The Origins of Technopopulism

This chapter examines the origins of the technopopulist political logic. It does so by identifying the origins and principal contours of the ideological political logic which preceded it. It then explores the relative decline of the ideological logic and the rise of technopopulism. The technopopulist logic has superimposed itself upon the ideological logic, leading to a complex interaction between the two. The theme of the chanpter is the formation and decline of organizing interests and the complex relationship between societal change and evolutions in national political party systems. The overarching narrative is of the separation of state from society (referred to process of disintermediation) and the connection of this to technopopulism. The rise of the technopopulist political logic is associated with a number of macro-historical processes, such as secularization, cognitive mobilization, and the decline of organized interests. However, the relationship between these processes and the rise of technopopulism is shaped by nationally specific experiences. The empirical focus of the chapter is on British, French, and Italian politics, but the argument refers also to broader changes that held across national political systems in Western Europe since 1945.

TOLERÂNCIA POLÍTICA NO BRASIL RECENTE: evolução de indicadores e condicionantes

<p>Combinando contestação pública com participação política, a democracia é igualmente dependente de um ambiente de tolerância política. Uma democracia de qualidade não poderia existir em um ambiente marcado por forte intolerância, no qual as pessoas não têm oportunidade de expor as suas opiniões e debater suas ideais. Essa condicionalidade impõe dificuldades para o processo de aprimoramento da democracia brasileira, especialmente considerando os conturbados últimos anos. A atual crise política, iniciada com os protestos que culminaram com o impeachment da Presidente Dilma Rousseff e ainda sem data para terminar, tem sido marcada por forte contenciosidade e manifestações de intolerância das diferentes partes envolvidas na disputa. Diante desse cenário, este artigo apresenta um quadro da tolerância política no Brasil recente.<br />Utilizando a série histórica de dados de opinião pública do Latin American Public Opinion Project (LAPOP), analisamos a evolução de diferentes indicadores de atitudes politicamente tolerantes e, para além desses contornos gerais, exploramos possíveis condicionantes sociodemográficos, atitudinais e comportamentais. Os dados indicam que, em todos indicadores, a opinião dos brasileiros tende a ser majoritariamente tolerante para o conjunto das medidas adotadas, verificando-se, porém, um declínio em todas elas quando observada<br />a pesquisa de 2014. Quanto aos determinantes da tolerância, foram encontradas evidências de que tais atitudes estão relacionadas com maiores níveis de mobilização cognitiva dos eleitores.</p><p> </p><p>POLITICAL TOLERANCE IN RECENT BRAZIL: evolution of indicators and conditioning factors</p><p>Combining public contestation with political participation, democracy is equally dependent on an environment of political tolerance. A quality democracy could not exist in an environment marked by strong intolerance, in which people do not have the opportunity to express their opinions and debate their ideals. This conditionality imposes difficulties for the process of improving Brazilian democracy, especially considering the troubled past years. The current political crisis, which began with the protests that culminated in the impeachment of President Dilma Rousseff and has not yet ended, has been marked by strong contentiousness and manifestations of intolerance by the different parties involved in the dispute. Given this scenario, this article presents a framework of political tolerance in recent Brazil. Using the Latin American Public Opinion Project’s (LAPOP) historical data series, we analyze the evolution of different indicators of politically tolerant attitudes and, beyond these general contours, explore possible socio-demographic, attitudinal and behavioral determinants. The data indicate that in all indicators, the opinion of Brazilians tends to be mostly tolerant for the set of measures adopted, however, there was a decline in all of them when observing the 2014 survey. Regarding the determinants of tolerance, we found evidence that such attitudes are related to higher levels of voter cognitive mobilization.</p><p>Key-words: Political tolerance. Brazil. Political behavior.</p><p> </p><p>TOLÉRANCE POLITIQUE AU BRÉSIL RÉCENT: évolution des indicateurs et des facteurs de conditionnement</p><p>La combinaison de protestations du public avec la participation politique, la démocratie dépend également d’un environnement de tolérance politique. La qualité de la démocratie ne pouvait pas exister dans un environnement marqué par une forte intolérance dans laquelle les gens ont pas la possibilité d’exprimer leurs points de vue et discuter de leurs idéaux. Cette conditionnalité impose des difficultés pour le processus d’amélioration de la démocratie brésilienne, surtout compte tenu des turbulences ces dernières années. La crise actuelle,<br />qui a commencé avec les protestations qui ont conduit à la destitution du président Dilma Rousseff et toujours pas de date de fin a été marquée par un fort contentieux et manifestations d’intolérance par les différentes parties impliquées dans le différend. Dans ce scénario, cet article présente un cadre de tolérance politique dans le récent Brésil. Avec l’utilisation de la série historique des données d’opinion publique du projet sur l’opinion publique latino-américain (LAPOP), nous analysons l’évolution des différents indicateurs d’attitudes de tolérance politique et en plus de ces grandes lignes, nous explorons possibles contraintes socio-démographiques, des attitudes et du comportement. Les données indiquent que, dans tous les indicateurs, l’opinion des brésiliens a tendance à être généralement tolérante pour l’ensemble des mesures adoptées, cependant, il y a eu une baisse de chacun d’entre eux lors de l’observation de l’enquête de 2014. En ce qui concerne les déterminants de la tolérance, nous avons trouvé des preuves que ces attitudes sont liées à des niveaux plus élevés de mobilisation cognitive des électeurs.</p><p>Mots-clés: Tolérance politique. Brésil. Comportement politique.</p><p> </p>

