Of activists and gatekeepers: Temporal and structural properties of policy networks on Twitter

2017 ◽  
Vol 20 (5) ◽  
pp. 1910-1930 ◽  
Author(s):  
Sebastian Stier ◽  
Wolf J Schünemann ◽  
Stefan Steiger
Keyword(s):  
Policy Networks ◽  
Net Neutrality ◽  
Advocacy Groups ◽  
Political Decision ◽  
Traditional Media ◽  
Political Actors ◽  
Policy Debates ◽  
Connective Action ◽  
Political Decision Making ◽  
Academic Debate

There is an ongoing academic debate whether social media empowers activists and advocacy groups in relation to established political actors and media gatekeepers. This article investigates these premises by analysing the influence of various actors in two policy debates on Twitter, environmental policy (climate change) and Internet governance (net neutrality). We extract tweets on both topics and code the respective 500 most central accounts according to a categorisation of relevant political actor groups. Applying methods from social network analysis, we reveal temporally fluctuating actor constellations and network structures which converge to elite actors during high attention periods. Furthermore, a comparative keyword analysis shows that non-governmental organisations and citizen media emphasise personalised connective action frames, whereas political actors and traditional media tend to refer to the political decision-making process and its institutions. Both findings are in line with cyclical conceptions of policy processes.

Political Agenda Setting

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Marcus Maurer
Keyword(s):  
Decision Making ◽  
News Media ◽  
Agenda Setting ◽  
Media Coverage ◽  
Political Agenda ◽  
The Political ◽  
Political Decision ◽  
Political Actors ◽  
Media Agenda ◽  
Political Decision Making

Political agenda setting is the part of agenda-setting research that refers to the influence of the media agenda on the agenda of political actors. More precisely, the central question of political agenda-setting research is whether political actors adopt the issue agenda of the news media in various aspects ranging from communicating about issues that are prominently discussed in the news media to prioritizing issues from the news media agenda in political decision making. Although such effects have been studied under different labels (agenda building, policy agenda setting) for several decades, research in this field has recently increased significantly based on a new theoretical model introducing the term political agenda setting. Studies based on that model usually find effects of media coverage on the attention political actors pay to various issues, but at the same time point to a number of contingent conditions. First, as found in research on public agenda setting, there is an influence of characteristics of news media (e.g., television news vs. print media) and issues (e.g., obtrusive vs. unobtrusive issues). Second, there is an influence of characteristics of the political context (e.g., government vs. oppositional parties) and characteristics of individual politicians (e.g., generalists vs. specialists). Third, the findings of studies on the political agenda-setting effect differ, depending on which aspects of the political agenda are under examination (e.g., social media messages vs. political decision making).

Agent-Based Modeling in Political Decision Making

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Lin Qiu ◽  
Riyang Phang
Keyword(s):  
Decision Making ◽  
Boundary Conditions ◽  
Adaptive Systems ◽  
Agent Based Modeling ◽  
Political Systems ◽  
Political Decision ◽  
Theoretical Frameworks ◽  
Agent Based ◽  
Political Actors ◽  
Political Decision Making

Political systems involve citizens, voters, politicians, parties, legislatures, and governments. These political actors interact with each other and dynamically alter their strategies according to the results of their interactions. A major challenge in political science is to understand the dynamic interactions between political actors and extrapolate from the process of individual political decision making to collective outcomes. Agent-based modeling (ABM) offers a means to comprehend and theorize the nonlinear, recursive, and interactive political process. It views political systems as complex, self-organizing, self-reproducing, and adaptive systems consisting of large numbers of heterogeneous agents that follow a set of rules governing their interactions. It allows the specification of agent properties and rules governing agent interactions in a simulation to observe how micro-level processes generate macro-level phenomena. It forces researchers to make assumptions surrounding a theory explicit, facilitates the discovery of extensions and boundary conditions of the modeled theory through what-if computational experiments, and helps researchers understand dynamic processes in the real-world. ABM models have been built to address critical questions in political decision making, including why voter turnouts remain high, how party coalitions form, how voters’ knowledge and emotion affect election outcomes, and how political attitudes change through a campaign. These models illustrate the use of ABM in explicating assumptions and rules of theoretical frameworks, simulating repeated execution of these rules, and revealing emergent patterns and their boundary conditions. While ABM has limitations in external validity and robustness, it provides political scientists a bottom-up approach to study a complex system by clearly defining the behavior of various actors and generate theoretical insights on political phenomena.

