scholarly journals Conflicting messages of electoral protest: The role of systemic and elite discontent in the Italian 2016 constitutional referendum

Politics ◽  
2021 ◽  
pp. 026339572097497
Author(s):  
Matthew E Bergman ◽  
Gianluca Passarelli

The vote NO (a defeat for the proponents) of the 2016 Italian referendum has been broadly attributed to a wave of protest politics sweeping Western democracies. Given that the government of Matteo Renzi proposed and supported the referendum, the resulting vote against government interests raises a crucial theoretical question: to what extent does the referendum vote reflect the characteristics of a protest vote? To disentangle the meaning and impact of protest, we distinguish two dimensions: the ‘system discontent’ and the ‘elite discontent’, referring to both general and focalized images: general sentiments towards the representational aspects of political institutions as compared to focused sentiments towards government performances. The circumstances surrounding the referendum provide a crucial test for whether these two forms of protest can be at odds with one another. We expect and find that elite discontented voters tend to reject this referendum. Vice versa, system discontent increased support for the referendum, as it would reform political institutions to which voters had negative sentiments. Findings suggest that analyses of political psychology and behaviour identify the conceptual foundations for protest and ask whether forms of protest work in parallel or at odds. Protest attitudes and their effects should be thought of as multidimensional.

2016 ◽  
Vol 1 (1) ◽  
pp. 7
Author(s):  
Gang Wang

<p>The theoretical literature in economics and political science has made numerous efforts in understanding the determinants of corruption and stressed the importance of political institutions in shaping the patterns of government corruption. Nevertheless, very few researches focus on the role of judicial system. Employing a formal model with empirical analyses, I incorporate economic factors with political constraints to investigate the different roles of democracy and judicial independence in determining the level of bureaucrats’ corruption across countries. Empirically, the instrumental variable (IV) approach is applied to resolve the endogeneity problems. The evidence indicates that different levels of corruption across countries are significantly influenced by the degrees of judicial independence. To fight corruption successfully, I contend that the judiciary, as a hard institutional constraint to resist bureaucratic corruption, has to be independent from the government. </p>


2007 ◽  
Vol 40 (12) ◽  
pp. 1511-1532 ◽  
Author(s):  
Henar Criado ◽  
Francisco Herreros

The analysis of the causes of political support for political institutions has been focused either on one-case studies that stress the relevance of individual variables or cross-national studies that stress the role of institutions. In this article, the authors suggest that to understand the logic of political support, it is necessary to combine both types of explanations. Using evidence from 17 European countries of the 2002 to 2003 European Social Survey data set, the authors show that the effect of the performance of the institution on political support is higher in majoritarian democracies, where the attribution of responsibility for policy outcomes is clear, than in proportional democracies. They also show that the effect of ideology on political support depends on the type of democracy: Those citizens ideologically far from the government will show higher levels of political support in proportional democracies than in majoritarian ones.


Sociologija ◽  
2015 ◽  
Vol 57 (4) ◽  
pp. 662-682 ◽  
Author(s):  
Zsolt Boda ◽  
Gergő Medve-Bálint

The 2010 election in Hungary resulted in the victory of Fidesz, a conservative party which acquired a comfortable majority in the parliament and used it to initiate a number of important policy reforms. However, there are good reasons to think that both the way these reforms were adopted and their content violated a number of procedural fairness norms, such as participation in decision making and even some aspects of the rule of law. According to David Beetham, Tom Tyler and others, legitimacy is dependent on moral evaluations concerning the ruling power, and among those evaluations, perceptions of the procedural fairness being exercised by the authorities are of a crucial importance. If the theory holds, then the legitimacy of Fidesz?s rule would have eroded over the years, and indeed this is what happened, by 2012 trust in the government and in political institutions has dropped to the levels seen before the 2010 elections. But since economic problems have persisted, we cannot say whether this drop was caused by discontent with governmental performance or procedural fairness or both. Our research aims at investigating the role of procedural fairness in the formation of legitimacy beliefs. Our preliminary analysis suggest that moral evaluations and, more particularly, procedural fairness expectations do have an effect on people?s legitimacy believes in the Hungarian context as well.


