Voters of populist parties tend to be dissatisfied with democracy. Some scholars attribute this dissatisfaction with how our democracies function to poor representation by mainstream parties and a feeling of not being heard. We should see this representation improve with the success of populist parties. This improved representation should, in turn, have a positive impact on populist party voters’ satisfaction with democracy (SWD). Existing case studies have only looked at the link between formal populist party representation in parliament or government, and populist party voters’ SWD, with mixed findings, the most puzzling of which is that populist party voters may even become less satisfied with growing formal representation. There is no comparative study on populist parties’ actual responsiveness to populist party voters and the connection to their SWD. Thus, we ask: How well do populist parties represent populist party voters, and how does this populist party responsiveness influence populist party voters’ satisfaction with democracy? We define populist party responsiveness as issue-based agenda-responsiveness between populist party voters and populist parties and investigate the link to SWD using data on 21 countries from the 2019 European Election Studies. We find that populist parties in Europe are not generally more responsive to populist party voters than mainstream parties. Populist parties’ agenda-responsiveness has a positive effect on populist voters’ SWD while being in government does not increase the positive effect of populist party responsiveness on their voters’ SWD. They may be disenchanted by how well their parties can eventually “walk the talk.”
Keywords: agenda‐responsiveness; democracy; European Election Studies; European Union; issue congruence; populist parties; populist party voters; representation; satisfaction with democracy Handle: RePEc:cog:poango:v12:y:2024:a:8420 Template-Type: ReDIF-Article 1.0 Title: From Parliament to Party: The Gender‐Sensitive Parliamentary Group File-URL: https://www.cogitatiopress.com/politicsandgovernance/article/view/8107 File-Format: text/html DOI: 10.17645/pag.8107 Journal: Politics and Governance Volume: 12 Year: 2024 Number: 8107 Author-Name: Petra Ahrens Author-Workplace-Name: Faculty of Social Sciences, Tampere University, Finland Author-Name: Petra Meier Author-Workplace-Name: Department of Political Science, Universiteit Antwerpen, Belgium Abstract: Gender-sensitive parliaments are an emergent international norm. Research primarily focused on parliaments as gendered workplaces functioning with formal and informal rules and routines that either constrain or promote gender equality. We shift the focus to parliamentary groups and parties in public office as key actors in achieving a gender-sensitive parliament. We argue that they play a crucial role in many parliamentary systems and can actively contribute to gender-sensitive transformations. Building on the gender-sensitive parliament literature, we first explore the potential of parliamentary groups to improve parliamentary functioning across four aspects: representation, policy-making, engagement with societal interests, and groups as gender-sensitive workplaces. Secondly, we delve into the broader parliamentary and party contexts, recognizing how factors such as the diversity of parliamentary systems, organizational structures, parties in central office, and political dynamics shape parliamentary groups’ room for manoeuvre. We conclude by calling for further empirical, but especially conceptual, research to develop intersectionality-sensitive parliaments which we suggest are crucial for dismantling existing power hierarchies based on social markers. Keywords: gender equality; gender‐sensitive parliaments; intersectionality; parliamentary faction; parliamentary group; party in public office Handle: RePEc:cog:poango:v12:y:2024:a:8107 Template-Type: ReDIF-Article 1.0 Title: Methodological Reflections on Studying Gender‐Sensitive Parliaments Cross‐Nationally: A “Most Significant Change” Approach File-URL: https://www.cogitatiopress.com/politicsandgovernance/article/view/8117 File-Format: text/html DOI: 10.17645/pag.8117 Journal: Politics and Governance Volume: 12 Year: 2024 Number: 8117 Author-Name: Petra Ahrens Author-Workplace-Name: Faculty of Social Sciences, Tampere University, Finland Author-Name: Silvia Erzeel Author-Workplace-Name: Department of Political Sciences, Vrije Universiteit Brussel, Belgium Author-Name: Merel Fieremans Author-Workplace-Name: Department of Political Sciences, Vrije Universiteit Brussel, Belgium Abstract: Whilst cross-national comparative analyses provide distinct opportunities for the study of gender-sensitive parliaments, the inherent challenge in conducting comparisons necessitates a continued search for innovative methods. This article responds to this need by proposing the “most significant change” (MSC) approach (Davies & Dart, 2005), which centres on collecting and analysing “stories of significant change.” Drawing on our own application of MSC in an international study commissioned by INTER PARES, we show that MSC’s bottom-up, inductive, and participatory approach proved valuable in uncovering hitherto unknown instances of gender-sensitive changes across countries, illuminating the broader impact of such changes beyond parliaments and incorporating practitioners’ perspectives. The flexibility of MSC also enabled context-specific applications, which we illustrate through three examples from Cyprus, Germany, and Trinidad & Tobago. By offering a complementary approach to compare parliaments’ gender sensitivity across countries, our study provides a novel perspective for future comparative analyses in the field. Keywords: comparative politics; gender equality; gender‐sensitive parliaments; parliaments; research methods Handle: RePEc:cog:poango:v12:y:2024:a:8117 Template-Type: ReDIF-Article 1.0 Title: Gender Equality Reforms in Parliaments File-URL: https://www.cogitatiopress.com/politicsandgovernance/article/view/8954 File-Format: text/html DOI: 10.17645/pag.8954 Journal: Politics and Governance Volume: 12 Year: 2024 Number: 8954 Author-Name: Petra Ahrens Author-Workplace-Name: Faculty of Social Sciences, Tampere University, Finland Author-Name: Sonia Palmieri Author-Workplace-Name: Department of Pacific Affairs, Australian National University, Australia Abstract: Gender equality reforms implemented across various parliaments around the world have diversified. Introducing the thematic issue Gender Equality Reforms in Parliaments, we trace the context of making parliamentary institutions more gender-sensitive. We highlight both international organizations’ top-down efforts and grassroots movements’ bottom-up approaches and emphasize the complexities of descriptive, substantive, and symbolic representation. We argue that next to the broader setting, feminist institutionalism provided a critical lens to examine these relationships while acknowledging the need for gender-sensitive parliaments that prioritize gender equality. We illuminate contributions from both the Global South and North and pay particular attention to “extraordinary cases” as well as methodological, theoretical, and conceptual innovations, highlighting the challenges and opportunities in institutionalizing gender equality in diverse political contexts. Keywords: critical actors; gender equality; gender‐sensitive parliaments; governments; parliaments; policy reform; political parties; political representation; procedural reform Handle: RePEc:cog:poango:v12:y:2024:a:8954 Template-Type: ReDIF-Article 1.0 Title: Authoritarian Demand in East‐Central Europe Post‐Pandemic and Amid Neighbouring War File-URL: https://www.cogitatiopress.com/politicsandgovernance/article/view/8594 File-Format: text/html DOI: 10.17645/pag.8594 Journal: Politics and Governance Volume: 12 Year: 2024 Number: 8594 Author-Name: Mihai Alexandrescu Author-Workplace-Name: Faculty of History and Philosophy, Babeș‐Bolyai University, Romania Author-Name: Mihnea S. Stoica Author-Workplace-Name: Faculty of Political, Administrative and Communication Sciences, Babeș‐Bolyai University, Romania Abstract: Recent years have witnessed a noticeable democratic decline worldwide, revealing a tendency of voters to elect leaders with authoritarian tendencies. In East-Central European countries, authoritarian attitudes reached unprecedented heights since their accession to the EU. Existing academic literature highlights key drivers of support for authoritarianism in this region of the continent, including anti-elite sentiments, political anxiety, economic threat, and perceived injustice. However, there is little scientific evidence related to the strength of these variables in a post-pandemic context and amid a neighbouring war. Drawing on original public opinion data collected in Poland, Hungary, and Romania, the current study identifies the main driving forces behind public demand for authoritarianism in these countries. The article develops a comparative perspective and thus contributes to a nuanced comprehension of the resurgence of authoritarianism in this part of the world. Keywords: authoritarianism; East‐Central Europe; political compass; populism; war Handle: RePEc:cog:poango:v12:y:2024:a:8594 Template-Type: ReDIF-Article 1.0 Title: The New EU Industrial Policy: Opening Up New Frontiers for Financial Capital File-URL: https://www.cogitatiopress.com/politicsandgovernance/article/view/8192 File-Format: text/html DOI: 10.17645/pag.8192 Journal: Politics and Governance Volume: 12 Year: 2024 Number: 8192 Author-Name: Angela Wigger Author-Workplace-Name: Institute for Management Research, Radboud University, The Netherlands Abstract: The EU has implemented a whole array of industrial policy programmes over the past decade to bolster the competitiveness of selected knowledge-intensive industries and to induce a digital and green transition. Responding to shifting competitive challenges in global capitalism, and the adoption of industrial strategies by other major economies, the new EU industrial policy seeks to onshore manufacturing capacity in sectors of geoeconomic importance, and simultaneously reduce dependencies on global value chains. Drawing on a historical materialist perspective, this article historizes and contextualises the financing strategies adopted within EU industrial policy. Faced with tight budgetary constraints, and deficit spending not being an option at the EU level, unlocking private investment takes centre stage, such as by tapping into capital markets or using member state aid or EU structural funds as a precursor, as well as by incentivising private investments through risk-absorbing financial instruments that rely on the EU budgetary resources. As will be shown, the EU has been experimenting with such risk-absorbing financial gimmicks for industrial policy purposes since the 1990s; yet, their usage has reached unprecedented levels with the heightened geoeconomic tensions since the 2008 and Covid-19 crises. The article demonstrates moreover that organised factions within financial and industrial capital have actively advocated for public safeguards, and that their deployment thus is not merely a functionalist response to shifting power dynamics or a desperate last resort in the absence of a supranational fiscal policy. Keywords: capitalism; European Union; finance; financial capital; industrial policy; risk Handle: RePEc:cog:poango:v12:y:2024:a:8192 Template-Type: ReDIF-Article 1.0 Title: Passing the Sexual Violence Crime Law in Indonesia: Reflection of a Gender-Sensitive Parliament? File-URL: https://www.cogitatiopress.com/politicsandgovernance/article/view/8245 File-Format: text/html DOI: 10.17645/pag.8245 Journal: Politics and Governance Volume: 12 Year: 2024 Number: 8245 Author-Name: Wahidah Zein Br Siregar Author-Workplace-Name: Department of International Relations, UIN Sunan Ampel Surabaya, Indonesia Author-Name: Ella Syafputri Prihatini Author-Workplace-Name: Department of Political Science, Universitas Muhammadiyah Jakarta, Indonesia Abstract: After a decade of deliberation, the draft sexual violence eradication bill was finally passed by the Indonesian parliament on 12 April 2022, enacted as the Sexual Violence Crime Law (Undang-Undang Tindak Pidana Kekerasan Seksual). The draft, which was first initiated by the National Commission on Violence Against Women (Komnas Perempuan) and later adopted as a parliamentary initiative, sparked controversy both inside and outside parliament. This article aims to describe the law-making process and identify the critical actors and acts as well as institutional responses that led to the passing of the law. It considers whether the experience can be interpreted as a reflection of a gender-sensitive parliament. Using a qualitative research approach, we identified critical actors and various responses from the parliament as an institution in responding to the dynamics of resistance and encouragement for the draft law to be passed. Our research material consists of interviews, news articles, and official document data. We found that critical actors and actions are key in the law-making process along with strong political will and collaboration between lawmakers, government representatives, civil society organizations, and the media, but the passage of this legislation alone does not fulfill the full requirement of a gender-sensitive parliament. Keywords: sexual violence; Indonesia; gender-sensitive parliament; critical actors; women’s movement; civil society organizations Handle: RePEc:cog:poango:v12:y:2024:a:8245 Template-Type: ReDIF-Article 1.0 Title: Critical Actors and the Challenges in Mainstreaming Gender in Taiwan’s Parliament File-URL: https://www.cogitatiopress.com/politicsandgovernance/article/view/8242 File-Format: text/html DOI: 10.17645/pag.8242 Journal: Politics and Governance Volume: 12 Year: 2024 Number: 8242 Author-Name: Chang-Ling Huang Author-Workplace-Name: Department of Political Science, National Taiwan University, Taiwan Abstract: Taiwan is currently Asia’s leader in gender equality on three indicators: Its national legislature comprises 42 percent women, the largest proportion among all Asian countries; it was the first Asian country to legalize same-sex marriage; and it has a popularly elected woman president not from a politically established family. Despite these advances, efforts to make Taiwan’s parliament gender-sensitive has encountered constraints. While new institutions were created to make the parliament a more gender-friendly workplace, little progress was made regarding gender mainstreaming in the legislative process. This article points out that parliamentary parties are missing actors in gender mainstreaming. The article concludes that unless all constitutional branches practice it, gender mainstreaming as a state strategy to promote gender equality remains challenging. Keywords: gender; gender mainstreaming; gender‐sensitive parliament; parliamentary groups; women’s movement Handle: RePEc:cog:poango:v12:y:2024:a:8242 Template-Type: ReDIF-Article 1.0 Title: Industrial Alliances for the Energy Transition: Harnessing Business Power in the Era of Geoeconomics File-URL: https://www.cogitatiopress.com/politicsandgovernance/article/view/8221 File-Format: text/html DOI: 10.17645/pag.8221 Journal: Politics and Governance Volume: 12 Year: 2024 Number: 8221 Author-Name: Riccardo Bosticco Author-Workplace-Name: European Policy Centre, Brussels Author-Name: Anna Herranz‐Surrallés Author-Workplace-Name: Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences, Maastricht University, The Netherlands Abstract: In a context of rising geoeconomic competition, the EU is embracing stronger industrial interventionism to address societal challenges and reduce external dependencies in strategic sectors. Developing this type of strategic industrial policy requires close government–firm relations. This article investigates whether and how the EU succeeds in articulating public–private collaboration in the pursuit of strategic goals by examining the role of the recently launched EU Industrial Alliances in clean energy technologies. We build on a “governed interdependence” (GI) approach to assess whether the Alliances resemble the embedded public–private networks that are common in states deploying strategic industrial policy. Our findings, obtained through desk research, surveys, and qualitative interviews, offer a mixed picture. On the one hand, in line with GI, the Industrial Alliances provide a novel, institutionalised venue for public–private collaboration, led by geostrategic objectives and contributing to reducing information gaps and fostering policy coordination. On the other hand, Industrial Alliances adhere less well to a GI system in their composition and structure, and in their loose articulation of risk-socialisation mechanisms. Keywords: business power; clean energy technology; geoeconomics; industrial alliances; industrial policy Handle: RePEc:cog:poango:v12:y:2024:a:8221 Template-Type: ReDIF-Article 1.0 Title: Anything but Representative Democracy: Explaining Conspiracy Believers’ Support for Direct Democracy and Technocracy File-URL: https://www.cogitatiopress.com/politicsandgovernance/article/view/8582 File-Format: text/html DOI: 10.17645/pag.8582 Journal: Politics and Governance Volume: 12 Year: 2024 Number: 8582 Author-Name: Anne Küppers Author-Workplace-Name: Department of Political Science, Friedrich Schiller University Jena, Germany Abstract: Conspiracy theories gained considerable attention during the Covid-19 pandemic. Although studies have extensively explored their (mostly) negative impacts on various political and social aspects, like participation, health-related behavior, and violence, their influence on support for democracy remains relatively unexplored. The few existing studies offer conflicting findings, prompting my focus to shift from assessing generic support for democracy to examining preferences for alternative decision-making models. To address some limitations of prior research on alternative models of decision-making, I combine a trade-off item with a ranking methodology: respondents were prompted to indicate their first and second preferences for different democratic and non-democratic models over representative democracy. The study is based on data from a representative survey in Germany (July/August 2022; N = 2,536). My findings confirm that the belief in conspiracy theories is positively associated with a preference for direct democratic decision-making. However, conspiracy believers also favor expert-based decision-making over elected politicians—but direct democracy would be their primary choice. Although the evidence for a preference for autocracy over representative democracy is associated with a higher degree of uncertainty, it does suggest that conspiracy believers tend to favor “anything but” representative democracy. These findings contribute to the broader discourse on the impact of conspiracy beliefs on democratic systems. Keywords: conspiracy belief; conspiracy theories; direct democracy; representative democracy; technocracy Handle: RePEc:cog:poango:v12:y:2024:a:8582 Template-Type: ReDIF-Article 1.0 Title: Gender, Intraparty Competition, and the Substantive Focus of Parliamentary Questions in South Africa File-URL: https://www.cogitatiopress.com/politicsandgovernance/article/view/8326 File-Format: text/html DOI: 10.17645/pag.8326 Journal: Politics and Governance Volume: 12 Year: 2024 Number: 8326 Author-Name: Ana Espírito-Santo Author-Workplace-Name: Department of Political Science and Public Policies, Iscte—Instituto Universitário de Lisboa, Portugal / CIES, Iscte–Instituto Universitário de Lisboa, Portugal Author-Name: Edalina Rodrigues Sanches Author-Workplace-Name: Instituto de Ciências Sociais (ICS), Universidade de Lisboa, Portugal Author-Name: Yani Kartalis Author-Workplace-Name: CEI, Iscte–Instituto Universitário de Lisboa, Portugal / Copenhagen Center for Social Data Science (SODAS), University of Copenhagen, Denmark Abstract: Extant research suggests that women ask more parliamentary questions (PQs) on soft policy domains while their male peers focus on hard domains, which are arguably more relevant. This study contributes to this body of research by examining how electoral incentives shape intraparty politics, and specifically the substantive focus of PQs. It argues that women’s focus on soft policy domains is not constant, with variations found in situations where intraparty competition is high. Female MPs will have fewer incentives to focus on soft policy domains if they are electorally vulnerable and as elections draw closer. The mechanism is clear: Women face strong bias in parliament, which means they need to work harder to stand on an equal footing with their male counterparts. As a result, rather than shying away from competition, they will try to maximize their career prospects by shifting their attention to (hard) policy domains that are considered more important to both parties and voters. These claims are tested in the case of South Africa, drawing upon a novel dataset of PQs from 2006 to 2023. South Africa is an interesting case study as it is one of the most feminized parliaments in Africa and has strong electoral incentives for intraparty competition. The findings confirm most theoretical expectations and clarify the electoral and gender-related predispositions that drive the substantive focus of questions. Keywords: election proximity; gender; parliamentary questions; South Africa; vulnerability Handle: RePEc:cog:poango:v12:y:2024:a:8326 Template-Type: ReDIF-Article 1.0 Title: Parliament as a Workplace: Dilemmas of Vernacularisation and Professionalisation File-URL: https://www.cogitatiopress.com/politicsandgovernance/article/view/8196 File-Format: text/html DOI: 10.17645/pag.8196 Journal: Politics and Governance Volume: 12 Year: 2024 Number: 8196 Author-Name: Mouli Banerjee Author-Workplace-Name: Department of Politics and International Studies, University of Warwick, UK Author-Name: Shirin M. Rai Author-Workplace-Name: Department of Politics and International Studies, SOAS University of London, UK Abstract:In this article, we engage with recent calls to research parliaments as gendered workplaces, which build on earlier international discursive turn and institutional reform initiatives towards gender-sensitive parliaments. Our engagement explores this workplace framing and how well it translates across pluralised, global parliamentary paradigms. We develop our arguments with a special focus on the Indian parliament as a gendered institution. Viewing the parliament as a gendered workplace through an intersectional lens, we show how gender dynamics and institutional configurations of power are embedded in class, race, and caste inequalities but can shift over time through reflexive challenges. We organise our discussion through two approaches to studying parliaments as workplaces—vernacular and professional—to argue that paying attention to these approaches critically can contribute to sensitising the workplace debate to a more capacious, theoretically nuanced reading of parliaments as more gender-sensitive, gender-inclusive, and gender-responsive representative institutions. In outlining the case for paying attention to the vernacular critically, we ask whether such an understanding can help to effectively bridge local and global understandings of parliaments as workplaces and institutionalise them. In studying professionalisation, we examine the paradox that professionalisation could lead to the depoliticisation of parliaments, which might affect the nature of gender-sensitivity that is being institutionalised. This analysis thus brings together institutional, postcolonial, and intersectional strands of work to think anew about gender-equal political practices in representative bodies.
Keywords: gender; Indian parliament; intersectional; parliaments; professional; vernacular; workplace Handle: RePEc:cog:poango:v12:y:2024:a:8196 Template-Type: ReDIF-Article 1.0 Title: US Critical Mineral Policies and Alliance Strategies in an Age of Geopolitical Rivalry File-URL: https://www.cogitatiopress.com/politicsandgovernance/article/view/8186 File-Format: text/html DOI: 10.17645/pag.8186 Journal: Politics and Governance Volume: 12 Year: 2024 Number: 8186 Author-Name: Anastasia Ufimtseva Author-Workplace-Name: Beedie School of Business, Simon Fraser University, Canada Author-Name: Jing Li Author-Workplace-Name: Beedie School of Business, Simon Fraser University, Canada Author-Name: Daniel M. Shapiro Author-Workplace-Name: Beedie School of Business, Simon Fraser University, Canada Abstract: We examine the geoeconomic strategies of the US regarding critical minerals through the lens of geopolitical rivalry with China. Chinese companies, mostly state-owned enterprises, play a prominent role in the extraction and processing of minerals critical to the energy transition. Drawing on the balance of power theory, we argue that the US, the incumbent hegemon, can employ both domestic policies and alliance-building strategies to counterbalance China’s dominance in critical mineral sectors. Empirically, we first assess the nature of US domestic policies with respect to promoting domestic critical mineral production and restricting foreign investment in the extractive sectors through investment screening measures, and then assess the degree to which the US has relied on Five Eyes alliance partners to achieve common strategic goals. We find evidence that the US uses a multifaceted geoeconomic approach involving domestic policies and alliance strategies to counterbalance China’s dominant position in critical mineral supply chains. Keywords: China–US rivalry; critical minerals; Five Eyes; geoeconomics; state‐owned enterprises Handle: RePEc:cog:poango:v12:y:2024:a:8186 Template-Type: ReDIF-Article 1.0 Title: A Chip War Made in Germany? US Techno‐Dependencies, China Chokepoints, and the German Semiconductor Industry File-URL: https://www.cogitatiopress.com/politicsandgovernance/article/view/8265 File-Format: text/html DOI: 10.17645/pag.8265 Journal: Politics and Governance Volume: 12 Year: 2024 Number: 8265 Author-Name: Julian Germann Author-Workplace-Name: Department of International Relations, University of Sussex, UK Author-Name: Steve Rolf Author-Workplace-Name: Business School, University of Sussex, UK Author-Name: Joseph Baines Author-Workplace-Name: Department of European and International Studies, King’s College London, UK Author-Name: Sean Kenji Starrs Author-Workplace-Name: Department of International Development, King’s College London, UK Abstract:As geo-economic and geopolitical rivalries intensify, the US is weaponizing its power in global semiconductor supply chains to restrict Chinese technological development. To win this chip war against China, the US must compel key foreign firms in Asia and Europe not to supply its adversary with the materials, tools, and know-how needed to make advanced semiconductors. But will these firms agree to follow the US chip embargo and avoid the lucrative Chinese market? This article examines Germany’s “China chokepoint” firms, whose identity and behavior remain critically understudied. Drawing on novel data sets and annual company reports, we show that German firms across three case studies are highly “techno-dependent” on the US. Despite this techno-dependence, German firms have so far sought to circumnavigate US export controls. This constitutes a puzzle because Germany’s semiconductor firms are no more involved in the Chinese market than are firms in Japan and South Korea—which have frequently signaled voluntary compliance or even withdrawn from China in anticipation of harsher US sanctions. To resolve this puzzle, we map out Germany’s semiconductor network and demonstrate that it is tightly articulated with Germany’s auto industry—which is in turn heavily exposed to Chinese markets. We propose that this secondary exposure, through firms’ embeddedness in Germany’s “national production regime,” encourages them to resist the US chip embargo. In this way, we contribute empirical and conceptual insights to international political economy scholarship on firms as geo-economic actors, actively engaged in a protracted and contentious policy process with US authorities.
