In this article, we undertake an empirical examination of the psychology of what is often called “the angry citizen,” highlighting ressentiment as an important emotional mechanism of grievance politics. Contrary to the short‐lived, action‐prone emotion of anger proper, ressentiment transmutes the inputs of grievance politics like deprivation of opportunity, injustice, shame, humiliation, envy, and inefficacious anger, into the anti‐social outputs of morally righteous indignation, destructive anger, hatred, and rage. Our empirical probe uses qualitative and quantitative analysis of 164 excerpts from interviews with US “angry citizens” from the following works: Strangers in Their Own Land: Anger and Mourning on the American Right (2016) by Arlie Russell Hochschild, Angry White Men: American Masculinity at the End of an Era (2017) by Michael Kimmel, and Stiffed: The Roots of Modern Male Rage (2019) by Susan Faludi. In these seemingly “angry” excerpts, we find markers matching the psychological footprint of ressentiment instead of anger proper: victimhood, envy, powerlessness; the defenses of splitting, projection, and denial; and preference for inaction, anti‐preferences, and low efficacy. We conclude on the significance of the distinction between anger proper and ressentiment for understanding the psychology of grievance politics.
Keywords: anger; angry citizen; emotional mechanism; grievance; philosophy; political psychology; ressentiment; resentment; United States Handle: RePEc:cog:poango:v10:y:2022:i:4:p:384-395 Template-Type: ReDIF-Article 1.0 Title: Loud and Negative: Exploring Negativity in Voter Thoughts About Women and Men Politicians File-URL: https://www.cogitatiopress.com/politicsandgovernance/article/view/5752 File-Format: text/html DOI: 10.17645/pag.v10i4.5752 Journal: Politics and Governance Volume: 10 Year: 2022 Issue: 4 Pages: 374-383 Author-Name: Tobias Rohrbach Author-Workplace-Name: Department of Media and Communication Research, University of Fribourg, Switzerland / Department of Political Science, University of Amsterdam, The Netherlands Abstract: Negative information about political candidates is readily available in contemporary political communication. Moreover, negativity is tightly connected to gendered expectations about what constitutes appropriate behavior for politicians. Yet, existing theoretical models of negativity and candidate evaluation typically do not address the role of gender and the available empirical evidence remains inconclusive regarding the electoral consequences of the interaction of negativity and gender. This article tackles these gaps in two studies to investigate how negativity manifests in voters’ thoughts about women and men politicians in response to negative media cues and how these thoughts affect vote preference. Study 1 uses a mixed methods think-aloud approach to trace the first impression formation and subsequent decision-making process (N = 78). Study 2 replicates the design as an online thought listing survey experiment (N = 142). A similar quantitative pattern emerges across both studies: (a) Negative cues elicit similar amounts of negativity in voters’ thoughts for women and men politicians, (b) these negative thoughts strongly lower candidates’ electoral chances, (c) but less so for women candidates. The qualitative analysis suggests that negative cues heuristically affect earlier stages of impression formation while voters are likely to rely on gender cues when they rationalize their vote decision. Keywords: candidate evaluation; gender; negativity; think aloud; thought listing Handle: RePEc:cog:poango:v10:y:2022:i:4:p:374-383 Template-Type: ReDIF-Article 1.0 Title: Do Leader Evaluations (De)Mobilize Voter Turnout? Lessons From Presidential Elections in the United States File-URL: https://www.cogitatiopress.com/politicsandgovernance/article/view/5723 File-Format: text/html DOI: 10.17645/pag.v10i4.5723 Journal: Politics and Governance Volume: 10 Year: 2022 Issue: 4 Pages: 361-373 Author-Name: Liran Harsgor Author-Workplace-Name: School of Political Science, University of Haifa, Israel Author-Name: Neil Nevitte Author-Workplace-Name: Department of Political Science, University of Toronto, Canada Abstract: Do evaluations of presidential candidates in the US affect the level of voter turnout? Voters’ affections towards presidential candidates, we contend, can either stimulate or inhibit voter inclinations to turnout. Voters are more inclined to turn out when they have positive feelings towards the candidate with which they identify because they want “their” candidate to win. But citizens may also be more likely to vote when they dislike the candidate of the party with which they do not identify. In that case, voters are motivated to prevent the candidate from being elected. Utilizing the American National Election Studies data for 1968–2020, the analysis finds that the likelihood of voting is affected by (a) the degree to which voters’ affections towards the candidate differ from one another (having a clear‐cut choice between options) and (b) the nature of the affections (negative or positive) towards both in‐ and out‐party candidates. Keywords: leader evaluations; mobilization; presidentialization; turnout; US elections Handle: RePEc:cog:poango:v10:y:2022:i:4:p:361-373 Template-Type: ReDIF-Article 1.0 Title: Who Are the “Dark” Politicians? Insights From Self-Reports of German State Parliament Candidates File-URL: https://www.cogitatiopress.com/politicsandgovernance/article/view/5493 File-Format: text/html DOI: 10.17645/pag.v10i4.5493 Journal: Politics and Governance Volume: 10 Year: 2022 Issue: 4 Pages: 349-360 Author-Name: Jürgen Maier Author-Workplace-Name: Department of Political Science, University of Koblenz-Landau, Germany Author-Name: Mona Dian Author-Workplace-Name: Department of Political Science, University of Koblenz-Landau, Germany Author-Name: Corinna Oschatz Author-Workplace-Name: Amsterdam School of Communication Research, University of Amsterdam, The Netherlands Abstract: A growing body of studies is focusing on politicians’ personalities, as the personality of political elites has been shown to affect their behavior. Whereas most research uses the big five framework or HEXACO, only a few studies have been able to capture more “aversive,” “dark”—yet non-pathological—personality traits of politicians. However, these studies refer to top politicians; information on the distribution and the correlates of dark personality traits in the broad mass of politicians is still lacking. Moreover, information on dark personality traits in politicians is usually based on expert ratings; data using self-placement is missing. Based on data from six surveys with candidates running for German state elections in 2021 and 2022 (N[pooled data set] = 1,632), we, to the best of our knowledge, offer, for the first time, insights into politicians’ self-reported socially aversive personality traits. “Dark” personality traits are measured by the political elites aversive personality scale (PEAPS). Results show that German politicians exhibit moderate levels of aversive personality traits. In addition, the extent of candidates’ dark personalities is strongly negatively correlated with honesty–humility, agreeableness vs. anger, and extraversion, while associations with other basic personality traits are much weaker or insignificant. We also find that younger, more right-leaning, and more ideologically extreme candidates report higher levels of aversive personality. Keywords: aversive personality; candidate survey; dark personality; Germany; self-reports Handle: RePEc:cog:poango:v10:y:2022:i:4:p:349-360 Template-Type: ReDIF-Article 1.0 Title: Fueling Toxicity? Studying Deceitful Opinion Leaders and Behavioral Changes of Their Followers File-URL: https://www.cogitatiopress.com/politicsandgovernance/article/view/5756 File-Format: text/html DOI: 10.17645/pag.v10i4.5756 Journal: Politics and Governance Volume: 10 Year: 2022 Issue: 4 Pages: 336-348 Author-Name: Puck Guldemond Author-Workplace-Name: Strategic Communication Group, Wageningen University & Research, The Netherlands Author-Name: Andreu Casas Salleras Author-Workplace-Name: Department of Communication Science, Free University Amsterdam, The Netherlands Author-Name: Mariken van der Velden Author-Workplace-Name: Department of Communication Science, Free University Amsterdam, The Netherlands Abstract: The spread of deceiving content on social media platforms is a growing concern amongst scholars, policymakers, and the public at large. We examine the extent to which influential users (i.e., “deceitful opinion leaders”) on Twitter engage in the spread of different types of deceiving content, thereby overcoming the compartmentalized state of the field. We introduce a theoretical concept and approach that puts these deceitful opinion leaders at the center, instead of the content they spread. Moreover, our study contributes to the understanding of the effects that these deceiving messages have on other Twitter users. For 5,574 users and 731,371 unique messages, we apply computational methods to study changes in messaging behavior after they started following a set of eight Dutch deceitful opinion leaders on Twitter during the Dutch 2021 election campaign. The results show that users apply more uncivil language, become more affectively polarized, and talk more about politics after following a deceitful opinion leader. Our results thereby underline that this small group of deceitful opinion leaders change the norms of conversation on these platforms. Hence, this accentuates the need for future research to study the literary concept of deceitful opinion leaders. Keywords: computational communication science; disinformation; opinion leaders; social media; the Netherlands; Twitter Handle: RePEc:cog:poango:v10:y:2022:i:4:p:336-348 Template-Type: ReDIF-Article 1.0 Title: Negative Party Identification and the Use of Party Cues in the Direct Democratic Context File-URL: https://www.cogitatiopress.com/politicsandgovernance/article/view/5702 File-Format: text/html DOI: 10.17645/pag.v10i4.5702 Journal: Politics and Governance Volume: 10 Year: 2022 Issue: 4 Pages: 325-335 Author-Name: Maxime Walder Author-Workplace-Name: Department of Political Science and International Relations, University of Geneva, Switzerland Author-Name: Oliver Strijbis Author-Workplace-Name: Department of Political Science, University of Zurich, Switzerland / Division of Communication, History, and Politics, Franklin University Switzerland, Switzerland Abstract: The use of party cues is a fundamental process of how voters adopt policy preferences. While research has shown that party identification is an important driver of political attitudes in general and policy positions in particular, we know little about how negative party identification (identifying as an opponent to a party) impacts voters’ political preferences. This article aims to fill this gap in the literature by combining an experimental and observational empirical analysis of the effect of negative party identification on voters’ issue preferences in the context of direct democratic decision‐making. First, we analyze a survey experiment conducted during a real‐world campaign on affordable housing for a popular ballot in Switzerland. Using continuous measures of party identification, we show a causal relationship between negative party identification and voters’ policy preferences. Second, we use longitudinal observational data of vote choice on direct democratic policy proposals and show that voters adopt policy preferences that contrast with the policy positions of parties they oppose. In sum, the two complementary designs show that voters tend to position themselves not only in alignment with their preferred parties but also in opposition to parties with which they negatively identify. Furthermore, the results indicate that, when adopting policy preferences, negative cues may carry as much weight as positive party cues. Our analysis has important implications for understanding voters’ adoption of policy preferences in general and specifically in the direct democratic context. Keywords: direct democracy; heuristics; negative partisanship; policy position; Switzerland Handle: RePEc:cog:poango:v10:y:2022:i:4:p:325-335 Template-Type: ReDIF-Article 1.0 Title: Is Protest Only Negative? Examining the Effect of Emotions and Affective Polarization on Protest Behaviour File-URL: https://www.cogitatiopress.com/politicsandgovernance/article/view/5665 File-Format: text/html DOI: 10.17645/pag.v10i4.5665 Journal: Politics and Governance Volume: 10 Year: 2022 Issue: 4 Pages: 311-324 Author-Name: Luca Bettarelli Author-Workplace-Name: Centre d’Étude de la Vie Politique (CEVIPOL), Université Libre de Bruxelles, Belgium Author-Name: Caroline Close Author-Workplace-Name: Centre d’Étude de la Vie Politique (CEVIPOL), Université Libre de Bruxelles, Belgium Author-Name: Emilie van Haute Author-Workplace-Name: Centre d’Étude de la Vie Politique (CEVIPOL), Université Libre de Bruxelles, Belgium Abstract: This contribution sheds light on the link between affect and protest behaviors. Using data from a voter survey conducted around the 2019 elections in Belgium, we examine two dimensions of affect: a vertical one, i.e., negative and positive emotions towards politics in general, and a horizontal one, i.e., affective polarization towards fellow citizens. Our findings make three important contributions. First, we identify five distinct classes of respondents depending on their emotions towards politics (apathetic, angry, hopeful, highly emotional, and average). Second, we demonstrate that the combination of both anger and hope is more strongly associated with protest action than anger alone. By contrast, apathy, characterized by an absence of emotions towards politics, is negatively related to protest behavior. Third, we show that affective polarization is a key driver of protest behavior per se. We also show that the two dimensions of affect have distinctive effects. Yet they interact: Affective polarization towards political opponents compensates for the absence of emotions towards politics in general. Keywords: affective polarization; Belgium; emotions; protest Handle: RePEc:cog:poango:v10:y:2022:i:4:p:311-324 Template-Type: ReDIF-Article 1.0 Title: The Personality Origins of Positive and Negative Partisanship File-URL: https://www.cogitatiopress.com/politicsandgovernance/article/view/5719 File-Format: text/html DOI: 10.17645/pag.v10i4.5719 Journal: Politics and Governance Volume: 10 Year: 2022 Issue: 4 Pages: 299-310 Author-Name: Alexa Bankert Author-Workplace-Name: Department of Political Science, University of Georgia, USA Abstract: Negative partisanship describes the intense disdain for a rival political party. A growing number of political scientists in the US and beyond examine the impact of negative partisanship on citizens’ political behavior, asserting the notion that negative partisanship exerts a strong influence, either on its own or in combination with positive partisanship. Yet we know little about the psychological origins of negative and positive partisanship: Which personality traits are associated with high levels of negative partisanship, and do they differ from the ones that have been linked to positive partisanship? In this article, I address these questions. Utilizing a sample of US adults and a sample of Swedish adults, I examine the influence of prominent personality traits—including Authoritarianism, Social Dominance Orientation, the Need for Closure, and the Big Five—on strong negative and positive partisanship. I demonstrate that the personality origins of positive and negative partisanship differ not just across the two samples but also across partisans on the left and on the right. I conclude the article with implications for research on polarization and a plea for more comparative work on (positive and negative) partisanship. Keywords: negative partisanship; personality; positive partisanship; psychology; social identity; Sweden; US Handle: RePEc:cog:poango:v10:y:2022:i:4:p:299-310 Template-Type: ReDIF-Article 1.0 Title: The Role of Gender in Parliamentary Attacks and Incivility File-URL: https://www.cogitatiopress.com/politicsandgovernance/article/view/5718 File-Format: text/html DOI: 10.17645/pag.v10i4.5718 Journal: Politics and Governance Volume: 10 Year: 2022 Issue: 4 Pages: 286-298 Author-Name: Željko Poljak Author-Workplace-Name: Department of Political Science, University of Antwerp, Belgium Abstract: It has been well established that politicians attack their competitors to reach their political goals. As such, there is a considerable amount of literature on their attack behaviour. However, this literature almost exclusively investigates attack behaviour during campaigns, and so far, few studies have addressed the nature of attacks during more routine times in parliaments. This article aims to fill this gap by examining in-parliament attack behaviour and, more specifically, the gender characteristics of attacks. It is theorised that women are less likely to attack and be attacked than men due to the stereotypical gender roles. However, it is anticipated that this compliance to stereotypes diminishes as proximity to elections increases, resulting in women engaging in attacks as much as men. To limit the cost of their divergence, attacks employed by and toward women are expected to be more civil. Lastly, this study argues that adherence to gender stereotypes is stronger in countries with candidate-centred parliamentary systems than party-centred ones. This study finds support for the theoretical framework using longitudinal data on individual attacks in the parliaments of Belgium, Croatia, and the UK. Results confirm that politicians adhere to gender stereotypical roles in parliaments, with women attacking and being targeted less than men, and when women do attack or are targeted, less incivility is employed. Proximity to elections makes both women and men more hostile, but women lower the cost of their increasing attack behaviour by using less incivility, unlike men who increasingly opt for uncivil attacks closer to elections. Additionally, these findings strongly apply in the candidate-centred system of the UK, whereas in the party-centred system of Belgium and Croatia, hardly any support for the theory can be found. Keywords: attacks; incivility; gender; parliaments Handle: RePEc:cog:poango:v10:y:2022:i:4:p:286-298 Template-Type: ReDIF-Article 1.0 Title: The Decision to Go Negative: Election Types, Candidate Characteristics, and Electoral Competition File-URL: https://www.cogitatiopress.com/politicsandgovernance/article/view/5701 File-Format: text/html DOI: 10.17645/pag.v10i4.5701 Journal: Politics and Governance Volume: 10 Year: 2022 Issue: 4 Pages: 275-285 Author-Name: Huang-Ting Yan Author-Workplace-Name: Institute of Political Science, Academia Sinica, Taiwan Abstract: This study examined the conditions that motivate candidates to go negative during a parliamentary election campaign. We argue that by‐elections encourage candidates to engage in more negative campaigning. Three mechanisms might explain the alleged link: time pressure, media exposure, and voter turnout. Two main factors jointly determine which candidates rely heavily on negative campaigning during by‐elections: candidate characteristics and electoral competition. New data collected from press coverage of Taiwanese legislative elections (2008–2022), covering 318 campaigns in single‐member electoral districts, were analysed using the qualitative comparative analysis method. We modelled negative campaigning as a combination of a list of potential causal conditions. Thereafter, process‐tracing methods were applied to analyse a typical case to demonstrate the internal causal mechanism. The qualitative comparative analysis results and the case study indicate that increased electoral competition causes parachute candidates to criticise political opponents during a by‐election campaign, with less emphasis on their own policy proposals. These results suggest that researchers should pay close attention to important contextual factors that underlie candidates’ strategic choices, particularly during by‐elections. Keywords: by‐elections; candidate characteristics; competition; legislative; negative campaigning; qualitative comparative analysis; Taiwan Handle: RePEc:cog:poango:v10:y:2022:i:4:p:275-285 Template-Type: ReDIF-Article 1.0 Title: It’s All Relative: Perceptions of (Comparative) Candidate Incivility and Candidate Sympathy in Three Multiparty Elections File-URL: https://www.cogitatiopress.com/politicsandgovernance/article/view/5677 File-Format: text/html DOI: 10.17645/pag.v10i4.5677 Journal: Politics and Governance Volume: 10 Year: 2022 Issue: 4 Pages: 261-274 Author-Name: Chiara Vargiu Author-Workplace-Name: Institute of Political Studies, University of Lausanne, Switzerland Abstract: While growing attention has been devoted to candidates’ use of incivility in campaigns, its role in informing voters’ feelings toward candidates is still debated. This study embraces a constructionist perspective on incivility and focuses on the relationship between perceptions of candidate incivility and candidate sympathy. Its contribution is twofold. First, it extends incivility research generalizability by testing the association between voters’ perceptions of candidate incivility and candidate sympathy during three election campaigns beyond the US context. Second, it builds upon the notion of incivility as a norm violation and tests the hypothesis that perceptions of a candidate’s uncivil behavior are negatively associated with candidate sympathy when this behavior is inappropriate (i.e., it violates injunctive civility norms) and especially when it is uncommon (i.e., it violates descriptive civility norms). These interests are pursued through post‐electoral survey data collected in the Netherlands, Germany, and France. Findings show that incivility perceptions can, but not always, correspond to more negative feelings toward candidates. Furthermore, it is the incivility of candidates relative to that of their competitors that really counts for candidate sympathy. Keywords: candidate incivility; candidate sympathy; France; Germany; incivility perceptions; multiparty systems; survey research; the Netherlands Handle: RePEc:cog:poango:v10:y:2022:i:4:p:261-274 Template-Type: ReDIF-Article 1.0 Title: How Partisanship Matters: A Panel Study on the Democratic Outcomes of Perceived Dirty Campaigning File-URL: https://www.cogitatiopress.com/politicsandgovernance/article/view/5672 File-Format: text/html DOI: 10.17645/pag.v10i4.5672 Journal: Politics and Governance Volume: 10 Year: 2022 Issue: 4 Pages: 247-260 Author-Name: Franz Reiter Author-Workplace-Name: Department of Communication, University of Vienna, Austria Author-Name: Jörg Matthes Author-Workplace-Name: Department of Communication, University of Vienna, Austria Abstract: Uncivil campaigning and deceitful campaign techniques are increasingly relevant phenomena in politics. However, it remains unclear how they share an underlying component and how partisanship can influence their associations with democratic outcomes. We introduce the concept of dirty campaigning, which is situated at the intersection of research on negative campaigning and political scandals. Dirty campaigning involves violations of social norms and liberal‐democratic values between elite political actors in terms of style and practices, such as uncivil campaigning and deceitful campaign techniques. In a two‐wave panel study (N = 634) during the 2021 German federal election campaign, we investigate the associations of perceived dirty campaigning by the least and most favorite party with distrust in politicians, trust in democracy, attitudes toward dirty campaigning regulation, as well as perceived harmful consequences of dirty campaigning for democracy. We find that perceived dirty campaigning by the least favorite party increases perceptions of harmful consequences of dirty campaigning for democracy over time. In contrast, perceived dirty campaigning by the most favorite party decreases perceptions of harmful consequences of dirty campaigning for democracy as well as attitudes toward dirty campaigning regulation over time. Perceptions of harmful consequences of dirty campaigning for democracy increase distrust in politicians over time and vice versa. Our findings suggest that the outcomes of dirty campaigning can depend on partisanship and can have important implications for the quality of democracy. Keywords: democratic outcomes; dirty campaigning; panel study; political incivility; political trust Handle: RePEc:cog:poango:v10:y:2022:i:4:p:247-260 Template-Type: ReDIF-Article 1.0 Title: For a Research Agenda on Negative Politics File-URL: https://www.cogitatiopress.com/politicsandgovernance/article/view/6622 File-Format: text/html DOI: 10.17645/pag.v10i4.6622 Journal: Politics and Governance Volume: 10 Year: 2022 Issue: 4 Pages: 243-246 Author-Name: Alessandro Nai Author-Workplace-Name: Amsterdam School of Communication Research, University of Amsterdam, The Netherlands Author-Name: Diego Garzia Author-Workplace-Name: Institute of Political Studies, University of Lausanne, Switzerland Author-Name: Loes Aaldering Author-Workplace-Name: Department of Political Science and Public Administration, Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam, The Netherlands Author-Name: Frederico Ferreira da Silva Author-Workplace-Name: Institute of Political Studies, University of Lausanne, Switzerland Author-Name: Katjana Gattermann Author-Workplace-Name: Amsterdam School of Communication Research, University of Amsterdam, The Netherlands Abstract: This thematic issue deals with the “negative” side of politics, more specifically with dynamics of political aggressiveness and ideological opposition in voters and elites. Why do candidates “go negative” on their rivals? To what extent are voters entrenched into opposing camps parted by political tribalism? And are these dynamics related to the (dark) personality of candidates and the expression of emotions in voters? A series of contributions written by leading and emerging scholars provide novel and groundbreaking empirical evidence along three main lines: (a) the evolution, causes, and consequences of political attacks and incivility by political elites; (b) the drivers and dimensions of affective polarization and negative voting in the public; and (c) the dynamics of candidate’s personality and perceptions, the affective roots of attitudes and behaviors. This thematic issue aims at setting the stage for a new research agenda on negative politics, able to generate new insights by triangulating evidence and approaches from strands of literature that have mostly evolved on separate tracks. Keywords: anger; affective polarization; dark personality; incivility; negative campaigning; negative partisanship; negative politics; negative voting; protest; rage; trolling Handle: RePEc:cog:poango:v10:y:2022:i:4:p:243-246 Template-Type: ReDIF-Article 1.0 Title: Religion, Conspiracy Thinking, and the Rejection of Democracy: Evidence From the UK File-URL: https://www.cogitatiopress.com/politicsandgovernance/article/view/5904 File-Format: text/html DOI: 10.17645/pag.v10i4.5904 Journal: Politics and Governance Volume: 10 Year: 2022 Issue: 4 Pages: 229-242 Author-Name: Alexander Yendell Author-Workplace-Name: Research Institute Social Cohesion, Leipzig University, Germany Author-Name: David Herbert Author-Workplace-Name: Department of Sociology, University of Bergen, Norway Abstract: While some research addresses the relationship between religiosity and political attitudes, little is known about the relationship between religion, conspiracy beliefs, and political culture. Using the concept of authoritarianism, we hypothesise that a conspiracy mentality is likely to be associated with ethnocentric and anti‐democratic attitudes, just as some types of religion—e.g., religious fundamentalism—have a close affinity to authoritarian attitudes. Using data from an online UK survey (N = 1093; quota sample, representative of education, gender, age, and region), we enquire to what extent belief in conspiracy theories is associated with xenophobic, racist, and anti‐democratic attitudes, which aspects of religiosity in combination with other factors play a role in conspiracy beliefs, and which communicative and interpretative practices are associated with belief in conspiracy ideologies. Our analysis reveals that both belief in classical conspiracy theories and belief in Covid‐19 conspiracy theories are significantly related to anti‐Muslim sentiments, anti‐Black racism, and right‐wing extremism. Moreover, a regression analysis shows that an initially discovered relationship between the strength of religiosity and conspiracy mentality disappears once religious fundamentalism is included in the model. The effect of religious fundamentalism is moderated by narcissism and the style of social media use—namely, trusting posts made by one’s friends more than the opinions of experts. Keywords: authoritarianism; conspiracies; democracy; United Kingdom; religion; social media Handle: RePEc:cog:poango:v10:y:2022:i:4:p:229-242 Template-Type: ReDIF-Article 1.0 Title: The Anti-Homophobia Bill (PLC 122) in Brazil: Conspiracies and Conflicts Between the Constitution and the Bible File-URL: https://www.cogitatiopress.com/politicsandgovernance/article/view/5871 File-Format: text/html DOI: 10.17645/pag.v10i4.5871 Journal: Politics and Governance Volume: 10 Year: 2022 Issue: 4 Pages: 216-228 Author-Name: Diego Galego Author-Workplace-Name: Public Governance Institute, KU Leuven, Belgium Abstract: Despite the growing violence against LGBTQ people nationwide, the National Congress of Brazil has failed to pass any legislation protecting LGBTQ rights. The executive and judiciary have compensated for this legislative gap by protecting LGBTQ rights through palliative LGBTQ policies. By historically analyzing the anti-homophobia bill PLC 122 and presenting a discourse analysis of ten anti-LGBTQ rights bills, as well as the results of semi-structured interviews with key actors involved in the billing process (2001–2021), this article seeks to unpack why and how the anti-homophobia bill was never approved in Congress. In part, Congress’ delay in approving the anti-homophobia bill is due to conservative opposition, a weak coalition between the executive and legislative branches of government, and the fact that more religious parliamentarians are represented in politics. As a result, LGBTQ bills introduced to Congress have become political weapons used by conservative and fundamentalist religious politicians as part of electoral campaign strategies. The anti-homophobia bill has opened a political window where anti-LGBTQ discourses sustain conservative politics and enforce the alliance between religion and politics. Moreover, the bill has strengthened the religious and conservative discourse, policy manipulation and the emergence of conspiracy theories—framing the bill as “opposing God’s people” and as constraining the freedom of religion and spreading fear of pastors and priests being jailed. The main conclusion is that policy and political discourses oscillate between making decisions according to the Constitution or the Bible, creating constraints and opportunities for the approval