scholarly journals Political Distrust and its Discontents: Exploring the Meaning, Expression and Significance of Political Distrust

Societies ◽  
2019 ◽  
Vol 9 (4) ◽  
pp. 72 ◽  
Author(s):  
Bertsou
Keyword(s):  
Political Attitudes ◽  
Ethical Dimension ◽  
Political Systems ◽  
Qualitative Evidence ◽  
Citizen Attitudes ◽  
Political Distrust ◽  
Diffuse Support ◽  
Democratic Systems ◽  
Data Tracking ◽  
Established Democracies

Political distrust has been the norm, rather than the exception, in many established democracies in recent decades. Despite a wealth of data tracking deteriorating citizen attitudes towards their governments, representatives and political systems in general, there is still a debate regarding the meaning of distrust and its significance for the health of democracies. This article contributes to the discussion by providing qualitative evidence that map the meaning, evaluative dimensions and spill-over process of distrusting political attitudes. It finds, across the three national contexts studied, that citizens express political distrust using similar language and employing the same evaluative structure. Evidence suggests that political distrust is intertwined with the failure of representation and entails a fundamentally ethical dimension. This article concludes with a discussion regarding the implications of these findings for research on diffuse support in democratic systems.

scholarly journals Political Attitudes of Arab Citizens in North Africa

Politologija ◽  
2019 ◽  
Vol 95 (3) ◽  
pp. 1-32
Author(s):  
Mahmoudreza Rahbarqazi ◽  
Seyed Javad Emamjomehzadeh ◽  
Hossein Masoudnia
Keyword(s):  
Political System ◽  
Political Attitudes ◽  
Political Systems ◽  
Political Performance ◽  
Democratic System ◽  
Social Associations ◽  
Democratic Systems ◽  
The One ◽  
Islamic Values ◽  
Democratic Political System

Theories of social capital, government performance, Islamic values, and globalization are among the most important tools that can be used to help explain individuals’ political attitudes. The present research attempts to address the effects of the abovementioned factors on the political attitude of Arab citizens using the Arab Barometer Wave IV data. The results showed that only 23.2% of citizens disagreed with a democratic political system, while 70.3% and 60.1% expressed their opposition to authoritarian and Shari’ah-based systems. Results of the final model of research indicated that memberships in social associations, on the one hand, increased the tendency of individuals to support authoritarian and law-based political systems and, on the other hand, did not have any significant effect on the tendency toward supporting a democratic political system. It was concluded that improving economic performance not only affected the promotion of the Shari’ah-based political system, but that Political Performance also reduced the inclinations toward Shari’ah and authoritarianism. Furthermore, Political Performance increased the tendency of individuals to favor a democratic system. In addition, although individuals’ support for a Shari’ah-based political system had increased, Islamic values did not act as a barrier that would keep individuals away from favoring a democratic political system. Among the variables of globalization, the expansion of communication reduced people’s tendencies toward Shari’ah and authoritative political systems, along with a positive effect on strengthening support for democratic systems. Ultimately, Westernization only affected the shrinking support of some Shari’ah-based political systems.

Deliberation and Equality

2018 ◽  
pp. 143-155
Author(s):  
Edana Beauvais
Keyword(s):  
Institutional Arrangements ◽  
Political Systems ◽  
Moral Equality ◽  
Close Relationship ◽  
Democratic Systems ◽  
The Relationship

Political systems are democratic to the extent that people are empowered to participate in political practices—such as voting, representing, deliberating, and resisting—that contribute to self-and collective-rule. There is a close relationship between equality and democracy, as equality distributes symmetrical empowerments that enable people affected by collective endeavors to participate in political practices that contribute to self- and collective-rule. This chapter elucidates the relationship between equality, inclusion, and deliberative practices in democratic systems. It describes two distinguishable values of equality required for distributing empowerments that enable deliberation: the value of universal moral equality, and the value of equity. The chapter then outlines different institutional arrangements that promote the values of universal moral equality and equity in deliberative practices.

scholarly journals Argentinian Elections

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Maria Celeste Ratto ◽  
Michael S. Lewis-Beck
Keyword(s):  
Structural Models ◽  
Legislative Elections ◽  
National Elections ◽  
Election Forecasting ◽  
Vote Intention ◽  
Democratic Systems ◽  
Democratic Elections ◽  
Established Democracies ◽  
Public Opinion Polls ◽  
Opinion Polls

Election forecasts, based on public opinion polls or statistical structural models, regularly appear before national elections in established democracies around the world. However, in less established democratic systems, such as those in Latin America, scientific election forecasting by opinion polls is irregular and by statistical models is almost non-existent. Here we attempt to ameliorate this situation by exploring the leading case of Argentina, where democratic elections have prevailed for the last thirty-eight years. We demonstrate the strengths—and the weaknesses—of the two approaches, finally giving the nod to structural models based political and economic fundamentals. Investigating the presidential and legislative elections there, 1983 to 2019, our political economy model performs rather better than the more popular vote intention method from polling.

