Research in the Political Process

1951 ◽  
Vol 45 (1) ◽  
pp. 69-85 ◽  
Author(s):  
Oliver Garceau
Keyword(s):  
Political Science ◽  
Empirical Research ◽  
Party System ◽  
Political Process ◽  
The Political ◽  
Liberal Democratic ◽  
Democratic State ◽  
Democratic Polity ◽  
Individual Capacity ◽  
Democratic Faith

A discipline, like an individual, may in some measure be known by the dilemmas it keeps, or more properly by the manner in which it keeps them.A central conceptual controversy, probably inescapable for political scientists because of their disciplinary heritage, is that involved in perceiving uniformities in behavior, describing recurring patterns, identifying the determinants and yet reconciling this effort and its underlying premises about the roots of behavior with the liberal, democratic faith in man's individual capacity to determine his own ends, to think rationally and to reach individual and creative decisions. On this faith rests the political structure of rights, the machinery of the democratic electorate, the party system and the values of the constitutional democratic state whose political process we are concerned to describe and analyze. Cultural anthropologists, social psychologists of many disciplinary schools, hard-boiled “realists” in political science, have recently drawn back from determinist or whole-heartedly relativist positions. Some are concerned that political science, in a fresh enthusiasm for empirical research, may become so engrossed with uniformities and determinants that it will obscure or abandon the normative commitments of a democratic polity.

Voter Reactions to ‘Strange Bedfellows’: The Japanese Voter Faces a Kaleidoscope of Changing Coalitions

2000 ◽  
Vol 1 (2) ◽  
pp. 229-248 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ikuo Kabashima ◽  
Steven R. Reed
Keyword(s):  
Democratic Party ◽  
Party System ◽  
Political Process ◽  
Liberal Democratic Party ◽  
The Political ◽  
Social Democratic Party ◽  
Political Space ◽  
Political Actors ◽  
Liberal Democratic ◽  
The Social

On 30 June 1994 the Social Democratic Party of Japan (SDPJ, formerly the Japan Socialist Party) joined its historic enemy, the Liberal Democratic Party (LDP), to form a coalition government in a Japanese equivalent of Italy's ‘historic compromise’. Competition between the conservative LDP and the progressive socialists had defined the Japanese party system since 1955. In this paper we analyze voter reactions to this and other confusing events surrounding the end of the LDP's 38-year dominance. We find, first, that the Japanese electorate was able to make sense of these events. The political space reflected in public opinion mapped the political space reflected in the mass media remarkably well. Secondly, our findings support the idea that attitudes toward political parties are endogenous to the political process: strategic moves by political actors alter the political space within which they maneuver. Coalitions of strange bedfellows force voters to revise their perceptions of political space and reevaluate their attitudes toward the actors involved. Strange bedfellows seemed less strange, friendlier after they had been seen in bed together.

The Crisis of Minorities in Ethnic States: The Case of Palestinian Citizens in Israel

1998 ◽  
Vol 30 (3) ◽  
pp. 321-346 ◽  
Author(s):  
Naditn Rouhana ◽  
Asʿad Ghanem
Keyword(s):  
Equal Opportunity ◽  
International System ◽  
The State ◽  
The Political ◽  
Political Structure ◽  
Ongoing Debate ◽  
Group Rights ◽  
Liberal Democratic ◽  
Ethnic Affiliation ◽  
Democratic State

The vast majority of states in the international system, democratic and non-democratic, are multi-ethnic (Gurr 1993). A liberal-democratic multi-ethnic state serves the collective needs of all its citizens regardless of their ethnic affiliation, and citizenship—legally recognized membership in the political structure called a state—is the single criterion for belonging to the state and for granting equal opportunity to all members of the system. Whether a multi-ethnic democratic state should provide group rights above and beyond individual legal equality is an ongoing debate (Gurr & Harff 1994).

Back to the Westminster model? The Brexit process and the UK political system

2021 ◽  
pp. 019251212096737
Author(s):  
Gianfranco Baldini ◽  
Edoardo Bressanelli ◽  
Emanuele Massetti
Keyword(s):  
Political System ◽  
Party System ◽  
Political Process ◽  
Three Dimensions ◽  
Executive Power ◽  
The Political ◽  
Westminster Model ◽  
The Uk ◽  
Quantitative Indicators ◽  
The Impact

This article investigates the impact of Brexit on the British political system. By critically engaging with the conceptualisation of the Westminster model proposed by Arend Lijphart, it analyses the strains of Brexit on three dimensions developed from from Lijphart’s framework: elections and the party system, executive– legislative dynamics and the relationship between central and devolved administrations. Supplementing quantitative indicators with an in-depth qualitative analysis, the article shows that the process of Brexit has ultimately reaffirmed, with some important caveats, key features of the Westminster model: the resilience of the two-party system, executive dominance over Parliament and the unitary character of the political system. Inheriting a context marked by the progressive weakening of key majoritarian features of the political system, the Brexit process has brought back some of the traditional executive power-hoarding dynamics. Yet, this prevailing trend has created strains and resistances that keep the political process open to different developments.

