scholarly journals Political Choices of the Left and the Right in Crises: An Experimental Investigation

2020 ◽  
Vol 9 (2) ◽  
pp. 56-60
Author(s):  
Ishan Kashyap Hazarika ◽  
Sourabh Rai ◽  
Anjali Verma

While numerous studies have documented the difference in choice behaviour of the political Left and the Right, the effect of situations of a crisis on political choices have remained unexplored. This study aims to record and analyse such effects and investigate if any differences or similarities appear in the two groups. The study uses an experimental approach to the problem. Samples of leftists and rightists in India are randomly provided with forms to vote in either a normal situation or a hypothetical situation of crisis. The difference in voting behaviour in the two scenarios is noted. The difference in the change in the voting behaviour of the Left and the Right is also noted. It is found as expected that under normal circumstances, the Left and the Right have different voting patterns. But under crisis, when their leader performs badly, they shift to the opposite leader with almost the same probability. Also, not only the effect, but the voting patterns themselves become very similar during crises. The behaviour of the Left and Right sustain differences only in normal circumstances, but under crises, the differences may no longer remain extant.

1962 ◽  
Vol 24 (3) ◽  
pp. 365-391
Author(s):  
H. Tint

The patriotism of the French underwent a far-reaching reorientation between 1871 and 1940. Understood as the readiness to do one's best for one's country, if necessary by fighting for it, the most significant change that affected French patriotic feeling during this period is its shift from the political left to the right. Popular response to the republican call to arms after the fall of the Empire in 1870 was to know no future parallel in its magnitude and enthusiasm. Excluded from positions of political prominence, the working classes and their leaders soon came to think that if they had a patrie, it was not the Third Republic. On the other hand, the right after a century of forgetfulness, rediscovered the old patriotic slogans as the left discarded them. And it used them with considerable skill to its political advantage. But the difference between left- and right-wing patriotism is that defeat in 1870 brought to power a man determined to fight against heavy odds, Gambetta; while defeat in 1940 brought to power a man determined to capitulate before the enemy, Pétain. And yet it has to be recognized that the origins of this transformation are to be found in the policies of the same Gambetta who, no doubt deservedly, is commonly hailed as the Jacobin hero of French resistance in 1870–1.


2017 ◽  
Vol 4 ◽  
pp. 137
Author(s):  
Campbell Jones

This paper arises from a request to report to the Future of Work Commission on the question of the value of work in the past, present, and future politics of the Left. This task is complicated, however, by the complexity of the meaning of the terms Left and Right. It is only when we are clear about the meanings of Left and Right that we can be clear about the very different kinds of politics that will result from taking a Left position on work. This paper seeks to clarify what a Left politics of work might look like today. This requires in the first place an analysis of the respective value of work to the political Left and Right, to which end I argue that what distinguishes the Left and the Right regarding the value of work is not simply the quantity of value or dignity that is attributed to work. Rather, Left and Right depart in a fundamental ontological confrontation regarding the nature of what work is and the existence of the bodies from which work issues. This analysis therefore raises deeper questions regarding the very distinction between the Left and the Right.  


Author(s):  
ANSELM HAGER ◽  
LUKAS HENSEL ◽  
JOHANNES HERMLE ◽  
CHRISTOPHER ROTH

Many social movements face fierce resistance in the form of a countermovement. Therefore, when deciding to become politically active, a movement supporter has to consider both her own movement’s activity and that of the opponent. This paper studies the decision of a movement supporter to attend a protest when faced with a counterprotest. We implement two field experiments among supporters of a right- and left-leaning movement ahead of two protest–counterprotest interactions in Germany. Supporters were exposed to low or high official estimates about their own and the opposing group’s turnout. We find that the size of the opposing group has no effect on supporters’ protest intentions. However, as the own protest gets larger, supporters of the right-leaning movement become less while supporters of the left-leaning movement become more willing to protest. We argue that the difference is best explained by stronger social motives on the political left.


2017 ◽  
Vol 25 (63) ◽  
pp. 3-25
Author(s):  
Regina Carla Madalozzo ◽  
Afonso Mariutti Chebib

Abstract Analyzing the “left” and “right” political positions of individuals is challenging because personal attributes may influence political decisions without directly causing them. This issue may be even more pronounced in Latin America, where young democracies encounter the challenge of stabilizing political choices over time. This study contributes to the literature by analyzing the influence of personal attributes on political choices, focusing on the early 2000s, when the “left” turn occurred. The present study relies on the World Values Survey's fifth wave (2005-2008) to fulfil this objective. This dataset is composed of data that have been collected globally, and the questions are related to diverse subjects associated with the quality of life of individuals. From the available sample, we included all of the Latin American countries that participated in this wave: Argentina, Brazil, Chile, Colombia, Mexico, Peru, and Uruguay. In this study, the aim is to directly understand the impact of these individuals own attributes on their declared self-positioning about the political leaning. To this aim, an ordered logit model was used to analyse how each variable exerts influence on the political leaning of the respondents. Our results found that political cleavages depend on demographic factors, economic factors, and individual opinions in agreement with previous studies. Increased age, religious service attendance, and satisfaction with one's financial life increase the tendency of individuals for self-positioning to the right of the political spectrum. The possession of a university degree and residence in a large city increases the likelihood of individuals of self-identifying with a leftist political position. This study contributes to the literature by analysing the influence of personal attributes on political choices. Although this research represents an important step toward understanding political leanings in Latin American countries, a significant amount of future research remains. The definitions of “left” and “right” continue to be unclear as they relate to dimensions that include democracy, autocracy, and political reform. Understanding the ways individuals set up their choices would increase the responsibility of political parties and authorities for the hidden claim the population has about their deliverables. At the same time, studies like ours may enhance the awareness of the general impression over political party choices of candidates. Finally, even with so many confounding aspects in this antagonist position, the left and the right continue to be a simple way to characterize veiled assumptions. Therefore, it may be an ambiguous form of defining choices, but this seemingly binary choice is still very significant for voters in Latin America.


