scholarly journals Territorial differentiation of public sentiment in modern Georgia (the experience of sociological survey)

2021 ◽  
Vol 7 (2) ◽  
pp. 146
Author(s):  
Marianna N. Shestakova

В конце октября 2020 г. в Грузии состоялись парламентские выборы. Стартовал очередной электоральный цикл. Что принесёт он в плане взаимоотношений России и Грузии? После окончания избирательной кампании был проведён социологический опрос среди жителей соседнего государства с целью выяснения их отношения к России, её потенциального влияния на избирательную кампанию, возможных путей развития взаимосвязей двух государств. Опираясь на результаты анкетирования, автор исследует наличие территориальной дифференциации общественного мнения по данным вопросам. Возможно ли выявить «эффект соседства» по отношению к России? Исследование является составной частью большого многолетнего проекта по изучению вероятной трансформации электорального поведения жителей пограничных с Россией государств. Автор приходит к выводу, что, несмотря на довольно серьезные политические противоречия между двумя государствами, существует большой потенциал добрососедских отношений, выражающийся в преобладающем позитивном общественном мнении по отношению к соседнему государству. Приграничные с Россией регионы Грузии не проявляют какой-либо особой лояльности. В работе также выявлены территориальные различия в общественном мнении по линии Север - Юг, которые требуют дополнительного исследования. At the end of October 2020, parliamentary elections took place in Georgia. Another electoral cycle has started. What will it bring in terms of bilateral relations between Russia and Georgia? After the end of the election campaign, a sociological survey was conducted among residents of the neighboring state in order to clarify their attitude towards Russia, its potential impact on the election campaign, and possible ways of developing relations between the two states. Based on the results of the survey, the author finds out whether there is a territorial differentiation of public opinion on these issues. Is it possible to identify the "neighborhood effect" in relation to Russia? The research paper is an integral part of a large multi-year project, which studies the probable transformation of the electoral behavior of residents of the states bordering Russia. The author comes to the conclusion that despite the existing considerable political contradictions between the two states, there is a great potential for good neighborhood relations, expressed in the prevailing positive public opinion regarding the neighboring state. The regions of Georgia bordering Russia do not demonstrates any particular loyalty. It was possible to identify territorial differences in public opinion along the North-South line, which require additional research.

2012 ◽  
Vol 26 (1) ◽  
pp. 189-212 ◽  
Author(s):  
Dagmar Radin ◽  
Aleksandar Džakula

Over the past decade, public opinion surveys have shown that Croats are deeply dissatisfied with their health care system and asses it to be one of the most important issues. However, health care hardly makes it into any political discourse in Croatia. This study analyzes the results of a public opinion survey conducted before the 2007 parliamentary elections to find out what the public sentiment on health care performance in Croatia is and to analyze the reasons why health care is not addressed by political actors. Evidence suggests that while health care is the most salient issue today, the public often understands it poorly. Thus, in a political environment of competing issues, and given the complexity of tacking health care in the policy arena, politicians strategically avoid discussing the issue.


2021 ◽  
Vol 24 (2) ◽  
pp. 270-275 ◽  
Author(s):  
Karen M. Douglas

Conspiracy theories started to appear on social media immediately after the first news about COVID-19. Is the virus a hoax? Is it a bioweapon designed in a Chinese laboratory? These conspiracy theories typically have an intergroup flavour, blaming one group for having some involvement in either manufacturing the virus or controlling public opinion about it. In this article, I will discuss why people are attracted to conspiracy theories in general, and why conspiracy theories seem to have flourished during the pandemic. I will discuss what the consequences of these conspiracy theories are for individuals, groups, and societies. I will then discuss some potential strategies for addressing the negative consequences of conspiracy theories. Finally, I will consider some open questions for research regarding COVID-19 conspiracy theories, in particular focusing on the potential impact of these conspiracy theories for group processes and intergroup relations.


2020 ◽  
Vol 6 (Extra-A) ◽  
pp. 15-22
Author(s):  
Liailia Aidarovna Gainullina ◽  
Rustem Ravilevich Muhametzyanov ◽  
Bulat Aidarovich Gainullin ◽  
Nadiia Almazovna Galiautdinova

Historically, in the eyes of the Korean people, Japan is an antagonistic state that has brought them many troubles in the past century. Relations between Japan and the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea (DPRK) are fundamental in terms of security in the Northeast Asia (NEA) region, since the decision on the DPRK nuclear missile program and on the denuclearization of the Korean Peninsula is one of the pillars of achieving that very security throughout the region. The period, we consider in this study, from 1996 to 2006, is of significant importance, since a thorough analysis of the events of those years is important for understanding the root of existing problems in bilateral relations between Japan and North Korea. The present analysis on the behavioral lines in the solution of the North Korean nuclear missile program may contribute to the choice the best way to normalize relations between the two countries.    


