scholarly journals Autocratic ruling parties during regime transitions: Investigating the democratizing effect of strong ruling parties

2021 ◽  
pp. 135406882098528
Author(s):  
Berker Kavasoglu
Keyword(s):  
Original Data ◽  
Democratic Transitions ◽  
Party Organizations ◽  
Regime Stability ◽  
Organizational Features ◽  
Party Strength ◽  
The Impact ◽  
Regime Transitions ◽  
Ruling Party

This study examines the role of autocratic ruling party strength in democratic transitions. While the impact of ruling party strength on regime stability is extensively studied, we know much less about how ruling party strength influences prospects for democratization during regime transitions. Proceeding from recent studies that suggest autocratic incumbents often choose to democratize from a position of strength rather than weakness, I discuss how specific attributes strong ruling party organizations wield can provide autocratic incumbents with incentives and capabilities to lead democratization in the context of regime change. Using original data on organizational characteristics of 161 autocratic ruling parties between 1970 and 2015, I provide the first set of systematic empirical evidence supporting the argument that ruling party organizational features that promote regime durability can simultaneously facilitate the implementation of substantial democratizing reforms by regime elites in a top-down fashion to preempt political opposition.

All Power to the Party! The Sources of Ruling Party Strength in Authoritarian Regimes

2020 ◽  
pp. 1-23
Author(s):  
Qingjie Zeng
Keyword(s):  
Political Parties ◽  
External Environment ◽  
Authoritarian Regimes ◽  
Authoritarian Rule ◽  
Political Actors ◽  
Party Building ◽  
The Subject ◽  
Party Strength ◽  
Ruling Party

Abstract The role of political parties in facilitating authoritarian rule has been the subject of extensive research, but parties vary widely in their institutional strength to perform regime-bolstering functions. This article synthesizes existing literature to develop a general theory that explains the sources of ruling party strength in autocracies. We argue that party strength stems from a strategic calculation by political actors who weigh the benefits of building a strong party against its costs. The relative benefits of strong parties depend on the stage of the authoritarian life cycle and factors specific to the strategic environment. The observable implications of the theory are tested using a dataset that includes all autocratic ruling parties that were in power between 1940 and 2015. Consistent with our argument, parties that originated from revolutions tend to be the strongest, whereas those created to support an incumbent dictator tend to be the weakest. A country's resource endowments and external environment also shape the dynamics for party building.

scholarly journals The Role of Parties in Legislative Campaign Financing

1994 ◽  
Vol 15 ◽  
pp. 171-189 ◽  
Author(s):  
Anthony Gierzynski ◽  
David A. Breaux
Keyword(s):  
Campaign Finance ◽  
Legislative Elections ◽  
Party Organizations ◽  
Party Funding ◽  
State Legislative Elections ◽  
The Impact ◽  
State Legislative ◽  
Campaign Financing

The purpose of the analysis presented in this paper is to examine the role that party organizations play in campaign finance systems of state legislative elections. Party organizations are found to be more likely to fund candidates in competitive elections and more likely to fund challengers than are nonparty organizations. The impact of an increased role for party organizations in campaign finance systems is illustrated by simulating the distribution of campaign money and the results of state legislative elections under different scenarios of party funding.

Gender Differences in Negative Campaigning: The Impact of Party Environments

2016 ◽  
Vol 13 (01) ◽  
pp. 81-106 ◽  
Author(s):  
Laurenz Ennser-Jedenastik ◽  
Martin Dolezal ◽  
Wolfgang C. Müller
Keyword(s):  
Gender Differences ◽  
Analytical Framework ◽  
The United States ◽  
Attack Behavior ◽  
Political Systems ◽  
Negative Campaigning ◽  
Party Organizations ◽  
The Usa ◽  
The Impact