Forging Women's Substantive Representation: Intersectional Interests, Political Parity, and Pensions in Bolivia

2018 ◽  
Vol 14 (3) ◽  
pp. 433-459 ◽  
Author(s):  
Christina Ewig
Keyword(s):  
Empirical Research ◽  
A Priori ◽  
Political Process ◽  
The Political ◽  
Multiple Perspectives ◽  
Substantive Representation ◽  
Specific Context ◽  
Pension Reforms ◽  
Political Processes ◽  
Political Intersectionality

AbstractLacking tools to measure substantive representation, empirical research to date has determined women’s substantive representation by identifying “women’s interests” a priori, with little attention to differences across race, class, or other inequalities. To address this problem, I develop the concept of intersectional interests and a method for identifying these. Intersectional interests represent multiple perspectives and are forged through a process of political intersectionality that purposefully includes historically marginalized perspectives. These interests can be parsed into three types: expansionist, integrationist, and reconceived. Identification of intersectional interests requires, first, an inductive mapping of the differing women’s perspectives that exist in a specific context and then an examination of the political processes that lead to these new, redefined interests. I demonstrate the concept of intersectional interests and how to identify these in Bolivia, where I focus on the political process of forging reconceived intersectional interests in Bolivia’s political parity and pension reforms.

scholarly journals O Problema do Poder Efetivo na Câmara dos Deputados

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Renan Barbosa de Morais ◽  
Mário César San Felice ◽  
Pedro Henrique Del Bianco Hokama ◽  
Gabriel Ávila Casalecchi
Keyword(s):  
Game Theory ◽  
Empirical Research ◽  
Power Index ◽  
Political Representation ◽  
Political Process ◽  
Mathematical Concept ◽  
The Political ◽  
Effective Power ◽  
The One ◽  
Index Problem

Proportionality in political representation is an essential theme forrepresentative democracy. In Brazil, this debate appears in the contextof non-proportionality between a federative unit’s populationsize and its number of representatives in the Chamber of Deputies.In other words, the number of deputies in a state is not proportionalto its number of inhabitants, which violates the "one man, one vote"principle.Discussions around this disproportionality have motivated scholarsto develop empirical research that aims to identify the causesand consequences of the phenomenon and to analyze the impactthat the rule introduces in the political process. This article seeksto contribute to this debate by measuring the effective power ofeach Brazilian federation’s entity and proposing alternatives ofdistribution for the Brazilian Chamber of Deputies.To this end, we use a mathematical concept from game theory,called Power Index, which allows quantifying the existing representationaldiscrepancies. After evaluating several distributions, wesolved the Inverse Power Index Problem (IPIP) to obtain a distributionof chairs that reduces such disparities. To solve the IPIP, whichis computationally hard, we use an evolutionary heuristic. As anobjective function to minimize the discrepancy, we use the linearShapley rule, in which the power index of each state is proportionalto its population.

scholarly journals The social origins and political uses of popular narratives on Serbian disunity

2005 ◽  
pp. 65-104 ◽  
Author(s):  
Slobodan Naumovic
Keyword(s):  
Identity Politics ◽  
Party System ◽  
Conflicts Of Interest ◽  
Political Process ◽  
Party Politics ◽  
Social Contexts ◽  
The Political ◽  
Political Elites ◽  
The Social ◽  
Identity Based

The text offers an examination of socio-political bases, modes of functioning, and of the consequences of political instrumentalisation of popular narratives on Serbian disunity. The first section of the paper deals with what is being expressed and what is being done socially when narratives on Serbian disunity are invoked in everyday discourses. The next section investigates what political actor sty, by publicly replicating them, or by basing their speeches on key words of those narratives. The narratives on Serbian disunity are then related to their historical and social contexts, and to various forms of identity politics with which they share common traits. The nineteenth century wars over political and cultural identity, intensified by the struggle between contesting claims to political authority, further channeled by the development of party politics in Serbia and radicalized by conflicts of interest and ideology together provided the initial reasons for the apparition of modern discourses on Serbian disunity and disaccord. Next, addressed are the uninnally solidifying or misinterpreting really existing social problems (in the case of some popular narratives on disunity), or because of intentionally exploiting popular perceptions of such problems (in the case of most political meta-narratives), the constructive potential related to existing social conflicts and splits can be completely wasted. What results is a deep feeling of frustration, and the diminishing of popular trust in the political elites and the political process in general. The contemporary hyperproduction of narratives on disunity and disaccord in Serbia seems to be directly related to the incapacity of the party system, and of the political system in general, to responsibly address, and eventually resolve historical and contemporary clashes of interest and identity-splits. If this vicious circle in which the consequences of social realities are turned into their causes is to be prevented, conflicts of interest must be discursively disassociated from ideological conflicts, as well as from identity-based conflicts, and all of them have to be disentangled from popular narratives on splits and disunity. Most important of all, the practice of political instrumentalisation of popular narratives on disunity and disaccord has to be gradually abandoned.

