Territorial Threat, Mobilization, and Political Participation in Africa

2011 ◽  
Vol 28 (3) ◽  
pp. 183-208 ◽  
Author(s):  
Marc L. Hutchison
Keyword(s):  
Political Participation ◽  
International Relations ◽  
Multilevel Models ◽  
Decision Makers ◽  
The Political ◽  
Issue Salience ◽  
External Threats ◽  
National Differences ◽  
Participatory Behavior ◽  
Cross National

The link between territorial issues and incidents of militarized conflict is one of the most consistent patterns found in the empirical study of international relations. Consequently, disputes over territory are generally perceived to be more salient to state decision-makers than other types of issues. Given this relative issue salience, state elites are thought to be more likely to engage in domestic mobilization efforts when territory is externally threatened. The political participation literature observes wide cross-national differences in participatory behavior and contends that the level and timing of participation is partially a function of elite-led strategic mobilization. I propose that these phenomena are connected and that territorial threats are associated with overall patterns in non-voting political participation across countries. I assess this relationship with cross-national, multilevel models using 27 Afrobarometer surveys collected in 16 different countries from 1999 to 2003. As expected, if salient external threats are triggering domestic mobilization efforts, I find that territorial threats are positively associated with most forms of non-voting political participation. However, I also observe lower levels of protest behavior in states that recently experienced a territorial threat—a finding that corresponds with previous research linking salient external threats to increased societal cohesion.

Protest und Partizipation

2020 ◽  
Keyword(s):  
Political Participation ◽  
Political Culture ◽  
Civic Education ◽  
Decision Makers ◽  
Educational Institutions ◽  
The Political ◽  
Special Role ◽  
Political Decision ◽  
Current Crisis ◽  
Accepted Practice

In democracy, political participation is seen as the most important way for citizens to communicate information to political decision-makers (Sydney Verba) and the bureaucracy affiliated to them. Protest plays a special role here among the political and cultural varieties of participation, since it can be seen as a symptom of democratic defects or as an expression of a living, transformative democracy. Civic education situates itself in relation to this particular form of expression of political culture in a multidimensional way: it transmits basic democratic values to educational institutions and marks the boundaries of accepted practice of protest quite differently. This can also result in a transformative practice of protest (Banks), which is also discussed in this volume. In it, the authors resurvey the field of political education according to the conditions of the current crisis-ridden transformation in democracy. This anthology was created to document the 2017 Münster Conference of the DVPW-Committee on Political Science and Civic Education.

The Political Bases of Citizen Contacting: A Cross-National Analysis

1985 ◽  
Vol 79 (1) ◽  
pp. 117-131 ◽  
Author(s):  
Alan S. Zuckerman ◽  
Darrell M. West
Keyword(s):  
Political Parties ◽  
Political Participation ◽  
Economic Resources ◽  
The Political ◽  
Election Campaigns ◽  
Government Officials ◽  
Data Set ◽  
Political Ties ◽  
National Analysis ◽  
Cross National

This article examines a mode of political participation that frequently has been overlooked—individual efforts to obtain assistance from government officials. Using the seven-nation data set of Verba, Nie, and Kim, we develop and empirically evaluate alternatiave models of citizen contacting. Our first model draws on variations in the distribution of social and economic resources to explain the likelihood of contacting. The second focuses on differences in political ties to locate those most likely to contact government officials. We find greater support for the political ties model. Persons active in political parties and election campaigns are the most likely to engage in citizen contacting. Without political ties, few poor or uneducated persons would ask officials for assistance. We conclude by noting the more general theoretical and normative implications of our study.

scholarly journals Remembering and Forgetting the Last War: Discursive Memory of the Sino-Vietnamese War in China and Vietnam

2020 ◽  
pp. 1-19
Author(s):  
Qingfei Yin ◽  
Kosal Path
Keyword(s):  
International Relations ◽  
Political System ◽  
Historical Memory ◽  
The Political ◽  
40Th Anniversary ◽  
Thin Line ◽  
External Threats ◽  
Bilateral Relations ◽  
Popular Memory

