Integration of the Swedish Local Elite: The Role of Professional and Private Networks

This article uses social network data to study the integration of local elites in four Swedish municipalities. Four research questions are asked. First: How integrated are the elites? While the results modify the picture that there are two rather distinct elites in Sweden – that is, a political elite dominated by the labour movement and an economic elite dominated by business and the large business organizations – it is interesting to note that integration between elite spheres is lowest for the relation between politicians and business representatives. To a considerable degree, integration between political and economic elites is indirect, mediated through the administrative elite. The second question is: Are the inner elite circles dominated by the political, economic or administrative elite? The study indicates that local elites in Sweden are strongly dominated by political elites, and also by administrative elites. This is reassuring, since it would indicate a democratic deficit if the structural power of decision making in municipalities resided predominantly in economic actors and administrators. The third question is: What is the role of friendship relations in creating elite integration? The study indicates that private relations among elites both reinforce professional networks and extend them in important ways. The final question is: Is elite integration contingent on political stability and/or the structure of local business? The results are surprisingly stable across the four municipalities, even though the largest distinction was found between elite core and periphery in the politically most stable municipality, which was also the one with the lowest economic diversity.     

The Anatomy of the Finnish Power Elite

The article discusses the main results of a study of the power structure of Finnish society. The purpose of the study was to investigate whether Finland is controlled by one closed, cohesive and unanimous power elite, by several rival elites, or whether, instead, the power structure is so decentralized that there is no justification for referring to a power elite in the first place. The working hypothesis was that Finnish society is controlled by one power elite. The study was based on a positional approach, using a survey questionnaire to collect data both from members of the power elite and from the population at large. The main conclusion of the study is that, with certain reservations, it is legitimate to speak of a fairly cohesive and unanimous, single power elite in Finland. Interaction among elite groups is close, and their attitudes are similar. In terms of recruitment patterns the Finnish power elite is fairly closed: the top social stratum is clearly overrepresented and the lowest underrepresented. On the other hand, no single stratum has a dominant position in the power elite.     

The Elite Politics of Media Advocacy in Human Rights

ABSTRACT

Advocacy nongovernmental organizations based in the North adopt digital tools to bypass repressive regimes, raise awareness amongst global publics, sustain grassroots activists in the South, and engage in political action. Social media was expected to offer innovative platforms for mobilizing participants to act on behalf of “distant others.” But the practices of some organizations signal that something else is at play. Rather than empower individuals, digital campaigns reify elite politics, using outsider strategies to support insider lobbying. Through communicative processes of mediatization, organizations pay homage to the existence of a movement, but only afford thin forms of participation. Using the framework of media advocacy to explore Human Rights Watch and the Enough! Project, we argue that social media becomes a top-down platform that exacerbates the elite design of organizations, enabling them to assert legitimacy for political actions, while disingenuously marketing themselves as democratic with bottom-up credibility.     

Iraq: The New Criminal 'War' of the Transnational Elite

Abstract The aims of this paper are fourfold: first, to show that the present invasion and occupation of Iraq is in fact the culmination of a campaign that began with the 'war' in the Gulf in 1991 and continued with over a decade of constant bombardment and embargo, with the overall aim of establishing a client regime in Iraq as a means of achieving a number of important economic and geopolitical aims; second, to discuss the role of the UN in the New World Order and the change in this role between the 'Clinton doctrine' and the 'Bush' doctrine'; third, to discuss the criminal invasion itself and the dubious character of the 'victory' claimed by the transnational elite,1 all the members of which, directly or indirectly, took part in this campaign; fourth to examine the role of the Left in relation to the 'war'.Our armies do not come into your cities and lands as conquerors or enemies, but as liberators. (British) Proclamation of Baghdad, 19 March 1917 Our forces are friends and liberators of the Iraqi people, not your conquerors. Tony Blair's address on Towards Freedom TV, 10 April 2003     

