non-EU citizens in 2011, 2015 and 2019. It does so by framing the data and outcomes within the existing regulatory framework in Spain, a framework that very strongly conditions such participation. The text reviews the implications of the model of selective recognition of the right to vote (based on the voter’s nationality), and analyzes certain legal conditions steaming from the requirements of reciprocity, residence or previous census registration. The authors consider that the cumulative impact of those conditions is responsible for the very low electoral turnout in non-EU citizens participation. Lastly, the authors present some ideas to overcome such effect and make the most of the present model, at least until its replacement in municipal elections by a truly universal suffrage model.

What is Political Participation?

2016 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jan W. van Deth
Keyword(s):  
Political Participation ◽  
Political Action ◽  
Contextual Information ◽  
The Core ◽  
Alternative Approach ◽  
Connective Action ◽  
Definition Of ◽  
Political Consumption ◽  
Use Of Internet ◽  
Core Features

Vibrant democracies are characterized by a continuous expansion of the available forms of participation. This expansion has confronted many researchers with the dilemma of using either a dated conceptualization of participation excluding many new modes of political action or stretching their concept to cover almost everything. Demarcation problems are especially evident for many newer, “creative,” “personalized,” and “individualized” modes of participation such as political consumption, street parties, or guerrilla gardening, which basically concern nonpolitical activities used for political purposes. Moreover, the use of Internet-based technologies for these activities (“connective action”) makes it almost impossible to recognize political participation at first sight. Because social, societal, and political developments in democratic societies have made the search for a single encompassing definition of political participation obsolete, an alternative approach is to integrate the core features of political participation in a conceptual map. Five modes cover the whole range of political participation systematically and efficiently, based on the locus (polity), targeting (government area or community problems), and circumstance (context or motivations) of these activities. While the rise of expressive modes of participation especially requires the inclusion of contextual information or the aims and goals of participants, attention is paid to the (dis)advantages of including these aspects as defining criteria for political participation. In this way, the map offers a comprehensive answer to the question “what is political participation” without excluding future participatory innovations that are the hallmark of a vibrant democracy.

The Democratic Struggle in the Sahel

2021 ◽  
pp. 386-404
Author(s):  
Mamadou Bodian ◽  
Leonardo A. Villalón
Keyword(s):  
Electoral Systems ◽  
Term Limits ◽  
The Political ◽  
Democratic Institutions ◽  
Political Dynamics ◽  
The Core ◽  
Political Reforms ◽  
Democratic State ◽  
International Pressures ◽  
Do So

The countries of the Sahel found themselves under intense domestic and international pressures to undertake political reforms in the name of democracy in the early 1990s, and indeed all of them launched efforts to do so. This chapter surveys the variations and the similarities in how the struggle to build and strengthen democratic institutions has played out in the Sahel. It examines some initial fundamental questions related to the nature of a democratic state that were raised by the transitions, before turning to a discussion of the core institutional debates that have defined the struggle. Subsequent sections discuss the political dynamics and the similarities and variations across countries in the institutions for organizing and administering elections and electoral systems; presidential term limits; the structure of legislatures; and the provisions for women’s representation.

Conclusion

2021 ◽  
pp. 171-178
Author(s):  
Carew Boulding ◽  
Claudio A. Holzner
Keyword(s):  
Socioeconomic Status ◽  
Political Participation ◽  
Political Behavior ◽  
Institutional Factors ◽  
Future Research ◽  
Political Equality ◽  
Political Activities ◽  
Individual Level ◽  
The Poor ◽  
Politically Active

The concluding chapter considers the implications of the book’s findings for the health and stability of democracy in the region and for future research. Democracy is not strong unless the voices of all people are heard and considered equally by those in power. Political equality obviously affects representation and accountability, and also impacts public policies that are likely to be more responsive to the needs of all citizens where the poor are politically active. The chapter reflects on the limitations of socioeconomic status (SES) and resource-based theories of political participation that emphasize individual-level factors and attitudes and advocates for more comparative analyses of political behavior that takes institutional factors seriously in explaining who participates and in which political activities.

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