How does gender affect the attack strategies of political actors? Do men and women diverge in their propensity to go negative and in their choice of targets? Extant research has long sought to shed light on these questions (e.g., Brooks 2010; Kahn 1993; Krupnikov and Bauer 2014; Proctor, Schenck-Hamlin, and Haase 1994; Walter 2013). Among all the possible determinants of attack behavior in elections, candidate gender has been one of the most “heavily studied” (Grossmann 2012, 2). However, the relevant research focuses almost exclusively on the United States and therefore on a system with candidate-centered campaigns, weak party organizations, and winner-takes-all competitions. Notwithstanding the importance of the USA as a case and exporter of campaign techniques, such context is specific and likely to bias the results. The few pioneering studies that examine the role of gender in negative campaigning outside the U.S. (Carlson 2001, 2007; Walter 2013) have addressed this question mostly by transferring the analytical framework of U.S.-based research to other political systems. Consequently, they have barely begun to incorporate the distinctive features of multiparty systems and strong party organizations as determinants of gender differences in attack behavior. The present article provides a novel argument about the role of party environments as a crucial context factor in party-centered political systems. Specifically we argue that in party-centered campaigns the gender balance within parties influences differences in the attack behavior of male and female politicians.

Changing horses in midstream: Leadership changes and the civil war peace process

2017 ◽  
Vol 37 (1) ◽  
pp. 83-105 ◽  
Author(s):  
Kirssa Cline Ryckman ◽  
Jessica Maves Braithwaite
Keyword(s):  
Civil War ◽  
Peace Process ◽  
Original Data ◽  
Interstate Relations ◽  
Negotiated Settlements ◽  
Leadership Turnover ◽  
Leadership Changes ◽  
The Impact ◽  
Commitment Problems

We examine the impact of governmental leadership changes on the civil war peace process. In line with the literature on leadership changes and interstate war, we argue that transitions can help overcome lags in the rational updating process, leading to negotiations and termination through negotiated settlements. However, while studies of interstate relations emphasize the role of “outsider” changes that produce new winning coalitions, we argue that owing to the critical nature of credible commitment problems within the civil war peace process, only “insider” changes can generate the benefits of leadership change while mitigating uncertainty generated by leadership turnover. Using existing and original data on changes in governmental leadership, we find support for our expectations. Leadership changes can produce conditions favorable to negotiations and settlements, but only changes from inside the existing regime should be encouraged to avoid prolonging the conflict.

The role of international organizations in regime transitions: How IGOs can tie a dictator’s hands

2015 ◽  
Vol 34 (4) ◽  
pp. 406-430 ◽  
Author(s):  
Håvard Mokleiv Nygård
Keyword(s):  
International Organizations ◽  
Potential Role ◽  
Transition To Democracy ◽  
Democratic Transitions ◽  
Governmental Organizations ◽  
Democratic Regimes ◽  
Democratic Rule ◽  
Commitment Problems ◽  
Regime Transitions

The level of violence seen during transitions from authoritarian to democratic rule varies substantially. Recently, Tunisia experienced an almost bloodless transition, while in Libya the attempt to oust the Gadhafi regime ended in a civil war. This paper looks at the dynamics of democratic transitions, and attempts to explain why some become extremely violent while others progress peacefully. Specifically, the paper looks at the potential role of international governmental organizations (IGOs) for constraining or altering the behavior of non-democratic regimes, thereby influencing regime transitions. It argues that, by alleviating commitment problems between the outgoing regime and the new elites, and by imposing sanctions that reduce an incumbent regime’s ability to reap the benefits of office, IGOs increase the likelihood of seeing a peaceful transition to democracy. However, the paper also argues that non-democratic leaders should anticipate this, and therefore that regimes that are members of highly interventionist IGOs should be less likely to liberalize at all. The paper finds evidence in favor of the proposition that IGOs increase the likelihood of a peaceful regime transition, and that non-democratic regimes that are members of highly interventionist IGOs anticipate being constrained by these organizations, and therefore are more reluctant to liberalize in the first place.

Parties, Partisanship, and Public Policy in the Pennsylvania Legislature

1954 ◽  
Vol 48 (2) ◽  
pp. 450-464 ◽  
Author(s):  
William J. Keefe
Keyword(s):  
Voting Behavior ◽  
Party System ◽  
Party Systems ◽  
Legislative Process ◽  
Party Organizations ◽  
State History ◽  
Fruitful Research ◽  
American Party ◽  
The Impact

