Is political engagement by constitutional monarchs compatible with democracy?

2021 ◽  
pp. 205789112199169
Author(s):  
Kana Inata
Keyword(s):  
Political Engagement ◽  
Historical Narratives ◽  
The Political ◽  
Political Involvement ◽  
Political Leaders ◽  
The Public ◽  
Political Preferences ◽  
Public Approval ◽  
Do So

Constitutional monarchies have proved to be resilient, and some have made substantive political interventions even though their positions are mostly hereditary, without granted constitutional channels to do so. This article examines how constitutional monarchs can influence political affairs and what impact royal intervention can have on politics. I argue that constitutional monarchs affect politics indirectly by influencing the preferences of the public who have de jure power to influence political leaders. The analyses herein show that constitutional monarchs do not indiscriminately intervene in politics, but their decisions to intervene reflect the public’s preferences. First, constitutional monarchs with little public approval become self-restraining and do not attempt to assert their political preferences. Second, they are more likely to intervene in politics when the public is less satisfied about the incumbent government. These findings are illustrated with historical narratives regarding the political involvement of King Bhumibol Adulyadej of Thailand in the 2000s.

Gender Stereotypes and Gender Preferences in American Politics

2011 ◽  
Author(s):  
Kira Sanbonmatsu ◽  
Kathleen Dolan
Keyword(s):  
Pilot Study ◽  
Gender Stereotypes ◽  
Gender Issues ◽  
Gender Attitudes ◽  
Political Involvement ◽  
Gender Preferences ◽  
Women Candidates ◽  
The Public ◽  
And Gender ◽  
Do So

This chapter analyzes a series of questions related to citizen's attitudes about gender issues. These items are included in the 2006 Pilot Study. The examination of gender stereotypes suggests that many people see few differences in the traits and abilities of women and men, but that those who do perceive differences tend to do so in predictable ways. These new items also demonstrate that gender stereotypes transcend party, although gender and party interact in meaningful ways in some circumstances. The examination of voters' gender preferences for elected officials reveal the importance (or lack thereof) of descriptive representation to voters and the potential for women candidates to mobilize women in the public to greater political involvement. Finally, the analysis of these new items clearly indicates that while they are related to other gender attitudes, gender stereotypes and gender preferences are distinct attitudes held by voters.

scholarly journals Conjuring the spirit of multilateralism: Histories of crisis management during the ‘great credit crash’

2015 ◽  
Vol 42 (2) ◽  
pp. 227-246 ◽  
Author(s):  
AMIN SAMMAN
Keyword(s):  
Crisis Management ◽  
Financial Crises ◽  
Global Financial Crisis ◽  
Historical Narratives ◽  
The Political ◽  
Financial Instability ◽  
Historical Process ◽  
The Public ◽  
The Great Depression ◽  
Magic Trick

AbstractIn recent years, critical scholars have emphasised how the recollection of past events as traumas can both constrain and widen the political possibilities of a present. This article builds on such research by suggesting that the management of contemporary financial crises is reliant on a ritual work of repetition, wherein prior ‘crisis’ episodes are called upon to identify and authorise specific sites and modes of crisis management. In order to develop this argument, I focus on how past crises figure within the public pronouncements of four key policymaking organisations during the financial instability of 2007–9. I find that while the Great Depression does enable these organisations to reaffirm old ways of managing crises, both it and the more recent Asian crisis are also made to disclose new truths about the evolution of multilateralism as a form of governance. In so doing, I argue, these historical narratives reveal how the management of global financial crisis depends upon a kind of ‘magic trick’. Rather than a strictly rational, historical process of problem solving, contemporary crises are instead negotiated through a contingent and self-referential conjuring of crisis-histories.

