scholarly journals DP 0255 - ‘Robin Hood in Reverse’: persistence and barriers to redistributive fiscal policy

2021 ◽  
pp. 1-31
Author(s):  
Pedro Cavalcante
Keyword(s):  
Fiscal Policy ◽  
Median Voter ◽  
Political Competition ◽  
Left Wing ◽  
Electoral Rules ◽  
Robin Hood ◽  
Brazilian Government ◽  
Income Disparities ◽  
Unequal Income Distribution ◽  
Business Influence

Despite improvements in the living conditions of the population, there has not been a significant change in income disparities. Since the growth of left-wing parties and political competition as per the median voter hypothesis do not stand in the Brazilian case, what could explain the tenacity of inequality in the country? To answer this, the paper, grounded in new institutionalism theory, employed a process-tracing method to explore the causes of the continuity of unequal income distribution in Brazil. The inquiry tests the mechanism using the case of redistributive fiscal policy and the literature of electoral rules and business influence in the political system. This analysis reinforces that the Brazilian government not only misuses its fiscal instruments to distribute income, but also acts as a ‘Robin Hood in reverse’: that is, it withdraws from those who have less to subsidize or pay transfers to those who have more.

scholarly journals Corruption, Campaigning, and Novelty: The 2020 Parliamentary Elections and the Evolving Patterns of Party Politics in Slovakia

2021 ◽  
pp. 088832542110127
Author(s):  
Tim Haughton ◽  
Marek Rybář ◽  
Kevin Deegan-Krause
Keyword(s):  
Central And Eastern Europe ◽  
Good Governance ◽  
Political Competition ◽  
General Trend ◽  
Party Politics ◽  
Ordinary People ◽  
Electoral Rules ◽  
Forward Movement ◽  
Parliamentary Elections ◽  
The Impact

Party politics across Central and Eastern Europe has become less structured. Many of the divides that anchored political competition have waned in recent years, weakening the attachment of voters to the existing palette of parties and making them more likely to be attracted to new and non-traditional electoral vehicles. But for such parties to succeed at the ballot box, they need to be able to frame elections and campaign effectively. Drawing on data from a specially commissioned survey, we find that the success of Ordinary People and Independent Personalities (OĽaNO) led by Igor Matovič in the 2020 parliamentary elections in Slovakia owed much to the crafting of an anti-corruption appeal combined with an effective campaign. Both mobilization and conversion of voters, particularly through television and the leaders’ debates, in the months leading up to election day ensured OĽaNO won a quarter of the vote. OĽaNO stands in stark contrast to other parties whose leaders failed to craft as effective a message, miscalculated the impact of electoral rules and in some cases were unable to distance themselves enough from their past actions. The success of OĽaNO underlines that themes related to anti-corruption and good governance have become central to party politics and political contestation. More broadly, the election and its aftermath continued a general trend of forward movement of voters from old parties to new to newer still, indicating the churn of party politics in Slovakia is likely to continue.

The Brazilian Public Health in Contemporary Capitalism

2018 ◽  
Vol 48 (4) ◽  
pp. 760-775 ◽  
Author(s):  
Virgínia Junqueira ◽  
Áquilas N. Mendes
Keyword(s):  
Public Debt ◽  
Labor Rights ◽  
Private Capital ◽  
Left Wing ◽  
Public Fund ◽  
Popular Resistance ◽  
Unified Health System ◽  
Brazilian Government ◽  
Social Insecurity ◽  
The Right

This article examines some political and economic facts that led to an intensification of austerity measures by the Brazilian government, including ones against the Unified Health System (SUS) and its progressive dismantling. In a country where fundamental human rights were never fully respected, nowadays social and labor rights are under severe attacks. The deepening of the capital crisis and the rise of interest-bearing capital dominance have been causing unemployment, social insecurity growth, and resulting public fund appropriation by the private capital. The Brazilian governments in the 1990s and 2000s have implemented deeper cuts in social policy expenditure, freezing security benefits, privatizing services, and prioritizing the payment of public debt interests. The right wing’s project involves the demoralization of not only the Workers’ Party but also the left as a whole, so that the adoption of austerity measures could be achieved without popular resistance. It is the duty of the Brazilian left wing to denounce such a project and to provoke firm initiatives to rebuild its bonds with the working class.

Ungleichheit, Sozialstaat und demokratische Repräsentation: Marktkorrigierende Politik durch den Medianwähler?