of the LGBTQ bill in the Brazilian Congress. Keywords: conspiracy theories; discourses; evangelicals; LGBTQ; policy; radicalization; religion Handle: RePEc:cog:poango:v10:y:2022:i:4:p:216-228 Template-Type: ReDIF-Article 1.0 Title: Individual‐Level Predictors of Conspiracy Mentality in Germany and Poland File-URL: https://www.cogitatiopress.com/politicsandgovernance/article/view/5865 File-Format: text/html DOI: 10.17645/pag.v10i4.5865 Journal: Politics and Governance Volume: 10 Year: 2022 Issue: 4 Pages: 203-215 Author-Name: Fahima Farkhari Author-Workplace-Name: Department of Psychology, University of Münster, Germany Author-Name: Bernd Schlipphak Author-Workplace-Name: Department of Political Science, University of Münster, Germany Author-Name: Mitja D. Back Author-Workplace-Name: Department of Psychology, University of Münster, Germany Abstract: Conspiracy mentality (CM), the general propensity to believe in conspiracy theories, has been linked to political behaviors, prejudice, and non‐compliance with public health guidelines. While there is increasing evidence that conspiracy beliefs are pervasive, research on individual‐level predictors of CM is scarce. Specifically, we identify three gaps in research: First, evidence on the question which individual‐level characteristics predict CM is inconsistent and often based on small samples. Second, personality, political, and religious predictors are usually examined in isolation. Third, differences on the societal level have been mostly neglected. In the present research, we gathered CAWI (Study 1) and CATI (Study 2) data on generalized interpersonal trust (GIT), right‐wing authoritarianism (RWA), and religiosity in two politically and culturally different European countries, namely Germany (N = 2,760) and Poland (N = 2,651). This allowed for a well‐powered test of three theoretically relevant predictors of CM, including their unique predictive value. Moreover, we were able to explore whether these associations replicate across or are moderated by country context. Our findings underline the role of GIT and RWA in predicting CM in both countries. Analyses based on RWA subdimensions yielded a differentiated picture of the role of RWA. Furthermore, we found cross‐country differences with stronger associations of GIT and RWA with CM in Germany. Findings are discussed concerning political and religious differences between the examined countries. Keywords: conspiracy mentality; generalized interpersonal trust; personality; religiosity; right‐wing authoritarianism Handle: RePEc:cog:poango:v10:y:2022:i:4:p:203-215 Template-Type: ReDIF-Article 1.0 Title: Links Between Conspiracy Thinking and Attitudes Toward Democracy and Religion: Survey Data From Poland File-URL: https://www.cogitatiopress.com/politicsandgovernance/article/view/5832 File-Format: text/html DOI: 10.17645/pag.v10i4.5832 Journal: Politics and Governance Volume: 10 Year: 2022 Issue: 4 Pages: 192-202 Author-Name: Franciszek Czech Author-Workplace-Name: Institute of Intercultural Studies, Jagiellonian University, Poland Abstract: Religion and democracy are not only social institutions but also objects of attitudes. This article focuses on conspiracy thinking and its links with attitudes toward religion and democracy. Due to its contextual character, the study is limited to Poland and the article intends to report the data on the subject from surveys conducted in this country. In terms of conspiracy thinking and attitudes toward religion, the literature review of existing Polish survey data (Study 1) led to the conclusion that not all types of religious life are correlated with conspiracy thinking. Individual spirituality (the centrality of religiosity and the quest orientation of religiosity) matters less in terms of conspiracy thinking than religion understood as a specific element of ideology (Polish Catholic nationalism, religious fundamentalism, or collective narcissism). In terms of attitudes toward democracy (Study 2), the original dataset is coded in a new way (as categorial variables) and then presented. It suggests that, contrary to earlier research, conspiracy thinking does not necessarily lead to the support of anti-democratic attitudes. Alienation as much as radicalization might be a consequence of conspiracy thinking. There is no significant difference in terms of conspiracy thinking between adherents of authoritarian rules and conditional democrats, indifferent democrats, or people with ambivalent opinions on democracy, described in comparative research on political culture as dissatisfied democrats or critical citizens. The lower level of conspiracy thinking has been identified only among consistent democrats. Keywords: authoritarianism; conspiracy theory; conspiracy thinking; critical citizens; democracy; dissatisfied democrats; Poland; religion; survey data Handle: RePEc:cog:poango:v10:y:2022:i:4:p:192-202 Template-Type: ReDIF-Article 1.0 Title: Covid‐19‐Related Conspiracy Myths, Beliefs, and Democracy‐Endangering Consequences File-URL: https://www.cogitatiopress.com/politicsandgovernance/article/view/5798 File-Format: text/html DOI: 10.17645/pag.v10i4.5798 Journal: Politics and Governance Volume: 10 Year: 2022 Issue: 4 Pages: 177-191 Author-Name: Gert Pickel Author-Workplace-Name: Institute for Practical Theology, University of Leipzig, Germany Author-Name: Cemal Öztürk Author-Workplace-Name: Institute for Political Science, University of Duisburg‐Essen, Germany Author-Name: Verena Schneider Author-Workplace-Name: Institute for Practical Theology, University of Leipzig, Germany Author-Name: Susanne Pickel Author-Workplace-Name: Institute for Political Science, University of Duisburg‐Essen, Germany Author-Name: Oliver Decker Author-Workplace-Name: Else‐Frenkel‐Brunswik Institute for the Study of Democracy, University of Leipzig, Germany Abstract: Since late 2020, protests against government measures to contain the Covid‐19 pandemic have swept across Germany. At the forefront of these protests was the Querdenker Movement, a heterogeneous alliance of ordinary citizens, hippies, esotericists, opponents of conventional medicine, Christian fundamentalists, and right‐wing extremists bonded by their shared belief in conspiracy myths. This contribution draws upon the theoretical framework of the studies on the authoritarian personality to dissect the nature of this heterogeneous alliance and the democracy‐endangering potential of conspiracy myths. We present three key insights based on an analysis of representative public opinion surveys conducted by the Leipzig Authoritarianism Study. First, we demonstrate that susceptibility to conspiracy myths in the public mood occurs in waves that coincide with times of crisis. In this regard, the Covid‐19 pandemic is a catalyst of conspiracy myths as it has induced existential and epistemic insecurities amongst many citizens. Second, it is shown that there is an elective affinity between superstition, esotericism, and a conspiracy mentality, which can be cited as one explanation for the heterogeneous alliance during the protests. On the other hand, the nexus between religion and the conspiracy mentality depends on an individual’s interpretation of religion. It is literalist fundamentalism that fosters susceptibility to conspiracy myths. Third, we highlight the democracy‐endangering consequences of a conspiracy mentality. Its manifestations include resentment and hostility toward minorities, an alienation from democracy, an increased likelihood of voting for right‐wing authoritarian parties, and an affinity for violence. Keywords: affinity for violence; Alternative for Germany; anti‐Muslim attitudes; antisemitism; authoritarianism; conspiracy theories; Covid‐19; religiosity; religious fundamentalism; support for democracy Handle: RePEc:cog:poango:v10:y:2022:i:4:p:177-191 Template-Type: ReDIF-Article 1.0 Title: When Believing in Divine Immanence Explains Vaccine Hesitancy: A Matter of Conspiracy Beliefs? File-URL: https://www.cogitatiopress.com/politicsandgovernance/article/view/5766 File-Format: text/html DOI: 10.17645/pag.v10i4.5766 Journal: Politics and Governance Volume: 10 Year: 2022 Issue: 4 Pages: 168-176 Author-Name: Riccardo Ladini Author-Workplace-Name: Department of Social and Political Sciences, University of Milan, Italy Author-Name: Cristiano Vezzoni Author-Workplace-Name: Department of Social and Political Sciences, University of Milan, Italy Abstract: This article analyzes the relationship between religiosity and vaccine hesitancy by highlighting the role of a specific dimension of religiosity that makes some people more prone to explaining health conditions as a divine agency—the belief in the immanent presence of the divine in everyday life. Accordingly, these people may undervalue the role of vaccination as a solution to cope with a pandemic and may be more skeptical of vaccines. We suggest a mechanism explaining the relationship between religiosity and vaccine hesitancy by focusing on the mediating role of beliefs in conspiracy theories, given that belief in divine immanence and conspiracy theories share the common trait of attributing agency to hidden forces. Beliefs in conspiracy theories, in turn, have been shown to be among the strongest predictors of vaccine hesitancy. By using a moderated mediation analysis on Italian survey data collected during the Covid-19 pandemic, we show that such a mechanism helps explain the relationship between believing in divine immanence and vaccine hesitancy among people not adhering to institutional religiosity. In contrast, this mechanism does not apply when the immanent conception of the divine is framed within a system of beliefs belonging to institutional religion. Keywords: conspiracy beliefs; Covid-19; religiosity; vaccine hesitancy Handle: RePEc:cog:poango:v10:y:2022:i:4:p:168-176 Template-Type: ReDIF-Article 1.0 Title: Conspiracy Theory Beliefs and Political Trust: The Moderating Role of Political Communication File-URL: https://www.cogitatiopress.com/politicsandgovernance/article/view/5755 File-Format: text/html DOI: 10.17645/pag.v10i4.5755 Journal: Politics and Governance Volume: 10 Year: 2022 Issue: 4 Pages: 157-167 Author-Name: Bernd Schlipphak Author-Workplace-Name: Department of Political Science, University of Münster, Germany Author-Name: Mujtaba Isani Author-Workplace-Name: German Center for Integration and Migration Research (DeZIM), Germany Author-Name: Mitja D. Back Author-Workplace-Name: Department of Psychology, University of Münster, Germany Abstract: A plentitude of research has analyzed citizens’ belief in conspiracy theories and its individual‐level correlates. Yet, the effects of (political) context factors on the causes and effects of individual belief in conspiracy theories are still neglected. However, such context should be especially relevant when it comes to the impact of one’s belief in conspiracy theories on one’s political preference. In this article, we argue that the communication of governmental actors exerts a moderating influence on the link leading from a belief in conspiracy theories to political attitudes. In a nutshell, the belief in conspiracy theories should make citizens less likely to distrust their government—and the political system in general—in contexts where these theories are shared or at least publicly represented by governmental actors. Using two original data sets with data from Germany, Poland, and Jordan (Study 1) and data from Germany, Poland, Sweden, and France (Study 2), we test our argument based on an overall sample of about 10,000 cases. Our results indicate that higher degrees of generic conspiracy theories beliefs are associated with higher levels of political distrust across countries. Yet, confirming our argument, such an effect takes place less strongly in those countries in which governmental actors use conspiracy theories as a political communication strategy. Keywords: conspiracy beliefs; conspiracy mentality; conspiracy theories; political communication; political trust Handle: RePEc:cog:poango:v10:y:2022:i:4:p:157-167 Template-Type: ReDIF-Article 1.0 Title: Religions and Conspiracy Theories as the Authoritarian “Other” of Democracy? File-URL: https://www.cogitatiopress.com/politicsandgovernance/article/view/5826 File-Format: text/html DOI: 10.17645/pag.v10i4.5826 Journal: Politics and Governance Volume: 10 Year: 2022 Issue: 4 Pages: 146-156 Author-Name: Oliver Fernando Hidalgo Author-Workplace-Name: Department of Politics, University of Münster, Germany Abstract: This article theorises and conceptualises the ambivalent role of religions and conspiracy theories in modern democracies. Based on a concise comparison of both phenomena, it elaborates the similar risks and functions of religions and conspiracy theories for the political community without neglecting the fact that, under secular conditions, the spread of conspiracy narratives might outweigh those of religious messages in the long run. That observation seems particularly relevant for contemporary governance and political science, as a tendency towards social anomie in the sense of Durkheim can be deduced from democratic theory, which significantly increases democracy’s need for compensatory moral and cognitive authorities. Keywords: anomie; authority; belief; conspiracy; democracy; disintegration; emotions; orientation; substitute religions; uncertainty Handle: RePEc:cog:poango:v10:y:2022:i:4:p:146-156 Template-Type: ReDIF-Article 1.0 Title: On Conspiracy Thinking: Conspiracist Ideology as a Modern Phenomenon File-URL: https://www.cogitatiopress.com/politicsandgovernance/article/view/5724 File-Format: text/html DOI: 10.17645/pag.v10i4.5724 Journal: Politics and Governance Volume: 10 Year: 2022 Issue: 4 Pages: 135-145 Author-Name: Stefan Christoph Author-Workplace-Name: Department of Political Science, University of Regensburg, Germany Abstract:Conspiracism is a well‐known topos in the history of humankind. Cassius Dio wrote about it as did anti‐Judaic authors in the Middle Ages. Nevertheless, from the dawn of modernity until today, we have faced the rise of a new phenomenon. Pretty much on the eve of the French Revolution, conspiracists began to tell anti‐Catholic and anti‐masonic narratives down to the last detail. Jews, later on, became a recurring foe in those anti‐modernist narratives. Conspiracism managed successfully to incorporate other forms of anti‐modernism to form a fairly new form of thinking that I call “conspiracist ideology.” While Enlightenment was the setting in which this amalgamation could take place, conspiracist ideology and its intellectual roots were characterized by a deep rejection of enlightenment thinking. The dialectical nature of conspiracist ideology is what makes it interesting from a historical perspective, in particular for the history of ideas.
Keywords: anti‐modernism; conspiracism; conspiracy thinking; Enlightenment; history of ideas; intellectual history Handle: RePEc:cog:poango:v10:y:2022:i:4:p:135-145 Template-Type: ReDIF-Article 1.0 Title: The Role of Religions and Conspiracy Theories in Democratic and Authoritarian Regimes File-URL: https://www.cogitatiopress.com/politicsandgovernance/article/view/6271 File-Format: text/html DOI: 10.17645/pag.v10i4.6271 Journal: Politics and Governance Volume: 10 Year: 2022 Issue: 4 Pages: 132-134 Author-Name: Oliver Fernando Hidalgo Author-Workplace-Name: Department of Politics, University of Münster, Germany Author-Name: Alexander Yendell Author-Workplace-Name: Research Institute Social Cohesion, Leipzig University, Germany Abstract: This thematic issue asks about the role of religions and religious actors and conspiracy theories/theorists in democratic and authoritarian regimes in general. Special attention is given to the current Covid-19 pandemic, since the relevant state of emergency obviously endorses the persuasiveness of conspiracy theories and makes the comparison with religions necessary. In this respect, the challenges religious prejudices and conspiracy myths imply could even shed light on the problem of whether democracy or authoritarianism is the best regime to fight the Coronavirus successfully. The articles at hand answer these issues from interdisciplinary areas, particularly from political science, sociology, social psychology, and history. Keywords: authoritarianism; conspiracy ideology; conspiracy myths; conspiracy theory; Corona; Covid-19; democracy; pandemic; religion; religiosity Handle: RePEc:cog:poango:v10:y:2022:i:4:p:132-134 Template-Type: ReDIF-Article 1.0 Title: Disputing “Gender” in Academia: Illiberalism and the Politics of Knowledge File-URL: https://www.cogitatiopress.com/politicsandgovernance/article/view/5529 File-Format: text/html DOI: 10.17645/pag.v10i4.5529 Journal: Politics and Governance Volume: 10 Year: 2022 Issue: 4 Pages: 121-131 Author-Name: Yasmine Ergas Author-Workplace-Name: School of International and Public Affairs, Columbia University, USA Author-Name: Jazgul Kochkorova Author-Workplace-Name: School of International and Public Affairs, Columbia University, USA Author-Name: Andrea Pető Author-Workplace-Name: Department of Gender Studies, Central European University, Hungary Author-Name: Natalia Trujillo Author-Workplace-Name: School of International and Public Affairs, Columbia University, USA Abstract: This article explores the attacks to which gender studies programs in Central and Eastern Europe have been subject and the responses such attacks have elicited in the context of analogous phenomena in other parts of the world. The undermining of gender studies in recent years has been aggravated by the effects of the Covid‐19 pandemic that has exacerbated financial crises of educational institutions while also—in some contexts—providing cover for restrictions on academic freedom. Our specific focus here, however, is on how illiberal policies have limited the scope of academic gender studies, sometimes calling into question their very existence. To identify the modalities through which illiberal governments may narrow gender studies programs, we draw on Pirro and Stanley’s analysis of illiberal policymakers’ toolkit based on “forging,” “breaking,” and “bending.” We consider these categories useful for our analysis but add a fourth: “de‐specification”—a purposeful submersion, or redefinition, of gender studies into other programs, such as family studies. Our purpose is not to present an exhaustive analysis but rather to delineate a framework for analyzing such attacks and the responses to which they have given rise, and then to indicate some questions for further research. As such, this article should be read as a work in progress that seeks to explicate the modalities of the attacks on gender studies in higher education to which contemporary illiberalism has given rise concomitantly with attacks on gender rights and emerging forms of resistance that bespeak the resilience of the gender academy. Keywords: anti‐gender attacks; Eastern Europe; gender studies; illiberalism; resilience; resistance Handle: RePEc:cog:poango:v10:y:2022:i:4:p:121-131 Template-Type: ReDIF-Article 1.0 Title: On Gender and Illiberalism: Lessons From Slovak Parliamentary Debates File-URL: https://www.cogitatiopress.com/politicsandgovernance/article/view/5536 File-Format: text/html DOI: 10.17645/pag.v10i4.5536 Journal: Politics and Governance Volume: 10 Year: 2022 Issue: 4 Pages: 108-120 Author-Name: Ľubomír Zvada Author-Workplace-Name: Department of Politics and European Studies, Palacký University Olomouc, Czechia Abstract: This study offers a comprehensive, in-depth analysis of Slovak illiberal anti-gender parliamentary discourse based on a unique dataset consisting of 85 parliamentary speeches. It presents who the main actors are in terms of the illiberal anti-gender discourse in Slovakia and which narratives they postulate. It also considers if there is any variation in the identified narratives. The qualitative content analysis covered several critical anti-gender narratives in the rhetoric of illiberal parties. I argue that the occurrence and range of anti-gender narratives within the Slovak parliamentary illiberal discourse are diverse, and this diversity varies in the ideological background of the analysed parties. While some of the more traditional Christian conservative parties, such as the KDH, and new populist parties such as OĽaNO or Sme Rodina, have articulated gender primarily as a threat to Slovak Catholics, Christianity, traditional marriage, and families, others like the nationally conservative-oriented SNS or the Smer-SD have stressed the loss of national sovereignty and legal aspects around the Istanbul Convention, and utilized this topic to strengthen their Eurosceptic rhetoric. Finally, the far-right K-ĽSNS has used an eclectic approach combining all found anti-gender narratives while using the most abusive language towards transgender persons and other sexual minorities. Keywords: gender; illiberalism; narratives; parliamentary debates; political discourse; qualitative content analysis; Slovak politics Handle: RePEc:cog:poango:v10:y:2022:i:4:p:108-120 Template-Type: ReDIF-Article 1.0 Title: In the Name of the Conservative People: Slovakia’s Gendered Illiberal Transformation File-URL: https://www.cogitatiopress.com/politicsandgovernance/article/view/5538 File-Format: text/html DOI: 10.17645/pag.v10i4.5538 Journal: Politics and Governance Volume: 10 Year: 2022 Issue: 4 Pages: 95-107 Author-Name: Zuzana Maďarová Author-Workplace-Name: Faculty of Social and Economic Sciences, Comenius University Bratislava, Slovakia Author-Name: Pavol Hardoš Author-Workplace-Name: Faculty of Social and Economic Sciences, Comenius University Bratislava, Slovakia Abstract: Over the past decade, Slovakia has witnessed the dismantling of public human rights institutions and gender equality policies and incessant efforts to limit sexual and reproductive rights. While these processes have been mostly discussed in relation to the transnational anti‐gender movement, this article conceptualizes them as part of an illiberal turn. We argue that recent rhetorical, institutional, and policy processes in Slovakia have been enabled by a discursive shift positing a new subject: conservative people and their rightful demands. Our argument is bolstered through two analyses. Quantitative content analysis of media articles published between 2002 and 2020, firstly, traces the increased emphasis on the signifiers “conservative” and “liberal.” This examination demonstrates that the anti‐gender discourse in the 2010s accelerated and normalized this specific discursive frame. Furthermore, it underscores how the carriers of the conservative label shifted away from institutions towards individual politicians and, more importantly, toward a collective subject—people. Qualitative discourse analysis, secondly, focuses on the anti‐gender discourse, understood here as a Laclauian populist practice. It posits three types of demands entangled in an equivalential chain—demands dealing with cultural recognition, material redistribution, and political representation. This analytical approach enables us to show how the construction of the conservative/liberal divide goes beyond the struggles for so‐called traditional values, but is embedded in broader socioeconomic processes, and how it led to calls for political representation of the “conservative people” and for a “conservative” (in fact illiberal) transformation of political institutions. Keywords: anti‐gender politics; gender; illiberalism; populism; Slovakia Handle: RePEc:cog:poango:v10:y:2022:i:4:p:95-107 Template-Type: ReDIF-Article 1.0 Title: Illiberal Discourse in Romania: A “Golden” New Beginning? File-URL: https://www.cogitatiopress.com/politicsandgovernance/article/view/5515 File-Format: text/html DOI: 10.17645/pag.v10i4.5515 Journal: Politics and Governance Volume: 10 Year: 2022 Issue: 4 Pages: 84-94 Author-Name: Alina Dragolea Author-Workplace-Name: Faculty of Political Science, National University of Political Studies and Public Administration (SNSPA), Romania Abstract: While interest in illiberalism has increased in recent years, the study of the connections between anti-gender discourse and transnational dissemination is a more recent scholarly endeavour. Emerging feminist scholarship has helped to move beyond national cases of illiberalism to understand how the gendered nature of illiberalism is revealed through its ability to cross borders and, in recent years, to become a movement with a transnational character. This article examines the evolution of the political discourse on gender in Romania and proposes a three-stage framework leading from gender traditionalism to a more pronounced illiberal discourse. The article examines whether the recent rise of the political party Alliance for the Union of Romanians (Alianța pentru Unirea României, AUR) represents a new step towards an established political illiberal discourse in Romania. The official public addresses of AUR are analysed to show how the terminology and themes identified as cornerstones of illiberalism (e.g., anti-gender, traditional family, opposition to reproductive rights, education, and anti-LGBTQ) are incorporated into its rhetoric. Keywords: anti-gender; illiberal offer; illiberalism; Romania; transnational illiberalism Handle: RePEc:cog:poango:v10:y:2022:i:4:p:84-94 Template-Type: ReDIF-Article 1.0 Title: Populist Skirmishers: Frontrunners of Populist Radical Right in Poland File-URL: https://www.cogitatiopress.com/politicsandgovernance/article/view/5585 File-Format: text/html DOI: 10.17645/pag.v10i4.5585 Journal: Politics and Governance Volume: 10 Year: 2022 Issue: 4 Pages: 72-83 Author-Name: Karolina Zbytniewska Author-Workplace-Name: Political Science and International Studies, University of Warsaw, Poland Abstract: Mainstream parties, like PiS in Poland, have to cater to broad segments of society to sustain broad support. Cultivation of populist radical right ideologies of authoritarianism, traditionalism, religiosity, and nativism—all interlaced with gender as a nemesis and the nation as a deity—takes highly motivated, confrontational politicians who prepare the ground for radical populist ideas to take root in the electorate’s minds, who mobilize voters through radicalization. This article introduces the concept of “populist skirmishers” to the literature on populism, adding this to Cas Mudde’s basket of major mobilizing forces of populism, that is, a populist leader, a social movement, and a political party. Though it might be considered an unnecessary elevation of a profession that perverts the rules of civility in the public sphere, polarizes electorates, and does whatever it takes to derail the project of European integration, I argue that understanding the modus operandi and functions of populist skirmishers is indispensable to furthering our understanding of populism. Keywords: gender; populism; populist radical right; populist skirmishers; ultraconservatism Handle: RePEc:cog:poango:v10:y:2022:i:4:p:72-83 Template-Type: ReDIF-Article 1.0 Title: Gender Politics of “Illiberal Pragmatics” in the Polish Defense Sector File-URL: https://www.cogitatiopress.com/politicsandgovernance/article/view/5532 File-Format: text/html DOI: 10.17645/pag.v10i4.5532 Journal: Politics and Governance Volume: 10 Year: 2022 Issue: 4 Pages: 61-71 Author-Name: Weronika Grzebalska Author-Workplace-Name: Institute of Political Studies, Polish Academy of Sciences, Poland Abstract: Since 2015, the illiberal Law and Justice (Prawo i Sprawiedliwość [PiS]) government in Poland has engaged in campaigns against “gender ideology,” rolling back several equality mechanisms and provisions, and mainstreaming traditionalist values into state policy. Following from this, scholarship has predominantly addressed PiS gender politics through the concepts of anti-gender backlash and gender backsliding. Against this background, Polish defense policy constitutes a puzzling realm that significantly escapes these frameworks, revealing instead a mix of backsliding, institutional and discursive continuity, and positive gender change. While the displacement of the Plenipotentiary for Equal Treatment office has erased similar bodies in the defense sector, the government has swiftly created a National Action Plan on Women, Peace and Security, strengthened the Armed Forces Women’s Council, and continued prior policy and discourse on women’s service. Meanwhile, the increased defense preparations following the war in eastern Ukraine have doubled women’s percentage in the armed forces, partially regendering the very idea and practice of defense. To explore this ambiguity, the article draws from feminist institutionalism and multi-sited sociological methods. It proposes to move beyond backlash towards the analytical concept of illiberal pragmatics—a complex, gendered logic of governance which seeks to balance illiberals’ dedication to national sovereignty with pragmatic political, security, demographic, and economic considerations. Under illiberal pragmatics, women’s interests are pursued within a more conservative framework, with gender norms simultaneously upheld and destabilized across different realms. Nevertheless, the key feature of illiberal gender politics lies not in backsliding, but in a pragmatic balancing act between national integrity and structural pressures for change. Keywords: anti-gender; defense; gender; illiberalism; military; Poland; security Handle: RePEc:cog:poango:v10:y:2022:i:4:p:61-71 Template-Type: ReDIF-Article 1.0 Title: The Gendered Discourses of Illiberal Demographic Policy in Poland and in Russia File-URL: https://www.cogitatiopress.com/politicsandgovernance/article/view/5516 File-Format: text/html DOI: 10.17645/pag.v10i4.5516 Journal: Politics and Governance Volume: 10 Year: 2022 Issue: 4 Pages: 49-60 Author-Name: Barbara Gaweda Author-Workplace-Name: Faculty of Social Sciences, Tampere University, Finland Abstract: Despite being dissimilar cases, both Poland and Russia exhibit strong anti-liberal and democratic backsliding tendencies. Concomitantly, politicians are spreading a demographic moral panic, employing the argument that both nations are in danger of demise. There is scaremongering concerning below-replacement population growth rates and, in parallel, a tightening grasp on reproductive health rights and a growing fear of non-binary gender identities, people of color, and homosexuality. The political anti-gender mobilization in Poland in the 2010s and the gendered anti-Western and anti-gay conspiracy narratives in Russia are examples of this phenomenon. How are the policy responses to “demographic crises” constructed and gendered in political discourses today? What lies behind it and what is its role in illiberal politics? In this article, I discuss the current demographic discourses in Poland and in Russia. I argue that the politics of rallying against “demographic crises” surfaced on the wave of growing dominance of ultraconservative and nationalist discourses in East-Central Europe in response to perceived socio-economic pressures. I demonstrate how Polish and Russian politicians have been utilizing nativism, familialism, and “tradition” discourses for reasons of political legitimacy and expediency. Looking at political debates and concrete demographic strategies, I trace how the rhetoric of “democratic crises” is deployed to shore up illiberalism in both countries. Keywords: demographic policy; discourse; gender; illiberalism; Poland; Russia