2019 ◽  
Vol 12 (2) ◽  
pp. 169-186 ◽  
Author(s):  
Dalma Kékesdi-Boldog ◽  
Tamás Tóth ◽  
Tamás Bokor ◽  
Zoltán Veczán

The research presented in this paper is based on analysis of the Facebook posts of five major Hungarian political parties over the course of the official campaign season leading up to the 2018 parliamentary elections. We conducted a mixed-method analysis on 795 Facebook posts. First, the main topics of the parties were collected. Second, the posts of the parties were analyzed from a populist communicational perspective. Third, we tried to find some correlations between the basic topics and the populist communicational categories. Finally, we outline possible differences and similarities between parties’ communication. Our analysis shows that opposition parties did not have a common communicational strategy on Facebook while ruling parties emphasized both inner and exterior threats that could destabilize Hungary.


Author(s):  
Oleh Bulka

The article is devoted to the particularity of Canada-Mexico bilateral relations in the period from their beginning to signing and entry into force the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA). It is noted that from the time of first contacts bilateral relations between two countries have developed unevenly with periods of increase and periods of decline. It is determined that in the history of Canada-Mexico relations before signing NAFTA can be identified four main periods. The first one is a period of early contacts that lasted from the end of XIX century to the establishment of the official diplomatic relations between Canada and Mexico in 1944. In this period of time ties between the two countries were extremely weak. The second period lasted from 1944 to the end of the 1960s. This period clearly shows the limits of cooperation between Canada and Mexico after the establishment of the official diplomatic ties, but it is also possible to see a certain coincidence between the values and diplomatic strategies of these countries. The third period of Canada-Mexico relations lasted from the beginning of the 1970s to the end of the 1980s. During this period, both Canada and Mexico try to diversify their foreign policy and strengthen the organizational mechanism of mutual cooperation. But it is also shown that despite the warm political rhetoric, there was some distance in Canada-Mexico relations. The fourth period of the relations lasted from the late 1980s until the NAFTA treaty came into force in 1994. At that time Canadian and Mexican governments began to give priority to economic relations over political and diplomatic ones. It was revealed that the main influencing factors of bilateral relations between Mexico and Canada were the impact of third countries, especially the United Kingdom and the United States, regional and global economic conditions, and the attitude to the bilateral relations of the political elites of both countries.


2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Tao Hu ◽  
Siqin Wang ◽  
Wei Luo ◽  
Mengxi Zhang ◽  
Xiao Huang ◽  
...  

BACKGROUND The COVID-19 pandemic has imposed a large, initially uncontrollable, public health crisis both in the US and across the world, with experts looking to vaccines as the ultimate mechanism of defense. The development and deployment of COVID-19 vaccines have been rapidly advancing via global efforts. Hence, it is crucial for governments, public health officials, and policy makers to understand public attitudes and opinions towards vaccines, such that effective interventions and educational campaigns can be designed to promote vaccine acceptance OBJECTIVE The aim of this study is to investigate public opinion and perception on COVID-19 vaccines by investigating the spatiotemporal trends of their sentiment and emotion towards vaccines, as well as how such trends relate to popular topics on Twitter in the US METHODS We collected over 300,000 geotagged tweets in the US from March 1, 2020 to February 28, 2021. We examined the spatiotemporal patterns of public sentiment and emotion over time at both national and state scales and identified three phases along the pandemic timeline with the significant changes of public sentiment and emotion, further linking to eleven key events and major topics as the potential drivers to induce such changes via cloud mapping of keywords and topic modelling RESULTS An increasing trend of positive sentiment in parallel with the decrease of negative sentiment are generally observed in most states, reflecting the rising confidence and anticipation of the public towards vaccines. The overall tendency of the eight types of emotion implies the trustiness and anticipation of the public to vaccination, accompanied by the mixture of fear, sadness and anger. Critical social/international events and/or the announcements of political leaders and authorities may have potential impacts on the public opinion on vaccines. These factors, along with important topics and manual reading of popular posts on eleven key events, help identify underlying themes and validate insights from the analysis CONCLUSIONS The analyses of near real-time social media big data benefit public health authorities by enabling them to monitor public attitudes and opinions towards vaccine-related information in a geo-aware manner, address the concerns of vaccine skeptics and promote the confidence of individuals within a certain region or community, towards vaccines


