scholarly journals Understanding Media Control in the Digital Age

2021 ◽  
Vol 9 (4) ◽  
pp. 1-4
Author(s):  
Olga Dovbysh ◽  
Esther Somfalvy
Keyword(s):  
Authoritarian Regime ◽  
Thematic Issue ◽  
Discrete Control ◽  
Regime Type ◽  
Political Systems ◽  
National Politics ◽  
Critical Perspective ◽  
Media Control ◽  
Scholarly Discussion ◽  
Media Pressure

Media control comprises multifaceted and amorphous phenomena, combining a variety of forms, tools, and practices. Today media control takes place in a sphere where national politics meet global technology, resulting in practices that bear features of both the (global) platforms and the affordances of national politics. At the intersection of these fields, we try to understand current practices of media control and the ways in which it may be resisted. This thematic issue is an endeavour to bring together conceptual, methodological, and empirical contributions to revise the scholarly discussion on media control. First, authors of this thematic issue re-assemble the notion of media control itself, as not being holistic and discrete (control vs freedom) but by considering it from a more critical perspective as having various modes and regimes. Second, this thematic issue brings a “micro” perspective into understanding and theorising media control. In comparison to structural and institutional perspectives on control, this perspective focuses on the agency of various actors (objects and subjects of media pressure) and their practices, motivations, and the resources with which they exert or resist control. Featuring cases from a broad range of countries with political systems ranging from democracy to electoral authoritarian regime, this issue also draws attention to the question of how media control relates to regime type.

Euroscepticism and the Future of European Integration

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Catherine E. De Vries
Keyword(s):  
Public Opinion ◽  
European Integration ◽  
Public Support ◽  
The European Union ◽  
Political Systems ◽  
National Politics ◽  
Public Preferences ◽  
Novel Theory ◽  
The Eu

The European Union (EU) is facing one of the rockiest periods in its existence. At no time in its history has it looked so economically fragile, so insecure about how to protect its borders, so divided over how to tackle the crisis of legitimacy facing its institutions, and so under assault by Eurosceptic parties. The unprecedented levels of integration in recent decades have led to increased public contestation, yet at the same the EU is more reliant on public support for its continued legitimacy than ever before. This book examines the role of public opinion in the European integration process. It develops a novel theory of public opinion that stresses the deep interconnectedness between people’s views about European and national politics. It suggests that public opinion cannot simply be characterized as either Eurosceptic or not, but rather that it consists of different types. This is important because these types coincide with fundamentally different views about the way the EU should be reformed and which policy priorities should be pursued. These types also have very different consequences for behaviour in elections and referendums. Euroscepticism is such a diverse phenomenon because the Eurozone crisis has exacerbated the structural imbalances within the EU. As the economic and political fates of member states have diverged, people’s experiences with and evaluations of the EU and national political systems have also grown further apart. The heterogeneity in public preferences that this book has uncovered makes a one-size-fits-all approach to addressing Euroscepticism unlikely to be successful.

5. The Consequences of Democracy and Authoritarian Regimes

2019 ◽  
pp. 70-96
Author(s):  
Andrea Kendall-Taylor ◽  
Natasha Lindstaedt ◽  
Erica Frantz
Keyword(s):  
Quality Of Life ◽  
Economic Performance ◽  
Authoritarian Regimes ◽  
Regime Type ◽  
Political Systems ◽  
Different Types ◽  
Key Questions

Key themes 72 Regime type and conflict 74 Regime type and terrorism 78 Regime type and economic performance 81 Regime type and quality of life 86 Regime type and corruption 89 Regime type and repression 92 Conclusion 94 Key Questions 94 Further Reading 95 So far we have focused on defining different types of political systems. We discussed how to distinguish democracy from autocracy and the rising prevalence of ...

