Who do you believe? Political parties and conspiracy theories in Pakistan

2018 ◽  
Vol 26 (2) ◽  
pp. 107-119
Author(s):  
Niloufer Siddiqui
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
Political Parties ◽  
The United States ◽  
Supporting Evidence ◽  
Survey Experiment ◽  
Lower Income ◽  
Emerging Democracies ◽  
Conspiracy Theories ◽  
Established Democracies ◽  
The Impact

In authoritarian states, emerging democracies, and well-established democracies alike, alternative accounts that contest official state narratives are common. Why do people believe such accounts even in the absence of supporting evidence? While this question has been explored in the United States, relatively little research has assessed it in other contexts. Through a survey experiment carried out in Pakistan, this article tests the impact of cues by political parties on belief in such conspiracy theories. The results provide evidence in favor of partisan cueing: When alternative narratives are endorsed by political parties viewed favorably by the respondent, they are more likely to be believed. I suggest that political parties are able to capitalize on misinformation and a lack of trust in official institutions for tactical advantage. Results differ by subgroup: Higher income and urban respondents are swayed more by their own party source than are lower income and rural individuals.

Sensitivity to Issue Framing on Trade Policy Preferences: Evidence from a Survey Experiment

2013 ◽  
Vol 67 (2) ◽  
pp. 411-437 ◽  
Author(s):  
Martin Ardanaz ◽  
M. Victoria Murillo ◽  
Pablo M. Pinto
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
International Trade ◽  
Service Sector ◽  
The United States ◽  
Issue Framing ◽  
Survey Experiment ◽  
Informational Cues ◽  
Material Conditions ◽  
Trade Preferences ◽  
The Impact

AbstractWe explore the impact of issue framing on individual attitudes toward international trade. Based on a survey experiment fielded in Argentina during 2007, which reproduces the setup of earlier studies in the United States, we show that individuals' position in the economy and their material concerns define the strength of their prior beliefs about international trade, and thereby mitigate their sensitivity to the new dimensions introduced in informational cues. Extending the analysis beyond the United States to a country with different skill endowments allows us to better explore the role of material and nonmaterial attributes on individual attitudes toward trade. We find that skill is a central predictor of support for openness. The effect is strongest for individuals in the service sector and in cities that cater to the producers of agricultural commodities. Our findings suggest that the pattern of support for economic integration reflects the predictions from recent literature in international economics that emphasizes trade's impact on the relative demand for skilled labor regardless of factor endowments. Our findings also amend recent empirical contributions that suggest socialization is the main factor explaining individual sensitivity to issue framing on trade preferences. We suggest that material conditions associated with income and price effects are crucial, both in shaping trade preferences and in affecting the malleability of attitudes to issue framing. Hence, our results provide a crucial contribution to our general understanding of the attributes shaping susceptibility to political framing in policy debates.

Speak No Evil

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Heidi Hardt
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
Critical Role ◽  
The United States ◽  
Experimental Results ◽  
Survey Experiment ◽  
Time And Space ◽  
International Media ◽  
Institutional Memory ◽  
The Impact ◽  
Different Sources

As a fourth empirical chapter, Chapter 6 identifies the sources that motivate elites to share their knowledge of strategic errors. Employing a survey experiment on elites, the chapter presents hypotheses about the impact of three different sources: the United States, NATO's secretariat and international media. Surprisingly, experimental results indicate that NATO elites are less likely to record or share knowledge of a strategic error if an action is framed as such by the United States. Results also demonstrate that NATO elites are slightly more likely to record if the action is framed as such an error by the secretariat. The chapter concludes with a discussion of why a powerful state would counter-intuitively have a dampening effect on an international organization’s capacity for retaining knowledge across time and space. Findings support the book’s argument that the secretariat plays a critical role in facilitating the development of institutional memory about past strategic errors.

scholarly journals Capitalists, Spies and Aliens: Conspiracy Theories in Bulgaria