Handle: RePEc:cog:poango:v10:y:2022:i:4:p:49-60 Template-Type: ReDIF-Article 1.0 Title: Resisting Genderphobia in Hungary File-URL: https://www.cogitatiopress.com/politicsandgovernance/article/view/5528 File-Format: text/html DOI: 10.17645/pag.v10i4.5528 Journal: Politics and Governance Volume: 10 Year: 2022 Issue: 4 Pages: 38-48 Author-Name: Judit Takács Author-Workplace-Name: Centre for Social Sciences, Hungarian Academy of Sciences Centre of Excellence, Hungary Author-Name: Katherine Fobear Author-Workplace-Name: California State University, Fresno, USA Author-Name: Szilvia Schmitsek Author-Workplace-Name: University of the West of Scotland, UK / Department for Continuing Education, Oxford University, UK Abstract: In this article, we connect illiberal populism in Hungary with the instrumentalizing of genderphobia through state policies starting from 2010. This became especially salient during the COVID-19 pandemic when a contentious state of emergency laws enabled the government’s ruling by decree. Analyzing relevant pieces of legislation and policy documents, we show how genderphobia became a fundamental feature of an expanding far-right agenda that has been playing out in practice since the System of National Cooperation was established in 2010. Genderphobia is the aversion to disrupting dominant gender and sexual hierarchies, by addressing and critically interrogating gendered differences and gender as a social construct. Genderphobia is both an ideology about the fearfulness of gender as well as the action of fear-mongering for political effect. State institutions are gendered and sexualized in that they have been structured on dominant gender and sexual norms that reinforce male and heterosexual dominance. We argue that genderphobia is evident in the rise of anti-LGBTIQ policies and contributes to the weakening of democratic and liberal institutions in Hungary. We will also present examples of the Hungarian government’s attempts to monopolize the definition of “the family” and hollow out the social representation of child protection. In addition, we will explore resistance against the recent anti-LGBTIQ policies through children’s literature. Our aim is to demonstrate how the Hungarian genderphobic policies ultimately deny not only LGBTIQ human rights but the existence of LGBTIQ youth and children who could benefit from social support as well as representation in education and literature. Keywords: child protection; children’s literature; fear mongering; genderphobia; heteronormativity; Hungary; illiberalism; LGBTIQ; System of National Cooperation Handle: RePEc:cog:poango:v10:y:2022:i:4:p:38-48 Template-Type: ReDIF-Article 1.0 Title: Illiberal and Populist Political Narratives on Gender and Underreporting of Sexual Violence: A Case Study of Hungary File-URL: https://www.cogitatiopress.com/politicsandgovernance/article/view/5519 File-Format: text/html DOI: 10.17645/pag.v10i4.5519 Journal: Politics and Governance Volume: 10 Year: 2022 Issue: 4 Pages: 26-37 Author-Name: Katalin Parti Author-Workplace-Name: Department of Sociology, Virginia Tech, USA Abstract: Sexual violence is underreported all over the world. In this article, I argue that democratic backsliding undermines the reporting of sexual violence even further. The author’s team conducted in-depth interviews (n = 15) with representatives of civil society organizations, victims’ services, clinical practitioners, and child and family welfare in Hungary in 2017 and 2018, in search of organizational and structural causes to why sexual violence remains vastly underreported in the country with the least reported case numbers in Europe. The small but diverse sample helped identify associations between the reporting of sexual violence and repressive, gender-related political decisions such as threatening the existence of civil organizations undertaking victim support roles and providing victim services, a family-centered political narrative, and confining women’s roles solely for reproductive purposes. It is not possible to maintain causation since there are other factors interfering the association. Thus, instead of discussing it as a single cause of underreporting sexual violence, I present the Hungarian case to illustrate the consequences of illiberal politics on reporting. Furthermore, utilizing Slovič’s risk-benefit model, I argue that recent products of illiberal politics such as politicizing “gender” undermine trust, a precondition of asking for help and providing support for victims of sexual violence. Keywords: civil society organizations; family; gender; Hungary; illiberalism; risk-benefit model; sexual violence; victims Handle: RePEc:cog:poango:v10:y:2022:i:4:p:26-37 Template-Type: ReDIF-Article 1.0 Title: Not in Front of the Child: Illiberal Familism and the Hungarian Anti‐LGBTQ+ “Child Protective Law” File-URL: https://www.cogitatiopress.com/politicsandgovernance/article/view/5521 File-Format: text/html DOI: 10.17645/pag.v10i4.5521 Journal: Politics and Governance Volume: 10 Year: 2022 Issue: 4 Pages: 16-25 Author-Name: Katinka Linnamäki Author-Workplace-Name: Faculty of Social Sciences, University of Helsinki, Finland Abstract: Research on familialism in Europe usually focuses on family policies, pointing out how female reproductive and work rights are often contrasted with the interest of the family, as shown by the individualism vs. familism understanding of familism (familialism). Here, however, I focus on another understanding of familism that sees the family as the model for other social institutions. This novel angle on the European context enables research on a scarcely researched aspect: how familism is used to render non‐heterosexual rights illegitimate. Turning to Ernesto Laclau and Chantal Mouffe’s rhetorical understanding of politics, I show how the rhetorical use of the family legitimizes anti‐LGBTQ+ sentiments. I focus on the Hungarian “Child Protective Law,” passed by the illiberal Fidesz‐KDNP government in 2021. The content analysis of the material shows how the Hungarian government’s aspiration to protect children, both as crucial members of heterosexual nuclear families as well as symbols of the illiberalist future of the country, legitimizes anti‐LGBTQ+ stances. This happens, first, through a discursive link between LGBTQ+ people and child abuse. Second, it occurs through the government´s familistic ideal of the Christian heterosexual family, which also constitutes its antagonistic frontier as the LGBTQ+ community. I argue for a new articulation of the illiberal “us” and its liberal frontier, where the ideal family, and in particular heterosexuality, function as a means of exclusion. This article contributes to existing literature on gender and illiberalism as well as to current discussions on the limits of the theoretical concepts of familism. Keywords: child protective law; familism; Hungary; illiberalism; LGBTQ+ rights Handle: RePEc:cog:poango:v10:y:2022:i:4:p:16-25 Template-Type: ReDIF-Article 1.0 Title: Reactionary Gender Constructions in Illiberal Political Thinking File-URL: https://www.cogitatiopress.com/politicsandgovernance/article/view/5537 File-Format: text/html DOI: 10.17645/pag.v10i4.5537 Journal: Politics and Governance Volume: 10 Year: 2022 Issue: 4 Pages: 6-15 Author-Name: Elisabeth Holzleithner Author-Workplace-Name: Institute of Legal Philosophy, University of Vienna, Austria Abstract: Theories of the state, its functions, limits, and legitimacy have been overwhelmingly “liberal” in the past few decades, in a very broad sense of the term. Such theories are inherently open to a diversity of genders, sexual orientations, and ways of living together because they place equal freedom and the right to prosper according to one’s own ideas front and centre. Illiberal political thinking is of a completely different stock. This article focuses on the role of gender and sexuality in such approaches. Both gender and sexuality are pivotal for illiberalism’s defence of an order that is supposed to overcome Western‐style liberal democracy. In contrast to the liberals’ and their like‐minded critics’ quest for social justice in societies that are traversed by structures of oppression and domination, illiberal political thinking offers an utterly different brand of autocratic rule that keeps conventional hierarchies intact. It only takes note of advanced gender theories to either ridicule them or condemn them as a supposed threat to social cohesion. This article exposes illiberal approaches to gender and sexuality, considering the roots and focus of the former on the dichotomy of public/private and illiberals’ aversion to equality and human rights. Keywords: convention; culture; equality; gender; human rights; law and morality; liberty; sexuality Handle: RePEc:cog:poango:v10:y:2022:i:4:p:6-15 Template-Type: ReDIF-Article 1.0 Title: Gendering De‐Democratization: Gender and Illiberalism in Post‐Communist Europe File-URL: https://www.cogitatiopress.com/politicsandgovernance/article/view/6245 File-Format: text/html DOI: 10.17645/pag.v10i4.6245 Journal: Politics and Governance Volume: 10 Year: 2022 Issue: 4 Pages: 1-5 Author-Name: Matthijs Bogaards Author-Workplace-Name: Department of Political Science, Central European University, Austria Author-Name: Andrea Pető Author-Workplace-Name: Department of Gender Studies, Central European University, Austria Abstract: Many observers have written with concern about a growing “opposition to gender equality,” “anti‐gender campaigns,” and even a “war on gender.” Often, these trends take place in countries that are witnessing a decline in democratic quality, a process captured by such labels as “democratic erosion,” “democratic backsliding,” or “autocratization.” This thematic issue brings together literature on gender equality and de‐democratization with an emphasis on the role of illiberalism and a regional focus on post‐communist Europe. Keywords: autocratization; de‐democratization; equality; Europe; gender; illiberalism; LGBTQIA+; populism Handle: RePEc:cog:poango:v10:y:2022:i:4:p:1-5 Template-Type: ReDIF-Article 1.0 Title: Framing Climate Policy Ambition in the European Parliament File-URL: https://www.cogitatiopress.com/politicsandgovernance/article/view/5479 File-Format: text/html DOI: 10.17645/pag.v10i3.5479 Journal: Politics and Governance Volume: 10 Year: 2022 Issue: 3 Pages: 251-263 Author-Name: Lucy Kinski Author-Workplace-Name: Salzburg Centre of European Union Studies, University of Salzburg, Austria Author-Name: Ariadna Ripoll Servent Author-Workplace-Name: Salzburg Centre of European Union Studies, University of Salzburg, Austria Abstract: The European Union’s climate policy is considered quite ambitious. This has led to a growing interest among political scientists investigating the European Parliament’s ability to negotiate such ambitious climate legislation. These studies generally focus on the voting behaviour of members of the European Parliament, which allows us to know more about their positions when it comes to accepting or rejecting legislative acts. However, we know surprisingly little about how they debate and justify their positions in Parliament. In these debates, members of the European Parliament not only identify the problem (i.e., climate change and its adverse effects) but also discuss potential solutions (i.e., their willingness or ambition to fight and adapt to climate change). In addition, plenary debates are ideal for making representative claims based on citizens’ interests on climate action. Therefore, this article aims to understand how climate policy ambitions are debated in the European Parliament and whose interests are represented. We propose a new manual coding scheme for climate policy ambitions in parliamentary debate and employ it in climate policy debates in the ninth European Parliament (2019–present). In doing so, this article makes a methodological contribution to operationalising climate policy ambition from a parliamentary representation and legitimation perspective. We find debating patterns that connect quite detailed ambitions with clear representative claims and justifications. There is more agreement on what to do than how to get there, with divides emerging based on party, ideological, and member-state characteristics. Keywords: climate policy ambition; content analysis; European Parliament; fragmentation; parliamentary debates; policy change Handle: RePEc:cog:poango:v10:y:2022:i:3:p:251-263 Template-Type: ReDIF-Article 1.0 Title: Gender Heterogeneity and Politics in Decision-Making About Green Public Procurement in the Czech Republic File-URL: https://www.cogitatiopress.com/politicsandgovernance/article/view/5408 File-Format: text/html DOI: 10.17645/pag.v10i3.5408 Journal: Politics and Governance Volume: 10 Year: 2022 Issue: 3 Pages: 239-250 Author-Name: Michal Plaček Author-Workplace-Name: Faculty of Social Sciences, Charles University, Czech Republic Author-Name: Cristina del Campo Author-Workplace-Name: Department of Financial and Actuarial Economics and Statistics, Complutense University of Madrid, Spain Author-Name: Vladislav Valentinov Author-Workplace-Name: Leibniz Institute of Agricultural Development in Transition Economies (IAMO), Germany Author-Name: Gabriela Vaceková Author-Workplace-Name: Faculty of Social Studies, Masaryk University, Czech Republic / Ambis University, Czech Republic Author-Name: Markéta Šumpíková Author-Workplace-Name: Ambis University, Czech Republic Author-Name: František Ochrana Author-Workplace-Name: Faculty of Social Sciences, Charles University, Czech Republic Abstract: Green public procurement (GPP) is a widely recognized public policy tool that has attracted considerable scholarly research. However, much of this research has paid little attention to the nature of discretionary decision-making on the part of bureaucrats and local politicians; nor has it recognized that a crucial determinant of the implementation of GPP is the extent to which women hold administrative and political positions. While GPP tends to be discussed as a tool for promoting gender equality, we draw on feminist insights to argue that doing so may be a tool for enhancing the uptake and implementation of GPP. Utilizing the data from a large-N survey among local politicians and upper-echelon bureaucrats in the Czech Republic, we develop a path analysis model exploring the influence of gender on their decision-making. The results give credence to our overall argument that women are more likely to promote GPP. This argument not only breaks new ground by revealing the gendered nature of GPP but also generates straightforward policy implications. Keywords: decision-making; gender; green public procurement Handle: RePEc:cog:poango:v10:y:2022:i:3:p:239-250 Template-Type: ReDIF-Article 1.0 Title: Climate Policy Ambition: Exploring A Policy Density Perspective File-URL: https://www.cogitatiopress.com/politicsandgovernance/article/view/5347 File-Format: text/html DOI: 10.17645/pag.v10i3.5347 Journal: Politics and Governance Volume: 10 Year: 2022 Issue: 3 Pages: 226-238 Author-Name: Simon Schaub Author-Workplace-Name: Institute of Political Science, Heidelberg University, Germany Author-Name: Jale Tosun Author-Workplace-Name: Institute of Political Science, Heidelberg University, Germany / Heidelberg Center for the Environment, Heidelberg University, Germany Author-Name: Andrew Jordan Author-Workplace-Name: Tyndall Centre for Climate Change Research, University of East Anglia, UK Author-Name: Joan Enguer Author-Workplace-Name: Institute of Political Science, Heidelberg University, Germany Abstract: National policy ambition plays a central role in climate change governance under the Paris Agreement and is now a focus of rapidly emerging literature. In this contribution, we argue that policy ambition can be captured by the level of national policy activity, which in accordance with the existing literature should be referred to as “policy density.” In this study, we measure climate policy density by drawing on three publicly available databases. All three measurements show an upward trend in the adoption of climate policy. However, our empirical comparison also reveals differences between the measurements with regard to the degree of policy expansion and sectoral coverage, which are due to differences in the type of policies in the databases. For the first time, we compare the patterns of policy density within each database (2000–2019) and reveal that while they are different, they are nonetheless potentially complementary. Since the choice of the database and the resulting measurement of policy density ultimately depend on the questions posed by researchers, we conclude by discussing whether some questions are better answered by some measurements than others. Keywords: climate policy; policy density; policy instruments; policy outputs Handle: RePEc:cog:poango:v10:y:2022:i:3:p:226-238 Template-Type: ReDIF-Article 1.0 Title: Closing the Implementation Gap: Obstacles in Reaching Net-Zero Pledges in the EU and Germany File-URL: https://www.cogitatiopress.com/politicsandgovernance/article/view/5326 File-Format: text/html DOI: 10.17645/pag.v10i3.5326 Journal: Politics and Governance Volume: 10 Year: 2022 Issue: 3 Pages: 213-225 Author-Name: Grischa Perino Author-Workplace-Name: Department of Socioeconomics, University of Hamburg, Germany / Center for Earth System Research and Sustainability, University of Hamburg, Germany / Center for Sustainable Society Research, University of Hamburg, Germany Author-Name: Johannes Jarke-Neuert Author-Workplace-Name: Center for Earth System Research and Sustainability, University of Hamburg, Germany Author-Name: Felix Schenuit Author-Workplace-Name: Center for Sustainable Society Research, University of Hamburg, Germany / German Institute for International and Security Affairs, Germany Author-Name: Martin Wickel Author-Workplace-Name: Center for Earth System Research and Sustainability, University of Hamburg, Germany / Department of Urban Planning, HafenCity University Hamburg, Germany Author-Name: Cathrin Zengerling Author-Workplace-Name: Institute for Environmental Social Sciences and Geography, University of Freiburg, Germany Abstract: The European Union and Germany have recently committed themselves to greenhouse-gas neutrality by 2050 and 2045, respectively. This substantially reduces their gaps in ambition to the Paris climate goals. However, the current climate policy mix is not sufficient to reach these targets: There is a major implementation gap. Based on economic, legal, and political science perspectives, this article identifies key obstacles in legislating stringent climate policy instruments and making them effective. Using a simple framework, we map the stage of the process in which the obstacles are at work. Moreover, we discuss the potential effectiveness of a select list of prominent drivers of climate-related regulation in overcoming said obstacles and conclude by pointing towards conditions for closing the implementation gap. In doing so, we focus on the current legislative processes of the “Fit-for-55” package by the European Commission and the 2021 Federal Climate Change Act in Germany. Our analysis builds on the extant literature, and we suggest avenues for further research. Keywords: ambition gap; climate policy; European Union; Germany; implementation gap Handle: RePEc:cog:poango:v10:y:2022:i:3:p:213-225 Template-Type: ReDIF-Article 1.0 Title: Exploring Enablers for an Ambitious Coal Phaseout File-URL: https://www.cogitatiopress.com/politicsandgovernance/article/view/5535 File-Format: text/html DOI: 10.17645/pag.v10i3.5535 Journal: Politics and Governance Volume: 10 Year: 2022 Issue: 3 Pages: 200-212 Author-Name: Elina Brutschin Author-Workplace-Name: International Institute for Applied Systems Analysis, Austria Author-Name: Felix Schenuit Author-Workplace-Name: German Institute for International and Security Affairs, Germany / Center for Sustainable Society Research, Universität Hamburg, Germany Author-Name: Bas van Ruijven Author-Workplace-Name: International Institute for Applied Systems Analysis, Austria Author-Name: Keywan Riahi Author-Workplace-Name: International Institute for Applied Systems Analysis, Austria Abstract: To reach the mitigation goals of the Paris Agreement, many countries will have to phase out their coal power plants prematurely, i.e., before the end of their normal lifetimes, which will lead quite possibly to significant stranded assets. This could present a major challenge, particularly for many of the rapidly developing countries whose electricity demand is growing and which are currently expanding their coal fleets. Recent research shows that countries with aging power plants and decreasing coal consumption are more inclined to phase out coal, but little is known about where, why, and how coal power plants are being prematurely retired. In the context of the hybrid Paris Agreement, attention is increasingly shifting to domestic mitigation capacities and, alongside this—given the vested interests involved in different sectors—to state capacity to implement the transformations required to achieve deep decarbonization. In this article, we aim to study those capacities in the context of coal phaseout. We use a recent and comprehensive global dataset on coal power plants and employ a mixed-methods research design to (a) identify general emerging patterns with respect to premature coal fleet retirement, and (b) derive stylized types of political strategies to prematurely retire coal power plants. We find state capacity to be a robust predictor of general and premature coal retirement, and we identify three main strategies that countries have used to date to prematurely retire coal: (a) rein-in using top-down regulatory enforcement of environmental, climate, or other regulations that affect the operating licenses of coal plants; (b) buy-out or provision of compensation to companies and regions to appease vested interests; and (c) crowd out where accelerating market and price dynamics in the power sector crowd out coal. We propose that future research should explore more systematically the kinds of strategy that might be most promising in the regions and countries needing to rapidly phase out coal, taking into account their political structures, and also the implications that such strategies might have for global mitigation efforts. Keywords: climate mitigation; coal phaseout; premature coal retirement; strategic state capacity Handle: RePEc:cog:poango:v10:y:2022:i:3:p:200-212 Template-Type: ReDIF-Article 1.0 Title: Emissions Lock-in, Capacity, and Public Opinion: How Insights From Political Science Can Inform Climate Modeling Efforts File-URL: https://www.cogitatiopress.com/politicsandgovernance/article/view/5462 File-Format: text/html DOI: 10.17645/pag.v10i3.5462 Journal: Politics and Governance Volume: 10 Year: 2022 Issue: 3 Pages: 186-199 Author-Name: Silvia Pianta Author-Workplace-Name: RFF-CMCC European Institute on Economics and the Environment, Centro Euro‐Mediterraneo sui Cambiamenti Climatici, Italy / European University Institute, Italy Author-Name: Elina Brutschin Author-Workplace-Name: International Institute for Applied Systems Analysis, Austria Abstract: The implementation of ambitious climate policies consistent with the goals of the Paris Agreement is fundamentally influenced by political dynamics. Yet, thus far, climate mitigation pathways developed by integrated assessment models (IAMs) have devoted limited attention to the political drivers of climate policymaking. Bringing together insights from the political science and socio-technical transitions literature, we summarize evidence on how emissions lock-in, capacity, and public opinion can shape climate policy ambition. We employ a set of indicators to describe how these three factors vary across countries and regions, highlighting context-specific challenges and enablers of climate policy ambition. We outline existing studies that incorporate political factors in IAMs and propose a framework to employ empirical data to build climate mitigation scenarios that incorporate political dynamics. Our findings show that there is substantial heterogeneity in key political drivers of climate policy ambition within IAM regions, calling for a more disaggregated regional grouping within models. Importantly, we highlight that the political challenges and enablers of climate policy ambition considerably vary across regions, suggesting that future modeling efforts incorporating political dynamics can significantly increase the realism of IAM scenarios. Keywords: climate policy ambition; climate modeling; climate policymaking; climate politics; emissions lock-in; integrated assessment models; Paris Agreement; public opinion; public support; state capacity Handle: RePEc:cog:poango:v10:y:2022:i:3:p:186-199 Template-Type: ReDIF-Article 1.0 Title: Exploring Global Climate Policy Futures and Their Representation in Integrated Assessment Models File-URL: https://www.cogitatiopress.com/politicsandgovernance/article/view/5328 File-Format: text/html DOI: 10.17645/pag.v10i3.5328 Journal: Politics and Governance Volume: 10 Year: 2022 Issue: 3 Pages: 171-185 Author-Name: Thomas Hickmann Author-Workplace-Name: Copernicus Institute of Sustainable Development, Utrecht University, The Netherlands / Department of Political Science, Lund University, Sweden Author-Name: Christoph Bertram Author-Workplace-Name: Potsdam Institute for Climate Impact Research, Leibniz Association, Germany Author-Name: Frank Biermann Author-Workplace-Name: Copernicus Institute of Sustainable Development, Utrecht University, The Netherlands Author-Name: Elina Brutschin Author-Workplace-Name: International Institute for Applied Systems Analysis, Austria Author-Name: Elmar Kriegler Author-Workplace-Name: Potsdam Institute for Climate Impact Research, Leibniz Association, Germany Author-Name: Jasmine E. Livingston Author-Workplace-Name: Copernicus Institute of Sustainable Development, Utrecht University, The Netherlands Author-Name: Silvia Pianta Author-Workplace-Name: European University Institute, Italy / RFF-CMCC European Institute on Economics and the Environment, Italy Author-Name: Keywan Riahi Author-Workplace-Name: International Institute for Applied Systems Analysis, Austria Author-Name: Bas van Ruijven Author-Workplace-Name: International Institute for Applied Systems Analysis, Austria Author-Name: Detlef van Vuuren Author-Workplace-Name: Copernicus Institute of Sustainable Development, Utrecht University, The Netherlands / PBL Netherlands Environmental Assessment Agency, The Netherlands Abstract: The Paris Agreement, adopted in 2015, paved the way for a new hybrid global climate governance architecture with both bottom-up and top-down elements. While governments can choose individual climate goals and actions, a global stocktake and a ratcheting-up mechanism have been put in place with the overall aim to ensure that collective efforts will prevent increasing adverse impacts of climate change. Integrated assessment models show that current combined climate commitments and policies of national governments fall short of keeping global warming to 1.5 °C or 2 °C above preindustrial levels. Although major greenhouse gas emitters, such as China, the European Union, India, the United States under the Biden administration, and several other countries, have made new pledges to take more ambitious climate action, it is highly uncertain where global climate policy is heading. Scenarios in line with long-term temperature targets typically assume a simplistic and hardly realistic level of harmonization of climate policies across countries. Against this backdrop, this article develops four archetypes for the further evolution of the global climate governance architecture and matches them with existing sets of scenarios developed by integrated assessment models. By these means, the article identifies knowledge gaps in the current scenario literature and discusses possible research avenues to explore the pre-conditions for successful coordination of national policies towards achieving the long-term target stipulated in the Paris Agreement. Keywords: climate action; climate policy; global climate governance architecture; integrated assessment models; Paris Agreement; scenario analysis Handle: RePEc:cog:poango:v10:y:2022:i:3:p:171-185 Template-Type: ReDIF-Article 1.0 Title: Why Ambitious and Just Climate Mitigation Needs Political Science File-URL: https://www.cogitatiopress.com/politicsandgovernance/article/view/6156 File-Format: text/html DOI: 10.17645/pag.v10i3.6156 Journal: Politics and Governance Volume: 10 Year: 2022 Issue: 3 Pages: 167-170 Author-Name: Elina Brutschin Author-Workplace-Name: International Institute for Applied Systems Analysis, Austria Author-Name: Marina Andrijevic Author-Workplace-Name: International Institute for Applied Systems Analysis, Austria Abstract: A large-scale transformation of the energy system, which climate mitigation entails, is a global and highly politicized problem. This thematic issue brings together scholars who work with Integrated Assessment Models (IAMs)—which are used for Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) reports and other key analyses of future climate trajectories—and social scientists working on climate and energy issues to highlight how the two strands of research could benefit from combining insights across different disciplines and methods. One of the key messages across almost all contributions is that the more technical perspectives could benefit from adjusting their assumptions to reflect the patterns observed in quantitative and qualitative social science. Combining different disciplines is methodologically challenging but promising to ensure that the mitigation strategies developed are considered technically and politically feasible, as well as just. Keywords: climate mitigation; Integrated Assessment Models; interdisciplinary Handle: RePEc:cog:poango:v10:y:2022:i:3:p:167-170 Template-Type: ReDIF-Article 1.0 Title: Building Legitimacy in an Era of Polycentric Trade: The Case of Transnational Sustainability Governance File-URL: https://www.cogitatiopress.com/politicsandgovernance/article/view/5354 File-Format: text/html DOI: 10.17645/pag.v10i3.5354 Journal: Politics and Governance Volume: 10 Year: 2022 Issue: 3 Pages: 155-166 Author-Name: Natalie J. Langford Author-Workplace-Name: Department of Politics and International Relations, University of Sheffield, UK Author-Name: Luc Fransen Author-Workplace-Name: Department of Political Science, University of Amsterdam, The Netherlands Abstract: Increasing multi-polarity within global politics is understood to be a key contributor to the current legitimacy crisis facing global governance organisations. International relations scholars studying this crisis recognise that a prominent strategy to confront “Northern” dominance within this arena is through the construction of alternative governance institutions. Yet while the de-legitimation of long-established international organisations is widely discussed, there is less focused attention on how alternative institutions seek to gain legitimacy, particularly when they advance in fields where both “Northern” and “Southern” interests matter and beliefs about what constitutes proper governance may differ. This article analyses the field of transnational economic governance where the de-legitimation of pre-existing Northern-oriented