角色扮演型网络游戏对青少年参与者的负面影响及规范建议

当前,网络交往风行。在众多的网络交往媒体中,网络游戏这种新生的网络交往方式正吸引着越来越多的人参与其中。网络游戏根据其运作方式及其内容的设定可以划分为不同类型,这其中规模最大、影响也最广泛的当属角色扮演型游戏。角色扮演型网络游戏的互动性特点具有强粘合力,对网络游戏的玩家具有非常强的吸引力。角色扮演型网络游戏的主要对象是青少年群体,因此探讨当前角色扮演型网络游戏对青少年参与者社会化的负面影响,具有十分重要的意义。     

政府变革的精英逻辑及其未来走向

精英不仅意味着经过挑选的那些人,而且预示着一种制度。这种制度将治理权授予给那些经过挑选的人,并在权力体系或市场体系中予以中心化。在此逻辑下,大众在社会治理中处于失语状态,扮演着臣民或市民的角色,难以获得公共生活与公共行动的机会。政府变革的首要问题不是工具更新或政府升级,而是观念更新、视角转换,从传统的精英逻辑向公民视角转换。     

Peace Diplomacy and the Domestic Dimension of Norwegian Foreign Policy: The Insider's Accounts

By focusing on the internal conditions and rationale behind the development of Norwegian peace diplomacy (as seen by Norwegian diplomats and nongovernmental organisation representatives), this study argues that the high level of the country's engagement in international peace efforts and its success in pursuing a ‘niche diplomacy’ can be attributed to two factors. First, it is the ability of the Norwegian government to capitalise on the society's belief that Norwegians are a ‘Peace Nation’ with a missionary obligation. Second, it is the existence of the so‐called ‘Norwegian Model’, which allows creating efficient interactions between government, civil society and research institutions in specific foreign policy efforts. Both factors combined make Norwegian peace diplomacy a model example representing New Public Diplomacy, where domestic civil society remains both an audience (‘Norway as a Peace Nation’ notion) and a driver (Norwegian model of cooperation) of state public diplomacy efforts.     

The Measurement of Pure Negative Freedom

Examining the question of whether or how far freedom is measurable contributes to the analysis of the concept of freedom in two ways. First, it involves attempting to establish criteria for answering questions about 'how free' individuals or societies are. Secondly, it helps to show how far different definitions of freedom really conflict, in as much as those definitions are themselves motivated by intuitive extent-of-freedom assessments in the first place. Critics of the 'pure negative' conception of freedom (freedom as the absence of purely physical impediments to action) have argued either that freedom is unmeasurable on such a conception, or that such a conception is counterintuitive, because the measurements of freedom implied by it conflict with the intuitive comparisons which we normally make. Closer examinations of the nature of measurement and of the nature of act individuation show both ofthese criticisms to be ill founded.     

The Temporal Dimension in Accounts of Violent Conflict: A Case Study from Darfur

This article explores the notion of time in relation to the recording of peace and conflict. In particular the article is interested in how concepts of time (linear, seasonal, vague, precise, etc.) shape the narrative of events – giving them an apparent order. A close look at the mechanics of how accounts of conflict are compiled and presented, and how time is represented within them, reveals an ambiguity and social construction of the temporal dimension in accounts of conflict. This article draws on two data sets on violence in Darfur – one quantitative, one qualitative – to investigate how time is represented, focusing on how ‘events’ are captured and produce real-time actionable data, and how the data sets cope with narratives of chronic insecurity.     

Playing with Emotions: The Effect of Moral Appeals in Elite Rhetoric

This study argues that moral appeals in political advertising—and political rhetoric in general—are a form of emotional appeal that political elites use strategically. In particular, the study shows that moral appeals in political ads elicit a strong emotional response from voters and that it is precisely through an adjustment in their use of moral appeals that candidates signal their moderation as they pivot from the primary to the general election. To make these arguments, the study uses a content analysis of 3462 unique political advertisements from the 2008 Presidential, Senate, House, and gubernatorial primary and general elections, as well as individual-level survey data from the 2012 YouGov/Vanderbilt Ad Rating Project.     