scholarly journals Verset en rewolusie

1995 ◽  
Vol 51 (2) ◽  
Author(s):  
I. W.C. Van Wyk
Keyword(s):  
Political Process ◽  
Civil Disobedience ◽  
The Political ◽  
Reformed Theology ◽  
Church Member ◽  
Democratic State ◽  
The Right ◽  
The Church

Resistance and revolution. The communion formulary of the Nederduitsch Hervonnde Kerk states clearly that a church member may not take part in revolutionary activities and that he should obey governmental authorities. Two questions are asked: 1. Does this statement imply that a Christian should obey goverments, even when they are oppressive? Can a Christian do something about his fate, or is he obliged to suffer injustice?  2. How can and must we interpret this principle today in a democratic state where resistance and rebellion are integral elements of the political process? It is argued that in  Biblical Reformed theology not only the duty to obey but also the right to resist are justified. Although civil disobedience is allowed, violence is strongly condemned. This article asks the church to adhere to the communion formulary, but simultaniously to realise the vast differences between the  sixteenth and the twentieth centuries.

Decision Rules and Policy Outcomes

1971 ◽  
Vol 1 (1) ◽  
pp. 71-90 ◽  
Author(s):  
Douglas Rae ◽  
Michael Taylor
Keyword(s):  
Theoretical Model ◽  
Political Science ◽  
Political Process ◽  
Decision Rules ◽  
Policy Outcomes ◽  
The Political ◽  
Complex Relationship ◽  
Legislative Voting ◽  
The Public

Contemporary political science is rightly concerned with the complex relationship between the political process and the public policies in which it results. In understanding this relationship, it may be useful to distinguish two complementary aspects of the political process: (1) those which are relevant because they account for the policy preferences of elite-members and, (2) those elements, like voting and bargaining, which are of interest because they determine policy outcomes from given configurations of elite preferences. This paper offers a theoretical model for an important component of this second aspect: it is explicitly addressed to legislative voting processes and the underlying strategies of legislators as these contribute to the determination of policy outcomes. And, for the present, we take preference-formation as given.

Opinion Representation versus Social Representation; or, Why Women Can't Run as Women and Win

1980 ◽  
Vol 74 (1) ◽  
pp. 92-103 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jerry Perkins ◽  
Diane L. Fowlkes
Keyword(s):  
Government Intervention ◽  
Political Process ◽  
Social Representation ◽  
The Political ◽  
Political Elites ◽  
Minority Representation ◽  
Representation Versus ◽  
Liberal Democratic ◽  
Degree Of Acceptance ◽  
Party Activists

This article, by employing voting simulations in a survey of party activists, examines responses to a woman's claim to party office on the basis of her sex. The degree of acceptance of this claim or the willingness to grant what is called social representation, is contrasted with the respondents' inclinations to select candidates favorable to women's rights, or the willingness to grant what is called opinion representation. Variations in responses to the two simulations are analyzed in terms of attitudes toward gender roles, government intervention and the legitimacy of groups in the political process. Voting in the simulation involving opinion representation can best be understood in terms of the respondent's attitude toward government intervention, while the simulation involving social representation activates the attitude toward groups. Discussion of the findings focuses on the dilemma of group claims for minority representation in a liberal democratic context and the need for better understanding of attitudes toward groups among political elites.

scholarly journals Political Science Funding Black Out in North America? Trends in Funding Should not be Ignored

2013 ◽  
Vol 46 (03) ◽  
pp. 599-604 ◽  
Author(s):  
David J. Plazek ◽  
Alan Steinberg
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
North America ◽  
Political Science ◽  
National Science Foundation ◽  
Political Process ◽  
The United States ◽  
The Political ◽  
Science Funding ◽  
National Science ◽  
One Year

AbstractRecent actions in Congress that threaten political science funding by the National Science Foundation (NSF) have caught the attention of political scientists, but this was not the first attack and not likely to be the last. Less than one year ago, the Harper government ended the Understanding Canada program, an important source of funding for academics in the United States and abroad. This article stresses the value of the program and the importance of this funding steam by demonstrating what the grants have done both more generally as well as for the authors individually. In addition, by looking at the political process that led to the end of the Understanding Canada program and the similarities in the attacks on NSF political science funding, this article identifies potential reasons why these funds were and are at risk. We conclude by arguing that normative action in support of political science is a necessity for all political scientists.

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