governance takes the shape of new initiatives backed by Southern actors. Specifically, we focus on transnational sustainability standards governing trade and production in the global economy. This global governance arena has been transformed by the increasingly polycentric nature of global trade, in which producers governed by sustainability standards cater to rapidly expanding markets in the Global South as well as markets in the Global North. As markets have expanded in emerging economies, transnational sustainability standards must increasingly navigate and respond to actors and interests within different geographies in order to gain and establish legitimacy. The recent development of Southern-oriented sustainability standards (as opposed to established Northern-led standards) reflects the existence of diverging perspectives on the appropriateness of established rules and procedures when it comes to the regulation of trade and production. These standards are seen as partially challenging established standards but may likely seek to establish legitimacy within the wider transnational field of sustainability governance. This article examines the case of a recently established India-based sustainability standard known as Trustea to illustrate how various actors managed design and policy dilemmas to reconcile the preferences and beliefs of various audiences. The case illustrates the significance of both “Northern” and “Southern” audiences to Trustea’s legitimacy-seeking strategies in the context of broader political contestations regarding how production should be governed in relation to sustainable practices. Keywords: governance; legitimacy; polycentric trade; production; sustainability; tea; transnational standards; Trustea Handle: RePEc:cog:poango:v10:y:2022:i:3:p:155-166 Template-Type: ReDIF-Article 1.0 Title: “Selective Friendship at the Fund”: United States Allies, Labor Conditions, and the International Monetary Fund’s Legitimacy File-URL: https://www.cogitatiopress.com/politicsandgovernance/article/view/5303 File-Format: text/html DOI: 10.17645/pag.v10i3.5303 Journal: Politics and Governance Volume: 10 Year: 2022 Issue: 3 Pages: 143-154 Author-Name: Saliha Metinsoy Author-Workplace-Name: Department of International Relations and International Organization, University of Groningen, The Netherlands Abstract: This article discusses the International Monetary Fund’s recent effort to garner legitimacy by incorporating the reduction of economic inequality in its lending programs. It argues that the impact of the US as a major shareholder on conditionality and geopolitical considerations beyond objective and measurable economic necessities detract from these efforts to expand legitimacy. Using a panel data analysis of International Monetary Fund programs between 1980 and 2013, the article shows that US-allied left-wing governments receive a larger number of labor conditions in their programs compared to non-allied and right-wing governments. The article argues that this is part of left-wing governments’ strategy of maintaining their alliance with the US and demonstrating ideological proximity. In exchange, the US uses its influence to secure fewer conditions in total for its allied governments. This not only shifts the burden of adjustment on labor groups but also harms the Fund’s procedural legitimacy, as conditions are not objectively determined. It also has adverse implications for outcome legitimacy by distorting economic policies and outcomes and increasing income inequality. Keywords: International Monetary Fund; labor conditions; legitimacy; lending programs; United States Handle: RePEc:cog:poango:v10:y:2022:i:3:p:143-154 Template-Type: ReDIF-Article 1.0 Title: EU Public Procurement Policy During Covid-19: A Turning Point for Legitimate EU Governance? File-URL: https://www.cogitatiopress.com/politicsandgovernance/article/view/5295 File-Format: text/html DOI: 10.17645/pag.v10i3.5295 Journal: Politics and Governance Volume: 10 Year: 2022 Issue: 3 Pages: 131-142 Author-Name: Brigitte Pircher Author-Workplace-Name: Department of Political Science, Linnaeus University, Sweden Abstract: Public procurement is a policy area located between two contradictory tendencies. On the one hand, the European Commission strives for greater competition to widen procurement markets. On the other hand, the boosting of competition encounters resistance among the member states. This article investigates how these colliding tendencies played out during the initial stages of the Covid-19 crisis and, more specifically, how changes in the field of procurement affected legitimate governance in the EU. Based on institutionalist and EU governance theories, the study contributes to the literature with three principal findings. First, it demonstrates that the pandemic enabled exogenously driven changes in the field of public procurement with new policies and guidelines, while the EU’s overall aims in this field were upheld. Second, the study demonstrates that the Commission was the main driver of change and that it enhanced the harmonisation of procurement rules and supranational integration despite the crisis. Third, while these changes strengthened the role of supranational actors, the study demonstrates that the changes introduced allow member states increased flexibility when it comes to the implementation. In practice, however, this flexibility has the potential to undermine the EU’s initial aims, thereby jeopardising the EU’s legitimacy. Keywords: Covid-19; EU governance; European Commission; European integration; institutionalism; legitimacy; public procurement Handle: RePEc:cog:poango:v10:y:2022:i:3:p:131-142 Template-Type: ReDIF-Article 1.0 Title: Hiding in Plain Sight: The Legitimacy of Labour Standards Clauses in the EU–Ukraine Collaboration File-URL: https://www.cogitatiopress.com/politicsandgovernance/article/view/5374 File-Format: text/html DOI: 10.17645/pag.v10i3.5374 Journal: Politics and Governance Volume: 10 Year: 2022 Issue: 3 Pages: 121-130 Author-Name: Nienke de Deugd Author-Workplace-Name: Department of International Relations and International Organization, University of Groningen, The Netherlands Author-Name: Gerda van Roozendaal Author-Workplace-Name: Department of International Relations and International Organization, University of Groningen, The Netherlands Abstract: Legitimacy is essential for compliance. Agreements between the European Union and Ukraine contain a commitment to enhance labour standards. Certain audiences view this commitment as just symbolic and reflective of the low degree of legitimacy the commitment has. All this could now change following Ukraine’s requested accession to the EU. Keywords: association agreement; EU; labour standards; legitimacy; Ukraine Handle: RePEc:cog:poango:v10:y:2022:i:3:p:121-130 Template-Type: ReDIF-Article 1.0 Title: Embedded Neoliberalism and the Legitimacy of the Post-Lisbon European Union Investment Policy File-URL: https://www.cogitatiopress.com/politicsandgovernance/article/view/5333 File-Format: text/html DOI: 10.17645/pag.v10i3.5333 Journal: Politics and Governance Volume: 10 Year: 2022 Issue: 3 Pages: 110-120 Author-Name: Bart-Jaap Verbeek Author-Workplace-Name: Centre for Research on Multinational Corporations (SOMO), The Netherlands / Department of Political Science, Radboud University, The Netherlands Abstract: Much has been written about the ongoing legitimacy crisis of the global investment treaty regime and the system of investor-to-state dispute settlement (ISDS). In the European Union (EU), the proposed inclusion of investment protection provisions and ISDS in negotiations on the Comprehensive Economic and Trade Agreement (CETA) with Canada and the Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership (TTIP) with the United States triggered unprecedented levels of contestation. This article seeks to explain why EU responses to such contestation, in the form of an investment court system and a multilateral investment court, did not bring about a clear break away from the traditional ISDS model. Drawing on critical political economy perspectives, it regards the EU investment policy following the entry into force of the Treaty of Lisbon as deeply embedded in a broader neoliberal project mediated by material, institutional, and ideological configurations. Several factors have inhibited possibilities for more fundamental changes. The European Commission construed the lack of legitimacy as stemming from ISDS’ procedural features rather than questioning its social purpose. There has been no shift in the underlying social power balance, and no comprehensive counter-project has been proposed. The European Commission enjoys relative autonomy vis-à-vis other parts within the EU institutional ensembles and wider societal interests, allowing it to block more radical solutions. Finally, there were no clear signs of a fundamental departure from the neoliberal path in terms of wider EU economic regulation. Keywords: CETA; crisis; embedded neoliberalism; European Union; investment court system; investment protection; ISDS; legitimacy; multilateral investment court; TTIP Handle: RePEc:cog:poango:v10:y:2022:i:3:p:110-120 Template-Type: ReDIF-Article 1.0 Title: Economic Narratives and the Legitimacy of Foreign Direct Investments File-URL: https://www.cogitatiopress.com/politicsandgovernance/article/view/5284 File-Format: text/html DOI: 10.17645/pag.v10i3.5284 Journal: Politics and Governance Volume: 10 Year: 2022 Issue: 3 Pages: 98-109 Author-Name: Lukas Linsi Author-Workplace-Name: Department of International Relations and International Organization, University of Groningen, The Netherlands Abstract: In the 1990s, the primary focus of the international investment regime shifted from the restriction and regulation towards the promotion and attraction of foreign companies. Dominant accounts in the international political economy literature emphasize the role of interests and institutions in explaining this policy shift but pay little attention to their legitimation. This article argues that transformations in dominant economic discourses—and in particular the rise of the competitiveness narrative—played an important role in granting legitimacy to this U-turn in international economic affairs. To test the argument, the article focuses on the impact of the differential changes in the portrayal of greenfield and mergers and acquisitions (M&A) inward foreign direct investments (IFDI) in economic discourses in the UK before and after the rise of the competitiveness narrative. In line with the theoretical argument, findings indicate that individuals who passed their early adulthood in a period in which the narrative of economic statism was still prevalent hold notably more skeptical views of M&A IFDI even though they are otherwise not more opposed to investments from abroad. A causal mediation analysis lends further empirical support to the argument. Keywords: economic discourses; foreign direct investments; globalization; legitimacy; narratives; public opinion; socialization Handle: RePEc:cog:poango:v10:y:2022:i:3:p:98-109 Template-Type: ReDIF-Article 1.0 Title: Current Challenges to the Legitimacy of International Economic and Financial Arrangements File-URL: https://www.cogitatiopress.com/politicsandgovernance/article/view/5993 File-Format: text/html DOI: 10.17645/pag.v10i3.5993 Journal: Politics and Governance Volume: 10 Year: 2022 Issue: 3 Pages: 90-97 Author-Name: Gerda van Roozendaal Author-Workplace-Name: Department of International Relations and International Organization, University of Groningen, The Netherlands Author-Name: Nienke de Deugd Author-Workplace-Name: Department of International Relations and International Organization, University of Groningen, The Netherlands Abstract: The importance of legitimacy to international arrangements is addressed, as are various approaches to the study of legitimacy. In so doing, attention is paid to important concepts that feature throughout the various contributions, namely legitimacy and illegitimacy, legitimation and delegitimation, audiences and consent, and the form and function of institutional change. Keywords: delegitimation; institutional change; international arrangements; legitimacy Handle: RePEc:cog:poango:v10:y:2022:i:3:p:90-97 Template-Type: ReDIF-Article 1.0 Title: Fragmentation or Effective Governance? The Regime Complex of Counter-Piracy in Asia File-URL: https://www.cogitatiopress.com/politicsandgovernance/article/view/5380 File-Format: text/html DOI: 10.17645/pag.v10i3.5380 Journal: Politics and Governance Volume: 10 Year: 2022 Issue: 3 Pages: 80-89 Author-Name: Anja Menzel Author-Workplace-Name: Chair of International Relations, FernUniversität in Hagen, Germany Abstract: Asian waters have been particularly affected by a high number of piracy incidents during the last three decades. Against the backdrop of established international legal frameworks to combat piracy, states have created additional regional fora of cooperation. Existing theoretical contributions on the regime complex of counter-piracy consider this institutional framework to be highly fragmented and regard it as an impediment to effective cooperation, but empirical evidence is yet lacking. To systematically analyze the development of piracy incidents in Asia, I draw on incident data from 2001 to 2021. Results show that the effect of counter-piracy cooperation is indeed not as negative as hypothesized by the regime complex literature. However, a positive effect cannot easily be quantified either. Discussing possible explanations for this finding, I suggest that instead of unorganized fragmentation, counter-piracy governance in Asia may rather be characterized by a functional differentiation between regional cooperation mechanisms, which can be expected to be more conducive to effective cooperation. Keywords: Asia; institutional effectiveness; maritime crime governance; piracy; regime complexes Handle: RePEc:cog:poango:v10:y:2022:i:3:p:80-89 Template-Type: ReDIF-Article 1.0 Title: Ocean Governance in the Coral Triangle: A Multi-Level Regulatory Governance Structure File-URL: https://www.cogitatiopress.com/politicsandgovernance/article/view/5362 File-Format: text/html DOI: 10.17645/pag.v10i3.5362 Journal: Politics and Governance Volume: 10 Year: 2022 Issue: 3 Pages: 70-79 Author-Name: Sarah A. Heck Author-Workplace-Name: Independent Researcher, Germany Abstract: The current mode of ocean governance in the biogeographically defined space of the Coral Triangle emerged due to the framing of marine degradation as a de-bounded risk with a transboundary nature. This framing justified the rescaling of the issue’s governance from the national to the regional. This article will explore how ocean governance in the form of the Coral Triangle Initiative on Coral Reefs, Fisheries, and Food Security (CTI-CFF) is an example of a regional multi-level regulatory governance arrangement based on disaggregated, regulatory forms of statehood. These new kinds of regional regulatory governance are defined by the dominance of policy and technical expertise. As such, non-state actors work closely with national and supranational actors in the development, implementation, and regulatory functions of the CTI-CFF. The organizational structure of the CTI-CFF’s governance framework provides an example of how regional regulatory systems are networked into existing national government structures. The CTI-CFF’s Regional Plan of Action and corresponding mechanisms serve as a model for each member country’s National Plan of Action and domestic programs. These plans of action promote the transformation and rescaling of national governance to be consistent with regional standards of marine resource governance. To summarize, CTI-CFF is a multi-level governance structure constructed to strengthen regulatory regionalism. Keywords: Coral Triangle Initiative on Coral Reefs, Fisheries, and Food Security; functional specialization; marine degradation; meta-governance; non-state actors; ocean governance; regulatory regionalism Handle: RePEc:cog:poango:v10:y:2022:i:3:p:70-79 Template-Type: ReDIF-Article 1.0 Title: Making Polar and Ocean Governance Future-Proof File-URL: https://www.cogitatiopress.com/politicsandgovernance/article/view/5332 File-Format: text/html DOI: 10.17645/pag.v10i3.5332 Journal: Politics and Governance Volume: 10 Year: 2022 Issue: 3 Pages: 60-69 Author-Name: Hannes Hansen-Magnusson Author-Workplace-Name: Department of Politics and International Relations, Cardiff University, UK Abstract: Governance institutions of the polar regions, as well as global oceans, may hold room for improvement in terms of effectiveness but, on the whole, their existence can be regarded as a success story. The arrangements managed to pool responsibility for regional resources amid Cold War geopolitics, mostly by delegating discussions to science committees. Changing global climate, however, provides considerable challenges to these governance arrangements. It begs the question of how the success story can be continued into the future. After sketching the emergence of polar and ocean governance and their core organizational principles during the 20th century, this article identifies some of the challenges linked to global warming that have been altering the context of governance fundamentally. The article discusses emerging issues that warrant attention, but which may be difficult to accommodate in present governance networks. Ultimately, the article argues that anchoring principles of “responsibility” that take into account the relational quality of polar and ocean spaces is key to any institutional design that seeks to take governance arrangements into the 21st century and beyond. Keywords: Antarctic Treaty System; arctic governance; law of the sea; oceans; responsibility Handle: RePEc:cog:poango:v10:y:2022:i:3:p:60-69 Template-Type: ReDIF-Article 1.0 Title: An Ocean Free of Nuclear Weapons? Regional Security Governance in the South Atlantic File-URL: https://www.cogitatiopress.com/politicsandgovernance/article/view/5416 File-Format: text/html DOI: 10.17645/pag.v10i3.5416 Journal: Politics and Governance Volume: 10 Year: 2022 Issue: 3 Pages: 51-59 Author-Name: Frank Mattheis Author-Workplace-Name: Institute on Comparative Regional Integration Studies, United Nations University, Belgium Author-Name: Pedro Seabra Author-Workplace-Name: Centre for International Studies, University Institute of Lisbon (ISCTE-IUL), Portugal Abstract: Even though oceans are pivotal for the non-proliferation of nuclear weapons, they constitute a blind spot in the global non-proliferation regime. This article analyses how regional security governance mechanisms may fill such gaps by bringing a maritime focus to non-proliferation studies. With three nuclear-weapons-free zones and one zone of peace surrounding or covering its maritime space, the South Atlantic serves as an illustrative case to understand the provision of security governance for the seas. The article identifies a range of legal, political, and practical challenges that can impede regional initiatives from achieving security sovereignty over maritime spaces. However, while non-proliferation might remain precarious, these mechanisms are not without success, as they serve to establish the opposition to nuclear weapons as a recognised norm, both at the UN level and among the Global South. The narrative of non-proliferation also allows regional states to justify the pursuit of security objectives. The article concludes by outlining the conditions for regional maritime governance to become more effective in terms of non-proliferation. Keywords: maritime governance; maritime regionalism; non-proliferation; nuclear-weapons-free zones; ocean governance; regional security; South Atlantic; zone of peace Handle: RePEc:cog:poango:v10:y:2022:i:3:p:51-59 Template-Type: ReDIF-Article 1.0 Title: The Territorialization of the Global Commons: Evidence From Ocean Governance File-URL: https://www.cogitatiopress.com/politicsandgovernance/article/view/5323 File-Format: text/html DOI: 10.17645/pag.v10i3.5323 Journal: Politics and Governance Volume: 10 Year: 2022 Issue: 3 Pages: 41-50 Author-Name: Daniel Lambach Author-Workplace-Name: Research Centre Normative Orders, Goethe-Universität Frankfurt, Germany Abstract: The international system of states displays an inherent drive to territorialize the global commons. But territorialization is not a continuous process—it occurs in episodes. In this article, I use one case from ocean governance, the expansion of territory into near-shore areas of the seas, to advance a twofold argument about the nature of these episodes. First, I argue that the root causes of this drive to territorialize “empty space” are located in global politics, norms, and economics. Second, a territorializing episode occurs when there are impelling economic incentives, and when great powers are unable or unwilling to oppose territorialization. However, this can lead to different outcomes: sovereign territories, functional territories, or internationalized territories. Oceanic space has seen a series of these territorializing episodes since the end of the Second World War and functional territorialization has become more prevalent over time. Keywords: global commons; governance; ocean; territory Handle: RePEc:cog:poango:v10:y:2022:i:3:p:41-50 Template-Type: ReDIF-Article 1.0 Title: Governability of Regional Challenges: The Arctic Development Paradox File-URL: https://www.cogitatiopress.com/politicsandgovernance/article/view/5341 File-Format: text/html DOI: 10.17645/pag.v10i3.5341 Journal: Politics and Governance Volume: 10 Year: 2022 Issue: 3 Pages: 29-40 Author-Name: Michał Łuszczuk Author-Workplace-Name: Department of Social and Economic Geography, Maria Curie-Skłodowska University, Poland Author-Name: Jacqueline Götze Author-Workplace-Name: German Institute of Development and Sustainability (IDOS), Germany Author-Name: Katarzyna Radzik-Maruszak Author-Workplace-Name: Faculty of Political Science and Journalism, Maria Curie-Skłodowska University, Poland Author-Name: Arne Riedel Author-Workplace-Name: Ecologic Institute, Germany Author-Name: Dorothea Wehrmann Author-Workplace-Name: German Institute of Development and Sustainability (IDOS), Germany Abstract: The advancement of governance architecture in the Arctic region and dealing with the “Arctic development paradox” have been among the most significant challenges of the circumpolar North for decades. The common denominator of both issues is the growing necessity to frame solutions that credibly and effectively support the Arctic’s social and environmental systems in the face of climate change and globalisation. The current status quo seems deficient, which is why understanding the main impediments is subject to public and academic discussion. This article contributes to these debates by referring to the concept of governability to demonstrate how transregional activities advance the development of more coherent governance in the Arctic. The article explores approaches applied by transregional organisations and cooperation programmes that constitute the governance system in the European Arctic. Specifically, it scrutinises governing interactions developed by the Barents Regional Council and the Northern Periphery and Arctic Programme to overcome the normative trap of the Arctic development paradox. This research follows a semi-structured, exploratory approach, which facilitates identifying key elements of a structurally and conceptually led response that resounds in each case. Combined with a synoptic literature review, this article answers two questions: First, how do the transregional actors approach the Arctic development paradox in their cooperation strategies and programmes, and to what extent do these approaches differ? Second, what kind of recommendations do they provide to overcome the Arctic development paradox? Keywords: Arctic development paradox; Arctic governability; European Arctic; transregional and regional cooperation Handle: RePEc:cog:poango:v10:y:2022:i:3:p:29-40 Template-Type: ReDIF-Article 1.0 Title: Governing a Divided Ocean: The Transformative Power of Ecological Connectivity in the BBNJ negotiations File-URL: https://www.cogitatiopress.com/politicsandgovernance/article/view/5428 File-Format: text/html DOI: 10.17645/pag.v10i3.5428 Journal: Politics and Governance Volume: 10 Year: 2022 Issue: 3 Pages: 14-28 Author-Name: Ina Tessnow-von Wysocki Author-Workplace-Name: University of Vienna, Austria Author-Name: Alice B. M. Vadrot Author-Workplace-Name: University of Vienna, Austria Abstract: Science plays an important role in the emergence, development, and implementation of new environmental regimes. However, there are opposing views regarding the type of knowledge that is considered policy-relevant to address global environmental problems. In intergovernmental negotiations, these tensions are visible in debates about the inclusion of scientific concepts in a negotiated text. This article analyses the case of “ecological connectivity” in the negotiations for an international legally-binding instrument (ILBI) for the conservation and sustainable use of marine biodiversity of areas beyond national jurisdiction (BBNJ). As a key scientific concept portraying the ocean as one, the term ecological connectivity challenges the status quo and has far-reaching implications for future ocean governance. Our study draws on ethnographic data collected during the BBNJ negotiations and analyses the actors and their different rationales for including the ecological connectivity concept in the treaty text. Our results demonstrate two things. First, state and non-state actors use the ecological connectivity concept to support their interests in the new ILBI, based on different types of rationales: ecologic, socio-economic, juridic, and epistemic. Second, our analysis demonstrates that several actors recognise the limitations of the existing legal order underpinning ocean governance in areas beyond national jurisdiction and are keen to embrace a new legal framework regarding the idea of an interconnected ocean. We conclude that while the ecological connectivity concept runs the risk of losing its meaning in an array of competing political interests, it does have the potential to achieve transformative change in global ocean governance and fundamentally alter the way humans use and protect BBNJ. Keywords: biodiversity of areas beyond national jurisdiction; diplomacy; ecological connectivity; intergovernmental negotiations; marine biodiversity; ocean governance; United Nations Handle: RePEc:cog:poango:v10:y:2022:i:3:p:14-28 Template-Type: ReDIF-Article 1.0 Title: Authority in Ocean Governance Architecture File-URL: https://www.cogitatiopress.com/politicsandgovernance/article/view/5334 File-Format: text/html DOI: 10.17645/pag.v10i3.5334 Journal: Politics and Governance Volume: 10 Year: 2022 Issue: 3 Pages: 5-13 Author-Name: Aletta Mondré Author-Workplace-Name: Institute of Political Science, Kiel University, Germany Author-Name: Annegret Kuhn Author-Workplace-Name: Center for Ocean and Society, Kiel University, Germany Abstract: In this article, we demonstrate that the ocean is a space of politics and explore the what, who, and how of ocean governance. We first sketch the governance architecture and examine challenges and shortcomings concerning political authority. Starting from a definition of “ocean governance,” we highlight that two fundamentally different regulatory approaches are applied to the ocean: a spatial ordering on the one hand and a sectoral segmentation on the other. States are the central actors regulating the use and protection of marine areas, but state sovereignty is stratified, with diminishing degrees of authority farther from the shoreline. As vast marine spaces are beyond the exclusive control of any given territorial state, political authority beyond areas of national jurisdiction must first be created to enable collective decision-making. Consequently, a multitude of authorities regulate human activities in the ocean, producing overlaps, conflicting policies, and gaps. Based on recent contributions to the fast-growing ocean governance research field, we provide a thematic overview structured along the dimensions of maritime security, protection of the marine environment, and economics to unveil patterns of authority in ocean governance. Keywords: authority; blue economy; coordination; marine environmental protection; maritime security; ocean governance Handle: RePEc:cog:poango:v10:y:2022:i:3:p:5-13 Template-Type: ReDIF-Article 1.0 Title: Constructing Ocean and Polar Governance File-URL: https://www.cogitatiopress.com/politicsandgovernance/article/view/5816 File-Format: text/html DOI: 10.17645/pag.v10i3.5816 Journal: Politics and Governance Volume: 10 Year: 2022 Issue: 3 Pages: 1-4 Author-Name: Dorothea Wehrmann Author-Workplace-Name: Research Programme on Inter- and Transnational Cooperation, German Institute of Development and Sustainability (IDOS), Germany Author-Name: Hubert Zimmermann Author-Workplace-Name: Department of Social Sciences and Philosophy, Philipps University of Marburg, Germany Abstract: The governance of ocean and polar regions is among the most relevant challenges in the combat against global environmental degradation and global inequalities. Ocean and polar regions are climate regulators and very much affected by climate change. They are an important source of nutrition for life in and above the sea. At the same time, they are subject to an increasing number of geopolitical and geo-economic conflicts. Due to the lasting virulence of many security issues, economic conflicts, legal disputes, new technological developments, and environmental crises in global marine areas as well as the intricate overlap of sovereign, semi-sovereign, and global commons territories, the relevance of ocean and polar governance is bound to rise. This thematic issue sketches important trends in research on these issues and identifies future avenues of inquiry. In this editorial, we first provide an overview of governance challenges for ocean and polar regions and their relevance for geopolitical and geo-economic conflicts. In a second step, we present the eight contributions that make up the thematic issue by clustering them around three themes: (a) challenges to norm-creation in ocean governance, (b) the impact of territorialisation on governance and the construction of authority, and (c) the effectiveness of regimes of ocean and polar governance. Keywords: Arctic Council; climate change; ecosystems; global commons; maritime governance; polar governance; United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea Handle: RePEc:cog:poango:v10:y:2022:i:3:p:1-4 Template-Type: ReDIF-Article 1.0 Title: Non-War Activities in Cyberspace as a Factor Driving the Process of De-Bordering File-URL: https://www.cogitatiopress.com/politicsandgovernance/article/view/5015 File-Format: text/html DOI: 10.17645/pag.v10i2.5015 Journal: Politics and Governance Volume: 10 Year: 2022 Issue: 2 Pages: 293-302 Author-Name: Dominika Dziwisz Author-Workplace-Name: Institute of Political Science and International Relations, Jagiellonian University, Poland Abstract: Whereas war is the continuation of politics by other means, a new space between diplomacy and open conflict is now becoming available for state and non-state actors, tempting them with the promise