Abstract The year 2019 marked the 40th anniversary of the outbreak of the Sino-Vietnamese War in 1979. Making use of published and unpublished Chinese, Vietnamese, and English sources, this article traces the tensions between official and popular memories of the Sino-Vietnamese War of 1979 in China and Vietnam, respectively. We argue that these tensions existed because the development of the official Chinese and Vietnamese memories of the war largely mirrored each other. Between 1991 and roughly 2006, when bilateral relations between the countries improved, both Beijing and Hanoi claimed victory for their side while simultaneously downplaying the bloodshed, tragedy, and loss experienced during the war. However, they have reacted to the rise of popular memories since the early 2000s in very different ways. While Beijing walks a thin line between accommodating appeals for greater recognition of the sacrifices made by ordinary soldiers without provoking social discontent with the political system, Hanoi has been more successful in mobilising Vietnamese popular memory of the war to strike a measured nationalistic response to China. How China and Vietnam remember and downplay the Sino-Vietnamese War points to the bigger picture of the sensitivity of bilateral relations to historical memory in Asia. In particular, historical memory shapes how a country perceives external threats and opportunities, while historical memory is created, suppressed, and re-created as international relations evolve.

Blogging as Digital Citizen Participation

2021 ◽  
pp. 1-20
Author(s):  
Fortunat Miarintsoa Andrianimanana ◽  
Carles Roca-Cuberes
Keyword(s):  
Content Analysis ◽  
Political Participation ◽  
International Relations ◽  
Citizen Participation ◽  
The Political ◽  
Political Blogs ◽  
Political Issues ◽  
Thematic Content Analysis ◽  
Thematic Content

Abstract This article analyses the political blogging of the Malagasy diaspora as part of their transnational political participation. It focuses on three aspects of the blogs: the most frequent topics addressed, how are the topics addressed, and the political bloggers. To do this, a Thematic Content Analysis based on four categories (‘soapboxes’, ‘transmission belts’, ‘conversation starters’ and ‘mobilisers’) of four of their most active and influential political blogs was conducted. The analysis revealed that (i) the blogs are mostly “soapboxes” that consist of commenting the political issues in Madagascar, (ii) their contents were mostly focused on the coup d’ état in 2009, and (iii) the bloggers are involved in direct political participation in parallel offline. This paper shows the role of the studied blogs as tribunes of opinions that gather a partisan audience discussing the Malagasy political issues, and as judgment tools contributing to the braking or fuelling of Madagascar’s international relations.

scholarly journals ‘Enemies of the people’: Donald Trump and the security imaginary of America First

2021 ◽  
pp. 136914812110484
Author(s):  
Georg Löfflmann
Keyword(s):  
Foreign Policy ◽  
International Relations ◽  
Political Rhetoric ◽  
The Political ◽  
Donald Trump ◽  
Blame Attribution ◽  
Policy Choices ◽  
External Threats ◽  
The People ◽  
Fear And Anxiety

The discursive domain of (in)security is integral to nationalist populism, as documented in the political rhetoric of Donald Trump. This article combines insights from political psychology on blame attribution with scholarship in International Relations on security narratives to show how the reframing of national identity through a populist security imaginary elevated internal ‘enemies of the people’ to an ontological status of equal, or even superior standing to that of external threats to national security. Portraying internal and external Others as equally existential threats endangering the ‘real’ United States informed both foreign policy choices and mobilised voters through an affective persuasion of audiences, actively dividing society for political gain. Populist appeals to resentment, fear, and anxiety constituted a shared affective space between Trump and his followers that provided a source of mutual ontological reassurance and the legitimation of America First measures from immigration restrictions to trade protectionism and a Jacksonian foreign policy.