2017 ◽  
Vol 4 (2) ◽  
pp. 7-17 ◽  
Author(s):  
Todor Hristov
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
Conceptual Framework ◽  
Transnational Corporations ◽  
The United States ◽  
Lower Intensity ◽  
Conspiracy Theories ◽  
Functional Types ◽  
The Government ◽  
The Impact ◽  
Popular Mobilization

Abstract The paper claims that conspiracy theories in Bulgaria are organized as a milieu rather than as a genre, and that, depending on their intensity, conspiracy theories can perform heterogeneous functions, which range from justification of political claims and popular mobilization to entertainment. Building on that conceptual framework, the paper illustrates the most prominent functional types of Bulgarian conspiracy theories. The higher-intensity theories are exemplified by the narratives of corruption and of the afterlife of the former communist secret services. The lower-intensity theories are illustrated by the fortunately short-lived question if the president of the United States has been abducted by aliens. The impact of the Bulgarian conspiratorial milieu on global theories is represented by the example of the Bulgarian modifications of the traveling narrative of the conspiracy of Jewish bankers. The emancipatory potential of the conspiracy theories is demonstrated by the example of the 2011 anti-GMO protests, motivated by narratives of conspiracy between the government and transnational corporations, which derived their energy from the associated milieu of ecological concerns.

Migrants, Caravans, and the Impact of News Photos on Immigration Attitudes

2021 ◽  
pp. 194016122110084
Author(s):  
Guadalupe Madrigal ◽  
Stuart Soroka
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
Group Treatment ◽  
News Coverage ◽  
The United States ◽  
News Story ◽  
Survey Experiment ◽  
Web Based ◽  
The Impact ◽  
Large Groups ◽  
Attitudes Toward Immigration

The migrant caravan is comprised of thousands of people traveling from Central America to the Mexico–U.S. border seeking refuge from their home countries. In news coverage, images of the caravan regularly portray large groups of immigrants walking toward the border. What are the consequences of this depiction on attitudes toward immigration? We suggest that images of groups of immigrants, in contrast with images of individual immigrants, will tend to decrease support for immigration. In 2019, we preregistered and ran a web-based survey experiment in the United States in which respondents read a news story with either an image of immigrants in a crowd setting, an image of an individual immigrant, or a control condition. The group treatment produces no systematic increase in anti-immigrant sentiment relative to the control. However, we do find differences in the group and individual treatments for respondents who are high in threat sensitivity. Findings are discussed as they relate to recent work on the roles of both fear and person positivity in attitudes about immigration, as well as the potential importance of editorial choices in the portrayal of immigration to the United States.

scholarly journals Pakistan’s Politics of Alliances and the Role of Pakistani Military in Politics (1954-1958): Uneven and Combined Development

2017 ◽  
Vol II (I) ◽  
pp. 31-44
Author(s):  
Ali Jibran ◽  
Syed Ali Shah ◽  
Muhammad Bilal
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
Political Parties ◽  
International Relations ◽  
Domestic Politics ◽  
The United States ◽  
National Politics ◽  
Martial Law ◽  
Uneven And Combined Development ◽  
The Impact

The states have to adjust to the pressure exerted by the 'international'; yet impact of the 'international' on national politics has been ignored by mainstream international relations theories. This study uses a framework of "Uneven and Combined Development" to investigate the impact of Pakistan's inclusion in the United States led defense pacts on Pakistan military's role in domestic politics from 1954 to 1958. The central finding of this research is that the United States preferred Pakistan military over political leadership in Pakistan to checkmate communism in Asia as well as to stop communist political parties gaining power in Pakistan. By participating in these international pacts, the role of Pakistan military expanded in politics which culminated in the first martial law (1958).

