Peculiarities of Ukrainians’ Approval of Decentralization Reform

Every countrywide reform can always have specific opponents and fans as the changes make people leave their comfort zone. As an example, we have chosen a Ukrainian decentralization reform. Although this local self-government reform can be considered the most successful in our country, the attitude of Ukrainians to the changes has not always been unambiguous. Using taxonomic analysis, the paper calculates the integrated indicator of public approval of decentralization reform in Ukraine based on sociological research for 2015–2020. We have described the features of conducting surveys in different periods and identified the reasons for the emergence of such an attitude to the reform. We have also calculated the weights of the impact of each primary indicator on the integrated indicator, which helped us identify the weaknesses and strengths of the reform in public opinion Furthermore, the analysis allowed us to reveal and substantiate a set of problems in implementing decentralization reform in Ukraine, and the causes and solutions were worked out for each problem. Finally, we have made a generalized algorithm for the application of the experience of public opinion analysis in planning and carrying out reforms.

Public support for lockdown policies

Due to the outbreak of the COVID-19 disease, many countries have been forced to impose non-pharmaceutical policy interventions such as lockdowns to stop community transmission. We investigate public support for the lockdown policy in Spain, one of the countries most affected by the pandemic and with the strictest lockdown in Europe. Based on survey data collected during the first weeks of March and April 2020, we investigate how public support for the lockdown relates to the number of confirmed cases in the province of residence, personal institutional trust and concern about the severity of coronavirus. We find that public approval of the lockdown significantly relates to the evolution of COVID cases, institutional trust, political ideology and personal economic situation.

Attempting to establish land tax and stamp duty in France in 1787

The paper examines the short-term introduction of land tax and stamp duty by Lomnie de Brienne in the summer of 1787 and their further abolition in September 1787. The introduction of new taxes became an urgent need in France in 1787. The huge budget deficit, external debts forced the government to first turn to notables for public approval of the reform plan, and after the failure of this idea, to register through the Paris Parliament in the summer of 1787. Parliamentarians opposed the introduction of these taxes. To combat the deficit, they called for a general economy, cut costs and increased income, demanded the convening of the States General, on which new taxes should be introduced. Discussions and correspondence with the king continued in July and early August 1787. At the royal meeting on August 6, taxes were adopted, but parliament did not obey and advocated their abolition. The king sent parliament into exile. Negotiations began, which led to a compromise: the land tax and stamp duty were canceled, and the term of two twenty was extended until 1792. The work analyzes the stages of the adoption and cancellation of new taxes, highlights the requirements of parliament and the royal administration, studies the land tax edict and the stamp declaration, collection and edict on their cancellation, considers remonstration and decisions of the Paris Parliament, the kings answers and analyzes the reflection of these events in the press and publicism.

Is political engagement by constitutional monarchs compatible with democracy?

Constitutional monarchies have proved to be resilient, and some have made substantive political interventions even though their positions are mostly hereditary, without granted constitutional channels to do so. This article examines how constitutional monarchs can influence political affairs and what impact royal intervention can have on politics. I argue that constitutional monarchs affect politics indirectly by influencing the preferences of the public who have de jure power to influence political leaders. The analyses herein show that constitutional monarchs do not indiscriminately intervene in politics, but their decisions to intervene reflect the public’s preferences. First, constitutional monarchs with little public approval become self-restraining and do not attempt to assert their political preferences. Second, they are more likely to intervene in politics when the public is less satisfied about the incumbent government. These findings are illustrated with historical narratives regarding the political involvement of King Bhumibol Adulyadej of Thailand in the 2000s.

A Populist President Tests El Salvador’s Democracy

In June 2019, Nayib Bukele, a former mayor affiliated with the former guerrilla movement FMLN, became president of El Salvador at the head of a new party allied with a splinter faction of the right-wing ARENA party. Capitalizing on the corruption scandals that tainted the two major parties, the youthful businessman rode to victory on an anti-sleaze platform. He has made Twitter his government’s main communications platform, using symbolic politics to achieve high public approval ratings. But the president spurns openness and transparency in government, is hostile to the media, and openly defies the legislature and the judiciary, putting democracy at risk.

Governmental Responses to Terrorism in Autocracies: Evidence from China

Autocracies are widely assumed to have a counterterrorism advantage because they can censor media and are insulated from public opinion, thereby depriving terrorists of both their audience and political leverage. However, institutionalized autocracies such as China draw legitimacy from public approval and feature partially free media environments, meaning that their information strategies must be much more sophisticated than simple censorship. To better understand the strategic considerations that govern decisions about transparency in this context, this article explores the Chinese Communist Party's (CCP) treatment of domestic terrorist incidents in the official party mouthpiece – the People's Daily. Drawing on original, comprehensive datasets of all known Uyghur terrorist violence in China and the official coverage of that violence, the findings demonstrate that the CCP promptly acknowledges terrorist violence only when both domestic and international conditions are favorable. The authors attribute this pattern to the entrenched prioritization of short-term social stability over longer-term legitimacy.

Does public approval shape news? Competing legitimacies and news headlines in the Philippines from Ramos to Aquino III

Can a president’s high public approval, vis-à-vis competing coordinate institutions, shape press coverage of political events? Testing theories of executive scandals, this paper argues that in the context of Philippine presidential democracy, presidential satisfaction shapes the production of political events more than the presence of other policy issues competing for broadsheet space. Using logistic regression models to analyse the news headlines appearing in two major broadsheets in the Philippines from 1992 to 2016, the study finds that presidents whose approval ratings are low compared to Congress are an easy target for the opposition and a much more attractive topic for sensational news by the press. With a much smaller circle of supporters for the president, there is also less risk for the opposition and the press collaborating or colluding in the production of political events. The press, in contrast, tends to be conservative in reporting political events when the public mood is generally supportive of the Philippine chief executive.

Most People Like Nudges—and Why that Matters

This chapter reports the results of nationally representative surveys in fourteen countries, investigating the attitudes of people towards nudges and nudging, with a particular focus on environmental and health nudges. The countries covered are Australia, Brazil, Canada, China, Denmark, France, Germany, Hungary, Italy, Japan, Russia, South Africa, South Korea, and the United Kingdom. There is strong majority support for both health and environmental nudges in all countries, with the exception of Japan, Denmark, and Hungary. China and South Korea stand out with particularly high acceptance rates. Beyond reporting the results of the combined dataset for the first time, the chapter provides an explanation first, of why policy makers might be interested in public approval or disapproval of nudges, and second, how information of public acceptance can inform both uses of and constraints on nudging.