Coping with Unrest in the Periphery of China: Comparative Case Studies of Thailand, Myanmar and HKSAR

2021 ◽  
pp. 2150008
Author(s):  
Jason Chiam Chiah Sern ◽  
Tai Wei Lim
Keyword(s):  
Hong Kong ◽  
Case Studies ◽  
Capital City ◽  
Military Coup ◽  
Political Systems ◽  
High Exposure ◽  
Global Commerce ◽  
Political Freedoms ◽  
Democratic Systems ◽  
The Military

This paper examines the case studies of three East Asian entities (Thailand, Myanmar and Hong Kong) battling both the COVID-19 coronavirus pandemic as well as socio-political unrest simultaneously. While Thailand/Myanmar and Hong Kong are different in geographical/demographic sizes and the former two are sovereign states while the latter is a Special Administrative Region (SAR), they have similar challenges in experiencing cosmopolitan pro-democracy movements (made up of young activists) pitted against the governments determined to maintain control in what political scientists may characterize as illiberal political systems. While Thailand and Myanmar may be much larger in terms of geographical/demographic sizes, much of the recent political activism occurred in the capital city of Bangkok (a city of about 8 million people) and Yangon (also having about 7 million in population and being the former capital of Myanmar before the military elites had moved the capital to Naypyidaw in anticipation of political unrests). In the case of Myanmar, the demonstration and protests have effectively spread nationwide. Both cities are similar in size to Hong Kong that is with approximately 7 million inhabitants. Both Bangkok and Hong Kong are also cosmopolitan cities with high exposure to global commerce, ideas and tourism while Yangon is a fast-developing urban commercial capital city. In terms of ideologies and political systems, both Bangkok and Hong Kong have nominal liberal democratic systems that have limits imposed on political freedoms while Myanmar was liberalizing and democratizing before the military coup on February 1, 2020. These similarities make them suitable candidates for comparative studies, including analyzing their differences in managing the political challenges.

scholarly journals Rethinking political distrust

2019 ◽  
Vol 11 (2) ◽  
pp. 213-230 ◽  
Author(s):  
Eri Bertsou
Keyword(s):  
Political Science ◽  
Political Institutions ◽  
Empirical Work ◽  
Democratic Politics ◽  
Future Research ◽  
Unethical Conduct ◽  
Classical Liberal ◽  
Political Distrust ◽  
Established Democracies ◽  
The Relationship

AbstractIncreasing political distrust has become a commonplace observational remark across many established democracies, and it is often used to explain current political phenomena. In contrast to most scholarship that focuses solely on the concept of trust and leaves distrust untheorized, this article makes a contribution by analysing political distrust. It argues that citizen distrust of government and political institutions poses a threat for democratic politics and clarifies the relationship between the distrust observed in established democracies and classical ‘liberal distrust’, which is considered beneficial for democracy. Further, it addresses the relationship between trust and distrust, identifying a series of functional asymmetries between the two concepts, with important implications for theoretical and empirical work in political science. The article suggests that a conceptualization of political distrust based on evaluations of incompetence, unethical conduct and incongruent interests can provide a fruitful ground for future research that aims to understand the causes, consequences, and potential remedies for political distrust.

Conditions of Authoritarianism, Fascism, and Democracy in Interwar Europe

1996 ◽  
Vol 29 (4) ◽  
pp. 423-468 ◽  
Author(s):  
GISÈLE DE MEUR ◽  
DIRK BERG-SCHLOSSER
Keyword(s):  
Interwar Period ◽  
Political Systems ◽  
High Complexity ◽  
Political Analysis ◽  
Comprehensive Method ◽  
Small N ◽  
Democratic Systems ◽  
Interwar Europe

Comparative political analysis at the macrolevel of political systems can reduce the inevitably high complexity of such comparisons by the systematic matching or contrasting of cases, depending on the particular problem. Such “most similar systems” or “most different systems” designs, in Przeworski and Teune's terminology, thus constitute one of the major ways out of the usual “small N—many variables” dilemma. This article proposes a detailed and comprehensive method to establish such similarities and dissimilarities in a systematic and, at all stages, transparent way. The examples chosen refer to an analysis of the conditions of survival or breakdown of democratic systems in the interwar period in Europe.

