Fiddling while Democracy Burns: Partisan Reactions to Weak Democracy in Latin America

2021 ◽  
pp. 1-18
Author(s):  
Matthew M. Singer
Keyword(s):  
Latin America ◽  
Survey Data ◽  
The Political ◽  
Mass Survey ◽  
Political Opposition ◽  
The Public ◽  
Current State ◽  
Public Pressure ◽  
Democratic Performance

Democracy is weakened when citizens and elites do not criticize actions or actors that undermine its principles. Yet this study documents a widespread pattern of partisan rationalization in how elites and the public evaluate democratic performance in Latin America. Survey data show that those whose party controls the presidency consistently express positive evaluations of the current state of democratic competition and institutions even when democracy in their country is weak. This pattern emerges in both mass survey data and among elected elites. These data have a worrying implication: if only the political opposition is willing to publicly acknowledge and sound the alarm when democracy is under attack, public pressure to protect democracy is likely to be dramatically reduced.

Second Generation Reform in Latin America: Reforming the public sector in Uruguay and Mexico

2005 ◽  
Vol 37 (4) ◽  
pp. 667-691 ◽  
Author(s):  
FRANCISCO PANIZZA ◽  
GEORGE PHILIP
Keyword(s):  
Latin America ◽  
Public Sector ◽  
Significant Role ◽  
Second Generation ◽  
Political Context ◽  
The Political ◽  
The Public ◽  
Reform Legislation ◽  
The Way

Uruguay and Mexico have both passed laws aiming to professionalise the public sector bureaucracy according to what might be considered ‘second generation’ reform principles. They did so under what might initially have seemed to be politically unpropitious circumstances. The reforms might have been vetoed by interests that feared that they would lose out from the changes, but were not. They might have been blocked by conditions of minority presidentialism, but were not. This article seeks to explain the successful passing of this reform legislation. Framing issues played a significant role in reducing opposition. Notably important was the way in which the reforms were presented, and specifically the ability of their proponents to avoid presenting them as market-friendly reforms. The political context also provided the reformers with arguments that in the end proved persuasive.

Wer wählt „Die PARTEI“? Eine empirische Analyse am Beispiel der Europawahl 2019

2021 ◽  
Vol 52 (3) ◽  
pp. 596-617
Author(s):  
Markus Klein
Keyword(s):  
Economic System ◽  
Survey Data ◽  
Editorial Staff ◽  
West Germany ◽  
The Political ◽  
Left Wing ◽  
Cross Border ◽  
Current State ◽  
Empirische Analyse ◽  
To Come

The party “Die PARTEI” was founded in 2004 by editorial staff of the satirical magazine TITANIC and represents a cross-border satirical project: The PARTEI satirizes and carica­tures the existing parties and their personnel, while at the same time participating as a real party in real elections . However, it does not show any serious political aspirations . Based on data from official election statistics and on survey data, this article examines the question of who votes for the PARTEI: It shows that PARTEI voters are primarily young men up to the age of 35, who are often still studying and are somewhat more likely to come from East than West Germany . They are interested in politics, dissatisfied with the current state of German democracy, and politically left-wing . Their voting decision in favour of the PAR­TEI is primarily a vote of no confidence in the political and economic system of the Fed­eral Republic of Germany . PARTEI voters prefer voting for a satirical party instead of cast­ing an invalid vote .

Past and Future of Kurdish Autonomy in Syria: Prospects of the Autonomy in the Time of COVID-19

2021 ◽  
Vol 7 (1) ◽  
pp. 5-38
Author(s):  
Hilly Moodrick-Even Khen
Keyword(s):  
Public Health ◽  
Central Government ◽  
The Political ◽  
Practical Application ◽  
The Public ◽  
Political Status ◽  
Current State ◽  
Health Situation ◽  
Syrian Conflict ◽  
Near Future

