scholarly journals To vote or not to vote? The political orientations of Millennials in a comparative perspective

2020 ◽  
Vol 42 (3) ◽  
pp. 229-244
Author(s):  
Małgorzata Zachara
Keyword(s):  
Political Change ◽  
Distinct Group ◽  
The United States ◽  
The Political ◽  
The Public ◽  
Political Orientations ◽  
Generational Shift ◽  
Political Landscapes ◽  
Social Scientific ◽  
Comparative Examination

AbstractThis article concentrates on the transformative potential of the Millennial generation within the framework of the political landscapes of the United States, several European countries and Russia. Generational experiences frame the context for the comparative examination of the democratic order and the perspectives for democratic transition. In Western countries, the group is a potentially powerful political force, yet its members do not pursue traditional forms of civic engagement – they are sceptical about institutional forms of participation and have little trust in public authority. Embedded in a youth-marginalization discourse, the public identities of the Millennials are seen rather as a manifestation of the failures of democratic representation, rather than as forms of agency seeking new ways of political expression. The orientations of this distinct group also present a puzzle when the future of authoritarian regimes is discussed: Millennials’ openness to political change is often questioned, despite the prominent role they play in the rise of the opposition forces that gained influence during Vladimir Putin’s third term. Nevertheless, in both contexts, the ongoing generational shift has become an increasingly important area for social-scientific investigation and it is being directly related to broader arguments about the nature of political change.

War without Citizens

2018 ◽  
Vol 5 (1) ◽  
pp. 18-38
Author(s):  
Stephen J. Rosow
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
Consumer Culture ◽  
The United States ◽  
The State ◽  
Political Community ◽  
Democratic Citizenship ◽  
The Political ◽  
The Public ◽  
Liberal Democratic ◽  
Advanced Technologies

Contestation over war memorialization can help democratic theory respond to the current attenuation of citizenship in war in liberal democratic states, especially the United States. As war involves more advanced technologies and fewer soldiers, the relation of citizenship to war changes. In this context war memorialization plays a particular role in refiguring the relation. Current practices of remembering and memorializing war in contemporary neoliberal states respond to a dilemma: the state needs to justify and garner support for continual wars while distancing citizenship from participation. The result is a consumer culture of memorialization that seeks to effect a unity of the political community while it fights wars with few citizens and devalues the public. Neoliberal wars fought with few soldiers and an economic logic reveals the vulnerability to otherness that leads to more active and critical democratic citizenship.

scholarly journals What the Australian Public Knows About the High Court

2019 ◽  
Vol 47 (1) ◽  
pp. 31-63
Author(s):  
Ingrid Nielsen ◽  
Russell Smyth
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
Representative Sample ◽  
Adult Population ◽  
Public Support ◽  
The United States ◽  
The Political ◽  
High Court ◽  
The Public ◽  
Political Role ◽  
High Court Of Australia

Existing studies for the United States examine the extent to which the public is knowledgeable about US courts, arguing that knowledge of the courts is linked to public support for their role. We know little, though, about the Australian public’s awareness of the High Court of Australia. We report the results of a survey of a representative sample of the Australian adult population, administered in November 2017. We find that few Australians know the names of the Justices, the number of Justices on the Court, how the Justices are appointed or for how long they serve. Awareness of recent cases decided by the Court is mixed. We find that age and education are better predictors of awareness levels than is gender. Our findings are important because in the absence of awareness of the High Court, the potential exists for the public to see the Court as having a more overt political role than it has, which may lower esteem for the Court. The potential for this to occur is exacerbated if, and when, politicians attempt to drag the High Court into the political fray, by attributing political motives to it that it does not have.

