scholarly journals Creating Democratic Citizens: Political Effects of the Internet in China

2018 ◽  
Vol 71 (4) ◽  
pp. 757-771 ◽  
Author(s):  
Narisong Huhe ◽  
Min Tang ◽  
Jie Chen
Keyword(s):  
Indirect Effects ◽  
The Political ◽  
The Internet ◽  
Direct Effects ◽  
A Value ◽  
Political Effects ◽  
Political Outcomes ◽  
Political Impact ◽  
Causal Mediation Analysis

This study explores the perplexing role of the Internet in authoritarian settings. We disentangle the political impact of the Internet along two distinct dimensions, indirect effects and direct effects. While the direct effects of the exposure to the Internet shape political attitudes in a manifest and immediate way, the indirect effects shape various political outcomes via instilling fundamental democratic orientations among citizens. In authoritarian societies such as China, we argue the indirect effects of the Internet as a value changer tend to be potent, transformative, and persistent. But the direct effects of the Internet as a mere alternative messenger are likely to be markedly contingent. Relying on the newly developed method of causal mediation analysis and applying the method to data from a recent survey conducted in Beijing, we find strong empirical evidence to support our argument about the two-dimensional impacts of the Internet in authoritarian countries.

scholarly journals Political Effects of the Internet and Social Media

2020 ◽  
Vol 12 (1) ◽  
pp. 415-438 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ekaterina Zhuravskaya ◽  
Maria Petrova ◽  
Ruben Enikolopov
Keyword(s):  
Social Media ◽  
Political Polarization ◽  
The Internet ◽  
Barriers To Entry ◽  
Fake News ◽  
Open Questions ◽  
Political Effects ◽  
Political Outcomes ◽  
Internet And Social Media

How do the Internet and social media affect political outcomes? We review empirical evidence from the recent political economy literature, focusing primarily on work that considers traits that distinguish the Internet and social media from traditional off-line media, such as low barriers to entry and reliance on user-generated content. We discuss the main results about the effects of the Internet in general, and social media in particular, on voting, street protests, attitudes toward government, political polarization, xenophobia, and politicians’ behavior. We also review evidence on the role of social media in the dissemination of fake news, and we summarize results about the strategies employed by autocratic regimes to censor the Internet and to use social media for surveillance and propaganda. We conclude by highlighting open questions about how the Internet and social media shape politics in democracies and autocracies.

Liberals, Democrats and the Agenda of Politics

1998 ◽  
Vol 46 (2) ◽  
pp. 295-308 ◽  
Author(s):  
Richard Vernon
Keyword(s):  
Political Agenda ◽  
The Political ◽  
Political Choice ◽  
Personal Freedom ◽  
A Value ◽  
Political Outcomes ◽  
Democratic Procedure

Democrats sometimes wonder why liberalism, as a theory which values choice, should seek to restrict democratic choices by limiting the political agenda. This article tries to answer this question by emphasizing a value which is common to liberal and democratic arguments: that as far as possible states should rest on persuasion rather than compulsion. On this basis, it is argued that personal and political choice situations are not analogous, that not all the arguments for personal freedom are exhausted by the arguments for fair democratic procedure, that it is not irrational to fear that one might be in an unpersuaded minority, and that even democratic political outcomes cannot be substituted for personal conclusions. Some democratic theories do not accept the value assumed here: but they pay too high a price.

How encompassing is the effect of negativity bias on political conservatism?

2014 ◽  
Vol 37 (3) ◽  
pp. 320-321 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ariel Malka ◽  
Christopher J. Soto
Keyword(s):  
Political Engagement ◽  
Social Attitudes ◽  
Negativity Bias ◽  
The Political ◽  
Political Elites ◽  
Political Effects ◽  
Political Conservatism ◽  
Ideological Conflict

AbstractWe argue that the political effects of negativity bias are narrower than Hibbing et al. suggest. Negativity bias reliably predicts social, but not economic, conservatism, and its political effects often vary across levels of political engagement. Thus the role of negativity bias in broad ideological conflict depends on the strategic packaging of economic and social attitudes by political elites.

scholarly journals Liquidity constraints, spillovers, and entrepreneurship: evidence from a cash transfer program