2017 ◽  
Vol 63 (4) ◽  
pp. 483-515 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ursula Dallinger
Keyword(s):  
Social Policy ◽  
Low Income ◽  
Median Voter ◽  
Policy Research ◽  
Electoral System ◽  
The Political ◽  
Welfare Programs ◽  
Political Factors ◽  
Income Disparities ◽  
Government Responsiveness

AbstractPolitical economy of redistribution and comparative social policy research view the median voter as the political force, which demands marketregulating social policy in periods of increased income disparities and to which governments – to be re-elected – must respond. However, government responsiveness has been questioned, especially the responsiveness for political demands of low-income households. Are even the preferences of the median voter only selectively addressed through politics? If the median voter is actually influential, its redistributive preferences should explain the outcome of government action, e.g. size of redistribution. Is this true? Based on a pooled dataset with observations between 1980 and 2012 for 13 OECD-countries it is shown that the political position of the median voter alone has no impact. Rather mediating political factors like a proportional electoral system and left parties with wider welfare programs provide for broader representation and more redistribution.

Explaining Public-Private Partnership Projects through Political Factors: An Assessment of Developing Countries

2021 ◽  
pp. 003232172110403
Author(s):  
Noemí Peña-Miguel ◽  
Beatriz Cuadrado-Ballesteros
Keyword(s):  
Developing Countries ◽  
Political Ideology ◽  
Political Competition ◽  
Public Private Partnership ◽  
Public Private Partnerships ◽  
Left Wing ◽  
Political Factors ◽  
Middle Income ◽  
Private Partnership ◽  
The Government

This article analyses the effect of political factors on the use of Public Private Partnerships in developing countries. According to a sample of 80 low- and middle-income countries over the period 1995–2017, our findings suggest that Public Private Partnership projects are affected by political ideology, the strength of the government and electoral cycles. Concretely, they tend to be used by left-wing governments to a greater extent than governments with other ideologies. Public Private Partnerships also tend to be more frequently used by fragmented governments and when there is greater political competition. There is also some evidence (although slight) on the relevance of the proximity of elections in explaining Public Private Partnerships in developing countries.

Democratization, Elites, and the Expansion of Access to Health Care and Medicine

2017 ◽  
Author(s):  
Joseph Harris
Keyword(s):  
Health Care ◽  
Labor Unions ◽  
Access To Health Care ◽  
Political Competition ◽  
Social Progress ◽  
Left Wing ◽  
The Poor ◽  
Access To Health ◽  
Key Concepts ◽  
The Masses

Sociologists have rarely imagined elites as capable of delivering for society the promise of a better future. More frequently, labor unions and left-wing parties, or grassroots social movements, have been looked to as champions of social progress. This chapter explores the broader theoretical contributions of the book and situates the key concepts of “professional movements” and “heightened political competition” in the literature. First, whereas scholarship has emphasized the way in which democratization empowers the masses, this book turns conventional wisdom on its head by suggesting that democratization empowers elites. Second, it calls attention to the role that newly empowered (and public-minded) professionals play in expanding access to healthcare and medicine on behalf of the poor and those in need. Third, it highlights the importance of differences in the character of political competition in the wake of democratic transition in conditioning the possibilities for well-organized professional movements to institute such changes.

Regional allies may help to counter Congress in Peru

2016 ◽  
Keyword(s):  
Political Competition ◽  
Left Wing ◽  
Content Type ◽  
Legislative Agenda ◽  
Speed Up ◽  
The Government

Subject Legislative implementation efforts. Significance By requesting special powers from Congress, the new administration hopes to speed up implementation of its legislative agenda. However, Congress -- in which the opposition Fuerza Popular (FP) is by far the largest party -- appears reluctant to offer the new administration a legislative carte blanche. It has the numbers to block all legislation. Impacts The left-wing FA is likely to become a more vociferous opposition to the government's pro-investment agenda than FP. Support for the government will ebb as its initial honeymoon period recedes. Political competition will become more bitter as the 2021 presidential contest approaches.

scholarly journals Why the current Peak in Populism in the US and Europe? Populism as a Deviation in the Median Voter Theorem

2018 ◽  
Vol 7 (2) ◽  
pp. 154-170 ◽  
Author(s):  
Filipa Figueira
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
Public Choice ◽  
Median Voter ◽  
The United States ◽  
Party Competition ◽  
Left Wing ◽  
Median Voter Theorem ◽  
Historical Factors ◽  
The Us ◽  
Political Spectrum