The influence of regime type on Russian foreign policy toward “the West,” 1992–2015

2016 ◽  
Vol 49 (1) ◽  
pp. 101-111 ◽  
Author(s):  
Allen C. Lynch
Keyword(s):  
Foreign Policy ◽  
Political Development ◽  
Political System ◽  
Regime Type ◽  
Western World ◽  
Political Systems ◽  
Russian State ◽  
Policy Objectives ◽  
The Cost ◽  
Broad Policy

Russia’s foreign policy does not follow directly from the nature of its internal political system but rather from the interaction of that political system with other political systems. Russian policy toward the Western world is best understood in terms of the capacity of Russia’s post-Soviet rulers to achieve two goals that are in implicit tension with each other. They are: a) maximizing the benefit to the Russian state of the country’s multifaceted relations with the Western world; and b) securing Russia’s status as the undisputed hegemon throughout the country’s historical borderlands. These broad policy objectives—shared by Russian liberals and nationalists alike–have been common to both the Yeltsin and Putin administrations, albeit expressed in different ways over time and with differing expectations of being able to reconcile the two. Building upon authoritarian and interventionist patterns established early in the Yeltsin years and reacting to the West’s refusal to acknowledge Russian regional primacy, Putin has consolidated an arbitrary personalist regime at home and waged war along the Russian periphery, even at the cost of relations with the Western world. In this respect, Putin’s regime may usefully be seen as a “state-nation” with a strong imperial imprint, building upon powerful legacies of Russian political development. The removal of Putin from power will not in se change that regime type or key challenges in Russiane Western relations.

Reassessing the Links between Regime Type and Economic Performance: Why Some Authoritarian Regimes Show Stable Growth and Others Do Not

2013 ◽  
Vol 45 (2) ◽  
pp. 253-285 ◽  
Author(s):  
Siddharth Chandra ◽  
Nita Rudra
Keyword(s):  
Economic Performance ◽  
Professional Associations ◽  
Authoritarian Regimes ◽  
Public Deliberation ◽  
Regime Type ◽  
Causal Mechanism ◽  
Political Systems ◽  
Decentralized Decision Making ◽  
National Economic ◽  
Stable Growth

This analysis challenges claims that regime type determines national economic performance, and hypothesizes that the level of public deliberation, rather than broad categories of regime type, is the driver of national economic performance across political systems; specifically, that negotiations, disagreements, and compromises between decentralized decision-making partisans (e.g., citizens, business representatives, professional associations, labor, and public administrators) are the underlying causal mechanism explaining the non-monotonic relationship between different types of political system and economic performance. Countries with high levels of public deliberation more often experience stable growth outcomes, while other countries can make radical changes in economic policy with uncertain outcome. The variation in public deliberation within regime type is significant, especially amongst authoritarian regimes. One startling implication is that, in certain situations, impressive gains in economic growth can be achieved only at the expense of active negotiation and participation in the policy-making process.

6. The Puzzle of Political Reform in the Middle East

2016 ◽  
Author(s):  
Augustus Richard Norton
Keyword(s):  
Political Economy ◽  
Civil Society ◽  
Middle East ◽  
Political Reform ◽  
Regime Type ◽  
The Political ◽  
Political Systems ◽  
Arab States ◽  
The Arab Spring ◽  
The Relationship

This chapter examines the issue of political reform in the Middle East. More specifically, it considers the enormous challenges that face proponents of political reform in the region. To this end, the chapter focuses on the legacies of state formation that shape the contemporary political systems, as well as the changing economic and social parameters of societies in today’s Middle East. After explaining the democracy deficit in the Middle East, the chapter shows that the Arab states have been slow to respond to the global processes of democratization. It also explores the political economy of Arab states, the persistence of conflict, regime type, and the ambiguity over the relationship between democracy and Islam. Finally, it analyses the Arab Spring as evidence of the vibrancy and growth of civil society in many states across the region.

Can meritocracy replace democracy? A conceptual framework

2020 ◽  
Vol 46 (9) ◽  
pp. 1093-1112
Author(s):  
Baogang He ◽  
Mark E. Warren
Keyword(s):  
Conceptual Framework ◽  
Liberal Democracy ◽  
Theoretical Framework ◽  
Regime Type ◽  
Critical Examination ◽  
Political Systems ◽  
Political Leaders ◽  
Political Meritocracy

Influenced by the example of China, a literature is emerging that advocates a modernized version of Confucian meritocracy, often as an alternative to liberal democracy and even democracy itself. We disagree with these arguments. A critical examination of the Chinese practices of meritocracy within the context of a regime that remains authoritarian is noticeably absent in the literature. This article addresses this gap and, in its findings, argues that political meritocracy, despite first appearances, does not offer a better alternative to liberal democracy. In contrast to many analyses, we do not view ‘meritocracy’ as a regime type but rather as an aspirational ideal that political leaders should have in merit their positions, relative to their functions. We develop a theoretical framework for comparing meritocratic features of regimes centred on a distinction between authoritarian meritocracy and democratic meritocracy. The framework brings into focus the ways in which the authoritarian features of the Chinese political systems undermine meritocratic claims and aspirations.

