PARLIAMENTARY ELECTIONS IN GERMANY 2021: ROLE AND INFLUENCE OF THE EUROPEAN AGENDA

The article presents the results of a study of how the role of Germany as the political and economic leader of the EU is perceived in modern Europe, as well as an analysis of possible mechanisms and ways of influencing the results of these elections from the point of view of the panEuropean agenda and from the side of pan-European political institutions, on the eve of the allGerman elections on September 26, 2021.Recent public opinion polls of Europeans showed their positive attitude to Germany and its Chancellor Angela Merkel as informal European leaders. And although the pan-European agenda did not occupy a significant place during the 2021 election campaign, nevertheless, all the leading German parties devoted a significant place to this topic in their election manifestos. Pan-European political actors, first of all, the European parties, also did not stay away from the German elections and, if possible, tried to provide all possible assistance and support to their member parties participating in them.

Hinduism, Hindutva and Hindu Populism in India: An Analysis of Party Manifestos of Indian Rightwing Parties

Since the rise of the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), a lot has been written on Hindu nationalism. Prime Minister Modi’s ascendency has similarly resulted in a plethora of books and articles on Hindu populism. However, most of the literature does not distinguish between the two. Hindu nationalism and Hindu populism overlap, particularly in Modi’s India and Modi’s BJP, but they are not the same. In this article, after a discussion on Hinduism’s affinity to populism, an attempt has been made to distinguish between Hindu nationalism and Hindu populism based on an analysis of Hindutva parties’ election manifestos. Since independence, three Hindutva parties have made a name for themselves at the national level: Hindu Mahasabha, Bharatiya Jana Sangh (BJS) and BJP. Based on their importance and success at the national level, one manifesto of Hindu Mahasabha, two manifestos of BJS and four manifestos of the BJP were analyzed based on criteria chosen after literature review. The results show that while Hindu nationalism was strong and visible in early Hindutva parties (Hindu Mahasabha and BJS), Hindu populism was weak and sporadic. Interestingly, for the BJP, there is rise and then drop in Hindu nationalism while Hindu populism has consistently increased.

South Africa’s 2016 municipal elections How the ANC and DA leveraged Twitter to Capture the Urban Vote

This paper focuses on how South Africa’s governing party, the African National Congress (ANC), and main opposition, the Democratic Alliance (DA), leveraged microblogging site Twitter. This was part of their urban election campaign arsenal in the 2016 local government elections (LGE) to promote party-political digital issue ownership within an urban context. Using each party’s corpus of 2016 election-related tweets and election manifestos, this three-phased grounded theory study found that each party used Twitter as a digital political communication platform to communicate their election campaigns. The DA notably leveraged the social networking site more for intense focused messaging of its negative campaign against the ANC while simultaneously promoting positive electoral messages around its own core issues and metro (urban) mayoral candidates. Furthermore, battleground metros were identified, narrow-cast and subsequently audience.segmented by the party in Ekurhuleni, Johannesburg, Tshwane (in Gauteng) and Nelson Mandela Bay (in the Eastern Cape). This led to an emphasised campaign to either activate the party’s own urban support base and/or to suppress the ANC’s turnout in these highly-contested areas. The results of this study further indicate that the ANC and DA both used Twitter to claim explicit and implicit digital party-political issue ownership in the 2016 LGE.

Manifestoitis, 1979–1997

Labour’s internal crisis, which had led to clashes over the content of election manifestos in 1974 and 1979, worsened in the early 1980s with both the Left and the Right of the party claiming to act as ‘custodians of the manifesto’. Some of those unhappy with the growing authority of the Labour Left broke away to create the Social Democratic Party (SDP) in 1981. While the SDP sought to ‘break the mould’ of British politics, the Alliance struggled to define a coherent progressive programme and identity. Labour’s disastrous ‘suicide note’ manifesto in 1983 led to a change of approach, from 1987 it stressed the moderate nature of its programme. Tony Blair drew inspiration from Thatcher’s approach, centring the New Labour programme in 1997 around a small series of pledges, which were presented as a ‘contract’ with the British people.

Age of Promises

Age of Promises explores the issue of electoral promises in twentieth century Britain—how they were made, how they were understood, and how they evolved across time. It does so through a study of general election manifestos and election addresses. The premise of the book is that a history of the act of making promises—which is central to the political process, but which has not been sufficiently analysed—illuminates the development of political communication and democratic representation. The twentieth century saw a broad shift away from politics viewed as a discursive process whereby, at elections, it was enough to set out broad principles, with detailed policymaking to follow once in office, following reflection and discussion. Over the first part of the century, parties increasingly felt required to compile lists of specific policies to offer to voters and detailed, costed pledges. We live in an age of growing uncertainty over the authority and status of political promises. In the wake of the 2016 EU referendum––during which an (alleged) promise was famously written on the side of a bus––controversy erupted over parliamentary sovereignty. Should ‘the will of the people’ as manifested in the referendum result be supreme, or did MPs owe a primary responsibility to their constituents and/or to the party manifestos on which they had been elected? Age of Promises demonstrates that these debates build on a long history of differing understandings about what status manifestos and addresses should have in shaping the actions of government.

Epilogue and Conclusion

We explore the ongoing importance of election promises since 1997. Even if the way that promises are disseminated has changed with the growing importance of the internet and social media in campaigning, expectations surrounding manifestos remain roughly those that were set during the twentieth century. And yet the Brexit controversy has arguably created an acute crisis in trust in politicians’ promises and uncertainty about the authority of election manifestos. In the aftermath of the Brexit vote, manifestos enjoyed a more central role in the 2017 and 2019 elections than they had achieved at other elections during the early twenty-first century, not least because of the ambiguities of the mandate provided by the referendum.

Religion, Populism and Politics: The Notion of Religion in Election Manifestos of Populist and Nationalist Parties in Germany and The Netherlands

This article is about the way that the notion of religion is understood and used in election manifestos of populist and nationalist right-wing political parties in Germany and the Netherlands between 2002 and 2021. In order to pursue such enquiry, a discourse on the nature of manifestos of political parties in general and election manifestos specifically is required. Election manifestos are important socio-scientific and historical sources. The central question that this article poses is how the notion of religion is included in the election manifestos of three Dutch (LPF, PVV, and FvD) and one German (AfD) populist and nationalist parties, and what this inclusion reveals about the connection between religion and populist parties. Religious keywords in the election manifestos of said political parties are researched and discussed. It leads to the conclusion that the notion of religion is not central to these political parties, unless it is framed as a stand against Islam. Therefore, these parties defend the Jewish-Christian-humanistic nature of the country encompassing the separation of ‘church’ or faith community and state, the care for the historical and cultural heritage of church buildings, and the subordination of the freedom of religion to the freedom of expression. The election manifestos also reveal that Buddhism and Hinduism are absent in the discourses of these political parties.