The current surge of populism in Europe and the United States calls for further analysis using public choice tools. In this article, populism is modelled as a deviation from the normal state of the median voter theorem. This study adds to the public choice literature by proposing a model of populism which is suited, not only to left-wing populism, but also to other forms of populism prevalent in Europe and the United States today. It is argued that, due to changes in the assumptions underpinning the median voter theorem, the operation of the model can be modified, and as a result surges of populism occur. Those assumptions concern: the political spectrum; the distribution of ideological preferences; sociological, psychological and historical factors; political party competition; and extreme political preferences. It is shown that the current peak of populism in Europe and the United States can be explained through a simultaneous change in all of these aspects, leading to a “perfect storm” of populism. 

Persuasion and Issue Voting

2019 ◽  
pp. 104-128
Author(s):  
Bernard Grofman
Keyword(s):  
Median Voter ◽  
Political Competition ◽  
Comic Book ◽  
Status Quo ◽  
Party Competition ◽  
Issue Salience ◽  
Contrast Effects ◽  
Platform Location ◽  
The Status ◽  
Voter Choice

This article examines neo-Downsian models of party competition and voter choice, with a special emphasis on Riker’s notion of heresthetics. It argues that platform location is only one way in which parties or candidates compete to motivate voters to support them, with the neo-Downsian literature having moved well beyond the “classic comic book” version of Downs as simply predicting convergence to the views of the median voter when elections involve two-party contests held under plurality rules in single seat constituencies. The article considers a variety of models, including ones that emphasize the importance of changes in the location of the status quo, models with assimilation and contrast effects, models that look at differential issue salience and persuasion about the importance weights to be attached to different issue dimensions, and models that involve the introduction of new dimensions of political competition.

Macron-Le Pen rivalry is set to intensify in France

2019 ◽  
Keyword(s):  
Foreign Policy ◽  
Presidential Election ◽  
Political Competition ◽  
Party Competition ◽  
Left Wing ◽  
Municipal Elections ◽  
Content Type ◽  
The Past ◽  
French Foreign Policy

Subject French party competition. Significance The 2017 presidential election dealt a major blow to the parties that had dominated French political competition over the past six decades. Party competition consolidated subsequently around a 'globalist against nativist' narrative pitting President Emmanuel Macron’s En Marche (LRM) against Marine Le Pen’s National Rally (RN). Ahead of the 2022 presidential election, this competition looks set to persist. Impacts Macron’s hardening positions on crime and immigration will weaken further his appeal among left-wing voters. Macron’s focus on the 2022 election may weaken his recent growing assertiveness vis-a-vis EU and French foreign policy. Next year’s municipal elections represent an opportunity for some of the marginalised parties to regain electoral momentum.

Polityka transatlantycka rządów Prawa i Sprawiedliwości (2015–2019): przesłanki (cz. 1)

2020 ◽  
Vol 18 (4) ◽  
pp. 221-245
Author(s):  
Waldemar Paruch
Keyword(s):  
Foreign Policy ◽  
Security Policy ◽  
Political Competition ◽  
Western Hemisphere ◽  
Negative Evaluation ◽  
The European Union ◽  
Left Wing ◽  
Law And Justice ◽  
The Government ◽  
Government Coalition

Law and Justice party was a “Euro-Atlantic” political party in the whole period of its political existence. Three major characteristic features of political thought in the foreign affairs of Law and Justice party were: 1) an Atlantic course; 2) a concept of realism in the European Union; and 3) postulated subjectivity in the Central Europe and towards the Eastern Europe. Law and Justice party created its own concept of the role of North Atlantic Treaty Organisation in the security policy of the Republic of Poland. Law and Justice waited until the occurrence of good conditions to bring the wrought concept into reality. It was more than sure that such conditions will occur in the future. There was no doubt that Russia was danger for the Western hemisphere. Such an evaluation was strengthened in the years 2008–2010 as the consequence of the Russian aggression on Georgia and Smolensk catastrophe. Law and Justice waited to: (1) win the parliamentary elections; (2) the end of the policy of reset in Russian – American relations. The theoretical and ideological premises and the type of political competition in Poland justified a negative evaluation by Law and Justice party of the foreign policy of Poland towards NATO in the period of the left–wing – agrarian government coalition and the government coalition of liberal – agrarian parties. Law and Justice party remained critical of the foreign policy of Poland led by Civic Platform in the scope of its theoretical, conceptual and decisive senses.

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