of achieving a strategic advantage over an opponent without risking the escalation of the conflict to the level of kinetic aggression. From that perspective, the ongoing shift of states and societies into cyberspace is becoming extremely interesting. As it blurs national borders, it offers an excellent dimension in which to exercise non-war activities, enabling reduction of kinetic aggression in the three basic dimensions of warfare (land, air, and sea) and providing new means of reaching one’s political objectives. The aim of this article is twofold. Firstly, it discusses the changing nature of borders and examines the impact of non-war doctrine on the functions played by national borders. Secondly, it analyzes how states utilize these activities to achieve political goals and gain strategic advantage over opponents, as well as to what extent they foster de-bordering. Keywords: borders; cybersecurity; de-bordering; grey-zone conflict; non-war; re-bordering Handle: RePEc:cog:poango:v10:y:2022:i:2:p:293-302 Template-Type: ReDIF-Article 1.0 Title: Labour Mobility and Informality: Romanian Migrants in Spain and Ethnic Entrepreneurs in Croatia File-URL: https://www.cogitatiopress.com/politicsandgovernance/article/view/5166 File-Format: text/html DOI: 10.17645/pag.v10i2.5166 Journal: Politics and Governance Volume: 10 Year: 2022 Issue: 2 Pages: 279-292 Author-Name: Abel Polese Author-Workplace-Name: Aleksanteri Institute, University of Helsinki, Finland / Tallinn University of Technology, Estonia / Institute of Social Theory and Dynamics, Japan / Dublin City University, Ireland Author-Name: Ignacio Fradejas-García Author-Workplace-Name: School of Social Sciences, University of Iceland, Iceland Author-Name: Ružica Šimić Banović Author-Workplace-Name: Faculty of Law, University of Zagreb, Croatia Author-Name: Vlatka Škokić Author-Workplace-Name: Faculty of Economics, Business and Tourism, University of Split, Croatia Author-Name: Tanel Kerikmäe Author-Workplace-Name: Tallinn University of Technology, Estonia Author-Name: José Luis Molina Author-Workplace-Name: Department of Social and Cultural Anthropology, Autonomous University of Barcelona, Spain Author-Name: Mirela Alpeza Author-Workplace-Name: Faculty of Economics in Osijek, Josip Juraj Strossmayer University of Osijek, Croatia Author-Name: Miranda J. Lubbers Author-Workplace-Name: Department of Social and Cultural Anthropology, Autonomous University of Barcelona, Spain Author-Name: Alberica Camerani Author-Workplace-Name: Dublin City University, Ireland Abstract: Post-Weberian definitions see the state–individual relationship as a “do ut des” one. The state grants protection, education, medical care, and its citizens contribute labour, compliance, and taxes. When this does not occur, it is generally accepted that the citizens are deviating from state goals. However, there are cases where lack of compliance stems from the fact that society members do not feel protected by formal structures, and they rely on informal ones to replace, supplement, or even compete with state institutions. The starting point of this article is that this lack of support may result from enhanced labour mobility (and migration) across Europe, and may enhance the creation and persistence of informal practices. Taking advantage of two case studies, Romanian migrants to Spain and ethnic entrepreneurs in Croatia, we observe how governance is constructed and provide two novel interpretative frameworks. First, we explore the use of informality (informal practices) to suggest that apparently insignificant actions that are repeated routinely and without much thought, are a way to contribute to the construction of the political and that everyday governance should receive more attention. Second, we use this claim to argue that a better understanding of informality can help identify governance areas where interventions are more urgent. These are the spheres of public life where it is possible to identify a larger gap between the wishes of a state and the ways citizens actually act as they informally avoid or bypass its rules. Keywords: Croatia; informality; labour mobility; Spain; welfare Handle: RePEc:cog:poango:v10:y:2022:i:2:p:279-292 Template-Type: ReDIF-Article 1.0 Title: Unaccompanied Adolescent Minors’ Experiences of Exception and Abandonment in the Ventimiglia Border Space File-URL: https://www.cogitatiopress.com/politicsandgovernance/article/view/5139 File-Format: text/html DOI: 10.17645/pag.v10i2.5139 Journal: Politics and Governance Volume: 10 Year: 2022 Issue: 2 Pages: 267-278 Author-Name: Océane Uzureau Author-Workplace-Name: Department of Social Work and Social Pedagogy, Ghent University, Belgium / Centre for the Social Study of Migration and Refugees (CESSMIR), Ghent University, Belgium Author-Name: Ine Lietaert Author-Workplace-Name: Department of Social Work and Social Pedagogy, Ghent University, Belgium / Centre for the Social Study of Migration and Refugees (CESSMIR), Ghent University, Belgium / Institute on Comparative Regional Integration Studies, United Nations University, Belgium Author-Name: Daniel Senovilla Hernández Author-Workplace-Name: MIGRINTER, National Centre for Scientific Research/University of Poitiers, France Author-Name: Ilse Derluyn Author-Workplace-Name: Department of Social Work and Social Pedagogy, Ghent University, Belgium / Centre for the Social Study of Migration and Refugees (CESSMIR), Ghent University, Belgium Abstract: This article explores unaccompanied adolescent minors’ (UAMs) experiences of deterrent practices at internal EU borders while being on the move. Previous studies have acknowledged the securitisation of external borders through gatekeeping and fencing practices; however, there is a recent and continued renationalisation of internal EU borders by the member states. Like other migrants who are travelling irregularly, UAMs also often face harsh living conditions and repeated rights violations in border areas, regardless of their specific rights to protection and psychological needs. Research has called for a renewed focus on migrant children’s experiences as active agents at the borders, but until now studies exploring UAMs’ experiences at internal EU borders remain scarce. Drawing on Agamben’s notion of “legal exception,” we seek to explore how deterrent practices are confusingly intertwined and affect UAMs’ psychological wellbeing and subjectivities in the Ventimiglia border space. Participant observations and in-depth interviews conducted with UAMs at the French-Italian border provide unique insights into how these bordering practices affect migrant children’s legal and psychological safety and reshape their subjectivities. This contribution highlights UAMs’ conflicting needs and feelings of institutional “abandonment” when left without institutional welfare protection in the border space, on the one hand, and feeling pressured to act responsibly towards their relatives, on the other. Keywords: abandonment; exception; internal EU borders; safety; unaccompanied adolescent migrants; wellbeing Handle: RePEc:cog:poango:v10:y:2022:i:2:p:267-278 Template-Type: ReDIF-Article 1.0 Title: Loops of Violence(s) Within Europe’s Governance of Migration in Libya, Italy, Greece, and Belgium File-URL: https://www.cogitatiopress.com/politicsandgovernance/article/view/5183 File-Format: text/html DOI: 10.17645/pag.v10i2.5183 Journal: Politics and Governance Volume: 10 Year: 2022 Issue: 2 Pages: 256-266 Author-Name: Giacomo Orsini Author-Workplace-Name: Department of Social Work and Social Pedagogy, Ghent University, Belgium / Centre for the Social Study of Migration and Refugees, Ghent University, Belgium Author-Name: Marina Rota Author-Workplace-Name: Department of Social Work and Social Pedagogy, Ghent University, Belgium / Centre for the Social Study of Migration and Refugees, Ghent University, Belgium Author-Name: Océane Uzureau Author-Workplace-Name: Department of Social Work and Social Pedagogy, Ghent University, Belgium / Centre for the Social Study of Migration and Refugees, Ghent University, Belgium Author-Name: Malte Behrendt Author-Workplace-Name: Department of Social Work and Social Pedagogy, Ghent University, Belgium / Centre for the Social Study of Migration and Refugees, Ghent University, Belgium Author-Name: Sarah Adeyinka Author-Workplace-Name: Department of Social Work and Social Pedagogy, Ghent University, Belgium / Centre for the Social Study of Migration and Refugees, Ghent University, Belgium Author-Name: Ine Lietaert Author-Workplace-Name: Department of Social Work and Social Pedagogy, Ghent University, Belgium / Centre for the Social Study of Migration and Refugees, Ghent University, Belgium Author-Name: Ilse Derluyn Author-Workplace-Name: Department of Social Work and Social Pedagogy, Ghent University, Belgium / Centre for the Social Study of Migration and Refugees, Ghent University, Belgium Abstract: Studies have reported alarmingly high rates of traumatic experiences for refugee populations. While nearly all refugees experienced trauma in their country of origin, a vast majority of those seeking protection abroad also face (extreme) violence during their journeys and once in the country of destination. By concentrating on the migratory experiences of about 300 unaccompanied minors that we approached in Libya, Italy, Greece, and Belgium, this article analyses how different forms of violence are inflicted on these young migrants while moving to Europe. By concentrating on personal accounts of (recurrent) interactions with the EU migration and border management tools, we reveal the structural violence within the day-to-day governance of migration. Often framed as unintended or accidental, the article discusses how violence is instead ubiquitous, as it is systematically inflicted on migrants—including unaccompanied minors—in the form of repeated series of violent events or “loops of violence.” Importantly, such manifestations of violence are perpetrated by key institutional and non-institutional actors in the “migration industry” who are (in)directly involved in managing migration both inside and outside of the EU. Conceptually, we rely on K. E. Dempsey’s political geography of the different typologies of violence within Europe’s governance of migration and asylum and use it to concentrate on key transitional phases/fractures in migratory trajectories—i.e., as unaccompanied young migrants (try to) cross international borders and legal boundaries. Keywords: border; Europe; governance; migration; unaccompanied minors; violence Handle: RePEc:cog:poango:v10:y:2022:i:2:p:256-266 Template-Type: ReDIF-Article 1.0 Title: Internal Rebordering in the European Union: Postfunctionalism Revisited File-URL: https://www.cogitatiopress.com/politicsandgovernance/article/view/5165 File-Format: text/html DOI: 10.17645/pag.v10i2.5165 Journal: Politics and Governance Volume: 10 Year: 2022 Issue: 2 Pages: 246-255 Author-Name: Artur Gruszczak Author-Workplace-Name: Department of National Security, Jagiellonian University, Poland Abstract: The EU has been under severe strain as a free-travel area. The migration crisis of the mid-2010s and the current Covid-19 pandemic have exerted a negative impact on the freedom of movement in the EU and the undisturbed crossing of internal borders within the Schengen area. Direct effects and long-term consequences of the prolonged crisis have shown that the dynamics of integration, which are determined by spillover effects of transnational processes, are counterposed by a politicization of domestically-embedded issues of security governance. This assumption underpins the postfunctionalist approach to European integration proposed originally by Hooghe and Marks. The tendency towards longstanding derogations from the Schengen regime, termed “internal rebordering,” should be juxtaposed with efforts of the European Commission towards a full restoration of the Schengen area without controls at internal borders. The argument developed in this article holds that internal rebordering has been embedded in the logic of the EU as an area of freedom, security, and justice comprising the Schengen area as its territorial manifestation. The rebordering processes in the EU and in the Schengen area have questioned the principle of “constraining dissensus” underlaying the postfunctionalist approach. Keywords: borders; European Union; mobility; postfunctionalism; rebordering; Schengen Handle: RePEc:cog:poango:v10:y:2022:i:2:p:246-255 Template-Type: ReDIF-Article 1.0 Title: The Borders of the Law: Legal Fictions, Elusive Borders, Migrants’ Rights File-URL: https://www.cogitatiopress.com/politicsandgovernance/article/view/4968 File-Format: text/html DOI: 10.17645/pag.v10i2.4968 Journal: Politics and Governance Volume: 10 Year: 2022 Issue: 2 Pages: 239-245 Author-Name: Caterina Molinari Author-Workplace-Name: Institute for European Law, KU Leuven, Belgium Abstract: Bordering processes take place through different means and are carried out by different actors. Laws and regulatory activities have a prominent place among border-drawing instruments: Their capacity to mobilise actors, allocate funds, and determine procedures and remedies make them a formidable and multifaceted bordering tool. It is therefore not surprising to notice that EU institutions have heavily relied on regulatory tools when the need to resort to new bordering processes emerged in the aftermath of the so-called migration crisis. This article delves into a particular (re-)bordering process emerging from the legislative proposals attached to the Commission’s 2020 New Pact on Migration and Asylum: the attempt to uncouple the duty to fully respect and protect fundamental rights from the reality of migrants’ presence on national territory. This objective is pursued by the proposed legislative package through non-entry fictions, capable of untangling the legal notion of “border” from its physical reality for the purpose of immigration law (only). The analysis of the relevant provisions provides the reader with a number of insights into the transformation of EU borders. First, borders (as defined by the law) are subject to a peculiar legal regime. Secondly, the legal notion of borders is increasingly independent of its physical/geographical correspondence. Thirdly, legal border lines are not linked to any place on the ground, but rather follow irregular migrants as they move, confining them to areas of less law, no matter their location. Keywords: bordering; border procedures; migrants’ rights; New Pact on Migration and Asylum; non-entry fiction Handle: RePEc:cog:poango:v10:y:2022:i:2:p:239-245 Template-Type: ReDIF-Article 1.0 Title: Re-Visioning Borders: Mobility, Connectivity, and Spaces of Exception File-URL: https://www.cogitatiopress.com/politicsandgovernance/article/view/5763 File-Format: text/html DOI: 10.17645/pag.v10i2.5763 Journal: Politics and Governance Volume: 10 Year: 2022 Issue: 2 Pages: 235-238 Author-Name: Artur Gruszczak Author-Workplace-Name: Department of National Security, Jagiellonian University, Poland Author-Name: Roderick Parkes Author-Workplace-Name: German Council on Foreign Relations (DGAP), Germany Abstract: Already, the 21st century has seen an unprecedented increase in cross-border movements of people, goods, information, and financial capital. Numerous incentives and facilitators have expanded international interconnectedness and mobility, so altering the conventional nature and functions of state borders, as captured by the “new mobilities” paradigm. Yet the weaponization of global economic interdependencies and other trends towards deglobalization mean there is now a growing pressure on governments to re-establish the conventional attributes of borders. Against the current mobility and security backdrop, this collection of articles takes stock of the meaning, roles, and practices of border activities. Now is the moment to consider the special role that borders perform as an institution of state security in a contemporary world exposed to massive international flows of people and goods, as well as technologically-driven control and management systems. Keywords: borders; exception; migration; mobility; security Handle: RePEc:cog:poango:v10:y:2022:i:2:p:235-238 Template-Type: ReDIF-Article 1.0 Title: Conclusion: Out With the Old, In With the New? Explaining Changing EU–US Relations File-URL: https://www.cogitatiopress.com/politicsandgovernance/article/view/5650 File-Format: text/html DOI: 10.17645/pag.v10i2.5650 Journal: Politics and Governance Volume: 10 Year: 2022 Issue: 2 Pages: 229-234 Author-Name: Akasemi Newsome Author-Workplace-Name: Institute of European Studies, University of California – Berkeley, USA / Department of Organisation, Leadership and Management, Inland University of Applied Sciences, Norway Author-Name: Marianne Riddervold Author-Workplace-Name: Institute of European Studies, University of California – Berkeley, USA / Department of Organisation, Leadership and Management, Inland University of Applied Sciences, Norway Abstract: This article summarizes the thematic issue findings, focusing on the factors that contribute to stabilize or weaken EU–US relations. Seen together, the articles have systematically documented that there is a growing pressure on transatlantic relations both in multilateral institutional settings as well as in foreign and security policy. On the one hand, transatlantic relations within NATO are strengthening in the context of Russia’s new war in Ukraine, pushing Europe closer to the US and papering over disputes among European nations about the course of intra-European security cooperation. Shared norms and institutions as well as non-state actors with an interest in keeping the relationship strong for economic, strategic, or more normative reasons also serve to stabilize the relationship. On the other hand, longer-term geopolitical and economical structural changes together with domestic factors, particularly in the US, and in some cases diverging interests, suggest a parallel longer-term weakening of the relationship. Keywords: domestic politics; European Union; interdependence; strategic interests; transatlantic relations; United States Handle: RePEc:cog:poango:v10:y:2022:i:2:p:229-234 Template-Type: ReDIF-Article 1.0 Title: How Much of a New Agenda? International Structures, Agency, and Transatlantic Order File-URL: https://www.cogitatiopress.com/politicsandgovernance/article/view/4985 File-Format: text/html DOI: 10.17645/pag.v10i2.4985 Journal: Politics and Governance Volume: 10 Year: 2022 Issue: 2 Pages: 219-228 Author-Name: Michael Smith Author-Workplace-Name: Politics and International Studies, University of Warwick, UK Abstract: This article focuses on the links between transatlantic relations—a structured array of markets, hierarchies, networks, ideas, and institutions—and broader elements of international structure and world order. It argues that the changing state of transatlantic relations reflects changes in the structure of the relations themselves, but also structural change in the global and domestic arenas and how such change shapes or reflects the actions of a wide variety of agents. The first part of the article briefly explores the importance of international structure in order to identify the global forces that shape the context for transatlantic relations. The article then examines the key mechanisms in transatlantic relations which interact to create forms of transatlantic order; these create spaces for a wide variety of agents, operating within broader elements of international and domestic structure, and the article illustrates this through the ways in which the EU’s “new agenda for EU–US relations” sought to shape transatlantic interactions during the first year of the Biden presidency. The article examines the implications of transatlantic responses to the Russian attack on Ukraine in February 2022, and concludes that despite the move to enhanced EU–US cooperation in the short term, the interaction of structures, mechanisms, and actors will contribute to continuing differentiation of transatlantic relations, at least in the medium term, whatever the preferences of US and EU policy-makers. Keywords: European Union; international structure; transatlantic relations; United States Handle: RePEc:cog:poango:v10:y:2022:i:2:p:219-228 Template-Type: ReDIF-Article 1.0 Title: Divergence Across the Atlantic? US Skepticism Meets the EU and the WTO’s Appellate Body File-URL: https://www.cogitatiopress.com/politicsandgovernance/article/view/4983 File-Format: text/html DOI: 10.17645/pag.v10i2.4983 Journal: Politics and Governance Volume: 10 Year: 2022 Issue: 2 Pages: 208-218 Author-Name: Bart Kerremans Author-Workplace-Name: Leuven International and European Studies (LINES), University of Leuven, Belgium Abstract: In 2019, the Appellate Body (AB) of the World Trade Organization’s Dispute Settlement System (WTO-DSS) lost its quorum. Instead of the required minimum number of three members, the AB’s membership fell to one member only as the US under Donald Trump blocked the appointment of new members upon the expiry of the terms of two incumbent ones. The AB’s paralysis produced a high level of shock in the EU. In this article, we take a closer look at the US’s decision to paralyze the WTO’s AB and the EU’s reaction to it. Its point is that it will not be easy to get the US back on board as the factors that drove its decision predate the Trump era. Long before Trump, the tradeoff upon which the US based its acceptance of the WTO-DSS unraveled. For US policy makers, the EU is partly to blame for this as it undermined the system’s prompt compliance assumption. More important even is the claim that the system’s AB created new obligations for the WTO members to the point where the acceptance of some WTO rules—notably regarding trade remedies—became politically unsustainable in the US itself. Keywords: trade disputes; trade remedies; transatlantic relations; World Trade Organization Handle: RePEc:cog:poango:v10:y:2022:i:2:p:208-218 Template-Type: ReDIF-Article 1.0 Title: The Dollar as a Mutual Problem: New Transatlantic Interdependence in Finance File-URL: https://www.cogitatiopress.com/politicsandgovernance/article/view/5028 File-Format: text/html DOI: 10.17645/pag.v10i2.5028 Journal: Politics and Governance Volume: 10 Year: 2022 Issue: 2 Pages: 198-207 Author-Name: Ingrid Hjertaker Author-Workplace-Name: Department of Organization, Leadership and Management, Inland Norway University, Norway Author-Name: Bent Sofus Tranøy Author-Workplace-Name: Department of Organization, Leadership and Management, Inland Norway University, Norway / Department of Leadership and Organization, Kristiania University College, Norway Abstract: When the 2007 global financial crisis hit financial markets, European leaders were quick to point the finger at US markets, excessive risk-taking, and insufficient regulation. However, it soon became apparent that European banks were more exposed than their Wall Street counterparts. With massive dollar liabilities, European banks were dependent on the US to act as a global lender of last resort. The crisis revealed a level of transatlantic interdependence that had been unknown to most observers and policymakers prior to the crisis. We argue that this represents a paradox, given that the project of the European Monetary Union was partly motivated by a desire to make Europe more independent from the US dollar. The euro was a response to the challenge of “it’s our dollar, but it’s your problem.” In this article, we examine how the European vulnerability to the US dollar that began post-Bretton Woods did not, in fact, disappear with the creation of a European currency. Instead, through financialization and deregulation, European financial markets developed new, complex interactions with US financial markets. This financialization of transatlantic banking flows created a new type of interdependence. As European banks were so heavily invested in US markets, this gave the US authorities a direct interest in bailing them out. While cross-border banking flows have decreased since the crisis, the interdependencies remain, and currency swaps were used once again to handle the economic fallout from Covid-19. In the area of financial and monetary policy, the transatlantic relationship remains strong and stable within a dollar hegemony. Keywords: central banks; dollar hegemony; financial crisis; financial interdependencies; swaps; transatlantic banking flows; US power Handle: RePEc:cog:poango:v10:y:2022:i:2:p:198-207 Template-Type: ReDIF-Article 1.0 Title: The European Union, the United States, and Trade: Metaphorical Climate Change, Not Bad Weather File-URL: https://www.cogitatiopress.com/politicsandgovernance/article/view/4903 File-Format: text/html DOI: 10.17645/pag.v10i2.4903 Journal: Politics and Governance Volume: 10 Year: 2022 Issue: 2 Pages: 186-197 Author-Name: Herman Mark Schwartz Author-Workplace-Name: Department of Politics, University of Virginia, USA Abstract: US and EU trade relations exhibit a set of chronic and secularly unsustainable imbalances, in which new Schumpeterian leading sectors and catch-up growth create growing tension in the asymmetrical and somewhat hierarchical US–EU relationship. These imbalances exhibit two distinct cycles interrupted by a clear structural break in the 1970s and an emerging cycle after the 2008–2010 crises. Each cycle has seen rising US current account or trade deficits with Europe provoke some financial or political crisis. Each crisis produced a US-led solution producing even greater imbalances in the next cycle, with concomitant stress on the asymmetric US–EU relationship. The EU and particularly the northern eurozone economies typically have relied on export surpluses for growth. But relying on export surpluses for growth reinforces EU dependence on the US and the US dollar at a time when US domestic politics are increasingly hostile to trade deficits and tension with China is rising. Keywords: European Union; institutions; power; Schumpeter; technology; trade Handle: RePEc:cog:poango:v10:y:2022:i:2:p:186-197 Template-Type: ReDIF-Article 1.0 Title: Coherence at Last? Transatlantic Cooperation in Response to the Geostrategic Challenge of China File-URL: https://www.cogitatiopress.com/politicsandgovernance/article/view/5022 File-Format: text/html DOI: 10.17645/pag.v10i2.5022 Journal: Politics and Governance Volume: 10 Year: 2022 Issue: 2 Pages: 176-185 Author-Name: Kolja Raube Author-Workplace-Name: Leuven European and International Studies, KU Leuven, Belgium / Centre for European Studies, KU Leuven, Belgium / Leuven Centre for Global Governance Studies, KU Leuven, Belgium Author-Name: Raquel Vega Rubio Author-Workplace-Name: Leuven European and International Studies, KU Leuven, Belgium / Centre for European Studies, KU Leuven, Belgium Abstract: In light of the larger contextual picture of increased geostrategic rivalry with China, this article focuses on the question whether transatlantic cooperation responses towards the geostrategic challenge of China can possibly be coherent at all. How can we explain coherent actions (or lack thereof) between actors across the Atlantic in their foreign policy towards China? The central idea then is to explain transatlantic cooperation responses to the geostrategic challenge of China from a coherence angle, providing us with a perspective by which we can understand why actors on both sides of the Atlantic invest in policy coherence, or rather not. We argue that this coherence angle on transatlantic relations is particularly promising as it combines a focus on actors and structural dimensions that is able to offer explanations by whom, where, and why policy coherence is achieved. By looking into two different cases, the so-called concerted sanctions case and the AUKUS case, we find both, transatlantic coherence and incoherence, respectively, in response to the strategic challenge of China. Overall, this article has important policy implications, as it can point to the underlying factors in transatlantic policy-making that push or obstruct coherence. Keywords: coherence; cooperation; EU; incoherence; security; transatlantic; US; values Handle: RePEc:cog:poango:v10:y:2022:i:2:p:176-185 Template-Type: ReDIF-Article 1.0 Title: A Weakening Transatlantic Relationship? Redefining the EU–US Security and Defence Cooperation File-URL: https://www.cogitatiopress.com/politicsandgovernance/article/view/5024 File-Format: text/html DOI: 10.17645/pag.v10i2.5024 Journal: Politics and Governance Volume: 10 Year: 2022 Issue: 2 Pages: 165-175 Author-Name: Bjørn Olav Knutsen Author-Workplace-Name: Norwegian Defence Research Establishment (FFI), Norway / Faculty for Social Sciences, Nord University, Norway Abstract: The aim of this article is to discuss how a weakening transatlantic relationship influences European defence cooperation and integration. It also asks how these observed patterns of weakening EU–US relations can be explained and what the consequences might be for the EU’s efforts to build a stronger and more coherent security and defence policy. Building upon a “comprehensive neo-functionalist” approach first coined by the Norwegian scholar Martin Sæter, European security and defence policy should be seen as part of an externalisation of EU integration as a response to weakening transatlantic relations. The debate on European “strategic autonomy,” the Strategic Compass, and the European “defence package” should therefore be considered as part of such an externalisation process of actively influencing and reshaping the transatlantic relationship. When analysing European security and defence, the article also shows that it is misleading to regard European integration as something to be subordinated to NATO. Nevertheless, a European security deficit does exist due to differing perspectives among member states on how the EU process should relate to NATO. The article, therefore, concludes that strategic autonomy can only be developed with close EU–NATO cooperation. Furthermore, a more multipolar world order where the EU no longer can rely upon a transatlantic security community to the same extent as before challenges the EU’s role as a defender of multilateralism and poses new challenges to the EU’s common foreign and security policy. Keywords: EU defence package; EU Strategic Compass; European Union; NATO; neo-functionalism; security deficit; strategic autonomy; transatlantic relations; United States foreign policy Handle: RePEc:cog:poango:v10:y:2022:i:2:p:165-175 Template-Type: ReDIF-Article 1.0 Title: “America is Back” or “America First” and the Transatlantic Relationship File-URL: https://www.cogitatiopress.com/politicsandgovernance/article/view/5019 File-Format: text/html DOI: 10.17645/pag.v10i2.5019 Journal: Politics and Governance Volume: 10 Year: 2022 Issue: 2 Pages: 154-164 Author-Name: Gorm Rye Olsen Author-Workplace-Name: Department of Social Science and Business, Roskilde University, Denmark Abstract: The presidency of Donald Trump represented an unprecedented low point in transatlantic relations. When Joe Biden took power in early 2021, his administration launched several policy initiatives suggesting that the new administration would continue to allow the seemingly long-term weakening of the transatlantic relationship to continue. A significant part of the literature on recent developments in transatlantic relations points in the same direction, namely that a