Consociational Democracy

1969 ◽  
Vol 21 (2) ◽  
pp. 207-225 ◽  
Author(s):  
Arend Lijphart
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
The United States ◽  
Democratic Politics ◽  
Not Given ◽  
Political Systems ◽  
Low Countries ◽  
Consociational Democracy ◽  
The Third ◽  
Anglo American ◽  
Democratic Systems

In Gabriel A. Almond's famous typology of political systems, first expounded in 1956, he distinguishes three types of Western democratic systems: Anglo-American political systems (exemplified by Britain and the United States), Continental European political systems (France, Germany, and Italy), and a third category consisting of the Scandinavian and Low Countries. The third type is not given a distinct label and is not described in detail; Almond merely states that the countries belonging to this type “combine some of the features of the Continental European and the Anglo-American” political systems, and “stand somewhere in between the Continental pattern and the Anglo-American.” Almond's threefold typology has been highly influential in the comparative analysis of democratic politics, although, like any provocative and insightful idea, it has also been criticized. This research note will discuss the concept of “consociational democracy” in a constructive attempt to refine and elaborate Almond's typology of democracies.

scholarly journals Integration of Unequal Units: Comparing the German and the European Unification Processes

2007 ◽  
Vol 3 (1) ◽  
pp. 1-17
Author(s):  
Anne Sophie Krossa
Keyword(s):  
Identity Construction ◽  
Collective Identity ◽  
European Countries ◽  
Political Systems ◽  
East Central ◽  
Central European ◽  
Conflicting Interests ◽  
Diffuse Support ◽  
East And West ◽  
East Central European

Based on the differentiation between ‘specific’ and ‘diffuse’ support for political systems, as set out by Easton (1965), the objective of this article is to analyse the reasons for the increased discussion of conflicting interests and different identities in two integration processes: (1) the European one – Western and East Central European countries, focusing on the example of Poland; and (2) the case of Germany – East and West. It is assumed that these two cases are structured similarly and, therefore, can be compared regarding structures of centre and periphery and the differences they symbolise. This article suggests that if relations within the ‘frame of integration’ are perceived as correlating systematically with asymmetrical structures, then feelings of discontent and reactions of protest and resistance may be favoured in peripheries and can lead to exclusive forms of collective identity-construction.

scholarly journals THE ISSUE OF LEGITIMACY OF THE LATVIAN POLITICAL SYSTEM

2017 ◽  
Vol 4 ◽  
pp. 313
Author(s):  
Gunārs Ozolzīle
Keyword(s):  
Political Institutions ◽  
Political System ◽  
Political Regime ◽  
The Political ◽  
Sociological Research ◽  
Political Systems ◽  
Conceptual Approach ◽  
The Past ◽  
Diffuse Support ◽  
Sufficient Resource

A democratic political system can be sustainable and stable only if it has society’s support that is based on legitimacy. So far, the attention of Latvian researchers has mostly been devoted to the so-called “ratings” of separate political institutions and politicians, but no attempt has been undertaken to investigate the political system as a whole through the prism of legitimacy. The aim of the present article is to explore whether there is a sufficient resource of legitimacy of the Latvian political system in order to provide stability and efficiency of the regime. The empirical basis of the research mostly consists of the results of the sociological research conducted in Latvia during the past six years (2011–2016). The data analysis of the present research is based on David Easton and Pippa Norris’ conceptual approach to the study of legitimacy of political systems. One of the conclusions that can be made is that the political system of Latvia is characterised by insufficient diffuse support, which then indicates that the political system experiences the problem of legitimacy. As there is a divided society in Latvia, both communities lack a shared national identity, which could connect the society. In addition, it can be stated that around half of the society is not satisfied with the functioning of the political regime. The analysis performed in the article allows concluding that the trust in political institutions is extremely low and the assessment of the political authority performance is highly negative.

Introduction

2017 ◽  
Author(s):  
Joseph Lacey
Keyword(s):  
Identity Formation ◽  
Political Identity ◽  
Democratic Legitimacy ◽  
Comparative Approach ◽  
Common Language ◽  
Political Systems ◽  
Lingua Franca ◽  
Democratic Systems ◽  
Political Communities ◽  
The Eu

This introduction presents the central problematic of the book, justifies the comparative approach that is employed in later parts of the project, and outlines the main arguments developed throughout the work. The problematic is referred to as the lingua franca thesis on sustainable democratic systems (LFT), which predicts problems for democratic legitimacy and political identity formation for political communities that operate without a common language. As multilevel and multilingual political systems with claims to democratic legitimacy, Belgium and Switzerland are identified as two of the best available cases to test the validity of the LFT, with a view to informing the nature of and prospects for democratic legitimacy in the EU.

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