A significant result of the report “Toward A More Responsible Two-Party System” has been the marked growth of interest in the American party system. It is nevertheless true that our knowledge about the way in which party systems function is far from complete. An area promising fruitful research and presenting many hypotheses susceptible of systematic inquiry is that of the role of party organizations in the legislative process.It is the purpose of this article to examine the legislative role of political parties in the Pennsylvania General Assembly; more precisely, to measure their influence in the formation of the state's public policies in one session of the legislature. The most recent completed session at the time of this study was that of 1951—the longest session in state history.In order to evaluate the impact of party upon legislation, the concept of a “party vote” has been used. This is merely an operating definition by which to measure differences in party attitudes on questions subjected to roll-call votes on the floor. The assumption was made that the interests of the parties can be established best by analyzing the voting behavior of their membership. Questions to which partisan significance is attached will find the parties aligned against each other.

scholarly journals (When) Do Anti-Poverty Programs Reduce Violence? India's Rural Employment Guarantee and Maoist Conflict

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Aditya Dasgupta ◽  
Kishore Gawande ◽  
Devesh Kapur
Keyword(s):  
State Capacity ◽  
Civil Conflict ◽  
Original Data ◽  
Development Programs ◽  
Data Set ◽  
Rural Employment ◽  
Long Run ◽  
Employment Guarantee ◽  
The Impact

Theory and extensive evidence connect poverty and underdevelopment to civil conflict, yet evidence on the impact of development programs on violence is surprisingly mixed. To break this impasse, we exploit a within-country policy experiment to examine the conditions under which anti-poverty programs reduce violence. The roll-out of India's National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme caused a large long-run reduction in Maoist conflict violence, as measured with an original data set based on local language press sources. These pacifying effects were not uniform, however, but overwhelmingly concentrated in districts with sufficient pre-existing local state capacity to implement the program effectively. The results demonstrate the potential for anti-poverty programs to mitigate violent civil conflict by improving livelihoods, but also highlight the crucial role of state capacity in shaping these effects.

scholarly journals Time after time: party organizational strength in new and old democracies

2019 ◽  
Vol 25 (1) ◽  
pp. 199-233 ◽  
Author(s):  
Pedro Floriano Ribeiro ◽  
Luis Locatelli
Keyword(s):  
Latin American ◽  
Original Data ◽  
Eastern European ◽  
Mass Mobilization ◽  
Party Organizations ◽  
Eastern European Countries ◽  
Established Democracies ◽  
The Impact ◽  
Level Variable ◽  
Latin American Countries

The ‘time factor’ has not been systematically considered in cross-national studies on party organizations. Relying on the largest dataset to date on party organizations, namely the Political Party Database Project (PPDB), the article tests the impact of time as a two-level variable (duration of democracy and age of parties) on parties’ organizational strength in new and established democracies. We add original data from three Latin American countries to the nineteen countries covered by the first PPDB database (132 parties overall). The results suggest that parties in established democracies have less members and more money than those of newer democracies. Among the latter, the greater capacity for mass mobilization produces stronger parties—as in Latin America—compared to the Eastern European countries. The findings challenge the traditional view of the exceptional weakness of Latin American parties and point to the importance of time as a multilevel variable: besides the national context, the “ancestral” party origin in previous regimes have a large impact on organizational strength.

Intergroup Threat and Outgroup Attitudes

2013 ◽  
Vol 44 (5) ◽  
pp. 311-319 ◽  
Author(s):  
Marco Brambilla ◽  
David A. Butz
Keyword(s):  
Gay Men ◽  
Social Group ◽  
Welfare Recipients ◽  
Intergroup Attitudes ◽  
Social Policies ◽  
Intergroup Threat ◽  
Economic Threat ◽  
The Impact ◽  
General Climate

Two studies examined the impact of macrolevel symbolic threat on intergroup attitudes. In Study 1 (N = 71), participants exposed to a macrosymbolic threat (vs. nonsymbolic threat and neutral topic) reported less support toward social policies concerning gay men, an outgroup whose stereotypes implies a threat to values, but not toward welfare recipients, a social group whose stereotypes do not imply a threat to values. Study 2 (N = 78) showed that, whereas macrolevel symbolic threat led to less favorable attitudes toward gay men, macroeconomic threat led to less favorable attitudes toward Asians, an outgroup whose stereotypes imply an economic threat. These findings are discussed in terms of their implications for understanding the role of a general climate of threat in shaping intergroup attitudes.

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