weakening of the cooperation across the Atlantic has taken place. This article proposes an alternative view, arguing that the relationship has strengthened in recent years despite Donald Trump and his erratic policy. The article applies a theoretical framework combining international as well as domestic variables. Based on an analysis of four cases—NATO, the US pivot to Asia, the sanctions policy towards Russia, and the Afghanistan debacle—it is concluded that the transatlantic relationship is strong. Keywords: Afghanistan; China; decision-makers; NATO; perceptions; Russia; Ukraine Handle: RePEc:cog:poango:v10:y:2022:i:2:p:154-164 Template-Type: ReDIF-Article 1.0 Title: Making Sense of the European Side of the Transatlantic Security Relations in Africa File-URL: https://www.cogitatiopress.com/politicsandgovernance/article/view/5048 File-Format: text/html DOI: 10.17645/pag.v10i2.5048 Journal: Politics and Governance Volume: 10 Year: 2022 Issue: 2 Pages: 144-153 Author-Name: Pernille Rieker Author-Workplace-Name: Norwegian Institute of International Affairs, Norway Abstract: This article aims to investigate the character of transatlantic security relations in Africa: How can it be characterized? Have they become weaker or stronger over the past decade? How can this development be explained? As NATO has not yet been heavily engaged on the African continent, it is prudent to study the relations between the EU and the US. Africa has been of concern to the EU (and its member states) for decades due to its geographical closeness and historic bonds. Since 2001, for both Europe and the US, Africa has become a region of increasing security concern due to the threat of international terrorism—for Europe, we can also add the migration concern. The European side of this relationship has also been largely dominated by France, making the transatlantic security cooperation in Africa essentially about French-American relations. As France has taken the lead regarding Europe’s security and defense engagement in Africa, increasingly with the support of other EU member states and associated non-members, this bilateral relationship is more than simply cooperation between two states. By applying a framework that understands EU security and defense policy as a process increasingly characterized as a differentiated and flexible integration under French leadership, the development of the Franco-US security relations in Africa must be understood as an expression of the transatlantic security relations in this region. Keywords: Africa; differentiated integration; EU; France; Sahel; security; transatlantic relations Handle: RePEc:cog:poango:v10:y:2022:i:2:p:144-153 Template-Type: ReDIF-Article 1.0 Title: Space Security and the Transatlantic Relationship File-URL: https://www.cogitatiopress.com/politicsandgovernance/article/view/5061 File-Format: text/html DOI: 10.17645/pag.v10i2.5061 Journal: Politics and Governance Volume: 10 Year: 2022 Issue: 2 Pages: 134-143 Author-Name: Mai'a K. Davis Cross Author-Workplace-Name: Department of Political Science, Northeastern University, USA Abstract: Since the end of World War II, outer space has been an arena in which both high and low politics have played out, and both the US and Europe have been heavily invested. This article examines the case study of space exploration as a window into the evolving nature of the transatlantic relationship. With the US government regularly deprioritizing Europe in its foreign policy and at times taking the transatlantic relationship for granted, the author argues that transnational and non-state actors have played an important role in maintaining the stability of the alliance. In terms of space, this means that the space community—space agencies, private actors, space enthusiasts, engineers, and scientists, among others—often enable transatlantic cooperation despite initial conflictual rhetoric stemming from political leaders. Importantly, while these transnational or non-state actors tend to view space as a peaceful domain for all of humankind, governments and militaries often treat space as the next battlefield. To support this argument, the article considers two major transatlantic space developments: the US’s Space Force, which reflects a US desire to be dominant in space, and Europe’s Galileo satellite system, which reflects a European goal to have strategic autonomy from the US. The author argues that the idea that space should be a peaceful domain for all of humankind is more strongly reflected in outcomes, despite the presence of conflictual, militaristic rhetoric. Keywords: constructivism; Galileo; non-state actors; space; Space Force; transatlantic relationship Handle: RePEc:cog:poango:v10:y:2022:i:2:p:134-143 Template-Type: ReDIF-Article 1.0 Title: Introduction: Out With the Old, In With the New? Explaining Changing EU–US Relations File-URL: https://www.cogitatiopress.com/politicsandgovernance/article/view/5597 File-Format: text/html DOI: 10.17645/pag.v10i2.5597 Journal: Politics and Governance Volume: 10 Year: 2022 Issue: 2 Pages: 128-133 Author-Name: Marianne Riddervold Author-Workplace-Name: Department of Organisation, Leadership and Management, Inland University of Applied Sciences, Norway / Institute of European Studies, University of California – Berkeley, USA Author-Name: Akasemi Newsome Author-Workplace-Name: Department of Organisation, Leadership and Management, Inland University of Applied Sciences, Norway / Institute of European Studies, University of California – Berkeley, USA Abstract: When Russia invaded Ukraine in February 2022, Europe and the US quickly joined in a strong and coordinated response. But how significant is the Ukraine crisis response for longer-term trends in transatlantic relations? This thematic issue addresses this question by focusing on the factors that affect the strength of the transatlantic relationship. Only by exploring the impact of various structural, strategic, economic, institutional, and domestic factors can we better understand the current and future state of EU–US relations—both in normal times and in times of crisis. Two questions are explored across cases: First, is the EU–US relationship changing in various fields? Second, how can the putative changes (or stability) in EU–US relations be explained? For this purpose, the articles also operationalize and apply a common explanatory framework. This Introduction sets out and justifies the overall research questions, develops the analytical framework, and briefly explains the empirical focus of the articles that follow. Keywords: European Union; multilateral order; security; transatlantic relations; Ukraine; United States Handle: RePEc:cog:poango:v10:y:2022:i:2:p:128-133 Template-Type: ReDIF-Article 1.0 Title: South–South Cooperation and the Promise of Experimentalist Governance: The ASEAN Smart Cities Network File-URL: https://www.cogitatiopress.com/politicsandgovernance/article/view/4917 File-Format: text/html DOI: 10.17645/pag.v10i2.4917 Journal: Politics and Governance Volume: 10 Year: 2022 Issue: 2 Pages: 116-127 Author-Name: Manuel Mejido Costoya Author-Workplace-Name: Department of Sociology, Quaid-i-Azam University, Pakistan Abstract: This article considers the impact that increasing pragmatism and pluralism are having on South–South cooperation (SSC). Focusing on the growing sway of multilateral platforms for cooperation between cities and the reinvigoration of regionalism, it identifies experimentalist design principles for fostering autonomy-enhancing initiatives between developing countries that have the capacity to learn from and scale up locally-informed, adaptive problem solving. The first part of the article frames SSC in light of experimentalist governance theory. The second part provides a case study of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) Smart Cities Network, an initiative that captures the promise and challenges of enhancing SSC through regional experimentalist governance of city-to-city partnerships. Keywords: Association of Southeast Asian Nations; city-to-city partnerships; experimentalist governance; regional integration; Smart Cities Network; South–South cooperation Handle: RePEc:cog:poango:v10:y:2022:i:2:p:116-127 Template-Type: ReDIF-Article 1.0 Title: Drivers and Barriers of Digital Market Integration in East Africa: A Case Study of Rwanda and Tanzania File-URL: https://www.cogitatiopress.com/politicsandgovernance/article/view/4922 File-Format: text/html DOI: 10.17645/pag.v10i2.4922 Journal: Politics and Governance Volume: 10 Year: 2022 Issue: 2 Pages: 106-115 Author-Name: Stephanie Arnold Author-Workplace-Name: Department of Political and Social Sciences, University of Bologna, Italy Abstract: Digital development has become a firm pillar in the national development strategies of many countries in the Global South. Although the geopolitical competition over ICTs leveraged their diplomatic and economic relevance in the international sphere, developing countries remain in a subordinate position in global power relations. However, while they could collectively improve their standing by uniting behind an integrated digital market, national governments in the East African Community are reluctant to implement a single digital market, leading us to inquire: What constrains digital market integration in East Africa? This article compares Rwanda and Tanzania, two relatively digitally mature but less developed countries in Sub-Saharan Africa, whereas one is a small landlocked country and the other a larger emerging economy. Following the classification of Hout and Salih, material, ideational, political, and external aspects affect a nation’s enthusiasm for regional initiatives. By examining factors related to domestic politics and political economy, this article finds that material and political factors encourage digital regionalism in Rwanda but discourage it in Tanzania; ideational factors contribute to national rather than regional unity in both countries. Yet, external factors linked to EU foreign policy and developmental cooperation seem to lead current regional projects. Therefore, this article concludes that drivers of African regionalism may turn into barriers depending on the domestic political and economic circumstances while digital market integration is currently driven by foreign players. More generally, the study contributes to the debate on African agency in ICT for development and developing countries’ capacity to overcome traditional dependency structures. Keywords: African regionalism; digital development; digital market integration; ICT infrastructure; Rwanda; structural power; Tanzania Handle: RePEc:cog:poango:v10:y:2022:i:2:p:106-115 Template-Type: ReDIF-Article 1.0 Title: The Crisis of the Multilateral Order in Eurasia: Authoritarian Regionalism and Its Limits File-URL: https://www.cogitatiopress.com/politicsandgovernance/article/view/4809 File-Format: text/html DOI: 10.17645/pag.v10i2.4809 Journal: Politics and Governance Volume: 10 Year: 2022 Issue: 2 Pages: 95-105 Author-Name: Rilka Dragneva Author-Workplace-Name: School of Law, University of Birmingham, UK Author-Name: Christopher A. Hartwell Author-Workplace-Name: International Management Institute, ZHAW School of Management and Law, Switzerland / Department of International Management, Kozminski University, Poland Abstract: The process of authoritarian regionalism, where illiberal or similarly restrictive governments undertake a process of economic integration amongst each other, has emerged in the past two decades as a rival to existing liberal multilateral organisations. Emblematic of this approach is the Eurasian Economic Union (EaEU), a grouping of post-Soviet states which has borrowed heavily from the experience of the EU but has set itself up as an alternative form of regionalism. Using the concept of institutional resilience, this article shows how the EaEU has been buffeted by three major shocks that have reduced its attractiveness as a viable development alternative to the West. Crises of economic integration, regional security, and, above all, of domestic stability have exposed the reality that the EaEU may be highly susceptible to shocks and, as a result, is less attractive as an alternative developmental model. Keywords: authoritarian regionalism; Eurasian Economic Union; illiberalism; integration; resilience; Russia Handle: RePEc:cog:poango:v10:y:2022:i:2:p:95-105 Template-Type: ReDIF-Article 1.0 Title: Multilateralism, Developmental Regionalism, and the African Development Bank File-URL: https://www.cogitatiopress.com/politicsandgovernance/article/view/4871 File-Format: text/html DOI: 10.17645/pag.v10i2.4871 Journal: Politics and Governance Volume: 10 Year: 2022 Issue: 2 Pages: 82-94 Author-Name: Israel Nyaburi Nyadera Author-Workplace-Name: Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences, Egerton University, Kenya / School of International Relations and Diplomacy, Riara University, Kenya / Department of Government and Public Administration, University of Macau, Macau Author-Name: Billy Agwanda Author-Workplace-Name: Department of International Relations, Istanbul Commerce University, Turkey / Department of International Relations, Marmara University, Turkey Author-Name: Murat Onder Author-Workplace-Name: Faculty of Economics and Administrative Sciences, Boğaziçi University, Turkey Author-Name: Ibrahim Abdirahman Mukhtar Author-Workplace-Name: Department of International Relations, Ankara Yildirim Beyazit University, Turkey Abstract: Promoting development in Africa has faced significant challenges partly because of the continent’s peripheral access to global markets as well as its internal geographical limitations on the movement of people, goods, and services. However, the African Development Bank (AfDB) and its “developmental” role has emerged as a practical and tailored approach to Pan-African development, especially in the midst of a growing crisis in global multilateralism. This article argues that the AfDB can be a significant promoter of African development given its unique characteristics, focus areas, and lending style that are different from other multilateral institutions. Using a case-study approach, and by analysing literature on the AfDB, policy papers, and government reports, this study explores the developmental role of the bank and demonstrates its comparative advantage to other multilateral institutions in Africa. Keywords: Africa; African Development Bank; developmental regionalism; multilateralism Handle: RePEc:cog:poango:v10:y:2022:i:2:p:82-94 Template-Type: ReDIF-Article 1.0 Title: Cooperation Regimes and Hegemonic Struggle: Opportunities and Challenges for Developing Countries File-URL: https://www.cogitatiopress.com/politicsandgovernance/article/view/4919 File-Format: text/html DOI: 10.17645/pag.v10i2.4919 Journal: Politics and Governance Volume: 10 Year: 2022 Issue: 2 Pages: 71-81 Author-Name: Sara Caria Author-Workplace-Name: Instituto de Altos Estudios Nacionales, Ecuador / University of Modena and Reggio Emilia, Italy Abstract: There is an increasing convergence in the international relations literature around the idea that changes in the world economy during the last decades are reshaping the international order; although the outcome of such a reconfiguration is yet unclear, many scholars argue that a dispute over global hegemony is already underway. At the same time, drawing on realist and neorealist approaches, international cooperation can be seen as a means to gain legitimacy and tighten alliances. In this framework, this article analyses three cooperation regimes as terrains of dispute to expand—or maintain—international leadership. The first, the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) Agenda, reflects mainly the attempt to maintain the legitimacy of the United Nations system and the multilateral institutions that make up the traditional cooperation regime. This framework still responds to Western interests, despite China’s efforts to contest and contain US influence. The second, South–South cooperation, wrapped up in the rhetoric of horizontality and common challenges, is the privileged terrain of middle powers and emerging countries, aiming at increasing regional influence. Finally, the third scheme, International Cooperation for Structural Transformation, is China’s new development doctrine and the fulcrum of its struggle to promote itself as a successful new model for global development. In my conclusions I reflect on the opportunities that the co-existence of different regimes offers for developing countries, as well as the challenges that they continue to face in their search for autonomous development paths. Keywords: 2030 Agenda; development cooperation; hegemony; liberal order; Global South; South–South cooperation Handle: RePEc:cog:poango:v10:y:2022:i:2:p:71-81 Template-Type: ReDIF-Article 1.0 Title: China in Africa: Assessing the Consequences for the Continent’s Agenda for Economic Regionalism File-URL: https://www.cogitatiopress.com/politicsandgovernance/article/view/4945 File-Format: text/html DOI: 10.17645/pag.v10i2.4945 Journal: Politics and Governance Volume: 10 Year: 2022 Issue: 2 Pages: 61-70 Author-Name: Artur Colom-Jaén Author-Workplace-Name: Department of Economic History, Institutions, Policy and World Economy, University of Barcelona, Spain Author-Name: Óscar Mateos Author-Workplace-Name: Blanquerna School of Communication and International Relations, Ramon Llull University, Spain Abstract: Africa has become a major arena in the so-called “multiplex world.” The growing presence of China and other emerging countries on the continent in the last two decades has turned Africa into an area in which there are a large number of different patterns of interaction between state and non-state actors. International debates are polarised over whether these new South–South dynamics generate new dependency relations or whether they provide genuine opportunities for transformation. This article focuses on China’s role in the ongoing processes of economic integration in Africa. Far from merely reproducing a neoliberal pattern, this interaction may highlight a certain convergence between the African regional integration projects and China’s desire to promote structural transformation strategies, with investment in infrastructure being an example. However, the article concludes that rather than reinforcing African regional integration, this essentially bilateral and highly pragmatic Chinese strategy may have some indirect returns on regional integration but is actually showing some signs of decline. Keywords: Africa–China relations; African Continental Free Trade Area; Agenda 2063; Belt and Road Initiative; regional integration; South–South cooperation Handle: RePEc:cog:poango:v10:y:2022:i:2:p:61-70 Template-Type: ReDIF-Article 1.0 Title: China and Climate Multilateralism: A Review of Theoretical Approaches File-URL: https://www.cogitatiopress.com/politicsandgovernance/article/view/4920 File-Format: text/html DOI: 10.17645/pag.v10i2.4920 Journal: Politics and Governance Volume: 10 Year: 2022 Issue: 2 Pages: 50-60 Author-Name: Hao Zhang Author-Workplace-Name: International Institute of Social Studies, Erasmus University of Rotterdam, The Netherlands Abstract: China’s approach to multilateral climate negotiation has shifted greatly over the past decades. From being an obstacle to a follower, and now a potential leader, China has attracted academic attention. This article surveys the literature on China’s role in climate multilateralism as examined by scholars through different lenses. The article asks whether analyses at different policymaking levels can explain China’s changing position. I review studies addressing the international level and the nexus between the complementary international and domestic levels to offer a comprehensive understanding of China’s strategic moves and choices in multilateral discussions on climate change. The review finds that factors at the international level are influencing China’s climate ambitions and goals, and even to some extent are determining its strategies toward climate multilateralism; however, for China to deliver its international climate commitments, its enhanced ability will need domestic support. While these insights are valuable to understand China’s international behavior, an emerging framework needs to be included in this discussion, as transnational governance scholarship might be able to explain how new actors may unlock China’s position on climate change in the future. Keywords: China; Chinese climate policy; climate change; global climate governance; multilateralism Handle: RePEc:cog:poango:v10:y:2022:i:2:p:50-60 Template-Type: ReDIF-Article 1.0 Title: The Palestinian Authority and the Reconfigured World Order: Between Multilateralism, Unilateralism, and Dependency Relationships File-URL: https://www.cogitatiopress.com/politicsandgovernance/article/view/4916 File-Format: text/html DOI: 10.17645/pag.v10i2.4916 Journal: Politics and Governance Volume: 10 Year: 2022 Issue: 2 Pages: 40-49 Author-Name: Mar Gijón Mendigutía Author-Workplace-Name: Valentín de Foronda Institute for Social History, University of the Basque Country, Spain Author-Name: José Abu-Tarbush Author-Workplace-Name: Department of Sociology and Anthropology, University of La Laguna, Spain Abstract: Against the backdrop of changes in the power structure of the international system at the end of the twentieth century, the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO) entered into a peace process with Israel in 1993. Initially characterized by the influence of a multilateral order and then by the unipolar order dominated by the United States, in addition to the asymmetry of power between the two parties, the process ended up failing. The heir to that political legacy, the Palestinian Authority (PA), has tried to compensate for this weakness—despite its dependency relationships—with an internationalization strategy the continued advance of which appears to be severely limited. Added to this is the setback brought about by the political and diplomatic offensive of the Trump administration (2017–2021), one of unilateral support for Israel and absolute Palestinian exclusion. However, the increasing reconfiguration of the world order, the arrival of the new Biden administration, and the receptiveness of the International Criminal Court to investigate war crimes in Palestine seem to indicate a new political juncture. In this situation, the PA could also try to counterbalance the power asymmetry by seeking greater involvement from countries such as Russia, which has returned to the region as a great power, and China, whose presence there is growing. In turn, the PA will have to deal with different issues (unity, elections, a renewal of leadership) and try to boost its political legitimacy and international alliances to three ends: the prominence and reactivation of the PA, the recognition of Palestine as a state with in situ results, and international protection from Israeli policies. Keywords: dependency relationships; international system; legitimacy; Middle East; multilateralism; Palestine Liberation Organization; Palestinian Authority; unilateralism; unipolarity; world order Handle: RePEc:cog:poango:v10:y:2022:i:2:p:40-49 Template-Type: ReDIF-Article 1.0 Title: Dimensions and Cartography of Dirty Money in Developing Countries: Tripping Up on the Global Hydra File-URL: https://www.cogitatiopress.com/politicsandgovernance/article/view/4887 File-Format: text/html DOI: 10.17645/pag.v10i2.4887 Journal: Politics and Governance Volume: 10 Year: 2022 Issue: 2 Pages: 25-39 Author-Name: Rogelio Madrueño Author-Workplace-Name: Center for Advanced Security, Strategic and Integration Studies, University of Bonn, Germany Author-Name: Magdalene Silberberger Author-Workplace-Name: Department of Philosophy, Politics and Economics, Witten/Herdecke University, Germany / Institute for Social and Institutional Change, Witten/Herdecke University, Germany Abstract: This article aims to analyze the challenges posed by the illicit financial flows (IFFs) that emerged from the consolidation and globalization of financial markets and the persistent and rising inequality of wealth and income. In a first step, we show the key dimensions behind IFFs (governance, trade, finance, taxation, monetary), which affect the multilateral order and promote new relations of dependence between the Global North and the Global South. In a second step, we analyze the cartographic representation of the developing world regarding the challenges posed by IFFs. We argue that IFFs are a subproduct of inefficient international policies and multilateral regulatory frameworks that have decreased the scope of action of nation-states and reduced the incentives for them to cooperate in certain areas of financial markets and global governance, such as international cooperation on tax and IFFs. In the article, we examine the multidimensionality of IFFs through multivariate techniques: More specifically, we use factor and cluster analysis methods based on the most recent information available between 2015 and 2020. Factor analysis reveals four main components behind this global problem: governance issues, foreign direct investment and trade-related issues, bank stability, and taxation. A clustering hierarchical solution provides four clusters of developing countries, in terms of phantom investment and trade misinvoicing, revealing the heterogeneous composition and shortcomings of the Global South. These results help understand the complexities behind IFFs and highlight the relevance of tailored actions to promote a more effective global governance system. Keywords: developing countries; financial globalization; global governance; illicit financial flows Handle: RePEc:cog:poango:v10:y:2022:i:2:p:25-39 Template-Type: ReDIF-Article 1.0 Title: Twenty-First Century Military Multilateralism: “Messy” and With Unintended Consequences File-URL: https://www.cogitatiopress.com/politicsandgovernance/article/view/4886 File-Format: text/html DOI: 10.17645/pag.v10i2.4886 Journal: Politics and Governance Volume: 10 Year: 2022 Issue: 2 Pages: 15-24 Author-Name: Gorm Rye Olsen Author-Workplace-Name: Department of Social Science and Business, Roskilde University, Denmark Abstract: The current century has witnessed several high-profile Western military interventions in developing countries: Afghanistan, Iraq, and Mali/West Africa are well-known examples. All three were initiated unilaterally by the US or France but were soon supplemented with multilateral missions which operated in parallel with the unilateral intervention force, giving them a “messy” appearance. In the three cases, the foreign policy decision-makers in the US and France reacted mainly to domestic stimuli, most evidently in the case of the US, where revenge for 9/11 was a strong motive. Like-minded partners in NATO and troops from developing countries shared the burdens of the US and France and gave legitimacy to the military interventions. The consequences of the interventions were not that they contributed to stability. Rather they supported the incumbent elites, as they were able to avoid launching economic and political reform. The lack of reform undermined the prospects for stability. Keywords: Afghanistan; conflict management; Iraq; Mali; multilateralism; terrorism; West Africa Handle: RePEc:cog:poango:v10:y:2022:i:2:p:15-24 Template-Type: ReDIF-Article 1.0 Title: Rethinking the Multilateral Order Between Liberal Internationalism and Neoliberalism/Neoliberalisation Processes File-URL: https://www.cogitatiopress.com/politicsandgovernance/article/view/5116 File-Format: text/html DOI: 10.17645/pag.v10i2.5116 Journal: Politics and Governance Volume: 10 Year: 2022 Issue: 2 Pages: 6-14 Author-Name: Karim Knio Author-Workplace-Name: Institute of Social Studies, Erasmus University Rotterdam, The Netherlands Abstract: Discourses on multilateralism and liberal internationalism are replete with warnings about crises. However, theories often only address crises in pragmatic terms, as if they were discreet and isolated phenomena that have little to do with globalized structural tendencies and the specific limitations of knowledge production within the field of international relations (IR). This article initiates a process of reflection on the nature of the crisis of liberal internationalism and the multilateral world order with the help of the pedagogy of crises framework. It identifies the biases contained within IR research and knowledge production as integral to the crises themselves because of the limitations of their engagement with crises solely at the crisis management level. Acknowledging and situating these biases allows us to build a perspective around the notion of crisis of crisis management. This perspective entails a combination of the study of liberal internationalism and neoliberalism to better explain the nature and dynamics of the multilateral world order. This endeavour can offer a fresh take on analysing case studies related to developing countries and outlines a critical focus to inform further research. A brief review of the Chilean example is featured to support this argument, as it shows how the processes that unfold within the multilateral world order are articulated within a local context, and also points to the intimate relations between knowledge production and policy implementation. The article demonstrates the impossibility of understanding the multilateral world order without due consideration of the dialectical relationship between neoliberalism and liberal internationalism. Historically, analyses have focused on neoliberalism as something embedded within liberal internationalism while, in fact, processes of neoliberalisation have become a framework of reference in themselves. That is to say, liberal internationalism, and the study of it, are but a few of the elements that comprise contemporary neoliberalism. Given this, it is argued that systematic academic engagement with neoliberalism/neoliberalisation is essential for a proper understanding of the multilateral world order. Keywords: commodification; crisis management; developing countries; knowledge production; liberal internationalism; marketisation; multilateralism; neoliberalisation; neoliberalism; world order Handle: RePEc:cog:poango:v10:y:2022:i:2:p:6-14 Template-Type: ReDIF-Article 1.0 Title: Developing Countries and the Crisis of the Liberal International Order File-URL: https://www.cogitatiopress.com/politicsandgovernance/article/view/5491 File-Format: text/html DOI: 10.17645/pag.v10i2.5491 Journal: Politics and Governance Volume: 10 Year: 2022 Issue: 2 Pages: 1-5 Author-Name: Wil Hout Author-Workplace-Name: International Institute of Social Studies, Erasmus University Rotterdam, The Netherlands Author-Name: Michal Onderco Author-Workplace-Name: Erasmus School of Social and Behavioural Sciences, Erasmus University Rotterdam, The Netherlands / Peace Research Center Prague, Czech Republic Abstract: Recent studies of the liberal international order have tended to use a crisis-laden vocabulary to analyse US withdrawal from multilateral institutions and Chinese initiatives to create new institutions. In these analyses, the consequences of such a crisis for developing countries are largely overlooked because of the greater emphasis that is placed on the role of great powers in the international system. We argue that more attention should