Testing Negative: The Non-Consequences of COVID-19 on Mass Ideology

Responding to COVID-19, governments implemented large-scale economic and social policies of unprecedented scale. This highlighted the state's capacity to guarantee economic and health security, and affected demographic groups that are less commonly beneficiaries of state support. We hypothesise that exposure to the pandemic and these policy responses caused change in attitudes to the role of government in the economy and redistribution. We test this expectation using data from the (2014–present) British Election Study panel, together with a unique panel survey fielded to existing BES respondents in April and September, 2020. We find virtually no evidence of any effect on ideological beliefs. Moreover, using a survey experiment, we find exposure to cues linking the pandemic to greater roles for government has no impact on ideological beliefs. We conclude that such elite rhetoric, even if it had been present in the field, would not have yielded ideological change.

PATOLOGI PEMBANGUNAN ETIKA POLITIK PASCAREFORMASI DALAM PERSPEKTIF POSTSTRUKTURALIS-HIPERSEMIOTIK

Post-reform Politics in Indonesia marks by development pathologies. The focus of this study covers (1) anomalous symbols in Indonesian politics, (2) the paradoxical development of phenomena that appears in post-reform political ethics. This study uses qualitative method. While, poststructural-hypersemiotic used as a theory. The results show negation or criticism, as is the affirmation of the existence of ethics as a phenomenon that has been drowned by modernist-capitalism, which guerrillas regulates mass ideology through oligarchy of power with development jargon. These anomaly symbols manifest in various aspects, especially in economics, education, law, health and politics; whereas the development paradox is seen in opportunity cost projects and development competition.Kay World: Pathology, anomaly, paradoxes, post-reform, political ethics, hypersemiotics, existentialism-ethical, poststructural.

WHAT MODEL OF ECONOMY AND FINANCIAL SECTOR DOES RUSSIA NEED?

The article reveals the models of collective behavior and the ideology that dominates in public consciousness, generating modern structures of the economy and society in Russia. Shows the “leftism” of society, paternalism as fundamental characteristics that create the institutional structures of Russia. The analysis of the current model of the economy is given and it is shown how it is determined by the standards of collective behavior and “psychological” dominants of society. Other models of the economy (Anglo-­Saxon, Chinese, etc.) are discussed, their incompatibility with the standards of collective behavior prevailing in Russian society is revealed. The thesis is put forward that the social market economy (“continental model”) would best meet the needs of Russia, given its traditions, the most important goals facing the country, the most common models of collective behavior that have historical roots, and the prevailing mass ideology. The basic parameters of the social market economy, which enable Russia to move to long-term sustainable development, are discussed.

THE WORLD LEADERS THROUGH THE PRISM OF INFORMATION POLICY DURING THE COVID-19 PANDEMIC

The article considers the information policy in the current global crisis, weighed down by the pandemic of the COVID-19, which has sunk many countries around the world. In the setting of extreme conditions, the behaviour, rhetoric, slogans of world leaders and methods of mass communication are investigated. It is noted that the response of a certain number of world leaders was not always based on objective and rational recommendations of experts; moreover, they were even indicated by the absence of any scientific justification. It is proposed to classify the behaviour of world leaders during the fight against a pandemic according to the following four types: «Silence of the Lambs», «Riot of the Elites», «Tough Rejection», «Pendulum». The following types of approaches in internal communications (from the leader to people) are distinguished during the SARS-CoV-2 coronavirus epidemic, due to the tasks facing politicians and their vision of solving the problem: «Caring father», «Populist», «Tough leader», and «Tactician», depending on the internal socio-political situation in the country and the international situation, as well as on the personality traits of the leader himself, taking into account the predicted reaction of the neighbouring countries and the international community. Relevant examples of political leaders of each of these types are given. It is emphasized that world leaders did not take advantage of the emergency and did not formulate a concept for the future of their countries, confining themselves to general phrases. The forecasted trends are the demand for certain types of political leader after the pandemic, the need for the development of mass ideology, new events and guarantees of protection.

The Note on the Humanities and Education

The article “The Note on the Humanities and Education” by the german social philosopher Theodor Adorno, a representative of the critical theory of society, was published in 1962. In this philosophical-educational work Theodor Adorno continued the preliminary theme of his critical consideration of the unity of the elements of the culture of the industrial-mass society, which contribute to establishment in social life of industrial-mass ideology as completely dominant. In his philosophical-educational works Theodor Adorno also carried out a critical attack on the school and university education of post-war West Germany. According to the philosopher, this education remains traditionally unchanged, which makes it impossible for any serious anti-ideological transformation in its system. Such changes because of updated educational process could have contributed to the upbringing of a young citizen, a conscious and active participant in democratic transformations in the post-totalitarian society. However, according to Theodor Adorno, the educational process in the unreformed university remains controlled primarily of the agents of the scholarly consciousness, which in no way contributes to the anti-ideological upbringing of students. In this work Theodore Adorno noted the special significance of the humanities, which in German are translated as “sciences about the spirit”, which traditionally present in German university education. In his opinion, the humanities, as the sciences about the spirit, because of the prevalence in the educational process of the “dictates of the scientific ideal” lost the presence in itself of a factor of the individual human spirit. Theodor Adorno called of the signs of the presence of such a phenomenon in university education: the absolute priority of scientific research among humanities study, the lack of personal pedagogical work of a university teacher with a student of humanities, the tendency of struggle of the agent of the reified scientific consciousness against any different knowledge, the unity of the social and theoretical conformism of the agent of that conceptual consciousness. As in his other philosophical works, Theodore Adorno proposed to perceive of personal activity of a human, what is due to the strength of his individual spirit, the natural factor that is capable of conducting a continuous personal struggle with negative phenomena in education, which ideologically influence to the educational process at the university and in education in general.