Author(s):  
Devin K. Joshi

Abstract Scholars of the political left-right divide often see equality as the core issue of contention, with the left seeking greater equality than the right. Though partially agreeing with this consensus, I propose a modified left-right conceptualization that offers three novel contributions. First, while accepting the idea of a single fundamental dimension underlying conflict in global politics, I argue the key issue is not necessarily equality but rather the diffusion or concentration of power within and across nations, communities and individuals. Second, given the inescapable complexity of politics, I argue in favour of distinguishing between those who seek to de-concentrate power and broaden inclusion (the left) from those advocating for a concentration of power (the right) in specific issue domains. Third, I illustrate the utility of this “one dimension, multiple domains” theoretical framework through a comparative analysis of eight contemporary political parties across the domains of economic, foreign and social policy.


2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Shauna Marie Bowes ◽  
Thomas H Costello ◽  
Caroline Lee ◽  
Stacey McElroy-Heltzel ◽  
Don E. Davis ◽  
...  

In recent years, an upsurge of polarization has been a salient feature of political discourse in America. A small but growing body of research has examined the potential relevance of intellectual humility (IH) to political polarization. In the present investigation, we extend this work to political myside bias, testing the hypothesis that IH is associated with less bias in two community samples (N1 = 498; N2 = 477). In line with our expectations, measures of IH were negatively correlated with political myside bias across paradigms, political topics, and samples. These relations were robust to controlling for humility. We also examined ideological asymmetries in the relations between IH and political myside bias, finding that IH-bias relations were statistically equivalent in members of the political left and right. Notwithstanding important limitations and caveats, these data establish IH as one of a small handful psychological features known to predict less political myside bias.


2016 ◽  
Vol 8 (3) ◽  
pp. 292-300 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jan-Willem van Prooijen ◽  
André P. M. Krouwel

Dogmatic intolerance—defined as a tendency to reject, and consider as inferior, any ideological belief that differs from one’s own—is often assumed to be more prominent at the political right than at the political left. In the present study, we make two novel contributions to this perspective. First, we show that dogmatic intolerance is stronger among left- and right-wing extremists than moderates in both the European Union (Study 1) as well as the United States (Study 2). Second, in Study 3, participants were randomly assigned to describe a strong or a weak political belief that they hold. Results revealed that compared to weak beliefs, strong beliefs elicited stronger dogmatic intolerance, which in turn was associated with willingness to protest, denial of free speech, and support for antisocial behavior. We conclude that independent of content, extreme political beliefs predict dogmatic intolerance.


Author(s):  
Ana Rita Ferreira ◽  
Daniel Carolo ◽  
Mariana Trigo Pereira ◽  
Pedro Adão e Silva

This article discusses the ways in which the Constitution of the Portuguese Republic has embodied to the political choices made during the process of creating and defining a democratic welfare state and how the various constitutional principles are reflected in the architecture of the system and have gradually changed over the years. The authors argue that when Portugal transitioned to democracy, unlike other areas of the country’s social policies the social security system retained some of its earlier organising principles. Having said this, this resilience on the part of the Portuguese system’s Bismarckian template has not prevented social protection from expanding here in accordance with universal principles, and has given successive governments manoeuvring room in which to define programmatically distinct policies and implement differentiated reformist strategies. The paper concludes by arguing that while the Constitution has not placed an insurmountable limit on governments’ political action, it has served as a point of veto, namely by means of the way in which the Constitutional Court has defended the right to social protection, be it in the form of social insurance, be it in the imposition of certain social minima.


Author(s):  
Boris I. Kolonitskii

The article examines the cultural forms of legitimation / delegitimation of authority of the Provisional Government. Particular attention is paid to the personal authority of Alexander Kerensky, including rhetorical (persuasive) devices and visual images which underlay the tactics of praising or condemning him. As the main source, the article uses the newspapers of A.A. Suvorin, namely Malen'kaya gazeta [Little newspaper], Narodnaya gazeta [People’s newspaper], Rus' [Rus], Novaya Rus' [New Rus]. These newspapers are compared with resolutions, letters and diaries, and with publications in other periodicals. The study clarifies some aspects of political isolation of the Provisional Government in the fall of 1917. By this time, the propaganda attack on Kerensky was conducted not only by the Bolsheviks and other left-wing groups but also by the right-wing and conservative publications. The propaganda of the left- and right-wing opponents was significantly different but they had a point of contact: both of them created the image of the “traitor” who was unworthy to remain in power.


2021 ◽  
Vol 14 (2) ◽  
pp. 310-334
Author(s):  
Viktor Pál ◽  
Leonardo Valenzuela Perez

Authoritarian regimes are often seen to be hostile toward the environment, albeit there is a growing body of literature suggesting a more nuanced image when it comes to authoritarian governments and the environment. However, several aspects of human-nature relationship need further clarification in non-democratic systems, both on the political left and right. In this article we aim to address that challenge by analysing Cold War economic and environmental goals and responses of the right-wing military junta in Chile under Pinochet and the Hungarian state-socialist, USSR-satellite regime under Kádár. By analysing two radically different political and economic approaches to economic catchup, while mitigating environmental costs on the way, this study aims to understand better the ecological motivations in authoritarian regimes operating diverse political and economic agendas.


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