Keywords: China; geopolitics; Germany; international political economy; sanctions; semiconductors; supply‐chain analysis; techno‐dependency; weaponized interdependence; United States Handle: RePEc:cog:poango:v12:y:2024:a:8265 Template-Type: ReDIF-Article 1.0 Title: The Relationship Between Topics, Negativity, and User Engagement in Election Campaigns on Facebook File-URL: https://www.cogitatiopress.com/politicsandgovernance/article/view/8098 File-Format: text/html DOI: 10.17645/pag.8098 Journal: Politics and Governance Volume: 12 Year: 2024 Number: 8098 Author-Name: Delia Cristina Balaban Author-Workplace-Name: Department of Communication, Public Relations, and Advertising, Babeș‐Bolyai University, Romania Author-Name: Alena Macková Author-Workplace-Name: Faculty of Social Studies, Masaryk University, Czechia Author-Name: Krisztina Burai Author-Workplace-Name: Institute for Political Science, HUN‐REN Centre for Social Sciences, Hungary Author-Name: Tamara Grechanaya Author-Workplace-Name: Department of Social and Political Sciences, University of Milan, Italy Author-Name: Dren Gërguri Author-Workplace-Name: Department of Journalism, University of Prishtina “Hasan Prishtina,” Kosovo Abstract: Negativity is a common feature of current online political communication during elections. Previous studies on negativity and its impact on user engagement focused mainly on Western European countries. Considering the political particularities of the Central and Eastern European countries, the present study focused on Czechia, Hungary, Lithuania, the Republic of Moldova, and Romania, where national election campaigns took place from 2020 to 2022. We aimed to investigate comparatively different topics prevalent in the negative messages and look at users’ engagement with negative communication. We applied manual content analysis of N = 4,095 Facebook posts published four weeks before the elections by political parties elected in the national parliament. Results showed significant differences across countries using negative messages and the associated topics. The posts’ highest rate of negative statements was identified in Czechia (52%), while the lowest was in Lithuania (17%). There are topics consistently associated with negative statements across most countries, such as corruption, economy and finance, foreign policy, labor, and social issues. However, given that those elections took place during the Covid-19 pandemic in Czechia, Lithuania, Romania, and the Republic of Moldova and, in Hungary, after Russia invaded Ukraine, we also identified contextual topics such as health, war, and conflicts with other countries and defense that were mainly associated with negative messages. Furthermore, negative posts generate more reactions and comments than posts containing no negative statements. Addressing foreign policy in negative posts generates significantly more reactions and comments. Keywords: campaign topics; Central Europe; Eastern Europe; Facebook; national elections; negative campaign; user engagement Handle: RePEc:cog:poango:v12:y:2024:a:8098 Template-Type: ReDIF-Article 1.0 Title: Political Issues in Social Media Campaigns for National Elections: A Plea for Comparative Research File-URL: https://www.cogitatiopress.com/politicsandgovernance/article/view/8727 File-Format: text/html DOI: 10.17645/pag.8727 Journal: Politics and Governance Volume: 12 Year: 2024 Number: 8727 Author-Name: Márton Bene Author-Workplace-Name: Institute for Political Science, HUN‐REN Centre for Social Sciences, Hungary / Faculty of Law, Eötvös Loránd University, Hungary Author-Name: Melanie Magin Author-Workplace-Name: Department of Sociology and Political Science, Norwegian University of Science and Technology, Norway Author-Name: Jörg Haßler Author-Workplace-Name: Department of Media and Communication, LMU Munich, Germany Abstract: As ideological, class-based voting has waned, issue-based voting has become more prevalent. Political parties can sway election outcomes by promoting certain topics, particularly on social media, which has become pivotal to political communication. However, our understanding of political actors’ social media strategies remains limited. This thematic issue, based on the international research project Digital Election Campaigning Worldwide (DigiWorld), aims to broaden such understanding. Examining 14 countries across Western Europe, Eastern Europe, North America, Latin America, and Oceania, the 10 articles in this issue reveal diverse approaches to issue-based political communication on social media, emphasizing the significance of comparative research in this field. Keywords: comparative research; election campaigning; political issues; social media Handle: RePEc:cog:poango:v12:y:2024:a:8727 Template-Type: ReDIF-Article 1.0 Title: Tapestries of Topics: Factors Affecting the Issue Diversity of Political Parties’ Social Media Campaigns File-URL: https://www.cogitatiopress.com/politicsandgovernance/article/view/8207 File-Format: text/html DOI: 10.17645/pag.8207 Journal: Politics and Governance Volume: 12 Year: 2024 Number: 8207 Author-Name: Melanie Magin Author-Workplace-Name: Department of Sociology and Political Science, Norwegian University of Science and Technology, Norway Author-Name: Anders Olof Larsson Author-Workplace-Name: Department of Communication, Kristiania University College, Norway Author-Name: Eli Skogerbø Author-Workplace-Name: Department of Media and Communication, University of Oslo, Norway Author-Name: Hedvig Tønnesen Author-Workplace-Name: Department of Sociology and Political Science, Norwegian University of Science and Technology, Norway Abstract:For citizens to make well-informed decisions, they require information on diverse policy issues, which, among others, are publicized on political parties’ social media accounts. However, as strategic actors, parties carefully weigh which issues to highlight and which to play down, rather than addressing a full range of issues in their campaigns. We investigated the hitherto neglected question of which issue diversity parties prioritize on their social media accounts and which factors influence this choice. We conducted a standardized content analysis of the official Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter accounts of 10 Norwegian parties and their leaders during the 2021 national election campaign. The results of our analyses indicate that issue-related campaign strategies influence parties’ issue diversity more systematically than parties’ governing/opposition statuses and their choices of social media platforms.
Keywords: content analysis; election campaigning; issue diversity; issue ownership; Norway; platform comparison; riding the wave; social media Handle: RePEc:cog:poango:v12:y:2024:a:8207 Template-Type: ReDIF-Article 1.0 Title: A Consistent Picture? Issue‐Based Campaigning on Facebook During the 2021 German Federal Election Campaign File-URL: https://www.cogitatiopress.com/politicsandgovernance/article/view/8150 File-Format: text/html DOI: 10.17645/pag.8150 Journal: Politics and Governance Volume: 12 Year: 2024 Number: 8150 Author-Name: Jörg Haßler Author-Workplace-Name: Department of Media and Communication, LMU Munich, Germany Author-Name: Anna-Katharina Wurst Author-Workplace-Name: Department of Media and Communication, LMU Munich, Germany Author-Name: Katharina Pohl Author-Workplace-Name: Department of Media and Communication, LMU Munich, Germany Author-Name: Simon Kruschinski Author-Workplace-Name: Department of Communication, Johannes Gutenberg University Mainz, Germany Abstract: In times of declining party identification, political parties need to persuade and mobilize their voters from election to election. Setting topics in such a way that voters are convinced to cast their vote has become an essential prerequisite for success in modern election campaigns. Social media are suitable for this, as parties can set their own topics or highlight the topics most important to the voters and communicate them to a large audience in organic posts or target specific voter groups with ads. While tendencies of issue ownership in posts on Facebook are repeatedly shown empirically, there is a lack of studies investigating which strategies parties follow in their investment decisions on Facebook ads. Based on theoretical expectations derived from the literature about digital political marketing and issue prioritization in election campaigns, this article investigates whether parties communicated consistently on Facebook with regard to the issues they set in organic posts, sponsored posts, and ads during the 2021 German federal election campaign. The results of a manual quantitative content analysis (n = 1,029 posts, n = 1,197 sponsored posts, n = 2,643 ads) show that parties focused on issue ownership in their posts. Still, their investments in sponsored posts and ads followed different strategies. Here, most parties highlighted social policy, contradicting issue ownership for some parties. The article provides novel insights into digital campaigning and discusses the extent to which parties can engage audiences beyond their organic reach within party-affiliated audiences. Keywords: ads; content analysis; Facebook; issue ownership; issue salience; micro‐targeting; organic posts; riding‐the‐ wave; social media; sponsored posts Handle: RePEc:cog:poango:v12:y:2024:a:8150 Template-Type: ReDIF-Article 1.0 Title: Topic Diversity in Social Media Campaigning: A Study of the 2022 Australian Federal Election File-URL: https://www.cogitatiopress.com/politicsandgovernance/article/view/8155 File-Format: text/html DOI: 10.17645/pag.8155 Journal: Politics and Governance Volume: 12 Year: 2024 Number: 8155 Author-Name: Hannah Decker Author-Workplace-Name: Department of Human‐Centered Computing and Cognitive Science (HCCS), University of Duisburg‐Essen, Germany Author-Name: Daniel Angus Author-Workplace-Name: Digital Media Research Center, Queensland University of Technology, Brisbane, Australia Author-Name: Axel Bruns Author-Workplace-Name: Digital Media Research Center, Queensland University of Technology, Brisbane, Australia Author-Name: Ehsan Dehghan Author-Workplace-Name: Digital Media Research Center, Queensland University of Technology, Brisbane, Australia Author-Name: Phoebe Matich Author-Workplace-Name: Digital Media Research Center, Queensland University of Technology, Brisbane, Australia Author-Name: Jane Tan Author-Workplace-Name: Digital Media Research Center, Queensland University of Technology, Brisbane, Australia Author-Name: Laura Vodden Author-Workplace-Name: Digital Media Research Center, Queensland University of Technology, Brisbane, Australia Abstract: This study explores the diversity of topics in political campaign communication on social media during the 2022 Australian federal election. While political campaigns on social media are often associated with both persuasive and mobilising appeals, this research focuses on understanding the differences in persuasive content by comparing organic (non-targeted) and paid (targeted) political communication. Analysing the Australian context, which follows a Westminster system, with compulsory voting, we utilise data from the federal election 2022 to investigate how political actors employ persuasive communication strategies. Through topic modelling, we examine whether distinct themes vary in content and prevalence between organic and paid social media content disseminated by political parties and candidates. Our analysis revealed that the differences in topic diversity between paid and organic content do not seem to be substantial, despite popular concerns about higher personalisation due to advertising targeting which could lead to information fragmentation of the electorate. Both types of content predominantly focus on core political topics, aligning with party ideologies and include overall campaign information (e.g., on election procedures). However, government critique emerges as a distinct topic in both organic and paid content signalling the usage of negative campaigning to weaken opposing parties. In conclusion, this study suggests that the strategic manipulation of the electorate through social media during the Australian federal election in 2022 was limited. Nonetheless, the prevalence of negative appeals towards the government and opposing parties raises questions about the potential impact on citizens’ trust in democracy and institutions. Keywords: Australian federal election; persuasive communication; political advertising; social media campaigning; topic modelling Handle: RePEc:cog:poango:v12:y:2024:a:8155 Template-Type: ReDIF-Article 1.0 Title: Insiders and Outsiders: Feminists in the Academy Influencing Gender‐Sensitive Parliamentary Change File-URL: https://www.cogitatiopress.com/politicsandgovernance/article/view/8138 File-Format: text/html DOI: 10.17645/pag.8138 Journal: Politics and Governance Volume: 12 Year: 2024 Number: 8138 Author-Name: Natalie Barr Author-Workplace-Name: Global Institute for Women’s Leadership, Australian National University, Australia Author-Name: Maria Maley Author-Workplace-Name: School of Politics and International Relations, Australian National University, Australia Author-Name: Sonia Palmieri Author-Workplace-Name: Department of Pacific Affairs, Australian National University, Australia Abstract: While the idea of a gender-sensitive parliament is over 20 years old (Childs & Palmieri, 2023), institutional reforms in the name of gender equality have been slow to materialise around the world. Where change has occurred, it appears to have been catalysed by a limited range of—sometimes confluent—factors including the public airing of allegations of sexual misconduct in the #MeToo era, the increasing salience of gender-sensitive parliament international norms, and the role of feminists in the academy. Celis and Childs (2020) identify feminist academic critical actors as those who rather than simply researching parliamentary change, explicitly undertake institutional (re)design and (re)building work (see also Childs, 2024). In this article, we uncover the work undertaken by feminists in an Australian academic institution to support the 2021 independent inquiry of the Australian Human Rights Commission into Commonwealth parliamentary workplaces. This work—undertaken by the authors as both insiders and outsiders—informed the analysis and recommendations in the Australian Human Rights Commission’s report, and since its launch, has also kept pressure on the various bodies entrusted with implementing gender-sensitive changes. We argue that feminists in the academy are uniquely positioned to navigate insider and outsider roles in support of gender-sensitive parliamentary reform. Keywords: academia; critical actors; feminism; gender equality; #MeToo; parliamentary reform Handle: RePEc:cog:poango:v12:y:2024:a:8138 Template-Type: ReDIF-Article 1.0 Title: Latin American Involvement in the 21st Century Geoeconomic Turn: A Qualitative Comparative Analysis File-URL: https://www.cogitatiopress.com/politicsandgovernance/article/view/8041 File-Format: text/html DOI: 10.17645/pag.8041 Journal: Politics and Governance Volume: 12 Year: 2024 Number: 8041 Author-Name: Julieta Zelicovich Author-Workplace-Name: National Scientific and Technical Research Council (CONICET), Argentina / Faculty of Political Science and International Relations, National University of Rosario, Argentina Abstract: In the past decade, profound political and economic transformations have reshaped the landscape of globalization and challenged the conventional notions of the liberal international order. The traditional boundaries between the economy and security realms have become blurred, giving place to a geoeconomic turn illustrated by the high utilization of economic statecraft in international politics. While much scholarly attention has been devoted to understanding the geoeconomic strategies of global powers like the US and China, the agency and roles of emerging and developing countries, notably those in Latin America, have often been overlooked. This article addresses this gap by examining how Latin American nations engage in 21st-century geoeconomic dynamics. Using qualitative comparative analysis across 18 case studies, the study assesses the conditions and key characteristics of geoeconomic actions involving Latin American countries since 2017. The article presents a typology that sheds light on the mechanisms at play within economic statecraft in the region through six different situations: (a) local geopolitical-driven economic statecraft, (b) Latin American value-driven economic statecraft, (c) extra-regional sanctions, (d) economic inducement strategy, (e) coercive strategy for strategic assets and technologies, and (f) precautionary defensive economic statecraft. The contribution is twofold: On the one hand, the article casts light on the different facets Latin American countries have in the geo-economic trends; on the other hand, the analysis and classification of these situations help understand the links between economic and strategic policies. Keywords: economic policy; economic statecraft; geoeconomic turn; geoeconomics; Latin America; strategic policies Handle: RePEc:cog:poango:v12:y:2024:a:8041 Template-Type: ReDIF-Article 1.0 Title: What Are Crises for? The Effects on Users’ Engagement in the 2022 Italian Election File-URL: https://www.cogitatiopress.com/politicsandgovernance/article/view/8111 File-Format: text/html DOI: 10.17645/pag.8111 Journal: Politics and Governance Volume: 12 Year: 2024 Number: 8111 Author-Name: Andrea Ceron Author-Workplace-Name: Department of Social and Political Sciences, University of Milan, Italy Author-Name: Sara Berloto Author-Workplace-Name: Department of Social and Political Sciences, University of Milan, Italy Author-Name: Jessica Rosco Author-Workplace-Name: Department of Social and Political Sciences, University of Milan, Italy Abstract: Crises were highly relevant in the 2022 Italian general election. The label of “crisis” was associated with multiple policy issues, ranging from the environment and health to foreign policy. Previous studies have extensively discussed the impact of crises on voter behavior, demonstrating that voters are particularly concerned with parties’ valence attributes, such as the effectiveness of policies and leaders’ ability to resolve emergencies. However, limited attention has been paid to assessing how parties mobilize the crisis paradigm on social media. This study seeks to bridge this gap by analyzing the impact of crisis-related content on Facebook user engagement, with a special focus on distinguishing the relative effectiveness of populist versus mainstream parties in deploying such narratives. Moreover, this research explores how the intertwining of crisis narratives with portrayals of party responsibility or irresponsibility influences the virality of social media posts. To answer these questions, we manually coded 4,827 election campaign posts to create an original dataset. The evidence shows that crises have an impact on boosting user engagement, although this effect seems to be limited to populist parties. The results also suggest that irresponsible claims cease to be rewarding during a crisis. This study contributes to a deeper understanding of the strategic use of crisis narratives by political parties on digital platforms and underscores the complex interplay between crisis communication and public engagement in the contemporary political landscape. Keywords: crisis; populism; responsibility; social media; valence issue Handle: RePEc:cog:poango:v12:y:2024:a:8111 Template-Type: ReDIF-Article 1.0 Title: Beyond Rhetoric: The European Parliament as a Workplace for Parents and Current Reform Debates File-URL: https://www.cogitatiopress.com/politicsandgovernance/article/view/8078 File-Format: text/html DOI: 10.17645/pag.8078 Journal: Politics and Governance Volume: 12 Year: 2024 Number: 8078 Author-Name: Elena Frech Author-Workplace-Name: Institute for Political Science, Universität Bamberg, Germany Author-Name: Sophie Kopsch Author-Workplace-Name: Département des Sciences Politiques, Sociales et de la Communication, Université de Namur, Belgium Abstract: Doing justice to their families and the political mandate is especially difficult for MEPs. Parents struggle to balance family obligations and work, particularly when the children are young. They undertake extensive journeys between their home constituencies and Brussels or Strasbourg. This taxing routine is further compounded by prolonged working hours, often devoid of leisurely weekends. In combination with the absence of a comprehensive parental leave policy, these challenges disproportionately affect parents of young children, particularly mothers, influencing the diversity and representation within the European Parliament. This study critically examines the existing conditions that shape the working environment of MEPs who are parents. It explores recent endeavors to reform these conditions and the underlying obstacles that hinder the progress of these reformative initiatives. Referring to relevant documents, this study first outlines formal regulations governing parental rights in the European Parliament. We then address informal rules and recent reform proposals using insight from MEP interviews. This examination investigates how parent MEPs assess working conditions and balance competing demands. Despite expectations, the European Parliament falls short of being as family-friendly as anticipated. Nevertheless, recent times have witnessed increased attention to the topic and various reform proposals. The obstacles posed by diverse national legacies and variant conceptions of MEP mandates and statuses for reform are highlighted. Keywords: European Parliament; motherhood; parents; parliament as a workplace; reforms Handle: RePEc:cog:poango:v12:y:2024:a:8078 Template-Type: ReDIF-Article 1.0 Title: The Geoeconomic Turn in EU Trade and Investment Policy: Implications for Developing Countries File-URL: https://www.cogitatiopress.com/politicsandgovernance/article/view/8217 File-Format: text/html DOI: 10.17645/pag.8217 Journal: Politics and Governance Volume: 12 Year: 2024 Number: 8217 Author-Name: Clara Weinhardt Author-Workplace-Name: Department of Political Science, Maastricht University, The Netherlands Author-Name: Ferdi De Ville Author-Workplace-Name: Department of Political Science, Ghent University, Belgium Abstract: The so-called geoeconomic turn in global trade policy-making has changed the context in which the European Union positions itself as a trade actor. However, there is little scholarly attention paid to how the geoeconomic turn affects the EU’s relations with developing countries. This article analyses the potential implications of new EU autonomous trade and investment instruments for developing countries, and how the EU has taken these consequences into account when designing them. We rely on a combination of desk research of official documents, trade data, and secondary literature complemented with expert interviews. We find that a trade-off between geoeconomic and development objectives is more pertinent in sustainability-related than in competitiveness- and security-oriented instruments. In these sustainability instruments, differential treatment of developing countries rarely features in the design—despite some proposals having been made. The geoeconomic turn has thus made it more difficult to align the different objectives in the EU’s trade and investment policies, and development concerns are sometimes relegated to the background. Keywords: development; differential treatment; European Union; geoeconomics; investment; trade Handle: RePEc:cog:poango:v12:y:2024:a:8217 Template-Type: ReDIF-Article 1.0 Title: Patriotism and National Symbols in Russian and Ukrainian Elections File-URL: https://www.cogitatiopress.com/politicsandgovernance/article/view/7918 File-Format: text/html DOI: 10.17645/pag.7918 Journal: Politics and Governance Volume: 12 Year: 2024 Number: 7918 Author-Name: Tamara Grechanaya Author-Workplace-Name: Department of Social and Political Sciences, University of Milan, Italy Author-Name: Andrea Ceron Author-Workplace-Name: Department of Social and Political Sciences, University of Milan, Italy Abstract: How do political parties leverage patriotic appeals in their online campaigning within the context of autocracies and hybrid regimes? This study delves into the digital campaign strategies deployed by political parties during the most recent legislative elections in Russia (2021) and Ukraine (2019). In light of the armed conflict between Russia-backed separatists and Ukrainian forces in the eastern area of Ukraine, war-related themes and patriotic rhetoric emerged as pivotal concerns for politicians in both countries. The “rally around the flag” phenomenon posits that, in times of crisis, citizens often experience an intensified sense of national identity and patriotic fervor. Consequently, references to patriotism and related topics may evoke positive responses and prove instrumental for politicians during elections, serving to engage, mobilize, and attract voters. Drawing on a manual content analysis of the underlying communication strategies, we assessed whether parties’ reference to patriotic gestures and symbols or their attention to related policy topics (defense, war and military conflicts, and foreign policy and international relations) yielded an increased level of user engagement. Our findings reveal that references to patriotic symbols engendered increased user engagement within the Russian context, albeit without significantly affecting the engagement of Ukrainian voters. The latter tended to exhibit greater engagement with posts addressing defense and foreign policy matters though. Interestingly, Russian parties conspicuously avoided war-related topics, while Ukrainian voters displayed a propensity to penalize such content by generating fewer reactions to it. Keywords: legislative elections; national symbols; patriotism; political campaigning; Russia; Ukraine Handle: RePEc:cog:poango:v12:y:2024:a:7918 Template-Type: ReDIF-Article 1.0 Title: A “Maverick Salafi Political Jihadist” in a Turbulent Period: A Biographical Study of Dr Fauzi File-URL: https://www.cogitatiopress.com/politicsandgovernance/article/view/7984 File-Format: text/html DOI: 10.17645/pag.7984 Journal: Politics and Governance Volume: 12 Year: 2024 Number: 7984 Author-Name: Muhammad Najib Azca Author-Workplace-Name: Department of Sociology, Universitas Gadjah Mada, Indonesia Abstract:A biographical study through the lens of Mills’ sociological imagination and Erikson’s identity crisis provides a unique understanding of Dr Fauzi AR, a dedicated Islamist. Fauzi grew up in a devout Muslim family in Kauman, Yogyakarta, the heartland of the modernist Islamic organisation Muhammadiyah. He was educated in Muhammadiyah schools and eventually became a qualified medical doctor. He was politically active in the Islamic United Development Party and joined Laskar Jihad, a Salafi-Wahabi paramilitary group, during the inter-religious conflict in Maluku in 2000. This article argues that the political turbulence during the democratic transition in 1998–1999 led Fauzi to have an identity crisis, which spurred his desire to participate in jihad (holy war). Afterwards, Fauzi became a reformed “maverick post-jihadist,” in that he was unpredictable yet competent. He was unorthodox in his methods, remaining active in mainstream political Islam through the United Development Party while also engaging in physical jihad, which is contradictory because participation in partisan politics is forbidden by the Salafi doctrine. He also remained a heavy smoker although smoking is forbidden by Salafi religious decree. He further defied Salafism by supporting his wife in an unsuccessful bid for a seat in the national parliament as a member of the secular-nationalist party Gerindra in the 2009 election. This case study of Fauzi AR reflects the complex and multifaceted nature of political Islam and Islamic movements in the post-Soeharto era, including those who resorted to extremism and violence to achieve greater Islamisation of society.
