Reactions to China-linked Fake News: Experimental Evidence from Taiwan

China is accused of conducting disinformation campaigns on Taiwan's social media. Existing studies on foreign interventions in democratic societies predict that such disinformation campaigns should lead to increasing partisan polarization within Taiwan. We argue that a backlash effect, making Taiwan's citizens more united against China, is equally plausible. We conduct a survey experiment exposing participants to a real-life rumour and rebuttal to test these competing hypotheses. We find, at best, mixed evidence for polarization. Although neither rumour nor rebuttal mention China, there is consistent evidence of backlash against China. Most notably, participants across the political spectrum are more inclined to support Taiwanese independence after viewing the rumour rebuttal. These findings indicate that citizens may put aside partisanship when confronted with false news that is plausibly linked to an external actor. We conclude by discussing the broader applicability of our theory and implications for cross-Strait relations.

“Rapport Duclert” and France’s Responsibility for the Genocide in Rwanda

In March 2021 the Duclert Commission, a commission of French experts appointed by President Macron, presented their report which immediately became the subject of academic and political debates. The Report examined the French involvement in Rwandan genocide in 1994, and pointed to the major ethical, legal and political dilemmas accompanying states’ involvement into the affairs of other states. We seek to identify major topics raised by the French media in relation to the report, and how possible reconciliation between France and Rwanda was presented in French periodicals. Through post-colonial lenses to the study of states’ foreign policy, we examine how the French role in the genocide was seen in media discourses, and how the media addressed such painful questions as accepting/avoiding state responsibility for its actions. Using qualitative content-analysis, we studied articles from French media outlets Le Monde, Libération and Le Figaro in the period of late March 2021 ‒ July 2021, as well as a few randomly selected articles from other French outlets to have a more complete picture of public debates across a political spectrum. The article concludes that while the media stressed the importance of the Committee’s work for bilateral relations, still, there is no consensus in the French society over France’s responsibility for the genocide: whether acknowledging state responsibility would be a manifestation of weakness and a threat to state security, or masking of certain colonial inclinations.

Editorial

Populism, like nationalism, can be found on the right as well as on the left-wing of the political spectrum. However, current political debates demonstrate how in recent years, nationalist and populist movements have advanced the preservation of Christian “roots” against a global cosmopolitanism. Right-wing populism thus tends to present itself as a guardian of Christian culture, or Judeo-Christian culture. However, there is a struggle over the definition and the ownership of this religious heritage. Whilst it is certainly possible to identify sources within the Protestant tradition that may legitimise support for right-wing populism, the questions this struggle raises often relate to particular intersections of culture, theology, perspectives on history as well as political thought. This special issue explores and critiques these intersections, employing theological, historical, and sociological methods. While the main perspective is that of cross-disciplinary reflections on the fraught relationship between Protestantism and right-wing populism, it also examines the evolution of broader connections between Christianity and nationalism through time.

Violence, coloniality and a vision of nonviolence for education

We see images of violence of all kinds in the media on a daily basis. Moreover, violence associated with extreme political/religious beliefs has increased in the twentieth century and is particularly disturbing. In this article the author points out that violence is not a biological tendency but the effect of ever-increasing organisation capacities. As a consequence, violence is committed by people across the political spectrum, including the radical left and the extreme right. Carriers of violence are highlighted in the article, including coloniality and its effects on society generally and education specifically. Given that there is a force field of violence, a vision for non-violence for education is argued for. Inspiration for such a vision could come from traditional indigenous values such as the African value of ubuntu.

Foreign Policy in Times of Crisis: Venezuela's Blockade Policy towards Brazilian Aids

Venezuela, an economically oil-dependent country in South America, has experienced a turmoil of economic crisis since 2014 under the administration of President Nicolás Maduro. This crisis has been spilling towards social and political issues, with one being the emergence of an opposition group led by Juan Guaidó. This crisis, at first, has invited sympathy from various international actors, both states and non-states, with one being Brazil under the leadership of President Bolsonaro. Brazil at first is actively sending logistical aids towards the Venezuelans. However, in February 2019, President Maduro decided to fully-blockade Venezuela-Brazil borders for any human or goods movement. Beside the individual factor of the state's leader, group factor, specifically its cabinet which still acquires legitimacy from the leader, is also often seen as affecting and advising a policy in the time of a crisis. This paper aims to analyze the presence of President Maduro’s cabinet towards the Brazil border blockade in Venezuelan Crisis in 2019. By using the groupthink paradigm, this paper argues that there is a position of convergence between the members of the cabinet with the background of: (1) the dominance of nationalist military groups loyal to President Maduro; (2) the same ideology of left-wing political spectrum. It also argues that beside the two internal factors above, the external factors of regional and global tension towards Venezuela also create an isolation as an element of stress towards this government. This paper concludes that the combination of the three factors above become the main factors that formulated the blockade policy. Keywords: economic crisis, foreign policy, groupthink, Venezuela

Promoting Climate Actions: A Cognitive-Constraints Approach

Many Americans do not view climate change as a threat requiring urgent action. Moreover, among U.S. conservatives, higher science literacy is paradoxically associated with higher anthropogenic climate-change skepticism. The present study harnessed the power of two cognitive constraints essential to belief formation and revision to design educational materials that can mitigate these problems. The key role of the coherence and causal-invariance constraints, which map onto two narrative proclivities that anthropologists have identified as universal, predicts that climate-change information embedded in scientific explanations of (indisputable) everyday observations within a coherent personal moral narrative, juxtaposed with reasoners’ typically less coherent explanations, will be more persuasive than climate-change information by itself. An experiment conducted in U.S. states with the highest level of climate skepticism demonstrates that across the political spectrum, conveying science information using materials that leverage these constraints raises both appreciation of science and willingness to take pro-climate actions.