Women in Power and Decision making Positions : Conditions and Restraints

1970 ◽  
pp. 53-57
Author(s):  
Azza Charara Baydoun
Keyword(s):  
Decision Making ◽  
Political Participation ◽  
Political Life ◽  
The Political ◽  
Decision Making Process ◽  
Power Structures ◽  
Policies And Procedures ◽  
The Social ◽  
The Status ◽  
Slow Progress

Women today are considered to be outside the political and administrative power structures and their participation in the decision-making process is non-existent. As far as their participation in the political life is concerned they are still on the margins. The existence of patriarchal society in Lebanon as well as the absence of governmental policies and procedures that aim at helping women and enhancing their political participation has made it very difficult for women to be accepted as leaders and to be granted votes in elections (UNIFEM, 2002).This above quote is taken from a report that was prepared to assess the progress made regarding the status of Lebanese women both on the social and governmental levels in light of the Beijing Platform for Action – the name given to the provisions of the Fourth Conference on Women held in Beijing in 1995. The above quote describes the slow progress achieved by Lebanese women in view of the ambitious goal that requires that the proportion of women occupying administrative or political positions in Lebanon should reach 30 percent of thetotal by the year 2005!

The Use and Misuse of Religious Language: Zionism and the Palestinians

2005 ◽  
Vol 4 (1) ◽  
pp. 73-86 ◽  
Author(s):  
David Wetherell
Keyword(s):  
International Relations ◽  
Figurative Language ◽  
Religious Language ◽  
The Political ◽  
Political Scientist ◽  
Late 19Th Century ◽  
The Bible ◽  
Title Deed ◽  
History Of ◽  
Land Question

Every discipline which deals with the land question in Canaan-Palestine-Israel is afflicted by the problem of specialisation. The political scientist and historian usually discuss the issue of land in Israel purely in terms of interethnic and international relations, biblical scholars concentrate on the historical and archaeological question with virtually no reference to ethics, and scholars of human rights usually evade the question of God. What follows is an attempt, through theology and political history, to understand the history of the Israel-Palestine land question in a way which respects the complexity of the question. From a scrutiny of the language used in the Bible to the development of political Zionism from the late 19th century it is possible to see the way in which a secular movement mobilised the figurative language of religion into a literal ‘title deed’ to the land of Palestine signed by God.

Facing the Challenge of Democracy

2011 ◽  
Keyword(s):  
Political Participation ◽  
Interest Groups ◽  
Political Knowledge ◽  
The Political ◽  
Political Thinking ◽  
Democratic Representation ◽  
The Public ◽  
Party Polarization

Citizens are political simpletons—that is only a modest exaggeration of a common characterization of voters. Certainly, there is no shortage of evidence of citizens' limited political knowledge, even about matters of the highest importance, along with inconsistencies in their thinking, some glaring by any standard. But this picture of citizens all too often approaches caricature. This book brings together leading political scientists who offer new insights into the political thinking of the public, the causes of party polarization, the motivations for political participation, and the paradoxical relationship between turnout and democratic representation. These studies propel a foundational argument about democracy. Voters can only do as well as the alternatives on offer. These alternatives are constrained by third players, in particular activists, interest groups, and financial contributors. The result: voters often appear to be shortsighted, extreme, and inconsistent because the alternatives they must choose between are shortsighted, extreme, and inconsistent.

Perempuan dalam Kungkungan Budaya Politik Patriarkhis

MUWAZAH ◽  
2018 ◽  
Vol 10 (2) ◽  
pp. 96
Author(s):  
Nurbaity Prastyananda Yuwono
Keyword(s):  
Political Participation ◽  
Political Culture ◽  
The Political ◽  
Political Awareness ◽  
Cultural Reconstruction ◽  
Women's Participation ◽  
The Government ◽  
Gender Based ◽  
Women's Networks ◽  
Women's Political Participation

Women's political participation in Indonesia can be categorized as low, even though the government has provided special policies for women. Patriarchal political culture is a major obstacle in increasing women's political participation, because it builds perceptions that women are inappropriate, unsuitable and unfit to engage in the political domain. The notion that women are more appropriate in the domestic area; identified politics are masculine, so women are not suitable for acting in the political domain; Weak women and not having the ability to become leaders, are the result of the construction of a patriarchal political culture. Efforts must be doing to increase women's participation, i.e: women's political awareness, gender-based political education; building and strengthening relationships between women's networks and organizations; attract qualified women  political party cadres; cultural reconstruction and reinterpretation of religious understanding that is gender biased; movement to change the organizational structure of political parties and; the implementation of legislation effectively.

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