Author(s):  
Antonio Tomao ◽  
Barbara Ermini ◽  
Marcela Prokopov ◽  
Adriano Conte

Negative environmental changes generally addressed as ‘syndromes’ are evaluated in the context of Soil Degradation (SD) and interpreted by using a ‘Land-Use/Land Cover Changes’ (LULCCs) framework in order to disentangle ‘past trajectories’, ‘present patterns’, and ‘future changes’. This approach allows to discuss the potential impact on SD processes and it represents an informed basis for identifying measurable outcomes of SD. This study focuses on the case of Emilia Romagna, a region located in the North of Italy with high-value added agricultural productions. A multi-temporal analysis of land-use changes between 1954 and 2008 has been proposed, discussing the evolution of associated SD syndromes in Emilia Romagna. The contributing information have been used as a baseline for Sustainable Land Management (SLM) strategies. This framework of analysis provides useful tools to investigate and to monitor the effects of SD in the Mediterranean basin where several regions underwent common development patterns yelding global pathological symptoms of environmental degradation.


2019 ◽  
Vol 13 (1) ◽  
pp. 89-118 ◽  
Author(s):  
Michele F. Margolis

AbstractWhite evangelicals overwhelmingly supported Donald Trump in the 2016 election, producing extensive debate as to who evangelicals are, what it means to be an evangelical in the United States today, and whether the electoral results are surprising or not. This paper offers empirical clarity to this protracted discussion by asking and answering a series of questions related to Trump's victory in general and his support from white evangelicals in particular. In doing so, the analyses show that the term “evangelical” has not become a synonym for conservative politics and that white evangelical support for Trump would be higher if public opinion scholars used a belief-centered definition of evangelicalism rather than relying on the more common classification strategies based on self-identification or religious denomination. These findings go against claims that nominal evangelicals, those who call themselves evangelicals but are not religious, make up the core of Trump's support base. Moreover, strong electoral support among devout evangelicals is not unique to the 2016 election but rather is part of a broader trend of evangelical electoral behavior, even when faced with non-traditional Republican candidates. Finally, the paper explores why white evangelicals might support a candidate like Trump. The paper presents evidence that negative partisanship helps explain why devout evangelicals—despite Trump's background and behaviors being cause for concern—coalesced around his presidential bid. Together, the findings from this paper help make sense of both the 2016 presidential election and evangelical public opinion, both separately and together.


2009 ◽  
Vol 9 (14) ◽  
pp. 4729-4745 ◽  
Author(s):  
V. Fiedler ◽  
F. Arnold ◽  
H. Schlager ◽  
A. Dörnbrack ◽  
L. Pirjola ◽  
...  

Abstract. We report on the first observation-based case study of an aged East Asian anthropogenic SO2 pollution plume over Europe. Our airborne measurements in that plume detected highly elevated SO2 mole fractions (up to 900 pmol/mol) between about 5000 and 7000 m altitude. Here, we focus on investigations of the origin, dispersion, evolution, conversion, and potential impact of the observed excess SO2. In particular, we investigate SO2 conversion to gas-phase sulfuric acid and sulfuric acid aerosols. Our FLEXPART and LAGRANTO model simulations, along with additional trace gas measurements, suggest that the plume originated from East Asian fossil fuel combustion sources and, 8–7 days prior to its arrival over Europe, ascended over the coast region of central East Asia to 9000 m altitude, probably in a cyclonic system with an associated warm conveyor belt. During this initial plume ascent a substantial fraction of the initially available SO2 must have escaped from removal by cloud processes. Hereafter, while mostly descending slowly, the plume experienced advection across the North Pacific, North America and the North Atlantic. During its upper troposphere travel, clouds were absent in and above the plume and OH-induced gas-phase conversion of SO2 to gas-phase sulfuric acid (GSA) was operative, followed by GSA nucleation and condensation leading to sulfuric acid aerosol formation and growth. Our AEROFOR model simulations indicate that numerous large sulfuric acid aerosol particles were formed, which at least temporarily, caused substantial horizontal visibility degradation, and which have the potential to act as water vapor condensation nuclei in liquid water cloud formation, already at water vapor supersaturations as low as about 0.1%. Our AEROFOR model simulations also indicate that those fossil fuel combustion generated soot particles, which have survived cloud induced removal during the initial plume ascent, have experienced extensive H2SO4/H2O-coating, during upper troposphere plume travel. This coating may have dramatically altered the morphology and markedly increased the light absorption efficiency of soot particles.


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