The Effects of Political Attitudes on Affective Polarization: Survey Evidence from 165 Elections

How do individual-level political attitudes influence affective polarization on a global scale? This article contributes to the debate on the social distance of party affect by testing a set of hypotheses in 165 elections across the world. With a sample of over 170,000 voters, the results of multilevel mixed-effects regressions demonstrate that ideological radicalism, political knowledge, and external efficacy substantively affect how voters see the main political parties in electoral disputes taking place in 52 countries from 1996 to 2019. Satisfaction with democracy, however, is context-dependent; it positively influences affective polarization only when generalized democratic satisfaction is low. Furthermore, I show that these correlations remain stable regardless of the operationalization of affective polarization—that is, based on two dominant parties and weighted for multiparty competition. These findings provide robust inputs to the study of party preferences and social distance in a cross-national longitudinal perspective.

When “Don’t Know” Indicates Nonignorable Missingness: Using the Estimation of Political Knowledge as an Example

The conventional procedure for measuring political knowledge is treating nonresponses such as “don’t know” as incorrect responses and counting the number of “correct” responses. In recent times, increasing attention has been paid to partial knowledge hidden within incorrect and nonresponses. This article explores partial knowledge indicated by incorrect and nonresponses and considers nonresponses as nonignorable missingness. We propose a model that combines the shared-parameter approach presented in the literature on missing data mechanisms and the methods of item response theory. We show that the proposed model can determine whether the people with nonresponses should be treated as more or less knowledgeable and detect whether it is appropriate to pool nonresponses and incorrect responses into the same category. Furthermore, we find partial knowledge hidden within women’s nonresponses, which confirms the possibility of the exaggeration of the gender gap in political knowledge.

Are politically engaged citizens more democratic? A glimpse from Brazil

A significant part of the Western literature on democracy assumes that political participation leads to citizens being more committed to democratic values. However, we do not know to what extent this is true in young democracies with an authoritarian tradition. Hence, this article aims to examine whether politically engaged Brazilians are more democratic. To do so, we analyzed whether there is any association between political participation, support for democracy, and democracy relativization through multivariate regression models. Our database comprises a representative sample of 2417 interviews with the electorate of São Paulo in 2019. The results show a statistically significant association between unconventional political participation and support for democracy. General political participation is associated with non-relativization of democracy only, showing a limited relationship between support for democracy and participation. Other variables, such as political interest, political knowledge, and interpersonal trust, are also associated with higher support for democracy.

The Massachusetts Bay Company and New England Company (1640–1684): Exportation, Revaluation and the Demise of Corporate Theocratic Governance

Returning to Massachusetts, this chapter focuses on communal responsibility and identity in decline of the MBC’s theocratic governance between 1640 and 1684. Firstly, this chapter investigates the transportation of political knowledge and ideas through corporate membership, assessing the role of individual MBC members such as Hugh Peters, Stephen Winthrop and Henry Vane Jr., in the formation of religious governance in England in the years surrounding the Wars of the Three Kingdoms. The chapter also assesses the evolution of corporate evangelism in England and America, with the formation of the New England Company (NEC). It analyses several evangelical works including Roger Williams’s A Yet More Bloody and John Cotton’s The Bloudy Tenent, in order to understand the conflicted development of evangelism within the company, and how it became used to justify territorial expansion and further encroach on English and Native American religious and governmental identity and rights. The chapter concludes by offering an analysis of the downfall of the MBC, emphasising how models of governance strengthened and established out of corporate flexibility could, at the same time, be made brittle and weakened.

Women's Voices in Civil Society Organizations: Evidence from a Civil Society Mapping Project in Mali

How does women's engagement in civil society organizations (CSOs) differ from that of men, and what factors predict women's willingness to hold the state accountable? We analyze these questions in the context of rural and urban Mali, leveraging face-to-face data collected as part of a civil society mapping project during February -- March 2020 and December 2020, and an in-depth survey conducted with leaders from a randomly-selected subset of these CSOs during January -- March 2021. First, we explore the characteristics of women's groups compared to other CSOs. Second, we explore their likelihood of sanctioning a hypothetical corrupt mayor. We use an embedded survey experiment to try to understand these groups' willingness to report on the mayor as well as the payments they expect to receive from the mayor in order to not share information about the mayor's corruption. We find that women in Mali are often highly organized at the local level---frequently in self-help groups or organizations related to gendered economic activities. However, these more economically-focused groupings of Malian women frequently do not translate into civic activity. They are not typically recognized by outside actors as viable CSOs that could incentivize better governance; their strong networks and group infrastructure represent untapped social capital. We also find that CSOs comprised of women have lower informational and technical capacity, especially due to lower levels of political knowledge, and incur a higher cost of sanctioning public officials---though they have greater mobilization capacity. Women's engagement in decision-making in the home also predicts one's CSO being more hierarchical and having greater technical capacity, as well as having higher expected transfers from the mayor---findings that do not vary with respondent or CSO gender. Turning to the extent to which women involved in CSOs are willing to sanction the state, we find that they are generally less willing than men to sanction, but become more likely when their CSO is less hierarchical, when their technical capacity is higher, and when their political knowledge is greater. However, priming their importance as a CSO (by telling them they were identified by well-connected citizens as being influential) actually reduces sanctioning---perhaps by making them fear that those recommending them will engage in reprisals. Overall, our findings provide useful evidence on the organizational capacity of women and how it is likely to affect the state.