Political engagement of Latin Americans in the UK

Focaal ◽  
2008 ◽  
Vol 2008 (51) ◽  
pp. 73-90 ◽  
Author(s):  
Davide Però
Keyword(s):  
Political Engagement ◽  
Public Debate ◽  
Political Agency ◽  
The Political ◽  
Long Distance ◽  
Latin Americans ◽  
The Public ◽  
Alternative Approaches ◽  
The Uk ◽  
Collective Engagement

This article examines the political engagement of Latin Americans in the UK in the context of a mounting neo-assimilationist and anti-multicultural offensive in the public debate on integration. Assuming that migrants should have a say about their own integration in society, the article explores the extent to which the public debate is sensitive to migrants' own collective concerns. It is from this empirically informed perspective that the article criticizes assimilationist and multi-culturalist attitudes for their disregard of the exploitation and lack of social and cultural recognition that afflicts newly arrived migrants. The article helps to rebalance the prevailing trend in policy and academic circles to treat migrants as objects of policies and ignore their political agency and active collective engagement in the improvement of their conditions. It also offers a corrective to emerging alternative approaches that tend to reduce migrants' politics to their role in sustaining long-distance diasporic communities.

scholarly journals The political economy of mass transit infrastructure investments in the greater Toronto area

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Tommy Hon Wa Au
Keyword(s):  
Political Economy ◽  
Customer Service ◽  
Mass Transit ◽  
The Political ◽  
Expert Evidence ◽  
The Public ◽  
Alternative Funding ◽  
Greater Toronto Area ◽  
Political Preferences ◽  
Infrastructure Investments

Politicians in the Greater Toronto region have announced major regional and local transit infrastructure investments in recent years. While benefits of enhanced facilities are recognized, experts interviewed assert that projects were identified and justified more predominantly by political preferences, and rarely on objective, expert evidence; while the public also become frustrated with the inability to provide feedback, as well as to witness the delivery of results. Given limitations in funding and attractiveness of alternative funding tools and structures of governance, experts advocate honest, open examination of all feasible ways to plan, implement and deliver transit. In the end, the resulting structure must be effective, progressive and responsive to changing needs. For Toronto, these include improving customer service, facilities, funding and labour management.

scholarly journals Public housing in post-colonial Indonesia: The revolution of rising expectations

2011 ◽  
Vol 167 (4) ◽  
pp. 437-458 ◽  
Author(s):  
Freek Colombijn
Keyword(s):  
Public Housing ◽  
The Political ◽  
Political Leaders ◽  
High Expectations ◽  
Post Colonial ◽  
The Public ◽  
Planning Decisions ◽  
Limited Success ◽  
Massive Scale ◽  
Political Choices

Public housing can show us important things about Indonesia in the 1950s, because seemingly technical, neutral planning decisions were in reality highly political choices. Public housing was restarted on a massive scale in Indonesia in the early 1950s, but the building volume soon fell off because of financial constraints. This limited success raises the questions of what happened to public housing during the decolonization, which groups were reached, what the size of the public housing sector was, and why public housing soon failed to live up to the high expectations of the political leaders, and perhaps the general public too, after Independence.

The Varieties of African Leadership

2020 ◽  
pp. 32-60
Author(s):  
Robert I. Rotberg
Keyword(s):  
Public Interest ◽  
Strong Support ◽  
The Political ◽  
Political Leaders ◽  
Founding Fathers ◽  
The Public ◽  
Liberal Democratic ◽  
Nelson Mandela ◽  
Heads Of State ◽  
Heads Of Government

The political leaders of Africa come in all sizes, shapes, and persuasions. There are liberal democratic heads of state and heads of government, presidents and prime ministers; elected democratic leaders who become wily autocrats; strong authoritarians who brook no opposition and respect few freedoms; military men ruling because their followers are well-armed; kleptocrats who govern so that they can steal from the state and its citizens; a few who profess strong support for the public interest; and many who serve clan, family, and narrow conceptions of national “interest.” There are few women. Ideology plays little part in the very different styles and mechanisms of governance that these political leaders display. But nearly all of them are transactional; hardly anyone today is transformational in the manner of several of Africa’s founding fathers, such as Nelson Mandela.

Kings, jesters, or kingmakers? European populist parties as a microcosm for celebrity politics

2019 ◽  
Vol 21 (3) ◽  
pp. 576-593 ◽  
Author(s):  
Matteo Giglioli ◽  
Gianfranco Baldini
Keyword(s):  
The Political ◽  
Political Involvement ◽  
Political Responsibility ◽  
Systematic Comparison ◽  
The Public ◽  
Public Persona ◽  
Five Star Movement ◽  
Celebrity Politics ◽  
Communicative Strategy ◽  
Ideological Difference

