State of the field: What can political ethnography tell us about anti-politics and democratic disaffection?

This article adopts and reinvents the ethnographic approach to uncover what governing elites do, and how they respond to public disaffection. Although there is significant work on the citizens’ attitudes to the governing elite (the demand side) there is little work on how elites interpret and respond to public disaffection (the supply side). It is argued here that ethnography is the best available research method for collecting data on the supply side. The article tackles longstanding stereotypes in political science about the ethnographic method and what it is good for, and highlights how the innovative and varied practices of contemporary ethnography are ideally suited to shedding light into the ‘black box’ of elite politics. The potential pay-off is demonstrated with reference to important examples of elite ethnography from the margins of political science scholarship. The implications from these rich studies suggest a reorientation of how one understands the drivers of public disaffection and the role that political elites play in exacerbating cynicism and disappointment. The article concludes by pointing to the benefits to the discipline in embracing elite ethnography both to diversify the methodological toolkit in explaining the complex dynamics of disaffection, and to better enable engagement in renewed public debate about the political establishment.     

Authority and the study of French politics: A response to Duclaud‐Williams

This article reconsiders the value of French authority attitudes for the understanding of French politics in the light of Duclaud‐Williams’ recent critique of the works of Michel Crozier. It is argued that the criticisms made by Duclaud‐Williams do not amount to a refutation of Crozier's thesis or of the type of approach it represents, and that advances in this area are more likely to come from further attempts at identifying empirically the nature and role of French authority norms, such as that of Schonfeld, which is discussed and evaluated here.     

Expert hearings in mini-publics: How does the field of expertise influence deliberation and its outcomes?

Policy Sciences - One of key goals of deliberative mini-publics is to counteract expert domination in policymaking. Mini-publics can be expected to democratize expertise by providing citizens with...     

Do consumers know enough to assess the true value of art? A study of beliefs and attitudes toward the NEA

Contemporary society tends to ascribe economic value to works of art, often neglecting the inherent cultural and social value of art in favor of an aesthetically driven conceptualization of “value.” The largest single financial supporter of nonprofit arts and arts education in the United States—the National Endowment of the Arts—is charged with supporting arts of all types, and not just those that the general public decides are of aesthetic or monetary value. This paper compares how the government of the United States funds nonprofit art initiatives through the National Endowment of the Arts, with how members of the American public perceive the importance and value of art being funded. It provides evidence of beliefs held by the general public about the inherent role and value of the arts in contemporary society. It also offers suggestions for how marketing principles and techniques might be engaged to reduce gaps in the public's knowledge about the arts.     

How do international human rights influence national healthcare provisions for irregular migrants?: A case study in France and the United Kingdom

Debates about human rights have often questioned their potential for generating rights at national levels. In this article, we use the case of irregular migrants' access to health care in the United Kingdom and France to explore the extent to which international human rights influence national health care provisions for irregular migrants. We explore the extent to which health care access and provision for irregular migrants in these two countries is in agreement with international human rights. In so doing, we examine what constitutes an infringement of the international human right to health care. Finally, we sketch out some hypotheses about the role played by different state structures in the implementation of human rights norms, comparing the United Kingdom with France. We argue that, although international human rights often have a largely symbolic role in nation-state jurisdiction, they may sometimes represent a force for change.     

How Many Countries for Multilevel Modeling? A Comparison of Frequentist and Bayesian Approaches

Researchers in comparative research increasingly use multilevel models to test effects of country‐level factors on individual behavior and preferences. However, the asymptotic justification of widely employed estimation strategies presumes large samples and applications in comparative politics routinely involve only a small number of countries. Thus, researchers and reviewers often wonder if these models are applicable at all. In other words, how many countries do we need for multilevel modeling? I present results from a large‐scale Monte Carlo experiment comparing the performance of multilevel models when few countries are available. I find that maximum likelihood estimates and confidence intervals can be severely biased, especially in models including cross‐level interactions. In contrast, the Bayesian approach proves to be far more robust and yields considerably more conservative tests.     

Responsive to whom? A comparison of the Mitterrand and Hollande presidencies

This article investigates the responsiveness of the Parti socialiste towards specific social groups under the Hollande and Mitterrand presidencies. It thereby contributes to the discussion on the changing representativeness of social democratic parties in Western Europe. The study is based on a content analysis of the governments’ justifications for the annual budget. With this innovative approach it is possible to assess whether the responsiveness of a party persists at the governmental level. Through an inductive coding procedure, three categories of responsive justifications are discerned: inequality reduction, needs of specific social groups and general functioning of society. In line with its title, the article mainly focuses on the second category, identifying a shift from responsiveness to the low-income classes towards responsiveness to the middle classes. Furthermore, a corresponding transformation of the Parti socialiste is observed, from advocating expansive policies in the early 1980s to justifying restrictive policies today.     