Keywords: democratic transition; Indonesia; jihad; political Islam; Salafi Handle: RePEc:cog:poango:v12:y:2024:a:7984 Template-Type: ReDIF-Article 1.0 Title: Indonesian Heroes and Villains: National Identity, Politics, Law, and Security File-URL: https://www.cogitatiopress.com/politicsandgovernance/article/view/8383 File-Format: text/html DOI: 10.17645/pag.8383 Journal: Politics and Governance Volume: 12 Year: 2024 Number: 8383 Author-Name: Nathan Franklin Author-Workplace-Name: Faculty of Arts and Society, Charles Darwin University, Australia Author-Name: Hans Hägerdal Author-Workplace-Name: Faculty of Arts and Humanities, Linnaeus University, Sweden Abstract: This thematic issue of Politics and Governance offers a collection of unique articles that debate Indonesian “heroes” and “villains,” providing an understanding of the country’s past and present. The importance of Indonesia in the world is ever-increasing geopolitically and economically, offering rich material for academic studies. It is one of the few Muslim-majority democracies, with a long and complex history of people and institutions that have shaped its national identity, politics, government, law, and security, which we examine under the central theme of agents of change and integration. The articles cover local histories prior to independence in 1945 to the present day, the legacy of President Abdurrahman Wahid (1999–2001), biography of a prominent Muslim jihad (holy war) activist, women’s agency in terrorism, as well efforts to reform terrorists. Discussions on the problematic aspects of the Indonesian state ideology Pancasila and the downgrading of Indonesia’s Corruption Eradication Commission are also examined. Realpolitik is covered in the article concerning Indonesia’s maritime security and in the article discussing activists who died fighting for democratic freedoms, such as Indonesian poet-activist Wiji Thukul, who eventually saw the reform movement (reformasi) topple the Soeharto “New Order” regime (1966–1998), and usher in the democracy that Indonesia enjoys today. Keywords: agency; heroes; history; Indonesia; law; national identity; politics; security; villains Handle: RePEc:cog:poango:v12:y:2024:a:8383 Template-Type: ReDIF-Article 1.0 Title: Adverse Contagion? Populist Radical Right Parties and Norms on Gender Balance in Political Institutions File-URL: https://www.cogitatiopress.com/politicsandgovernance/article/view/8179 File-Format: text/html DOI: 10.17645/pag.8179 Journal: Politics and Governance Volume: 12 Year: 2024 Number: 8179 Author-Name: Josefina Erikson Author-Workplace-Name: Department of Government, Uppsala University, Sweden Author-Name: Cecilia Josefsson Author-Workplace-Name: Department of Government, Uppsala University, Sweden Abstract: How do male-dominated populist radical right (PRR) parties relate to and influence norms around women’s political inclusion and leadership in mainstream political parties? While research has focused on describing the male dominance of PRR parties or its influence on mainstream political parties’ policies, particularly immigration, we know less about how PRR parties relate to norms on women’s inclusion or gender-balanced representation in mainstream parties. In a theory-building effort, we posit that PRR parties may seek to (a) adapt to mainstream parties’ norms and include more women in leading positions (positive contagion) or (b) negatively affect or even challenge norms around women’s inclusion in mainstream parties (adverse contagion). Seeking to theorize this relationship further, we explore leadership selection in the Swedish Parliament, where gender balance constitutes a strong norm. Yet, following the 2022 elections, the proportion of women parliamentary leaders dipped below 30% for the first time in decades. At the same time, the Sweden Democrats, a male-dominated PRR party, emerged as the second-largest party in Parliament. Drawing on interviews with nomination committees, party documents, and data on leadership, we empirically investigate continuity and change in committee leadership appointments in the Swedish Parliament and the role of the radical right in this process. We do not find signs of adverse contagion in the short run: as of 2023, norms promoting gender balance appear to remain robust and enjoy widespread support among mainstream parties. Yet, neither do we find signs of positive contagion where the radical right adapts to mainstream norms around gender balance. Keywords: contagion; gender; political leadership; radical right; Swedish parliament Handle: RePEc:cog:poango:v12:y:2024:a:8179 Template-Type: ReDIF-Article 1.0 Title: The Power of Norms: Gender Equality Reforms in the Parliaments of Fiji and Samoa File-URL: https://www.cogitatiopress.com/politicsandgovernance/article/view/8091 File-Format: text/html DOI: 10.17645/pag.8091 Journal: Politics and Governance Volume: 12 Year: 2024 Number: 8091 Author-Name: Kerryn Baker Author-Workplace-Name: Department of Pacific Affairs, Australian National University, Australia Author-Name: Sonia Palmieri Author-Workplace-Name: Department of Pacific Affairs, Australian National University, Australia Abstract: Parliaments are increasingly defined as “gendered institutions,” with rules, norms, and practices that are often stubbornly resistant to gender equality initiatives. The gender sensitive parliaments’ global agenda has made substantial progress in both drawing attention to the gendered nature of parliaments and in spearheading gender equality reform. While a positive trend, there remains a significant disconnect between the (global) normative framework that sets out this agenda and the realization of gender equality in national (local) parliaments. In this article, we build on previous work that begins to unpack and test the process of global norm localization through “contextualization” and “contestation.” We select new sites to test these processes—Fiji and Samoa—where specific gender equality reforms have been implemented in the past 10 years, one a gender mainstreaming mandate for parliamentary committees and the other a parliamentary gender quota. The Pacific Islands region presents an important cultural context worthy of exploration: Parliaments are not only overwhelmingly male-dominated, but many are also derivative of hegemonic masculinist cultures evident in the Westminster tradition, albeit hybridized with local political traditions. We compare and contrast the process by which these reforms were developed and implemented in each country and examine the extent to which they can be considered effective mechanisms for addressing gender inequalities. We find that the extent to which these reforms are sustainable and transformative depends on local contexts, local actors, and locally derived solutions. Specifically, the culturally relevant process of contesting the gender quota in Samoa constitutionally, electorally, and through the courts has localised and thereby legitimised this globally endorsed reform. By contrast, gender mainstreaming in Fiji’s parliamentary committees has been little more than a “tick-a-box” exercise, having had limited engagement from the political elite under a relatively autocratic regime. Keywords: Fiji; gender equality reform; gender‐sensitive parliaments; localisation; Samoa Handle: RePEc:cog:poango:v12:y:2024:a:8091 Template-Type: ReDIF-Article 1.0 Title: Autocratic Genderwashing: Gender‐Equality Reforms in Serbia File-URL: https://www.cogitatiopress.com/politicsandgovernance/article/view/8204 File-Format: text/html DOI: 10.17645/pag.8204 Journal: Politics and Governance Volume: 12 Year: 2024 Number: 8204 Author-Name: Jelena Lončar Author-Workplace-Name: Faculty of Political Science, University of Belgrade, Serbia Abstract: While gender equality is usually linked with democracy, autocratic regimes frequently take the lead in such reforms. Focusing on the case of Serbia, this article demonstrates how gender equality reforms can be used as instruments of autocratic regimes. As electoral autocracies nowadays depend on international legitimation and support, they need to present a democratic image to the international audience. Very often they achieve this by introducing gender-sensitive policies and increasing the public visibility of women. This study shows that the democratic backsliding evidenced in Serbia since 2016 has been followed by increased attention to gender equality. In recent years, the Serbian parliament has increased the gender quota for national and local parliaments to 40% and passed several important pieces of legislation, including the Law on Prevention of Domestic Violence (2016) and the Gender Equality Law (2021). Additionally, the regime has appointed a record number of women to executive government positions. Since 2017, Serbia has had a lesbian woman serving as a prime minister and the government formed in 2020 was labelled a “women’s government,” with 40% of ministerial positions held by women. This article argues that the regime tends to adopt these democratic reforms while, at the same time, manipulating their meaning to advance a conservative agenda and bolster anti-gender mobilizations. These different—often contradictory—strategies help the regime address a variety of audiences—both international and domestic—and gain their recognition. Keywords: autocratic genderwashing; electoral autocracy; gender equality; instrumentalization of women’s rights; Serbia Handle: RePEc:cog:poango:v12:y:2024:a:8204 Template-Type: ReDIF-Article 1.0 Title: Divisive Issues, Polarization, and Users’ Reactions on Facebook: Comparing Campaigning in Latin America File-URL: https://www.cogitatiopress.com/politicsandgovernance/article/view/7957 File-Format: text/html DOI: 10.17645/pag.7957 Journal: Politics and Governance Volume: 12 Year: 2024 Number: 7957 Author-Name: Vicente Fenoll Author-Workplace-Name: Department of Language Theory and Communication Sciences, University of Valencia, Spain Author-Name: Isabella Gonçalves Author-Workplace-Name: Department of Communication, Johannes Gutenberg University Mainz, Germany Author-Name: Márton Bene Author-Workplace-Name: Institute for Political Science, HUN‐REN Centre for Social Sciences, Hungary / Faculty of Law, Eötvös Loránd University, Hungary Abstract: Economic, social, and health crises have shaken and polarized contemporary politics. An element fueling this polarization is the dissemination of divisive topics on social media platforms. While these polarizing social media tendencies are increasingly studied, research exploring digital political communication in South America remains scarce. This study aims to analyze the electoral campaigns in Brazil, Colombia, Chile, and Peru to define the features that trigger polarized emotional reactions on Facebook. The corpus comprises a sample of 2,930 posts published by candidates and political parties during the first round of the presidential elections held in these countries between 2021 and 2022. We hypothesize that users are more likely to react in a polarized way to content focused on divisive issues. In addition, we examine how these patterns differ across countries and the influence of the level of political polarization. Finally, the role played by party-level characteristics in the emotional reactions of users is also analyzed. By means of quantitative content analysis, these questions are addressed using multilevel negative binomial regressions to identify what predicts Love and Angry reactions. The bandwagon effect seems to work positively on users’ moods since the most popular political actors receive significantly more Love reactions, irrespective of the post’s subject. In more polarized countries, there is a tendency to react more negatively to certain divisive issues, generating greater visibility of these issues on social networks and thus promoting more polarization. These findings expand knowledge about the dynamics of digital political communication in the Global South. Keywords: electoral campaign; Facebook; Latin America; polarization; political communication; users’ reactions Handle: RePEc:cog:poango:v12:y:2024:a:7957 Template-Type: ReDIF-Article 1.0 Title: Evolution of Brazilian Democracy: Unveiling Election Dynamics in Political Issues, Negativity, and Acclaim File-URL: https://www.cogitatiopress.com/politicsandgovernance/article/view/8060 File-Format: text/html DOI: 10.17645/pag.8060 Journal: Politics and Governance Volume: 12 Year: 2024 Number: 8060 Author-Name: Isabella Gonçalves Author-Workplace-Name: Department of Communication, Johannes Gutenberg University Mainz, Germany Author-Name: Mathias-Felipe de-Lima-Santos Author-Workplace-Name: Faculty of Humanities, University of Amsterdam, The Netherlands / Department of Media, Communications, Creative Arts, Language, and Literature, Macquarie University, Australia / Digital Media and Society Observatory, Federal University of São Paulo, Brazil Author-Name: Vicente Fenoll Author-Workplace-Name: Department of Language Theory and Communication Sciences, University of Valencia, Spain Author-Name: Yossi David Author-Workplace-Name: Department of Communication Studies, Ben‐Gurion University of the Negev, Israel Abstract: In recent years, Brazil, as the world’s fourth-largest democracy, witnessed the dominance of polarized and symbolically charged electoral campaigns on social media, culminating in the election of a populist political figure in 2018 and his subsequent defeat in 2022. Extensive research has indicated that political campaigns often sidelined substantive policy proposals in favor of negative and divisive issues. However, a critical gap remains in the absence of temporal investigations contrasting the prevalence of negativity and acclaim campaigns on social media platforms during elections. This study addresses this gap by examining associations between political issues and negative and acclaim campaigns across two Brazilian electoral campaigns. Drawing upon a sample of messages posted on Twitter (n = 1,191) during the presidential elections of 2018 and 2022, our study reveals associations between substantive political issues, such as education and health, and acclaim campaign strategies, while the divisive issues of Covid-19 and corruption are associated with negative campaign strategies. Moreover, the results suggest that gender policy is related to both acclaim and negative messages since it is a polarizing issue in Brazilian politics. Our study also shows an increased negativity trend, with the 2022 presidential election campaign more likely to be negative than in 2018. By conducting a temporal analysis of Brazil’s political context, our study sheds light on the evolving dynamics of political communication in the age of social media, contributing substantially to the literature on negativity in political campaigns. Keywords: acclaim; Brazil; elections; negativity; presidential elections; political communication; social media Handle: RePEc:cog:poango:v12:y:2024:a:8060 Template-Type: ReDIF-Article 1.0 Title: Facebook Campaigning in the 2019 and 2021 Canadian Federal Elections File-URL: https://www.cogitatiopress.com/politicsandgovernance/article/view/8104 File-Format: text/html DOI: 10.17645/pag.8104 Journal: Politics and Governance Volume: 12 Year: 2024 Number: 8104 Author-Name: Shelley Boulianne Author-Workplace-Name: Weizenbaum Institute for the Networked Society, Germany Author-Name: Anders Olof Larsson Author-Workplace-Name: Department of Communication, Kristiania University College, Norway Abstract: Canada’s federal elections in 2019 and 2021 produced a similar outcome—a minority Liberal government. These back-to-back elections provide an ideal context to understand trends in digital campaigning strategies and assess how the pandemic influenced campaigns’ use of social media. We examine how the three leaders of the major parties used Facebook in 2019 (n = 712) compared to 2021 (n = 979). The Conservative leader O’Toole posted more frequently than other candidates in 2021, fitting with the equalization theory of digital campaigning. In 2019 and 2021, the incumbent prime minister, Trudeau, received the most user engagement on his Facebook posts despite calling a snap election during a pandemic and less than two years into his mandate. These findings support normalization theories of digital campaigning with evidence of an accumulating incumbent advantage. The Covid-19 pandemic sidelined attention to climate change. We argue that the Liberal government owned both issues; we expected Trudeau to have greater attention to and user engagement for these policy posts. In general, Facebook posts about the pandemic yielded greater user engagement than posts that did not mention the pandemic. Candidates tested new campaign strategies in 2021, particularly making calls to interact with them; these posts yielded higher user engagement than posts that did not include a call to interact. While candidates used new social media campaign strategies, voter turnout declined from 2019 to 2021. These findings have implications for other democratic systems and the future of digital campaigning. Keywords: Canada; climate change; election; Facebook; mobilization; pandemic; social media; user engagement Handle: RePEc:cog:poango:v12:y:2024:a:8104 Template-Type: ReDIF-Article 1.0 Title: Shocking Experience: How Politicians’ Issue Strategies Are Shaped by an External Shock During Campaigns File-URL: https://www.cogitatiopress.com/politicsandgovernance/article/view/8077 File-Format: text/html DOI: 10.17645/pag.8077 Journal: Politics and Governance Volume: 12 Year: 2024 Number: 8077 Author-Name: Xénia Farkas Author-Workplace-Name: Institute for Political Science, HUN‐REN Centre for Social Sciences, Hungary Author-Name: Krisztina Burai Author-Workplace-Name: Institute for Political Science, HUN‐REN Centre for Social Sciences, Hungary Author-Name: Márton Bene Author-Workplace-Name: Institute for Political Science, HUN‐REN Centre for Social Sciences, Hungary Abstract: In this article, we focus on how the issue strategies of political leaders are influenced by an external shock that completely changes the public agenda of the election campaign. The 2022 Hungarian parliamentary election campaign is a unique case to investigate this question, as Russia attacked Ukraine six weeks before the election day (April 3, 2022). The study aims to investigate whether the campaign’s issue strategies changed due to this shocking event, and if so, what are the main directions of the changes. The examination relies on a manual content analysis of Hungarian party leaders’ Facebook posts during the campaign, covering both the period before and after the outbreak of the war. First, based on the literature, we distinguish between different issue strategies such as issue ownership, issue stealing, “riding the wave,” and multi-issue and issue-poor strategies. We categorize political leaders’ issue strategies based on their issue focus before and after the external shock. Our results show that while war, economy, and foreign policy play a greater role in the communication of most political actors after February 24, there are remarkable differences between political actors. The communication of opposition party leaders seems to persist with their original issue strategies (issue-poor and multi-issue campaigns), while Viktor Orbán clearly changed his focus immediately after the invasion of Ukraine and ran a “riding the wave” campaign with a focus on war. Keywords: campaign; content analysis; external shock; Facebook; Hungary; issue strategies; riding the wave strategy; war Handle: RePEc:cog:poango:v12:y:2024:a:8077 Template-Type: ReDIF-Article 1.0 Title: From Villain to Hero: The Role of Disengaged Terrorists in Social Reintegration Initiatives File-URL: https://www.cogitatiopress.com/politicsandgovernance/article/view/7838 File-Format: text/html DOI: 10.17645/pag.7838 Journal: Politics and Governance Volume: 12 Year: 2024 Number: 7838 Author-Name: Haula Noor Author-Workplace-Name: Faculty of Islamic Studies, Universitas Islam Internasional Indonesia, Indonesia Abstract: Convicted terrorists released from prison often experience social stigma, exclusion, and difficulties reintegrating into society. Authorities have identified the utility of using formerly convicted and released terrorists or disengaged terrorists as an intermediary to help and support terrorist inmates as they go through social reintegration processes. This article explores their role as an intermediary who advocates for fair treatment and rights for their fellow ex-inmates, assisting families and helping them undergo the reintegration process. This research involved interviews with members of three foundations: Yayasan Persadani, Hubbul Wathon Indonesia 19, and DeBintal. By analysing the narrative of the participants, this study found that social reintegration efforts led by disengaged terrorists fostered a sense of social belonging and connectedness among ex-inmates. In addition, these foundations offer valuable assistance to terrorist inmates while ensuring community safety. They serve as a reliable support system during times of need and act as a communication bridge between them and the government. This framework positions these foundations as integral components in addressing concerns about the effectiveness of government-led integration initiatives. The approach adopted by these foundations has positive effects on preventing the re-engagement of released inmates with extremist networks. Despite the need to measure the effectiveness of these initiatives comprehensively, efforts made by these foundations provide potential for societal resilience against terrorism. Keywords: advocacy; disengaged terrorists; former terrorist inmates; Indonesia; social reintegration; terrorism Handle: RePEc:cog:poango:v12:y:2024:a:7838 Template-Type: ReDIF-Article 1.0 Title: Gender Sensitizing Parliaments: Reflections on Becoming a Feminist Academic Critical Actor File-URL: https://www.cogitatiopress.com/politicsandgovernance/article/view/8045 File-Format: text/html DOI: 10.17645/pag.8045 Journal: Politics and Governance Volume: 12 Year: 2024 Number: 8045 Author-Name: Sarah Childs Author-Workplace-Name: School of Social and Political Science, University of Edinburgh, UK Abstract: Informed by my secondment to the UK Parliament in 2015–2016, and the production and reception of The Good Parliament report—which offered a blueprint for a diversity-sensitive House of Commons—this article reflects on my experiences becoming a feminist academic critical actor. This new type of critical actor extends the conceptualization first developed by Childs and Krook (2006, 2008). A distinctiveness vis. Chappell and Mackay’s (2021) concept of the “feminist critical friend” is also drawn: In addition to researching institutional change and supporting others in their reform work, the feminist academic critical actor is essential to instigate and institute institutional change. In this, the feminist academic critical actor is engaged in quotidian persuasion work and is both the agent as well as the analyst of research, critically reflecting on the dynamics and actors of institutional status, change, and resistance, including their own acts, in situ and after. In making the case for the feminist academic critical actor, the academic is recognized as doing something different, begging important questions of responsibility and accountability, and the opportunities and costs of engaging in such acts, particularly for minoritized and/or precarious academics. In the latter part of the article, I sketch out some of the dilemmas located in the questioning of my authority and legitimacy, and concerning the harm that I faced as a relatively privileged aspirant feminist academic critical actor, acting to rework the highly masculinized institution that is the UK House of Commons. Keywords: critical actor; feminist academic critical actor; feminist institutionalism; gender‐sensitive parliaments; House of Commons Handle: RePEc:cog:poango:v12:y:2024:a:8045 Template-Type: ReDIF-Article 1.0 Title: The Conditionality of Political Short‐Termism: A Review of Empirical and Experimental Studies File-URL: https://www.cogitatiopress.com/politicsandgovernance/article/view/7764 File-Format: text/html DOI: 10.17645/pag.7764 Journal: Politics and Governance Volume: 12 Year: 2024 Number: 7764 Author-Name: Masakazu Ogami Author-Workplace-Name: Social Systems Division, National Institute for Environmental Studies, Japan Abstract: Political short-termism prioritizes short-term net policy benefits over long-term benefits and thus can hinder policy investments that impose short-term costs to society to address long-term policy challenges. This literature review explores when political short-termism can be driven and mitigated in a democratic system by reviewing empirical and experimental studies and identifying the various factors that can influence policy investments: elections, economic conditions, power-sharing arrangements, partisanship, the presence of compensation schemes, and media coverage among politicians; discounts of future policy benefits, policy trade-offs, political ideology, and socioeconomic and demographic factors among voters; and compliance costs, power-sharing arrangements, compensations, and long-term political signaling from governments among special interest groups. Finally, I discuss the findings and provide suggestions for future research. Keywords: democracy; electoral cycles; interest groups; long‐term policymaking; political short‐termism Handle: RePEc:cog:poango:v12:y:2024:a:7764 Template-Type: ReDIF-Article 1.0 Title: Considering Future Generations in Democratic Governance File-URL: https://www.cogitatiopress.com/politicsandgovernance/article/view/8397 File-Format: text/html DOI: 10.17645/pag.8397 Journal: Politics and Governance Volume: 12 Year: 2024 Number: 8397 Author-Name: Tomohiro Tasaki Author-Workplace-Name: Material Cycles and Social Systems Research Section, National Institute for Environmental Studies, Japan Author-Name: Yasuko Kameyama Author-Workplace-Name: Graduate School of Frontier Sciences, the University of Tokyo, Japan Abstract: Intergenerational issues encompass various future concerns ranging from climate change to government debt, which can potentially harm the well-being of future generations. Scholars have discussed intergenerational equity and justice, and efforts to incorporate future generations in decision-making in society have been growing, including establishing future-regarding institutions. Nevertheless, democratic governance often prioritizes short-term gains over long-term benefits. This thematic issue aims to present the current state of progress and academic discourse on incorporating considerations for future generations into current decision-making. The issue comprises 10 articles with a varied focus, including on young people and those who are yet to be born. Challenges such as misrepresentation and negligence in democratic deliberation are explored, along with legal obligations grounded in human rights. Proxies for future generations in political decision-making are examined, revealing limitations in enforcing their interests. The impact of political short-termism on government responses is discussed, and the role of narratives in moral philosophy is explored. Diverse cases, including climate litigation in the German Federal Constitutional Court, highlight the complexity of addressing future generations. These articles explore and identify challenges in incorporating consideration of future generations, which could be used to catalyze studies on actions that will be taken in the future. Keywords: future generations; future‐regarding institutions; governance; intergenerational equity; intergenerational justice; Pact for the Future; short‐termism Handle: RePEc:cog:poango:v12:y:2024:a:8397 Template-Type: ReDIF-Article 1.0 Title: The Pancasila Ideological Direction Bill (RUU‐HIP): A Missed Opportunity? File-URL: https://www.cogitatiopress.com/politicsandgovernance/article/view/7672 