The voting rights and political culture in North Macedonia and Albania

2020 ◽  
pp. 97-104
Author(s):  
Muaz Agushi
Keyword(s):  
Decision Making ◽  
Political Culture ◽  
Voter Turnout ◽  
Moral Judgments ◽  
The Political ◽  
Political Decision ◽  
Competitive System ◽  
Political Actors ◽  
Attitudes And Practices ◽  
Political Decision Making

Political culture is a set of attitudes and practices of people that shape their political behaviour. It includes moral judgments, political myths, beliefs, and ideas about what makes a good society while language of politics is the way of using language and words in the political arena. Words are the “currency” of power in elections. Voter turnout is an indicator of the level of interest and civic participation in political decision making, competitive party offerings, and civic trust in political actors. Extensive participation, when it comes to a competitive system, significantly increases the responsibility of political actors for civic demands and concerns. The aim of the article is to analyze the political culture and electoral behaviour in North Macedonia and Albania. The author makes conclusion based on the analysis presented in the article, that the process of applying democracy in these countries would face extraordinary challenges, caused by the lack of democratic traditions, as well as by established values and attitudes unfavorable for the democracy development. Important aspects of the political culture includes mutual respect, contra voting, the constant and productive political dialogue, political and parliamentary collaboration, stable institutions instead of strong leaders, high level of participation in elections, and expanding the political decision-making area. All of these aspects are considered to be a fragile occurrence in all countries of Southeastern Europe and especially in Albania and North Macedonia.

scholarly journals Political Decision Making in the COVID-19 Pandemic: The Case of Germany from the Perspective of Risk Management

2021 ◽  
Vol 19 (1) ◽  
pp. 397
Author(s):  
Frank Daumann ◽  
Florian Follert ◽  
Werner Gleißner ◽  
Endre Kamarás ◽  
Chantal Naumann
Keyword(s):  
Decision Making ◽  
Risk Management ◽  
Civil Rights ◽  
Management Decision ◽  
Political Decision ◽  
Health Crisis ◽  
Political Actors ◽  
Simulation Techniques ◽  
Political Decision Making

The COVID-19 pandemic is permanently changing modern social and economic coexistence. Most governments have declared infection control to be their top priority while citizens face great restrictions on their civil rights. A pandemic is an exemplary scenario in which political actors must decide about future, and thus uncertain, events. This paper tries to present a tool well established in the field of entrepreneurial and management decision making which could also be a first benchmark for political decisions. Our approach builds on the standard epidemiological SEIR model in combination with simulation techniques used in risk management. By our case study we want to demonstrate the opportunities that risk management techniques, especially risk analyses using Monte Carlo simulation, can provide to policy makers in general, and in a public health crisis in particular. Hence, our case study can be used as a framework for political decision making under incomplete information and uncertainty. Overall, we want to point out that a health policy that aims to provide comprehensive protection against infection should also be based on economic criteria. This is without prejudice to the integration of ethical considerations in the final political decision.

Wegvoeringen en weggevoerden tijdens de meidagen van 1940

2014 ◽  
Vol 73 (3) ◽  
pp. 250-259
Author(s):  
Etienne Verhoeyen
Keyword(s):  
Decision Making ◽  
Large Majority ◽  
The Political ◽  
Extreme Right ◽  
Political Decision ◽  
Belgian Society ◽  
Complete Study ◽  
History Of ◽  
Risky Business ◽  
Political Decision Making

Met dit boek levert Frank Seberechts een nagenoeg volledige studie af van een van de minder fraai kanten van de Belgische samenleving in 1940: de administratieve arrestatie en de wegvoering naar Frankrijk van enkele duizenden personen (de ‘verdachten’), Belgen of in België verblijvende vreemdelingen. De extreem-rechtse en pro-Duitse arrestanten hebben na hun vrijlating dit feit politiek in hun voordeel uitgebaat, waardoor volledig in de schaduw kwam te staan dat de overgrote meerderheid van de weggevoerden joodse mensen waren die in de jaren voor de oorlog naar België waren gevlucht. Dat het beeld van de wegvoeringen niet volledig is, is grotendeels te wijten aan het feit dat de meeste archieven die hierop betrekking hebben tijdens de meidagen van 1940 vernietigd werden. Met name de politieke besluitvorming over de wegvoeringen vertoont nog steeds schemerzones, zodat het vastleggen van verantwoordelijkheden ook vandaag nog een gewaagde onderneming is.________Deportations and the deported during the Maydays in 1940 By means of this book Frank Seberechts provides an almost complete study of one of the less admirable sides of Belgian society in 1940: the administrative arrest and the deportation to France of some thousands of people (‘the suspects’), Belgians or foreigners residing in Belgium. The extreme-right and pro-German detainees politically exploited this fact after they had been freed, but this completely overshadowed the point that the large majority of the deported people were Jews who had fled to Belgium during the years preceding the war. This incomplete portrayal of the deportations is mainly due to the fact that most of the archives relating to the events had been destroyed during the Maydays of 1940. The history of the political decision-making about the deportations in particular still shows many grey areas and it is therefore still a risky business even today to determine which people should be held accountable.

