The normal life of settlers

This paper concerns Let me tell you a story about Israel, a theatrical play tasked with influencing existing perceptions of the Palestine/Israel conflict amongst international audiences. Drawing on the work of philosopher Baruch Spinoza, I explore the complex issue of how to address the need to change people’s political perceptions by using theatre as a form of activist persuasion. The play attempts to create an image of the conflict mostly absent in the commentaries of international observers who are unaware of the full implications of the conflict’s settler colonial character. Typically, they understand it in terms of two sides competing over land, frontiers and recognition. The sense of balance that this perception conveys pre-empts coming to grips with the colonial history of Palestine beginning with the advent of Zionism from late 19th century. Such a view also obscures the nature of current forms of Israeli domination and fails to take into account a major historical factor: that the settler colonial dynamic in Palestine rests on the ways social life in Israel is organised and reproduced. Hence, the play aims to make perceptible the relation between the social mechanisms of subjectivity formation in the Israeli society on the one hand, and the everyday performance of settler colonial power on the other. Making this relation observable is a necessary step towards rethinking where change could possibly come from.

Estimating Local Inequality from Nighttime Lights

Economic inequality at the local level has been shown to be an important predictor of people’s political perceptions and preferences. However, research on these questions is hampered by the fact that local inequality is difficult to measure and systematic data collections are rare, in particular in countries of the Global South. We propose a new measure of local inequality derived from nighttime light (NTL) emissions data. Our measure corresponds to the local inequality in per capita nighttime light emissions, using VIIRS-derived nighttime light emissions data and spatial population data from WorldPop. We validate our estimates using local inequality estimates from the Demographic and Health Surveys (DHS) for a sample of African countries. Our results show that nightlight-based inequality estimates correspond well to those derived from survey data, and that the relationship is not due to structural factors such as differences between urban and rural regions. We also present predictive results, where we approximate the (survey-based) level of local inequality with our nighttime light indicator. This illustrates how our approach can be used for new cases where no other data are available.

A Political History of Cyberspace

The political history of cyberspace can reveal much about contemporary and future cyber security challenges. This chapter includes some technological history but, more importantly, it also addresses the political forces and trends that fundamentally shaped the development of cyberspace. In doing so, it provides insight into why cyber security is much more than a technical challenge, and why politics can be simultaneously an obstruction to better global cyber security and also the best hope for it. Observing how political perceptions of cyber security threats have both changed and remained constant over time helps put current approaches into perspective, avoiding the two reductionist arguments that either ‘everything is different now’ or ‘it is the same as it ever was’. Addressing future challenges like the Internet of Things and future remedies like emergent cyber norms require a sound understanding of the past. Essentially, this chapter calls for much more careful and comprehensive engagement with the interrelationship between technological developments and political forces.

The Politics of Emotions in International Relations: Who Gets to Feel What, Whose Emotions Matter, and the “History Problem” in Sino-Japanese Relations

A large literature within the field of international relations has now explored both how emotions can shape political perceptions and behavior and how international actors may seek to manipulate, harness, or deploy emotions and emotional displays for political ends. Less attention, however, has been paid to how political struggles can also center upon issues of who can or should feel what emotion and whose feelings matter. Precisely, we theorize a distributive politics of emotion that can manifest in three general forms, all of which have their own properties and logics of contestation. The first centers on emotional obligations, understood as an actor's duties to feel and express specific emotions. The second concerns emotional entitlements, or the rights an actor enjoys to either feel or not feel certain emotions. And the third involves hierarchies of emotional deference, that is, the varying degrees of priority accorded to different actors’ feelings. We illustrate how the politics of emotions can unfold on the international stage by looking at developments in the so-called history problem within Sino-Japanese relations.

Partisanship in the #MeToo Era

Partisanship structures mass politics by shaping the votes, policy views, and political perceptions of ordinary people. Even so, substantial shifts in partisanship can occur when elites signal clear differences on a political issue and attentive citizens update their views of party reputations. Mismatched partisans who strongly care about the issue respond by changing parties in a process of “issue evolution” when writ large. Others simply update their views to match their party in a “conflict extension” process. We build on these models by integrating the largely separate research strands of party issue ownership. Using sexual misconduct as a critical case study, we argue that partisan change can occur rapidly when party elites move strategically to take ownership of an issue, thereby clarifying differences between the parties. Using a quasi-experiment, a survey experiment, and data from dozens of national surveys, we find recent, rapid shifts in party reputations on #MeToo, views of the issue, party votes, and broader party support.

Lifestyle Media and Changing Political Perceptions Among Russian Protesters in the Second Half of the 2000s

Protests in today’s Russia are still influenced by trends emerged in the 2000s. According to Graeme B. Robertson, in the second half of the 2000s, the repertoire of the Russian protest changed and direct actions were replaced by symbolic actions. The article argues that protest trends and changes in the repertoire of actions were accompanied by the formation of widespread political perceptions among protesters. These perceptions reflected and influenced transformations of Russian protest movements. The article analyzes political discourses of three lifestyle media outlets, namely Afisha, Bol’shoi Gorod, Esquire, GQ and Epic Hero. All of them drew attention to protests and elaborated their own vision of preferable protest methods. This vision denounced direct actions and advocated constructive and non-antagonistic relations between protesters and the authorities.