2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
◽  
Mohammad Iqbal Ahnaf

<p><b>Hizbut Tahrir Indonesia (HTI) is a part of an international network organization called Hizb al-Tahrir (HT). The organization is commonly portrayed as an "anti-system" movement that seeks to overthrow democracy and revives the past transnational rule of the khilafah (caliphate). This view is justified by the doctrine of HT that promotes a revolutionary strategy of non-participation and envisages a political change outside the parliamentary process of democracy. Based on this ideology, many see the future of HT in its role of radicalizing Muslims that eventually lead to violence.</b></p> <p>This study evaluates the consistency of HTI in following its revolutionary strategy of non-participation. It argues that HTI is undertaking a strategic shift from a total non-participation to a selective participation. It establishes a strategic balance between revolution and reform by taking part in the democratic system for stirring opposition toward the existing political system. HTI focuses on challenging the legitimacy of democracy while at the same time engages with the supporting institutions and actors of the democratic system. This strategy resembles the model of political change called by Oxford University's political scientist, Timothy Garton Ash, "refolution." It aims to overthrow the existing political system without overthrowing the political regime. It seeks entry into the system to covert key elements of power holders and to persuade them to undertake a fundamental change from democracy to an Islamic government based on shari'ah law.</p> <p>This change is inevitable for HTI to adjust itself to the democratic context of Indonesia that integrates the majority of Muslims in the democratic system. This presence of Muslim actors in the system has created a perception of political opportunity for Islamization that prevents HTI from confronting the existing political process. This stance betrays HTI's revolutionary doctrine that requires it to uncompromisingly undermine the legitimacy of the democratic system and propagate political detachment. However, HTI understands that opposition to the Muslim involvement in the democratic process can isolate it from its most potential allies.</p> <p>Based on this, this study calls attention to the trajectory of HT outside the box of violent and revolutionary activism. The above path is especially likely for HT that operates in the context of Muslim democracies. HTI offers an alternative strategy toviolent activism and the moderate trend of Islamist movements. Evidence shows HTI is building support bases for the establishment of a pro-shari'ah or anti-system politics, either in the form of starting a new party or in creating a coalition between the existing parties.</p> <p>To support this argument, this study analyzes the nature of HTI's activities and its attitude toward the democratic structure. It is primarily based on a content analysis of HTI's discourse and activities recorded in two of its main publications: Al-Islam weekly bulletin and Al-Wa'ie monthly magazine. These sources cover HTI's activism from 2000 to 2009.</p> <p>Methodologically, it follows references and activities relating to key elements of Indonesian democracy (such as state ideology, democracy, election, the government, House of Representative, and political parties) and elements of Muslim society that are part of the democratic system. Drawing on the theories of political change, the analysis is based on the scope of change and the degree of opposition it promotes. Cases are analysed on a scale of 1 to 3 that represents moderate, radical and extreme. The finding shows mixed attitudes with a significant portion of radical character. This confirms the character of "refolutionary" strategy: it focuses on challenging political system over political institutions and combines political participation with anti-democratic campaign.</p>


2018 ◽  
Vol 4 (2) ◽  
pp. 278-297
Author(s):  
Animesh Roy

The matrilineal society of the Khasi tribe in Meghalaya is now undergoing a transitional phase, whereby, on the one hand, the government is attempting to destine its traditional political institutions into more efficient instruments of democratic decentralisation, resulting into contradictions over the ‘manoeuver of village-level governance’ between the government and the Khasi Hills Autonomous District Council (KHADC), and, on the other hand, a section of Khasi men presuming themselves to be deprived of the property rights wanting to be recognised at par with the Khasi women. Given such a situation, this piece of work attempts to analyse the status of both Khasi males and females in terms of their involvement in social, economic and political affairs under matrilineality. It also critically evaluates the fecundity of the Village Administration Bill (VAB) of 2014 keeping a gender perspective in focus. The article, however, argues that despite having claimed to have placed women in higher position than men in the society, the Khasi matrilineality vitriolically relegates the role of women in politics and governance, thus portraying a contradiction. This contradiction even vividly exists in the recent VAB passed by the KHADC. Our primary survey also reflects that the female workforce has mostly established a foothold in the low-profile economic activities while dominance of the male workforce is found in those economic activities that are associated with a higher social status.