2019 ◽  
Vol 55 (4) ◽  
pp. 1131-1158
Author(s):  
Rafael P. Ribas
Keyword(s):  
Indirect Effect ◽  
Indirect Effects ◽  
Financial Constraints ◽  
Liquidity Constraints ◽  
Cash Transfer ◽  
Direct Effects ◽  
Transfer Program ◽  
Liquidity Shocks ◽  
Liquidity Shock

Abstract This paper exploits a liquidity shock from a welfare program in Brazil to investigate the role of financial constraints, in opposition to general equilibrium mechanisms, in explaining entrepreneurship. Previous research focuses exclusively on how liquidity changes recipients’ behavior through direct effects on reducing constraints. However, liquidity shocks may also produce spillovers from recipients to others and thereby indirectly affect entrepreneurial decisions. This paper presents a method for decomposing the liquidity shock into direct effects associated with relieving individual constraints, and indirect effects associated with spillovers to other individuals. Results suggest that the program, which assists 20 percent of Brazilian households, increased the number of small entrepreneurs by 10 percent. However, this increase is entirely driven by the indirect effect. Further tests suggest that this effect is associated with an increase in private transfers between households. Thus, entrepreneurship tends to respond more to the interaction between households than to financial constraints.

scholarly journals The dual role of chloride in synaptic vesicle glutamate transport

eLife ◽  
2018 ◽  
Vol 7 ◽  
Author(s):  
Roger Chang ◽  
Jacob Eriksen ◽  
Robert H Edwards
Keyword(s):  
Synaptic Vesicle ◽  
Indirect Effects ◽  
Synaptic Vesicles ◽  
Transmembrane Domain ◽  
Dose Dependence ◽  
Direct Effects ◽  
Allosteric Activation ◽  
Vesicular Glutamate Transporters ◽  
Cl Conductance

The transport of glutamate into synaptic vesicles exhibits an unusual form of regulation by Cl- as well as an associated Cl- conductance. To distinguish direct effects of Cl- on the transporter from indirect effects via the driving force Δψ, we used whole endosome recording and report the first currents due to glutamate flux by the vesicular glutamate transporters (VGLUTs). Chloride allosterically activates the VGLUTs from both sides of the membrane, and we find that neutralization of an arginine in transmembrane domain four suffices for the lumenal activation. The dose dependence suggests that Cl- permeates through a channel and glutamate through a transporter. Competition between the anions nonetheless indicates that they use a similar permeation pathway. By controlling both ionic gradients and Δψ, endosome recording isolates different steps in the process of synaptic vesicle filling, suggesting distinct roles for Cl- in both allosteric activation and permeation.

What Does Terrorism Accomplish? Economic, Psychological, and Political Consequences of Terrorism

2019 ◽  
pp. 105-142
Author(s):  
Alan B. Krueger
Keyword(s):  
Historical Context ◽  
Economic Consequences ◽  
Terrorist Attacks ◽  
The Political ◽  
Psychological Consequences ◽  
Political Consequences ◽  
Political Impact ◽  
The Media ◽  
Target Country

This chapter considers the consequences of terrorism. This is the area where with the least research. The chapter offers the author's interpretation of the literature, referring along the way to some of the work that has been done. It focuses first on the economic consequences of terrorist attacks. Then the chapter turns to their psychological consequences, followed by some comments about the role of the media. It also puts the threat of terrorism into perspective by comparing it with other risks that we as a nation have faced and placing it in historical context. Finally, the chapter discusses the political impact of terrorism on the target country.

Could the Internet be a safety-net for democracy in crisis?

2019 ◽  
Vol 50 (1) ◽  
pp. 125-141 ◽  
Author(s):  
Luigi Ceccarini
Keyword(s):  
Political Representation ◽  
Safety Net ◽  
Political Elite ◽  
Democratic Politics ◽  
The Political ◽  
The Internet ◽  
Social Evaluation

AbstractDemocratic politics does not meet the expectations of citizens who have gradually become more critical towards representative politics and the political elite that represent them. From these well-known considerations and social evaluation spread among the citizenry, this paper focuses on political representation and the concept of citizenship in the age of the Internet. After discussing the positive and negative aspects of digital disintermediation (and hence neo-intermediation), this study concentrates on the potentialities of the role of the Internet, with its ambiguities, and monitoring of citizens' engagement as a possible safety-net for representative democracies in crisis worldwide.

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