File-Format: text/html DOI: 10.17645/pag.7672 Journal: Politics and Governance Volume: 12 Year: 2024 Number: 7672 Author-Name: Adam James Fenton Author-Workplace-Name: Centre for Trust, Peace and Social Relations, Coventry University, UK Abstract: Indonesia faces a number of acute developmental challenges, hence, there is a need for evidence-based policies to address a range of socio-political issues. This article examines the rise and fall of an ill-fated bill introduced into parliament in 2020 (the “RUU-HIP”) which sought to reshape the nation’s understanding of the state philosophy, Pancasila, while promoting “policy based on national science and technology.” The article argues that Pancasila, which mandates “Belief in the One and Only God” as its first tenet, has a number of unintended and damaging consequences; it limits freedom of religion and thought; bolsters the position of powerful mainstream religious organisations; contributes to extremist, marginalising religious stances; and acts as a potent and pervasive barrier to innovation at all levels of social and political life. As a lens through which to view Indonesia’s national ideology, the article examines the RUU-HIP and takes account of the historical roots of the state ideology and the pivotal role of its main progenitor, Soekarno. It examines some of the deleterious effects of Pancasila outlined above and concludes that the first sila, along with a controversial Blasphemy Law, ought to be amended and repealed respectively, to allow for greater freedom of religion and thought. The article concludes that while amending Pancasila may, contrary to prevailing legal thought, be theoretically possible, in the current socio-political climate this would be unthinkable for most Indonesians. Keywords: blasphemy; constitutional law; freedom of religion; Indonesia; national ideology; Pancasila Handle: RePEc:cog:poango:v12:y:2024:a:7672 Template-Type: ReDIF-Article 1.0 Title: Annulment Actions and the V4: Taking Legislative Conflicts Before the CJEU File-URL: https://www.cogitatiopress.com/politicsandgovernance/article/view/7473 File-Format: text/html DOI: 10.17645/pag.7473 Journal: Politics and Governance Volume: 12 Year: 2024 Number: 7473 Author-Name: Marton Varju Author-Workplace-Name: Institute for Legal Studies, HUN‐REN Centre for Social Sciences, Hungary Author-Name: Veronika Czina Author-Workplace-Name: Institute of World Economics, HUN‐REN Centre for Economic and Regional Studies, Hungary Author-Name: Katalin Cseres Author-Workplace-Name: Amsterdam Centre for European Law and Governance, University of Amsterdam, The Netherlands Author-Name: Ernő Várnay Author-Workplace-Name: Institute for Legal Studies, HUN‐REN Centre for Social Sciences, Hungary Abstract: The EU member states have been using the action for annulment to challenge the legality of EU measures while pursuing a range of non-legal and essentially political motivations. This also holds for the V4 member states, which have also resorted to annulment actions to judicialize their legislative conflicts within the EU before the CJEU. Among the V4, Poland has been the most frequent litigant, using this institutional tool increasingly actively during the last 10 years. Poland’s behavior appears to confirm expectations of differentiation among this group of member states. It also coincides with a period of political change marked by deep legislative conflicts within the EU. The V4 annulment challenges against EU legislative measures usually made a genuine effort to achieve the legal objective of annulling the challenged legal act. However, there is evidence that they also pursued certain political motivations or a combination of them. These could include the securing of gains in domestic politics, avoiding the local costs of an EU policy misfit and/or promoting a preferred policy position, and/or influencing EU competence arrangements. In a few cases, the litigant member state aimed to avoid concrete material disadvantages. Securing a legal interpretation from the CJEU that would influence the behavior of other EU actors or clarify the law affecting the position of the applicant member state also motivated some of the V4 legal challenges. Keywords: action for annulment; CJEU; European Union; legislative conflict; political motives; V4 Handle: RePEc:cog:poango:v12:y:2024:a:7473 Template-Type: ReDIF-Article 1.0 Title: From New to Indispensable: How the 2004 Enlargement Reshaped the EU’s Transformative Powers File-URL: https://www.cogitatiopress.com/politicsandgovernance/article/view/7516 File-Format: text/html DOI: 10.17645/pag.7516 Journal: Politics and Governance Volume: 12 Year: 2024 Number: 7516 Author-Name: Matej Navrátil Author-Workplace-Name: Institute of European Studies and International Relations, Comenius University, Slovakia Author-Name: Marko Lovec Author-Workplace-Name: Center for International Relations, University of Ljubljana, Slovenia Abstract: This editorial introduces a thematic issue that examines the consequences of the accession of the Central and East European countries to the EU 20 years onward. The socioeconomic transformation of these countries in the pre-accession period was considered a remarkable success, that was attributed to the EU’s conditionality policy. However, in the post-accession period, when these countries gained full membership rights and began playing a more active political role, they started deviating from some EU norms and rules, against a backdrop of EU crises. This shift has been, notably, reflected in concerns about democratic backsliding and rule of law violations. Nonetheless, the contributions in this issue also underscore that these countries have internalized (both top-down and bottom-up) EU norms and rules to a much greater extent than the focus on conditionality would suggest. Moreover, since Russia invaded Ukraine, Central and East European countries have become entrepreneurs of EU policy and bolstered its transformative power. These findings indicate a need to focus not only on the fundamental shortcomings in these countries—as the attention conferred to the (lack of post-accession) conditionality suggests—but also to consider other factors, such as the quality of the EU’s governance and political system, policy learning, geopolitics, and member states’ domestic politics. Keywords: Central and East Europe; conditionality; Eastern enlargement; European Union; Europeanisation; transformative powers Handle: RePEc:cog:poango:v12:y:2024:a:7516 Template-Type: ReDIF-Article 1.0 Title: Climate Guardians: Navigating the Future in the 2021 German Climate Verdict and Constitutional Landscape File-URL: https://www.cogitatiopress.com/politicsandgovernance/article/view/7857 File-Format: text/html DOI: 10.17645/pag.7857 Journal: Politics and Governance Volume: 12 Year: 2024 Number: 7857 Author-Name: Manuela G. Hartwig Author-Workplace-Name: Earth System Division, National Institute for Environmental Studies, Japan Abstract: In the realm of intergenerational justice, green constitutionalism underscores the necessity for present generations to make choices that do not jeopardize the capacity of future generations to fulfill their needs independently. The climate verdict defending the rights of future generations by the German Federal Constitutional Court (Bundesverfassungsgericht) of March 2021 was a game changer in that regard. For the first time in Germany’s climate litigation, the fundamental rights of future generations were subject to constitutional claim and enforceable. They were no longer just a normative claim. Constitutional courts can be seen as defenders of the fundamental rights of future generations where constitutions include such normative perspectives. While the Court upheld the infringement of the fundamental rights of the adolescent plaintiffs in the future, the representation of not-yet-born generations remains unclear. This article examines how the 2021 German climate verdict and constitutional provisions address the representation and protection of the interests of future generations represented by the plaintiffs concerning climate change on the one hand and discusses the potential of protecting the fundamental rights of not-yet-born future generations. The article considers the implications for intergenerational justice and explores how these legal frameworks provided by the Constitution may contribute to the formulation of sustainable policies aimed at ensuring the long-term well-being of future generations. There is an urgent need to develop an institutional regime where the needs and rights of future generations are being considered and included in decision-making processes. Keywords: climate litigation; Federal Climate Protection Act; German Federal Constitutional Court; Germany; green constitutionalism; intergenerational justice; sustainable development Handle: RePEc:cog:poango:v12:y:2024:a:7857 Template-Type: ReDIF-Article 1.0 Title: Facing the Future: Conceiving Legal Obligations Towards Future Generations File-URL: https://www.cogitatiopress.com/politicsandgovernance/article/view/7839 File-Format: text/html DOI: 10.17645/pag.7839 Journal: Politics and Governance Volume: 12 Year: 2024 Number: 7839 Author-Name: Svenja Behrendt Author-Workplace-Name: Department of Public Law, Max Planck Institute for the Study of Crime, Security and Law, Germany Abstract: Conceiving legal obligations towards future generations is challenging—especially from a positivist stance and if obligations and claims are understood as being correlative in nature. Legal obligations towards future generations are often rejected from the outset if (and insofar as) there is no explicit acknowledgement or established doctrine. This neglects the power of sound legal interpretation. I argue that obligations towards future people and generations are grounded in the relational character of human rights and that their positivity is not a problem in a legal order containing norm texts that can reasonably be interpreted as acknowledging human rights; no additional enactment is necessary for these obligations to be part of the positive law. This claim is based on a (novel) concept of fundamental rights which is compatible with legal positivism. Keywords: constitutional law; future generations; human rights; intergenerational justice; legal positivism; legal theory Handle: RePEc:cog:poango:v12:y:2024:a:7839 Template-Type: ReDIF-Article 1.0 Title: “The Flower and the Wall”: Poet‐Activist Wiji Thukul and Progressive Martyrdom in Post‐Suharto Indonesia File-URL: https://www.cogitatiopress.com/politicsandgovernance/article/view/7768 File-Format: text/html DOI: 10.17645/pag.7768 Journal: Politics and Governance Volume: 12 Year: 2024 Number: 7768 Author-Name: Stephen L. Miller Author-Workplace-Name: Faculty of Arts and Society, Charles Darwin University, Australia Author-Name: Rifka A. O. Sibarani Author-Workplace-Name: Faculty of Arts and Society, Charles Darwin University, Australia Abstract:Since the fall of Major-General Suharto’s “New Order” regime, Indonesia has struggled to deal with its authoritarian legacy. This article argues that in the quarter of a century since his disappearance, the Indonesian poet-activist Wiji Thukul (1963–1998?) has become a martyr for the still unfulfilled progressive ideals of the Reformasi (reform) movement that helped to bring down that regime in 1998. Using the developing body of theory around “secular” or “political” martyrdom, this article examines the process by which this status has been achieved, situating its development alongside the emergence of the Refusing to Forget movement, as well as comparing and contrasting his fate with that of two other candidates for the label of Reformasi martyr: those of the labour activist Marsinah (1969–1993) and the human rights lawyer Munir Said Thalib (1965–2004). It argues that Thukul’s role as a martyr has been significant in maintaining progressive public discourse about the human rights abuses of the Suharto period, as well as the continuing illiberalism of the period since the end of the regime, and that Thukul remains relevant to efforts to stimulate and nurture the fragile democratisation project that was initiated in the late New Order period. In particular, the authors see Thukul’s brand of grassroots creative practice as playing a central role in his emergence as a progressive icon and in giving his life and work international significance.
Keywords: democratisation; human rights; Indonesia; Marsinah; Munir Said Thalib; Reformasi; secular martyrs; Suharto; Wiji Thukul Handle: RePEc:cog:poango:v12:y:2024:a:7768 Template-Type: ReDIF-Article 1.0 Title: Nurturing Hero or Villain: BAKAMLA as the Indonesian Coast Guard File-URL: https://www.cogitatiopress.com/politicsandgovernance/article/view/7806 File-Format: text/html DOI: 10.17645/pag.7806 Journal: Politics and Governance Volume: 12 Year: 2024 Number: 7806 Author-Name: Arie Afriansyah Author-Workplace-Name: Faculty of Law, University of Indonesia, Indonesia Author-Name: Christou Imanuel Author-Workplace-Name: Areté Advisor Firm, Indonesia Author-Name: Aristyo Rizka Darmawan Author-Workplace-Name: School of Regulation & Global Governance, Australian National University, Australia Abstract:Maritime security governance is crucial for Indonesia, the world’s largest archipelago spread across a vast water area about the size of the United States. The existence of several law enforcement institutions to uphold Indonesian laws made governance and authority fractured and weak. Consequently, BAKAMLA was established to improve Indonesian maritime security governance by synergising and monitoring law enforcement at sea. Despite being supported politically by Indonesian President Joko Widodo, institutionally, BAKAMLA remains underperforming. This article discusses whether the existence of BAKAMLA fulfils Indonesia’s political and security needs to have an integrated coast guard institution. The article considers relevant literature and the research phase employed in-depth interviews with stakeholders of Indonesia’s law enforcement officers at sea. This article concludes that BAKAMLA is still relevant if significant adjustments are made to institutional empowerment by revising and harmonising relevant laws. Such revision reflects the aspirations of political support and will from the Indonesian government to BAKAMLA.
Keywords: BAKAMLA; coast guard; Indonesia; law enforcement; maritime security; sea governance Handle: RePEc:cog:poango:v12:y:2024:a:7806 Template-Type: ReDIF-Article 1.0 Title: Indonesian Women and Terrorism: An Analysis of Historical and Contemporary Trends File-URL: https://www.cogitatiopress.com/politicsandgovernance/article/view/7724 File-Format: text/html DOI: 10.17645/pag.7724 Journal: Politics and Governance Volume: 12 Year: 2024 Number: 7724 Author-Name: Kate Macfarlane Author-Workplace-Name: Faculty of Arts and Society, Charles Darwin University, Australia Abstract: From 2016 to 2021, women attempted to or perpetrated suicide attacks in Indonesia. These attacks were committed by them as individuals or in family units, who were affiliated to the Islamic State. These incidents marked the first occurrence of suicide attacks carried out by women in Indonesia. Current scholarship and policy analysis of female terrorism attributed to the Islamic State or proxy groups is still catching up with the implications of trends emerging from women’s actions as suicide attackers in Indonesia and worldwide. Primarily, scholarly and policy analyses of female terrorism focus on the individual woman engaged in violence, whereas women who support terrorist groups—as ideologues, wives, and online activists—are given a secondary analytical focus. This creates conceptual limitations in understanding women’s pathways to violence, which can encompass violent and supportive roles within the social world in which they operate. Using Indonesia as a case study, this article advances a framework to account for the mobilisation of different identities to commit violence across personal and political linkages. In examining historical and current developments in Indonesia, this article illustrates that women as supporters or actors of violence, while largely conforming to traditional gender ideology and roles, are driven by both personal and political considerations. Keywords: female terrorism; gender; Indonesia; Islamic State; suicide attacks; terrorism Handle: RePEc:cog:poango:v12:y:2024:a:7724 Template-Type: ReDIF-Article 1.0 Title: Drivers and Limits of the Geoeconomic Turn in EU Infrastructure Policy File-URL: https://www.cogitatiopress.com/politicsandgovernance/article/view/8127 File-Format: text/html DOI: 10.17645/pag.8127 Journal: Politics and Governance Volume: 12 Year: 2024 Number: 8127 Author-Name: Joscha Abels Author-Workplace-Name: Institute of Political Science, University of Tübingen, Germany Author-Name: Hans-Jürgen Bieling Author-Workplace-Name: Institute of Political Science, University of Tübingen, Germany Abstract: In recent years, the EU has increasingly applied state-interventionist practices to initiate and implement infrastructure policy projects. This stands in stark contrast to a phase of liberalization of infrastructure networks and services accompanying European integration and fiscal consolidation and infrastructure decay during the euro crisis. This article argues that the new state interventionism is strongly driven by the changing global constellation of a “new triad competition” where the EU is increasingly competing over infrastructures with the US and China. As a consequence, EU infrastructure policy undergoes a geoeconomic turn that aims to control transnational value chains and related political-economic spaces. Drawing on concepts of critical geography and international political economy, the article outlines the core features of this geoeconomic design logic of infrastructures and contrasts it with complementary or competing ones. The article substantiates these arguments by analyzing EU decision-making on two cases of high-tech infrastructure in the fields of communication and energy: the federated data infrastructure Gaia-X and the Hydrogen Strategy. Both cases provide evidence for the geoeconomic turn in EU infrastructure policy. Yet, the analysis also highlights that the turn is at times supported but also hampered by a capitalist logic that is reflected in the positioning of European and non-European businesses, as well as the EU’s reliance on private action. Furthermore, it illustrates that an ecological and a social-integrative design logic to key infrastructures are largely subordinated. The conclusions reflect on the discrepancy between the EU’s geoeconomic agenda and its less far-reaching implementation. Keywords: European integration; European Union; Gaia‐X; geoeconomics; global competition; hydrogen; infrastructure policy Handle: RePEc:cog:poango:v12:y:2024:a:8127 Template-Type: ReDIF-Article 1.0 Title: Three Lessons From the 2004 “Big Bang” Enlargement File-URL: https://www.cogitatiopress.com/politicsandgovernance/article/view/8358 File-Format: text/html DOI: 10.17645/pag.8358 Journal: Politics and Governance Volume: 12 Year: 2024 Number: 8358 Author-Name: Veronica Anghel Author-Workplace-Name: Robert Schuman Centre, European University Institute, Italy Author-Name: Erik Jones Author-Workplace-Name: Robert Schuman Centre, European University Institute, Italy Abstract: The 2004 “Big Bang” enlargement was a powerful reminder that European integration is an instrument for peace and not just prosperity. The pace of that enlargement depended more on the requirements for stability than on the transformation of the candidate countries. It was also a reminder of the importance of forward-looking analysis. Candidates might meet the criteria for membership at the time of accession, but that is no guarantee that they will develop in ways that continue to reflect those criteria once they have gained entry. Finally, it was a reminder that enlargement changes the experience of membership for all member states and not just for those countries that gain entry. A larger Union requires greater self-discipline to hold down congestion in decision-making and greater multilateral surveillance to prevent the actions of one member state from undermining the benefits of membership for the rest. These reminders are important lessons in planning the European Union’s next historic enlargement. The next enlargement will follow a pace set by security considerations more than the transformative power of the accession process. It will depend on a robust analysis of convergence together with contingency planning for any staged accession. And it will require commitment from existing member states as well as candidate countries to what will become a very different European Union. This next enlargement will be challenging for all parts of Europe. Nevertheless, it is better than the alternative of no enlargement or an accession process with no credible endgame. Keywords: accession; Central Europe; Eastern Europe; enlargement; European integration; European Union; regional integration; Russian invasion; Ukraine; Western Balkans Handle: RePEc:cog:poango:v12:y:2024:a:8358 Template-Type: ReDIF-Article 1.0 Title: Is the Young Precariat a Problem of Modern Democracy? A Case Study of Poland File-URL: https://www.cogitatiopress.com/politicsandgovernance/article/view/7697 File-Format: text/html DOI: 10.17645/pag.7697 Journal: Politics and Governance Volume: 12 Year: 2024 Number: 7697 Author-Name: Michał Czuba Author-Workplace-Name: Institute of Political Sciences, University of Silesia in Katowice, Poland Author-Name: Rafał Muster Author-Workplace-Name: Institute of Sociology, University of Silesia in Katowice, Poland Abstract: This article addresses the issue of the role and importance of the young precariat for the functioning of the democratic system. Based on scenario planning, it presents three possible directions for the development of democracy in the context of meeting the needs of the young precariat. The first scenario assumes a continuation of the measures applied so far by democratic governments towards young precarious people related to social policy and the low representation of the young generation in politics. The second involves a move away from democracy towards non-democratic systems, where the needs of precarious people are irrelevant. The third assumes a new approach among democratic governments to the needs of young precarious workers and the shaping of new social policies, as well as the creation of incentives for young precarious workers to be more widely involved in these policies. The empirical context for these considerations is an attempt to determine the possibility of the occurrence of each of these scenarios in Polish conditions, based on the results of qualitative studies conducted via asynchronous interviews with representatives of the young Polish precariat. The research relates to Poland and takes into account the characteristics of the Polish precariat. The article uses a mixed research methodology, combining different methods for solving research problems, including collecting, analyzing, interpreting, and presenting quantitative and qualitative data. Keywords: democracy; Poland; precariat; scenario planning; social policy; young workers Handle: RePEc:cog:poango:v12:y:2024:a:7697 Template-Type: ReDIF-Article 1.0 Title: The Role of Moral Principles in Resolving Intergenerational Conflicts of Interest File-URL: https://www.cogitatiopress.com/politicsandgovernance/article/view/7722 File-Format: text/html DOI: 10.17645/pag.7722 Journal: Politics and Governance Volume: 12 Year: 2024 Number: 7722 Author-Name: Toshiaki Hiromitsu Author-Workplace-Name: Policy Research Institute, Ministry of Finance, Japan Abstract: With the increase of human power, intergenerational conflicts of interest have emerged as new problems, particularly in terms of environmental and financial sustainability. This study examined the role of moral principles in inducing people to act, taking into account the interests of future generations. A survey was conducted among a representative sample of Japanese citizens to investigate the function of eight moral principles in resolving conflicts in terms of participants’ assessment of the appropriateness of the principles and their willingness to follow them. With respect to the absolute level of the function of moral principles, the results offer some, albeit cautious, promise of a strategy to resolve conflicts through moral principles. Overall, participants responded positively to these principles. Furthermore, the survey revealed that older and more educated individuals responded better. Given their leading roles in society, this finding supports the use of the principles. However, it also suggests that reaching out to those who did not respond to the strategy is challenging. The study revealed that a non-negligible proportion of respondents had only weak responses to any of the principles and that they either needed to be exposed to different principles or provided with different resources to develop sensitivity to moral ideas. The survey also revealed the relative order of principles. Egalitarianism and utilitarianism scored lower, but some principles, including Mill’s harm principle and Scheffler’s argument that the survival of humanity and the world itself has value, scored higher. Keywords: climate change; experimental philosophy; fiscal policy; intergenerational conflicts; intergenerational ethics; moral principle Handle: RePEc:cog:poango:v12:y:2024:a:7722 Template-Type: ReDIF-Article 1.0 Title: Political Revenge? Downgrading Indonesia’s KPK From Hero to Villain File-URL: https://www.cogitatiopress.com/politicsandgovernance/article/view/7907 File-Format: text/html DOI: 10.17645/pag.7907 Journal: Politics and Governance Volume: 12 Year: 2024 Number: 7907 Author-Name: David Price Author-Workplace-Name: Faculty of Arts and Society, Charles Darwin University, Australia Abstract: The importance of Indonesia’s Corruption Eradication Commission (Komisi Pemberantasan Korupsi [KPK]), has once again been brought into focus during the 2024 presidential election campaign period when politics and corruption collide. This article suggests that legislative and political actions since 2019 to the KPK’s purpose and structure severely limit its capacity and independence making it susceptible to greater political interference and coercion. The KPK was established by Law 30/2002, as a response to and recognition of rampant corruption throughout the governmental, political and public sectors, business communities, and society in general, which became common practice during President Suharto’s New Order Regime. The KPK’s commission encompasses conducting investigations, indictments, and prosecutions. However, in late 2019, the People’s Representative Council enacted amending legislation to weaken its authority and ability to operate independently. Crucial legislative changes included creating a government-appointed supervisory body overseeing the KPK’s internal operations and changing KPK employee status from independent agents to public servants. These two provisions alone seriously weaken the KPK’s autonomy and create the risk of turning it into a politically controlled auxiliary state agency. In some respects, KPK has become a victim of its own successes, having achieved convictions of senior ministers, politicians, government officials, and business leaders, which in turn has produced enemies. Without political protection, the KPK faces the prospect of not only becoming, in essence, a nonentity but also facing further deterioration of its credibility and authority. Keywords: corruption; criminal investigations; Indonesia; KPK; presidential candidates; presidential elections Handle: RePEc:cog:poango:v12:y:2024:a:7907 Template-Type: ReDIF-Article 1.0 Title: Building Party Support Abroad: Turkish Diaspora Organisations in Germany and the UK File-URL: https://www.cogitatiopress.com/politicsandgovernance/article/view/7546 