Tweeting Others with Respect: Historicist Thinking can Reduce Blame and Hostile Retaliation to Nasty Communications from Partisan Opponents

Hostile partisan communication is ubiquitous on social media. Partisan hostility often takes the form of reciprocal blaming, where one feels blamed by an out-party member (“She said my beliefs are stupid!”) and then reciprocates with blame-fueled verbal hostility. Here, we examine whether historicist narratives, story-like descriptions of how someone developed her beliefs, can reduce such hostile verbal retaliation. In three experiments, strongly liberal or strongly conservative participants were presented with “tweets” that criticized their views. They replied with a “tweet” of their own. Experiments 1 and 2 showed that historicist narratives regarding their criticizer reduced hostile verbal retaliation by both liberals and conservatives. Experiment 3 showed that an abstract historicist reminder—a general message about how life history shapes people’s beliefs—reduced hostile verbal retaliation by liberals. Across experiments, reductions in harsh verbal retaliation were mediated by reduced blame of the criticizer.

The Third Path into the Twilight? Corruption in Socialist Yugoslavia

Corruption in socialist Yugoslavia was a specific phenomenon when compared to the inter-war period or to post-socialism. In contrast to liberalism, communist ideology did not support an understanding of corruption as a problem of its own but tended to see political and material “deviations” as originating from the same root – i. e., from a lack of political morale. The League of Communists failed to live up to its role as an educator of society, since it was trapped between declarative moral rigorism and the fact that material need and greed could be satisfied best by becoming a party member.

The Final Act: An Ethical Analysis of Pia Dijkstra’s Euthanasia for a Completed Life

Amongst other countries, the Netherlands currently allows euthanasia, provided the physician performing the procedure adheres to a strict set of requirements. In 2016, Second Chamber member Pia Dijkstra submitted a law proposal which would also allow euthanasia without the reason necessarily having any medical foundation; euthanasia on the basis of a completed life. The debate on this topic has been ongoing for over two decades, but this law proposal has made the discussion much more immediate and concrete. This paper considers the moral permissibility of Pia Dijkstra’s law proposal, focusing on the ethics of the implementation Dijkstra describes in her proposal. I argue that, at present, Dijkstra’s law proposal is unsuitable for implementation, due to a number of as of yet unaddressed problems, including the possible development of an ageist stigma and undue pressure on the profession of end-of-life coordinator. Perhaps adequate responses can be conceived to address these issues. However, the existence of a radically different, yet currently equally unacceptable position regarding the implementation of euthanasia for a completed life as proposed by fellow party member Paul Schnabel suggests it may be difficult to formulate an ethically acceptable implementation for this, in principle, ethically acceptable concept.

La pensée des femmes catholiques en Europe. Les combats de Maria Paola Colombo Svevo

‘Equal pay for equal work’, ‘Action against trafficking in human beings’ and the ‘Role of cooperatives in the growth of women's employment’ are those three im­portant battles carried out by the women at the European Parliament in the 1990s. They represent greater justice, more dignity, increased democracy. In particular, the article wants to remember the figure of Maria Paola Colombo Svevo, senator of the Italian Christian-Democratic Party, member of the European People's Party and member of the European Parliament between 1995 and 1999.

"Flucht aus Frankreich, 1940" [Fuga da França] de Marianne Loring. Memórias: entre a fuga coletiva e o percurso individual

In 1940, the leaders of the Social Democratic Party of Germany which had taken refuge in Paris after years of exile in Prague, are forced to leave again, on an escape whose route crosses France, Spain and Portugal. The group included the young Marianne Loring, daughter of a prominent party member, who describes this escape in her memoirs, which were printed 50 years later. In my article, I will focus not only on the author's memoirs of the escape of the group, but also on her personal experiences, which evoke an education novel.

Gender and ambitions for elected and appointed political positions: insights from Norway

This article contributes to the emerging scholarship on the gender gap in political ambitions. While appointed party positions offer politically minded people the opportunity to have further political careers outside the elected path, the extent to which women prefer such alternative careers is unclear. This article investigates the gender gap in the political ambitions of young people in Norway. Studying the gender gap in a country with numerous role models and established opportunity structures allows us to understand how individual and contextual factors might affect ambitions for different elected and appointed political positions. This research also explores the impact of personality and upbringing. The article draws on a 2019–20 survey of young party member elites. Multivariate analysis reveals that gender is a main factor in differences in ambition for elected positions but less so for appointed positions.<br /><br />Key messages<br /><ul><li>Gender can explain differences in ambition for elected political positions in Norway.</li><br /><li>Male and female youth politicians are equally interested in appointed political positions.</li><br /><li>Youth politicians who are competitive, self-confident, determined, leader-like, achievement oriented and socially confident have higher political ambitions (both elected and appointed).</li></ul>

Gli anni romani di Realidad. Revista de cultura y política (1963-67)

Realidad was a cultural and political magazine of the Spanish Communist Party (PCE) which, to escape Franco’s censorship, was published abroad, under the aegis of brother parties: from 1963 to 1967 in Rome, at the Gramsci Institute, and after that in Paris until 1973. The direction at first was entrusted to the Federico Sánchez [Jorge Semprún], a militant and writer, who was soon replaced by a more orthodox party member, Manuel Azcárate. Although the magazine leaned into prolixity and initiatory language, it also offered significant articles on art and literature, written by famous intellectuals in exile, and followed with the participation of students’ and workers’ linked to the opposition movements in Spain.