The article explores a key aspect in the development of contemporary European populist parties: the celebrity dynamics of their leadership. It presents a systematic comparison of leaders from the main populist parties, exploring the correlation between leadership visibility, fame, and the ideological and organisational characteristics of parties. Furthermore, it investigates the subset of leaders whose public notoriety predates their political involvement, with a view to establishing how they balance the demands of political responsibility and authenticity of character, both in terms of organisational control and communicative strategy. Analytically, the study helps illuminate the mechanisms through which populist parties adapt to participation in the political game while continuing to mark their ideological difference. Empirically, the findings highlight the uniqueness of an outlier case, Beppe Grillo’s leadership of Italy’s Five-Star Movement, in which celebrity is leveraged into a kingmaker role, while still retaining the public persona of an outside observer.

scholarly journals Efek Media dan Pengadilan Opini

2013 ◽  
Vol 5 (1) ◽  
pp. 31
Author(s):  
Ruth Malau
Keyword(s):  
Public Spaces ◽  
Freedom Of The Press ◽  
Political Agenda ◽  
The Political ◽  
Embedded Control ◽  
The Public ◽  
The Press ◽  
The Media ◽  
Revolutionary Period ◽  
Do So

<p><em>Countries that embrace the ideology of freedom of the press, the court is of opinion that is commonly encountered in public spaces. Media, in this case could be interpreted as a medium in favor of the public interest which requires the presence of a new color in Libyan politics for 42 years filled with pressure and persecution.</em></p><p><em>Revolutionary period which lasted for most of the year 2011, which then shows how the media have spread the legality of its influence over public opinion. The mass media in Indonesia does have the power to set the political agenda, because democracy gives him legal to do so.</em></p><p><em>However, court opinions that appeared in the Libyan revolution is not because the country embraced the ideology of freedom of the press, but because of the pull-menaraik between freedom of the press with dimensions embedded control during the reign of Gaddafi.</em></p>

scholarly journals METAPHOR POWER AND SOURCE DOMAIN CONTENT: METAPHOR FUNCTIONAL TYPOLOGY INDEX

2021 ◽  
pp. 90-102
Author(s):  
OLEG I. KALININ ◽  
Keyword(s):  
Great Britain ◽  
Descriptive Analysis ◽  
The Political ◽  
Target Domain ◽  
Political Leaders ◽  
Source Domain ◽  
The Public ◽  
Research Problems ◽  
The Russian Federation ◽  
Metaphorical Mapping

This article examines the dependence of the metaphor power in communication and patterns of the metaphorical mapping as well as methods for quantitative analysis of metaphors in the text. Metaphor functional typology index (MfTI) is proposed and tested. This index is based on the division of metaphors into orientational, ontological and structural, which perform descriptive, identification and restructuring functions. The mathematical logic of calculating the index assumes that, based on the final numerical value, one can draw a conclusion about the predominant function played by the system of metaphorical models in the text or discourse, and, as a result, analyze the level of its speech impact. This method was tested in practice to solve two research problems: a descriptive analysis of the whole text’s metaphor power and a comparative analysis of metaphorical models with different source domains and one target domain. We analyzed the metaphorical nature of the texts of the New Year addresses of the political leaders of the Russian Federation, China and Great Britain, the public speeches of V...

scholarly journals Commentary: Small Pacific states and media freedom: A Kiribati case study

2007 ◽  
Vol 13 (1) ◽  
pp. 29-38
Author(s):  
Taberannang Korauaba
Keyword(s):  
Radio Station ◽  
The Political ◽  
Right To Know ◽  
Fundamental Issue ◽  
Political Leaders ◽  
Media Freedom ◽  
The Public ◽  
Digital Era ◽  
Firsthand Experience

For more than 50 years, the governments of Kiribati have manipulated the affairs of the Broadcasting and Publications Authority (BPA). The authority runs a radio station and newspaper reaching the majority of the population of Kiribati. The interference is simply a warning to those  working for the authority that they do not have freedom to inform the public. In practice, the political opposition would oppose this interference, describing it as draconian and demanding more media freedom. But when the  opposition came to power, it would also restrict the work of  journalists. Thus reporters have often been caught in the crossfire between the politicians and are fearful of their future. Some journalists have been accused of being anti-government or sanctioning stories that embarrass the political leaders. This commentary explains—from the firsthand experience of this journalist—why in the digital era small Pacific nations such as Kiribati face a more fundamental issue: protecting the public’s right to know.

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