This article focuses on the current COVID-19 implications for the fissure between the Syrian regime and the Kurds in Syria. It explains how the Syrian Kurds cope with COVID-19, given the region’s political status and the current state of play in the Syrian war. It sheds light on (1) the practical application of Kurdish semi-autonomy in Syria along with its successes and shortcomings in the public health sphere; and (2) how COVID-19 has affected intra-Kurdish politics in Syria and Kurdistan. Although changes in the political framework of Syria are not expected in the near future, the pandemic has underscored the fissures between the Kurds and the central government. Since the pandemic reached Syria, the Syrian government has almost completely neglected the health situation in the Kurdish territories. The Kurdish Autonomous Administration, in turn, recruited all the means at its disposal to cope independently with the crisis. These on-the-ground developments are signs for both the overt and covert, anxious hopes and strivings of the Kurds for autonomy. To assess the prospects for Kurdish autonomy, the article also analyzes the Kurds’ relationships with the states involved in the Syrian conflict and the historical landmarks of intra-Kurdish politics.

The New News and the 1992 Presidential Campaign: Perceived vs. Actual Political Knowledge

1995 ◽  
Vol 72 (4) ◽  
pp. 786-798 ◽  
Author(s):  
Barry A. Hollander
Keyword(s):  
Survey Data ◽  
News Coverage ◽  
Political Knowledge ◽  
Presidential Campaign ◽  
Talk Shows ◽  
The Political ◽  
The Public ◽  
Late Night

Nontraditional news coverage, the so-called new news, emerged as a major factor in the 1992 presidential campaign. Little is known, however, about whether attention to the political content of such programs informs the public or simply provides the perception of being informed. Analysis of survey data reveals that attention to MTV and late-night programs is either unrelated to or negatively impacts campaign knowledge. Attention to talk shows is positively related to knowledge. While respondents perceive themselves as being informed by talk shows, for the less educated such attention is unrelated to campaign knowledge.

The Rights of the Political Opposition in an Islamic Society

2020 ◽  
pp. 246-270
Author(s):  
Mohsen Kadivar
Keyword(s):  
Public Sphere ◽  
The Political ◽  
Political Opposition ◽  
The Public ◽  
Freedom Fighters ◽  
History Of ◽  
Political Freedoms ◽  
The Public Sphere ◽  
The Right ◽  
Islamic Society

Using the Ashura movement and the way of Husain b. Ali as case studies, this chapter proves that political freedoms are an integral part of the presence of Islam in the public sphere. The massacre at Karbala was one of the biggest turning points in the history of Islam. This chapter discusses this tragedy from the perspective of human rights, focusing on the rights of political opposition in the shari‘a. Husain b. Ali is the best example of political opposition against unjust rulers in the history of Islam. There are three concepts that should not be confused: political opposition, baghi and muharib. Muharib refers to opposition in the form of terrorists and criminals, while baghi refers to regime changers or freedom fighters. These are the sections of this chapter: Husain b. Ali as the Political Opponent of the Umayyads, The Right to Not Have Allegiance to a State, Accepting the Invitation of the Dissidents to Change the Oppressive Ruler, Baghi and Overthrow, The Crime of Muharabah and Armed Insecurity, The Rights of the Political Opponent, and Imam Husain and the Duty of Forbidding the Wrong.

The Conservative Backlash against Gender in Latin America

2020 ◽  
Vol 16 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Flávia Biroli ◽  
Mariana Caminotti
Keyword(s):  
Latin America ◽  
Costa Rica ◽  
Gender And Sexuality ◽  
Natural Order ◽  
The Political ◽  
Far Right ◽  
Popular Support ◽  
The Public ◽  
National Values ◽  
The Family

Gender is central to the political disputes in Latin America today. Although conflicts concerning women and LGBTQ rights are not new, only recently have they become a dividing line in the public identities of parties, politicians, and candidates. The second decade of the 2000s brought the opposition to gender forward in the platforms of far-right movements and leaders, raising popular support as they mobilized conservative frameworks and antagonized feminist and LGBTQ activism. Their promises to protect the family from a supposed moral disorder made gender a popular category, strategically presented as an “ideology” threatening children, marriage, the natural order, and national values. Elections such as those in Brazil and Costa Rica in 2018 indicate that conflicts concerning gender and sexuality can also produce new electoral cleavages.