Policy Ideology in European Mass Publics, 1981–2016

Using new scaling methods and a comprehensive public opinion dataset, we develop the first survey-based time-series–cross-sectional measures of policy ideology in European mass publics. Our dataset covers 27 countries and 36 years and contains nearly 2.7 million survey responses to 109 unique issue questions. Estimating an ordinal group-level IRT model in each of four issue domains, we obtain biennial estimates of the absolute economic conservatism, relative economic conservatism, social conservatism, and immigration conservatism of men and women in three age categories in each country. Aggregating the group-level estimates yields estimates of the average conservatism in national publics in each biennium between 1981–82 and 2015–16. The four measures exhibit contrasting cross-sectional cleavages and distinct temporal dynamics, illustrating the multidimensionality of mass ideology in Europe. Subjecting our measures to a series of validation tests, we show that the constructs they measure are distinct and substantively important and that they perform as well as or better than one-dimensional proxies for mass conservatism (left–right self-placement and median voter scores). We foresee many uses for these scores by scholars of public opinion, electoral behavior, representation, and policy feedback.

Rethinking Mass and Elite: Decision-Making in the Athenian Law-Courts

This chapter puts pressure on the ‘mass and elite model’ of Athenian litigation introduced by Ober. According to this framework, litigation is a game played by elite litigants and mass audiences; the ‘masses’ constitute a monolithic body with identical preferences; the ‘elites’ are thoroughly aware of, and willingly play by, the rules set by the masses. Moving from a different interpretation of Athenian political sociology, this chapter builds a new model of Athenian litigation that modifies Ober’s in three important respects: first, the jurors’ preferences are not the product of a monolithic and static ‘mass’ ideology; second, litigants (not only elites) can reasonably predict the location of the median juror; and third, litigants’ arguments are the product of a cost‐benefit analysis that depends a) on the relative expected position of their opponent; b) on the expected position of the median juror; and c) on the policy/legal agenda they are pursuing. The model proposed here suggests that repeated interactions in the law‐courts allowed diverse interests to be advanced and negotiated, which helped the Athenians collectively define the boundaries of their social relations while responding to the new challenges that a post‐imperial, highly fragmented Greek ecology posed to Athens’ stability and prosperity.

Public Ideology and Political Dynamics in the United States

This article explores the role that two theoretically distinct conceptions of mass “ideology”—operational and symbolic—play in shaping policy and electoral change in the United States. I consider both types of ideology as aggregate, dynamic concepts, and find that though the public’s operational and symbolic preferences change in broadly similar ways over time, there are consequential differences in how these two types of ideology respond to the political context and in how they intersect with important political and social outcomes. Changes in the public’s operational ideology—the dominant direction of public views on specific policy matters—react systematically to changes in the policy context and are strongly predictive of both electoral outcomes and federal policy change. Changes in the public’s symbolic ideology—the proportion of citizens who identify as liberals or conservatives—are essentially unconnected to changes in policy and only modestly predictive of electoral results.

Ideology and Social Improvement in Bolivia during the 20th Century

This essay relates improvements in social indicators in Bolivia during the Twentieth Century to ideological changes during the same period. During the Twentieth Century, most social indicators improved dramatically in Bolivia. Separately, scholars have vigorously debated ideologies, such as neoliberalism and its macroeconomic competitors, and the potential social impact of these ideologies. Despite the separate emphases on ideas and social outcomes, no systematic attempt has been made by scholars of Bolivia to link long–term ideological change to long–term social improvement in the country. This essay argues that it is probable that such a relationship exists, but it is important to consider mass ideology, which affects the whole of Bolivian society, in addition to elite ideology, which affects a much more limited portion of society.Este ensayo relaciona las mejoras en indicadores sociales en Bolivia durante el siglo XX con cambios ideológicos registrados durante el mismo periodo. Durante el siglo XX la mayoría de los indicadores sociales mejoraron dramáticamente en Bolivia. Los especialistas han debatido vigorosamente la relación de estas mejoras con ideologías tales como el neoliberalismo y sus competidores macroeconómicos, discutiendo su potencial impacto social. Sin embargo, pese al énfasis otorgado a la relación de las ideas con los resultados sociales, no ha habido ninguna tentativa sistemática por parte de los especialistas de relacionar el cambio ideológico de largo plazo con las mejoras sociales de largo plazo en el país. Este ensayo sostiene que es probable que tal relación exista, pero para visibilizarla es importante considerar la ideología de masas, que afecta al conjunto de la sociedad boliviana, además de la ideología de la élite, que afecta a una porción mucho más limitada de la sociedad.