Color Bind: Lessons from the Failed Homeland Security Advisory System

2007 ◽  
Vol 32 (2) ◽  
pp. 121-154 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jacob N. Shapiro ◽  
Dara Kay Cohen
Keyword(s):  
Homeland Security ◽  
The United States ◽  
The Political ◽  
Alert System ◽  
Protective Measures ◽  
The Public ◽  
Advisory System ◽  
Legal Traditions ◽  
Protective Actions ◽  
National Leaders

An effective terrorism alert system in a federal government has one central task: to motivate actors to take costly protective measures. The United States' color-coded Homeland Security Advisory System (HSAS) failed in this mission. In federal systems, national leaders cannot compel protective actions by setting an alert level; they must convince constituent governments and private parties that the desired actions are worth the costs. Such beliefs can be generated either by sharing the information behind an alert or by developing enough confidence in the alert system that the government's word alone suffices. The HSAS did neither, largely because it was not designed to generate confidence. Rather, the system's creators assumed that the public would trust the national leadership and believe in the utility of the system's information. Over time, as the HSAS became increasingly perceived as politically manipulated, there was no built-in mechanism to recover confidence in the system. An alternative, trust-based terrorist alert system could solve this problem. Building on the notion of “procedural fairness” from the psychological and legal traditions, this system would retain the political advantages of the HSAS, facilitate greater compliance among the requisite actors, and ameliorate many of the strategic problems inherent in terror alert systems.

scholarly journals Is It Time For a Coherent Political Question Doctrine in South Africa? Lessons from the United States

2014 ◽  
Vol 7 (4) ◽  
pp. 457-493 ◽  
Author(s):  
Mtendeweka Mhango
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
South Africa ◽  
South African ◽  
The United States ◽  
Current Status ◽  
The Political ◽  
Early Application ◽  
Comparative Examination ◽  
Political Question ◽  
Insight Into

This article describes the development and current status of the political question doctrine theme in South African jurisprudence. It does this through a comparative discussion of the application of this doctrine in the United States. The purpose of this comparative examination is twofold: the first is to gain insight into the origins, trends and early application of the political question doctrine. The second is to gain insight into the challenges and best practices in relation to the application of the political question doctrine elsewhere. The paper argues that while the political question doctrine theme exists in South African jurisprudence, this has not matured into a clear and transparent doctrine. It calls for the development of a clear doctrine for South Africa and offers some recommendations.

scholarly journals Poverty

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Alice O'Connor
Keyword(s):  
The United States ◽  
Public Intervention ◽  
The Public ◽  
Scientific Experts ◽  
The Social ◽  
Social Scientific ◽  
The 1960S ◽  
The Individual ◽  
Cycle Of Poverty

This paper discusses the role of social scientific expertise in the emergence of poverty as a problem and a priority for public intervention in the United States during the 1960s. That the social scientific experts defined “the poverty problem” narrowly, as a problem of individuals lacking income or otherwise caught in a “cycle of poverty,” can be understood in terms of a series of historical transformations that played out in overlapping processes of disembedding: of social science from social reform; of economic from social and political knowledge; and of poverty from the study of structured patterns and experiences of stratification and inequality. The structurally disembedded, individualized concept of poverty that emerged from these transformations presented Great Society liberal reformers with a legible problem that they could fix without recourse to major reforms. It would eventually be recast by neoliberal reformers to justify a more ideological form of disembedding that shifted the boundaries of responsibility for dealing with poverty from the social and the public to the individual and personal.

scholarly journals Reconsidering the Minimum Voting Age in the United States

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Benjamin Oosterhoff ◽  
Laura Wray-Lake ◽  
Daniel Hart
Keyword(s):  
Life Experience ◽  
Past Research ◽  
Political Knowledge ◽  
The United States ◽  
Cognitive Capacity ◽  
The Political ◽  
Negative Stereotypes ◽  
Us States ◽  
The Public ◽  
Voting Age

Several US states have proposed bills to lower the minimum local and national voting age to 16 years. Legislators and the public often reference political philosophy, attitudes about the capabilities of teenagers, or past precedent as evidence to support or oppose changing the voting age. Dissenters to changing the voting age are primarily concerned with whether 16 and 17-year-olds have sufficient political maturity to vote, including adequate political knowledge, cognitive capacity, independence, interest, and life experience. We review past research that suggests 16 and 17-year-olds possess the political maturity to vote. Concerns about youths’ ability to vote are generally not supported by developmental science, suggesting that negative stereotypes about teenagers may be a large barrier to changing the voting age.