File-Format: text/html DOI: 10.17645/pag.7546 Journal: Politics and Governance Volume: 12 Year: 2024 Number: 7546 Author-Name: Inci Öykü Yener-Roderburg Author-Workplace-Name: Institute for Turkish Studies, University of Duisburg‐Essen, Germany Author-Name: Erman Örsan Yetiş Author-Workplace-Name: Department of Politics and International Relations, University of Sheffield, UK Abstract: This article covers a unique form of political mobilisation within the Turkey-originated diasporic community in Europe that formed after Turkey introduced external voting in 2012. Although existing literature has paid attention to the impact of homeland political parties on external voting rights and diaspora organisations’ role in electoral campaigns, these organisations’ impact on members’ mobilisation capacities for certain homeland parties remains understudied. This article tackles this topic by first comparing Turkey-originated diaspora organisations in Germany and the UK. Secondly, it guides future empirical work on the impact of the diaspora organisations on remote partisans’ political orientation by taking the dominant emigrant profile in a residence country dimension into the study of external voting. Focusing on eligible Turkish citizens, the findings of this article are based on participant observation and 60 in-depth interviews conducted with remote voters who participated in the mobilisation of Turkey-based political parties in Germany between 2018 and 2023 and in the UK between 2021 and 2023 through diaspora organisations. Keywords: diaspora organisations; external voting; Germany; non‐resident citizens; UK; Turkey Handle: RePEc:cog:poango:v12:y:2024:a:7546 Template-Type: ReDIF-Article 1.0 Title: Electoral Participation of Non‐National EU Citizens in France: The Case of the Nord File-URL: https://www.cogitatiopress.com/politicsandgovernance/article/view/7507 File-Format: text/html DOI: 10.17645/pag.7507 Journal: Politics and Governance Volume: 12 Year: 2024 Number: 7507 Author-Name: Camille Kelbel Author-Workplace-Name: ESPOL‐LAB, Lille Catholic University, France Author-Name: David Gouard Author-Workplace-Name: CERTOP, University of Toulouse Jean Jaurès, France / CEPEL, University of Montpellier, France Author-Name: Felix von Nostitz Author-Workplace-Name: ESPOL‐LAB, Lille Catholic University, France Author-Name: Meredith Lombard Author-Workplace-Name: CERTOP, University of Toulouse Jean Jaurès, France Abstract: Since the 1993 Maastricht Treaty, EU citizens have the right to vote in European and local elections in the member state they reside in. In France, only about a quarter do so. Our article considers what factors explain the registration and participation of non-national citizens for the French Department of the Nord where around 35,000 non-French European citizens of voting age are living. Among them, 11,638 are registered to vote in the French municipal elections. Following the 2020 municipal elections, we have consulted the electoral rolls in each of the 648 communes to know who actually cast a vote. Based on detailed census data on each EU nationality and on other information contained on the electoral lists and rolls (age, gender, place of birth, etc.) and also contextual variables, this article seeks to identify the main factors associated with registering in the first instance and turning out to vote in the second. Our results confirm wide variation in registration and voting rates according to nationality. They also show that beyond voters’ nationality and the “usual suspects” of electoral participation, contextual factors are important predictors. Keywords: citizenship; electoral participation; European Union; France; migration; municipal elections; non‐national EU citizens Handle: RePEc:cog:poango:v12:y:2024:a:7507 Template-Type: ReDIF-Article 1.0 Title: Migrants’ Political Participation and Representation in Poland: What Do Political Parties Have to Offer? File-URL: https://www.cogitatiopress.com/politicsandgovernance/article/view/7498 File-Format: text/html DOI: 10.17645/pag.7498 Journal: Politics and Governance Volume: 12 Year: 2024 Number: 7498 Author-Name: Anna Pacześniak Author-Workplace-Name: Institute of European Studies, University of Wroclaw, Poland Author-Name: Maria Wincławska Author-Workplace-Name: Faculty of Political Science and Security Studies, Nicolaus Copernicus University, Poland Abstract: Since 2018, Poland has been a net migration country, yet public debates on migrants and migration remain scarce and have been defined by a reactionary nature. This article, adopting a political opportunity structure perspective, focuses on political parties as the main actors shaping opportunities and constraints for migrant political participation and representation in Polish society. Based on a qualitative content analysis of party manifestos and parliamentary debates, and using the deductive thematic analysis framework, this study analysed three types of arguments parties have adopted regarding the admission of migrants. The findings revealed that Polish political parties, failing to see non-voting migrants as promising electoral targets, have weaponised the migrant issue and used it as an element of the partisan battle to attack opponents, especially during the election campaign period, instead of stimulating migrants’ political participation and offering them channels for representation. Keywords: migrant participation and representation; opportunity structure; Poland; political parties Handle: RePEc:cog:poango:v12:y:2024:a:7498 Template-Type: ReDIF-Article 1.0 Title: Why Do Non‐Resident Citizens Get Elected? Candidates' Electoral Success in Ecuadorian Extraterritorial Districts File-URL: https://www.cogitatiopress.com/politicsandgovernance/article/view/7495 File-Format: text/html DOI: 10.17645/pag.7495 Journal: Politics and Governance Volume: 12 Year: 2024 Number: 7495 Author-Name: Sebastián Umpierrez de Reguero Author-Workplace-Name: Department of Political Science and International Relations, Autonomous University of Madrid, Spain / School of Governance, Law and Society, Tallinn University, Estonia / Faculty of Political Science and Law, Casa Grande University, Ecuador Author-Name: Patricio Navia Author-Workplace-Name: School of Political Science, Diego Portales University, Chile / Department of Liberal Studies, New York University, USA Abstract: To the growing literature on non-resident citizens’ special representation, we contribute with a systematic examination of the role of descriptive representation of citizens living abroad in elections for extraterritorial districts. Using data for the 308 candidacy observations in three two-seat extraterritorial districts in five legislative elections held between 2007 and 2021 in Ecuador, for a total of 30 seats, we test four hypotheses related to the electoral rules, party-level, and socio-demographic factors of non-resident candidates. Ecuadorian non-resident candidates benefit from their incumbency position and party affiliation, along with left-wing ideological ascription and belonging to party organizations that pushed for voting rights abroad and that manifest an interest in emigrant issues. This article contributes to showing what gets emigrants elected in extraterritorial seats and offers a within-country comparison connecting elections with legislative politics across national borders. Keywords: candidate selection; Ecuador; electoral rules; incumbency advantage; non‐resident citizens; political party; political representation; special representation Handle: RePEc:cog:poango:v12:y:2024:a:7495 Template-Type: ReDIF-Article 1.0 Title: Diversity in Spanish Politics? Dynamics of Descriptive Representation of Immigrant‐Origin Minorities in Local Elections File-URL: https://www.cogitatiopress.com/politicsandgovernance/article/view/7422 File-Format: text/html DOI: 10.17645/pag.7422 Journal: Politics and Governance Volume: 12 Year: 2024 Number: 7422 Author-Name: Daniela Vintila Author-Workplace-Name: Centre for Ethnic and Migration Studies (CEDEM), University of Liège, Belgium Author-Name: Santiago Pérez-Nievas Author-Workplace-Name: Department of Politics and International Relations, Autonomous University of Madrid, Spain Author-Name: Marta Paradés Author-Workplace-Name: Department of International Relations, Comillas Pontifical University, Spain Author-Name: Carles Pamies Author-Workplace-Name: Centre for European Studies and Comparative Politics (CEE), Sciences Po, France Abstract: Research has identified an alarming gap in migrants’ descriptive representation across Western European countries with long-standing immigration while showing that not all migrant groups are equally (un)successful in gaining elected office. However, little is known about migrants’ political presence in Southern European countries, which have experienced increased immigration in recent decades. We address this research gap for Spain by focusing on the municipal level where minorities’ inclusion remains of utmost importance. Conceptually, the article tackles the question of how the interplay between migrants’ demographic concentration and specific party features shapes the outcomes of minority descriptive representation. Empirically, we bring novel evidence from an original survey with local party organizations across municipalities returning high shares of Romanian, Moroccan, Latin American, and EU14 migrants. We first demonstrate that, despite being particularly sizeable, all groups remain under-represented in Spanish local politics, although with important differences. At comparable levels of demographic concentration, EU14 and Latin American migrants are almost three times more likely than Romanian migrants and up to seven times more likely than Moroccan migrants to be fielded as candidates. EU14 candidates are also more successful in securing office. Second, our findings confirm that party features shape the contours of minority inclusion: Spanish left-wing and new parties present more diverse local candidacies and place minority office-seekers in safer electoral list positions than right-wing and established parties. Keywords: candidates; councilors; descriptive political representation; immigration; local elections; minority inclusion; Spain Handle: RePEc:cog:poango:v12:y:2024:a:7422 Template-Type: ReDIF-Article 1.0 Title: Migrants' Voter Turnout in the Home Country Elections: Non‐Integration or Political Anchor? File-URL: https://www.cogitatiopress.com/politicsandgovernance/article/view/7396 File-Format: text/html DOI: 10.17645/pag.7396 Journal: Politics and Governance Volume: 12 Year: 2024 Number: 7396 Author-Name: Sergiu Gherghina Author-Workplace-Name: Department of Politics and International Relations, University of Glasgow, UK / Department of International Studies and Contemporary History, Babeș‐Bolyai University Cluj, Romania Author-Name: Adrian Basarabă Author-Workplace-Name: Department of Political Science, West University of Timișoara, Romania Abstract: The transnational political participation of migrants has been extensively analyzed in the literature. Previous explanations focus on individual determinants ranging from political interest or efficacy to social ties or socio-demographic characteristics. So far, little attention has been paid to the contrast between factors related to their lives in two different countries. The present article adds to this burgeoning literature by identifying and comparing the effects of several attitudes and behaviors of migrants in the host and home country on their voter turnout in home country elections. We use individual-level data from a survey conducted in 2022 on 1,058 Romanian migrants living around the world. The results indicate that migrants who remain anchored in the politics of their home country—without necessarily striving to return—and those who are engaged in their host communities are more likely to vote. Migrant voter turnout is not determined by poor integration in the host society. Keywords: home country; integration; migrants; political participation; Romania; transnational electoral participation; voting Handle: RePEc:cog:poango:v12:y:2024:a:7396 Template-Type: ReDIF-Article 1.0 Title: Reject, Reject, Reject...Passed! Explaining a Latecomer of Emigrant Enfranchisement File-URL: https://www.cogitatiopress.com/politicsandgovernance/article/view/7331 File-Format: text/html DOI: 10.17645/pag.7331 Journal: Politics and Governance Volume: 12 Year: 2024 Number: 7331 Author-Name: Victoria Finn Author-Workplace-Name: Department of Political Science, University of Oslo, Norway Author-Name: Juan Pablo Ramaciotti Author-Workplace-Name: Centro de Políticas Migratorias, Chile Abstract: Despite the extensive spread of external voting across the world, exceptions remain as some countries have not passed such regulations (e.g., Uruguay) or have passed them but lag implementation (e.g., Nicaragua). Others still took a long time to join the trend, possibly presenting a pushback to the commonly accepted notion of norm diffusion to explain migrant enfranchisement. We examine a latecomer by asking why Chile took so long to enfranchise emigrants. Classified as a liberal democracy with a century of legal history of foreign-resident voting, it repeatedly rejected proposed bills on external voting since 1971. Chile enacted external voting only in 2014, regulated it in 2016, and applied it in 2017. Through legal historical content analysis, we identify which political actors proposed the bills, when, and why each failed. Left and right-leaning actors gave normative, legal, and procedural reasons that resulted in rejection and stagnation at various institutional stages. This latecomer’s constitutional tradition, strongly focused on territory and territorial links, potentially sheds light on dozens of other country cases of late adoption of the external franchise. Keywords: Chile; democratic norms; emigrant enfranchisement; external voting; political regimes Handle: RePEc:cog:poango:v12:y:2024:a:7331 Template-Type: ReDIF-Article 1.0 Title: Political Professionalization Beyond National Borders: An Analysis of Italian MPs in Overseas Constituencies File-URL: https://www.cogitatiopress.com/politicsandgovernance/article/view/7470 File-Format: text/html DOI: 10.17645/pag.7470 Journal: Politics and Governance Volume: 12 Year: 2024 Number: 7470 Author-Name: Matteo Boldrini Author-Workplace-Name: Department of Political Science, LUISS University, Italy Abstract: Among European countries, Italy is one of the relatively few cases to provide a quota of reserved parliamentary seats for non-resident citizens. Despite an increased scientific interest in the topic, the group of MPs elected in Overseas Constituencies remains overlooked in the available literature. The gap relates to factors such as their socio-biographical profile, precedent careers, parliamentary activity, the role played in their recruitment by the party abroad or at a national level, and their style of representation. In this vein, the article investigates the career profiles of Italian MPs elected in Overseas Constituencies from 2006 (the first elections with the introduction of citizen representatives living abroad) to 2022. Based on an original data set and through an analysis of their biographical and political characteristics, the article builds a typology of elected MPs abroad by cross-referencing two dimensions derived from the literature: the linkage with the host country and the presence of previous political and associational experiences. The analysis shows that different types of MPs have different career lengths and a different capacity to collect preference votes. Keywords: foreign constituency; Italy; MPs; party politics; political careers; representation Handle: RePEc:cog:poango:v12:y:2024:a:7470 Template-Type: ReDIF-Article 1.0 Title: Selective Inclusion? Insights Into Political Parties' Recruitment of Immigrant Background Candidates in Bolzano File-URL: https://www.cogitatiopress.com/politicsandgovernance/article/view/7453 File-Format: text/html DOI: 10.17645/pag.7453 Journal: Politics and Governance Volume: 12 Year: 2024 Number: 7453 Author-Name: Giorgia Zogu Author-Workplace-Name: Institute for Minority Rights, Eurac Research, Italy / Center for Migration and Diversity, Eurac Research, Italy / Department of Political Science, University of Vienna, Austria Author-Name: Sophia Schönthaler Author-Workplace-Name: Center for Migration and Diversity, Eurac Research, Italy / Centre for Southeast European Studies, University of Graz, Austria Abstract: Political parties can be crucial gatekeepers to the political participation of immigrants. This article analyzes the political selection strategies of political parties at the local level. The case study focuses on the multi-ethnic city of Bolzano in Northern Italy, which is home to a significant migrant population as well as three autochthonous language groups: Italian, German, and Ladin. First, the article gives an overview of the political lists presented at the last local elections in 2020. Second, it discusses party strategies to recruit candidates with an immigration background. The presented insights are drawn from seven “elite” interviews (i.e., with high-ranking party representatives). Overall, the findings indicate that diversity stemming from migration does not have a significant impact on the recruitment strategies of the province’s political parties’: Despite electoral lists containing an increasing number of immigrants, who have migrated to South Tyrol since the 1990s, neither newer nor traditional parties adopt significant strategies to recruit candidates with an immigration background. Overall, the diversity on political lists mostly reflects the existing language cleavages of the autochthonous population, while diversity stemming from immigration is still largely overlooked. However, the results also show that while neither of the parties is fully inclusive or exclusive in their selection methods, we identify a tendency toward selective inclusiveness of certain immigrant groups. Keywords: diversity; immigrants; immigrant background; local elections; political parties; political recruitment; selective inclusiveness Handle: RePEc:cog:poango:v12:y:2024:a:7453 Template-Type: ReDIF-Article 1.0 Title: What Does It Take for Immigrants to Join Political Parties? File-URL: https://www.cogitatiopress.com/politicsandgovernance/article/view/7440 File-Format: text/html DOI: 10.17645/pag.7440 Journal: Politics and Governance Volume: 12 Year: 2024 Number: 7440 Author-Name: Monika Bozhinoska Lazarova Author-Workplace-Name: Comparative Politics, University of Bamberg, Germany Author-Name: Thomas Saalfeld Author-Workplace-Name: Comparative Politics, University of Bamberg, Germany Author-Name: Olaf Seifert Author-Workplace-Name: Comparative Politics, University of Bamberg, Germany Abstract: Political parties are crucial agents in democratic representation and political integration of persons of immigrant origin, a growing category of citizens in the European Union. Research demonstrates that citizens of immigrant origin are less likely to join political parties than persons without a migratory background. Nevertheless, party membership varies across countries and between immigrants. Accounting for such inter-individual and cross-national variations, this article uses secondary data from the European Social Survey, the Migrant Integration Policy Index, and the Varieties of Democracy (V-Dem) project for 25 European democracies to uncover mechanisms that explain the party membership of immigrants. In our multilevel analysis, we test interactions between country-specific variations in legislation on migration policies on the one hand and individual differences in political socialisation and political efficacy on the other. Our models suggest significant positive effects of exposure to a democratic regime in the country of origin and of internal efficacy on party membership of citizens of immigrant origin. Additionally, our findings highlight the significance of an inclusive national framework for immigrant integration, serving as a moderator to diminish the impact of political socialisation in less democratic countries on the decision of citizens with immigrant backgrounds to participate in political parties within their country of residence. Keywords: immigrants; integration policies; multilevel models; party membership Handle: RePEc:cog:poango:v12:y:2024:a:7440 Template-Type: ReDIF-Article 1.0 Title: Investigating Party Abroad: Party Origins and Degrees of Formalization File-URL: https://www.cogitatiopress.com/politicsandgovernance/article/view/7527 File-Format: text/html DOI: 10.17645/pag.7527 Journal: Politics and Governance Volume: 12 Year: 2024 Number: 7527 Author-Name: Sorina Soare Author-Workplace-Name: Department of Political and Social Sciences, University of Florence, Italy Abstract: This article contends that contemporary transnational dynamics have given rise to novel political subjects and territories for political engagement. By looking at how parties as organizational actors operate abroad, this study reworks extant classificatory attempts and proposes an amended typology in which the salient elements of variation are the origin of the party abroad and the degree of formalization. These two dimensions produce a matrix delineating four distinct types of party organization: branch-abroad, organization-abroad in franchising, committee-abroad, and semi-political structures. Conceptually, the typology elucidates the multifaceted nature of the structural approaches employed by home parties in their endeavors to establish connections with communities abroad. Empirically, this contribution enhances the comparability between organizational configurations abroad and extant research on party structures at the national level. Keywords: communities abroad; party organization; political parties; transnational politics; typology Handle: RePEc:cog:poango:v12:y:2024:a:7527 Template-Type: ReDIF-Article 1.0 Title: The Political Participation and Representation of Migrants: An Overview File-URL: https://www.cogitatiopress.com/politicsandgovernance/article/view/8089 File-Format: text/html DOI: 10.17645/pag.8089 Journal: Politics and Governance Volume: 12 Year: 2024 Number: 8089 Author-Name: Sorina Soare Author-Workplace-Name: Department of Political Science, University of Florence, Italy Author-Name: Sergiu Gherghina Author-Workplace-Name: Department of Politics and International Relations, University of Glasgow, UK Abstract: This thematic issue covers the participation and representation of migrants in contemporary politics. It focuses on two interconnected analytical dimensions: countries of residence and countries of origin, as arenas of political engagement and the supply and demand sides of political representation. The articles in the thematic issue advance the existing knowledge in migration studies and party politics both theoretically and empirically. They do so by proposing innovative analytical frameworks to assess the extent of participation and representation and by bringing evidence that fosters a better understanding of the intricate relationship between migration and politics. Keywords: democracy; elections; migrants; political participation; representation Handle: RePEc:cog:poango:v12:y:2024:a:8089 Template-Type: ReDIF-Article 1.0 Title: Institutional Proxy Representatives of Future Generations: A Comparative Analysis of Types and Design Features File-URL: https://www.cogitatiopress.com/politicsandgovernance/article/view/7745 File-Format: text/html DOI: 10.17645/pag.7745 Journal: Politics and Governance Volume: 12 Year: 2024 Number: 7745 Author-Name: Michael Rose Author-Workplace-Name: Institute of Sustainability Governance, Leuphana University Lüneburg, Germany Abstract: Future generations will be strongly affected by political decisions made today (e.g., by the long-term consequences of climate change). According to the democratic all-affected principle, the interests of everyone affected by political decisions should be considered in the political decision-making process. Future generations cannot influence democratic decision-making, since they do not yet exist. Election-based democratic incentive systems are said to make it difficult to consider the needs of future generations today. Surprisingly, however, since the early 1990s, an increasing number of democracies have established what could be called institutional proxy representatives of future generations (proxies), i.e., public bodies with institutionalized access to government and/or parliament that introduce the construed interests of future generations into the political decision-making process. Proxies help to consider future generations’ interests alongside the interests of current constituencies. After concept building, this comparative study searches all liberal democracies and identifies 25 proxies, with heterogeneous institutional designs. By employing membership criteria, three types are distinguished: (a) expertise-driven independent guardians (type I), (b) political or administrative advisory and coordination bodies (type II), and (c) sustainability stakeholder councils or committees (type III). They vary considerably in their formal capacity to influence political decision-making (i.e., on what legal basis they were provided with what instruments to address which phases of the policy process and which branches of government). Overall, they should not be overburdened with expectations. While they are usually equipped with the tools to voice the (construed) interests of future generations, they often lack the capacity to act as watchdogs with teeth when ignored. Keywords: all‐affected principle; democracy; future generations; institutions; intergenerational justice; political representation; sustainability governance; sustainable development Handle: RePEc:cog:poango:v12:y:2024:a:7745 Template-Type: ReDIF-Article 1.0 Title: Gus Dur’s Enduring Legacy: Accruing Religious Merit in the Afterlife File-URL: https://www.cogitatiopress.com/politicsandgovernance/article/view/7874 File-Format: text/html DOI: 10.17645/pag.7874 Journal: Politics and Governance Volume: 12 Year: 2024 Number: 7874 Author-Name: Nathan Franklin Author-Workplace-Name: Faculty of Arts and Society, Charles Darwin University, Australia Abstract:Abdurrahman Wahid (Gus Dur), Indonesia’s fourth president (1999–2001) and leader of the traditionalist Islamic organisation Nahdlatul Ulama (1984–1999), continues to influence Indonesia in positive and meaningful ways despite his death in 2009. He proved that Islam and a pluralistic political culture were compatible and that Indonesian Islam had a global role. His legacy continues through the Wahid Foundation, Nahdlatul Ulama, and the National Awakening Party. The Wahid Foundation operates under the directorship of his daughter, Yenny Wahid, and is dedicated to improving Islam and Indonesian society through documenting religious intolerance and injustice and by issuing recommendations. Following Nahdlatul Ulama’s National Congress in December 2021, its leadership has been dominated by Gus Dur’s allies, including his wife and four daughters, and his former presidential spokesperson Yahya Cholil Staquf, all of whom have a deep commitment to his values. Gus Dur’s former political party, the National Awakening Party, remains another institution which supports pluralism and secular inclusiveness. However, the relationship between Gus Dur’s allies and this party remains fractured, just as it was before he died. Despite an impeached presidency, a fallout with the National Awakening Party, and the considerable time that has passed since his death, he has produced an enduring legacy. Public deference to the late Gus Dur is reminiscent of the nine saints who Islamised Java half a millennia ago. This is because traditionalist Muslims believe that one’s deeds which produce on-going benefits to society will, in the afterlife, continue to accrue religious merit, and millions visit Gus Dur’s grave every year to demonstrate this.