Using Social Network Analysis (SNA) to Study Members and Activists of Political Parties

This article explores the development of my PhD dissertation’s methodological approach, based on Social Network Analysis (SNA), or the collection and analysis of network data, in order to deal with political parties and their members (party membership). I extensively relied on this alternative, growing methodological background in three extents. First (1), SNA was used to analyze bibliographic references related to my dissertation topic, i.e. party membership studies, and identify the most central authors, thereby illustrating the literature review while describing their key contributions. Second (2), SNA was employed to collect and analyze network data likely to better grasp how interpersonal networks affect the probability for a random citizen to turn into party member, assuming that social influence matters in the process of joining a political party. Third (3), I further capitalized on SNA to deal with the question of party activism and why some members become active whereas others remain passive, arguing theoretically and showing empirically that part of the answer lies in members’ position within their local party branch’s social network. Each of these three applications is discussed in the light of the main methodological developments, the empirical findings and their interpretation, while shortcomings and research opportunities are more systematically highlighted at the end.

Can partisans be pluralist? A comparative study of party member discourse in France and Hungary

Pluralist norms, which prescribe certain attitudes of openness and mutual respect for diverging views, have long been considered a central pillar of liberal democracy. While democratic theorists have championed these values, they have been conflicted as to the capacity of political parties to carry them. Partisanship is widely recognized as an essential institution of democratic regimes but it has also been traditionally associated with intransigence rather than tolerance. This paper investigates this theoretical debate from an empirical standpoint, asking whether partisans can be carriers of pluralist values. It relies on focus-group methodology and software-assisted textual analysis to evaluate the extent to which the discourse of 117 party members in two different national contexts, France and Hungary, resonates with the pluralist worldview. The results of this study provide key empirical insights into the nature of partisanship, demonstrating wide variations in the extent to which partisans uphold pluralist principles, but also their capacity to do so at a stringent level.

Enraged Shrines: Modern Mongolian Folk Narratives About the Destruction of Sacred Places Under Socialism

Данная статья посвящена мотиву разрушенной святыни, известному во многих традициях и в разные периоды, который по стечению исторических обстоятельств оказался крайне востребованным в контексте социалистического-постсоциалистического фольклора причастных к этому опыту ареалов. На примере одного из таких случаев, вошедших в легендарный репертуар современных локальных традиций, разобраны особенности реализации этого мотива в монгольском фольклоре. В статье рассмотрена специфика монгольской ландшафтной мифологии, некоторые базовые особенности представлений и верований, связанных с почитанием священных локусов, в частности природных, их разновидности, персонажи, мотивы и практики, через которые они представлены в традиции. В работе также уделено внимание эмическому концепту «гневного места», популярному в монгольских традициях, и формам демонических проявлений священного, карающего, насылающего проклятия и вред. Кроме того, в статье затрагивается вопрос о характере отражения в монгольской фольклорной повествовательной традиции конфликта двух различных идеологий - государственной и традиционной, - воплощенного в сюжете противостояния партийца/ атеиста и представителя сверхъестественного, священного или демонического. Исследование основано на полевых материалах, собранных во время ежегодных экспедиций в различные районы Монголии (2006-2019). This article looks at the motif of destroyed sacred places, which is known in many various traditions from different periods. By a coincidence of historical circumstances, this motif proved to be extremely popular in Socialist and Post-Socialist folklore in regions that witnessed such destruction. The article deals with the specifics of Mongolian landscape mythology and examines some basic features of representations and beliefs related to the veneration of sacred loci, in particular natural ones, their varieties, character, and motifs, as well as the way they are represented in the tradition. The article also examines the emic concept of the “enraged place,” popular in the Mongolian tradition, as well as forms of sacred punishment - demonic manifestations, putting curses on and bringing harm to offenders. In addition, the article touches on the conflict between state and traditional ideology and its reflection in Mongolian folk narratives. The encounter takes the form of a confrontation between a Communist Party member/atheist and a representative of supernatural forces, whether sacred or demonic. The article is based on field materials collected during annual expeditions to various parts of Mongolia (2006-2019).