scholarly journals ‘The new but lonely voice against the authoritarianism’: humor and irony in Turkish political discourse after the Taksim Gezi Park Protests

2017 ◽  
Vol 5 (2) ◽  
pp. 23
Author(s):  
Gunes Ekin Aksan
Keyword(s):  
Democratic Party ◽  
Ethnic Politics ◽  
The Political ◽  
New Wave ◽  
Political Climate ◽  
Political Opposition ◽  
Major Party ◽  
The Public ◽  
Public Square ◽  
Turkish Politics

This study investigates the diffusion of a new political language based on humour and irony into Turkish politics. The Taksim Gezi Park Protests, in addition to introducing a new subject to Turkish politics, led to a new language that places humour at the centre. The Government’s neoliberal and authoritarian policies and tight control over traditional media shaped the resistance to be humoristic and indirect. People used alternative media to voice their dissent, mainly in the form of social media messages in addition to street performances, graffiti, videos and murals. This new wave of humour, which I prefer to call the “public square humour” emphasised creativity, improvisation and pluralism via the usage of traditional conversational humour mechanisms of the Turkish folk narratives. I investigate the effect of this new wave of humour on the professional politicians over the course of following years after the protests in an increasingly authoritarian political climate. I analyse the Twitter messages of four major party leaders and politicians who are active in Twitter, both qualitatively and quantitatively. With the methods of the discourse analysis I identify the political parties that embrace the new language of the political opposition. Finally, I conclude that Demirtas embraces the public square humour better and makes use of it to underline the transformation of HDP (People’s Democratic Party) from a defendant of ethnic politics to the representative of the new voice of Turkish political opposition.

Democrazy—Dem Go Craze, O: Monitoring the 1999 Nigerian Elections

1999 ◽  
Vol 27 (1) ◽  
pp. 29-33
Author(s):  
Darren Kew
Keyword(s):  
Transition Program ◽  
The Political ◽  
High Stakes ◽  
Political Class ◽  
Soccer Match ◽  
The Public ◽  
The Military

In many respects, the least important part of the 1999 elections were the elections themselves. From the beginning of General Abdusalam Abubakar’s transition program in mid-1998, most Nigerians who were not part of the wealthy “political class” of elites—which is to say, most Nigerians— adopted their usual politically savvy perspective of siddon look (sit and look). They waited with cautious optimism to see what sort of new arrangement the military would allow the civilian politicians to struggle over, and what in turn the civilians would offer the public. No one had any illusions that anything but high-stakes bargaining within the military and the political class would determine the structures of power in the civilian government. Elections would influence this process to the extent that the crowd influences a soccer match.

Palestinian Diaspora Communities in Latin America and Palestinian Statehood

2020 ◽  
Vol 19 (1) ◽  
pp. 101-120
Author(s):  
Yousef M. Aljamal ◽  
Philipp O. Amour
Keyword(s):  
Latin America ◽  
South America ◽  
Latin American ◽  
Economic Life ◽  
Self Determination ◽  
The Political ◽  
Middle Classes ◽  
Latin Americans ◽  
Political Views ◽  
The Right

There are some 700,000 Latin Americans of Palestinian origin, living in fourteen countries of South America. In particular, Palestinian diaspora communities have a considerable presence in Chile, Honduras, and El Salvador. Many members of these communities belong to the professional middle classes, a situation which enables them to play a prominent role in the political and economic life of their countries. The article explores the evolving attitudes of Latin American Palestinians towards the issue of Palestinian statehood. It shows the growing involvement of these communities in Palestinian affairs and their contribution in recent years towards the wide recognition of Palestinian rights — including the right to self-determination and statehood — in Latin America. But the political views of members of these communities also differ considerably about the form and substance of a Palestinian statehood and on the issue of a two-states versus one-state solution.

Sign in / Sign up

Export Citation Format

Share Document