Ticking all the boxes? A comparative study of social sorting and affective polarization

This study explores whether, in societies around the world, affective polarization – or animosity between citizens based on their political allegiance – is stronger if political divisions align with non-political ones. Such ‘social sorting’ has earlier been established to foster affective polarization in the United States. In this study, I argue that the underlying mechanism travels across the globe. I then present two complementary studies which confirm this hypothesis. First, I employ CSES data to predict the level of affective polarization by social sorting at 119 elections in 40 countries, showing that greater alignment of partisan divisions with non-political divisions in a society (along the lines of income, education, religion and region) is associated with stronger dislike towards political outgroups. Second, using Dutch panel data, I show that individuals who fit the socio-demographic ‘profile’ of their party better tend to be more affectively polarized. This has important implications for our understanding of affective polarization.     

Vaccine or catalyst? Christian religion and populism in Europe: A rejoinder to Inglehart's “Religion's sudden decline”

The strength and direction of the association between Christian religion and support for radical right-wing parties is strongly debated. On the one hand, there is work that shows that in Western European countries with a strong Christian democratic party, the relationship between church attendance and voting for populist radical right (PRR) parties is negative (Marcinkiewicz and Dassonneville 2022). Such findings contradict with the conclusions reached by Inglehart (2021), who reported that adherence to religious norms correlates positively with support for PRR parties. In this research note we shed light on the reasons for these contrasting conclusions, by systematically assessing the role of empirical choices in terms of the operationalizations of the dependent and the key independent variables, and how heterogeneity is dealt with.     

Blogging and Environmental Advocacy: A New Way to Engage the Public?

While there is a growing literature on weblogs (or “blogs”), most studies focus on a few high profile blogs, or on blogs written by individuals. This study assesses the little‐researched area of organizational blogging through a content analysis of blogs by 40 national‐level environmental organizations. I examine the general purposes that these blogs serve and the extent to which organizational blogs differ from traditional websites. Additionally, I explore two blog features—interactivity and personalized content—that offer the potential to strengthen the connections between group leaders and their supporters. I find that groups use their blogs primarily to inform readers about policy developments and news headlines, but that the level of interactivity between blog authors and readers is low. Thus, while the potential exists for blogs to enhance grassroots support for environmental groups, that potential is far from being realized.     

A Russian Citizen in Uniform? Assessing the Applicability of the German Model of Civil—Military Relations to the Armed Forces of a Democratising Russian State

A key element in determining the prospects for success in transforming totalitarian political systems into democratic political systems is the extent to which the armed forces can be included in the democratisation process and brought under constitutional, civilian and political control. In the aftermath of the 1998 financial crisis in Moscow and the probable retreat of democracy in Russia, this utterly critical question assumes even more importance. This article is concerned with the problem of devising a new system of civil—military relations for a democratising post-Soviet Russian state, particularly the relevance of the German citizen in uniform model to the armed forces of the Russian Federation. After a brief history of the German system of civil—military relations, the author proceeds to analyse the German model in detail. The paper then assesses the current context of the Russian state, society and armed forces before evaluating the prospects for the successful application of the German system of civil—military relations to Russia. The author concludes that the German system is inapplicable because Russia does not presently possess the socio-political structures and norms to sustain such a system of civil—military relations. However, the article proposes an immediately viable third strategy for democratising Russian civil—military relations which does not rely either on the inappropriate German model or on meekly managing the intolerable status quo.     

Fiscal consolidation and economic growth in India: Do policymakers need to shift focus from quantity to quality of fiscal adjustments?

This paper evaluates the impacts of fiscal consolidation programmes and their composition on the growth rate of national income for Indian economy. More specifically the study tries to address two questions that is, composition of consolidation and its resultant impact on growth rate of income and the relative desirability of alternative sources of deficit financing that is, internal versus external borrowing. The study employed time series data from 1990–1991 to 2017–2018 and used the technique of ordinary least square and generalized method of moments. The study finds that, in long run, fiscal consolidation need not be necessarily recessionary in nature. Moreover, the composition of consolidation was found to have a significant impact. The study could not extend empirical support in favour of back‐loaded (spending financed) consolidation design as has been established for advanced economies. Moreover the study could not establish the negative impacts of revenue funded (both tax and non‐tax) fiscal consolidation on the growth rate of economy. The study documented that it is desirable to target expenditures such as subsidies, transfers and interest payments to infuse more discipline. A judicious mixture of both spending cuts and revenue increase may be a better strategy to consolidate in order to have better returns. The study highlighted that the external source of deficit financing is always costlier against the internal borrowings. The study noted that it is imperative on part of policymakers to shift their focus from quantity to the quality of deficits and the resultant consolidation programmes.     

Residential location,transportation, and welfare‐to‐work in the United States: A case study of Milwaukee

Abstract

This article addresses two questions about spatial barriers to welfare‐to‐work transition in the United States. First, what residential and transportation adjustments do welfare recipients tend to make as they try to become economically self‐sufficient? Second, do these adjustments actually increase the probability that they will become employed?

Analysis of 1997–2000 panel data on housing location and automobile ownership for Milwaukee welfare recipients reveals two tendencies: (1) to relocate to neighborhoods with less poverty and more racial integration and (2) to obtain a car. Results from binary logit models indicate that residential relocation and car ownership both increase the likelihood that welfare recipients will become employed. These findings suggest that policies should aim to facilitate residential mobility for low‐income families and improve their neighborhoods, rather than simply move them closer to job opportunities. The findings also suggest a critical role for transportation policy in reducing unemployment.