Building an authoritarian regime: Strategies for autocratisation and resistance in Belarus and Slovakia

2021 ◽  
pp. 136914812097896
Author(s):  
Aris Trantidis
Keyword(s):  
Political System ◽  
Mass Scale ◽  
Authoritarian Regime ◽  
Political Systems ◽  
Political Repression ◽  
Institutional Reforms ◽  
Socioeconomic Environment ◽  
Political Force ◽  
Catalytic Role

The article explores the conditions under which incumbent leaders in initially competitive political systems manage to offset democratic resistance and establish an authoritarian regime. Autocratisation – the transition from a competitive political system to a regime dominated by a single political force – is a challenging effort for an incumbent and involves interventions in three ‘arenas’ to achieve (a) public legitimation, (b) institutional reforms increasing political repression and (c) mass-scale co-optation. Focusing on Slovakia and Belarus in the 1990s, where autocratisation efforts failed and succeeded respectively, the article finds that co-optation plays a catalytic role in helping the incumbent pass institutional reforms and escalate repression without risking de-legitimation. In Belarus, co-optation engulfed society and the economy whereas, in Slovakia, a socioeconomic environment with greater autonomy from government limited the scope for co-optation. The Slovak opposition was able to find the resources and supporters necessary to fight back against the incumbent.

Sub-National Politics

2013 ◽  
Author(s):  
Nicole Bolleyer
Keyword(s):  
Case Studies ◽  
Central Government ◽  
State Governments ◽  
Political Systems ◽  
National Politics ◽  
Cross National ◽  
Regional Governments

This chapter distinguishes three perspectives on the study of sub-national politics: a polity-centered, a systemic, and a regionalist perspective. Most fundamentally, scholars of sub-national politics tend to approach state governments either as self-contained polities or as embedded units. The first polity-centered perspective is defined by its conceptualization of state governments as self-contained ‘political systems’. The literature approaching state governments as embedded entities can be further subdivided in two strands. The systemic perspective conceptualizes state governments as part of one sub-national governmental level that faces the federal or central government as main counter-player. The regionalist perspective, in contrast, looks at forms of cooperation amongst different subsets of state or regional governments. Assessing case studies and comparative work within these three strands allows us to identify existing caveats in the literature and to put the work on American sub-national politics in the context of existing cross-national research.

scholarly journals ‘Somehow This Whole Process Became so Artificial’: Exploring the Transitional Justice Implementation Gap in Uganda

2019 ◽  
Vol 13 (2) ◽  
pp. 225-248 ◽  
Author(s):  
Anna Macdonald
Keyword(s):  
Human Rights ◽  
Transitional Justice ◽  
Authoritarian Regime ◽  
Political Systems ◽  
Implementation Gap ◽  
Whole Process ◽  
Wide Range ◽  
International Donors ◽  
Conflict Affected States

Abstract∞ This article explores a key challenge in contemporary international efforts to promote transitional justice (TJ) in nontransitioning, conflict-affected states: the ‘implementation gap,’ in which policies are designed and funded but neither enacted nor implemented. Findings based on long-term qualitative fieldwork in Uganda indicate the implementation gap is co-constituted by technocratic donor approaches and domestic elite political maneuvering in a semi-authoritarian regime. The interaction between the two produces two forms of political artifice: ‘isomorphic mimicry’ and ‘calculated stasis,’ which stall the emergence of substantive TJ reform. Findings are relevant to the wide range of nontransitioning contexts where TJ is promoted by international donors and have important implications for its claimed potential to catalyze or restore civic trust in political systems in the aftermath of massive human rights violations.

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