be paid to the position of developing countries in the liberal international order and that the effects of the presumed crisis for those countries should be studied. The articles in this thematic issue focus on a variety of topics related to the places occupied by developing countries in the international order. Keywords: crisis; developing countries; liberal international order; liberal internationalism; multilateralism Handle: RePEc:cog:poango:v10:y:2022:i:2:p:1-5 Template-Type: ReDIF-Article 1.0 Title: Anchoring Policies, Alignment Tensions: Reconciling New Zealand’s Climate Change Act and Emissions Trading Scheme File-URL: https://www.cogitatiopress.com/politicsandgovernance/article/view/4788 File-Format: text/html DOI: 10.17645/pag.v10i1.4788 Journal: Politics and Governance Volume: 10 Year: 2022 Issue: 1 Pages: 290-301 Author-Name: Tor Håkon Jackson Inderberg Author-Workplace-Name: Fridtjof Nansen Institute, Norway Author-Name: Ian Bailey Author-Workplace-Name: School of Geography, Earth and Environmental Sciences, University of Plymouth, UK Abstract: Climate Change Acts (CCAs) seek to anchor national climate policy by establishing long-term targets and lines of accountability that guide the development of other climate policy instruments. However, counter-pressures to modify CCAs can occur where tensions exist with the provisions of already-established policies that enjoy substantial political and stakeholder support. Such tensions can be especially pronounced where CCAs necessitate major changes to emissions trading schemes (ETSs) that have formed the mainstay of efforts to reduce national emissions. This article employs a novel anchoring policy framework to examine the dynamics of aligning ETSs with CCAs. We investigate debates on reforms to the New Zealand Emissions Trading Scheme following the introduction of the Zero Carbon Act in 2019 to examine how alignment pressures between anchoring and subordinate policies are negotiated. The analysis reveals several tactics used to increase the acceptability of reforms to the New Zealand Emissions Trading Scheme and protect the Zero Carbon Act’s integrity. The article concludes by arguing that a greater understanding of alignment pressures between anchoring and subordinate policies is essential in enabling both CCAs and ETSs to contribute to achieving decarbonisation goals. Keywords: anchoring policies; climate change acts; emissions trading; New Zealand; policy alignment Handle: RePEc:cog:poango:v10:y:2022:i:1:p:290-301 Template-Type: ReDIF-Article 1.0 Title: Carbon Pricing in the US: Examining State-Level Policy Support and Federal Resistance File-URL: https://www.cogitatiopress.com/politicsandgovernance/article/view/4857 File-Format: text/html DOI: 10.17645/pag.v10i1.4857 Journal: Politics and Governance Volume: 10 Year: 2022 Issue: 1 Pages: 275-289 Author-Name: Easwaran Narassimhan Author-Workplace-Name: John F. Kennedy School of Government, Harvard University, USA / The Fletcher School, Tufts University, USA Author-Name: Stefan Koester Author-Workplace-Name: Information Technology and Innovation Foundation, USA Author-Name: Kelly Sims Gallagher Author-Workplace-Name: The Fletcher School, Tufts University, USA Abstract: Carbon pricing is a key policy instrument used to steer markets towards the adoption of low-carbon technologies. In the last two decades, several carbon pricing policies have been implemented or debated at the state and federal levels in the US. The Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative and the California cap-and-trade policy are the two regional policies operational today. While there is no federal policy operational today, several carbon pricing proposals have been introduced in Congress in the last decade. Using the literature on interest group politics and policy entrepreneurship, this article examines the carbon pricing policies at the subnational and federal levels in the US. First, the article explores the evolution of two main regional carbon pricing policies, the Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative and California cap-and-trade, to identify how interest groups and policy entrepreneurs shaped the design and implementation of the respective policies. Second, the article details the federal carbon pricing policy proposals and bills discussed in the last decade. Third, it examines the factors that limit the prospects of realizing an ambitious federal carbon price for pursuing deep decarbonization of the US economy. The article finds that federal carbon pricing in the US suffers from the lack of any natural and/or consistent constituency to support it through policy development, legislation, and implementation. While interest group politics have been mitigated by good policy entrepreneurship at the subnational level, the lack of policy entrepreneurship and the changing positions of competing interest groups have kept a federal carbon pricing policy from becoming a reality. Keywords: allowance allocation; cap-and-trade; carbon price; carbon tax; clean energy standard; deep decarbonization; green new deal; interest group politics; policy entrepreneurship; revenue allocation Handle: RePEc:cog:poango:v10:y:2022:i:1:p:275-289 Template-Type: ReDIF-Article 1.0 Title: China’s Carbon Market: Potential for Success? File-URL: https://www.cogitatiopress.com/politicsandgovernance/article/view/4792 File-Format: text/html DOI: 10.17645/pag.v10i1.4792 Journal: Politics and Governance Volume: 10 Year: 2022 Issue: 1 Pages: 265-274 Author-Name: Gørild Heggelund Author-Workplace-Name: Fridtjof Nansen Institute, Norway Author-Name: Iselin Stensdal Author-Workplace-Name: Fridtjof Nansen Institute, Norway Author-Name: Maosheng Duan Author-Workplace-Name: Tsinghua University, China Abstract: What lessons emerged during the development of China’s national emissions trading scheme (ETS)? It was launched in late 2017 and started operation in July 2021, beginning with online trading of emissions permits. The preceding decade was used for preparing and testing, including seven pilot markets. It was decided to start with the power sector, the largest-emitting sector, and initially cover coal- and gas-fired power plants. This article offers theory-oriented and empirical contributions to domestic-level learning, and asks what happens after a policy has “landed.” We employ an analytical concept originating from diffusion theory—learning—and view internal learning as a key mechanism. We argue that having a slow and well-prepared start contributes to the potential success of the ETS; further, that the lengthy preparatory period enabled China to address various obstacles, providing a strong basis for success, singly and as part of the national mitigation policy complex. Internal learning has proven crucial to the development of the ETS in China, with the learning process continuing as the national ETS becomes operative. We also discuss the possibilities for linking China’s carbon market with other markets, which should heed China’s ETS experience and emphasize learning. Keywords: carbon market; China; Emissions Trading Scheme; internal learning; linking carbon markets Handle: RePEc:cog:poango:v10:y:2022:i:1:p:265-274 Template-Type: ReDIF-Article 1.0 Title: Beyond Control: Policy Incoherence of the EU Emissions Trading System File-URL: https://www.cogitatiopress.com/politicsandgovernance/article/view/4797 File-Format: text/html DOI: 10.17645/pag.v10i1.4797 Journal: Politics and Governance Volume: 10 Year: 2022 Issue: 1 Pages: 256-264 Author-Name: Maximilian Willner Author-Workplace-Name: Department of Socioeconomics, University of Hamburg, Germany Author-Name: Grischa Perino Author-Workplace-Name: Department of Socioeconomics, University of Hamburg, Germany / Center for Earth System Research and Sustainability (CEN), University of Hamburg, Germany Abstract: In this article, we explain why the current climate policy mix of the European Union (EU), consisting of the EU Emissions Trading System (ETS) and overlapping policies, is incoherent with respect to emission abatement and cost-effectiveness. The concept of policy coherence guides our analysis in identifying the EU ETS’ current dynamic supply adjustment mechanism, the Market Stability Reserve (MSR), to be at the heart of the shortcomings of current market design. Incoherence emerges due to the MSR’s quantity-based indicator for scarcity. It only works well for current and past demand fluctuations, but not for anticipated changes in demand, e.g., caused by a member state’s fossil-fuel phase-out. As a result, instead of fostering synergies as intended, the MSR undermines coherence by creating backfiring interactions and making precise predictions of overlapping policies’ impacts close to impossible. Considering the European Commission’s reform proposal of July 2021, we argue that a change in the MSR’s parametrisation leaves the fundamental cause of incoherence unaddressed. Based on recent findings in the economics literature, we propose introducing a price-based indicator for scarcity as a solution to substantially reduce the current incoherence of the policy mix. Keywords: climate policy; emission trading; EU ETS; market stability reserve; overlapping policies; policy analysis; policy coherence Handle: RePEc:cog:poango:v10:y:2022:i:1:p:256-264 Template-Type: ReDIF-Article 1.0 Title: On the Process of Including Shipping in EU Emissions Trading: Multi-Level Reinforcement Revisited File-URL: https://www.cogitatiopress.com/politicsandgovernance/article/view/4848 File-Format: text/html DOI: 10.17645/pag.v10i1.4848 Journal: Politics and Governance Volume: 10 Year: 2022 Issue: 1 Pages: 246-255 Author-Name: Jørgen Wettestad Author-Workplace-Name: Fridtjof Nansen Institute, Norway Author-Name: Lars H. Gulbrandsen Author-Workplace-Name: Fridtjof Nansen Institute, Norway Abstract: As part of the EU Green Deal initiative in 2019, the EU Commission decided to develop a proposal to include emissions from shipping in the EU emissions trading system. This occurred only one year after the Commission had heralded the emissions reduction agreement negotiated in the International Maritime Organization (IMO) as a significant step forward—thereby signalling support for the IMO process. We apply a multi-level reinforcement perspective to explain this apparent policy volte-face, resulting in a Commission proposal in July 2021 which is now moving through institutions in the EU. Such a perspective notes the “friendly” competition for leadership among central actors at various levels in the EU—particularly the Commission, the European Parliament, and leading member states. We find, first, that the inclusion of shipping is in line with the broadening ambitions of the Commission since the start of the emissions trading system. Second, until 2019, the Parliament carried the regulatory torch. A turning point in the policymaking process was the inclusion of the shipping issue in Ursula von der Leyen’s programme for getting accepted by the Parliament and elected as Commission leader in 2019. From then on, the Commission again took the lead. Third, despite the 2018 IMO agreement, progress there was deemed slow, which further motivated EU policymakers to act unilaterally. Keywords: emissions trading; ETS; European Union; Green Deal; International Maritime Organization; shipping emissions Handle: RePEc:cog:poango:v10:y:2022:i:1:p:246-255 Template-Type: ReDIF-Article 1.0 Title: Governance of Fragmented Compliance and Voluntary Carbon Markets Under the Paris Agreement File-URL: https://www.cogitatiopress.com/politicsandgovernance/article/view/4759 File-Format: text/html DOI: 10.17645/pag.v10i1.4759 Journal: Politics and Governance Volume: 10 Year: 2022 Issue: 1 Pages: 235-245 Author-Name: Hanna-Mari Ahonen Author-Workplace-Name: Perspectives Climate Research, Germany Author-Name: Juliana Kessler Author-Workplace-Name: Perspectives Climate Research, Germany Author-Name: Axel Michaelowa Author-Workplace-Name: Perspectives Climate Research, Germany / Department of Political Science, University of Zurich, Switzerland Author-Name: Aglaja Espelage Author-Workplace-Name: Perspectives Climate Research, Germany Author-Name: Stephan Hoch Author-Workplace-Name: Perspectives Climate Research, Germany Abstract: Over the past two decades, the emergence of multiple carbon market segments has led to fragmentation of governance of international carbon markets. International baseline-and-credit systems for greenhouse gas mitigation have been repeatedly expected to wither away, but show significant resilience. Still, Parties to the Paris Agreement have struggled to finalize rules for market-based cooperation under Article 6, which are still being negotiated. Generally, there is tension between international top-down and bottom-up governance. The former was pioneered through the Clean Development Mechanism under the Kyoto Protocol and is likely to be utilized for the Article 6.4 mechanism, while the latter was used for the first track of Joint Implementation and will be applied for Article 6.2. Voluntary carbon markets governed bottom-up and outside the Kyoto Protocol by private institutions have recently gained importance by offering complementary project types and methodological approaches. The clear intention of some Parties to use market-based cooperation in order to reach their nationally determined contributions to the Paris Agreement have led to an ongoing process of navigating the alignment of these fragmented carbon market instruments with the implementation of nationally determined contributions and Paris Agreement’s governance architecture. We discuss emerging features of international carbon market governance in the public and private domain, including political and technical issues. Fragmented governance is characterized by different degrees of transparency, centralization, and scales. We assess the crunch issues in the Article 6 negotiations through the lens of these governance features and their effectiveness, focusing on governance principles and their operationalization to ensure environmental integrity and avoid double counting. Keywords: Article 6; baseline-and-credit system; Clean Development Mechanism; double counting; environmental integrity; frag-mentation; governance; Paris Agreement; voluntary carbon markets Handle: RePEc:cog:poango:v10:y:2022:i:1:p:235-245 Template-Type: ReDIF-Article 1.0 Title: Carbon Pricing Under Pressure: Withering Markets? File-URL: https://www.cogitatiopress.com/politicsandgovernance/article/view/5437 File-Format: text/html DOI: 10.17645/pag.v10i1.5437 Journal: Politics and Governance Volume: 10 Year: 2022 Issue: 1 Pages: 230-234 Author-Name: Lars H. Gulbrandsen Author-Workplace-Name: Fridtjof Nansen Institute, Norway Author-Name: Jørgen Wettestad Author-Workplace-Name: Fridtjof Nansen Institute, Norway Abstract: Emissions trading systems (ETSs) are operating and developing in many regions and countries. Doubts have been raised about their effectiveness, but the global picture has many nuances, as the contributions to this thematic issue on carbon markets show. In this editorial, we briefly review some of the achievements and limitations of key ETSs, and provide an overview of the assembled articles. The cases examined in this issue include carbon markets rules under the Paris Agreement, the reform of the EU ETS and the proposed expansion of its sectoral coverage to shipping, and emissions trading initiatives in China, the USA, and New Zealand. The evidence indicates that, despite uncertainties related to future developments, carbon markets are continuing to evolve and expand around the world. Keywords: carbon markets; carbon pricing; climate policy; emissions trading; Paris Agreement; policy design; policy diffusion Handle: RePEc:cog:poango:v10:y:2022:i:1:p:230-234 Template-Type: ReDIF-Article 1.0 Title: Advocating for Platform Data Access: Challenges and Opportunities for Academics Seeking Policy Change File-URL: https://www.cogitatiopress.com/politicsandgovernance/article/view/4713 File-Format: text/html DOI: 10.17645/pag.v10i1.4713 Journal: Politics and Governance Volume: 10 Year: 2022 Issue: 1 Pages: 220-229 Author-Name: Katharine Dommett Author-Workplace-Name: Department of Politics, University of Sheffield, UK Author-Name: Rebekah Tromble Author-Workplace-Name: School of Media & Public Affairs, George Washington University, USA / Institute for Data, Democracy & Politics, George Washington University, USA Abstract: Independent researchers’ access to digital platform data is critical for our understanding of the online world; yet recent reflections have shown that data are not always readily available (Asbjørn Møller & Bechmann, 2019; Bruns, 2018; Tromble, 2021). In the face of platform power to determine data accessibility, academics can often feel powerless, but opportunities and openings can emerge for scholars to shape practice. In this article, we examine the potential for academics to engage with non-academic audiences in debates around increased data access. Adopting an autoethnographic approach, we draw on our personal experiences working with policymakers and digital platforms to offer advice for academics seeking to shape debates and advocate for change. Presenting vignettes that detail our experiences and drawing on existing scholarship on how to engage with non-academic audiences, we outline the opportunities and challenges in this kind of engagement with a view to guiding other scholars interested in engaging in this space. Keywords: advocacy; data access; non-academic engagement; platforms; policymakers Handle: RePEc:cog:poango:v10:y:2022:i:1:p:220-229 Template-Type: ReDIF-Article 1.0 Title: Empowering the People’s Truth Through Social Media? (De)Legitimizing Truth Claims of Populist Politicians and Citizens File-URL: https://www.cogitatiopress.com/politicsandgovernance/article/view/4726 File-Format: text/html DOI: 10.17645/pag.v10i1.4726 Journal: Politics and Governance Volume: 10 Year: 2022 Issue: 1 Pages: 210-219 Author-Name: Michael Hameleers Author-Workplace-Name: Amsterdam School of Communication Research, University of Amsterdam, The Netherlands Abstract: Right-wing populists have allegedly fueled increasing levels of distrust regarding expert knowledge and empirical evidence. Yet, we know little about how right-wing populist politicians and citizens use social media to construct and oppose truth claims. Using a qualitative analysis of Twitter and Facebook posts communicated by right-wing populists and citizens supporting populist ideas in the Netherlands, this article offers in-depth insights into processes of legitimization (confirming truth claims) and de-legitimization (opposing truth claims). The main conclusion is that right-wing populists and citizens supporting populism do not share a universal way of referring to reality. They use social media to communicate a confirmation-biased reality: Expert knowledge and evidence are de-contextualized or reinterpreted and aligned with right-wing populist agendas. References to the people’s experiences and worldviews, conspiracy theories and crisis sentiments are used to legitimize people’s opposition to expert knowledge and empirical evidence. Based on these findings, we coin the idea of an “adaptable construction of confirmation-biased truth claims” central in right-wing populist interpretations of reality. In times of increasing attacks on expert knowledge and empirical evidence, populist discourse may fuel an antagonism between the ordinary people’s experiences and the truth claims of established media channels and politicians in government. Social media offer a platform to members of the public to engage in discussions about (un)truthfulness, perceived deception, and populist oppositions—potentially amplifying divides between the ordinary people’s experiences and expert sources. Keywords: disinformation; fake news; misinformation; populism; right-wing populism; social media; truthfulness Handle: RePEc:cog:poango:v10:y:2022:i:1:p:210-219 Template-Type: ReDIF-Article 1.0 Title: The Informational Consequences of Populism: Social Media News Use and “News Finds Me” Perception File-URL: https://www.cogitatiopress.com/politicsandgovernance/article/view/4772 File-Format: text/html DOI: 10.17645/pag.v10i1.4772 Journal: Politics and Governance Volume: 10 Year: 2022 Issue: 1 Pages: 197-209 Author-Name: Pablo González-González Author-Workplace-Name: Democracy Research Unit, University of Salamanca, Spain Author-Name: Hugo Marcos-Marné Author-Workplace-Name: Democracy Research Unit, University of Salamanca, Spain Author-Name: Iván Llamazares Author-Workplace-Name: Democracy Research Unit, University of Salamanca, Spain Author-Name: Homero Gil de Zúñiga Author-Workplace-Name: Democracy Research Unit, University of Salamanca, Spain / Department of Film Production and Media Studies, Pennsylvania State University, USA / Department of Communication, Universidad Diego Portales, Chile Abstract: Prior studies have theorized a positive association between people’s populist attitudes and an increased use of social media to consume news, which will be mainly driven by individuals’ engagement with news that reflects their people-centered, anti-elitist, and Manichean understanding of politics. However, such general connection remains elusive. This research seeks to further clarify this strand of the literature by incorporating people’s belief that important political information will find them without actively seeking news—"News Finds Me” perception (NFM). For that, we use online survey data from two European countries that differ regarding the ideological political supply side of populism (Italy and Portugal). The main results suggest that citizens who hold stronger populist attitudes will also develop stronger NFM. Furthermore, findings reveal a mediating effect of social media news use on the effects of populist attitudes over NFM. That is, those who hold stronger populist attitudes tend to use social media to get exposed to public affairs news more often, which in turn explains the development of the NFM. These results emphasize the importance of systematically exploring citizens populists’ attitudes within today’s social media, social networks, and complex information systems. Keywords: Europe; News Finds Me perception; news use; populism; social media Handle: RePEc:cog:poango:v10:y:2022:i:1:p:197-209 Template-Type: ReDIF-Article 1.0 Title: Pandemic Populism? How Covid-19 Triggered Populist Facebook User Comments in Germany and Austria File-URL: https://www.cogitatiopress.com/politicsandgovernance/article/view/4712 File-Format: text/html DOI: 10.17645/pag.v10i1.4712 Journal: Politics and Governance Volume: 10 Year: 2022 Issue: 1 Pages: 185-196 Author-Name: Daniel Thiele Author-Workplace-Name: Department of Political Science, University of Vienna, Austria Abstract: Covid-19 and the government measures taken to combat the pandemic have fueled populist protests in Germany and Austria. Social media played a key role in the emergence of these protests. This study argues that the topic of Covid-19 has triggered populist user comments on Facebook pages of German and Austrian mass media. Drawing on media psychology, this article theorizes populist comments as an expression of “reactance,” sparked by repeated “fear appeals” in posts about Covid-19. Several hypotheses are derived from this claim and tested on a dataset of N = 25,121 Facebook posts, posted between January 2020 and May 2021 on nine pages of German and Austrian mass media, and 1.4 million corresponding user comments. To measure content-based variables automatically, this study develops, validates, and applies dictionaries. The study finds that the topic of Covid-19 did trigger populist user comments and that this effect grew over time. Surprisingly, neither the stringency of government measures nor mentions of elitist actors were found to have the expected amplifying effect. The study discusses the findings against the background of governing the ongoing crisis and worrisome developments in the online public sphere. Keywords: Covid-19; fear appeals; populism; social media; user comments Handle: RePEc:cog:poango:v10:y:2022:i:1:p:185-196 Template-Type: ReDIF-Article 1.0 Title: All About Feelings? Emotional Appeals as Drivers of User Engagement With Facebook Posts File-URL: https://www.cogitatiopress.com/politicsandgovernance/article/view/4758 File-Format: text/html DOI: 10.17645/pag.v10i1.4758 Journal: Politics and Governance Volume: 10 Year: 2022 Issue: 1 Pages: 172-184 Author-Name: Anna Bil-Jaruzelska Author-Workplace-Name: Norwegian University of Science and Technology, Norway Author-Name: Cristina Monzer Author-Workplace-Name: Norwegian University of Science and Technology, Norway Abstract: Political campaigns routinely appeal to citizens’ emotions, and there is evidence that such appeals influence political behaviour. Social media, an important arena through which political actors communicate with voters, provide a rich source of data for investigating not only which communication strategies they use but also which of these engage followers. Building on political psychology and political communication literature, the present study investigates the relationship between appeals to specific emotions (fear, anger, enthusiasm, and pride) and the engagement that such posts generate on Facebook. We created an engagement index sensitive to the Facebook page follower count and employed multilevel modelling techniques. We conducted a manual content analysis of posts by British political parties and their leaders (N = 1,203) during the Brexit referendum debate on Facebook. We found that engagement with a post substantially increases when appeals to anger, enthusiasm, and pride are present. Conversely, there is no relationship between appeals to fear and engagement. Thus, the results indicate with observational data what we know about the effects of emotions from experimental research in political psychology. Emotions of the same valence (e.g., fear and anger) have a different relationship with user engagement and, by extension, political behaviour and participation online. This indicates that to fully understand the role of emotions in generating user engagement on Facebook, we must go beyond the positive and negative dichotomy and look at discrete emotions. Lastly, British political actors used Facebook communication to generate online political participation during the Brexit debate. Keywords: Brexit; emotional appeals; Facebook; manual content analysis; political communication strategies; user engagement Handle: RePEc:cog:poango:v10:y:2022:i:1:p:172-184 Template-Type: ReDIF-Article 1.0 Title: At the Digital Margins? A Theoretical Examination of Social Media Engagement Using Intersectional Feminism File-URL: https://www.cogitatiopress.com/politicsandgovernance/article/view/4801 File-Format: text/html DOI: 10.17645/pag.v10i1.4801 Journal: Politics and Governance Volume: 10 Year: 2022 Issue: 1 Pages: 161-171 Author-Name: Charlotte Galpin Author-Workplace-Name: Department of Political Science and International Studies, University of Birmingham, UK Abstract: This article applies an intersectional feminist lens to social media engagement with European politics. Disproportionately targeted at already marginalised people, the problem of online abuse/harassment has come to increasing public awareness. At the same time, movements such as #BlackLivesMatter and #MeToo have demonstrated the value of social media in facilitating global grassroots activism that challenges dominant structures of power. While the literature on social media engagement with European politics has offered important insights into the extent to which social media facilitates democratic participation, it has not to date sufficiently accounted for patterns of intersectional activism and online inequalities. Using Nancy Fraser’s feminist critique of Habermas’ public sphere theory and Kimberlé Crenshaw’s theory of intersectionality, this article explores patterns of gender and racial inequalities in the digital public space. By analysing both the role of racist and misogynistic online abuse targeted at women, nonbinary, agender, and gender-variant people in public life, as well as the opportunities for marginalised groups to mobilise transnationally through subaltern counter-publics, I argue that social media engagement is inextricably linked with offline inequalities. To fully understand the impact of social media on European democracy, we need to pay attention to gendered and racialised dynamics of power within the digital public sphere that have unequal consequences for democratic participation. This will involve expanding our methodological repertoire and employing tools underpinned by a critical feminist epistemology. Keywords: Brexit; digital activism; European public sphere; feminism; intersectionality; online harassment; online violence; populist radical right; social media; transphobia Handle: RePEc:cog:poango:v10:y:2022:i:1:p:161-171 Template-Type: ReDIF-Article 1.0 Title: Same Same but Different? Gender Politics and (Trans-)National Value Contestation in Europe on Twitter File-URL: https://www.cogitatiopress.com/politicsandgovernance/article/view/4751 File-Format: text/html DOI: 10.17645/pag.v10i1.4751 Journal: Politics and Governance Volume: 10 Year: 2022 Issue: 1 Pages: 146-160 Author-Name: Stefan Wallaschek Author-Workplace-Name: Interdisciplinary Centre for European Studies, Europa-Universität Flensburg, Germany Author-Name: Kavyanjali Kaushik Author-Workplace-Name: Department of Social Sciences, Universidad Carlos III de Madrid, Spain Author-Name: Monika Verbalyte Author-Workplace-Name: Interdisciplinary Centre for European Studies, Europa-Universität Flensburg, Germany Author-Name: Aleksandra Sojka Author-Workplace-Name: Department of Social Sciences, Universidad Carlos III de Madrid, Spain Author-Name: Giuliana Sorci Author-Workplace-Name: Faculty of Political and Social Sciences, Scuola Normale Superiore, Italy Author-Name: Hans-Jörg Trenz Author-Workplace-Name: Faculty of Political and Social Sciences, Scuola Normale Superiore, Italy Author-Name: Monika Eigmüller Author-Workplace-Name: Interdisciplinary Centre for European Studies, Europa-Universität Flensburg, Germany Abstract: The progress achieved in women’s rights and gender equality has become the target of a backlash driven by “anti-gender” activists and right-wing populists across EU member states. To a large extent, this conflict takes place in the digital and social media spheres, illustrating the new mediatized logic of value contestation. Therefore, we ask to what extent are the debates about gender equality on Twitter similar in three European countries, and how do users engage in these debates? We examine these questions by collecting Twitter data around the 2021 International Women’s Day in Germany, Italy, and Poland. First, we show that the debate remains nationally segmented and is predominantly supportive of gender equality. While citizens engage with the gender equality value online, they do so in a prevailingly acclamatory fashion. In contrast, political and societal actors show higher levels of engagement with the value and receive more interactions on Twitter. Our study highlights the relevance of national contexts to the analysis of (transnational) social media debates and the limited political engagement of citizens on Twitter across Europe. We also critically discuss the strengths