The more you know, the less you like: A comparative study of how news and political conversation shape political knowledge and affective polarization

The contemporary communication ecology contributes to affective polarization by presenting us with extreme exemplars of disliked groups. News exposure that is associated with political discussion networks is related to greater political knowledge, yet unlike previous eras where political knowledge and tolerance went hand in hand, this is no longer the case. We employ a comparative design to examine this idea among two democracies with differing levels of journalistic professionalism and political system: Mexico and the United States. Results show that greater political knowledge is associated with affective polarization, especially for the United States. Furthermore, there was a significant indirect path between media use and affective polarization, mediated through homogeneous political talk and political knowledge, but not in Mexico.

Alternatives to Democracy

This chapter argues that enlightened preference voting is likely to be superior to our current system. In enlightened preference voting, all citizens may vote. When they vote, they (1) register their preferences, (2) indicate their demographic categories, and (3) take a short test of basic, easily verifiable political knowledge. Afterward, all three sets of “data” are anonymized and made public. The government—and any decent political scientist or newspaper—can then calculate what a demographically identical public would have supported if only everyone got a perfect score on the test.

A comunicação pública digital da Câmara Municipal de Itapevi no Facebook e as possibilidades de letramento político / The digital public communication of the Municipality of Itapevi on Facebook and the possibilities of political literacy

The following study seeks to understand how the Facebook page of the City Council of Itapevi, Brazil, made political literacy possible through political education, discussions on the political agenda, and mobilization in its communication on the social network. The corpus of the analysis brings together 683 publications made in 2019, a period in which the page showed an increase in audience compared to the previous year (2018). The quantitative research, though with a qualitative look, identified posts that made political knowledge possible to the citizen, as well as interviews to understand the use of the social network by the institution. An appropriate analysis to understand the use of the network by the public body, since the latest survey by DataSenado shows that 74% of Brazilians have or have had a social network - Facebook, Whatsapp, Instagram, or Twitter. A significant number, especially when compared to data from the Brazilian Institute of Geography and Statistics (IBGE), from 2019, indicates that two-thirds of the country's population (69.8%) have an internet connection. These numbers drive the research of communicologists and political scientists, who seek to understand how this communication network is being part of people's daily lives. Mainly taking into account that the internet, and especially social networks, are becoming a space where different people connect, share content and participate in the political debate a few clicks away. The internet's expansion in Brazil and the number of people connected to networks made different public bodies create profiles on social networks to interact with people. A new channel that aims to establish a rapprochement with this digital audience, ensure transparency in management and encourage the participation of everyone in the decision-making process. As occurred at the City Council of Itapevi (CMI, in Portuguese). However, to guarantee a minimum of success in this digital endeavor, the information available on the networks must be of public interest and its content must be accessible, allowing citizens to understand how public authorities work and to know the process of choosing representatives. A knowledge that can be shared with the citizen through political literacy, as highlighted by Cosson (2016: 51): “these are knowledge related to the functioning of the State, with an emphasis on democratic mechanisms, which involves, on one hand, a knowledge about elections, parties and institutions, and on the other hand, the rights and duties of the citizen”. Therefore, the article was divided into four parts, in addition to the final considerations. The first seeks to clarify the difference between public and political communication; the second addresses how Facebook has supported CMI's communication strategy. Furthermore, there is a literature review on political literacy. Finally, the objective of this study: an analysis of the possibility of political literacy through publications made on the CMI profile on Facebook, in 2019, which concludes that the page is a virtual space for debate and public expression in the city, with growth potential for the promotion of citizenship and political knowledge. The study is based on publications in the areas of public communication (Matos, 2000; Marques, 2009; Correia, 2010), social networks (Recuero, 2009; Ferrari, 2004, Silva, 2020), and political literacy (Cosson, 2020; Biesta, 2009).

Voter Confusion in Surabaya: The Problem of Ballot Design and Incompetence [Kebingungan Pemilih di Surabaya: Masalah Desain Kertas Suara dan Inkompetensi]

The simultaneous scheme in the 2019 elections in Indonesia caused voter confusion, especially in the legislative elections. Citizens who are confused and disappointed when voting candidates characterize the declining quality of representation in electoral democracy. This study aims to determine the factors of confusion among citizens when they are in the voting booth. The case study research was conducted in Surabaya by interviewing 54 residents after the general election using recalling questions and in-depth interviews. The results show that the voter confusion factor is the effect of the complex design of the 2019 legislative election ballot paper, the lack of socialization about election procedures, and the difficulty of respondents understanding the simultaneous election models. The competency category shows that voter confusion is the respondents' low interest in political discussions and inadequate political knowledge. These two competence issues affect the quality of voters' political participation. Voter confusion in Surabaya generally motivates the phenomena of incorrect and misleading voting.AbstrakSkema serentak dalam pemilu 2019 di Indonesia menimbulkan fenomena kebingungan pemilih, khususnya pada pemilihan legislatif. Warga yang bingung dan kecewa pada saat memilih kandidat mencirikan menurunnya kualitas representasi dalam demokrasi elektoral. Penelitian ini bertujuan untuk mendapatkan faktor-faktor kebingungan warga saat berada di bilik suara. Penelitian studi kasus dilakukan di Surabaya dengan mewawancarai 54 warga pasca pemilihan umum dengan menggunakan teknik recalling question dan deep interview. Hasil penelitian menunjukkan bahwa faktor kebingungan pemilih merupakan efek dari desain kertas suara pemilihan legislatif 2019 yang kompleks, minimnya sosialisasi mengenai tata cara pemilu, dan sulitnya responden memahami pemilihan model serentak. Kategori kompetensi menunujukkan bahwa kebingungan terjadi karena rendahnya ketertarikan responden dalam diskusi politik dan rendahnya pengetahuan politik. Dua masalah komptensi ini berefek pada kualitas partisipasi politik pemilih. Kebingungan pemilih di Surabaya secara umum memotivasi fenomena incorrect voting dan misleading voting.