15. Citizens and Public Opinion in the European Union

This chapter provides an overview of trends in public opinion toward the European Union. The chapter also discusses the key factors thought to explain differences in mass opinion regarding the EU. These include political economy and rationality; that is, opinions stemming from calculations about the costs and benefits of the EU; perceptions of the national government (domestic proxies); the influence of political elites; political psychology, including cognitive mobilization (attentiveness to politics) and concerns about the loss of national identity; and finally, the role of the mass media in driving opinions regarding the EU.

Nothing’s gonna change my world – Or do journalistic clarifications help against rumors?

In the current digitalized media landscape, communicators and recipients are struggling to produce and identify reliable information in order to cope with rumors, misconceptions, and fake news. In the face of this, the popularity and relevance of factchecking services have increased in recent years. Nevertheless, not much is known about the effectiveness of these journalistic entities. This study proposes a theoretical framework that systemizes possible influencing factors. An online survey of 607 German media users was conducted, measuring the effectiveness of several clarifications in adjusting recipients’ misperceptions about six current controversial issues in Germany. The results indicate that journalistic clarifications are in fact capable of causing an adjustment process. Regression analyses show that, contrary to expectations, the users’ attitudes that go against the message of the clarification had only a small effect on the adjustment process. Media reliance had positive effects on only one issue, as well, and cognitive mobilization on two issues. A positive evaluation of the quality of the clarification showed effects in four cases, but not always as expected. Evaluations of the credibility of the communicator delivered no effects.

Mobilizing the young vote: Direct mail voter guides in the 2015 Chicago mayoral election*

Previous studies have shown nonpartisan direct mail interventions have a small turnout effect. It is less clear, however, what effect these interventions have with regard to cognitive mobilization of young voters. We report the results of a large ( N=52,324) experiment conducted during the February 2015 mayoral election in Chicago. A random sample of 22,179 registrants between 18 and 30 were sent a voter guide containing two sets of orienting political information for the five candidates: a list of their endorsements and their policy positions on five issues in the campaign. We find turnout among the treated group was 0.9 points higher than the control group which did not receive a guide (33.6% compared with 32.7%; SE is 0.003). We find, however, that treated registrants in above-median household income census tracts are significantly more likely to vote than treated registrants in lower-income census tracts.

Modernization, Globalization, and Satisfaction with Democracy

This chapter tests the validity of the major propositions of modernization and globalization theories. Modernization theory attributes legitimacy decline to the socioeconomic and cultural transformation of advanced industrial societies after the Second World War, leading to value change and cognitive mobilization among citizens, while globalization theory attributes legitimacy decline to the negative consequences of (economic) globalization for citizens of lower socioeconomic status in advanced industrial societies. This chapter evaluates the empirical evidence for the effects of individual modernization and of economic globalization on political support, differentiating between citizens of lower and higher socioeconomic status. Using Eurobarometer data on political support from 1973 to 2015, the authors show that political support in most countries has increased among both the higher educated and lower educated. To the extent that there is support for the globalization thesis, the increase in satisfaction with democracy has been less pronounced among the lower educated, generating a widening “satisfaction gap.”

The Crisis of Party Democracy, Cognitive Mobilization, and the Case for Making Parties More Deliberative

The much-discussed crisis of political parties poses a challenge to democratic theorists as institutional designers: how can the capacity of parties to mediate between society and state be resuscitated? In this article, we suggest that parties need to become more internally deliberative, allowing partisans to debate policy and more general visions for the polity. We outline a prescriptive model of deliberative intraparty democracy, drawing on the empirical literature on the changing structure of civic and political engagement. We argue that deliberative reforms are the most appropriate response to the demands of an increasingly more cognitively mobilized citizenry which seeks self-expression and nonhierarchical forms of political engagement. We highlight the model's distinctive strengths and defend it against several objections.

Comparative analysis and assessment of the level of development of contemporary societies: the prospect of theoretical synthesis

The article clarifies the existing approaches of comparative analysis and assessment of the level of development of different societies taking into account their civilizational characteristics. This specification allows solving the fundamental contradiction of theories of development of modern society and modernization which is due to the uncertainty over the common and different for various forms of modernity. Based on a critical review of three approaches (institutional & universalistic, local & civilizational, formal & comparative) the key dimensions of development of societies in the global world system are identified: economic performance and financial security, efficiency of institutions, values and motivation, human capital and cognitive mobilization, quality of life by objective and subjective criteria, health and life expectancy, social inclusion, cohesion and empowerment. The Capability Approach and related social quality model are used to improve the existing tools for adequate comparison of societies with different civilizations origin and programs of modernization.