American Politics in the Era of Zombie Neoliberalism

2020 ◽  
Vol 32 (3) ◽  
pp. 453-463
Author(s):  
Adam Kotsko
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
Financial Crisis ◽  
Political Parties ◽  
Free Choice ◽  
Political Theology ◽  
Global Financial Crisis ◽  
The United States ◽  
Political Order ◽  
Conspiracy Theories ◽  
The Global Financial Crisis

Adam Kotsko analyzes the current political conjuncture in the United States through the lens of political theology, which he understands as fundamentally a study of systems of legitimacy. From this perspective, the neoliberal order is not merely an economic or political order but also a theological one, centered on the axiomatic value of free choice and imbued with a faith in the market’s judgment of our free choices. The system-wide effects of the global financial crisis, which did not correlate with any good or bad choices, shattered the legitimacy of the neoliberal order, but so far both major US political parties have been focused on somehow rehabilitating neoliberalism rather than breaking with it. In the wake of Trump’s inauguration, this attempt to restore neoliberalism has reached farcical levels, as both parties are seduced by conspiracy theories that implicitly concede that the current order is illegitimate, yet fail to promote a real alternative.

The Rules of the Game

2020 ◽  
pp. 177-194
Author(s):  
Jack Reynolds
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
Political Parties ◽  
State Level ◽  
Electoral System ◽  
The United States ◽  
Colonial Period ◽  
The Internet ◽  
Voting Procedures ◽  
The Impact ◽  
Rules Of The Game

This essay reviews the regulations and customs of elections in the United States since the colonial period. It identifies six historical eras with distinct rules governing the conduct of elections. The earliest electoral contests functioned with highly informal voting procedures and electioneering practices that varied widely from place to place. Voting procedures became more standardized during the nineteenth century thanks to political parties. A broad set of mostly state-level initiatives around 1900 robbed the parties of some of their key functions in the electoral system. Incumbents have used the regulation of elections to better entrench themselves in office. The candidate-centered contests of the twentieth century increasingly relied on money and the mass media. Voting and electioneering practices are now adjusting to the impact of the internet and social media.

scholarly journals Factors Affecting School Grounds and Athletic Field Quality after Pesticide Bans: The Case of Connecticut

HortScience ◽  
2015 ◽  
Vol 50 (1) ◽  
pp. 99-103 ◽  
Author(s):  
Candace Bartholomew ◽  
Benjamin L. Campbell ◽  
Victoria Wallace
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
Pest Management ◽  
The United States ◽  
Lower Income ◽  
Factors Affecting ◽  
Lawn Care ◽  
Field Quality ◽  
Athletic Fields ◽  
Athletic Field ◽  
The Impact

Pesticide laws focused on school grounds/athletic fields are beginning to take shape around the United States. A body of literature has examined the health implications of pesticides on school children and faculty and staff. However, little research has examined the impact of changing pesticide regulations on grounds/field quality and expenses. Our research indicate that school grounds/field managers have perceived decreased quality after the Connecticut kindergarten to eighth grade pesticide ban went into effect in 2010. Furthermore, we find that educational sessions or increased expenditures on school grounds/fields can increase the probability of maintaining field quality at integrated pest management levels. However, we see that lower income areas are more likely to experience decreased grounds/field quality after the lawn care pesticide ban took effect.

Religious Elite Cues, Internal Division, and the Impact of Pope Francis' Laudato Si'

2020 ◽  
pp. 1-33
Author(s):  
David T. Buckley
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
Representative Sample ◽  
The United States ◽  
Religious Communities ◽  
Survey Experiment ◽  
Pope Francis ◽  
Environmental Cue ◽  
Nationally Representative ◽  
The Impact ◽  
Internal Division

Abstract What impact do cues from religious elites have on followers, particularly when religious communities are internally divided? Could religious elites promote internal consensus, or would their cues stoke further internal polarization? This article utilizes the release of Pope Francis's encyclical on the environment, Laudato Si', to explore these questions. A unique survey experiment, conducted on a nationally representative sample of Catholic voters in the United States in late 2015, tests the impact of Francis' message relative to a similar message from unidentified environmental elites. In keeping with other studies of Laudato's impact in the United States, findings reveal real, but nuanced, effects from Francis' environmental cue. The Francis cue did impact conservatives and high religiosity Catholics, but these effects were not distinct from those on other Catholics in the sample, suggesting limitations in promoting consensus. Instead, responses to a Francis cue varied sharply depending on pre-existing views of Francis' leadership.

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