A GOVERNANÇA TERRITORIAL REVISITADA: DISPOSITIVOS INSTITUCIONAIS, NOÇÕES INTERMEDIÁRIAS E NÍVEIS DE REGULAÇÃO

GEOgraphia ◽  
2018 ◽  
Vol 19 (41) ◽  
pp. 24
Author(s):  
Elson Luciano Silva Pires ◽  
Lucas Labigalini Fuini ◽  
Wilson Bento Figueiredo Filho ◽  
Eugênio Lima Mendes
Keyword(s):  
Political Development ◽  
Necessary Condition ◽  
International Literature ◽  
Mots Clés ◽  
Political Actors ◽  
Explanatory Factors ◽  
Développement Économique ◽  
Political Actions ◽  
Governance Modes ◽  
Academic Debate

A palavra governança não é nova. Ela perpassa por diversos períodos da história e assume significados específicos em determinadas épocas e países. Atualmente, o conceito de governança designa todos os procedimentos institucionais das relações de poder e das formas de gestão públicas ou privadas, tanto formais como informais, que regem a ação política dos atores. O objetivo deste artigo é problematizar os fatores explicativos das teorias institucionalistas que tratam a governança territorial como uma condição necessária para estabelecer compromissos entre os atores, com vistas ao desenvolvimento econômico, social e político das metrópoles, das cidades e seus territórios locais e regionais. Enfrentar as lacunas do debate acadêmico e coadunar os conceitos da literatura internacional referente à governança territorial, em especial a de matriz francesa, com a nacional, são um dos principais contributos deste artigo. REVISITING TERRITORIAL GOVERNANCE: INSTITUTIONAL DEVICES, INTERMEDIATE NOTIONS AND REGULATORY LEVELS Abstract The word governance is not new. It goes through different periods of history and takes specific meanings in certain times and countries. Currently, the concept of governance can be defined as institutional procedures of power relations and of public or private forms of management, which can be formal as well as informal, that govern political actions of political actors. The purpose of this article is to analyze the explanatory factors of institutionalist theories that approach territorial governance as a necessary condition to establish compromises among actors, seeking an economic, social, and political development of metropolis, cities, and their regional and local territories. One of the main contribution of this paper is to address the gaps in academic debate, and to relate national Brazilian concepts to international literature concerning territorial governance, in particular the French theoretical framework. Keywords: Institutional forms; territorial governance; modes of regulation. LA GOUVERNANCE TERRITORIALE REVISEE: DISPOSITIFS INSTITUTIONNELS, NOTIONS INTERMÉDIAIRES ET NIVEAUX DE RÉGULATION Resumé Le mot gouvernance n'est pas nouveau. Il traverse diverses périodes de l'histoire et prend des significations spécifiques à certains moments et pays. Actuellement, le concept de gouvernance désigne toutes les procédures institutionnelles de relations de pouvoir et de formes de gestion publiques ou privées, formelles ou informelles, qui régissent l'action politique des acteurs. L'objectif de cet article est de problématiser les facteurs explicatifs des théories institutionnalistes qui traitent la gouvernance territoriale comme une condition nécessaire pour établir des compromis entre les acteurs, en vue du développement économique, social et politique de la métropole, des villes et de leurs territoires locaux et régionaux. Faire face aux lacunes du débat académique en accord avec les concepts de la littérature internationale sur la gouvernance territoriale, notamment la matrice française, avec la matrice nationale, sont l'une des contributions majeures de cet article. Mots-clés: Formes institutionnelles; gouvernance territoriale; modes de régulations

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