Creating the New System

2021 ◽  
pp. 146-160
Author(s):  
David Madland
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
The United States ◽  
The Political ◽  
Grassroots Activism ◽  
The Public ◽  
System P ◽  
Union Policy ◽  
Labor System ◽  
New System ◽  
Intellectual Climate

This chapter explores whether a new labor system could ever become law and overcome the massive political hurdles standing in the way. The path to victory is quite narrow. There needs to be sufficient grassroots activism to push labor issues to the top of the agenda, a strong majority of politicians willing to vote for pro-union policy, champions to drive the policy forward, and a favorable intellectual climate. As difficult as these are to achieve, they are possible if favorable trends continue and rise in intensity. The public must increasingly and more forcefully demand change, and the political and intellectual climate must continue shifting in favor of labor modernization. The chapter concludes by echoing the theme of the book — that a new labor system with broad-based bargaining and encouragement for union membership would help address the fundamental economic and political challenges that the United States faces. The more people recognize this, the better the chances for creating a new labor system.

scholarly journals Scientific risk communication about controversial issues influences public perceptions of scientists' political orientations and credibility

2018 ◽  
Vol 5 (2) ◽  
pp. 170505 ◽  
Author(s):  
Emily Vraga ◽  
Teresa Myers ◽  
John Kotcher ◽  
Lindsey Beall ◽  
Ed Maibach
Keyword(s):  
Risk Communication ◽  
Political Ideology ◽  
Unintended Consequences ◽  
The Political ◽  
Controversial Issues ◽  
The Public ◽  
Political Perceptions ◽  
Political Orientations ◽  
Nationally Representative ◽  
Public Views

Many scientists communicate with the public about risks associated with scientific issues, but such communication may have unintended consequences for how the public views the political orientations and the credibility of the communicating scientist. We explore this possibility using an experiment with a nationally representative sample of Americans in the fall of 2015. We find that risk communication on controversial scientific issues sometimes influences perceptions of the political orientations and credibility of the communicating scientist when the scientist addresses the risks of issues associated with conservative or liberal groups. This relationship is moderated by participant political ideology, with liberals adjusting their perceptions of the scientists' political beliefs more substantially when the scientist addressed the risks of marijuana use when compared with other issues. Conservatives' political perceptions were less impacted by the issue context of the scientific risk communication but indirectly influenced credibility perceptions. Our results support a contextual model of audience interpretation of scientific risk communication. Scientists should be cognizant that audience members may make inferences about the communicating scientist's political orientations and credibility when they engage in risk communication efforts about controversial issues.

scholarly journals Reconsidering the Minimum Voting Age in the United States

2021 ◽  
pp. 174569162199422
Author(s):  
Benjamin Oosterhoff ◽  
Laura Wray-Lake ◽  
Daniel Hart
Keyword(s):  
Political Philosophy ◽  
Life Experience ◽  
Past Research ◽  
Political Knowledge ◽  
The United States ◽  
Cognitive Capacity ◽  
The Political ◽  
Negative Stereotypes ◽  
The Public ◽  
Voting Age

Several U.S. states have proposed bills to lower the minimum local and national voting age to 16 years. Legislators and the public often reference political philosophy, attitudes about the capabilities of teenagers, or past precedent as evidence to support or oppose changing the voting age. Dissenters to changing the voting age are primarily concerned with whether 16- and 17-year-olds have sufficient political maturity to vote, including adequate political knowledge, cognitive capacity, independence, interest, and life experience. We review past research that suggests 16- and 17-year-olds possess the political maturity to vote. Concerns about youths’ ability to vote are generally not supported by developmental science, suggesting that negative stereotypes about teenagers may be a large barrier to changing the voting age.

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