Keywords: Abdurrahman Wahid; Gus Dur; Indonesia; Islam; Nahdlatul Ulama; National Awakening Party; Politics; Wahid Foundation Handle: RePEc:cog:poango:v12:y:2024:a:7874 Template-Type: ReDIF-Article 1.0 Title: Pahlawan, Pengkhianat, Atau Penjahat (Hero, Traitor, or Villain): A Personal Journey Through Indonesian History File-URL: https://www.cogitatiopress.com/politicsandgovernance/article/view/7804 File-Format: text/html DOI: 10.17645/pag.7804 Journal: Politics and Governance Volume: 12 Year: 2024 Number: 7804 Author-Name: Steven Farram Author-Workplace-Name: Faculty of Arts and Society, Charles Darwin University, Australia Abstract: This article concerns Indonesian heroes, traitors, and villains from different regions and eras. The factors influencing the categorisation of individuals as heroes or villains are examined. Examples include regional leaders who opposed the Dutch East India Company or collaborated with it. Similar cases are examined from the period of the Netherlands Indies colonial state. Also discussed are nationalists who were members of the Indonesian Communist Party, and people now deemed heroes who collaborated with the Japanese during the Second World War. Next for consideration are individuals involved in Confrontation with Malaysia and the occupation of East Timor. The last cases come from the world of popular music and show how performers idolised by fans can be considered villains by others. Keywords: colonialism; East Timor; heroes; Indonesia; Malaysia; popular music; Singapore; traitors; villains Handle: RePEc:cog:poango:v12:y:2024:a:7804 Template-Type: ReDIF-Article 1.0 Title: Protecting Future Generations Through Minilateralism: Climate Clubs and Normative Legitimacy File-URL: https://www.cogitatiopress.com/politicsandgovernance/article/view/7674 File-Format: text/html DOI: 10.17645/pag.7674 Journal: Politics and Governance Volume: 12 Year: 2024 Number: 7674 Author-Name: Robert Huseby Author-Workplace-Name: Department of Political Science, University of Oslo, Norway Author-Name: Jon Hovi Author-Workplace-Name: Department of Political Science, University of Oslo, Norway Author-Name: Tora Skodvin Author-Workplace-Name: Department of Political Science, University of Oslo, Norway Abstract: Despite three decades of global climate negotiations and high expectations for the 2015 Paris Agreement, global emissions continue to grow. To protect future generations from severe harm, scholars, environmentalists, and politicians alike explore potential supplements to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change process. One potential supplement is climate clubs of a type where a small number of “enthusiastic” countries embark on ambitious mitigation efforts while encouraging other, more “reluctant” countries to join. Previous research has shown that this club type possesses a significant potential for expanding membership and eventually becoming highly effective in reducing global emissions. A common criticism of climate clubs, however, is that they lack legitimacy. Assessing this criticism, we argue that climate clubs of the type considered here can be normatively legitimate. The main challenge for normative legitimacy concerns climate clubs’ use of incentives, particularly negative incentives, to attract members. However, we argue that even negative incentives for participation can be legitimate, assuming they meet a set of relevant legitimacy criteria—including that the club respects human rights, provides a comparative benefit, maintains institutional integrity, implements only proportional incentives, and fulfills a requisite set of epistemic criteria. We also argue that the normative legitimacy of climate clubs’ use of incentives for compliance is less challenging than the normative legitimacy of their use of incentives for participation. Keywords: climate change; climate clubs; democracy; future generations; legitimacy Handle: RePEc:cog:poango:v12:y:2024:a:7674 Template-Type: ReDIF-Article 1.0 Title: The Role of Future Generations in Place Branding: The Case of Huelva City File-URL: https://www.cogitatiopress.com/politicsandgovernance/article/view/7730 File-Format: text/html DOI: 10.17645/pag.7730 Journal: Politics and Governance Volume: 12 Year: 2024 Number: 7730 Author-Name: Xavier Ginesta Author-Workplace-Name: Department of Communication, University of Vic—Central University of Catalonia, Spain Author-Name: F. J. Cristòfol Author-Workplace-Name: Department of Communication and Education, Universidad Loyola Andalucía, Spain Author-Name: Jordi de San Eugenio Author-Workplace-Name: Department of Communication, University of Vic—Central University of Catalonia, Spain Author-Name: Javier Martínez-Navarro Author-Workplace-Name: Lugadero, Spain Abstract: The process of creating place brands must position the citizen at the center of the debate. The City Council of Huelva, a city in Southern Spain with a population of 142,538 inhabitants, promoted a territorial brand in 2022 in order to seek a new positioning for the city in tourism markets, investment, and talent attraction. Its development was based on a qualitative and quantitative methodology, previously tested out in other cities and locations in Spain, which is shaped by research groups, semi-structured interviews, and surveys of the citizens. This method aims to place the citizen, who ultimately is the user of the brand, at the center of the social research process that determines the tangible and intangible values associated with the brand narrative. The main objective of this article is to highlight, based on the case study of the brand Huelva Original, the importance of two groups in the construction and deployment of a place brand (Millennials and Generation Z and the political class). Firstly, out of the 1,194 people who participated in the fieldwork, 47.92% were under 40 years old. These two generations are crucial for creating a brand narrative that has long-term viability and presence in the digital environment. Secondly, the development of the brand narrative facilitated a cooperative process among the different political groups in the City Council, especially the two most represented (conservatives and social democrats), which enables the search for collaborative workspaces among political groups to ensure that the implementation of the brand transcends the term of a mandate and goes beyond short-termism political actions. The results indicate that the new brand uniquely differentiates Huelva, emphasizing internal pride and co-creation. Open innovation facilitates cooperation among stakeholders, improving governance. Both Millennials and Generation Z citizens, as well as politicians, are key to the long-term sustainability and reach of the brand. Keywords: citizen participation; city marketing; democratic governance; Generation Z; Millennials; place branding; Spain Handle: RePEc:cog:poango:v12:y:2024:a:7730 Template-Type: ReDIF-Article 1.0 Title: The Politics of Non‐Existence File-URL: https://www.cogitatiopress.com/politicsandgovernance/article/view/7678 File-Format: text/html DOI: 10.17645/pag.7678 Journal: Politics and Governance Volume: 12 Year: 2024 Number: 7678 Author-Name: Maija Setälä Author-Workplace-Name: Department of Philosophy, Contemporary History and Political Science, University of Turku, Finland Abstract: This article argues that the representation of future generations is likely to remain inadequate because of the lack of accountability mechanisms characteristic of representative relations among contemporaries. Two problems pertaining to the representation of future generations and their interests are distinguished, namely misrepresentation and negligence. Misrepresentation refers to ill-informed, biased, and purposive interpretations regarding the interests of future generations, whereas negligence involves future interests not being properly considered in policymaking. While these two problems are often intertwined, misrepresentation is a problem of epistemic and normative judgments, whereas negligence is a motivational problem. The interests of future generations are especially likely to be neglected in cases of so-called intergenerational conflict, that is, situations of welfare tradeoffs between present and future generations. Inclusive democratic deliberation is a remedy for misrepresentation, but its capacity to address negligence may be more limited. Finally, the article remarks on the role of future-regarding deliberation in representative democratic systems. Keywords: accountability; deliberation; future generations; institutional design; intergenerational conflicts; representation Handle: RePEc:cog:poango:v12:y:2024:a:7678 Template-Type: ReDIF-Article 1.0 Title: Futurability, Survivability, and the Non‐Steady State in the Intergenerational Sustainability Dilemma File-URL: https://www.cogitatiopress.com/politicsandgovernance/article/view/7749 File-Format: text/html DOI: 10.17645/pag.7749 Journal: Politics and Governance Volume: 12 Year: 2024 Number: 7749 Author-Name: Tatsuyoshi Saijo Author-Workplace-Name: Institute for International Academic Research, Kyoto University of Advanced Science, Japan / Research Institute for Humanity and Nature, Japan Abstract: The three pillars of society—democracy, the market, and science and technology—are not systems that guarantee survival. This is because they will cause “future failures” that will eventually impose heavy burdens on future generations. Therefore, we need to design mechanisms to reinforce these three systems. This is called future design. Its basic concept is “futurability,” which is the ability of the current generation to prioritize the interests of future generations. This study examines the necessity of futurability, its background, and its relationship with intergenerational equity. In particular, using a simple numerical model in which the investment of the current generation affects the resources of future generations, this article shows that if each generation looks only to its own interests, humanity will face extinction. To ensure the survivability of humanity, each generation must demonstrate futurability, especially the importance of demonstrating futurability in a non-steady state. Keywords: futurability; future design; future failures; intergenerational equity; non‐steady state; survivability Handle: RePEc:cog:poango:v12:y:2024:a:7749 Template-Type: ReDIF-Article 1.0 Title: The Rumours of the Crisis of Liberal Interventionism Are Greatly Exaggerated File-URL: https://www.cogitatiopress.com/politicsandgovernance/article/view/7352 File-Format: text/html DOI: 10.17645/pag.7352 Journal: Politics and Governance Volume: 12 Year: 2024 Number: 7352 Author-Name: Gorm Rye Olsen Author-Workplace-Name: Department for Social Sciences & Business, Roskilde University, Denmark Abstract: The Western reactions to the Russian assault on Ukraine in 2022 were surprisingly united and tangible. This article argues that the intervention in the Russia–Ukraine war was a continuation of other liberal interventions that took place earlier in the current century. This article claims that there is no crisis of liberal interventionism because foreign policy decision-makers in the US agree that (liberal) interventions in foreign countries can serve the national interests of the US as well as the interests of the people in the countries affected. There is no crisis because the transatlantic partners in Europe backed the US in the interventions. Finally, there is no crisis of liberal interventionism because the domestic opposition in the US and Europe is too weak to restrain the liberal interventionist mood among Western governments. Liberal interventionism is still on the agenda. Keywords: democratic peace theory; foreign policy elite; liberal interventionism; national strategic culture; public opinion; solidarity Handle: RePEc:cog:poango:v12:y:2024:a:7352 Template-Type: ReDIF-Article 1.0 Title: From Counterterrorism to Deterrence: The Evolution of Canada’s and Italy’s Defense Postures File-URL: https://www.cogitatiopress.com/politicsandgovernance/article/view/7355 File-Format: text/html DOI: 10.17645/pag.7355 Journal: Politics and Governance Volume: 12 Year: 2024 Number: 7355 Author-Name: Justin Massie Author-Workplace-Name: Department of Political Science, Université du Québec à Montréal, Canada Author-Name: Marco Munier Author-Workplace-Name: Department of Political Science, Université du Québec à Montréal, Canada Abstract: How do US democratic allies perceive and adapt to the multiple challenges associated with the rise of multipolarity and the return of major war in Europe? This article examines how two US allies—Canada and Italy—have adapted their defense postures from the professed beginning of the shift in the balance of power in 2008 to Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine in 2022. More specifically, it provides a comparison of three major dimensions of defense postures: threat perceptions, patterns of foreign military deployments, and military expenditures. This article argues that both allies have undertaken a shift from liberal interventionism towards a defense posture increasingly geared towards deterrence vis-à-vis Russia. However, the shift did not occur analogously and simultaneously, as the two allies’ adjustment was shaped by differing levels of domestic inter-party contestation. This article highlights the extent to which US allies’ international security adaptation follows political-party threat perceptions more than the traditional left-right dichotomy. Shared inter-party threat perceptions of great power revisionism are found to shape the degree of defense policy adaptation toward great power competition. Keywords: Canada; defense posture; deterrence; foreign military deployments; Italy; liberal order; threat perception Handle: RePEc:cog:poango:v12:y:2024:a:7355 Template-Type: ReDIF-Article 1.0 Title: Zeitenwende: German Foreign Policy Change in the Wake of Russia's War Against Ukraine File-URL: https://www.cogitatiopress.com/politicsandgovernance/article/view/7346 File-Format: text/html DOI: 10.17645/pag.7346 Journal: Politics and Governance Volume: 12 Year: 2024 Number: 7346 Author-Name: Patrick A. Mello Author-Workplace-Name: Department of Political Science and Public Administration, Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam, The Netherlands Abstract: Russia’s war against Ukraine has severely damaged the European security architecture. This article examines the consequences of this rupture for German foreign and security policy. Just a few months before Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine, Germany saw the transition to an unprecedented three-party coalition government of Social Democrats, Greens, and Liberals. In a special address to the Bundestag three days after the invasion, Chancellor Olaf Scholz described Russia’s war initiation as a historical Zeitenwende (“watershed”) that called into question long-held beliefs about European security. In the wake of this, Scholz proclaimed far-reaching changes, including the announcement that military expenditure would be drastically increased, additional military capabilities would be procured, and new deployments would be committed to NATO’s eastern flank. This article argues that the Zeitenwende amounts to an international orientation change in German foreign and security policy. Apart from identifying areas of significant change, the article also documents political contestation over the Zeitenwende’s nature and extent as well as gaps between proclaimed changes and actual implementation. Keywords: arms exports; defense procurement; foreign policy change; international security; party politics; political contestation; security policy Handle: RePEc:cog:poango:v12:y:2024:a:7346 Template-Type: ReDIF-Article 1.0 Title: Grasping Foreign and Security Policy Change: Patterns and Conditions of Change Among Liberal Democracies File-URL: https://www.cogitatiopress.com/politicsandgovernance/article/view/7172 File-Format: text/html DOI: 10.17645/pag.7172 Journal: Politics and Governance Volume: 12 Year: 2024 Number: 7172 Author-Name: Florian Böller Author-Workplace-Name: Department of Social Sciences, RPTU Kaiserslautern‐Landau, Germany Author-Name: Georg Wenzelburger Author-Workplace-Name: Department of European Social Research, University of Saarland, Germany Abstract: Russia’s invasion of Ukraine has been perceived as a fundamental shift at the international level, triggering reorientation in foreign and security policy, in particular among liberal democracies. At the same time, beyond such external shocks, states may incrementally adapt their positioning towards international affairs. To shed light on these dynamics, this article aims to quantitatively explore longer-term patterns of foreign and security policy in liberal democracies. In doing so, we make two contributions to the literature: First, we propose a quantitative operationalization of foreign and security policy change, combining military and non-military aspects, to explore the patterns of continuity and change over time (1988–2021), considering 20 liberal democracies. Second, we leverage insights from public policy analysis, in particular the punctuated equilibrium theory, to make sense of the identified patterns. Accordingly, we find support for the proposition that foreign and security policies typically change incrementally and that major change is rare. Moreover, while incremental shifts can be explained by domestic politics and institutional settings, major changes disrupt this pattern. In conclusion, the article discusses the plausibility of the quantitative analysis given the current policy shifts among democracies following Russia’s war in Ukraine. Keywords: foreign policy; foreign policy change; liberal democracies; public policies analysis; punctuated equilibrium theory; security policy Handle: RePEc:cog:poango:v12:y:2024:a:7172 Template-Type: ReDIF-Article 1.0 Title: Wagner Group Flows: A Two‐Fold Challenge to Liberal Intervention and Liberal Order File-URL: https://www.cogitatiopress.com/politicsandgovernance/article/view/7367 File-Format: text/html DOI: 10.17645/pag.7367 Journal: Politics and Governance Volume: 12 Year: 2024 Number: 7367 Author-Name: Katja Lindskov Jacobsen Author-Workplace-Name: Centre for Military Studies, University of Copenhagen, Denmark Author-Name: Karen Philippa Larsen Author-Workplace-Name: Danish Institute for International Studies, Denmark / Department of Political Science, University of Copenhagen, Denmark Abstract: Focusing on Wagner Group (WG) forces, liberal interveners too readily dismiss the scope of WG’s Africa engagements, including economic and political “flows” that, in combination, challenge liberal interveners’ taken-for-granted access in several states on the African continent. Operationalising the notion of “flows,” we present an analysis that foregrounds both the scope of WG’s Africa engagements and the challenges. We portray WG as a broad enterprise by attending to military, economic, and political flows. This broadening is relevant to how WG is understood to challenge liberal interveners. Besides country-specific challenges to liberal interveners’ access (notably in states where they have been asked to depart or co-exist with WG), a broader reading of WG’s Africa presence also foregrounds challenges at a different level, namely to liberal interveners’ assumptions about the inevitable attractiveness of the liberal international order. A liberal order that Russia has utilised WG’s Africa presence to contest. As such, challenges at the level of liberal order go beyond WG’s Africa presence and must, therefore, be viewed alongside other challenges to liberal intervention and order, from the Taliban’s takeover of Kabul to Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. If liberal interveners’ missteps and historicity, as well as the scope of WG’s Africa engagements, remain underappreciated, then various challenges specific to the WG, but also broader challenges to liberal interveners’ assumptions about liberal order as self-evidently attractive, are too readily dismissed. Liberal actors’ dismissiveness may invite misguided responses and unintentionally become an enabling factor for WG’s influence in Africa. Keywords: Africa; flows; liberal intervention; liberal order; Wagner Group Handle: RePEc:cog:poango:v12:y:2024:a:7367 Template-Type: ReDIF-Article 1.0 Title: The Failure of Liberal Interventionism: Deconstructing Afghan Identity Discourses of “Modern” and “Tradition” File-URL: https://www.cogitatiopress.com/politicsandgovernance/article/view/7380 File-Format: text/html DOI: 10.17645/pag.7380 Journal: Politics and Governance Volume: 12 Year: 2024 Number: 7380 Author-Name: Aisha Younus Author-Workplace-Name: School of Politics and International Relations, Quaid-i-Azam University, Pakistan Abstract: In Afghanistan, the crisis of liberal intervention unfolded in the failure to establish democratic structures as a solution to terrorism and extremism in the aftermath of 9/11. Following the emergency withdrawal of US and NATO forces from Afghanistan on August 30, 2021, President Ashraf Ghani discreetly left Kabul, enabling the Taliban to regain control and form a new government in the country. The recurrent pattern of intervention and the subsequent return of the Taliban highlights a failure of the liberal project, which is a significant concern addressed in this article as the main question: Why has liberal intervention failed in Afghanistan? The answer lies in deconstructing the hegemonic discourse of “modern” Afghan to understand how it was resisted and replaced by the alternative discourse of “tradition,” subsequently, leading to the failure of the liberal project. The “modern” discourse, rooted in the US social context, aimed to civilise the perceived primitive and traditional Afghans. Conversely, the Taliban, drawing upon the Afghan social context, contested the “modern” discourse with an alternative discourse of “tradition” portraying liberals and their supporters as “occupiers” and “oppressors,” thus, justifying their armed resistance (jihad) against occupying forces. Framed within a critical social constructivism, the text, interviews, speeches, and statements of prominent Taliban leaders and the US presidents, apprise how specific identities have been employed to naturalise the “modern” discourse as justification for intervention. Critical discourse analysis explicates how the “tradition” discourse denaturalised the former and, subsequently, facilitated the establishment of the Taliban’s power in Afghanistan. Keywords: Afghan identity; critical discourse analysis; critical social constructivism; failure of liberal intervention; Taliban; US policy failure; war on terrorism Handle: RePEc:cog:poango:v12:y:2024:a:7380 Template-Type: ReDIF-Article 1.0 Title: The Russian War Against Ukraine and Its Implications for the Future of Liberal Interventionism File-URL: https://www.cogitatiopress.com/politicsandgovernance/article/view/7348 File-Format: text/html DOI: 10.17645/pag.7348 Journal: Politics and Governance Volume: 12 Year: 2024 Number: 7348 Author-Name: Anna Geis Author-Workplace-Name: Institute of International Politics, Helmut Schmidt University, Germany Author-Name: Ursula Schröder Author-Workplace-Name: Institute for Peace Research and Security Policy at the University of Hamburg, Germany Abstract: The Russian war against Ukraine has already had crucial implications for the future of liberal interventionism. Drawing on current debates in IR about the transformation of the global world order, the article outlines how processes of global reordering affect (liberal) interventionism at different scales. The article argues that what has become known as the liberal international order is in retreat, at the expense of liberal peace-oriented international interventions. At the same time, current geopolitical realignments appear to be dividing the world into new spheres of influence, pitting democracies against autocracies at the global level and within regional conflicts. However, when it comes to security interventions and peacekeeping, the emerging realities on the ground, where a growing number of actors with different agendas interact, are more complex than simplistic world-order narratives suggest. Using the cases of international peacekeeping and security assistance as examples, the article shows that in some current international intervention sites, the emerging “multi-order world” is characterised by complicated constellations of parallel external assistance offers and rapid shifts in allegiances that do not necessarily follow clear divisions between “authoritarian” and “liberal” forms of assistance. The article therefore does not confirm expectations of the emergence of a “new Cold War” and a new round of ideological competition between international systems. Keywords: liberal international order; liberal peacebuilding; multi-order world; peacekeeping; security force assistance; Russia; security sector reform; Ukraine; United Nations; war Handle: RePEc:cog:poango:v12:y:2024:a:7348 Template-Type: ReDIF-Article 1.0 Title: Global Fragmentation and Collective Security Instruments: Weakening the Liberal International Order From Within File-URL: https://www.cogitatiopress.com/politicsandgovernance/article/view/7357 File-Format: text/html DOI: 10.17645/pag.7357 Journal: Politics and Governance Volume: 12 Year: 2024 Number: 7357 Author-Name: Mateja Peter Author-Workplace-Name: School of International Relations, University of St Andrews, UK Abstract: Collective instruments, such as UN peacekeeping or mediation, are a lens through which we can examine broader normative fault lines in the international order. They hold both practical and symbolic value. In the post-Cold War moment, these instruments started reflecting liberal values. They became concerned with balancing the rights of individuals and state sovereignty. These advances around “human protection” are now in question, with contestation perceived as emerging from non-Western powers. I contribute to the debates on the “pragmatic turn” within collective responses but contend that while the focus in current debates about the normative shift has become global fragmentation, the momentum for the de-prioritization of human protection within collective instruments comes from within the liberal order itself. Human protection is now a broadly shared and firmly entrenched norm, but to shield the norm from abuse, the collective international community progressively restricted any use of force to advance the norm within the instrument of UN peacekeeping. The co-optation of UN peacekeeping into counter-terrorism efforts and the introduction of stabilization mandates undermined the principled nature and moral authority of the instrument of peacekeeping itself. This, in turn, compromised the implementation of human protection. This development is now accelerated and exposed due to global fragmentation, influencing not just peacekeeping but also other adjacent activities, such as mediation. Keywords: human protection; impartiality; liberal international order; mediation; moral authority; peacekeeping; peacemaking; UN Handle: RePEc:cog:poango:v12:y:2024:a:7357 Template-Type: ReDIF-Article 