and weaknesses of a cross-country social media comparison. Keywords: gender equality; Germany; international women’s day; Italy; Poland; Twitter; value conflicts Handle: RePEc:cog:poango:v10:y:2022:i:1:p:146-160 Template-Type: ReDIF-Article 1.0 Title: A Bird’s Eye View: Supranational EU Actors on Twitter File-URL: https://www.cogitatiopress.com/politicsandgovernance/article/view/4686 File-Format: text/html DOI: 10.17645/pag.v10i1.4686 Journal: Politics and Governance Volume: 10 Year: 2022 Issue: 1 Pages: 133-145 Author-Name: Sina Özdemir Author-Workplace-Name: Department of Sociology and Political Science, Norwegian University of Science and Technology, Norway Author-Name: Christian Rauh Author-Workplace-Name: Research Unit Global Governance, WZB Berlin Social Science Center, Germany Abstract: Given the politicization of European integration, effective public communication by the European Union (EU) has gained importance. Especially for rather detached supranational executives, social media platforms offer unique opportunities to communicate to and engage with European citizens. Yet, do supranational actors exploit this potential? This article provides a bird’s eye view by quantitatively describing almost one million tweets from 113 supranational EU accounts in the 2009–2021 period, focusing especially on the comprehensibility and publicity of supranational messages. We benchmark these characteristics against large samples of tweets from national executives, other regional organizations, and random Twitter users. We show that the volume of supranational Twitter has been increasing, that it relies strongly on the multimedia features of the platform, and outperforms communication from and engagement with other political executives on many dimensions. However, we also find a highly technocratic language in supranational messages, skewed user engagement metrics, and high levels of variation across institutional and individual actors and their messages. We discuss these findings in light of the legitimacy and public accountability challenges that supranational EU actors face and derive recommendations for future research on supranational social media messages. Keywords: European Union; political communication; politicization; social media; text analysis Handle: RePEc:cog:poango:v10:y:2022:i:1:p:133-145 Template-Type: ReDIF-Article 1.0 Title: Exploring Engagement With EU News on Facebook: The Influence of Content Characteristics File-URL: https://www.cogitatiopress.com/politicsandgovernance/article/view/4775 File-Format: text/html DOI: 10.17645/pag.v10i1.4775 Journal: Politics and Governance Volume: 10 Year: 2022 Issue: 1 Pages: 121-132 Author-Name: Tobias Heidenreich Author-Workplace-Name: WZB Berlin Social Science Center, Germany / Department of Communication, University of Vienna, Austria Author-Name: Olga Eisele Author-Workplace-Name: Department of Communication, University of Vienna, Austria Author-Name: Kohei Watanabe Author-Workplace-Name: Waseda Institute for Advanced Study, Japan Author-Name: Hajo G. Boomgaarden Author-Workplace-Name: Department of Communication, University of Vienna, Austria Abstract: The EU is diagnosed with a participation deficit, rooted in a lack of public communication. While news media are the primary source of information about EU politics, social media have become an important channel for political information. Importantly, social media platforms offer unique opportunities for citizens to engage with information about the EU. Such engagement is under-researched despite users’ responses offering valuable information about the potential effects of EU news on public engagement. Therefore, we systematically analyze social media users’ engagement with news about the EU. Drawing on the concepts of news values and shareworthiness, we investigate the proximity, conflictuality, negativity, and emotionality of EU news content posted on mainstream media Facebook accounts to explain the variation in reactions, shares, and number of comments. Using semi-supervised machine learning, we analyze articles from the largest newspapers in Austria for the period 2015–2019, along with Facebook users’ reactions to them. Results resonate only partly with prior literature, with negativity of EU news leading to more reactions and shares but fewer comments; emotionality, to fewer reactions and shares but more comments; and conflict mainly decreasing user engagement. Concerning proximity, a national angle leads to distinctly more engagement, whereas news about other EU member states and the EU as such do mostly not. Our study contributes to the discussion on how citizens engage with information on the EU and how to promote informed debate on social media through elites’ communication. Keywords: automated content analysis; computational methods; European Union; Facebook; news; social media; user engagement Handle: RePEc:cog:poango:v10:y:2022:i:1:p:121-132 Template-Type: ReDIF-Article 1.0 Title: The Polyphonic Sounds of Europe: Users’ Engagement With Parties’ European-Focused Facebook Posts File-URL: https://www.cogitatiopress.com/politicsandgovernance/article/view/4700 File-Format: text/html DOI: 10.17645/pag.v10i1.4700 Journal: Politics and Governance Volume: 10 Year: 2022 Issue: 1 Pages: 108-120 Author-Name: Márton Bene Author-Workplace-Name: Centre for Social Sciences, Hungary / Eötvös Loránd University, Hungary Author-Name: Melanie Magin Author-Workplace-Name: Norwegian University of Science and Technology, Norway Author-Name: Daniel Jackson Author-Workplace-Name: Bournemouth University, UK Author-Name: Darren Lilleker Author-Workplace-Name: Bournemouth University, UK Author-Name: Delia Balaban Author-Workplace-Name: Babeș-Bolyai University, Romania Author-Name: Paweł Baranowski Author-Workplace-Name: University of Wrocław, Poland Author-Name: Jörg Haßler Author-Workplace-Name: LMU Munich, Germany Author-Name: Simon Kruschinski Author-Workplace-Name: Johannes Gutenberg University of Mainz, Germany Author-Name: Uta Russmann Author-Workplace-Name: University of Innsbruck, Austria Abstract: It is an old concern in public and academic debates that people are not interested in European-level issues, and even European Parliamentary election campaigns, which are the main democratic tools of the European Union (EU) to involve ordinary people into political decision-making, are mostly about national-level political topics. Moreover, even when European issues emerge, the context of its discussion is often harmful to European integration and strengthens the perceived importance of domestic politics. In the age of social media, however, users’ content preferences may significantly affect the presence of different political levels in political campaigns, but these preferences are still largely uncovered in academic literature. To fill this gap, we investigate the direct and moderated effects of European-focused Facebook posts on user engagement drawing upon a content analysis dataset including 9,688 posts of 68 parties from 12 EU countries. In line with the well-known second-order election hypothesis (Reif & Schmitt, 1980) we hypothesize a negative direct main effect. However, we also assume that this effect is moderated by several content-, and party-level factors, and when people engage with European-level contents they do it with those ones that are posted by populist parties, focused on a few divisive hot topics, and are framed with a negative tone. Moreover, we expect cross-country differences. We find that on the whole, user engagement with national-level political content prevails over the European-level, but in some countries there are no remarkable differences in user engagement patterns of the two levels. While our findings mostly confirm the second-order election hypothesis, they also demonstrate that European politics can spread within social media platforms in a less divisive and negative way than we expected. European-focused posts do not perform better when they are posted by populist parties, focused selectively on the salient issues of immigration or environment, or framed in a negative way. Keywords: campaign; comparative research; destructive visibility; European politics; Facebook; political communication; second-order election; social media; user engagement Handle: RePEc:cog:poango:v10:y:2022:i:1:p:108-120 Template-Type: ReDIF-Article 1.0 Title: The Challenges of Reconstructing Citizen-Driven EU Contestation in the Digital Media Sphere File-URL: https://www.cogitatiopress.com/politicsandgovernance/article/view/4674 File-Format: text/html DOI: 10.17645/pag.v10i1.4674 Journal: Politics and Governance Volume: 10 Year: 2022 Issue: 1 Pages: 97-107 Author-Name: Helena Seibicke Author-Workplace-Name: ARENA Centre for European Studies, University of Oslo, Norway Author-Name: Asimina Michailidou Author-Workplace-Name: ARENA Centre for European Studies, University of Oslo, Norway Abstract: This article reflects on the discursive representation, legal, and practical challenges of locating, classifying, and publishing citizens’ views of the EU in digital media discourse. We start with the discursive representation challenge of locating and identifying citizens’ voices in social and news media discourse. The second set of challenges pertains to the legal, regulatory framework guiding research ethics on personal data but also cuts across the academic debate on what constitutes “public” discourse in the digital public sphere. The third set of challenges are practical but of no less consequence. Here we bring in the issue of marketisation of the public sphere and of the digital commons, and how these processes affect the ethics but also the feasibility and reliability of digital public sphere analysis. Thereby we illustrate that barriers to content analysis can make data collection practically challenging, feeding dilemmas with data reliability and research ethics. These methodological and empirical challenges are illustrated and unpacked with examples from the Benchmark project, which analysed the extent to which citizens drive EU contestation on social and digital news media. Our study focuses on UK public discourse on a possible European Economic Area solution, and the reactions such discourse may have triggered in two EU-associated countries, Norway and Switzerland, in the post-Brexit referendum period 2016–2019. We thus take a broad European perspective of EU contestation that is not strictly confined within the EU public sphere(s). The case study illustrates the research process and the emerging empirical challenges and concludes with reflections and practical suggestions for future research projects. Keywords: citizen participation; digital content; EU contestation; methods; research ethics; social media Handle: RePEc:cog:poango:v10:y:2022:i:1:p:97-107 Template-Type: ReDIF-Article 1.0 Title: Analyzing Citizen Engagement With European Politics on Social Media File-URL: https://www.cogitatiopress.com/politicsandgovernance/article/view/5233 File-Format: text/html DOI: 10.17645/pag.v10i1.5233 Journal: Politics and Governance Volume: 10 Year: 2022 Issue: 1 Pages: 90-96 Author-Name: Pieter de Wilde Author-Workplace-Name: Department of Sociology and Political Science, Norwegian University of Science and Technology, Norway Author-Name: Astrid Rasch Author-Workplace-Name: Department of Language and Literature, Norwegian University of Science and Technology, Norway Author-Name: Michael Bossetta Author-Workplace-Name: Department of Communication and Media, Lund University, Sweden Abstract: Contributions in this thematic issue focus explicitly on citizens and their online engagement with European politics. For social media research in the European Union, citizens remain an understudied actor type in comparison with political elites or news organizations. The reason, we argue, is four key challenges facing social media research in the European Union: legal, ethical, technical, and cultural. To introduce this thematic issue, we outline these four challenges and illustrate how they relate to each contribution. Given that these challenges are unlikely to dissipate, we stress the need for open dialogue about them. A key part of that involves contextualizing research findings within the constraints in which they are produced. Despite these challenges, the contributions showcase that a theoretical and empirical focus on citizens’ social media activity can illuminate key insights into vitally important topics for contemporary Europe. These include civic participation, institutional communication, media consumption, gender inequality, and populism. Keywords: computational methods; European Union; Facebook; gender; news engagement; populism; social media; Twitter Handle: RePEc:cog:poango:v10:y:2022:i:1:p:90-96 Template-Type: ReDIF-Article 1.0 Title: Understanding the EU’s Response to LGBTI Rights Violations: Inter-Institutional Differences and Social Sanctions File-URL: https://www.cogitatiopress.com/politicsandgovernance/article/view/4774 File-Format: text/html DOI: 10.17645/pag.v10i1.4774 Journal: Politics and Governance Volume: 10 Year: 2022 Issue: 1 Pages: 79-89 Author-Name: Johanne Døhlie Saltnes Author-Workplace-Name: ARENA Centre for European Studies, University of Oslo, Norway Author-Name: Martijn Mos Author-Workplace-Name: Institute of Political Science, Leiden University, The Netherlands Abstract: This article aims to enrich the literature on EU sanctions in two ways. First, it argues that the absence of material sanctions does not imply a non-response. When faced with human rights violations, policymakers enjoy a third option besides exerting material pressure or refraining from intervening. They may instead employ what constructivist scholars call social sanctions. This option consists of verbally calling out the violators, either publicly, through a naming-and-shaming strategy, or diplomatically via political dialogue and demarches. Social sanctions can be a credible alternative or complement to material sanctions. Second, we argue for the importance of disaggregating the EU as a sender of sanctions. A non-response by executive institutions does not mean that the EU as a whole is standing idly by. Looking at social sanctions alongside material ones more accurately describes the choices policymakers face when designing their response to human rights violations. We demonstrate the value of our arguments by examining the EU’s various responses to LGBTI rights violations in Lithuania and Uganda. Keywords: EU; LGBTI; Lithuania; norm violations; sanctions; sexuality; Uganda Handle: RePEc:cog:poango:v10:y:2022:i:1:p:79-89 Template-Type: ReDIF-Article 1.0 Title: A Post-Development Perspective on the EU’s Generalized Scheme of Preferences File-URL: https://www.cogitatiopress.com/politicsandgovernance/article/view/4693 File-Format: text/html DOI: 10.17645/pag.v10i1.4693 Journal: Politics and Governance Volume: 10 Year: 2022 Issue: 1 Pages: 68-78 Author-Name: Jan Orbie Author-Workplace-Name: Department of Political Science, Ghent University, Belgium Author-Name: Antonio Salvador M. Alcazar III Author-Workplace-Name: Doctoral School of Political Science, Public Policy, and International Relations, Central European University, Austria Author-Name: Tinus Sioen Author-Workplace-Name: Department of Political Science, Ghent University, Belgium Abstract: Trade policy is generally considered to be a key leverage in the pursuit of labor norms, environmental standards, and human rights. This is even more so for the European Union (EU), which exerts an extensive market power and exclusive competences in trade while lacking a full-fledged foreign policy. In recent years, there has been a growing demand for making sustainable development provisions “enforceable” and for more frequently applying trade sanctions. Taking a post-development perspective, we interrogate the EU’s enforceability discourse around the trade–sustainability nexus. We focus specifically on the conditionality behind the Generalized Scheme of Preferences (GSP). The EU GSP regime bears the “carrot” (reduced tariffs), the “stick” (preferential tariff withdrawals), and increasingly intrusive “monitoring” mechanisms. Drawing on the post-development literature, we problematize the discourses that fundamentally enframe the EU GSP conditionality regime: development through trade, performance of power, and epistemic violence. Empirically, we analyze these frames by looking at public-facing texts produced by policy elites in the EU as well as in Cambodia and the Philippines during the two most recent GSP reform cycles since 2014. We argue that the dominant discursive acts of policy elites in the EU and the two target countries congeal into a global presupposition that there is no alternative to the EU GSP regime, thereby effacing counterhegemonic perspectives and stripping emancipatory notions such as “dialogue” and “partnership” of their radical potential. This formulation demands a genuine commitment to researching with the very people the EU is intent on regulating, reforming, and rescuing to unsettle taken-for-granted views about EU trade sanctions. Keywords: Cambodia; conditionality; development; European Union; Generalized Scheme of Preferences; Philippines; post-development; sanctions; trade Handle: RePEc:cog:poango:v10:y:2022:i:1:p:68-78 Template-Type: ReDIF-Article 1.0 Title: Sanctioning Capacity in Trade and Sustainability Chapters in EU Trade Agreements: The EU–Korea Case File-URL: https://www.cogitatiopress.com/politicsandgovernance/article/view/4782 File-Format: text/html DOI: 10.17645/pag.v10i1.4782 Journal: Politics and Governance Volume: 10 Year: 2022 Issue: 1 Pages: 58-67 Author-Name: María J. García Author-Workplace-Name: Department of Politics, Languages and International Studies, University of Bath, UK Abstract: Although sanctions targeting political regimes receive the most media attention, the EU can also sanction states for labour rights violations through its trade policy. Although in practice such sanctions are applied only in extreme cases, the possibility of suspending trade preferences increases the EU’s leverage. In modern trade agreements, the EU incorporates Trade and Sustainable Development (TSD) chapters for labour and environmental matters. However, trade sanctions for non-compliance with this chapter are absent. Instead, a dedicated dispute settlement arrangement exists, leading to recommendations by a panel of experts. In 2019 the EU launched proceedings against South Korea for failing to uphold commitments to ratify and implement International Labour Organisation core conventions regarding trade unions under the 2011 EU–Korea Trade Agreement. In 2021, the panel of experts sided with the EU’s interpretation of commitments under the TSD chapter. This initial case represents the EU’s intention to focus on the implementation of TSD chapters. Using data from official documents, this article process-traces the dispute with Korea. It argues that the outcome of the case, and Korea’s ratification of fundamental International Labour Organisation conventions in 2021, demonstrate the potential of the TSD chapter, when forcefully enforced, to partially redress the weak sanctioning capacity in TSD chapters. It also uncovers important caveats regarding state capacity and alignment with government objectives as conditioning the effectiveness of TSD chapters’ non-legally binding sanctioning mechanisms. Keywords: dispute mechanism; EU; FTA; Korea; labour standards; panel of experts; sanctions; trade and sustainability Handle: RePEc:cog:poango:v10:y:2022:i:1:p:58-67 Template-Type: ReDIF-Article 1.0 Title: The Political Economy of the EU Approach to the Rohingya Crisis in Myanmar File-URL: https://www.cogitatiopress.com/politicsandgovernance/article/view/4678 File-Format: text/html DOI: 10.17645/pag.v10i1.4678 Journal: Politics and Governance Volume: 10 Year: 2022 Issue: 1 Pages: 47-57 Author-Name: Arlo Poletti Author-Workplace-Name: Department of Sociology and Social Research, University of Trento, Italy Author-Name: Daniela Sicurelli Author-Workplace-Name: Department of Sociology and Social Research, University of Trento, Italy Abstract: European institutions have repeatedly represented the EU as an actor that can use the attractiveness of its market to promote human rights internationally. From this perspective, EU trade sanctions represent a hard power tool to push the government of states accused of major human rights violations to abide by international law. In its reaction to the Rohingya crisis in 2018, despite the European Parliament’s call for the lifting of Myanmar’s trade preferences, the Council of the EU stated that it would rather tackle the problem by taking a “constructive approach” based on dialogue. We provide a political-economy explanation of this choice, making a plausible case that the political pressures from European importers and exporters, not to jeopardise trade relations with Myanmar, prevailed over the demands of European protectionist groups and NGOs advocating a tougher position. The firms interested in maintaining preferential trade relations with Myanmar were primarily motivated by a desire to avoid a disruption of trade and investment links within global value chains (GVCs) so that they could continue competing with Chinese enterprises. Keywords: European Union; generalised system of preferences; human rights; Myanmar; sanctions; trade Handle: RePEc:cog:poango:v10:y:2022:i:1:p:47-57 Template-Type: ReDIF-Article 1.0 Title: United in Diversity? A Study on the Implementation of Sanctions in the European Union File-URL: https://www.cogitatiopress.com/politicsandgovernance/article/view/4702 File-Format: text/html DOI: 10.17645/pag.v10i1.4702 Journal: Politics and Governance Volume: 10 Year: 2022 Issue: 1 Pages: 36-46 Author-Name: Francesco Giumelli Author-Workplace-Name: Department of International Relations and International Organization, University of Groningen, The Netherlands Author-Name: Willem Geelhoed Author-Workplace-Name: Department of Criminal Law and Criminology, University of Groningen, The Netherlands Author-Name: Max de Vries Author-Workplace-Name: Department of Transboundary Legal Studies, University of Groningen, The Netherlands Author-Name: Aurora Molesini Author-Workplace-Name: Department of Law, University of Bologna, Italy Abstract: The implementation of European Union (EU) policies has been investigated for several policy areas, but Decisions made under the Common Foreign and Security Policy (CFSP) have rarely been considered. While many CFSP measures are applicable throughout the EU without the need for further action on the domestic level, some Decisions must be implemented by Council Regulations. These Council Regulations adopted with the intent to implement CFSP Decisions have qualities of Directives, which delegate implementing tasks to member states and require transposition. The aim of this article is to investigate whether restrictive measures imposed by the EU are uniformly implemented across the member states, and, if not, to what extent implementation performance varies. We observe significant differences in implementation performance across member states. The findings of this article are twofold. First, we claim that implementation and compliance studies should involve CFSP decisions more systematically. Second, empirical confirmation is provided of how uneven transposition and application occurs also in CFSP matters. This study is based on empirical work that consisted of desk research and semi-structured interviews with national competent authorities of 21 EU member states taking place between March 2020 and January 2021. Keywords: CFSP; European Union; implementation; sanctions Handle: RePEc:cog:poango:v10:y:2022:i:1:p:36-46 Template-Type: ReDIF-Article 1.0 Title: The Design and Impacts of Individual Sanctions: Evidence From Elites in Côte d’Ivoire and Zimbabwe File-URL: https://www.cogitatiopress.com/politicsandgovernance/article/view/4745 File-Format: text/html DOI: 10.17645/pag.v10i1.4745 Journal: Politics and Governance Volume: 10 Year: 2022 Issue: 1 Pages: 26-35 Author-Name: Clara Portela Author-Workplace-Name: Faculty of Law, University of Valencia, Spain Author-Name: Thijs Van Laer Author-Workplace-Name: Independent researcher, Belgium Abstract: Since the 1990s, sanctions senders like the European Union, the United States, and the United Nations have been imposing visa bans and asset freezes on individuals as a key element of their sanctions packages. Notwithstanding the growing centrality that individual sanctions have acquired in international sanctions practice, little is known about the impact of sanctions listings on designees. Some researchers have scrutinised targeting choices, while others have explored the effects of sanctions on designees. However, no study has yet examined the fit between targeting choices and impacts on designees. First, we interrogate the theory of targeted sanctions to identify the expectations that it generates. Second, we examine the effects on designees and contrast them with the targeting logic of the sender, in a bid to ascertain their fit. Our analysis of the cases of Côte d’Ivoire (2010–2011) and Zimbabwe (2002–2017) benefits from original interview material. Keywords: Côte d’Ivoire; European Union; impact of sanctions; targeted sanctions; United Nations; Zimbabwe Handle: RePEc:cog:poango:v10:y:2022:i:1:p:26-35 Template-Type: ReDIF-Article 1.0 Title: Does the EU Have Moral Authority? A Communicative Action Perspective on Sanctions File-URL: https://www.cogitatiopress.com/politicsandgovernance/article/view/4680 File-Format: text/html DOI: 10.17645/pag.v10i1.4680 Journal: Politics and Governance Volume: 10 Year: 2022 Issue: 1 Pages: 16-25 Author-Name: Giselle Bosse Author-Workplace-Name: Department of Political Science, Maastricht University, The Netherlands Abstract: The European Union (EU) states in its 2016 Global Strategy that it intends to be a “responsible global stakeholder” and to “act worldwide to address the core causes of war and poverty, as well as to promote the indivisibility and universality of human rights” (European Union Global Strategy, 2016, pp. 5–8, 18). However, the Global Strategy is silent on the credentials or prerequisites that give the EU the authority to act globally and address conflicts and violations of human rights, including through the use of sanctions against non-EU states. How far the EU has the authority to use sanctions, which are essentially coercive measures, is especially relevant when the EU resorts to unilateral sanctions based on obligations owed erga omnes, namely measures without explicit United Nations Security Council authorisation and based on obligations owed to the international community as a whole. Drawing on Habermas’s theory of communicative action, this article introduces an analytical framework—the “moral dimension” of EU authority—which maps the substantive and procedural standards to guide the assessment of whether the EU has the appropriate credentials to qualify as an authority with the right to intervene forcibly into the internal affairs of non-EU states. The analytical value of the framework is examined empirically in the case study of the EU’s restrictive measures (sanctions) imposed in response to state violence against anti-government protests in Uzbekistan in 2005. Keywords: deliberative legitimacy; European Union; foreign policy; Habermas; sanctions; theory of communicative action Handle: RePEc:cog:poango:v10:y:2022:i:1:p:16-25 Template-Type: ReDIF-Article 1.0 Title: Diplomatic Realisation of the EU’s “Geoeconomic Pivot”: Sanctions, Trade, and Development Policy Reform File-URL: https://www.cogitatiopress.com/politicsandgovernance/article/view/4739 File-Format: text/html DOI: 10.17645/pag.v10i1.4739 Journal: Politics and Governance Volume: 10 Year: 2022 Issue: 1 Pages: 5-15 Author-Name: Kim B. Olsen Author-Workplace-Name: Alfred von Oppenheim Center for European Policy Studies, German Council on Foreign Relations, Germany Abstract: At a time when policymakers of the European Union (EU) are pivoting towards a more assertive use of economic power in external relations, this article discusses the merits of situating the much-debated use of economic sanctions and other economic power-based instruments in the broader terminology of EU diplomatic capabilities. Pointing out a number of shortcomings in traditional literature on geoeconomics and economic statecraft, the article applies the concept of “geoeconomic diplomacy” to demonstrate how the EU’s geoeconomic success will heavily depend on the abilities of diplomats and civil servants from institutions and member states to engage in viable relationships with relevant public and private actors in the state-market realm. Based hereon, it identifies institutional and context-specific challenges that could affect the comprehensive realisation of recent EU policy reforms relevant to the geoeconomic agenda: (a) institutional measures to ensure a more robust enforcement of sanctions, (b) a new anti-coercion instrument to counter coercive trade practices by third countries, and (c) a more efficient, focused, and strategic utilisation of EU development funds for purposes of stability and peace. The article concludes by discussing the prospects for bringing such instruments closer together at the level of practical implementation through the establishment of stronger relationships between practitioners working across the EU’s various geoeconomic intervention areas. Keywords: anti-coercion; development policy; economic statecraft; European Union; geoeconomic diplomacy; sanctions; stabilisation Handle: RePEc:cog:poango:v10:y:2022:i:1:p:5-15 Template-Type: ReDIF-Article 1.0 Title: Beyond Foreign Policy? EU Sanctions at the Intersection of Development, Trade, and CFSP File-URL: https://www.cogitatiopress.com/politicsandgovernance/article/view/5118 File-Format: text/html DOI: 10.17645/pag.v10i1.5118 Journal: Politics and Governance Volume: 10 Year: 2022 Issue: 1 Pages: 1-4 Author-Name: Katharina L. Meissner Author-Workplace-Name: Centre for European Integration Research (EIF), University of Vienna, Austria Author-Name: Clara Portela Author-Workplace-Name: Faculty of Law, University of Valencia, Spain Abstract: In the wake of unsettling conflicts and democratic backsliding, states and organisations increasingly respond with sanctions. The European Union (EU) is one of them: Brussels makes use of the entire toolbox in its foreign policy, and its sanctions appear in different forms—diplomatic measures, travel bans, financial bans, or various forms of economic restrictions. Yet, there is little debate between different strands in the literature on EU sanctions, in particular concerning measures under the Common Foreign and Security Policy and those pertaining to the development and trade policy fields. Our thematic issue addresses this research gap by assembling a collection of articles investigating the design, impact, and implementation of EU sanctions used in different realms of its external affairs. Expanding the definition of EU sanctions to measures produced under different guises in the development, trade, and foreign policy fields, the collection overcomes the compartmentalised approach characterising EU scholarship. Keywords: Common Foreign and Security Policy; conditionality; development cooperation; European Union; restrictive measures; sanctions; trade Handle: RePEc:cog:poango:v10:y:2022:i:1:p:1-4