Towards a Korean Sustainable Business Model at National Level: The Influence of Cultural and Political Perceptions of National Image on Consumers’ Behavior

Despite the increasing uptake of the term sustainable business model (SBM), the concept has mainly focused on business strategies. However, integrating the SBM into a longer-term and macroscopic framework would make it more sustainable. This article explored the SBM as a national strategy that operates beyond a corporate level. In this respect, the study examined the ways in which cultural and political perceptions of a nation can influence consumers’ choices. This article particularly examined the explanatory power of two ideational driving forces: perceptions of cultural heritage, and perceptions of politics and foreign relations. By assessing a dataset of the views of 223 African students studying in Korea, this study confirmed that national image meaningfully affects consumer behavior (intention to recommend). Furthermore, the study provided new evidence that cultural and political perceptions of a nation have a significantly positive effect on national image. It was also found that national image played a role as a mediating variable relating to cultural/political perceptions and intention to recommend. By extending the concept of the SBM to a national level, this article lays the foundation for a win–win situation between decision makers in both business and political sectors.

The Driving Factor for Stability of Voter Turnout in Southeast Asia: The Evidence from Malaysian and Indonesian Elections

The objective of the study was to describe voter participation (turnout) in South East Asia, particlarry in Indonesian and Malaysian elections from 2004–2019, and the factors that cause stable participation. The participation of voters (turnout) in Malaysia’s elections from 2004–2018 is 73.90–84%. The participation of voters in Indonesia’s elections from 2004–2019 is 70.99–84.09%. This means that voter participation in the last three election periods was stable in both countries. This study shows that four factors cause stable participation: political awareness, rationality, political perceptions, and electoral orientation that is candidate-oriented. The theoretical implication of this study was to strengthen Timothy Feddersen and Alvaro Sandroni, and John G. Matsusaka’s theory about voter political participation or voter behaviour on election day. The originality of this study is that there are special characteristics behind stable political participation in Indonesia and Malaysia. Methods of data collection in this study is based on literature study and analytical method uses the descriptive analysis method. This study also uses a political comparison approach to analyse data.

Genesis of the Study of War as a Political Phenomenon in Pre-Revolutionary Russia

Introduction. The article explores the conceptualization of war as a political phenomenon in prerevolutionary Russia and presents its results for theory and practice. For this purpose, the article studies and interprets the origins of political ideas about war, the occurrence of political content in its scientific understanding, the emergence and development of various paradigms for its understanding as a political phenomenon and the conceptualization of Russia’s superior strategy. Methods and methodology. The research methodology is based on political realism and the recognition of war as an actual phenomenon. The choice of works for analysis stems from the connection of their content with political issues. The article studies political situations and processes that caused the enhancement of research into war as a political phenomenon. Analysis. The first political perceptions of the phenomenon of war began taking shape in Russia in the second half of the 17th century and they reveal an understanding of the link between war and politics. The formation of the knowledge system about war and military activities took place without political understanding and contained a significant element of borrowing from outside. In relation to the formation of the science of war, there was also a theoretical understanding of its political content. In the second third of the 19th century scientific discussions began, in which two approaches based on the decision to recognize the political content of war were formed. Eventually, an approach that essentially negates the primacy of political institutions prevailed in military science and in the education of military personnel, which had negative consequences for theory and practice. Results. The study of war as a political phenomenon in pre-revolutionary Russia formed dialectical and metaphysical approaches with the latter dominating and being followed by representatives of official military science. It can be stated that there is a problem of method in the study of war, which is manifested in modern conditions.

The Driving Factor for Stability of Voter Turnout in Southeast Asia: The Evidence from Malaysian and Indonesian Elections

The objective of the study was to describe voter participation (turnout) in South East Asia, particlarry in Indonesian and Malaysian elections from 2004–2019, and the factors that cause stable participation. The participation of voters (turnout) in Malaysia’s elections from 2004–2018 is 73.90–84%. The participation of voters in Indonesia’s elections from 2004–2019 is 70.99–84.09%. This means that voter participation in the last three election periods was stable in both countries. This study shows that four factors cause stable participation: political awareness, rationality, political perceptions, and electoral orientation that is candidate-oriented. The theoretical implication of this study was to strengthen Timothy Feddersen and Alvaro Sandroni, and John G. Matsusaka’s theory about voter political participation or voter behaviour on election day. The originality of this study is that there are special characteristics behind stable political participation in Indonesia and Malaysia. Methods of data collection in this study is based on literature study and analytical method uses the descriptive analysis method. This study also uses a political comparison approach to analyse data.