1.0 Title: The Crisis of Liberal Interventionism and the Return of War File-URL: https://www.cogitatiopress.com/politicsandgovernance/article/view/7865 File-Format: text/html DOI: 10.17645/pag.7865 Journal: Politics and Governance Volume: 12 Year: 2024 Number: 7865 Author-Name: Cornelia Baciu Author-Workplace-Name: Centre for Military Studies, University of Copenhagen, Denmark Author-Name: Falk Ostermann Author-Workplace-Name: Institute of Social Sciences, Kiel University, Germany Author-Name: Wolfgang Wagner Author-Workplace-Name: Department of Political Science and Public Administration, Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam, The Netherlands Abstract: Liberal interventionism is in crisis, being weakened both from within and without. From Kabul to Kyiv and beyond, the contributions to our thematic issue reveal that the crisis of liberal interventionism has unraveled differently than previously understood. In countries of the Global North, it stretched out in different ways, depending on the political culture, party/coalition in power, or institutional path dependencies. In countries of the Global South, mandate-specific benchmarks in addition to the neglect of local agencies by both interveners and domestic elites, produced unintended consequences and a backlash effect. The articles in this thematic issue contribute to a better understanding of the crisis of liberal interventionism by unpacking the global fragmentation of collective security instruments, patterns and conditions of foreign policy change in liberal democracies, intervention failure in Afghanistan, alternative forms of interventionism like the one of the Wagner Group, international orientation change through the Zeitenwende, or counter-terrorism and deterrence postures. To conclude, the thematic issue critically investigates whether singing the swansong of liberal interventionism is premature. Keywords: Afghanistan; crisis; liberal interventionism; Ukraine; war Handle: RePEc:cog:poango:v12:y:2024:a:7865 Template-Type: ReDIF-Article 1.0 Title: Enlargement of the EU Towards the East: A Pivotal Change in EU’s External Policy? File-URL: https://www.cogitatiopress.com/politicsandgovernance/article/view/7464 File-Format: text/html DOI: 10.17645/pag.7464 Journal: Politics and Governance Volume: 12 Year: 2024 Number: 7464 Author-Name: Zbyněk Dubský Author-Workplace-Name: Department of International and Diplomatic Studies, Prague University of Economics and Business, Czech Republic Author-Name: Kateřina Kočí Author-Workplace-Name: Department of International and Diplomatic Studies, Prague University of Economics and Business, Czech Republic Author-Name: Markéta Votoupalová Author-Workplace-Name: Department of International and Diplomatic Studies, Prague University of Economics and Business, Czech Republic Abstract: The EU’s Eastern enlargement in 2004 was marked by the entry of mostly smaller states, whose ability to shape the external direction of the EU was questioned. However, the EU’s response to the war in Ukraine has shown how important the Eastern dimension of external policy is for the EU and that this Easternisation of the EU has occurred precisely in the wake of the 2004 enlargement. This is due to the fact that these states have been able to push their own narratives in the discourse on the EU’s Eastern direction, particularly in the case of the Eastern Partnership. This article analyses the discourse of Central and Eastern European states regarding the Eastern partnership, specifically the narratives of the official documents of three Baltic and four Visegrad group countries in the 2009–2022 period. The analysis made it possible to identify narrative structures and showed that the narratives are relatively similar in the selected countries. Despite the lack of cooperation between the two groups and the West’s neglect of the Eastern Partnership policy, they were able to individually strengthen their position in the EU and maintain the discussion about the Eastern Partnership at the EU level as a result. Keywords: Eastern Partnership; European Union; Easternisation; V4; B3 Handle: RePEc:cog:poango:v12:y:2024:a:7464 Template-Type: ReDIF-Article 1.0 Title: New Kids on the Democracy Block: Europeanisation of Interest Groups in Central and Eastern Europe File-URL: https://www.cogitatiopress.com/politicsandgovernance/article/view/7512 File-Format: text/html DOI: 10.17645/pag.7512 Journal: Politics and Governance Volume: 12 Year: 2024 Number: 7512 Author-Name: Meta Novak Author-Workplace-Name: Faculty of Social Sciences, University of Ljubljana, Slovenia Author-Name: Damjan Lajh Author-Workplace-Name: Faculty of Social Sciences, University of Ljubljana, Slovenia Abstract: The 2004 EU enlargement and related Europeanisation processes supported the development of stagnated interest group systems in many ways, including with respect to the professionalisation of mainly voluntary-based organisations in Central and Eastern Europe. In the pre-membership period and initial years after joining the EU, national interest groups from Central and Eastern Europe chiefly relied on EU-level interest groups for important information, knowledge, and know-how concerning EU policymaking, whereas 20 years of membership has today established them as equal partners and co-decision-makers. The article elaborates on the Europeanisation of interest groups in the Central and Eastern Europe region from the start of the process of accession to the EU, with three case studies in focus: Lithuania, Poland, and Slovenia. The main research question is: In which different ways has the Europeanisation process influenced interest groups in the region? To address it, the article builds on Johansson and Jacobsson’s (2016) typology of the Europeanisation of interest groups. Six exploratory factors were examined in this regard: (a) contacts with EU policymakers and institutions, (b) interest in EU policymaking, (c) funding received from EU projects and programmes, (d) networking with EU umbrella organisations, (e) participation in open consultations, and (f) the relationship of the group with members. To study the effects of Europeanisation processes in selected countries, web survey data gathered from national interest groups as part of the Comparative Interest Groups Survey project were used. Our results show that interest groups from Central and Eastern Europe have become “European” in a range of ways. Regulatory and discursive Europeanisation is most typical for Polish interest groups, identity Europeanisation for Lithuanian interest groups, and financial and participatory Europeanisation for Lithuanian and Polish interest groups, while organisational Europeanisation has the strongest effect on interest groups in Slovenia. Keywords: Central and Eastern Europe; European Union; Europeanisation; interest groups; Lithuania; Poland; policymaking; Slovenia Handle: RePEc:cog:poango:v12:y:2024:a:7512 Template-Type: ReDIF-Article 1.0 Title: The “EU‐Leash”: Growth Model Resilience and Change in the EU’s Eastern Periphery File-URL: https://www.cogitatiopress.com/politicsandgovernance/article/view/7449 File-Format: text/html DOI: 10.17645/pag.7449 Journal: Politics and Governance Volume: 12 Year: 2024 Number: 7449 Author-Name: Gergő Medve-Bálint Author-Workplace-Name: Institute for Political Science, HUN‐REN Centre for Social Sciences, Hungary / Institute of Social and Political Sciences, Corvinus University of Budapest, Hungary Author-Name: Jakub Szabó Author-Workplace-Name: Institute of European Studies and International Relations, Comenius University Bratislava, Slovakia Abstract: Although the EU’s Eastern periphery has been afflicted by a series of crises over the past two decades, the region’s dependent market economies have shown puzzling resilience. Since the global financial crisis, the FDI-led, export-oriented growth models of the Visegrád countries have been reinforced. Meanwhile, the debt-based, consumption-oriented capitalism of the Baltic states has not experienced dramatic shifts either, despite a strengthening of its export component. Scholarly accounts from a comparative political economy perspective explain this resilience as the product of country-specific factors and tend to downplay the role of external influence. Instead, we aim to bridge these approaches with international political economy scholarship by arguing that European integration, in general, and the EU’s transnational regulatory influence, in particular, serves as an external anchoring mechanism for both semi-peripheral growth models. In addition to the region’s structural characteristics, such as deep embeddedness in global value chains, high exposure to trade with the EU, and dependence on external sources of finance, which already limit domestic agency in changing national growth models, we argue that European transnational regulatory integration involves an “EU-leash” that sets the boundaries for domestic economic policies, thereby influencing growth model trajectories. This ensures institutional continuity and prevents sudden and radical changes in semi-peripheral growth models. We demonstrate these mechanisms through two country studies (Estonia and Hungary). Keywords: Baltic states; dependent market economies; Eastern periphery; economic governance; EU; growth models; Visegrád countries Handle: RePEc:cog:poango:v12:y:2024:a:7449 Template-Type: ReDIF-Article 1.0 Title: Strategies for Engaging and Outreaching NEETs in Italy: Insights From Active Labour Policies File-URL: https://www.cogitatiopress.com/politicsandgovernance/article/view/7499 File-Format: text/html DOI: 10.17645/pag.7499 Journal: Politics and Governance Volume: 12 Year: 2024 Number: 7499 Author-Name: Adriano Mauro Ellena Author-Workplace-Name: Department of Psychology, Università Cattolica del Sacro Cuore, Italy / CERISVICO (Research Centre on Community Development and Organisational Quality of Life), Università Cattolica del Sacro Cuore, Italy Author-Name: Daniela Marzana Author-Workplace-Name: Department of Psychology, Università Cattolica del Sacro Cuore, Italy / CERISVICO (Research Centre on Community Development and Organisational Quality of Life), Università Cattolica del Sacro Cuore, Italy Author-Name: Maura Pozzi Author-Workplace-Name: Department of Psychology, Università Cattolica del Sacro Cuore, Italy / CERISVICO (Research Centre on Community Development and Organisational Quality of Life), Università Cattolica del Sacro Cuore, Italy Abstract: Outreaching and engaging young people who are not in education, employment, or training (i.e., NEETs) represents a significant challenge for public policies. They often belong to marginalized and disadvantaged categories and find themselves isolated with low levels of trust in the future, in their capacities of finding a job, and, above all, in institutions. Much research has emphasized how insufficient and unsuitable the strategies used so far have proved to be. However, there is a lack of clear mapping in the literature of what approaches have been suggested and addressed by the different guidelines. This study explores the strategies that a specific active labour policy uses to intercept and engage vulnerable youth and NEETs. This research employed a qualitative methodology that centres on the examination of official documents of the regional plans for the guaranteed employability of workers (Garanzia di Occupabilità dei Lavoratori). To conduct the analysis, the MAXQDA software package was utilized, and a content document analysis was implemented. Three main themes emerged from the analysis: capillarity of services, digitalization, and communication, each with its respective sub-themes. These themes provide valuable insights into the current strategies employed to engage vulnerable NEET youth, as well as other demographic categories, highlighting the potential strengths and weaknesses of these policies. The study holds the potential to contribute significantly to the development of more targeted and sustainable public policies, aiming to address the challenges faced by vulnerable NEET youth in Italy. Keywords: active labour policy; guaranteed employability for workers; Italy; NEETs; vulnerable youth Handle: RePEc:cog:poango:v12:y:2024:a:7499 Template-Type: ReDIF-Article 1.0 Title: Young People's Perceptions of Youth Unemployment: Insights From 11 European Countries File-URL: https://www.cogitatiopress.com/politicsandgovernance/article/view/7480 File-Format: text/html DOI: 10.17645/pag.7480 Journal: Politics and Governance Volume: 12 Year: 2024 Number: 7480 Author-Name: Jale Tosun Author-Workplace-Name: Institute of Political Science, Heidelberg University, Germany Author-Name: Bogdan Voicu Author-Workplace-Name: Research Institute for Quality of Life, Romanian Academy, Romania / Department of Sociology, Lucian Blaga University of Sibiu, Romania / Department of Socio‐Behavioural Sciences, Polytechnical University of Bucharest, Romania Author-Name: Claudia Petrescu Author-Workplace-Name: Research Institute for Quality of Life, Romanian Academy, Romania Abstract: Youth unemployment has been an issue in European countries for many years. However, the attention paid to it by policymakers has varied over time, and there are high cross-country variations in both the size of the phenomenon, representations of it, and policy interventions. This study adds an intra-country component to the country-comparative dimension and assesses the factors affecting how young adults perceive youth unemployment. From a theoretical perspective, we postulate that the perception of youth unemployment as an issue depends on both sociotropic and egocentric evaluations. To address these research questions, we analyse data from the Cultural Pathways to Economic Self-Sufficiency (CUPESSE) dataset, which comprises responses from more than 20,000 young adults (aged 18–35) from 11 European countries (nine European Union member states together with Switzerland and Turkey). The empirical analysis is based on multilevel modelling and reveals that the problem perception varies both across countries and within them following the hypothesised pattern. The findings show that two factors are particularly important for explaining young people’s perception of youth unemployment as a problem: first, whether they experienced their parents being unemployed when growing up, and second, whether their friends are unemployed. Keywords: European Union; NEETs; rural areas; urban areas; youth unemployment Handle: RePEc:cog:poango:v12:y:2024:a:7480 Template-Type: ReDIF-Article 1.0 Title: Active Labour Market Policies for Rural NEETs in Lithuania: A Case of Rural Municipalities File-URL: https://www.cogitatiopress.com/politicsandgovernance/article/view/7481 File-Format: text/html DOI: 10.17645/pag.7481 Journal: Politics and Governance Volume: 12 Year: 2024 Number: 7481 Author-Name: Daiva Skučienė Author-Workplace-Name: Institute of Sociology and Social Work, Vilnius University, Lithuania Author-Name: Rūta Brazienė Author-Workplace-Name: Institute of Sociology and Social Work, Vilnius University, Lithuania Abstract: This article aims to analyse active labour market policy efficiency for rural young NEETs integration into the labour market in the socioeconomic context of rural municipalities in Lithuania. For the empirical analysis, the administrative data of the public employment service concerning active labour market policy measures, e.g., training and mobility support, subsidised employment, and support for establishing or adapting workplaces of 2018 and 2022, as well as Lithuanian statistics data of 2018 and 2020 are used. The socio-economic environment of rural municipalities was analysed using the economic indicators (complex index), public transport accessibility, average wage, and free vacancies indicators. The recipient’s integration into employment after six months of participation in active labour market policy measures is analysed. The data revealed poor economic indicators, undeveloped public transport, lower average salaries, and a need for more vacancies in rural municipalities. The integration into employment fell significantly in two rural municipality clusters after the Covid-19 pandemic. Keywords: active labour market policies; Lithuania; public employment services; rural municipalities; rural NEETs Handle: RePEc:cog:poango:v12:y:2024:a:7481 Template-Type: ReDIF-Article 1.0 Title: NEETs in Norway: A Scoping Review File-URL: https://www.cogitatiopress.com/politicsandgovernance/article/view/7477 File-Format: text/html DOI: 10.17645/pag.7477 Journal: Politics and Governance Volume: 12 Year: 2024 Number: 7477 Author-Name: Guro Øydgard Author-Workplace-Name: Faculty of Social Sciences, Nord University, Norway Author-Name: Ann-Torill Tørrisplass Author-Workplace-Name: Faculty of Social Sciences, Nord University, Norway Author-Name: Janne Paulsen Breimo Author-Workplace-Name: Faculty of Social Sciences, Nord University, Norway Abstract: In contrast with the rest of Europe, Norway has one of the lowest proportions of young people who are outside education, employment, or training (NEET), yet many of the youth categorised as NEETs in the country often suffer more severe challenges than their European counterparts. This scoping review analyses state-of-the-art research on NEETs in Norway and has found that such studies can be divided into two separate strands, one focusing on NEETs as a social problem and the other on strategies for the re-education and re-employment of NEETs. Reflecting on this trend, we argue that this segmentation of social problems and individual solutions in research could be symptomatic of an underlying issue that may be mirrored in policymaking and practice. Keywords: labour market; market policies; mental health; NEETs; Norway; social problems; youth Handle: RePEc:cog:poango:v12:y:2024:a:7477 Template-Type: ReDIF-Article 1.0 Title: The Youth Guarantee, Vulnerability, and Social Exclusion Among NEETs in Southern Europe File-URL: https://www.cogitatiopress.com/politicsandgovernance/article/view/7469 File-Format: text/html DOI: 10.17645/pag.7469 Journal: Politics and Governance Volume: 12 Year: 2024 Number: 7469 Author-Name: Niall O'Higgins Author-Workplace-Name: International Labour Organization, Switzerland Author-Name: Kate Brockie Author-Workplace-Name: Department of Geography, University of Cambridge, UK Abstract: Young people neither in employment, education, or training (NEETs) are particularly vulnerable to social and economic exclusion. Indeed, recognition of this fact was a key motivating factor underlying the development of the Youth Guarantee. This article uses data from the EU Labour Force Survey and EU Statistics on Income and Living Conditions to examine how the characteristics of the NEET population and their associated vulnerability to social exclusion vary across different sub-groups of young NEETs and how this has changed in Italy, Portugal, and Spain since 2015. The analysis focuses on the determinants of NEET status, youth vulnerability to poverty and social exclusion, and also examines the propensity of young NEETs to engage with public employment services in order to assess the extent to which young people most at risk of social exclusion are within the purview of the Youth Guarantee’s activities. The article highlights how the composition and vulnerability of young NEETs have altered between 2015 and 2021. While the risks of poverty and social exclusion of long-term unemployed NEETs have remained unchanged since 2015, the vulnerability of the most at-risk subgroup of young people, those who are NEET due to family responsibilities, has become more pronounced. Moreover, the engagement with public employment services of the most at-risk NEET sub-groups has remained persistently low. The findings suggest that greater efforts are needed to remove the obstacles to labour market re-integration faced by the most vulnerable groups within the purview of the programme and, above all, young women with family responsibilities. Keywords: family responsibilities; NEET; social exclusion; Youth Guarantee; youth labour markets; youth unemployment Handle: RePEc:cog:poango:v12:y:2024:a:7469 Template-Type: ReDIF-Article 1.0 Title: The Impact of Multilevel Governmental Policy on Rural Catalonia: Voices From the Grassroots File-URL: https://www.cogitatiopress.com/politicsandgovernance/article/view/7450 File-Format: text/html DOI: 10.17645/pag.7450 Journal: Politics and Governance Volume: 12 Year: 2024 Number: 7450 Author-Name: Omeed Agahi Author-Workplace-Name: Department of Education and Psychology, University of Girona, Spain Author-Name: Maria Isabel Pell Dempere Author-Workplace-Name: Department of Education and Psychology, University of Girona, Spain Author-Name: Jordi Feu Author-Workplace-Name: Department of Pedagogy, University of Girona, Spain Author-Name: Eduard Carrera Author-Workplace-Name: Department of Pedagogy, University of Girona, Spain Author-Name: Òscar Prieto-Flores Author-Workplace-Name: Department of Education and Psychology, University of Girona, Spain Abstract: One decade on from the launch of the European Youth Guarantee Initiative, there is still limited research into its efficacy in rural areas. In Spain, a country with significant urban-rural disparity, the complexity of the governmental structure across the country has made investigations into the effectiveness of youth employment strategies less common as compared with other European states. Our study analyses the meso-level structure of the Spanish government and how the Public Employment Services (PES) factor into the overall process of disseminating active labour market policies across the country. The study is based in the autonomous community of Catalonia and includes a case study in the region of Lleida. Through open-ended interviews with members at different levels of the local PES, including the director and various other staff, as well as with local policymakers, youth workers in local organisations, and the youth themselves, we aim to shed light on how the Youth Guarantee is being implemented on the ground. This will take into account the structural constraints, needs, and challenges under the new law as expressed by the various stakeholders. The results indicate that both youth and local PES are negatively impacted by some centralised aspects of employment policy, such as the stringent requirements for training courses that prove prohibitive for rural areas, as well as the urban-centric design of training courses. Further, the youth collectively express a strong desire for their voice to find expression in the design of active labour market policies. Keywords: halfway federal state; multilevel governance; rural NEET youth; rural policy framework; Spanish youth unemployment; top‐down government; urban‐rural disparity; urban‐rural gap Handle: RePEc:cog:poango:v12:y:2024:a:7450 Template-Type: ReDIF-Article 1.0 Title: The Importance of a Coordinated Career Guidance System in Addressing the Rural NEETs Issue File-URL: https://www.cogitatiopress.com/politicsandgovernance/article/view/7439 File-Format: text/html DOI: 10.17645/pag.7439 Journal: Politics and Governance Volume: 12 Year: 2024 Number: 7439 Author-Name: Blanka Bálint Author-Workplace-Name: Department of Social Sciences, Sapientia Hungarian University of Transylvania, Romania Author-Name: Balázs Telegdy Author-Workplace-Name: Department of Social Sciences, Sapientia Hungarian University of Transylvania, Romania Author-Name: Ede Lázár Author-Workplace-Name: Department of Business Sciences, Sapientia Hungarian University of Transylvania, Romania Abstract: A rapidly ageing population, the dual transition, major changes in the job market, and the coronavirus and its effects amplify existing disparities (gender gap, urban-rural cleavages), posing a considerable challenge for peripheral regions. In these circumstances, the labour market integration of young people who are neither in employment nor in education or training (NEET) is becoming increasingly urgent for peripheral regions such as rural areas. Various legislation, policies, and community-based interventions play a significant role in promoting integration. Still, subjective factors such as self-efficacy beliefs affect perceptions of career opportunities and can even prevent some from seizing opportunities. As a result, approaches to tackling the rural NEET issue need to focus on a long-term, sustainable solution. One could be career guidance, which helps individuals take charge of their lives and choose meaningful careers and educational paths. Consequently, our research aimed to identify the conditions in 22 European countries related to career guidance that lead to low rural NEET rates among 25–29-year-olds. Career guidance systems were explored through content analysis of country-specific reports on lifelong guidance systems and then analysed using the fuzzy-set qualitative comparative analysis. The research results draw attention to the importance of coordinated career guidance systems in preventing and (re)integrating NEETs, as it helps make informed, meaningful, and long-term career decisions. Keywords: active labour market policies; career guidance; governance; NEETs; peripheral regions; rurality Handle: RePEc:cog:poango:v12:y:2024:a:7439 Template-Type: ReDIF-Article 1.0 Title: Territorial Configurations of School‐To‐Work Outcomes in Europe File-URL: https://www.cogitatiopress.com/politicsandgovernance/article/view/7441 File-Format: text/html DOI: 10.17645/pag.7441 Journal: Politics and Governance Volume: 12 Year: 2024 Number: 7441 Author-Name: Ruggero Cefalo Author-Workplace-Name: Department of Sociology, University of Vienna, Austria Author-Name: Rosario Scandurra Author-Workplace-Name: Department of Sociology, Autonomous University of Barcelona, Spain / Center for Global Studies, Universidade Aberta, Portugal Author-Name: Yuri Kazepov Author-Workplace-Name: Department of Sociology, University of Vienna, Austria Abstract:Comparative research on school-to-work transitions mainly focused on country differences, examining the variation in institutional design and its impact on shaping youth labour market outcomes. The field has been dominated by a sort of methodological nationalism assuming nation states as homogeneous objects of comparison, while the territorial variations in youth transitions among sub-national territories have been less explored, notwithstanding their potential impact on life chances. In this article, we look at the outcomes of transitions in EU regions, comparing regional configurations of school-to-work transitions and their change over time. Is it possible to identify differences among groups of regions? To what extent do these patterns change over time? In order to answer these questions, we construct and analyse a longitudinal and systematic set of indicators that combine regional aggregated outcomes of transitions from education to work and regional contextual traits at the Nomenclature of Territorial Units for Statistics level 2 for the period 2007–2019. We perform two cluster analyses to describe regional differences and trends over time. The findings provide novel insights into the characteristics and patterns of an unequal geography of youth opportunities in Europe.