Stage Left and Right: Modeling Civil Discourse in the Classroom Through Fictional Presidential Debates Between FDR and Reagan

Franklin Roosevelt—the arch liberal president of the twentieth century—and Ronald Reagan—the face of modern conservatism—remain two of the most influential presidents in American politics. Both impacted policy and politics for decades and in ways that continue to reverberate today. In an attempt to examine the influence of FDR and Reagan in ways that are accessible to our students, we twice taught a class titled FDR and Reagan: What the Greatest Presidential Debate in History Can Teach Us About American Politics ... and How We Can All Get Along. This class asked students to perform fictional presidential debates between the two presidents on foreign, economic, and social policies. The emphasis on role-playing and debate allowed students to conduct deep background research while also encouraging them to inhabit the character of each president. Thus, they were able to immerse themselves in each one’s vision for the nation. Most importantly, this method allowed them to explore how it is both possible and necessary to have rational and respectful political discourse: FDR and Reagan came from opposite ends of the political spectrum and yet, by the end of the course, our students could appreciate that they were both transformative and effective leaders. Both were great communicators able to articulate their visions for the United States. Exploring the meanings of liberalism and conservatism through these methods encouraged greater empathy for opposing political viewpoints in our students. By analyzing the methods and outcomes of our course in this paper, we hope that history teachers might consider similar models to help our students bridge the current political divides which afflict the nation.

Institutional conformity, entrepreneurial governance and local contingency: Problematizing central-local dynamics in localizing China's low-income housing policy

Central-local dynamics are crucial to understand the implementation of China's reform policies and regional economic development. Until recently, the research has focused on either end of the political spectrum, celebrating the top-down channeling of neoliberal-like reforms led by the central government or detailing the bottom-up process of policy innovation and entrepreneurism centred on local states. Knowledge is not substantial about how the central state interacts with local authorities in the localization of central public policies and, to a lesser extent, why some policies are properly implemented at the local level but others not. Through investigating the implementation of major national low-income housing policies in Chengdu and Shanghai, we interrogate three proposed theoretical constructs: political conformity, entrepreneurial governance and local contingency. Results show that institutional conformity manifests in cross-scale consistency in policy goals, political obligation of local states to conform to the central authority, and balance between local incentives and central state sanctions. In the process of balancing local and central interests, the local development priorities are framed along the line of local state entrepreneurism favoring fiscal responsibility, economic efficiency, and economic growth. Finally, locally contingent factors often interact with and mediate external forces and have a significant impact on localizing public policies in China.

Crisis Foreign Policy Making in Venezuela: The Case of Nicolás Maduro’s Left-Wing Militaristic Cabinet in Venezuela’s Blockade Policy towards Brazilian Aids

Venezuela has experienced a turmoil of economic crisis since 2014 under the administration of President Nicolás Maduro. This crisis has been spilling towards social and political issues, with one being the emergence of opposition group led by Juan Guaidó. This crisis, at first, has invited sympathy from various international actors, both states and non-states, one of them being Brazil. However, in February 2019, President Maduro decided to fully-blockade Venezuela-Brazil borders for any human or goods movement. This paper aims to analyze the presence of President Maduro’s cabinet towards Brazil borders blockade in Venezuelan Crisis in 2019. This paper utilizes qualitative social science methodology by analyzing primary and secondary data. By using the groupthink paradigm in foreign policy analysis, this paper argues that there is a position convergence between the members of the cabinet with the background of: (1) the dominance of nationalist military group loyal to President Maduro; (2) the same ideology of left-wing political spectrum. This paper also argues that beside the two internal factors above, the external factors of regional and global tension towards Venezuela also create an isolation as an element of stress towards this government. This paper concludes that the combination of the three factors above become the main factors that formulated the blockade policy.

Morality, Emotions, and the Ideal Environmentalist: Toward A Conceptual Framework for Understanding Political Polarization

Americans are politically polarized in their views on environmental protection, and scholars have identified structural and cultural drivers of this polarity. Missing from these theories is a consideration of the emotional dynamics at play in environmentally relevant interactions between liberals and conservatives. Based on analyses of in-depth interviews conducted with 63 politically and socioeconomically diverse residents of four communities in Washington State, we find evidence of important common ground across the political spectrum. Our participants voice support and respect for environmental protection and convey a shared image of an ideal environmentalist: a conscious, caring, and committed individual who seeks to reduce their personal environmental impact. We see political differences arise when our participants evaluate their own relationship with the environment against this ideal environmentalist. Liberals are more likely to align with or admire the ideal environmentalist and conservatives are more likely to challenge or denigrate the ideal. Emotions and competing claims for moral worth, we suggest, play a role in making these political differences polarizing.