Elite perceptions of mass preferences in The Netherlands; biases in cognitive responsiveness

Abstract. Several studies have shown dissimilarities between political leaders and voters in terms of political attitudes and policy preferences. Though many explanations have been offered for this phenomenon, the knowledge factor has been overlooked. The basic question of this paper is how knowledgeable politicians are of the political opinions of their voters as well as of the general public. Forty-six national Dutch politicians were asked to estimate the percentage of the public at large and of their own voters who agree with specific political statements. These estimates were then compared with the actual distribution of opinions. Though using a rather strict criterion it has been found that politicians tend to give inaccurate estimates of the public's support for various political issues. The inaccuracy does not differ between members of the government and members of parliament, but politicians of parties in office appear to perform worse than members of opposition parties. The data do not support the hypothesis about politicians' ability to correctly estimate majority and minority opinions, or to accurately localize their own voters relative to the public at large. Furthermore it is observed that politicians overestimate rather than underestimate differences in opinion between the electorate and their own voters. No difference is found in politicians'estimates of political issues which can or cannot be classified in terms of 'left' or 'right'. In addition, politicians do not judge their voters to be more right-wing than they actually are. Contrary to our hypothesis, Social-Democratic politicians are not more likely to show a 'conservative bias' in estimating their voters' preferences compared to politicians from the Christian-Democratic and Liberal parties. Finally, the relevance of our findings for political sciences as well as some normative consequences are briefly discussed.     

The Impact of Elite Polarization on Partisan Ambivalence and Indifference

Considerable evidence documents the impact that elite polarization has had on the influence of partisanship on vote choice and attitudes. Yet, much of the electorate remains moderate. This paper seeks to shed some light on this paradox. Examining trends from 1952 to 2004 demonstrates that the electorate is now more opinionated about the parties than in the recent past, but that a significant portion of the increase is in the form of negative statements about an individual’s party—there are fewer indifferent individuals, but the electorate is not overwhelmingly more one-sided, instead there has been an increase in both the proportion of one-sided and ambivalent individuals. It is next examined if the intensity of one’s ideological and partisan self-identification influences how they respond to elite polarization. The results suggest that non-ideologues and pure independents are more likely to be indifferent; all other groups have shown a decline in the likelihood of being indifferent and an increase in ambivalence. The results demonstrate that the public is responding to the increased clarity in elite positions in the form of an increased number of opinions, but for many the increase results from a mix of positive and negative reactions.     

Repositioning urban bias: Non-state providers' use of spatialised networks in Bangladesh

Urban bias theory predicts urban areas of developing countries receive disproportionately more resources than rural areas due to their concentration of numerically large, politically important “vote banks.” This has not been the case in Bangladesh. This study finds that this variation occurs due to non-state providers (NSPs) changing the landscape of resource allocation. Operating on the premise that state control leads to more services in urban areas, urban bias fails to account for NSPs as critical service providers. Employing a grounded theory strategy to explore urban-rural dynamics in service provision and to build on urban bias theory, this research highlights interactions between state and non-state actors. It argues that spatialized political networks, networks of formal and informal leadership more difficult to access in urban areas, influence the locality of service provision. Though NSPs recognize increased need in urban areas of Bangladesh, their interventions in those areas remain peripheral due to differing structures of government accountability and differing levels of community acceptance facilitating these networks. The need for NSPs to adapt their activities to restrictive governance mechanisms reflects the changing space for NSPs in the context of semi-democratic regimes.     

美国金融危机及其反面启示

次贷危机是美国金融危机的导火索,资本主义社会基本矛盾的激化是当前美国金融危机的根源.美国金融危机给我们的反面启示是:对两极分化的危险要有充分认识,防止两极分化是保证经济健康发展的前提;不可盲目崇拜市场,要充分发挥政府这只"有形的手"的作用;加强金融监管,避免金融创新过度化.