2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
◽  
Mohammad Iqbal Ahnaf

<p><b>Hizbut Tahrir Indonesia (HTI) is a part of an international network organization called Hizb al-Tahrir (HT). The organization is commonly portrayed as an "anti-system" movement that seeks to overthrow democracy and revives the past transnational rule of the khilafah (caliphate). This view is justified by the doctrine of HT that promotes a revolutionary strategy of non-participation and envisages a political change outside the parliamentary process of democracy. Based on this ideology, many see the future of HT in its role of radicalizing Muslims that eventually lead to violence.</b></p> <p>This study evaluates the consistency of HTI in following its revolutionary strategy of non-participation. It argues that HTI is undertaking a strategic shift from a total non-participation to a selective participation. It establishes a strategic balance between revolution and reform by taking part in the democratic system for stirring opposition toward the existing political system. HTI focuses on challenging the legitimacy of democracy while at the same time engages with the supporting institutions and actors of the democratic system. This strategy resembles the model of political change called by Oxford University's political scientist, Timothy Garton Ash, "refolution." It aims to overthrow the existing political system without overthrowing the political regime. It seeks entry into the system to covert key elements of power holders and to persuade them to undertake a fundamental change from democracy to an Islamic government based on shari'ah law.</p> <p>This change is inevitable for HTI to adjust itself to the democratic context of Indonesia that integrates the majority of Muslims in the democratic system. This presence of Muslim actors in the system has created a perception of political opportunity for Islamization that prevents HTI from confronting the existing political process. This stance betrays HTI's revolutionary doctrine that requires it to uncompromisingly undermine the legitimacy of the democratic system and propagate political detachment. However, HTI understands that opposition to the Muslim involvement in the democratic process can isolate it from its most potential allies.</p> <p>Based on this, this study calls attention to the trajectory of HT outside the box of violent and revolutionary activism. The above path is especially likely for HT that operates in the context of Muslim democracies. HTI offers an alternative strategy toviolent activism and the moderate trend of Islamist movements. Evidence shows HTI is building support bases for the establishment of a pro-shari'ah or anti-system politics, either in the form of starting a new party or in creating a coalition between the existing parties.</p> <p>To support this argument, this study analyzes the nature of HTI's activities and its attitude toward the democratic structure. It is primarily based on a content analysis of HTI's discourse and activities recorded in two of its main publications: Al-Islam weekly bulletin and Al-Wa'ie monthly magazine. These sources cover HTI's activism from 2000 to 2009.</p> <p>Methodologically, it follows references and activities relating to key elements of Indonesian democracy (such as state ideology, democracy, election, the government, House of Representative, and political parties) and elements of Muslim society that are part of the democratic system. Drawing on the theories of political change, the analysis is based on the scope of change and the degree of opposition it promotes. Cases are analysed on a scale of 1 to 3 that represents moderate, radical and extreme. The finding shows mixed attitudes with a significant portion of radical character. This confirms the character of "refolutionary" strategy: it focuses on challenging political system over political institutions and combines political participation with anti-democratic campaign.</p>


2017 ◽  
pp. 148-159
Author(s):  
V. Papava

This paper analyzes the problem of technological backwardness of economy. In many mostly developing countries their economies use obsolete technologies. This can create the illusion that this or that business is prosperous. At the level of international competition, however, it is obvious that these types of firms do not have any chance for success. Retroeconomics as a theory of technological backwardness and its detrimental effect upon a country’s economy is considered in the paper. The role of the government is very important for overcoming the effects of retroeconomy. The phenomenon of retroeconomy is already quite deep-rooted throughout the world and it is essential to consolidate the attention of economists and politicians on this threat.


2020 ◽  
pp. 75-79
Author(s):  
R. M. Gambarova

Relevance. Grain is the key to strategic products to ensure food security. From this point of view, the creation of large grain farms is a matter for the country's selfsufficiency and it leading to a decrease in financial expense for import. Creation of such farms creates an abundance of productivity from the area and leads to obtaining increased reproductive seeds. The main policy of the government is to minimize dependency from import, create abundance of food and create favorable conditions for export potential.The purpose of the study: the development of grain production in order to ensure food security of the country and strengthen government support for this industry.Methods: comparative analysis, systems approach.Results. As shown in the research, if we pay attention to the activities of private entrepreneurship in the country, we can see result of the implementation of agrarian reforms after which various types of farms have been created in republic.The role of privateentrepreneurshipinthedevelopmentofproduction is great. Тhe article outlines the sowing area, production, productivity, import, export of grain and the level of selfsufficiency in this country from 2015 till 2017.


2013 ◽  
Vol 154 (16) ◽  
pp. 619-626
Author(s):  
Mária Resch ◽  
Tamás Bella

In Hungary one can mostly find references to the psychological processes of politics in the writings of publicists, public opinion pollsters, philosophers, social psychologists, and political analysts. It would be still important if not only legal scientists focusing on political institutions or sociologist-politologists concentrating on social structures could analyse the psychological aspects of political processes; but one could also do so through the application of the methods of political psychology. The authors review the history of political psychology, its position vis-à-vis other fields of science and the essential interfaces through which this field of science, which is still to be discovered in Hungary, connects to other social sciences. As far as its methodology comprising psycho-biographical analyses, questionnaire-based queries, cognitive mapping of interviews and statements are concerned, it is identical with the psychiatric tools of medical sciences. In the next part of this paper, the focus is shifted to the essence and contents of political psychology. Group dynamics properties, voters’ attitudes, leaders’ personalities and the behavioural patterns demonstrated by them in different political situations, authoritativeness, games, and charisma are all essential components of political psychology, which mostly analyses psychological-psychiatric processes and also involves medical sciences by relying on cognitive and behavioural sciences. This paper describes political psychology, which is basically part of social sciences, still, being an interdisciplinary science, has several ties to medical sciences through psychological and psychiatric aspects. Orv. Hetil., 2013, 154, 619–626.


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