Keywords: education; labour market integration; school‐to‐work transition; spatial disparities; youth Handle: RePEc:cog:poango:v12:y:2024:a:7441 Template-Type: ReDIF-Article 1.0 Title: Digital Transformation and Digital Competences of Urban and Rural Polish Youths File-URL: https://www.cogitatiopress.com/politicsandgovernance/article/view/7381 File-Format: text/html DOI: 10.17645/pag.7381 Journal: Politics and Governance Volume: 12 Year: 2024 Number: 7381 Author-Name: Łukasz Tomczyk Author-Workplace-Name: Institute of Education, Jagiellonian University, Poland Abstract: This article explores the level of digital competence of young people in Poland, with the indirect aim being to show the differences in the level of digital competence for adolescents living in rural and urban areas. The research covered a sample of 985 respondents, from 11–18 years old, from Poland. The research was carried out within the EU Kids Online network. The survey tool related to the assessment of digital competences covered issues of installation of software on mobile devices, configuration of internet access as pertains to confidential information, information security awareness, management of information downloaded from the internet, configuration of social networks, e-shopping, verification of costs related to the use of additional software, advanced information search, checking the reliability of information, and editing online content. Descriptive statistics, k-means cluster analysis, one-way analysis of variance (non-parametric test), and correlations were used to show the differences between rural and urban adolescents in the indicated areas. The collected data offer several postulates for education and education policy, being not only diagnostic but also implementational. Based on the analysis of the data, it was noted that: (a) Eleven areas related to basic digital competence strongly differentiate between urban and rural young people; (b) rural young people rate their own digital competence lower than urban young people do; (c) a small percentage of young people from both rural and urban areas have low digital competence; (d) one well-developed area of key competence does not always co-occur with another well-developed area; and (e) the style of using new media among rural and urban young people is similar. Keywords: digital competences; digital skills; Poland; rural; urban; youth Handle: RePEc:cog:poango:v12:y:2024:a:7381 Template-Type: ReDIF-Article 1.0 Title: NEETs and Youth Guarantee Registration: Examining the Link to Past Undeclared Work File-URL: https://www.cogitatiopress.com/politicsandgovernance/article/view/7405 File-Format: text/html DOI: 10.17645/pag.7405 Journal: Politics and Governance Volume: 12 Year: 2024 Number: 7405 Author-Name: Antonella Rocca Author-Workplace-Name: Department of Management and Quantitative Studies, University of Naples “Parthenope,” Italy Author-Name: Omeed Agahi Author-Workplace-Name: Department of Pedagogy, University of Girona, Spain Author-Name: Mai Beilmann Author-Workplace-Name: Institute of Social Studies, University of Tartu, Estonia Author-Name: Leonor Bettencourt Author-Workplace-Name: Instituto Universitário de Lisboa (ISCTE), CIS‐Iscte, Lisboa, Portugal Author-Name: Natalia Edisherashvili Author-Workplace-Name: Institute of Education, University of Tartu, Estonia Author-Name: Elena Marta Author-Workplace-Name: Research Centre on Community Development and Organisational Quality of Life (CERISVICO), Università Cattolica del Sacro Cuore, Italy Author-Name: Paolo Mazzocchi Author-Workplace-Name: Department of Management and Quantitative Studies, University of Naples “Parthenope,” Italy Author-Name: Niall O’Higgins Author-Workplace-Name: International Labour Organization, Switzerland / Department of Economics and Statistics, University of Salerno, Italy Author-Name: Federica Pizzolante Author-Workplace-Name: Department of Management and Quantitative Studies, University of Naples “Parthenope,” Italy Author-Name: Òscar Prieto-Flores Author-Workplace-Name: Department of Pedagogy, University of Girona, Spain Author-Name: Ricardo Borges Rodrigues Author-Workplace-Name: Instituto Universitário de Lisboa (ISCTE), CIS‐Iscte, Lisboa, Portugal Author-Name: Miriam Rosa Author-Workplace-Name: Instituto Universitário de Lisboa (ISCTE), CIS‐Iscte, Lisboa, Portugal Author-Name: Francisco Simões Author-Workplace-Name: Instituto Universitário de Lisboa (ISCTE), CIS‐Iscte, Lisboa, Portugal Abstract: A myriad of factors influence young people’s vulnerability and the likelihood of becoming NEET. Moreover, the share of young NEETs in European countries is very high. Institutional and governmental initiatives aiming to promote the inclusion of young people in the labour market are of paramount importance. However, the socio-economic conditions and the level of vulnerability alongside other socio-demographic characteristics are likely to influence the extent to which young people ultimately engage with such programmes. The current study ascertains whether previous experience of informal work increases young people’s propensity to participate in programmes offered by public employment services, such as the Youth Guarantee Programme. Indeed, we hypothesise that the experience of working without a contract makes young people more aware and concerned about the risk of remaining trapped in a spiral of vulnerable jobs. To test this, we used data from a survey of 4,273 NEETs and focused on Italy, Portugal, and Spain. The study’s findings contribute to a better understanding of the relationship between past experience in the informal economy and engagement with the Youth Guarantee. Besides contributing to the literature, the study can also contribute to policy making and practitioners’ assessment of the relative efficacy of Youth Guarantee initiatives among different subgroups of young NEET and tailor the interventions accordingly. In other words, the outcomes of this study should signal to governments that greater efforts should be made to implement initiatives reaching out to young people, as well as acting to reduce the precariousness in job contracts, which negatively impacts their quality of life. Keywords: informal work; Italy; NEETs; Portugal; public employment services; Spain; youth;Youth Guarantee Handle: RePEc:cog:poango:v12:y:2024:a:7405 Template-Type: ReDIF-Article 1.0 Title: Subjective Well‐Being of NEETs and Employability: A Study of Non‐Urban Youths in Spain, Italy, and Portugal File-URL: https://www.cogitatiopress.com/politicsandgovernance/article/view/7415 File-Format: text/html DOI: 10.17645/pag.7415 Journal: Politics and Governance Volume: 12 Year: 2024 Number: 7415 Author-Name: Paolo Mazzocchi Author-Workplace-Name: Department of Management and Quantitative Studies, University of Naples Parthenope, Italy Author-Name: Omeed Agahi Author-Workplace-Name: School of Education and Psychology, University of Girona, Spain Author-Name: Mai Beilmann Author-Workplace-Name: Institute of Social Studies, University of Tartu, Estonia Author-Name: Leonor Bettencourt Author-Workplace-Name: Instituto Universitário de Lisboa (ISCTE), CIS‐Iscte, Lisboa, Portugal Author-Name: Rūta Brazienė Author-Workplace-Name: Faculty of Philosophy, Vilnius University, Lithuania Author-Name: Natalia Edisherashvili Author-Workplace-Name: Institute of Education, University of Tartu, Estonia Author-Name: Dilyana Keranova Author-Workplace-Name: South‐West University “Neofit Rilski,” Bulgaria Author-Name: Elena Marta Author-Workplace-Name: Research Centre on Community Development and Organisational Quality of Life (CERISVICO), Università Cattolica del Sacro Cuore, Italy Author-Name: Valentina Milenkova Author-Workplace-Name: South‐West University “Neofit Rilski,” Bulgaria Author-Name: Niall O’Higgins Author-Workplace-Name: International Labour Organization, Switzerland Author-Name: Federica Pizzolante Author-Workplace-Name: Department of Management and Quantitative Studies, University of Naples Parthenope, Italy Author-Name: Òscar Prieto-Flores Author-Workplace-Name: School of Education and Psychology, University of Girona, Spain Author-Name: Antonella Rocca Author-Workplace-Name: Department of Management and Quantitative Studies, University of Naples Parthenope, Italy Author-Name: Ricardo Borges Rodrigues Author-Workplace-Name: Instituto Universitário de Lisboa (ISCTE), CIS‐Iscte, Lisboa, Portugal Author-Name: Miriam Rosa Author-Workplace-Name: Instituto Universitário de Lisboa (ISCTE), CIS‐Iscte, Lisboa, Portugal Author-Name: Francisco Simões Author-Workplace-Name: Instituto Universitário de Lisboa (ISCTE), CIS‐Iscte, Lisboa, Portugal Author-Name: Borislav Yurukov Author-Workplace-Name: South‐West University “Neofit Rilski,” Bulgaria Abstract: Subjective well-being is of paramount importance when support is offered to young individuals seeking employment and social inclusion in general. The present study looks at different dimensions of youth well-being and the growing demands for skills to enable labour market integration. Based on survey data, this article examines the relationships between the role of public employment services in providing support and their impact on the subjective well-being of youth. Specifically, 1,275 not in education, employment, or training (NEET) rural youths from Italy, Portugal, and Spain participated in the survey. Drawing upon Bronfenbrenner’s bioecological model, the current study sets up a model which includes different factors at the micro-, meso-, exo-, and macro-system levels. The results show that non-urban NEETs’ subjective well-being is associated positively with public employment services availability, while the relationship with public employment services interaction and public employment services support is non-significant. A positive and significant relationship emerged also with self-efficacy and social support. Some recommendations for policymakers are discussed. Keywords: European Union; Italy; NEETs; non‐urban youths; Portugal; public employment services; Spain; well‐being Handle: RePEc:cog:poango:v12:y:2024:a:7415 Template-Type: ReDIF-Article 1.0 Title: Public Employment Services' Responses to the Pandemic: Examples from Portugal, Bulgaria, and Lithuania File-URL: https://www.cogitatiopress.com/politicsandgovernance/article/view/7437 File-Format: text/html DOI: 10.17645/pag.7437 Journal: Politics and Governance Volume: 12 Year: 2024 Number: 7437 Author-Name: Ana Sofia Ribeiro Author-Workplace-Name: Institute of Social Sciences, University of Lisbon, Portugal Author-Name: Vladislava Lendzhova Author-Workplace-Name: South‐West University “Neofit Rilski,” Bulgaria Author-Name: Sonata Vyšniauskienė Author-Workplace-Name: Institute of Sociology and Social Work, Vilnius University, Lithuania Author-Name: Tatiana Ferreira Author-Workplace-Name: School of Education, Polytechnic Institute of Santarém, Portugal Author-Name: João Carlos Sousa Author-Workplace-Name: Institute of Social Sciences, University of Lisbon, Portugal Author-Name: Isabel Roque Author-Workplace-Name: Institute of Social Sciences, University of Lisbon, Portugal Author-Name: Kerli Kõiv Author-Workplace-Name: Institute of Education, University of Tartu, Estonia Author-Name: Katrin Saks Author-Workplace-Name: Institute of Education, University of Tartu, Estonia Author-Name: Omeed Agahi Author-Workplace-Name: Department of Education and Psychology, University of Girona, Spain Author-Name: Òscar Prieto‐Flores Author-Workplace-Name: Department of Education and Psychology, University of Girona, Spain Author-Name: Niall O’Higgins Author-Workplace-Name: International Labour Organization, Switzerland / Department of Economic Sciences and Statistics (DIES), University of Salerno, Italy Abstract: The Covid-19 pandemic provoked critical changes to welfare in Europe, requiring the dematerialisation of programmes and services while relying mainly on remote support. This study aims to present insights into how European public employment services have coped and adapted to the pandemic challenges, particularly regarding the digitalisation and delivery of services to young people in rural areas. It focuses on three case studies from distinct European regions: Portugal, Bulgaria, and Lithuania. It is based on an exploratory survey of public employment services national offices and qualitative data collected from public employment services offices in rural settings. It highlights the advantages and dangers of the adoption of digitalisation processes, namely considering literacy and accessibility in diverse contexts. It concludes that despite cultural and regional differences, all three countries evidenced an acceleration in service provision due to digitalisation and were capable of adjusting their practices to remote delivery. However, rural areas faced delays due to poor infrastructure, and after the pandemic, public employment privileged on-site delivery, since it is considered more effective in the training and counselling of young people. Keywords: Bulgaria; Covid‐19; digitalisation; Lithuania; Portugal; public employment services Handle: RePEc:cog:poango:v12:y:2024:a:7437 Template-Type: ReDIF-Article 1.0 Title: Public Employment Services and Vulnerable Youth in the EU: The Case of Rural NEETs File-URL: https://www.cogitatiopress.com/politicsandgovernance/article/view/7432 File-Format: text/html DOI: 10.17645/pag.7432 Journal: Politics and Governance Volume: 12 Year: 2024 Number: 7432 Author-Name: Francisco Simões Author-Workplace-Name: Instituto Universitário de Lisboa (ISCTE), CIS‐Iscte, Lisboa, Portugal Author-Name: Elena Marta Author-Workplace-Name: Department of Psychology, Università Cattolica del Sacro Cuore, Italy / Research Centre on Community Development and Organisational Quality of Life (CERISVICO), Università Cattolica del Sacro Cuore, Italy Abstract: The Covid-19 pandemic created unprecedented pressure to accelerate public employment services (PES) digitalisation across Europe. In fact, there is now a considerable amount of funding dedicated to that goal in broadband policy packages, such as the Recovery and Resilience Mechanism. This pressure for digitalizing PES presumes that its benefits outweigh the existing risks, regardless of citizens’ singularities, such as vulnerable young people going through the school-to-work transition. Bearing that in mind, and following a bioecological model framework, our article addresses two main goals. Firstly, based on a targeted literature review, we detail the challenges and possibilities posed by PES digitalisation for vulnerable young people in EU countries, which have been widely overlooked in the literature. We specifically argue that despite several practical advantages (e.g., releasing staff from time-consuming administrative tasks), PES digitalisation will only be beneficial for vulnerable young people if three interrelated challenges are taken into account: nurturing trust in institutions and digital tools, supporting digital transformation of PES institutional organization, and adopting a co-design lens for PES digitalisation. Secondly, using a knowledge integration approach, we describe a model for assessing PES capacity to digitally support rural young people not in employment, education, or training to enter the labour market. We conclude that the overemphasis on the expected advances of overall PES digitalisation must be followed by thoughtful consideration of PES digitalisation processes to ensure EU social inclusion targets for the younger generations. Keywords: digitalisation; EU; NEET; public employment services; rurality; school to work transition; young people Handle: RePEc:cog:poango:v12:y:2024:a:7432 Template-Type: ReDIF-Article 1.0 Title: Active Labour Market Policies and Youth Employment in European Peripheries File-URL: https://www.cogitatiopress.com/politicsandgovernance/article/view/7958 File-Format: text/html DOI: 10.17645/pag.7958 Journal: Politics and Governance Volume: 12 Year: 2024 Number: 7958 Author-Name: Francisco Simões Author-Workplace-Name: Instituto Universitário de Lisboa (ISCTE), CIS‐Iscte, Lisboa, Portugal Author-Name: Jale Tosun Author-Workplace-Name: Institute of Political Science, Heidelberg University, Germany Abstract: This thematic issue discusses the design, implementation, and impact of youth-oriented active labour market policies in Europe, with a particular emphasis on its peripheries. The need to address territorialised, youth-oriented active labour market policies is pressing for several reasons. For one, the whole socioeconomic paradigm is undergoing fundamental changes due to the dual transition (digital and green) that is expected to have an impact on the rural/urban divide. Moreover, at the subnational level, youth unemployment in certain regions is a more pressing problem than suggested by existing studies, which have mostly focused on the national level. This implies that closer inspection of the subnational level, in general, and the peripheral regions, in particular, will reveal more marked cross-national differences. This thematic issue offers a point of departure for the suggested territorialised approach to the study of how active labour market policies for young people are formulated and implemented, and which effects they have on their target groups. Keywords: active labour market policies; EU; European Youth Guarantee; NEETs; public employment services; school‐to‐work transition; rural areas; wellbeing; youth unemployment Handle: RePEc:cog:poango:v12:y:2024:a:7958 Template-Type: ReDIF-Article 1.0 Title: Human Security of Inuit and Sámi in the 21st Century: The Canadian and Finnish Cases File-URL: https://www.cogitatiopress.com/politicsandgovernance/article/view/7254 File-Format: text/html DOI: 10.17645/pag.7254 Journal: Politics and Governance Volume: 12 Year: 2024 Number: 7254 Author-Name: Céline Rodrigues Author-Workplace-Name: Department of Political Studies, NOVA University of Lisbon, Portugal Abstract: In a changing territorial and geopolitical moment of the Arctic region, are the Indigenous Peoples Organizations heard at the regional level and are the Arctic states working to keep them safe and secure? To safeguard the human security of Arctic Indigenous peoples, Arctic states (and their governments) have to understand the needs and changes that are affecting their way of life as well as to be able to cooperate between them. In a comparative study of Canada’s and Finland’s Arctic policies—Canada’s Arctic and Northern Policy Framework (2019) and Finland’s Strategy for Arctic Policy (2021)—it is possible to identify the applicability of the human security approach, which is influenced by the truth and reconciliation process between Canada and Inuit and Finland and Sámi. This process is a main factor in having their human rights respected and their human security safeguarded, considering that the relation between the countries of the North and the South of the Arctic countries is a discovery of their diversity (linguistical and cultural) in the 21st century. In my perspective, and for a participative democracy to be applied as mentioned by the green political theory (following the views of scholars like Barry, Eckersley, and Goodin), states and governments need to be open and recognise the gaps identified by those communities and transnational organisations. Keywords: Arctic; Canada; Finland; human security; Inuit; Sámi Handle: RePEc:cog:poango:v12:y:2024:a:7254 Template-Type: ReDIF-Article 1.0 Title: Continuous Militarization as a Mode of Governance of Indigenous People in the Russian Arctic File-URL: https://www.cogitatiopress.com/politicsandgovernance/article/view/7505 File-Format: text/html DOI: 10.17645/pag.7505 Journal: Politics and Governance Volume: 12 Year: 2024 Number: 7505 Author-Name: Vladislava Vladimirova Author-Workplace-Name: Uppsala University, Sweden Abstract: This article analyzes ethnographic data that shows long-term militarization forms a significant part of state governance of the population and environment in the Arctic. Kola Peninsula, the study region, is a borderland with the West and has since the 1950s been a heavily militarized area. Applying insights from research on militarization, subjectivities, materiality, borders, and regionalism in autocratic regimes, I show how militarization shapes the environment and the lives of Indigenous reindeer herders. Despite discourses of demilitarization in the 1990s, Kola Peninsula did not move away from militarization as part of governance. The article explores what I call continuous militarization by engaging with two phenomena: (a) fencing off territories for military use and infrastructure, and (b) nuclear pollution. It discusses the interrelations of materiality and knowledge in maintaining Indigenous subjectivities and culture in line with the objectives of militarization, and shows how Russia uses participation in the Barents Euro-Arctic Region to support the objectives of militarization and justify them to the local population. The article finds that militarization is employed by the authorities to solidify the current autocratic regime among residents in the Arctic. Keywords: Arctic; Indigenous people; Kola Peninsula; militarization; regional governance; Russia Handle: RePEc:cog:poango:v12:y:2024:a:7505 Template-Type: ReDIF-Article 1.0 Title: Costly Signaling and China's Strategic Engagement in Arctic Regional Governance File-URL: https://www.cogitatiopress.com/politicsandgovernance/article/view/7222 File-Format: text/html DOI: 10.17645/pag.7222 Journal: Politics and Governance Volume: 12 Year: 2024 Number: 7222 Author-Name: Yaohui Wang Author-Workplace-Name: Department of International Relations, Nankai University, China Author-Name: Yanhong Ma Author-Workplace-Name: School of Political Science & International Relations, Tongji University, China Abstract: In recent years, China has become an increasingly important actor in Arctic regional governance. While Beijing consistently frames its engagement in the region as a strategy of mutually-beneficial cooperation, some Arctic countries have raised significant concerns about its growing economic presence, warning that China may leverage its geopolitical influence to change the existing norms and rules in the polar region. Facing the mounting “China threat” skepticism, what are Beijing’s coping strategies to belie concerns? Based on a review of the existing research and government documents, particularly Chinese-language scholarly works and official reports, this article specifically identifies two types of costly signaling approaches employed by China to reduce Arctic countries’ distrust. First, China has started to curtail its Arctic investment in oil, gas, and mining while engaging more in sectors that chime well with Western societies’ global environmental values, including clean and renewable energy, ecological research that addresses further climatic change associated with global warming, and other environmentally sustainable industries. Second, Beijing has increasingly involved in regional international organizations, such as the Arctic Council, to signal its willingness to exercise state power under institutional constraints. These approaches aim to send a series of costly signals to conventional Arctic states, reassuring them that China is not a revisionist power that pursues hegemony in the region. Taken together, our findings have both scholarly and policymaking implications to understand China’s participation in Arctic regional governance. Keywords: Arctic governance; Chinese diplomacy; costly signaling; global environmental values; sustainable development Handle: RePEc:cog:poango:v12:y:2024:a:7222 Template-Type: ReDIF-Article 1.0 Title: Russia’s Security Perceptions and Arctic Governance File-URL: https://www.cogitatiopress.com/politicsandgovernance/article/view/7313 File-Format: text/html DOI: 10.17645/pag.7313 Journal: Politics and Governance Volume: 12 Year: 2024 Number: 7313 Author-Name: Angela Borozna Author-Workplace-Name: Department of Politics, Administration and Justice, California State University, USA Abstract: Russia’s war in Ukraine further strained Russia’s relations with the West and negatively influenced Arctic regional governance, especially after seven members of the Arctic Council paused cooperation with Russia. The rationale of the suspension was to express disapproval by seven Arctic states of Russia’s aggression in Ukraine. However, the suspension of cooperation with Russia within the Arctic Council format prompted some observers to question the relevance and utility of the institution. Russia never expressed its wish to leave the Council and continues to express its desire for multilateral cooperation in the region. This raises the question: Can Russia’s assertive stance in Ukraine coexist with peaceful cooperation in the Arctic? In order to answer this question, this article addresses the following questions: How does the geopolitical tension shape Russia’s approach to Arctic governance? And what is the role of military and economic security in Russia’s Arctic policy? The article uses a comparative method combined with discourse analysis to establish a change in Russia’s view on Arctic governance before and after the war in Ukraine. Keywords: Arctic Council; Arctic governance; economic security; militarization; military security; Northern Sea Route; Russia; security; threat perception Handle: RePEc:cog:poango:v12:y:2024:a:7313 Template-Type: ReDIF-Article 1.0 Title: Russia's Clashing Ambitions: Arctic Status Quo and World‐Order Revision File-URL: https://www.cogitatiopress.com/politicsandgovernance/article/view/7311 File-Format: text/html DOI: 10.17645/pag.7311 Journal: Politics and Governance Volume: 12 Year: 2024 Number: 7311 Author-Name: Torbjørn Pedersen Author-Workplace-Name: Faculty of Social Sciences, Nord University, Norway Author-Name: Beate Steinveg Author-Workplace-Name: Faculty of Social Sciences, Nord University, Norway Abstract: Moscow explicitly challenges what it depicts as a Western-led world order amid shifts in the global balance of power. However, while Russia has emerged as a fundamentally revisionist power in the global system, it has sought to maintain the status quo in Arctic regional governance, that is, to preserve the institutions and arrangements that have cemented its status as a great regional power on top of the world. This study, challenging the notions of Arctic exceptionalism and a distinct Arctic regional order, points out an obvious inconsistency in Russia’s approach. It argues that Moscow’s attempt at dismantling the world order while maintaining the status quo in the Arctic seems bound to fail simply because the current rules-based, liberal international order has also been the order of the Arctic. In conclusion, this study finds that Russia so far has been more successful in diminishing its own Arctic status and isolating itself from formal as well as informal arrangements than revising them. Keywords: Arctic Council; Arctic exceptionalism; Arctic governance; liberal international order; regimes; Russia Handle: RePEc:cog:poango:v12:y:2024:a:7311 Template-Type: ReDIF-Article 1.0 Title: Governing Arctic Seals: A Longitudinal Analysis of News and Policy Discourse File-URL: https://www.cogitatiopress.com/politicsandgovernance/article/view/7304 File-Format: text/html DOI: 10.17645/pag.7304 Journal: Politics and Governance Volume: 12 Year: 2024 Number: 7304 Author-Name: Charlotte Gehrke Author-Workplace-Name: Faculty of Social Sciences, Nord University, Norway Abstract: Arctic states, regional and local authorities, NGOs, and Indigenous communities have debated how Arctic seals should be governed for more than a century. This governance discourse covers a wide array of issues, from seal hunting and the sale of animal products to the impacts of pollution and climate change. This article examines the frames used by political entities to discuss the regional governance of Arctic seals in the North American Arctic from 1900–2020, a period defined by landmark agreements on seals. Informed by framing and agenda-setting theory, the article employs textual analysis of policy documents and newspaper articles. These serve as a source of information and space for policy advocacy and debate to study political entities’ discourse regarding the issues and policies that shape Arctic seal governance. The analysis focuses on English-language texts from regional and local newspapers and international newspapers of record. The article identifies four dominant frames, namely perceived threats to (a) economic revenue, (b) animal welfare, (c) Indigenous ways of life, and (d) threats emanating from the involvement of NGOs in Arctic regional governance. Each of these frames is associated with one or multiple political entities involved in the regional governance of seals. The article demonstrates how the dominance of these entities and the frames they employ varies over time and corresponds to several anthropogenic threats to seals, including commercial hunting, pollution, and climate change. The article concludes that tensions between local and regional entities and international and non-Arctic entities are reflective of broader Arctic regional governance dynamics. Keywords: agenda‐setting; Arctic governance; conservation; environmental policy; hunting; journalism; marine mammals; seals Handle: RePEc:cog:poango:v12:y:2024:a:7304 Template-Type: ReDIF-Article 1.0 Title: Climate Change and Institutional Resilience in Arctic Environmental Governance File-URL: https://www.cogitatiopress.com/politicsandgovernance/article/view/7369 File-Format: text/html DOI: 10.17645/pag.7369 Journal: Politics and Governance Volume: 12 Year: 2024 Number: 7369 Author-Name: Olav Schram Stokke Author-Workplace-Name: Department of Political Science, University of Oslo, Norway / Fridtjof Nansen Institute, Norway Abstract: This article highlights recent successes and failures in efforts to manage Arctic marine living resources to improve our understanding of institutional resilience—that is, the ability of cooperative institutions to maintain their performance despite severe disruptions to their operating environments. Rising ocean temperatures and other impacts of climate change may alter the spatial distribution of fish stocks, including their relative attachment to exclusive economic zones and their availability on the high seas. As evident in the examined Arctic cases, which involve the world’s largest stocks of cod, herring and mackerel, such changes may complicate core resource management tasks, including the regulatory task of reaching an agreement among user states on quotas and other restraints that align with scientific advice. The cross-case variance in regulatory resilience to climate-related and other changes in cooperative circumstances sheds light on general propositions regarding the drivers and inhibitors of institutional resilience, including institutional characteristics and the severity of the political challenges posed by changing circumstances. Keywords: Arctic; climate change; environmental governance; fishery management; institutional resilience Handle: RePEc:cog:poango:v12:y:2024:a:7369 Template-Type: ReDIF-Article 1.0 Title: Arctic Regional Governance: Actors and Transformations File-URL: https://www.cogitatiopress.com/politicsandgovernance/article/view/7714 File-Format: text/html DOI: 10.17645/pag.7714 Journal: Politics and Governance Volume: 12 Year: 2024 Number: 7714 Author-Name: Anastassia Obydenkova Author-Workplace-Name: Institute for Economic Analysis—Spanish National Research Council (IAE—CSIC), Spain Abstract: This thematic issue analyzes recent and ongoing changes in Arctic regional governance in new geopolitical, security, and socio-economic contexts. It places current challenges in the Arctic within a historical context, aspiring to identify solutions, and enhances our understanding of modern processes. It presents three perspectives on Arctic regional governance: the first focuses on the challenges to Arctic environmental governance (marine living resources and Arctic seals); the second looks at the role of large nation-states, such as Russia and China, in Arctic regional governance; and the third one analyses the challenges posed to Indigenous people—in Russia, Finland, and Canada. Many overlapping themes are developed in the articles: historical lessons (e.g., from the Cold War period), challenges to the inclusiveness of environmental governance, and the role of cross-border diffusion and learning. New challenges to Arctic regional governance in the context of the war in Ukraine affect environmental governance, international scientific collaboration, and the lives of Indigenous people. Yet we know little about the depth of these recent transformations. This thematic issue aims to fill in at least some of the outlined gaps. Keywords: Arctic governance; Arctic transformations; environmental governance; Indigenous people Handle: RePEc:cog:poango:v12:y:2024:a:7714